Chapter 6 - Carrots and Sticks
Shyam rushed up to his room as soon as NK was busy on the phone. Only thing is he didn't know that NK would follow him up so soon. He looked around his room, sure he would find the two lovebirds/detectives there. Unfortunately, there was no one.. At least, not that he could see. But his headphones were on the ground next to the bed and the laptop... Quickly, he picked it up and was just opening it when NK bounced into the room.
'No, no, Jijaji', he said, trying to hide his panic that he had failed Khushi. 'It's family time. You need to come and spend time with the family,' a pretty useless explanation it was.
Shyam was exasperated with NK, but there wasn't much he could do, as NK pushed him out the door and down the stairs. Behind them in the room, ASR and KKG breathed sighs of relief. They had been hiding behind the closet. Of course, they could have done the Hollywood kiss-and-hide-in-broad-daylight thing, but then they didn't think Shyam would buy it.
But ASR is really angry that Shyam has taken such liberties with them all. Khushi calms him down as only she can.
'You need to get a grip,' she told him, noticing his hands were turning into fists. 'There's cameras outside.'
He agreed. After all, they still had to find out a lot of things. So they came up with their next plan.
Khushi went downstairs where Nani and Anjali are busy getting things ready for the puja. Khushi showed the bottle of massage oil she had from her buaji to Anjali.
'Look, di,' she said chirpily. 'I will massage your foot with this oil. And your foot will feel better.'
So saying - and against the protests of Anjali, she began massaging her foot. What she really wanted to do was look at the soles of her foot.
And sure enough, there they were. After seven days, the cuts still looked raw. Amazing that Anjali could walk around with those things under her foot. Khushi was in tears at her sis-in-law's courage.
While she was massaging her foot, the Djinn ...I mean, aunt-in-law who was happily munching on a pizza said, 'I had to order in a pizza because you made such an awful breakfast, Phati Sari.'
But Phati Sari, that is, Khushi was looking at the staircase where Arnav had just arrived. One look at her face and he knew that the truth.
'Oh, are you waiting for a massage too, my boy?' asked Grandma.
'No,' he said. 'Actually Khushi and I.'
'We are going out, Grandma,' Khushi interrupted chirpily. 'Come, Arnav, let's go!'
Chapter 7 - Bloody Murder!
They went outside, out of range of the cameras before he finally burst out in anger, 'It wasn't a miscarriage. It was a bloody murder!'
'You have to keep calm here, Arnav,' she consoled him. 'He is a very bad man. I'm sorry I asked to bring him back. But now, we need to find a way to trap him.'
He seemed to think of something, but before he could speak, she stopped him. 'That blue bracelet won't hold up in a court of law, you know. Last time, he slipped away from our grasp. This time, we need solid evidence.' She held his hand and said softly, 'have faith and trust in yourself... and us.'
At her touch, his brain calmed down, because face it, the Tycoon didn't think at all when he was angry. But now he could think. 'Oh, I know. The musicians. We should ask them if they know about him.'
The two of them went off to look for the musicians. The manager was very polite, after all, its not everyday that the Tycoon and his wife showed up in his office. He asked one of his boys to fetch the others.
'The only thing is, that day at your house, we had to use a temp,' he explained.
'Why is that?' asked Arnav.
'Because Mahesh, who was suppose to play was not able to make it. A new boy played in his place.'
The ever quick brain of KKG kicked into gear. 'Can you describe him for us?'
'For sure,' said the manager. 'Tallish, dark complexioned, a beard.'
'Hmmm...' thought ASR, now that his mind was functioning okay. He remembered the dhol wala he'd bumped into, the one who kept slinking into corners. Was it possible? 'It was him', he said grimly.
Chapter 8 - A bit of Cheese
Meantime, back at RM, aunt-in-law was taking her usual afternoon snooze. She snored loud and long, while NK and Grandma tried to wake her up. Finally giving up on her, they went to do their puja.
NK wanted his aunt to apologize to Khushi for her bad behaviour. But Nani had said she'd never apologized. With not much to do about the house, he came up with a plan for auto-confession of Mami.
He his behind the statue of Devi-Mayya and in a female (well, as much as he could fake one) voice called 'Manorama!' (which was the Djinn's real name). He'd seen this in the movie Sholay, and it had worked there, surely it would work here!
Mami bounced up. Was the Goddess really calling to her. Without even thinking about the improbability of this ever happening, she bounded into the temple and fell to her knees, much to the amusement of Nani and Anjali. Anji spotted NK behind the statuee and they both kept quiet. They wanted to enjoy the show, too.
