June 8, 2022

Delight emanated from the sharp features of the tall, voluptuous woman as her eyes traced Amrita's flaccid body, being carried away on a stretcher. Her maroon lips stretched to a side, and her eyes flitted to the man shuffling up to where she hid in plain view.

"It's done. Second one off the list!" said John, sighing and crossing his arms behind his back in deference to the woman.

"Yes," said the woman, the arch of her lips broadening. "You must have seen the look on her face when the realization of her fate struck! That dread, that shock, and that disappointment. Everything that she deserved to feel."

John arched an eyebrow and cleared his throat at the unabashed loathing and the exhilaration in her voice. He was far from a believer in violence, but he possessed no desire to voice his opinions to the elated woman and risk rousing her wrath.

After all, he did not want to be the one to end up on the stretcher next.

⨳ ⨳ ⨳

With her heart heavy with contrition and defeat and mind bogged with daunting prospects, the moist air of Goa hit Swadha differently. The anticipation had held her tight all night and sleep slipped right through her fingers.

Would they succeed? Was she even right? What if she was wrong? What if she had led them down the misguided path and snatched protection from the real victim? The list of what-ifs was far from complete and every single one on the list added to the weight of self-doubt, crushing her morale.

When sleep took over her without her knowledge, nightmares had plagued her until the terrible phone call, updating her about the fruitless attempt to protect Amrita, dragged her away from the arms of Morpheus. She had grabbed the keys of her Creta, without worrying about her modest night-suit, and hit the road as soon as she had disconnected the call from Abhimanyu.

The barricades were lifted and the doors of the hostel were opened for her, but unlike the times in the past where she had snuck into the hostel with a mischievous smile, it was a crestfallen frown that writhed her features. She had parked her car only on the third attempt–something she had not struggled since the first week of her driving lessons–and the transverse creases over her forehead deepened with frustration.

Without bothering to check if she had locked the car, she paced towards the towering figure of DSP Vikrant Arora, who looked into his phone as he typed away. "Sir..." she said, clearing her throat, which had turned dry. She had not allowed herself to drink some water before she dashed out.

Vikrant glanced over the screen of his phone when his eyes settled on the dishevelled and panting form of Dr. Swadha Agarwal. "Dr. Agarwal. Swadha..."

"Is it true?" she demanded, interjecting before he could complete his sentence. Vikrant let out a defeated sigh as he bowed his head and nodded in affirmation. He could swear he had heard a gasp, followed by a whimper escape her lips.

"I should not have walked out yesterday!" she said, closing her eyes shut and running her fingers over her throbbing forehead. "I couldn't take your veiled taunts, but if not for my walking out, maybe we could have saved Amrita!"

Swadha peered at the ground, not looking at the officer. She was livid at herself. The girls' hostel was being wrecked down by the forensics team for any hint of the kidnapper, and she was being wrecked by her own emotions of regret and self-loathing.

"Hey, it is not your fault! I crossed the line. But this is not the end, Swadha. This is probably just another phase of the kidnapper's plan, and we need your help in impeding the rest," said Vikrant. He placed his hand on her shoulder, hoping that his brief speech would boost her mood and morale and bring her out of self-pity, when she noticed an emerald ring on his middle finger.

"Are you asking me to join your investigation again?" She shook her head, trying to understand. "I have a volatile temper and you..."

"I accept the responsibility for that. I assure you, I will not let that happen again. We require someone from the college to help us with the clues, and not just anyone, but someone who can rationally reason and puzzle out the pieces. This is not over yet, Swadha, and I want it to end soon. We need your help." There was a question in his statement and he waited with a weak smile dancing on his lips as she regarded him.

"This has to stop and I am ready to do anything it takes for that." She sighed in despondency, wondering if they could end the menace soon.

"That's more like it! Thank you."

He had a genuine smile on his lips, and it made her curious. How could he keep his calm demeanour despite the nerve-wracking pressure and stress of the situation which rested heavily on his shoulders and the completely unfavourable circumstances?

