Memories of a Shadow ~ A Short Story Chapter 2 Page 1

My rendezvous with chatgpt inspired me to start writing again... so here I am with a new story. The story will be of genre drama with a psychological thriller sub plot. The story explores the different bonds between the team members when there is a string adversity. Will contain roughly about 10 to 15 chapters at max. The main character is Abhijeet and every other character around him would be explored. Some new characters will be introduced and some old characters may be brought in. Story is set after Tarika returns to CID. There will not be much romance as such but Abhijeet and Tarika, Daya and Shreya will be mentioned as pairings.

~Prologue~

In the dimly lit room, he sat holding a well worn crumpled photograph against a candle. Tiny shadows danced around but it made no difference to him. His eyes bored like gimlets as his heart once again seethed with anger. There was a click as the door opened and a huge sigh made him look up,

"How long are you going to sit looking at the photo? Haven't you looked enough over the past 25 years?"

He crushed the photograph just as he had always done.

"25 years...mmmm... maybe the world did go around the sun 25 times... but I didn’t... I stood still at the moment they buried me alive... cut me off from the land of living just because..."

"I know... I know.... enough of your rambling... here eat..."

As she placed a plate of rotis on his table, he reached out and pulled her towards him so that she fell on top of him. She looked up and raised her eyebrows. His eyes bored into hers and suddenly he pushed her back rather harshly that she fell on the ground.

"You look flushed... The truth... now... Is it done?"

She collected herself and brushed the dirt off her clothes calmly.

"Yes it is... Phase 2 is set in motion... the mole has been planted. They won't know what hit them..."

His lips lifted in a wide grin. He was finally going to get what he wanted. He smoothened the photograph in his hand.

"Phase 1 has already weakened them... This is sure to break them... Senior Inspector Abhijeet... you think you are so righteous, don't you? You chose them because you are so loyal, didn't you? Let's see how loyal they are now... It's time for you to get a taste of your own medicine"

***

Let me know if you would like it

I'm waiting for chapter 1....pls don't make me wait too long

Can you reveal about which old characters will you be bringing back in your story if it doesn't spoil the suspense?

Originally posted by: CID-fan-394

I'm waiting for chapter 1....pls don't make me wait too long

Can you reveal about which old characters will you be bringing back in your story if it doesn't spoil the suspense?

Posting now

Reg old characters they might come in person or in flashbacks... Yup it would spoil the suspense

~Chapter 1~

The sound of the doorbell made him look up from his daily paper. Folding it and placing at his side table, he walked to the door wondering who was it this early. As he opened the door he felt his lips curve on its own at the sight of the visitor.

"Aren't you going to let me in?"

"Arre... Bhabhi, you are always welcome... come come"

Manisha entered in and handed him a package.

"What is this, Bhabhi?"

"Its his birthday, today"

'Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you... Our Freddy na... He is just a grown-up kid'

As the memories flashed before his eyes, Abhijeet shut his eyes and swallowed the lump in his throat. Had it not been for his stupidity that day, maybe they would have been celebrating again today.

"Bhabhi... I am sorr.."

"Shut up, Its not your fault. I never blamed you then, and won't blame you now or ever..."

He stood there silently his eyes firmly on the ground. She reached out and held his face.

"How long are you going to blame yourself? He could never bear to see you unhappy... and neither can I..."

He looked up into her eyes and she looked away.

"And... how long are you going to keep sending those cheques? I told you I am earning enough to keep myself content and I don't really need them."

"I promised him, I'll take care of you Bhabhi... this is the least I can do..."

She shook her head.

"You are so stubborn... if you really want to do something for me... Then..."

She looked into his eyes searching for something.

"Yup, that sparkle is still missing... she has come back, hasn't she? haven't you talked to her yet?"

He looked away again.

"No, Bhabhi it isn't that simple"

"Why?"

"She left... do you think I mean anything to her now?"

"You are an idiot for not being able to see what's right in front of you. Can't you see she is hurting too? Weren't you the one who pushed her away then?"

"But she left..."

"Stubborn as always... both of you are..."

She clicked her tongue and walked to the kitchen.

"Let me whip up some breakfast for us, wake Shreya up..."

"You don't have..."

"Then bring her home, I'll stop this..."

"Bhabhi... You are impossible... Why are you connecting two unrelated topics?"

She grinned and he started walking towards his daughter's room but stopped when he heard her say

"I met her yesterday... and she is still not over you... I mean... she never was over you"

He said nothing but continued to walk towards his daughter's room.

****

He sat in his cabin flipping through pages of an old case when suddenly Daya barged in, breathless.

"Did you go meet Ravi a week ago?"

"Haan... I did... why what happened?"

