Song of the chapter is
Dead or Alive by Stileto
ft. Madalen Duke

-25-
-Himanshu Arora-
-Present-

_____________

Delmore Police Station
24 November, 2030
1:16 pm

Rushing through the electric doors of the police station, we rush to Detective Ravi to tell him about the latest clue that had come to light. The place was packed with officers cladded in blue, marching from desk to desk and looking busier than usual.

"Where the hell is Ravi?" Zoya huffed, almost out of breath.

"What is going on? Why is everyone running?" Veronica asked, confused as she looked at the busy officers.

"Zoya, Himanshu, what are you doing here?" Detective Ravi suddenly approached us, a vivid concern written on his face. He turned his gaze to Zoya as he reached us. "Did something happen to you? Are you okay?"

Zoya nodded. "We're fine. Actually, there's something we need to tell you..."

"What? What is it?" He asked frantically.

"There is a clue that we think....the killer might've left behind." I answered and he looked at me. Without a word, he summoned us to follow him to a room. Once inside the interrogation room, he turned to us, his hands on his hip and asked, "Okay, you can tell me now."

"Detective, what's going on outside? Why is everyone freaking out?" Veronica asked, as I pulled a chair for her to sit.

Detective Ravi sighed, placing his hands on the table centred in the middle of the room. "There has been a new case."

"Murder?" Zoya's eyes widened.

"No, it's a missing person case." He explained, exchanging a look with her. "She co-owned and also worked at the Paper Lantern. Colleagues said that they haven't heard from her since yesterday."

"Did you check her house?" I asked.

"We did. And also every place else she could've potentially gone. But we haven't found anything yet."

I exchanged a look with Veronica.

"We might be able to help you with that." I said as I slid the note towards Detective Ravi. He narrowed his eyes at it for a second.

"What is it?"

Zoya explained the entire thing that had happened, and how we had been able to crack the code and about the possibility of there being a person who could be helping us from the corners.

"What you're saying is a bit of a stretch, Zoya. Why would a person, who knows what the killer's doing, be willing to help you guys?" He asked.

"That's what we haven't figured out." Zoya said, raising her index finger. "But, that doesn't mean we can't check out the place mentioned. Maybe we could find something there, perhaps even the missing girl."

"Or it could be a trap." I contradicted.

"Could you atleast pretend to be a little optimistic?" Zoya threw at me.

"I'm just saying....this could be a big hoax. The killer could be tricking us into going in this place while he makes a move somewhere else." I explained. "Remember when he sent Ronnie that text about Avinash when in reality, he went after Vivaan?"

While Detective Ravi was the only one who nodded understandingly, Zoya gave me a look, burying her smile slightly. I furrowed my brows as I felt Veronica shifting uncomfortably beside me.

And that's when I realised.

Shit.

I had called her Ronnie.

Knowing there was no moving past that, I simply focused on the job at hand and that was finding what the killer's actual intentions were.

We could deal with our awkwardness later.

"So what are you suggesting?" Detective Ravi asked me.

"I suggest we make a list of all the churches and warehouses in town and see if there's a match to the place indicated in the note." I stated.

"Alright, I'll get one of my officers to get on that." He nodded, saying. "But in the mean time, I want you guys to stay put in Malhotra Mansion. Lock your doors and windows and stay in, you hear me? We don't want another mishap to happen like the one with Ms. D'Rosario."

He gave her an empathetic look, which she returned with a small smile.

"Go home, guys. I'll inform you if we find anything." He said as he went ahead and opened the door for us.

But I knew, deep within, that we were still missing something. All the pieces of the puzzles weren't fitting together just yet. There was one missing.

But what was it?

As we walked out of the station, Veronica stopped walking midway and both Zoya and I turned back to look at her.

"Guys,...." She began, clearing her throat. "Don't you think we're missing something?"

I nodded immediately. "I was just thinking that."

"It's never that easy. The killer wouldn't just give us a location where he would strike next." She continued, glancing at me once. "I feel like.... something's off about the whole ordeal."

"Well, we have left the matter in stable hands, so why not let the actual people who are supposed to catch the killer, do their jobs?" Zoya retorted.

"I'm not talking about the warehouse, Zoya." Veronica uttered, her eyes focused on the ground. She then looked up at us. "I'm thinking....why her? Why the waitress? Or why the lady in the Inn? Or why the band? Why is he targeting these people?"

Zoya and I exchanged a look, recalling our previous conversation.

"You think there's a pattern too, don't you?" Zoya asked her.

"Too?"

"Himanshu, here, thinks the same." Zoya answered, pointing her index finger at me. I exchanged a look with Veronica.

"So what do we do? How do we figure out this pattern?" Zoya asked.

I racked my brain. There must be something, some link that was tying them together. Since it didn't feel like he was doing this just out of spite or because these people had witnessed something they shouldn't have, there must be some other reason why he was targetting these specific people to kill.