Abhimanyu appeared at the scene with the case file in hand before Swadha could voice her question to Vikrant. He greeted Vikrant and curtly bowed his head to Swadha before reading out the contents of the findings.

"Sir, we looked at the CCTV footage twice, but we spotted nothing out of the ordinary or something that would point toward our kidnapper. The last call on Amrita's mobile was to her mother and her last text message was on WhatsApp to a professor for help with her studies. The last activity on her phone was on Instagram, where she posted a story at ten-thirty-two PM and we cannot find any information beyond that."

"Ten-thirty-two is well after the curfew. She signed the register at eight-forty-five PM, so either she went out after signing the register after being lured by the kidnapper or someone came into the hostel. There's only one way for that: scaling the wall, because unless it is a necessity, they would not open the hostel gates," said the worried physician.

Swadha looked at the high walls surrounding the hostel, which she had previously conceived to be impenetrable. Had the perpetrator of these crimes indeed penetrated the defences of the hostel?

"No one heard any screams at night. Does that mean she was unconscious? I don't think it's possible to lift an unconscious human over an eight-foot-high wall, so they must have lured her out, but how? Her phone and her wallet are in her room. What could the person have told her for her to abandon everything and walk away?" A part of Vikrant's mind told him he was missing a crucial and consequential part of the puzzle, but he had no clue what it was and where it fit.

"Did Amrita have any kind of saviour complex? Is it possible the kidnapper lured her to save her friends because these victims were in the same group?" asked Abhimanyu. He turned to Swadha for an answer, but she appeared lost in thoughts.

"Not brave, but yes, profoundly sentimental," replied Swadha. "She lost her family at a very young age and she regards us as her family. Maybe the kidnapper did not lure her. Maybe the kidnapper forced Bhavani or Vartika to do or say something. Like a bait. A trap."

The calmness and serenity she felt the day before was because the responsibility did not rest on her, and now when the burden of finding her friends and helping them suddenly shifted to her unprepared shoulders, every second looked to tick like a time-bomb and every doubt stabbed her for her incompetence.

"That could explain this. Abhimanyu, I need you to talk to everyone close to our victim and learn about everything she did yesterday. Everything!"

Abhimanyu nodded and saluted his senior before carrying out Vikrant's instructions.

"How do you do this every day?" asked Swadha when they were alone and Vikrant turned towards her with arched eyebrows. "Bear the uncertainty, the responsibility of bringing everyone to justice and being thwarted by the opponent. It seemed not too different as compared to my job as a doctor yesterday. I mean, every case is different and everything is uncertain, but this, it's just...." she trailed off, unable to find the word to describe the turmoil she was experiencing since the night before.

He let out a chuckle as he moved closer to her and saw the hints of fear, of pain and self-loathing in her hazel eyes, much to his disappointment.

She had gotten over his nerves during their last meet, but after her call last night, she had tilted his opinion in her favour. She impressed him, not just with her wit and single-mindedness, but also with the ability to set her ego aside for the greater good and be accountable to whom she loved. He did not want her to fall prey to the mental upheaval that the situation caused.

"You were the forensic expert for several cases, Swadha. Right now, it is not the police work or the investigation that is troubling you. It is the fact that you are responsible for the fate of your friends, someone you love, someone you have known for years, someone you have innumerable memories with. One mistake of yours can take them from you forever, and they would remain just memories."

The faces of her friends and the beautiful memories she had created with them flashed in front of her eyes. She could feel the fear in the shudder down her spine, the pit in her abdomen, and the chill of her bones. That fear had permeated every sense and every thought of her body. "It's that fear that is speaking or else, as you said, our works are quite similar, and that is exactly why doctors are advised against operating on their kin. You are quite brave, Swadha, but also, as I see, quite loving towards your friends. Don't let that become your weakness, because we need it to be your strength and guide us to this kidnapper."

Swadha regarded Vikrant's earnest smile and the sincere compassion in her eyes. Swadha Agarwal had always been solution-oriented, and with the stakes as high as the lives of her friends, she recognized she could not afford to change her approach. She swallowed the lump in her throat and gave the officer a weak nod.

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