Kelkar headed to his cabin once they were back at Mumbai Crime Branch Office. He had left Lobo to handle their new team. Just for a while.

The moment he opened the door, it was clear he wasn't alone. He had a visitor: DCP Roy.

"You took a long time to get back," Roy said casually, from where he sat in Kelkar's chair, spinning Kelkar's glock pistol on the desk in front.

Kelkar remained quiet. He was sure there was nothing casual about his new boss being here. Just as he was sure that Roy was going to let him know exactly what he had on his mind. And not in a nice way.

"You aren't surprised to find me here, are you?"

"Should I be?" Kelkar said matching Roy's casual tone.

Roy raised his eyebrow studying Kelkar. "Today is your first day back at work."

Kelkar maintained a blank expression on his face.

"Things here have changed while you were away," Roy leaned back into the chair.

"I have heard."

"Have you, now?" Roy asked. "Yes, of course. Your wife," he smiled, making a flimsy attempt to pretend remembering the information just then, "This should be easy then."

"What, Sir?"

"Following the new rules," Roy got out from the chair and walked in front of the desk. "Do you know what I am talking about?"

"I am sure you will let me know, Sir."

"Don't try to act smart with me, Kelkar. I am not Shirke to let you get on doing what you pleased," Roy warned, crossing his arms as he leaned against the table, "You now report to me and if you want to continue working here, you will follow the rules."

"What do you want me to do?" Kelkar asked plainly. He wanted to get Roy out of there before he lost his cool.

Roy smirked, "Not too much. Just follow three simple rules. I know you are incapable of anymore."

Kelkar watched him with stoic expression.

"What no complaints? No rebelling?" Roy asked titling his head.

"I didn't think it was part of the new rules. Am I wrong?" Kelkar asked

Roy straightened. Kelkar could see his jaw tighten a bit. "Rule number one," Roy said in a crisp voice, "Each investigation will abide by the police procedures. No deviations. No work arounds," Roy raised his eyebrow in challenge. "None of your old shenanigans. Do you understand that?"

"Sure."

Roy narrowed his eyes, "Rule number two: No wastage of resources. No piling of expenses over ridiculous pursuits. All expenses or requests need to be approved by me. Is that clear?" he asked.

Kelkar nodded.

"Finally," Roy pulled out a paper from his jacket and extended it towards Kelkar, "All cases need to be solved within their prescribed time limit."

Kelkar looked at the document. It was a couple of pages long. "What is this?"

"This is a list of all the crimes this department encounters, along the optimal time within which they need to be solved."

Kelkar went through the list. "Isn't solving the crime important anymore?"

"We do things more systematically and scientifically here now. Experts worked out the average time taken for solving cases, after looking at thousands of real casefiles. When a case can be solved within this time frame, there is no justification for sitting around and not doing your job right."

"I would not have had such a great crime solving rate, if I sat on my ass and did nothing," Kelkar shot.

"It cannot be called a great rate if you cannot match up to the average numbers." Roy tilted his head, "How long have you been in service?"

Kelkar clenched his fist but remained quiet.

"Twenty years, right?" Roy brushed past Kelkar on his way towards the door. "In these twenty years, how many promotions have you had?" Roy paused for a second before adding, "None."

Kelkar remained rooted in his place choosing not to turn around.

"Don't forget that you are on your last leg with this department. You have used up all the mileage you could have from your old track record," Roy warned him, "Don't mess this up. For yourself."

Kelkar closed his eye and focused on his breathing to calm himself down.

"Get back to work, Kelkar. You have a team waiting for you and a case to solve," Roy said opening the door.

Kelkar turned around to see Roy still standing by the now open door, "Follow the rules, Kelkar, or...," Roy trailed off.

"Or?" Kelkar asked firmly.

"Or be ready to get relived of your duties. This time for good." Roy closed the door on his way out.

***

Kelkar took a deep breath, shook his arms and legs to release the tension coursing through him.

His gaze fell on his glock. He touched the cold metal tracing his finger along it. His heart beat rose, dread slowly rising inside him until he withdrew his hand, clenching it into a fist. When he unclenched it, he could feel a slight tremor in his hand.

Taking a deep breath, he quickly grabbed it, clutching it tightly as if his life depended on it. With the safety on, there was no risk of accidentally firing it, but the cold metal felt even more freezing and sinister against his hand.

He shoved the gun inside the top drawer of his desk and closed it shut. He wouldn't need it just yet. There was lot of ground work to do at the office itself. He stared at the drawer for a few minutes before shaking it off.

He picked his phone and dialed a number. That was the reason he was here.

"I need you to do something for me."

***

Kelkar's eyes scanned the three people in the conference room: two boys and a girl. All in their early twenties. His new team. Looking at them, one thing was clear: they were too raw for the job.

One of the boys saw him watching them and jumped out of his chair, snapping to attention. "Good morning, Sir," he said is a loud clear voice.

Tall stature, rigid posture, crew cut hair, immaculately ironed clothes. Military. This was not good. It was extremely odd for someone, with military so entrenched within them, to join Police force. What was this boy going here? Was he here by choice or out of desperation?

Kelkar nodded watching the boy cautiously. "You are?"

"Sub-Inspector Viren Agnihotri, Sir," he said in the same firm voice, "You can call me, Vir, Sir."

