Present…

 

It took a little over two weeks for the PI that Nina and Radha had hired to put together the information on medical students who had committed suicide by hanging.

The list had nearly a dozen cases. With heart thudding, Nina sat on the bed and opened the files.

She went through the pictures of the victims. Her heart felt heavy looking at the young innocent faces who had decided to give up on life.

She had reached the end of the list, and so far, none of them showed the picture of a pretty girl with a bright smile that Gaurav had in the picture frame in his room.

Nina was frustrated.

 “Any luck identifying the pictures of the reporters I sent?” Radha asked.

“No,” Nina answered in frustration.

Nina had gone through an extensive list of pictures of various journalists between the ages of twenty five to forty. So far she hadn’t encountered the intense eyes of her captor.

A few days ago, Nina had met with the police and media to give out statements.

 

“I was given drugs and blindfolded during the time of my captivity. The last day, I pretended to take the pills even though I didn’t. When my kidnappers left, I was able to escape.”

“Mrs. Bhupati, can you tell us why you were taken?”

“Ransom,” Suraj interjected. “I received an email asking me to shell out money in change of my wife’s return.”

“But the earlier reports said no ransom demand was made.”

When Suraj didn’t answer, another reporter asked. “How much? And did you pay it?”

“That’s confidential,” Radha answered. “If you have further questions, please speak with the Bhupatis’ lawyer. Thank you.”

There were more questions asked all at the same time, but Suraj escorted Nina away from there.

 

“I’ve started to look at the investigation reports during the time of my kidnap.” The PI was helping her through to see if there were any clues as to where she was taken.

“I know they are not very helpful and they keep going in circles,” Suraj stated.

Nina agreed with him. She had read through some of the reports. There were no good leads whatsoever. Either her kidnap was very well planned or the entire police force and private investigators were incompetent.

Nina took a deep breath. “Just give me some more time to find him.”

“We are making the investigation as discreet as possible, Nina,” Suraj promised.

Nina nodded in misery. She badly needed to trace Gaurav. She also needed to know what he had been investigating that implicated Suraj.

When Suraj and Radha left, Nina returned to the investigation reports.

She saw an address of a link. She brought out her laptop and typed the link.

Her heart skipped a beat

It was the video recorded by Gaurav when he had hacked her hair off and threatened her with a knife. On the video, Gaurav had done a thorough job of acting as an evil kidnapper who wanted to torture and rape his victim.

Nina recalled her feelings at that time. She was both angry and terrified at the same time.

But now, she only remembered Gaurav’s regret as he lovingly ran his fingers through her short locks of hair and kissed it while apologizing to her. And sometimes, he had even arranged wildflowers in her hair when they had lazed on the grass next to the lake after their session of lovemaking.

Three months had passed since her hair had been cut, and it had grown longer since then. It was falling on her shoulders right now.

Sighing and not wanting to drown in self-pity and depression while recalling her time with Gaurav, she closed the laptop and continued reading through the investigative reports.

Much later, Nina realized Suraj hadn’t been joking.

She kept reading report after report where there were several leads which turned out to be dead ends.

When she slept that night, Nina’s sleep was uneasy with dreams of Gaurav and Suraj having a bare -handed fight where each of them were determined to kill each other.

She woke in a panic.

Unable to sleep after the bad dream, she continued to read through the reports. It was almost morning and her brain was too tired by then, but a shock jolted her as her eyes fell on a name.

It was the name of one of the police investigators.

It probably is a coincidence. It’s a common enough name.

Nina’s mind tried to reason even as her gut shouted a warning.

Nina decided to go with her gut feeling.