'Manorama, confess to me all your sins,' said NK, still speaking in the female tone. A visibly impressed and upset Manorama then began to confess her wrongs.
ASR and KKG walked in, just in time to witness this very strange confession, while Nani and Anjali his their amusement behind their hands.
She was lazy.
She didnt like to do housework, so she sometimes escaped to the temple.
She had mixed alcohol in Buaji's drink so they'd win at the Sangeet.
'Anything else?' said NK.
"Oh, yes one more thing. I was the one that made a hole in the saree Khushi brought the first day and then I called her phati sari,' she said a little shamefacedly.
'Then you should apologize to Khushi,' said NK/Devi Mayya.
She turned around to apologize willingly, but Khushi stopped her, while Arnav smiled proudly at his wife. 'No, aunty,' said Khushi sweetly. 'I don't need an apology. Besides, I've kind of grown fond of that nick name.'
NK popped out from behind the statue, much to everyone's amusement - everyone except Mami, who made dire threats to him before departing with a 'Hello, hi, bye, bye!'
'NK, what was the need for that?' said Khushi.
'Well, I didn't have much to do. And I kinda don't like the way she treats you. So I wanted her to at least confess how bad she has been.'
A confession! thought Khushi. Oh my Devi Mayya, that's exactly what we need! But how?
Arnav saw the look come over Khushi's face, but she couldn't tell him anything there. But as soon as they were alone, they found a spot away from the cameras and she said, 'I know what we can do. I have a PLAN.'
He was surprised. Khushi always had plans. Big plans. Little plans. Master plans. Servant plans. And each of those were based on a Bollywood movie or a book she had read. Sure enough as soon as she told him, she'd read it in a book, he was skeptical or was it a movie. Something about recreating the crimes all over again. Hamlet? We're gonna do the Mousetrap? Not that he knew much of Shakespeare, as all he had in his library was one book, 'Strength Based Selling'.
'No, Khushi,' he said. 'It's not gonna work.'
'It will. It will!' she stomped her foot. 'You never like my plans, but they always work!'
Not wanting to see his cute wife fly off the handle for no reason, he gave in. After all, a wise man knows it's not good to get the wife angry - especially a smart one like his.
Chapter 7 - The Mousetrap
The next morning, at breakfast, every body was busy eating while Khushi and HP served food. The new servant came in and announced the painters were here.
Shyam's ears perked up. Painters?! What was this now?
'Look over the house, and start the work tomorrow,' Arnav instructed.
'House painting?' asked Grandma-in-law. 'How come?'
'Well, Grandma, I thought it would be a good idea to get the painting done before Diwali,' said Arnav straight faced, keeping a close eyes on his brother-in-law.
Just then, brother-in-law told sis-in-law, 'I have to get some work done. I'm going to my room.'
He stormed into his room, 'What the hell is this? House painting? House Painting?' He was huffing and puffing in anger. 'Now I have to take down all the cameras I planted so meticulously. Otherwise those stupid painters will see them and surely tell my brother-in-law,' he muttered to himself, before heading to his brother-in-law's room.
He was just getting the camera from the potted plant outside the window when he heard the door to the room open. Arnav had come in. He could see him standing just inside the door. Praying fervently, he tried to hide behind the pillar as much as his pink shirt would allow him.
Thankfully, Arnav picked up a file and walked out of the room. With a sigh of relief, he started taking down the cameras one by one.
Arnav found Khushi in the dining room, and wordlessly let her know that the plan had worked. Shyam was frantically taking down all the cameras. Round one to KKG/ASR.
Back in their room, the two breathed a sigh of relief. No more cameras.
'Now we don't need to be worried. We're safe. We can do what we want!' said Khushi jubilantly. And then paused. She saw the change come over her husband's face, she could read the thoughts in his brain as he held her eyes. All thoughts led to the bed behind her.
As he came close, she said, 'I didn't mean THAT!' she said. He bent down to pick up his phone from the bed.
At her tone, he turned around. 'What's wrong?'
'No..nothing,' she stammered, turning away. But he was a little faster than her. He held her arms and pulled her into his.
'Were you hoping that I would do something like this?' he whispered as he lowered his face for a kiss. 'Were you disappointed that I didn't?' After all, they'd barely been married for two days. And with the cameras gone, a little quality time would have been nice, he thought.
'No,' she exclaimed and pulled back, at least as much as he would allow. 'Nothing like that. I was just wondering what our next steps should be!' she said.
With a sigh, he let her go. 'Khushi, its not gonna work.'
'It will! It will!' she pouted and looked away.
Find out what Khushi's plan is to get Shyam to confess..In upcoming Chapters... soon!
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