"He's gone..."

"Gone?"

Daya looked at him frustrated.

"How long did you stay with him?"

Before Abhijeet could answer, he heard ACP sir bellowing out his name. He went out to see the entire team and his now retired boss DCP Chitrole.

"Chitrole saab?"

"Haan haan... Your annoying boss Chitrole is back..."

Abhijeet shook his head and looked directly at ACP.

"What is the matter, sir?"

"Abhijeet, your CI, Ravi... he is dead..."

"Dead? But I just saw him last week?"

Chitrole bumped in.

"Of course you did, didn't you? To shoot him dead after fighting with him..."

Abhijeet once again ignored Chitrole and looked again at his father like boss.

"Sir, its true I met him, true I was angry at him because he gave a wrong lead in the R2 drug cartel case we have been tracking for the past 3 months, true I threatened to shoot him if he dares to lie again.... but I left home after talking to him..."

Chitrole sneered.

"No... you 'forgot' one tiny bit of detail... after screaming at him, you pulled out your gun and shot him..."

"I did not..."

"Well I have the footage of you pointing the gun at him... Purvi, switch on the projector..."

Chitrole opened his mobile and cast the video he had on his device. The video had no sound but the visual of Abhijeet angrily saying something and pointing the gun at Ravi and then it stopped abruptly.

"Sir, I left home immediately after this... I did pull out my gun to threaten him not to lie to us again, you can check the rest of the footage..."

"I can... but they are conveniently deleted just like your memory..."

Daya pitched in.

"Sir, please... why do you always have to think the worst of Abhijeet?"

"Because he..."

ACP sir now said.

"Stop it... Sir, this doesn't prove that Abhijeet did anything more than what he is saying. You can't accuse him without proof..."

"Proof? Come to the forensic lab, I'll give you proof..."

Saying so, he marched to the forensic lab with the team following him.

****

The almost always quiet forensic lab seemed to be in a chaos. The eccentric doctor was screaming at the 2 new men in lab coats. Abhijeet looked hard and recognized one of them to be Vaibhav. ACP sir marched right towards his best friend.

"Salunkhe... Whats going on? Why is the lab so noisy?"

"Noisy... you think this is noisy... why are these idiots here? Why did you send them here?"

"They are here under my orders."

Salunkhe looked up and saw Chitrole standing in front of him.

"You... Aren't you retired?"

"Look who is asking... I am back... and these are my people who are here because your officer strayed against the law yet again..."

ACP sir butted in again

"Sir, please don't accuse Abhijeet without proofs..."

Vaibhav spoke up.

"We have proofs."

Salunkhe gave a muffled grunt that sounded eerily like a smothered curse. Pradyuman looked at him and gestured him to be quiet, he turned to look at Vaibhav.

"Tell me, what are the proofs that you have"

Vaibhav opened his files and read out

"Ravikiran, age 38, Male, CI of CID Inspector Abhijeet. Cause of Death: A single bullet wound on the chest. Time of Death: 9th May 2025, 21.00 to 21.15 hours. Bullet recovered postmortem. Bullet matches the calibre and make of CID Inspector Abhijeet. Fingerprints recovered on victim's hand: CID Inspector Abhijeet. Tyre marks near body matches tyre marks of CID Inspector Abhijeet's car.Eye witness: Ravikiran's wife saw InspectorAbhijeet arguing with him at around 20.45 hours when she left for work. Video records confirms the presence of the accused at precisely 20.53 hours. Phone records confirm the presence of the accused within a 3 mile radius of the victim"

"Well done, Vaibhav... that was a clear demonstration or excellence."

ACP sir stood silent, multiple thoughts running through his mind. He trusted Abhijeet with his life yet the evidence was damning. His brain told him that Abhijeet was rash when he got angry but his heart refused to believe that the man he considered as his son would kill someone.

"Toh, ACP here is your proof... Do you all believe now?"

"I don't..."

A soft voice interrupted the heavy silence. Abhijeet looked up

"Tarika...?"

"Haan haan enter enter.. here comes the girlfriend of the accused"

Salunkhe looked annoyed and so did Abhijeet.

"Sir, please..."

Salunkhe spoke to her.

"Tarika... why..."

She stopped him.

"I knew something was wrong when you sent me away to do something totally useless. I never really left. I heard everything. Oh... hello Vaibhav... good to see you. Now if you will excuse me I would like to see those reports myself."

Vaibhav handed over the reports to Tarika while Salunkhe said

"I checked them Tarika, they don't seem to be wrong"

Chitrole grunted.

"Why should everybody check now?"

