Gaurav’s eyes were trained on the laptop in front of him. He watched as the screen showed the live feed of the front of the house where Suraj Bhupati lived.

The recording was made from a small, discreet camera that was placed on an electrical pole opposite to the house. The coverage was quite good. Not only was Gaurav able to see the entire front of the house, but if the curtains were open, then he could also look into the house through the huge floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

It had been more than two days since Nina Bhupati went missing. And since she was the wife of a high-profile person, within an hour of her missing, police cars and media personnel swarmed outside the house.

There was TV coverage and front-page news in every local newspaper. Everyone now knew Suraj Bhupati’s wife was taken from near an abandoned building while she was donating food.

There were discussions about who might have taken her. And so far, no calls for a ransom were made. Names of a few business and political rivals were thrown during the discussion.

A few brave reporters even questioned Suraj Bhupati if he and his wife had an argument before she disappeared. It had bought a rare smile on Gaurav’s face.

Gaurav closed the laptop screen. Pulling out his sunglasses from the SUV’s dashboard, he put them on before getting out of the vehicle. And then, locking the SUV, he walked out from the guest parking where he had been waiting for the past hour.

He stood in front of a large apartment complex. Since it was a weekday and almost close to eleven in the morning, most of the children were at school. Apart from a few people strolling casually on the lawn, the complex was mostly deserted.

He went towards the stairs. His target was on the sixteenth floor, but he decided not to take the lift, where security cameras would be installed.

It took him less than fifteen minutes to get to the sixteenth floor. Despite his recent injury, and thanks to his regular workouts and strict exercise regime, he was barely out of breath when he stood in front of a familiar door.

He rang the bell twice and followed it with a knock before standing away from the peephole.

Even though most of the working crowd would be at their offices by now, Gaurav knew his dear friend was still home.

The door was opened by a sleepy-looking man. “Who is—” Before the man could register, Gaurav pushed the man inside the apartment and locked the door.

“Gaurav?” the man asked in a guarded tone. His sleepy eyes now appeared alert.

“Hi, Rohan. Long time, no see, my friend. I was disappointed that you didn’t visit when I was otherwise incapacitated.”

“I was busy with an undercover assignment. W-when did you return?” Rohan asked. “And why didn’t you call before coming here?”

Gaurav smiled. And the smile made Rohan take a step back.

Gaurav’s eyes moved away from Rohan to take in the decor of the familiar apartment. Several pictures of the man receiving awards for his work adorned the walls. His dear friend was an investigative journalist who took up many daring assignments. Rohan was only five years older than Gaurav, and was touted as being a daredevil and a brutally honest journalist.

Gaurav’s eyes returned to the visibly frightened man. “Call before coming?” he asked in a chilling tone. “I don’t think friends need to call before visiting. Right? If you recall, you never bothered calling me on that day.”

Rohan’s breath began to speed up. “Gaurav… whatever you heard is not true.”

Gaurav smiled once again. “What do you think I heard, my friend?” he asked before taking out a gun from under the leather jacket and holding it with one hand.

“P-please. It was a mistake.” Rohan began crying.

“Mistake?” Gaurav asked him calmly. “You deactivated the cameras and told them the exact time to visit when nobody else was home. Quite a mistake, my friend.”

“Please… please… I didn’t mean it. I was just following orders. I also made sure that no one touched her.”

Gaurav felt the rage inside him to explode. “How very noble of you,” he said. “You know what? Since you have been such a good friend to me, I’ll give you a choice. Give me the names, and I’ll let you have a mercy death. If not, then it would have to be a revenge kill. And you’ve been my friend long enough to know what a bastard I can be when wronged.”

Gaurav extended his gloved hand with a bottle of pills. “Take two pills. Do it right now, or I will shoot you in your face.”

Gaurav expected a struggle or some fight. He was even prepared to chase and shoot the other man, but Rohan swallowed two pills before falling on his knees on the floor. “I was tempted,” Rohan cried. “They offered me a lot of money and many other perks. Once things began to move rapidly, I had second thoughts. But I was helpless to stop it.”

Gaurav refused to listen to anything. “Names.”

In between continuous sobbing, Rohan gave him the names and the details of what transpired on that day. After Rohan finished, he began pleading. “I’m sorry. Please, Gaurav, don’t kill me.”

“What about the SD card?” Gaurav asked calmly.

“I-I destroyed it.”

Gaurav didn’t say anything. He dragged Rohan to a room and found a pen and paper. “Write,” he ordered.

“W-write what? A confession? I’m ready to do anything. I’ll go surrender myself. But please, don’t kill me.”

“Write what you made Shruti write. Instead of studies, use the word job.”

Rohan tried to struggle away from his hold. “No! Please.”

“Start writing before I change my mind about a revenge kill.”

With shaking hands, Rohan began writing. After he finished, Gaurav took the paper and scanned the contents. Satisfied, he dragged the other man to the center of the room.

“Tell me how I can make this right,” Rohan pleaded, his voice was beginning to slur. “I’ll give you all the money they offered along with whatever I have.”

Gaurav caught his neck in a chokehold. “You think money will compensate for what you did?” he hissed. He wrapped the noose around the other man’s neck and dragged him towards the ceiling fan.

The other man struggled, but not hard, since the pills were taking effect.

Five minutes later, Rohan was hanging from the ceiling, struggling for a very long time.

Gaurav had deliberately made the drop short, which resulted in a slow, painful strangulation.