Delhi

CBI

"Hey, Ananya. Come, come. We were waiting for you. How was your holiday?" Ananya's coworker, K, asks Ananya.

"Not bad," she shrugs her shoulders.

"Oh. That exactly sounds, how bad it is," K exclaims.

"Even Nikhil sounded so sarcastic," another colleague of hers, Raina, phrases the fact.

Nikhil, whose mood was similar to Ananya's when he arrived a few minutes before Khushi.

"Woah! Nikhil Sir! Welcome back. How was your holiday?" Raina exclaimed looking at Nikhil who was coming with a broken spring in his feet.

"My Holiday? Oh, it was just good," Nikhil replies, smiling at Raina. He was sarcastic.

Raina frowns looking at his facial expressions.

"Where is Ananya?" K asks, raising his brows.

"She is on her way. Just parking the car," Nikhil whimpers and goes away to his cabin.

"Oh. Okay," K reacts to Nikhil.

And now here's Ananya, entering the office after a few minutes, looking like a lady on fire, prepared to burn everyone with her eyes.

They greet her and ask about her holiday when she hears Raina's statement.

"Of course, why wouldn't he be sarcastic?" Ananya rolls her eyes. She is too furious at Nikhil. The reason is their holiday! It was so good and they were enjoying some alone time. She keeps her things in her cabin and goes to the washroom, with the same furiousness, to wash her face and hands.

"What happened between this wife and husband now?" Raina whispers in K's ear.

K looks at Raina.

"How would I know?" he whispers back, shrugging his shoulders.

Raina sighs.

"Then how will we know what transpired between the two?" She wonders and sighs sadly.

"Bro! My dude, do you want to know and become Chutney between them?" K whimpers.

Raina shrugs, "Perhaps!"

"Dude, don't you know? When they fight, they fight like Tom and Jerry." K visibly shakes, gets up, and goes to his cabin that's a little away from Ananya's.

"I know that too, K. But you're aware of this too, that they would make everyone's life hell around them unless we're working on a case. I need to get them back on track, there's no running case now," she explains, shaking her head and taking a long breath.

"All the best to you, then! If you want to become a Chutney, who am I to stop?" K whispers from his cabin, their cabins are just beside each other.

Nikhil's cabin is a little away from K and Raina's cabins. So, he wasn't able to hear the conversation.

Just then Lolark walks in. Raina and K know if he's here, there's a piece of bad news and they have got a new case to work on.

"Where's Nikhil Sir?" Lolark asks, looking at K.

"He is in the cabin," K replies, and just then Ananya walks into her cabin.

She smiles at Lolark.

"Hi, what happened? Looking so serious," she greets and questions him. He looked so serious; this happens only when they're dealing with an extremely serious crime.

"Well, I have to be. It is a serious issue!" Lolark exclaims and follows the way to Nikhil's cabin.

Ananya sighs and sits in her cabin. She opens her phone and goes through the messages she got. She connects it to her computer when her eyes fall on the photo on her table. Ananya Saini Nair's and Nikhil Nair's candid picture before they were married and were in a relationship. She gets lost in her thoughts as she stares at the candid picture.

"Looks like a new case is up. You don't need to become Chutney now," K whispers, rolling his chair towards Rainas.

"Seems so," she whispers back.

They know if there's any running case in the CBI, Ananya and Nikhil would become so professional that one could forget they're a married couple.

Inside the cabin,

"Nikhil Sir," he greets him.

"Hey, hi! What happened? You're looking so serious?" Nikhil looks up at Lolark's worn-out face.

"Because the issue is something like that," he replies.

Nikhil looks on and the look screams only one thing, go on!

"Nusrat got some coordinates the previous day in the mid-night," he says.

"Coordinates?" Nikhil whispers.

"Yes, Sir. Akash Sir has already gone to the location with Nusrat," Lolark informs him.

"What's the exact location the coordinate implied?" Nikhil asks Lolark, thinking about something.

"It's Moti Nagar, sir," he replies.

Nikhil Nair gets up from his chair and runs out of the cabin towards Ananya. Lolark follows him too.

He barges into Ananya's cabin as she looks up in shock, "Ananya, you got some coordinates, right? Trace the exact location." He commands.

"Another coordinate?" Lolark whispers shocked.

Ananya nods at him and turns towards her system to trace the location.

"Come on, faster!" Nikhil was impatient.

"Wait," Ananya glares at him.

After a few minutes, "One shows Tilak Nagar and another shows Moti Nagar!" She looks at Nikhil reminding him of their Morning.

That was such a beautiful holiday they had and a new morning made it not-so-beautiful anymore.

"What? Moti Nagar? Nusrat got the same coordinate then," Lolark exclaims.

Before they could ponder over things, Loark's phone rings. He lifts the phone call.

"Yes, Akash Sir?" he talks into the phone.

He listens to the other side and ends the call.

"They found a body," he answers, looking at Nikhil's and Ananya's questioning gazes.

"Then there must be something in Tilak Nagar too," Ananya whispers looking at the coordinates she has received.

"Yeah, true." Nikhil bites his lips and looks at Lolark, "Take some of our team and go to Moti Nagar."

Lolark nods at him.

"I'll go to Tilak Nagar and check there," he says, already walking out of the cabin followed by Lolark and Ananya.

"I'll come too," Ananya screams behind him as Lolark goes to Raina and some of his team to go to Moti Nagar.

Nikhil ignores Ananya as he reaches his cabin and Ananya too follows him behind, "I'll come with you." She says it again.

"What will you do at the crime scene? Fight the things with your I-pad?" He raises his brows.