Lobo snorted from where he sat. A shadow passed over Vir's face but he schooled it quickly.

Kelkar gave Lobo a pointed look before turning back to Vir. "At ease."

Vir nodded and sat down slowly, avoiding looking at the others.

Kelkar moved to the next person in the team.

"I am Maria Agnes Pereira," the girl introduced.

At 5' 7", she was taller than most Indian women. Add that to the red streak running through her short hair and the tattoo showing on her neck, she had the equivalent of a neon sign on her head, for a plain-clothes police person. But what worried Kelkar was the 'don't dare cross me' look she was sending to everyone in that conference room. Her own team members.

Kelkar learned long ago that the only way to lead a team was to make it clear who the real boss was; to do it right away and keep reinforcing it.

"You can sit down, Pereira," Kelkar said, making it clear it was an order.

Maria stood in her spot for a couple of seconds.

But Kelkar had already moved on to the next team member.

The boy stood up eagerly. Despite his tall, athletic physic, he almost had a childlike expression of wonder as he looked at Kelkar. "I am Vinay Pawar," he said, "It is great to be part of CID Unit I. I heard a lot about you from my Baba, I mean my father. I have wanted to join your team ever since."

"Who is your father?" Kelkar asked even as he realized the expression on the boy's face was reverence. Unjustified. Underserved. And worrisome. He needed people who could think on their own and not follow blindly.

"Inspector Santosh Pawar. He is the station in-charge for Boisar police station," Vinay replied.

Kelkar nodded. "Wasn't there supposed to be one more?" he asked turning to look at Lobo.

Just then the conference room door opened with a bang. A boy peeped in. He looked at Kelkar sheepishly. "I am sorry I am late," he said walking in.

Kelkar watched him leaning against the conference table.

"Can't even make it on time, can you?" Lobo asked from behind Kelkar.

"I was getting introduced to the team," he said with a smile.

"And what team would that be?" Kelkar crossed his arms across his chest.

If Vir had looked out of place because of his rigid military mannerism, this boy looked out of place for being the other extreme. Dressed in jeans, t-shirt and a leather jacket, with his nonchalant attitude, he looked to have walked straight out of an entertainment magazine into the CID office.

"The support staff. I thought it would help us later on when we work on a case," he ran his fingers through his hair before striding towards Kelkar. "I am Mohit by the way. Mohit Rajput," he said extending his hand towards Kelkar.

Kelkar glanced at the extended hand and before throwing a stern look at Mohit. Mohit had the decency to look abashed as he slid into his chair.

Kelkar looked at his team. He wondered what they saw. Hopefully it was a lot better than what he was seeing!

He took a deep breath and clapped his hands to rouse himself up

"Now that we are all here," he said giving Mohit a pointed look, "Let's get something straight." He leaned forward, "You are raw, inexperienced and untrained for detective work."

He saw Maria narrow her eyes at his declaration. Vinay gaped at him, while Mohit had his eyebrows disappearing behind his hair. Vir watched him with a stoic expression. Kelkar turned to see Lobo had his jaw wide open as he stared back.

Kelkar turned back to the youngsters. "I have said nothing that you don't already know," he said plainly, "The only way we can move forward is by being honest. Now that we have that out of the way, let me also make one more thing clear. You do not have the luxury of long drawn training. We have a case in hand that we need to solve. And the best way to learn, is by training through fire."

He saw the team sit straight as he spoke.

"Till you learn the skills of the trade, I expect you to make up for it through hard work and by using your brains."

"Assuming they have them," Lobo muttered to Kelkar.

"Today morning we recovered a body at sea," Kelkar said matter-of-factly. "The victim is male. Probably in his late forties. Body has been in water for at least over a day. We have no identification. And no cause of death until forensics are done."

He watched each one as he spoke, trying to gauge a little bit more about each one as he went about.

"When we are done, I expect to be able to answer three questions," Kelkar said ticking them off on his fingers, "First, who is our victim? Second, was there any foul play in his death and finally, if there was foul play, who committed the crime?"

Everyone was quiet, looking at him almost as though he was giving a sermon.

He rolled his eyes. "I want all four of you down in forensics," Kelkar ordered

"What?" Lobo jumped up watching Kelkar with wide-eyed, "Why do all four of them need to go?" he asked.

"Because all the evidence that we need for this is in there. Photos, belongings, test results. I want everything that they can hand over to us without impacting their tests. Especially the hotel card and the stone."

"But all four–"

"In meantime," Kelkar cut Lobo before he could rant more, "Lobo, you and I will look at missing person's records."

Lobo made a face.

"I could help with that," Mohit offered, jumping out of his chair, "That is if the three of them can manage the forensics work." He looked at the others.

Kelkar eyed him cautiously.

"I mean ...it might just help speed things up, right?" Mohit added quietly.

"It is perfect," Lobo said with a smile, "Let the newbies do some work."

Kelkar gave Lobo a pointed look but didn't object.

Mohit followed behind Lobo as they walked out of the conference room.

Kelkar stayed behind watching them leave.

Why was Rajput avoiding the forensics department?  

Thanks for reading. Hope you are liking this story so far. And for those who read 'Clueless' before, I hope you like the faster pace and new changes I have made to the story. 

Do comment to let me know what you think of the new team. And if you like the chapter, do vote.