Suddenly our phones buzzed in our pockets. I extracted the phone from my back pocket and looked at the two before reading the text, from the very familiar, UNKNOWN.

‘The countdown begins
for all of your sins.’

______________

"The countdown begins for all of your sins?" Zoya repeated the text from the backseat once we had settled in my car.

"What the fuck is that even supposed to mean?"

"No idea." I furrowed my brows.

"This little fucker!" Zoya cursed as she slumped back in the seat, clutching her hair.

"If he wants us, why not just come after us? Why go after these innocent people?" Veronica uttered, looking out the window.

"Maybe they're not so innocent after all." The words slipped out of my mouth and the two women looked at me immediately.

"What does that mean?" Veronica asked.

"I don't know." I furrowed my brows. "Maybe we're missing something about these people. The ones that are being targeted."

"What exactly?" Zoya retorted.

"Let's find that out." I said, buckling my seatbelt.

"Where are we going?" Veronica gave me a questioning look and I looked at her.

"Delmore High Court."

"Wait why?" Zoya gave me a quizzical look.

"To find out exactly how innocent these people are."

___________

"Okay, as fun as it is to step foot in a court for the first time," Zoya began as we walked through the gates of the court's premise. "I still need to know what the hell are we exactly doing here."

"Well, the text said that the countdown for all of our ‘sins’ begins from now, and it got me thinking..... about the little game we played during the infamous night Alishka went missing the first time." I explained.

Zoya narrowed her eyebrows at me.

"And that got me thinking how she had asked us to reveal our deepest darkest secrets as a part of the game and we all had done so, not thinking much." I continued. "But all of us weren't exactly telling the truth."

I looked at Veronica as I finished the sentence, but she had her eyes trained elsewhere, avoiding any sort of contact with mine.

"Anyways so.... I was thinking that maybe....that might've something to do with the current murders as well."

"I still don't follow you." Zoya shook her head as we walked up the stairs to the entrance of the court.

"Well, what if the people targeted... aren't exactly who they seem like? The band,...the lady with the kid...and now the waitress....what if they all have some dark secret? What if that is what got them killed?"

Both of them stopped in their tracts and looked at me as though I had just uttered some bizzare theory.

"So we're here to find if they have any criminal records?" Veronica asked.

"Precisely." I nodded, with a smile but immediately covered it up by walking ahead, through the gates of the court.

A few heads turned here and there as we threaded through the big hallways of the institution. Locating the record room at the far right corner of the second floor, I lead the two towards it when we spotted a tall uniformly dressed clerk , sitting at the door.

"Shit, how do we get past the clerk?" I muttered under my breath.

"We can't just ask his permission?" Zoya asked from behind.

I shook my head negatively. "Considering, we are practically the town pariahs, I don't think he'll be very willing."

Veronica sighed beside me.

"Fuck our lives, seriously guys." Zoya cursed.

An idea struck me immediately as she said that. I exchanged a glance with Veronica and we both slowly looked back at her. Zoya narrowed her gaze at us before finally getting the hint.

"Nuh-uh, no way!" She raised her hand in surrender. "I'm not being the bait."

"Please Zoya...only you can do it!" Veronica pleaded. "It's our only chance, come on."

Zoya sneered at us before sighing.

"Okay fine... I'll distract him someway. You guys try to sneak in and find something as soon as you can!" She instructed.

We both nodded diligently.

Zoya took two deep breaths dramatically and flipped her hair back.

"I swear to god, Himanshu....if this plan of yours doesn't work, I'll kill you myself." She warned me with gritted teeth.

"Noted, ma'am." I bowed.

She sighed softly.

"On my signal, get in as soon as possible." She instructed and strutted confidently towards the clerk while Veronica and I hid behind a nearby pillar.

We watched as she started making small talk with the clerk, quite flirtatiously if I said so myself. About five to ten minutes passed before she had the clerk neck deep in whatever mundane conversation she was carrying out with him, when she slowly slid her hand behind her back and gave us a sign. We took it as our cue to move towards the record room, making sure to make absolutely no noise possible.

Once we had safely entered the room, I gave Zoya a small thumbs up before closing the door behind us.

As I took a breath, my eyes caught sight of the isles and isles of records stacked neatly in very tall shelves. Since the room was located on the far corner of the institution, very little sunlight poured in through the windows, making it quite difficult to make out the entire layout of the room, but I could see it's similarities with a library. There was a small table and chair kept at the far end of the room, with many files even stacked on the table.

I glanced at Veronica and found her already looking at me.

"You ready?"

She nodded softly.

"Alright then.....let's do this."

_______________

and we have our favourite sleuthing duo back in action! I knew I couldn't go longer without making them go sleuthing together!

but don't you worry! even during sleuthing, a little angst and a little heartbreak might find it's way in!

we never know with these two,
now do we?

don't forget to vote, comment and share the book!

love,
Bosedisha