ArHi: Starlight and Moonshine: #16, Pg 54, 29 July - Page 23

11: Purva Phalguini: The former reddish one

"It's 1 in the morning." Khushi looks up from the table and blinks at the doorway - the direction of the voice. She blinks to adjust her eyes to look past bright lights she is under.

"I hadn't noticed." She replies when the voice slots to a familiar face in her brain.

Arnav smiles. "High profile case?" He asks looking at the haphazard work area Khushi was working it. Khushi slumps and rests her head on the table.

"It's the one where a minister's son was arrested in a rave and was alleged of date rape of four girls." Khushi looks glum and sounds exhausted.

"It could have waited till tomorrow, wouldn't it?" Arnav asks and places a bag in front of her. "A small gift for a hard working government official."

Khushi sat up straight and smiles wanly. She pulls the bag towards her and peeks inside. Laughing, she takes out a coffee machine, coffee and a mug as large as her heard.

"Thank you. Much appreciated," she says mustering happiness from her aching bones and disturbed mind. There is more life in her eyes that moment than there has been for a week. Though he had noticed before, Arnav hadn't asked. It felt too much like prying.

"You didn't answer my question." He says quietly. "These places aren't safe for you to work alone Khushi, you know that." Arnav says looking at the poorly secured lab.

Khushi looks at him blankly. "This is a crime lab Arnav. There is activity going on in the cyber lab two floors below, so there are those people. And this building is in the premises of one of your stations. Not to mention a dozen people still working in this very lab who have just gone out to get some fresh air."

"You still haven't answered my question." Arnav sports an equally blank look. Khushi rubs her head.

"My mother is hiding something." She shrugs. "If she knows Mrs. Inder, she isn't telling. My parents are walking around hurt because of stuff I told her last week," she rubs the back of her neck with slight embarrassment. At Arnav's questioning look she sighs. "I questioned my mother's intentions as a parent while raising me."

"Did she answer?" Arnav asks, intently looking at her.

The embarrassment dissolved from her face and is replaced by the same detached look that she had taken to sporting these days. She shakes her head. "No. She didn't."

"Do you want to find out?" Khushi looks startled at Arnav's question and thinks momentarily.

"Have you received anything new on Mrs. Inder or Mr. Chandra?" She asks instead.

Arnav shakes his head. "Just that they may have crossed paths. But no physical evidence yet. Satya is searching for them in social media. No luck yet. Either they were never on social media - directly or indirectly or they carefully deleted their digital footprints. We are going to get an information dump end of this week. Hopefully there will be more on them there."

"If I say yes, will my parents know that I am searching for a connection between my parents, my mother and Mrs. Inder?" Khushi asks, worried about seeing her parents disappointed faces again.

"Not if we are careful. All we have to do is establish a context. Since your mother has already mentioned that she may have seen Mrs. Inder with your biological mother, Chaya, we interview people from Chaya's past and probably your parents' past too." Arnav catalogued the steps one after another.

Khushi stares at the centrifuge and is absorbed for several moments in its gentle hum. "Do it." She says, eyes clearing of an old conflict. "Oh, my mother is lying by omission about something else too." Khushi says looking away.

Arnav waits. "About what?" He asks when Khushi doesn't take his silence as a question.

"About your parents." Khushi smiles thinly.

Arnav stills. "What? How?" He stammers.

Khushi rubs her face, smudging her already dim makeup. "Few years ago Payal digitized each and every one of the photographs that my parents had. We have several backups and I had one on my laptop. Last week I was searching them for Mrs. Inder but found one with your parents at my parents' wedding instead."

Arnav takes out the picture of his parents with two toddlers from his wallet. "Are you sure the people you saw were my parents?" He asks sliding the photo. Khushi looks at him for a moment and takes out her phone. She slides the phone towards him that has a picture open.

"Are you, now?" Khushi asks instead.