Chapter 3 : Truth behind his Pain.
"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal." - Richard Puz.
ETF Office.
Riya is sitting in the conference room with her friends but her mind is wandering around. Chotu and Sree are looking at her continuously after the dramatic act she pulled listening to Arjun's joining.
"Ri, Are you alright? You look so disturbed from yesterday!" Sree looked at her while asking.
"Sree, it's nothing yaar. It was my first case in the field job and I was thinking about the girls. If we didn't reach on the time, what would have happened to the girls?" She sighed sadly.
"If you start thinking about the cases we had solved and about the future cases, we cannot sleep at all. So take a chill bill and BTW, where is the coffee? you went to take coffee right?" Sree raises his eyebrows at her.
"OMG, I'm sorry guys, I forgot it, just 2 mins I will bring the coffee" She smiled and went to bring coffee.
She was back with the cup coffees and they started to work on the report for yesterday's case. Riya is being an expert in this work almost finished the report while Sree and Chotu helping her with inputs whenever it's needed.
After some time Rathod came and announced that they a case. A reporter was found dead inside his bedroom.Police closed the case stating that it's a suicide, but her girlfriend is not accepted as suicide and she reached out to Mumbai Commissioner for the same. One more thing she is a reporter too, and recently they had telecasted news about Ex-Minister leather factory.
"Rawte, Riya, and Chotu can go to Reporter Vivek Shetty home for investigation.I and sree will go to Q TV where Vivek and Sweta had worked together.Is that clear everyone? Rathod asked everyone.
Before leaving Arjun told Riya to collect the forensic reports and evidences from the local police station.
Everyone left to their destination with seperate ETF cars.
Car Journey
Riya is sitting in a co-passenger seat and Arjun is driving the car. Chotu is at the back seat and talking to his informers about any clues.
Riya is silently watching the person whose whole concentration on the road, He was clad in a grey shirt with black jeans, his jet black hair is neatly combed, and shirt sleeves are rolled up to show his strong muscles and his wrist veins .And all of sudden her eyes catches the nude colour bandage which is covering his right sidearm. She started to stare that bandage little longer to see what is behind that until angry voice barked at her.
"Riya" Arjun glared at her.
" Sir, what is that bandage that is covering your arm?" she asked
Chotu is horrified at hearing her.He is waiting for Arjun's burst out.
Arjun clutches the steering wheel tightly till his knuckles go white.
"It's none of your business Ms.Riya Mukherjee. First and last time I'm telling you, stay away from me and I don't like someone intervening my personal matter!" Arjun told her with gritted teeth.
She looks at his firing eyes, which held pain and agony which she is not aware of it. She could feel her eyes are burning after hearing his harsh words.So she turned her head away ,because she doesn't like to cry in front of others.
"I'm sorry sir" She muttered and started to write about the case details in her brown diary to divert her mind.
After 30 mins drive, they reached Mr.Shetty Apartment. While getting down Riya forgot the file which consists of the forensic report, evidence details and print out of the telecasted news against Ex-Minister.
Shetty Apartment
Arjun, Riya and Chotu are sitting with Shetty parents and his girlfriend Sweta. They could see the pain on their faces while looking at them, but they are here for a Duty so emotions have to take a back seat.
" Who found him first after that incident? Do you have a medical report, which was issued by the hospital after the post-mortem?" Arjun asked looking at the family.
"Vivek didn't wake till late morning so I went to his room to wake him up and that day his bedroom door was open, usually he lock the door before sleeping and we thought he was getting ready for the office," His mother said while crying.
" He always lock the door before every night?" Arjun probed further.
"Yes, sir, usually he would open the door in the morning before leaving for office. That day we came late after attending a family function, so we didn't see him before sleeping." this time his father answered Arjun.
Arjun thought for a min and asked "Riya, can you give me the file?"
After Arjun's question, she had realized that the file is inside the car itself. Arjun looked at her again hoping to get a file.
Riya started to fidget her hands and muttered " Sir, I forgot the file inside the car, give me 5 mins I will be back with the file"
Arjun glared at her.If looks can kill, she would have been buried 10 feet under the ground.
"Chotu, go with her and get the file" Arjun ordered while controlling his anger and he doesn't want to insult her in front of everyone.
Without waiting for any second, she sprinted outside of the apartment with Chotu to get the files.
At Lift
Chotu is looking at Riya sadly. She is getting into the bad books of ACP Arjun.
"Ri" Chotu called out her name loudly to break her thoughts.
Chotu quirked his eyebrows at her when she is cursing someone under the breath.
"I hate this man" Riya said to Chotu.
"Liar," her heart said.
