ArHi FF! Dante's Labyrinth: Thread 2 [Completed] - Page 5

Chapter 19: Arnav

"ACP Shukla, do you what my biggest mistake was?" Khushi asked pacing slowly in front of the table. The police officer watched her behind a veil of indifference and didn't hide his newly piqued interest.

"Enlighten me," he replied simply.

"My paranoia is legendary. I mean I had wireless cameras in my own room to see who was coming in and out of my room and how much time I spend there. With that kind of weird mentality and the affordability to access resources and collect intelligence, I just didn't bother to investigate the people here or…you for that matter. I should have seen the pattern, I should have seen you but you are really, really clever." Khushi answered.

"You are talking in circles Ms. Gupta. Get to the point." Shukla said tonelessly.

"It's sort of like the labyrinth that was built for me is it not?" Khushi asked malice creeping up her voice. "I simply didn't care to find out backgrounds of the people who were talking to me here on a daily basis. Arnav Raizada was the first person to approach me. Was he also your first? Or was it Akash?" Khushi took a file from the heap next to her chair and pushed towards him. "You met him more than a decade ago. Rather, you arrested him as suspect in a murder investigation when he was riding high on homemade meth."

"I am a police officer Ms. Gupta. I worked in various stations around the city. I don't understand why that is surprising to you." Shukla's voice was flat and she could see that he was masking his indifference pretty well.

"When you arrested him, he was with Tara, wasn't he?" She asked opening the file and ruffling through the pages. She exclaimed a muted 'Aha!' when she discovered the page she was looking for.

*****

Several Years ago…

"Is he talking yet?" Inspector Shukla asked Inspector Rathore. They had arrested a kid, seventeen years of age in an elite bar two hours ago. He was found with a girl in a corner booth sniffing. Both of them had been arrested for underage drinking, substance possession along with murder charges on the boy.

"He is stoned Shukla. In fact both are. However their sanctimonious lawyers have arrived and are demanding shit load of reasons and paperwork." Rathore grumbled.

"Let them stew. These rich kids don't even have a clue where they are but the paid dogs of their fathers are threatening us with lawsuits and whatnot. I don't care what happens to me Rathore I am going to nail that Arnav Raizada for the murder of Meera Nanda." Shukla responded with verbal violence.

Rathore however tried to reason. "Meera Nanda's case is suicide as it was concluded after FIR was filed. All the evidences against Arnav Raizada are circumstantial Shukla and you think she had been coerced to committing self-harm because of what couple of teenagers said." He sighed when Shukla looked away stubbornly. It did look odd that a confident young woman like Meera Nanda would commit suicide out of the blue but one could rarely know the tipping point. Rathore added. "At the max you can keep these kids tonight and since it's a Saturday night we will have them till Monday morning. The lawyers will come barging with a bail and a lawsuit the moment sun rises."

"That gives us two nights and one day Rathore. That's enough to break them and get the confession on the murder." Shukla replied carelessly.

He had been observing Arnav Raizada for weeks and his impression of the young teen had left a bitter taste in his mouth. Even if Arnav Raizada was caught, he would not be tried as an adult but as a juvenile. The sentence will be short and due to the drug addiction, there could be a plea from the defense. Given the kind of lawyers Raizada could afford, he knew that things might not go in the honest of ways. And that irritated him more.

But after the incident that shook the entire foundation of his family, he wasn't sure about the concept of justice anymore. He now had a job to do and that was to work out a confession. There was no reason to talk to those two kids at the moment. The girl, Tara Gupta, was currently sleeping on the hard floor while her partner in crime, Arnav Raizada, was crouched in a corner. He wouldn't talk to them till they were hydrated and had food in their system.

Rathore and Shukla walked into the interrogation room on fine Sunday morning where Tara Gupta waited for them looking bored. Her shiny purple dress was out of place and even with marred makeup, they could make out the tired but attentive eyes.

"I don't need forever to get out of haze inspectors. Let's get this circus going, shall we?" Tara asked snidely. Rathore slammed a file in front of her and pulled a chair that screeched on the worn out floor. Tara looked at the two older men amused. The careless apathetic look on her irritated Shukla and riled Rathore and the information Arnav gave them hour ago had reeled them to the floor. They hadn't, couldn't fathom the kind of mind game Tara was playing; that is, of course, Arnav was telling the truth.

"Arnav told us that you told him how he could kill a person without lifting a weapon or involving…other people." Shukla said looking at Tara, bemused at the statement Arnav had previously given. "Apparently you told him that one could simply talk to another person and that was enough."

Tara burst out laughing. "You interrogated him for two hours and he gave you one of the worst possible confessions and you believed him?" She relaxed in her chair and gazed unblinkingly at Shukla. "And that wasn't even a confession. He didn't confess to the murder did he?" She smirked.

The look on Rathore and Shukla's face was enough testaments to her question.