"As a forensic doctor of this place, I believe I have the right and am qualified enough to check every case report that comes to this lab. If you are going to accuse someone in our jurisdiction, unless I am convinced, I am not going to let you proceed."

Saying so, Tarika took the report and flipped through the records. She then looked at Vaibhav.

"Your record is incomplete. I cannot approve this for submission in court"

"What? I have mentioned everything."

"Maybe... but I see 7 minutes are missing..."

"7 minutes?"

"Yes there is no data between 20.53 and 21.00 hrs which is the estimated time of death"

"But Dr. Tarika, that time is too short for anything different to have happened than the narrative we just explained..."

"Had you really paid some attention to the cases we solved here, you would have known that stranger things have taken place... and of course if you really had paid enough attention, you wouldn't be accusing Abhijeet in the first place."

"Tarika!!! Stop..."

"Why Dr. Salunkhe, don't you trust Abhijeet..."

Chitrole intervened.

"It's not about trust... It's about proofs that clearly point to Abhijeet being the killer. If you don't want to sign the approvals, then don't. I really don't care. But the law clearly states that any person who is a suspect in a murder case cannot be a part of CID.... ACP enough of all this, now that you have your proof, aren't you going to suspend your officer?"

The team looked shocked, Daya glared at Chitrole in anger.

"Suspend? Are you nuts?"

"Daya!!!"

It was ACP and one look from him Daya took a small step backwards. The respect he had for his father like mentor wasn't letting him say anything further. ACP turned and looked at Abhijeet who looked so downcast that his heart broke.

"Abhijeet... listen... I... uh..."

Abhijeet silently took out his gun and badge and handed it over to his senior.

"I know sir... It's your duty..."

Was all he said before he walked out. Daya looked at the team in front of him and walked angrily towards ACP and Chitrole. He had had enough of the drama. Everytime people found it easy to blame his brother.

"You know what... Enough of your drama... You need proof right? I'll go get you your proof..."

He looked directly at ACP.

"Sir... With due respect, I believe you are wrong in suspending Abhijeet... I won't be back until I get enough proofs to clear Abhijeet"

With that he stormed out of the lab. ACP caressed the badge in his hand and shut his eyes. Life always had a strange way of making him choose between duty and his heart.

***

That part about Freddy sir really made me emotional

Pls post chapter 2 soon

~Chapter 2~

Abhijeet was just cleaning up the living room when the doorbell rang. He wondered if Manisha Bhabhi had heard the news. He looked up and the clock showed 7.00 pm. 'She must be really worried', he thought. Thinking of ways to comfort his worried Bhabhi, he walked to the door. As he opened the door, the sight of the person made him catch his breath.

"Hello, Abhijeet"

"Tarika..."

"May I come in?"

"Of course... it's your... I mean... yes"

Tarika entered in and walked to the sofa just like she used to. She turned to look at him. He raised his eyebrow.

"I wanted to talk... but before that, I want to see Shreya... Uh... can I?"

"Of course... I'll call her..."

"No... I... uh... I'll go see her..."

She walked towards the rooms and looked at the most colorfully decorated door. Smiling a little, she knocked once paused, then knocked 4 times continously, paused again and knocked 3 times continously. Abhijeet looked surprised

"What are you..."

But before he could continue, the door burst open and his daughter rushed directly into the arms of the woman he had loved so long. The sight of them in embrace made his heart so warm that suddenly he felt his cheek wet. Shreya broke the embrace and looked at her then she signed

"Manisha chachi said that you were back... Why didn't you come see me earlier?"

Tarika turned and silently glanced at Abhijeet, her lips trembled a little and she quickly turned back but Abhijeet had noticed it. Shreya pulled Tarika's hand and signed again

"Are you mad at me?"

"No beta... How could I be mad the most beautiful angel in my life?"

"Then why didn't you come see me?"

Thinking something, she suddenly signed

"Are you mad at Papa?"

Tarika sighed, children asked the most difficult questions. As she was contemplating what to say, Abhijeet responded

"Arrey beta... why are you asking so many questions? She just came..."

Shreya shook her head and signed.

"No, No, chachi said she returned 2 weeks back... You used to come every weekend to school to see me, when I called you home, you said that you needed to get back... But now that you are back why didn't you come see me, Mumma?"

As she signed the last word, Abhijeet looked up surprised, his voice choking, he asked

"Mumma?"

Tarika felt her cheeks redden. She mumbled so that only he could hear.

"It was a long time back... around the time you adopted her officially..."

He felt something twitch in his heart, how had he not known? As their eyes met for a brief second, his eyes reflected the guilt he carried for not truly taking time to understand what she had wanted all along. If this wasn't proof enough, he didn't know what was. As if reading his mind, she nodded in negative and turned to Shreya.