"I can't tolerate this man, I knew it's my mistake that I left the file in the car, but that doesn't mean that he can boss me around always. I don't know how his family is tolerating him? especially his wife. Poor lady has to bear his constant mood swings and glaring" she said with a single breath.
"Ri, do you have a death wish? Why do you say these silly things? "
Riya looked at Chotu confusingly.
"His wife was slaughtered two years ago, that too in front of him. And about tolerating him, I heard that he used to be a romantic person before his Roshini death. If you want to stay at the ETF, just stay away from Arjun sir."
"About the bandage, you asked him in the car, his skin was torn where he tattooed his wife's name. Roshini is Rathod sir sister and Arjun sir and Rathod sir used to be a best friends.Rathod sir is blaming Arjun sir for Roshni's murder and that was the reason both of them not getting with each other. His wife's death made him a stone-hearted person.Even he is not staying at the house where he used to live with Roshini. He is staying at some local Ravi's lodge and people claim that he won't sleep at night because people found him during midnight roaming aimlessly."
The shock would be underestimated word to express Riya's feelings now.
Riya's POV
"Roshni was murdered two years ago and she is a Rathod sir sister and Rathod sir is blaming Arjun for Roshini's brutal death. How much pain he is going through after that incident? It must have hurt him deeply and it does still. I got the know the reason behind his pain now. The pain, agony, suffering,
helplessness and loneliness are the reason he is behaving in this way. There is a fire in his heart, which is making burn everything around him. Hope that fire doesn't hurt burn him. I feel like crying for his misery, but I should not let others see my feelings for him. If they get to know about my feelings about Arjun, they will think this as a sympathy which is not the truth and I don't like someone tagging my love for him as a sympathiser. I really wish one day he is free from all the pain and lives his life happily. I pray to God to give him the strength to overcome his self-suffeering soon.
She sighed sadly.
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"It's very tragic Chotu, how he might have felt that time? She asked chotu while wiping her lonely tear without his notice.
"Yeah, he is a broken man with so many baggages. That's why I'm telling you not to cross a path with this man! Before Arjun sir kills us, we have to give him the files. Come fast." Chotu hurried her.
Riya giggled softly at the last part and they moved to the car park to get the files.
Back to Shetty Apartment
After some time Riya and Chotu reached with the files. Arjun is showing them some pics which was taken during police investigation
"Vivek had white colour powder around his mouth and the post-mortem report says he died of overdose of drugs," he said to them.
"Have you seen either drug powder or any tablet which was lying around the room? He asked them further.
Before they could reply, Riya interrupted him.
" No, sir, Police couldn't find anything in the room and when the body was found he was lying on the surface"
"This is very disturbing fact, sir, he never used drugs and he was against of taking illegal drugs and he has done documentation for awareness about drug usage around young people," Sweta said
"Miss. Sweta can you confirm all the files and documents are in the study room? Anything missing like pen drive or data cards? Arjun asked her.
"After the police investigation I searched his room one of the pen drives was missing. That's where I got suspicious that this death is murder ,because that pen drive has all the information against to Ex-Minister," she said with a choked voice.
And she handed over some pics which she has taken before the police came for investigation, along with that she had shown the pics Vivek's pen drive which had 'S' and 'V' words are tangling at the edge of the card. This may help you to find the murder.
"We will try to find the murder soon" with that Arjun left the place with Riya and Chotu.
During this journey, Riya is looking at Arjun in a corner of her eyes without being caught by him. Because she is not ready for the next scolding session from him.
ETF office.
Sameer, Arjun, Riya, Sree and Chotu are sitting inside the conference room.
"Damn it, All are a dead end. We couldn't find a clue at the TV office because the CEO of the channel did not allow us to interrogate Vivek's -workers." Rathod said while rubbing the head.
"Sir, Coffee" Riya asked Rathod hopefully.
"Yes please, I really need of it," Rathod said
She smiled showing her dimples and went to fetch coffee for everyone.
After 10 mins she came with the 4 cups of coffee, 1 cup of dip tea, and she gave the cups to everyone. She was about to give Arjun a cup but a small boy came with the cutting-chai.
"Arrey, where you erupted from? We didn't order any chai from your place, I guess you came to a wrong place, " she said while looking at the unhygienic glass.
"I ordered for myself," Arjun said before she could throw that boy out of the conference room.
"When he started to drink cutting-chai in the unhygienic glass?" she mutters to herself.
Riya looked at the teacup which she made for him, emptied the tea in the wash bin without anyone noticing.
She sat on the chair with her coffee cup and started to wipe the rib of the coffee cup with a tissue paper. To everyone, it's her routine mission to clean the cup with tissue paper and they are used with her over hygienic antics, but for the new member of the team is looking at her weirdly the way she cleans the cup.
