I returned back to the hotel and spend the entire day thinking.

I had no idea what to do next. The Director seemed helpful, but I could feel he was not entirely truthful. I had to plan out my next steps.

The next day early morning, I went to the hospital again. But this time, I went as an ordinary patient and registered for a complete body check-up.

I met multiple people as part of the process. I tried to start up a conversation about Priya with most of them. But they seemed unaware of her or the incident.

I felt the day was unproductive and went back to the hotel. But while I was changing, I found a note in my pocket. It said the following.

Meet me at the KFC restaurant near the medical college at 9pm.

It was already 8 pm, and I had no idea how that note had gotten into my shirt pocket. I quickly changed and left for the restaurant.

I found the restaurant easily and took a seat from where I could see the door clearly. I waited for some time, but no one seemed to be interested in me.

Just as I was about to give up and leave, a young girl came to my table.

"Are you Jacob?”

"Yes, how did you know?”

"I saw the news article about the incident and recognized you when you were asking around about Priya?”

"Were you the one who slipped that note into my pocket?”

"Yes. I did that. I couldn't speak to you properly at the hospital. But, I also couldn't help notice how you were struggling to get any information about Priya.”

"Ok. Thanks for talking with me. But any reason we couldn't do this at the hospital? And is there anything that you can tell me?”

"There is. But you can never let anyone know that you heard it from me. And in future, if you ask, I'll deny I said anything as well.”

She definitely had me interested, and I was curious to know whom or why she was so scared.

"Why?”

"Because my career means everything to me. And I can't take any risk on it.”

"I don't understand what you mean. But please go on.”

"Ok. I'm not sure whether you know anything about our Director?”

"Yeah, I met him today.”

"Ok. There are few things you need to know about him. He is a very strict person and has a lot of connections. You can't survive in the hospital if you get on the wrong side of him. And you won't have any career in this field if you get kicked out of a hospital.”

"Are you saying he had something to do with Priya?”

"Let me finish. Despite his strict nature, the Director is still a very loving and caring father. He loves his son Rahul more than anything else, who is a junior doctor at the hospital. Rahul likes to flirt with all the girls at the hospital but usually never crosses a certain line. Most girls ignore him and never raise any issue about him as he is the Director’s son. At the same time, he never went too far to irritate anyone either. Just normal pranks, usually."

She took a deep breath and continued.

“But with Priya, it was different. He noticed her for the first time during her second month here. Rahul claimed he fell in love with her at first sight. He went after her a lot, chased her where ever she went. He tried to talk to her as much as possible, tried getting her lots of flowers and gifts. But Priya never seemed interested in him at all.”

“And after a month, Priya lost it. She shouted at him loudly in the hospital. Everyone heard it. She also said she was going to file a complaint against him. We all thought it was going to escalate really severely. But Rahul apologized to her in public. He said he will not disturb her again.”

“It was weird and very awkward for Rahul. We thought Priya would get into trouble over this. But surprisingly, nothing happened.”

“Rahul stayed away from her and did not even talk to her even once after that. In fact, he became too quiet and did not talk to anyone. He just came to the hospital, left after work and became really moody. That was only for a couple of months. After that, everyone forgot about this incident. And even Rahul returned to normal. Still, he never flirted with any of the girls after that incident, and he also stopped hanging out much with his usual friends. But nobody thought too much about it. And we all stopped thinking about it, and nothing further happened.”

I could see there was more to the story. So I asked the obvious question.

"Well. If nothing else happened, why are you sharing this with me now?”

"Well. Rahul had requested a few days off some time ago. He had left the day Priya was leaving, and he hasn't come back since then. If what I know is correct, the leave was only for 2 days. But it has been a lot more than that now, and there is still no news of him. Even some of his colleagues and friends are not able to get in touch with him. And somehow his original leave application, which was for 2 days, has been replaced with a 2 months leave. It just doesn't feel right. No one takes 2 months off from a hospital. The only reason it is going through is because the Director is managing it. It just doesn't feel right.”

"Has anyone raised any complaint on this?”

"Well, it's not wrong to take leave if you have the approval. But usually, no one requests leave for such a long time, and even if anyone does, it will never get approved.”

I could finally see what she was trying to say. And why she was hesitant to share what she knew. Rahul has been missing since the day Priya left here, and the Director was covering up for him.

"Thanks for sharing this with me, and I'll definitely make sure not to let anyone know that I got this information from you.

"I’d appreciate that. I'm not sure whether this has anything to do with what happened to Priya or not. But I felt that I needed to share this. Hopefully, Rahul has nothing to do with Priya’s disappearance.

She soon left the restaurant wishing me good luck in my endeavour.

I came back to the hotel. I was still trying to digest all the new information.

So the Director’s son Rahul had a massive crush on Priya. But Priya rejected him, and then he went silent. Which was all ok except that he has gone missing the same day Priya had the incident, and no one has heard from him since. Also, I found it very interesting that the local police had not found this out during their investigation.

I decided it was time I had a chat with Inspector Michael again.

I called him on his phone.

"Hey Jacob, where are you? I heard you are not around. You should not be travelling around too much.”

"I had come to Trivandrum. I wanted to personally check if I could find something.”

"Hey. If you keep running around like that, maybe I'll stop talking to u.”

"I'm sorry. I just couldn't control myself. But I did find something interesting over here.”

"Really? What’s that?”

I told him everything about Rahul and the interaction with the Director.

"That is indeed interesting. Especially since the police constable had none of this in his report. In fact, he came back saying there was nothing worth reporting there. I smell something fishy.”

"I think that report has the Director’s hand all over it.

"I'll make sure to talk to the Inspector over there and ask him to look into this personally. I know him, and he is an honest guy. Let's see what he comes back with. But at the same time, I want you back in Mysore as soon as possible.”

"Ok. I'll head back tomorrow.”

"You need rest, Jacob. If you feel better and your memory returns, all the problems will solve on their own.”

"Ok. And I mean it this time.”

"And yeah, one last thing. The autopsy report came today.”

"And?”

Unknowingly I was holding my breath, waiting for the Inspector’s reply.

"Priya was not pregnant.”

I found relief spreading throughout me.

"Ok. Did you share it with Priya's father?”

"I did. I called him in the morning. I think he is back to normal now. And has started to act as expected. I have started to get pressure to solve the case quickly. I think he has finally started using his connections for the right things. So that's good.”

"Yeah. Well, thanks for sharing. Please let me know if you get any further update.”

I decided to rest for the night. I finally felt a little relieved after a long time. I booked a return train for the early morning and slept off, hoping that we would have more information soon.