Naina Sharma

I was shyly sitting on the wooden chair again beside the glass-wall of the red pizzeria shop inside a mall. A woman entered the pizzeria and the bell on the door rang. She looked here and there, scanned the whole pizzeria full of people eating with their families of friends, and then turned at me, a shy body sitting alone on one of the tables, with my hands between my thighs. She walked towards me and sat in front of me at the table. She took out her sunglasses and asked, “I’m Kavita Makhija. So, shall we start?”

“Y-Yes, ma’am,” I replied.

Kartik Khandelwal

“Am I changing?” I thought as I lay on my bed. The clock displayed five in the evening as the sunrays entered my bedroom through the window opened on the right of me. I was still in my formal clothes, with boots, and was hugging my blanket, with my head sunken inside it. I remembered the words of Prakash--“You’re so tense that you can’t see the changes in your behavior.” “You were given the title of the leader because you can create a good environment even in the worst of times. You maintain the environment from serious, tension to cheerful and good. But, you’ve lost your charm, pal.”

“Have I lost the charm inside me?” I asked myself. “I was given the duty to lead the team, but I can’t even handle myself for now. This had never happened before in any case.” Suddenly, I touched my cheeks and found something wet. “W-Why am I crying?” I asked myself. “I-I don’t feel like crying for now, then why are my eyes…”

“You’re so tense that you can’t see the changes in your behavior,” I somehow remembered his words again.

“No…” I murmured. My mouth and throat were full too. “Why the hell am I unable to control my tears? W-Why can’t I stop crying?!” I suddenly shouted, “WHAT THE HELL HAVE I DONE?! Ayush died because of me, Shahnawaz ran from jail because of me, PEOPLE DIE BECAUSE OF ME!”

Suddenly, my phone rang and my hands reached my pocket to take it out. Keeping it on my ears, I said, “Hello?”

“Yes, Mr. Khandelwal, Mr. Amitabh Murthy has done suicide in his home. He is the father of the young lad who was killed in that ‘viral video’. Since you’re in-charge, I guess you’d like to visit his home once.”

“Y-Yeah sure. I-I’ll be there in just a minute.”

He surely sensed something in my voice. The gentle voice on the other side asked, “Is something the matter, Inspector?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“If something’s up, you don’t need to come, sir. Take your--”

“I’m coming,” I replied and hung up. “Once again…”

Naina Sharma

“You were here yesterday too, right? The same seat, the same restaurant, the same mall… So, I hope that you’re doing well here, Ms. Naina Sharma,” She said.

“Yes, sure. I’m good,” I replied.

“I guess that… Mr. Shekhar Sharma was your boyfriend, wasn’t he?” She asked. “I’m sorry if it’s supposed to be personal.”

“Yes, he was my boyfriend in college days,” I replied. “But, he went off somewhere and never returned. I still remember how depressed I was about for him, even though he didn’t actually care about me.”

“Did he tell you something? Something like… a hint, which can tell us where he was going?”

I shook my head gently. “No, he never told me anything before he disappeared. In fact, the last time I met him, he was quite cheerful, because his parents were not dead until then.”

“So, you actually think that there was a connection between Shekhar’s disappearance and the death of his parents.”

“Shrewd,” I thought. But, I replied, “Obviously, everyone would think so, because he ran just after the death of his parents.”

“But, I think that his car was last spotted in your neighborhood when he was dropping you home.”

“That was before the death of his parents,” I simply replied. “We went on a date on the day before he disappeared.”

“Oh, the love!” She exclaimed. I gulped, because that made me a bit uncomfortable. “Okay then, may I ask you… what happened on that date?”

Now, I started sweating on my forehead. “Well, you know, it was a pretty long time ago, so…”

“It was your last date, so I think you’d remember it pretty well.”

“No, actually…” I shyly replied.

“What?”

“I-I don’t remember what happened that day,” I was feeling embarrassed.

“But it was your last date with your boyfriend. You sure you don’t remember it?” She was over-acting now, and that made me more uncomfortable. I gulped again.

“It’s been years, and now I don’t even remember him or even think of him.”

“Then why’s his photo present beside yours in your cupboard?”

“What?”

“I’ve checked the photos of your whole house, ma’am. I remember exactly that there was a photo of him beside yours.”

“I-It must be someone else’s…”

“I checked it with my very own eyes, and the photo of him on the graduation report card of college and that on your cupboard match,” She told me. “I’m sure there must be something you’re hiding.”

“N-No,” I told her. “I have not even looked at them for years! M-Maybe it’s still there, but-but I--”

“Enough, ma’am. Please, tell me what exactly--” Her phone started ringing and she took it out from her pocket. “Hello?” Someone on the other side said something and she was furious, “What? I’m in the middle of an interrogation! Call someone else, for damn’s sake! What? No! Oof, okay. I’m coming.” She stood up and kept her phone back in the pocket of her red jacket. “Lucky you.” She turned back and left off.

I sighed and said, “She was a smart one. I guess I needa be prepared next time.”

While going, she was thinking, “She surely is hiding something. And, I needa make her spit it out no matter what.”