ArHi SS! Escape Velocity [Completed] - Page 37

Loved their interaction #2 <3

Will I be greedy by saying ... I want more!!

loved it...awesome. will read gravity now,

Nice update and thanks for pm.

I am still reeling under the emotions of Gravity. And read your EV in one go(all 5 chapters) only now.

There is no index of your works can you plz come up with one...

I am searching for We the people ur other work...

U were recommended by Kalyani and I am very thankful to her for introducing U...

Plz do Pm me whenever you update..

Cheers

going awesome yaar... amazing story...

For chapter 4- and now it scares me..when she told about her be able to smell the perfume. And when she visualized about the doctor in some other time. Probably,he knows her from the time when she was a child before being adopted..
So she told about her hallucinations..

I like bharadwaj. He lightens up the darkness created..and his attempts at getting Arnav committed.. :D

So here in this,we are a step closer to khushi realizing about the murders.

For chapter 5.
Res.
Edited.

I completely loved the evening get together. Be it the drinks,dinner,suman,bharadwaj, payal..or just Arnav and Khushi.

The funny psychic roleplaying of khushi and then Arnav giving her a coin for her efforts.. 😆 made me laugh..

M surprised he is letting her help him. But then thats the story! How else would she know of the exact execution of the murders. I cant wait to see her reaction. Arnav doesn't know how valuable this help is going to be after the initial shocks and surprises.

Okay, heart hammered in my chest too! ;) i m equally excited for their romantic inclination..and i really liked her remark of dimpled chin. And familiarity. But ofcourse that is,i guess,she subconsciously has recalled him again from her memory.

Chapter 6: Red Horizon

"Ms Rita? I am ACP Shukla; we spoke on the phone." Shukla stood in front of a woman who was sitting in corner of a cafe with a tall mug of coffee. She looked up from her wringing fingers and motioned him to take a seat in front of her. Thanking her politely, Shukla slid into the seat and ordered a coffee for himself.

"Thank you for meeting me outside my work," Rita said softly. The death of her best friend had hit her hard.

"It wasn't a problem at all. Thank you very much for agreeing to speak with me. May we start?" Shukla asked. Rita nodded half a heartbeat later.

"How long have you known Selena?" Shukla asked taking out a small notebook from his back pocket.

"We have known each other for almost a decade now. We were together in college studying architecture and then we joined the same company five years ago."

"How well did you know her?"

"We were best friends ACP, I told her everything and vice versa." The answer was short and to the point.

"How was she for the past couple of months? Any troubles with random strangers or…did she notice anything out of place?" Shukla asked. Selena pursed her lips and her eyes glazed over, a memory taking over her for seconds. "What is it?" Shukla asked noticing the change in her expression.

"I am not sure if it counts for anything…but…about six months ago she told me that she felt she was being watched. It was just this feeling you get, you know? And then she got some calls where the caller didn't speak at all."

"How long ago was this? Are you sure it was six months ago?"

"It was at least six months ago…around Diwali."

"Did she report this?" Shukla was intrigued.

"She didn't have any evidence to prove that she was being watched. But the phone calls came about four to five times a day and the caller never spoke when she picked up the call. After two weeks, the calls completely stopped and we forgot about the incident thinking that someone was pranking her."

"Why did she suspect that she was being watched?"

"She told me that she could always see a shadow near her but never the person. She was too scared to go towards the shadow and investigate but there were times when she claimed she heard footsteps on the other side of her bedroom window."

"Did she talk to anyone else besides you?" Shukla wondered if this was genuine case of stalking or Selena's paranoia was acting up. He couldn't ignore it either way.

"I don't think so. She wasn't very close to her family and I was the closest thing to her. She confided in me and there were days when she came over to sleep at my apartment saying that she didn't feel like sleeping alone." Rita pressed the bridge of her nose to contain her tears.

Shukla continued the interview. "How was she as a person?"

"She was a shy introvert who loved her work and sat back and allowed others to talk about her work. She was a stellar architect but rarely spoke to the clients. She had very few friends and no enemies. She was incredibly private and paranoid about her identity. She wasn't on any social networking sites or had an active virtual life." Rita explained.

Shukla frowned.

The interview went on for another twenty minutes before the woman excused herself to get back to work. Shukla sat in the cafe and finished his coffee contemplating whether he should talk to Arnav or not. Having Arnav's insight would be useful if he didn't want to waste too much time in chasing ghost evidences. If the killer did contact Selena six months ago, then they might have to revisit all the cases isolated by Arnav as probable serial murders and recheck their phone records, online history and talk to more people.

"How is your vacation?" Shukla said as soon as he heard a soft 'Hello'.

"What is wrong with all you people? I am suspended, shouldn't you guys …I don't know…offering me support or something?" Arnav bit out. Shukla laughed heartily and walked towards his jeep after paying the bill.

"Are you going somewhere now?" Shukla asked noting Arnav's slightly elevated breath.

"My friend has invited me for dinner. He is trying to set me up with a writer friend of his and I am taking longest route possible to his bungalow." Arnav could picture Shukla snickering at his predicament. But when the expected jibe didn't arrive, Arnav called his friend out. "Is everything okay Shukla?"

He heard Shukla sigh. "We found a body yesterday, a single woman whose was skinned alive. I just finished talking to her friend and I found something."

Arnav took a sharp breath and stopped walking. "I need your help to figure out if we can isolate the case from rest and group it along with the ones…you know…unofficially grouped by you."

"Fax me whatever you have till now. And Shukla, scan and email me your notes. That would be a great help too." Arnav said.

"I will. Thanks Arnav." Shukla said feeling bad for ruining Arnav's down time. "There is one more thing," Shukla stopped Arnav. "The latest victim was probably contacted by the killer over phone more than six months ago. We may have to pull phone records for the rest of the cases too for that time frame."

"Will you-"

"I am already on it Arnav. I was told that you took phone records for few months but I will pull out for an entire year and fax them to you. I'll ensure that the known numbers are identified and marked separately." Shukla interjected.

"In the meantime, get the tech department to cross verify if the six victims have received call from a common number in the past one year. If there is a hit, then we have a connection," Arnav said feeling invigorated at possibility of a break in two and half year old mystery.

But he knew in his heart that it wasn't going to be easy. He always knew that he was dealing with someone with misplaced sense of reality and right or wrong for them to make rookie mistakes. The man he was dealing with may have his set of notions but he was exceptionally brilliant. The man had taken enough forensic counter measures to avoid leaving evidence.

"Arnav, the latest victim believed for a long time that someone was following her. Her best friend isn't sure of that because the victim was extremely paranoid and it wasn't reported either."

"If she has shopped regularly in a mall then you might have some luck with CCTV footage. Cannot guarantee that it will work out but it might be a great help if we did find something." Arnav replied immediately.

"Is there anything else that can be done?" Shukla asked. Arnav didn't respond for moments and Shukla knew that he was thinking.

"I need someone in tech department, someone really smart and quick to follow instructions and deliver." Arnav requested. "You do your thing Shukla and I'll start from scratch. We will talk often and hope this mess starts making sense." Arnav said and started walking again.

"I'll see what I can do about tech. I'll talk to you soon." Shukla hung up.

They would need couple of days to pull out phone records for all the victims and identify the numbers. Till then he would work on phone records he had brought in here with him.

Twiggy

Hmmm...pacy...like thrillers are meant to be :)