"He didn't commit any crime inspectors. I don't know why you think Arnav committed a murder when he has such a solid alibi." She yawned.

"Do you even know how law works?" Shukla asked. "One doesn't need to lift a weapon or involve…other people to charge a person with murder." It was his turn to throw back her words back on the table. Tara looked momentarily confused, her teenage inexperience dancing on her face.

"Whatever," she said regaining her composure and donning a bored expression. But the tension in her eyes was a dead giveaway and Shukla caught it.

"How long have you known Arnav?" Rathore changed the direction of interrogation.

"I have known him for…six to seven months now. He was my task," she said grinning.

Rathore and Shukla looked at each other. There was unrecognizable crazy patience in Tara's eyes.

"Who gave you that task?" Shukla asked slowly.

"My sister, Khushi Gupta, gave me the task to befriend Arnav Raizada – the handsome brat and play him like marionette to a badly written script. Arnav was just out of rehab and it was so easy to entice him with new product that it was borderline boring. But it was fun when his door was knocked by police and all." She replied breezily and in her careless confession, she didn't see Shukla's face ashen or the way his fist clenched on the table.

"What do you plan to do after your…task is completed?" Rathore asked unsure of what was going on. It was supposed to be just an interview where they would hammer the two seventeen year olds with questions about Meera Nanda but it seemed like they were dealing with two kids whose sense of reality was lost on them.

Tara looked at him curiously. "It's like a temp job inspector. Once you are done, you go home, report the status and move on. But I guess Khushi already knows how the task is going." She smiled at Rathore's questioning look. "I mean I drove Arnav to police station, after all. I may not have been directly involved in the incident but I sure am taking the credit simply because I got him out of that bullshit discipline regime anyway and helped him discover his true calling."

"And what is his true calling?" Rathore asked glancing at Shukla who had gone cold.

Tara raised an eyebrow. "Salesmanship, of course. He can sell anything." She smiled enigmatically.

"Even death?" Shukla asked finally.

Tara glanced at him and stared at him, her smile dropping and the same crazy calm in her eyes blooming in her eyes.

"Anything, inspector." She both answered and dismissed his question.

Shukla stood up suddenly, the chair losing its balance and finding its way to the floor.

"You can continue and finish this interview Rathore." Shukla replied without looking back.

*****

Present day

"How could you possibly get this interview transcript?" Shukla was more astonished than shocked.

"I know right people in all right places ACP Shukla." Khushi, who was leaning on the wall shrugged. "And Tara had an excellent memory. She had this habit of writing down conversations which she deemed important and I found this piece in one of her journals. And all I had to do was track down Rathore who now is also an ACP but in a different state. He confirmed everything and even gave the recording of the interview. How cool is that?" Khushi said happily.

"Why is this even important Ms. Gupta? I mean yes, I busted your sister and your inmate but what does that prove?" Shukla said bored.

"What's important is what happened next, isn't it? I mean, Arnav and Tara aren't charged, they go free and that should have been the end of it. But you keep in touch with Arnav whose sociopathic behavior was probably brought out and encourage to the point of no return by Tara. The rehabs he had been to kept extensive visitor logs and you pop-up in every one of them so frequently."

"He is a good kid. I didn't like what happened to him so I kept checking up on him," Shukla shrugged. "I am a cop Ms. Gupta and I, from time to time, counsel young men who have strayed from the path."

Khushi nodded seriously. "After which you also build an elaborate lie in which the poor young man becomes a horrible pawn while all the way thinking he is actually one of the players. I mean, Arnav is one of the smartest persons I have ever met but you played like a cheap ten rupees banjo. You told him about how he was played by Tara who did it because of me. Arnav, being Arnav, couldn't take the slash on his pride thus making it a motto to punish me worse than what he did that to poor Meera Nanda."

Shukla sighed and stood up. "I may have to talk to Dr. Jha about this Ms. Khushi. Your delusion is beyond my power of comprehension."

"Oh sure, go ahead. If I don't call my people at a specific time, this photo is going to hit the internet first and then it will go to your superiors. Media will latch on immediately." Khushi said dropping a photo on the table.

Shukla picked it up and looked at it. His eyes widened and his hands shook. The photo fell from his hands and he collapsed on the chair.

"What? You thought I wouldn't figure who the Punisher is?" Khushi grinned and watched him take a deep breath. "Next time, make sure that there are no ATMs around the place you wish to meet the Punisher who has his mask off with a dead body near his feet and murder weapon in his hand. Really, ACP Shukla this is such a stupid rookie mistake thanks to which your intricate web became a child's maze." She picked up the photo and looked at it intently. When she spoke, her voice was cold.

"Don't you think Dr. Jha has an extremely photogenic face?"

Shyam Jha was the most appropriate candidate for the punisher.. Listen up everybody, I SAID SO. I feel so happy that one thing I predicted in my previous comments came right ...