“Ok. Hit me” Anika said. The rain had stopped beating down on them since they’ve dashed out of the town. Dark clouds rumbled overhead, and a chilly breeze rustled the leaves of the tree under where they’ve parked.

“A month ago” Prinku began “me and Arjun had this case where one of a tv actresses claimed that a missing case filed on her was false, but my editor thought she was hiding some juicy abusive relationship with a big shot, and wanted us to take a dig at it. So we did. But..”

“You didn’t find the guy?”

Prinku shook her head “worse. We found something else” Anika leaned forward.

“when we were trying to get the actresses FIR from the police, Arjun came across a list of girls that were missing from Ramlaal chawl”

Anika frowned “yeah so?”

“More than 50 girls names were there on that list and they all were missing from Ramlaal chawl”

“You aren’t making any sense, Prinku” Anika shook her head “what’s that gotta do with the body we found today?”

Prinku pointed at her phone “because Lakshmi was on that list” Anika’s eyes widened and she grabbed the phone, and sure enough Lakshmi’s photo was smiling back at her.

“Oh my god.” Anika breathed “what is going on here!?”

Prinku took a deep breath, “we felt these girls were somehow related to the actress, because she was from the same chawl, Arjun dug deeper, and managed to get the photos of these girls. We knew only Rithika could give us a lead, but when we went back to her place…”

“Please don’t tell me she was dead too”

“no but she was about to kill herself, I spoke to her, and managed to talk her out of it, she seemed so disturbed back then, so me and Arjun didn’t probe her more”

“Then what happened?”

“We left her there and were on our way to the office to work further on the case when we were hit”

Anika gasped “where the black SUV almost killed you both!?”

Prinku nodded “we were really lucky that day, barley managed to get out alive. Arjun thought it was for the best that we lie low for some time. He said he was going to find out who those men are and what they wanted” Prinku stared down at her hands on her lap “but a few days later he left the channel”

“Wait. You said some men threatened you one day” Prinku nodded “ yeah near a construction site”

“What if those men and the ones who hit you with the SUV are the same?”

Prinku frowned “what do you…” she thought about it, the two incidents side by side, the gangs of men, their faces scrunched up in rage she gasped “oh my god Anika! How was I so stupid!?”

She slapped her forehead “each time they came at me, they cursed me for taking up the story. Rithika’s story! But it wasn’t about Rithika, they wanted us to stop digging into the missing girls!”

Anika threw her a disdained look “are ypu this stupid? ” Prinku smiled sheepishly “but how did they know we knew about the girls?”

Anika tapped her fingers on the wheel “maybe Arjun…?”

“NO” Priyanka bit out “you didn’t see him that day. He saved me both the times Anika, if he were a double agent I wouldn’t be here alive”

Anika sighed “for the hype you give this guy, someone would feel he is some super-secret agent or something”

Prinku elbowed her “we have to get to the bottom of this”

Anika nodded “we need to find the rest of the girls”

Priyanka reached for her phone “no" Anika snatched it back “no one can know what we are doing”

Prinku frowned. “Don’t you get it!?”

Anika threw up her hands “when you took that story up, you were being watched, no wonder they wanted to put an end to you the same day you came to know of the girls”

" Then why didn’t they?" Prinku whispered.

Anika shrugged " maybe you were around someone all the time. They never found you alone"

Prinku looked away. She had been with Arjun all the time.

“Ugh” Anika started the engine “don’t you watch crime thrillers? Why are you so dumb?”

Prinku punched her arm “don’t call me that!!”

“Yeah yeah” Anika rolled her eyes “we can’t let anyone know we figured it all out,”

“Not even Shivaay?”

Anika’s heart skipped a beat, she had been so caught up, her mind hadn’t had time to worry over him “am not his business anymore” she shrugged “you can tell him if you want”

Prinku snorted “and get myself buried alive?! No thanks. I’d rather those men kill me”

“So where to now?”

Anika exhaled “to where it all began, Ramlal chawl, if not the police, someone was bound to see something. Girls just don’t disappear out of thin air”

Prinku stuck out her hand, letting the cold air tickle her hand “why didn’t the police or anyone do anything about it? I mean it was supposed to be a big deal right now”

Anika shrugged “maybe there’s someone big involved in all of this. Someone who can get away with murders”

Prinku shuddered. “It’s more important that either of us keep anything from each other ok?” Anika said “we have to stick together no matter what.”

Prinku grinned “no matter what” she agreed.

Anika sighed “it’s be nice to have someone else on our team, other than us both” Prinku raised a brow, Anika pursed her lips “I dunno maybe like a super-secret agent who’d save our asses if we ever come across those men”
Prinku looked away “I don’t think he’s coming back”

“Maybe if you call him…”

Prinku swallowed “he won’t.”