Riya feels his piercing gaze on her and the cup she is holding. To hide her awkwardness she keeps her right hand on her head to hide the half of the face. It's too embarrassing for her, she almost made the poor chai boy run out of the ETF after he gave the cutting-chai to Arjun. If the tea was ordered by other than Arjun, she might have given them an earful about cleanliness and health issues which would cause having outside food.
After the coffee break, everyone looks fresh. Arjun started to explain his points.
"Medical report says death caused due to overdose of Drug which was a combination of cocaine and heroin, but we couldn't find any drugs in the victim's room, and his family denied Vivek consuming drugs. Forensic report says his body has less amount of cocaine and heroin exactly 2 to 3 % and the cause of death is a poison and the blood has traces of it. The major cause of death is poison, but the police report said an overdose of drugs and they have closed the case. " Arjun is explaining
Sameer interrupted him."How come both the reports can be mismatching?"
"We have to find out that, how both the reports can be conflicting?" Arjun said
Arjun started to swirl the pen in between his fingers.
"Something is missing Rathod," Arjun said while thinking.
"Riya give me the pics which was taken by Sweta before police reached crime spot and Sree, Do you have any video or pics which was taken today while you guys went to meet Q TV CEO ?"
Both of them started to dig their bags to get the files and tablets. Riya started to look at the one particular pic in which there is a broken needle, which was lying under the study table of Vivek's but the same needle was missing in the pics which was given by police, her eyes glinted with the happiness.
"Sir, you are right, Someone force injected poison in his body and she showed both pics to differentiate and as per the records 73 % of the cases murder is someone very close to the victim or maybe someone close to the family." She said.
Arjun and others rolled their eyes, after hearing her never-ending statistics and percentages during important case investigation.
She handed over all the pics before and after police investigation along with a pic of the pen drive. At the same time, Sree told he has seen this kind Pen Drive on the table of Q TV CEO.
"Sree, Are you sure? Can u think and tell me, both the pen drives are same?" Sameer exclaimed.
"I'm damn sure, it is the same pen drive," Sree said confidently.
"Team, let's go to Q TV again, Mr Badra Ahuja knows who is the killer or something related to killer" Rathod ordered.
At Q TV
As the way, ETF suspected, it was Mr.Ahuja, who had killed Vivek with the help of goons, He had a quarrel with Vivek regarding the proof against Ex-Minister. Ahuja wanted to get huge money by threatening the Minister. When Vivek was not giving him the proofs, he had killed him to get the pen drive. To set up this murder as a suicide, he had stuffed drugs on the Vivek mouth after injecting poison in his body. Some police officers had helped him to get the forgotten injection in the victim's room . He bribed the hospital to give a false report for Vivek death.
Soon local police arrested Ahuja for planned murder and sealed the Q TV. The pen drive was given to the concerned team to investigate on the Ex-Minister's leather factory mystery.
Riya looked at Arjun proudly the way he had solved the case. Rathod ordered everyone to leave for the day since its quite late in the evening.
At Riya Apartment
She is sitting on her bed with all the papers of Roshini murder and she is reading the file with utmost care line by line and word by word. This files has a history of Arjun's cop journey until the day he joined ETF. The file she is holding is not just papers but the pain which Arjun going through after Roshini death. She got these information from the official websites of the crime branch and took a print of it without anyone notice before leaving for the day. By the time she read the file, her cheeks damped with tears. She could feel his pain. She hugged the newspaper which is having Arjun's photo.
"I wish, I could do something to erase your pain Arjun. But I didn't know how to do that? I will pray to god soon you will catch the killer of Roshni and you will come out of your personal suffering. I cannot see you in pain" she said while looking at his pic.
Next-day Morning at ETF
Riya, Chotu and Sree are sitting inside the cabin and having a fun time laughing, pulling each other legs. Arjun made an entrance to a conference room with a cutting-chai, Riya made a face after looking at the unhygienic cutting-chai glass. The trio kept silence after looking at him.
"Riya, where is the human-trafficking case file? Have you started to prepare Vivek case reports?" Arjun asked calmly while sipping his chai.
Riya nearly jumped out of her seat after hearing his calm voice. By mistake, she gave him the wrong files which have Roshini murder report papers, along with his cop history. After getting the files Arjun had left the place. After some time Rathod came to office ordered them to complete the files. While working on the files Riya realized the files she gave it to Arjun is not human trafficking.
" Sree and Chotu, Please save me.! Riya said scaringly at the duo.
