24 January 2021

Paschim Vihar

New Delhi

The last few days flew by. Arjun had moved into the spare bedroom in Gauri's house and the home office had become the most used space. Between Arjun, Gauri and Banerjee, they had recreated the case, begun tracking and tracing each of the individuals and delved into their past. Right now they had twelve bankers boxes filled with information that had not been received during discovery. There was more than enough to pin the evidence on Raj as circumstantial and at least apply for a bail. And yet, Gauri's sixth sense told her there was more than what met their eye.

For once, she couldn't completely get herself to trust Arjun. She blamed it on her nerves, but she often found herself watching her back with him in the room. His change in attitude; from the person wanting to testify against Raj to playing the good samaritan was too sudden and too good to be true. While she felt assured that he wasn't lying about anything that he'd shared with her as yet, she was also equally certain that he was not telling her the whole truth. There was something off. Especially the odd times Arjun escaped; for a smoke he claimed. Gauri had spotted him more often than not on his phone talking outside the house. While she never got close enough to hear the conversation, the entire situation was beginning to irk her. Given her predicament, it did seem that jail was currently the safest place for Raj. Once out on bail, she would have no control over his safety.

*****

"Ma'am", Banerjee's urgent whisper while peeping from the outside of her office door caught her attention. He had his finger on his lips, urging her to not say anything. Arjun had his back against the door, engrossed in reading a file that had just been received. Under the pretext of getting herself a glass of water, she left the office room and made her way out.

Once out, Banerjee held her wrist firmly and dragged her away to her bedroom.

"What happened", she whispered back once they were assured they were out of Arjun's earshot.

Banerjee simply retrieved some photos from his backpocket and placed it in her hands. They were photos of Maya and Arjun together.

He then answered the question he knew Gauri wanted to ask.

"Arjun and Maya know each other for the last three years."

When Gauri looked at him quizzically, he clarified.

"Maya is an IB agent. She has been working with the Mumbai Police for a while now trying to peg two rival mafia gangs, the Lalas and the Shirkes."

Gauri would have almost gasped with surprise had she not been trained to not let her emotions be seen. Banerjee, sensing something wrong asked: "Ma'am?"

She shook her head. "What more do you know?"

"Just that around four months back, around the same time that Raj started dating Bhoomi, Maya made her way to Delhi. Her goal was to turn Bhoomi into an eye-witness. As Arshad Lala's mistress, Bhoomi was extremely valuable. She was also on again off again with one of the Shirke brothers."

With his back to her, Banerjee didn't notice Gauri's stunned expression. She tried to say something, but no sound came from her throat. Unaware, Banerjee continued: "Ma'am, I don't know what Vivaan's involvement in this is, but I am sure Lata is being blackmailed to testify against her own cousin. I'm sure she is the only real eyewitness to this murder..."

A slow clap from somewhere near the bedroom door broke their conversation. Both of them turned to see Arjun standing at the door, a scowl on his face as he continued to clap at a painfully slow pace. The stunned look on their face said it all. Without another word, Arjun reached behind him, pulled out his semi-automatic and pointed it at the two. "I'm sorry Gauri," he said, pulling the slide back, loading a round into the chamber. "I thought we could be happily married, have children. I did truly love you. If only you could have..."

Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity. Gauri hauled herself on Arjun, tackling him to try and get the semi-automatic away from his hand. Mindful that it was loaded, she tried to use both her hands to snatch the gun away from Arjun, while kicking him in a few places she knew it would hurt.

As Arjun doubled down in pain, she retrieved the gun and slid on the floor, where it made its way to the far corner under the chest of drawers.

"You.."

Before Arjun could react, Gauri kicked him squarely in the groin, pulled his arms behind him and used his own handcuffs to secure him to the wooden armrest of her reading chair, dropping the keys and kicking them under the bed as well.

Then grabbing her laptop bag and hard drive, she looked at Banerjee and screamed, "RUN!"