"Beta... sometimes there are things I can't tell you... I really was busy unpacking... I promise we will keep our weekend routine together... Now that I am here... let's spend some time together... What shall we do?"

Shreya didn't look very convinced, nevertheless she nodded and signed.

"Let's make dinner together."

Tarika nodded and looked at Abhijeet. He gave a small smile and nodded softly.

********

Daya sipped his coffee and leaned back on his chair. Suddenly, he felt warm soft fingers gently massaging his head and neck. His lips curved up involuntarily

"Shreya..."

"Heard you had a rough day at work"

He sighed and reachafed out to hold her hand. He pulled her towards him. She sat beside him and squeezed his hand.

"I don't know why they always must think the worst of him"

"Well, we have to prove otherwise"

"Yes... I need your help, I need you to talk to some of your contacts"

"Why do you think I am here?"

He looked at her with his eyebrows raised. She chuckled a little.

"What? I am a detective too. You think I don't know how your brain works. I talked to some of my CI's before I came here."

He pecked her cheek.

"You are incredible, my girl... So what is your plan... how do we start"

"Well, we start by cooking ourselves and Mihika some dinner... Then we head out to meet Hari who has some valuable stuff to share... I believe you can put that big hand of yours to some use and get better information..."

He grinned as he followed her into the kitchen. He was happy they were together again

****

Pradyuman looked at the unopened parcel in front of him. He put on his gloves and mask and was about to touch the parcel when his friend entered his cabin

"You called me, Pradyuman"

"Haan Salunkhe... look here this parcel came in today. It's addressed to me and has no name. Looks like some documents. "

"Ok let me check"

Carefully the doctor examined the parcel and used a pen knife to open it.

"You are right these are case files"

"Case No. 2199... This one... Isn't it..."

"The case in which we lost Freddy..."

"Why would someone send the case files to us now?"

Pradyuman scratched his head and then said

"Abhijeet... I think it's because of Abhijeet... Now he is a suspect... back then Freddy was killed by the bullet intended for him..."

"It wasn't his fault..."

"No it wasn't... but you know why it happened"

"That wasn't his fault either..."

"Salunkhe... do you think I blame him? I don't. You are the only one who knows the entire truth and what happened after that yet you are doubting me?"

"I know Pradyuman but what is bothering you?"

"The similarities between then and now... I am worried about Abhijeet and also worried to lose another member of our family..."

Salunkhe patted on his shoulder.

"We won't let anything happen this time... Let's examine this..."

Half an hour past as they examined the files thoroughly, suddenly Salunkhe let out a yell

"Pradyuman look here..."

Pradyuman looked where Salunkhe was pointing

"I can't see anything..."

"Arre yaar look closely... the watermark"

He looked closely.

"You are right, it has S added to our logo"

"Yes, lets arrange the papers in sequence, if we take these additional characters, maybe we are upto something..."

It took them 10 minutes to get their papers straight. Salunkhe took a pen and noted down the additional characters and read out.

"Case Number 227... Pradyuman, what is this case about?"

ACP looked up and a sudden memory of a frightened young Abhijeet flashed in front of his eyes.

"It's the case when Abhijeet talked to me..."

"Huh?"

Pradyuman straightened up suddenly and said in a commanding tone

"Salunkhe, it's already late go home..."

"Home?"

"Yes home... I have to go someplace tonight... Good night..."

"Bu..but..."

Pradyuman rushed out not bothering to answer him.

"Pradyuman!"

The doctor screamed frustrated. Muttering under his breath, he quickly straightened up the files and cleaned the cabin. Looking at the time, he knew he wouldn't be able to do anything more, so he walked out locking the cabin. He turned around to see a desk light om in the otherwise dark office room.

"Purvi?"

"Yes, sir..."

"You didn't leave?"

"No sir, I was just working on something..."

"Abhijeet's case?"

"Yes sir, I am trying to track the source of this video."

"Purvi beta, its late... isn't it time to leave... You can see this tomorrow... You need rest."

"Rest? When my mentor is suspended? He has saved me countless times and... uh... you do know how Tarika and him stuck their necks out just to keep him safe... what I am doing is nothing in front of it..."

Salunkhe took a deep breath, he remembered the incident only too well. It was what had transformed the chirpy, bubbly girl into the stoic woman sitting in front of him. Seeing her determined face, he knew that she won't leave now, so he said

"Ok then I'll bring my couch here... I can't leave you alone"

****

P.S.: The sequence of knocks 1, 4 and then 3 in this chapter by Tarika translates to 'I Love You'. I assumed that the vibrations by the knocks can be felt by Shreya hence she came out.

Waiting for the next chapter😍