"What happened RI? We will save you! Is someone troubling you? I will inform Rathod sir and Arjun sir" Sree said while trying to calm her.
"Sree, Arjun Sir is going to kill me, I gave him roshini murder file by mistake!" Riya said meekly.
"Whattt Ri, Are you freaking out of your mind? We don't want to die at the prime age of youth." Sree asked her.Chotu nodded his head agreeing with Sree.
"Ri.Why are you inviting trouble by yourself? I even told you to stay away from this man?" this time Chotu scolded her.
"Guys, please, Don't scare me more! The papers got misplaced unknowingly.Help me to get the file before Arjun sir see the file. Riya pleaded her friends literally.
"Okay,When Arjun goes for lunch break,we will take the file." Chotu said
Riya and Sree agreed with Chotu and they are waiting for the perfect time to sneak into Arjun's cabin.
They all tried various method from morning to take the files from Arjun's cabin, but they couldn't catch hold the file.It was around 6 in the evening,Riya slipped into Arjun's cabin when he was away.
At Arjun's cabin
Riya is searching the file which is lying on his table ,but the file was missing like a magic.Before she started to search around the cabin.A voice barked at her.
"Are you searching this file Riya?" Arjun showed the file to Riya
Riya looked at him in a bated breath.Before She could defend herself,Arjun showed his hand to stop her.
"How many times, I told you to STAY AWAY from me? Can't you a understand simple thing in your head? ,
I don't like people intervening my personal life and I hate this kind of behavior and I hate those people too. Last warning just STAY AWAY from me." Arjun screamed at Riya with hatred.
Without waiting for her reply, Arjun walked outside of the room with the files.Riya is looking at the moving figure of Arjun with tears in her eyes.She wiped her tears before anyone notice , she doesn't know that three people had watched everything.
She came outside after cleaning her face, collected her belongings from the conference room and left for her home.
At Riya's bedroom
She slumped on the bed and started to cry inaudibly while keeping her hands covering her mouth.
"I'm sorry Arjun, I never know this could cause a pain in your heart! I can feel your pain too, and Why do you keep saying "STAY AWAY"? How many years I'm tolerating the pain of staying away from you.Still how many years I have to do this? I cannot put a brave face and act like your pain doesn't affect me."
She murmured under the breath while crying.
ETF Premises
But it seems Arjun is not ready to hear her.Listening is very distancing, he is not even looking in her direction which is paining her.All are looking at piteously
~After 10 days~
Yes, it's been 10 days Arjun is not even looking at Riya direction and whenever she comes in to apologize, he will move away from that place like she doesn't exist in the room.During the case also he didn't even look at her face.
Riya had enough of his bullshit.To give him peace of mind she dashed into his cabin without knocking.
At Arjun's cabin.
Arjun is looked up from the file who is dared to enter his cabin without knocking.
"What the .." his words dies in his throat after seeing Riya.
"Where is your manners ,Riya? You should knock before entering someone room!" Arjun said while giving her a look.
"Where was your manners sir ?,When you walked out while I was trying to apologize!"
Arjun stood up from his place now both of them looking each other.Riya started to speak, before he interrupts her.
"I'm sorry Sir, I didn't do that intentionally and I really wanted to know what had happened to her.I gave you wrong file which was completely unintended mistake and My action would have hurted you, so I apologize once again. But that doesn't mean that you can show attitude on me.My intention is not to hurt you in anyway and I would never do that in my lifetime " her voice cracked at the end of the speech.
Arjun is looking at Riya's deep black eyes flickering of care, love, anger and helplessness as the way her words.For a moment he couldn't avert his gaze from her.
" Maybe you don't value the word 'Sorry', but for others it has some values in their life.So try to respect it"
She dashed out of his cabin without waiting for his reply.Because if she looks at his brown eyes, she will forget everything around her and she may end up hugging him.
Arjun lips twitched slightly upwards after the daring act she pulled, it's been years someone advised to him without caring about his anger and his hurtful words.She is not same girl who had cried for her mistakes when he had scolded her.
Outside Arjun's cabin.
Rathod, Sree and Chotu are looking at her, while she is coming out of the lion's tent .
Riya smiled at them showing her deep dimples and asked,"Guys Coffee".
Sree and Chotu frantically nodded their head after seeing her alive coming out the Arjun cabin.
Rathod smiled and said "Interesting,Rawte is not running behind her to kill".
The third part of "All in Me" is out. Please read the chapter and do let me know your thoughts on the same.
This chapter is quite long and the case details are purely my imagination,please ignore the loopholes.
I will continue with the next part soon.
Note: Sorry for the grammar and sentence mistakes.
Quote credits to Google.
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