"Exactly, I can fight with my iPad. What if there are some coordinates at the crime scene and you need to hack them? Will you hack them with your forensic knowledge?" She asks glaring at him.

"Okay, fine! Come." He sighs.

Ananya walks toward her cabin to get her things.

They then go to Tilak Nagar. K with some of the team remains in the Office.

Moti Nagar, Delhi

Nusrat examines the body while Akash investigates the surroundings with their gloves on. They reached Moti Nagar half an hour before looking for anything they could find. They're not sure what they would find in the location. There could be something related to crime or this could be a prank.

Turns out it wasn't a prank, they found a dead body beside an abandoned house. And that was the exact location Nusrat got in her message.

A Dead Body of a Woman. Her neck was cut, and there were cuts on her hands and legs.

As Nusrat started examining the body, Akash took out his phone and informed Lolark, and started investigating the crime scene.

He searches around the place and finds a book and broken glasses, probably from a mirror. He also checks the abandoned house but finds nothing.

Nusrat finds a phone just below her body.

"It seems like the murderer killed her with a single move. But I can only be sure after performing an autopsy," she says, gulping and looking at Akash who is seizing the evidence they've got.

"Lolark will be here with the team. We can take the body to forensic then," he says, looking around for more clues.

Nusrat Saeed nods, getting up from the floor.

Tilak Nagar, Delhi

Ananya and Nikhil are in Tilak Nagar finding the location. They reach a house in the street as the coordinate shows the geographical location to be the house. Nikhil and Ananya go inside the home after putting their gloves on. There was no lock. There's no one in the hallway. They look around the dining, store, and bedroom, and they find nothing. That was until Ananya found the fridge.

Ananya opens it and sees a man curled up in it.

"Nikhil," she screams.

Nikhil who is searching the bedroom listens to his wife's voice and reaches the kitchen.

"Found anything?" he asks.

She nods.

"Look at this!" She points out to the fridge.

Nikhil walks up to the fridge and finds the body of a man. He takes him out and starts examining him.

Meanwhile, Ananya opens the cabinets in the kitchen and searches for any clues. She finds nothing. Her eyes fell on the fridge again. So, she checks the upper part of the fridge and freezer.

And there's it. A Book and broken glasses. She collects them, seizes them as evidence at the crime scene, and calls her team.

"It looks like he was killed with a single move," Nikhil says, examining the cut on his stomach and the rest of the body parts.

Nikhil finds a phone in his pocket.

"Check this if you can find anything." He passes it to her.

Ananya unlocks his phone with the victim's fingerprint and checks his phone. She finds nothing major in it.

"There's nothing suspicious in it," she says after examining it.

"Hmm.."

She searches around the house for anything more. There's no house beside this. It's a little away from other houses.

Soon they see some of their team coming.

CBI

They get the two bodies to the Forensic Lab. Nusrat and Nikhil were about to start the autopsy.

DJ who was a little late today joins Nikhil and Nusrat interrupting their about-to process.

"I'm sorry guys. I was late, anyway, let's start with it," he says, wearing his gloves.

"Sure, sir," Nikhil says and Nusrat nods as they work on the autopsy.

Outside Forensic Lab,

Ananya gets Nusrat's phone, their victims' phones, and her phone. She and K checks each and every piece of information they could squeeze out from the phone.

"Ananya, there's nothing suspicious in Nia or Vishal's phones, yaar." He frowns and puts their phones aside.

"But I found something," she says. Her face was neutral as she was checking Nusrat's phone.

"What's that?" K asks, wheeling his chair towards Ananya.

"Look at this, Nusrat got the coordinates from an unknown number and that unknown number is none other than Vishal Sakar's number," she informs.

"What? Do you mean to say the person, Vishal guy who has already died, sent the coordinate to Nusrat around midnight?" He asks.

"Exactly! And now we have to know if he was alive around midnight when he sent the coordinates to Nusrat," she sighs.

"But you have got the same coordinate from a different number, right? Not Vishal's." He reminds her. They checked Ananya's phone where she got two coordinates, one was the same as Nusrat's coordinates.

"Yes, and it's untraceable!" She gulps.

"We'll know if Vishal was the one who sent coordinates to Nusrat if we find out he was alive at that time." It was more of a statement rather than a question.

"Yeah and that we will know after their autopsy," she says looking at K.

"Vishal's device has no trace of sending the message but he did send it. Not from this device, though," she adds.

"Is it the start of serial killing by any means?" K doubts the possibility.

"Maybe or maybe not," she whispers.

"Do you think he's not the one who sent coordinates?" Nikhil grits his teeth looking at his wife.

"But we don't have proof and what if we're wrong and he turns out not to be the one," she screams at her husband.

"He's been sending you the locations if you remember," he reminds her of past events.

"But those are from his number, I know and I can trace that but the two coordinates are from an unknown number which is not traceable. Moreover, we know why I'm getting those locations from that man, and the two coordinates somebody sent may not have the same reasons," she explains.

"That still doesn't mean he cannot be the one. He could be the one, there's a possibility!" He grabs her shoulders looking at her angrily.

"First let me trace the locations. If we'll know what's in these two locations, we'll see then," she explains, calming him down.

"Let's go to the office and do that. We are already late," he says, being sarcastic about their fight.

A fight between them and if the cause is a third person, that's always disliked by Nikhil and Ananya. 

To be continued..,

Short one! But it was needed. 

My mind is becoming Criminal day by day! This short update shows that. *inserting a devil emoji*

Anyway, the next & the last one would be long and I can update on any of the weekdays before Sunday since I'm planning to complete Invisible Murder starting from Sunday. 

Let me what you think!

Awaiting your views!

-polymath_land

11/09/2022