Chapter 15(II): Blurred Lines
"And that's all?" DD asks skeptically, his eyes searching Neil's face for any sign of falsehood.
It is four hours after their encounter at the hospital. DD and Neil are seated in the office, making light conversation as they worked. Or at least, Neil had been trying to, until DD finally asks the question Neil had been dreading, two hours into the mind-numbing work. It is just as well, Neil thinks to himself miserably. Anyone was bound to have questions after what DD had inadvertently witnessed.
"I'm telling you man" Neil says patiently, "that's all that happened. You just entered at the wrong time. She asked help with her pillows, and when you entered the room, you startled us into separating"
DD looks unimpressed. "Then why did you both have such guilty expressions on your face? And why was the reading on her ECG up?"
Neil feels the day's exhaustion wear him down, and stifles a yawn. Police men were condemned to be police men even when it was vastly inconvenient for the people around them to be so. Especially when the people around them were point blank lying. "The reading was up because you startled her. I am telling you man, nothing happened"
DD seems to buy this explanation, though he shoots suspicious looks at Neil throughout. Neil on his part, keeps his face perfectly blank. For all her faults, his mother was a skilled liar and Neil had inherited her ability to keep a blank, but expressive face even though his insides were in absolute turmoil.
For the undeniable truth remained that Neil was lying. Because the truth was something remarkably simple and thereby, infinitely more complex. Because he hadn't been attempting to straighten her pillows. Because when she asked him if he'd been up all night, he had just said yes without thought to consequence. Because when he'd blurted out a yes, her lips had parted in surprise [at his honesty? At the significance of his actions? Both?], her eyes had welled up and she'd looked away from him to thank him. That he'd rushed to her bedside to allay her tears and when she'd cried harder, he'd just impulsively hugged her. That feeling him sob and sniffle against his chest made his lungs feel tighter. That it was lucky they'd been separating when DD walked in, for it was this separation that he's sold with relative success, as a mere case of pillow adjustment.
"Are you still going to continue on this Avni Ayesha and Ananya Verma thing?" asks DD, changing tack with lightning speed. Perhaps hoping that Neil would stumble. But Neil is glib as he is guileless. "I am not pursuing it right now. But if an opportunity comes my way, I will not ignore it"
"And sending constables to the principal of her former college on bogus charges to scare them into giving you some information is you doing nothing?" DD asks irately. But Neil refuses to cow down, or feel guilty about it. "I just need to be sure there's nothing bogus happening here"
DD looks disapproving, but says nothing. They talk of other things and steadily make their way through the pile.
"You meeting her today, yes? At her place? She got discharged?" DD asks.
Neil groans and lowers his head to the desk. "Shit, I forgot about that! We have so much of case work to go over. I am so tired, I will not be able to keep my eyes open"
DD pats his head sympathetically, but offers no words of comfort. After a while, Neil pushes the paperwork away. "You finish this. I'll just head over to her place now and get this over with"
DD snorts, but pulls Neil's pile of paperwork towards himself. "What was the snort for?" Neil asks on the threshold of his office.
"Just wondering" DD says casually, a devilish smile stretching all over his face, "how long you're going to pretend coordinating with Ananya is a chore and not an activity you take immeasurable delight in"
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Too tired to drive, Neil decides to take a cab to her place. The drive is long, for she lives in central Sheherpur and his workspace and home is decidedly on the edge of town. But Neil uses the journey to sort through the mental checklist on his head. The case had been developing slowly. Their vigilante was inactive ever since that night when he'd seen her, and the news had already began moving on to other stories. But what the news channels didn't know was that the drug movement in Sheherpur was strangely nil. There was no news of new shipments. DD had posted trusted men on the Wasama border, but there was no sign of strange activity. Neil knew it wasn't an end, but simply a build up to something bigger. He could taste the anticipation in the air of the city that had raised him. It wasn't just him. Even Ananya had been more uneasy after the party, and not just in his presence. She'd always had an air of alertness and vitality around her that had a raw edge. It wasn't so much as alertness as it was awareness of her surroundings to the point where she almost subconsciously tracked the movements of the people around her. He hadn't had an opportunity to test it out, but she looked like a woman who could not be surprised. And after the party, the alertness had somehow escalated to hyper-awareness. I am suspicious of unexpected lulls in any activity, she'd admitted. In my experience, sudden and uncharacteristic lulls in the midst of an ongoing activity just means you are not alert enough, or you are not aware enough. And both of these things are alarming. I would be happier if more men were dying at the hands of our vigilante.
Then there was the case of her attacker. After coming into the station, Neil had himself confirmed that Ketan Mehta had not set the attacks. As a clincher to Ketan's innocence, his own informants had told him that the other man had been informed when Neil had rushed Ananya to the hospital and had been placing discreet enquiries of his own.
But it was undeniable that Ketan Mehta was not blameless. What he'd seen at the party was too difficult to ignore, or dismiss. And then, there was the case of the mysterious cartel leader, the leader of the other faction. They'd worked their CI's to the end. Neil, DD and Ananya had even pulled in informants from neighbouring states, hoping someone had seen or heard something that may clue them in. But nothing turned up. The other man was shrouded in mystery and ergo, all the more dangerous. By heavily bribing a private network of hackers, Ananya had managed to track the general location of where Ketan Mehta's mystery caller had been. They had narrowed down the field to a ten-meter radius, and were by hand going through a list of names that had possible red flags. It was a time-consuming task that didn't have a very high chance of yielding usable result, but they were running out of options and didn't have anything to go on. Especially since all activity had essentially died down after Ketan Mehta's party.
Sleep deprivation makes his head ache, and coolness of the glass window provides no respite. In time, the cab rolls up across the familiar alleyway and Neil marvels at how different things look with sunlight on them. Soon enough, the cab pulls up to the apartment, and in a fugue like state borne of sheer exhaustion, he walks into the lift and presses the button to her floor.
As he steps out of the lift, he sees Ananya bidding a woman goodbye from the door with a rough push. But the other woman seems persistent. The matter seems serious enough that neither woman has noticed their audience. He sees that the other woman has grabbed Ananya's shoulders as though trying to make her understand something. He also sees Ananya shake her head roughly. Neil begins walking towards them softly as the other woman embraces Ananya tightly and strokes her hair gently, another signal that Ananya clearly had some sort of personal bond with the woman. Neil files the information away, and continues on his path. Just before Neil's phone rings, startling the two women into separation, he is certain that he hears the word Avni.
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END NOTES
1. I am so tempted to rewrite this story once it is completed. Admittedly, because of time constraints, I can't give you guys this story past the first draft. But once I am done with this story, I will rewrite this story since the overwhelming need to finish the mystery will no longer burden me. I hope you guys will join me on the retelling of this story with the same enthusiasm with which you have shown for the first draft of A Fate Intertwined.
2. Neil, embracing Ananya
3. So, I know I aimed to bring their friendship back to track but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that simply won't happen unless the big secret is out of the way. Ergo *looks around vaguely* this.
4. College is so much work, y'all. I'd forgotten what it's like to just be in the thick of it, constantly. I'm dying under coursework. AFI may extend to mid-September.
5. Lastly, I am so sorry that I'm not being able to like or respond to your individual comments. They are so lovely and I feel so blessed to read them. I promise I will go through this thread in detail over the weekend and respond, hopefully. I love you guys so much!
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