Day 2. 12:30 PM

Warn breeze flew in from the sea adding to the humidity. Vir dabbed the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief. 

Dr Mohile and Suresh were busy taking swabs of the stones on the ground. 

Vir gave the building once over. Dirty brown stains marked the damage left behind by monsoon on the otherwise white walls.  "I am going to check inside, if that is okay," Vir put to Dr Mohile.

She waved her hand, without looking at him, busy talking to Suresh.

Vir opened the back door, which was a few feet away from the two. 

"Wait!"

Vir turned around to see Dr Mohile bending backwards to look at him, "Call out if you find anything."

Vir nodded before walking into a dark room. Closed windows and drawn curtains cut all but a tiny peep of daylight. Vir pulled out his small torchlight, courtesy Suresh, moving it steadily along the contours of the room. His hands stilled at they lit up a dinning table at the centre of what looked at a sparely finished large space. He moved along, turning around until it found the light switch, right behind him. 

With a light tap of his gloved finger, the room was flooded with light. 

Dinning room. 

Other than a thin layer of dust, the place seemed untouched.

A open door frame on the left revealed a glimpse of a fridge. Kitchen, Vir guessed as he walked towards it. For a supposedly old bungalow, it was fitted with modern appliances. Everything seemed swanky but for the thin layer of dust similar to the dinning room he had been too. A quick peak into the fridge revealed some bottles of mineral water and beer. No food though. 

Vir looked around, opening some of the cabinets as he went about. Utensils, crockery, no food so far. Dustbin under the sink. More beer bottles shone through under the torch. Vir guessed about four. Empty.

Were these recent? or from some previous trip?  Vir frowned. Had Hebbar drunk them all by himself or did he have company?

***

Maria's phone beeped. After a quick read. Maria announced, "Kelkar Sir wants me at Heritage office," she threw a glance at Mohit, "Are you going to be able to handle this?" she said looking around the plush apartment.

Mohit shook his head gravely, "No. I cannot do anything without you. Will you stay with me and do the work."

A roll of his eyes made Maria narrow her eyes at the man in front of her, "Why are you here? Really?" she huffed.

"I didn't have anything better to do at home," Mohit said in a bored tone.

"Anand, can you handle things here?" Maria called out, ignoring Mohit.

Anand nodded. "I don't think we are going to find much here," he admitted.

"You don't know her. She can make evidence appear out of this air," Mohit called out to him.

Maria didn't bother to respond to him and walked out banging the door on her way out.

Mohit grinned before turning to Anand, "So really, nothing here?" he asked frowning.

Anand shrugged his shoulder.

***

"Can we have your phone for a while?" Kelkar asked Sadhana.

"What?" her head snapped up, cricking her neck.

"Mrs Hebbar, your husband had been dead for more than two days now. It would have been impossible for him to send you those messages. We need to trace them to see if someone has gotten hold of his phone," Kelkar said in a grave tone as he looked between the brother and sister sitting in front of him.

"Two days ..." she whispered 

"She will not give you her phone. Why cannot you trace his phone directly? Don't tell me you cannot do it. I know you snoop on such things," Mahesh scowled, squeezing his sister's hand in reassurance as he looked at her.

"There has been no trace of his phone," Lobo admitted, "Maybe this could help."

"How?" 

Kelkar and Lobo looked at each other.

"You don't have an answer do you?" Mahesh shook his head, "You expect us to trust you to get to the bottom of this?"

"We are going everything we can to find out what really happened," Kelkar said in a firm tone, "But to do our best, we need you to help us out as well. You knew Vish–"

"–Yes. And from what I have seen so far, I feel we are likely to be better off with a private investigator instead." Mahesh shot.

Kelkar felt his jaw crush against each other.

Lobo rose, "If that is what you feel–" 

"–You can pursue your private investigation, but we cannot stop ours. This is a criminal investigation, Mr Rao. Police needs to do our duty. We will need information from you. We will be in touch. Please don't leave the city," Kelkar said getting up himself.

"Are you threatening us? Are we suspects now?" Mahesh jumped out of his seat.

Kelkar shook his head, "It is not a threat. It is advice. The sooner the can close the case, the sooner we can release the body to you. Which is what you want as well. And we cannot do that if we cannot reach your for information when we need it," he said staring the man in the eye.

***

Vinay waited outside Heritage office for Maria. His mouth twisted as annoyance flitted through his eyes. He was not looking forward to this. Working with Maria was worse than the third degree that his father gave the criminals in his custody. 

"Vinay!"

He turned to find Pakya striding towards him with a bright smile on this face. Pakya–Prakash Shinde–his cricket practice buddy who stayed a couple of buildings away. 

"How is the job treating you?" Pakya smirked, "If you want I can talk to my boss for a opening. There is always opening for delivery boys. 20,000 a month," he said patting Vinay on the shoulder, "And in a couple of years you can start your own business."

Vinay shook his head, "Don't do anything that will land you on the other side."

"There is no other side. Wake up."

"Pakya–"

"–Leave all that," Pakya shook his head at Vinay with a pitiful expression, "What are you doing here?"

"We are in the middle of an investigation," Vinay said quietly.

Pakya whistled, before looking at the building behind him, "Which company? Must be Gulmohar."

Vinay shook his head, "I cannot tell you more."

"Puro Shipping?"

Vinay crossed his arms, huffing at Pakya.

"Come on. If you cannot trust your friend who can you trust?" Pakya asked jutting his chin, "Umm Heritage?"

Vinay narrowed his eyes at Pakya, "What do you know about that?"

Pakya grinned flashing his not-so-white teeth, "Now we are talking. What do you want to know?"

***

Mohit scanned the room. It was luxuriously decorated in tones of white and beige. Mohit walked around opening the drawers, rifling through them meagre contents inside.

Spam mail. Bills. Electricity. Building maintenance. No, nothing there.

He checked the next one. Medicines. Blister packs. Strips. Bottles.

Mohit shut it and moved to the last one. Pens. Some business cards. Mohit pulled out a plastic evidence bag and threw them in. He didn't think there would be anything it it, but it was worth a try.

He moved on to the other contents. Diary. He flipped it open. No phone book. He bagged it along with the cards.

He looked around for Anand. The man wasn't there. Must be in one of the other rooms, Mohit guessed, making his way in to explore more of the house.

The apartment door clicked behind him and then flew open.

Mohit spun around to look.

A woman smartly dressed with dark glasses on, took a step inside before her head snapped to look at Mohit. "Who are you?"

Mohit arched an eyebrow, "That is the question I should be asking. Who are you?"

Thanks so much for reading. Hope the investigation is starting to pick up pace for you and become more enjoyable. Do hit the star if you like the chapter. And I would love to hear what you think of the story, so if you can do comment and share your valuable feedback.