————————————

"But the tattoo on his hand is the same." Ananya had very sharp eyes and Nikhil realized as he scrunched up his gaze looking at the man's arms. His left hand had the same kind of tattoo they saw on the man who throw Sameera on the road.

"Right and the man is coming towards us," Nikhil whispered, pressing his back to Khushi's chest more, wanting to hide behind the door.

Ananya sought any kind of thing that would help them beat the man but alas, neither could she move, as her back got stuck to the wall.

They breathed in silence when the man entered the room silently and started walking towards the girl. Ananya and Nikhil just couldn't watch him hurt the girl in silence. Ananya was the first to slip out. She made her way behind him and Nikhil followed too, all in silence.

The man who was about to pick up the girl got alerted and turned around, punching Ananya. Only if he was successful. Ananya dodged it down bending her body down and his punch was in the air. As she bent down more and arched her back and neck, escaping his punch, she kicked him in the guts with her foot and he screamed in pain. Nikhil joined her to punch the man more and they together had a physical fight with him. The man tried his best to fight them back. Alas! He was left unsuccessful and fainted in the end.

Ananya looked around for any kind of rope and found a skipping rope. She walked towards it while Nikhil checked on the girl. He checked her pulse, she was alive. But was unconscious.

In the meanwhile, Ananya had already tied the man up with the rope, and her gaze fell on the dressing table. Plaster!

Nikhil sighed, done checking on the girl, thanks to the sphygmomanometer he found in one of the racks, he was also able to check her blood pressure. He tried to wake her up which went futile. He turned back to Ananya, to tell her about the girl's condition when he saw her dragging the man who was in a fetal position, his hands are legs were tightly tied up by a single rope, and his mouth was plastered. He was shocked looking at the man and then his gaze went towards Ananya.

Ananya looked at him and he smiled gulping down. Doesn't he know her already? He shook his head, releasing a breath as she walked up to him.

"What happened to her?" she asked, scanning the figure on the bed.

"She isn't waking up," he told her, and at her questioning gaze, "She is breathing though!"

Ananya released a breath checking the girl's breath, "Why is she unconscious?"

Nikhil shrugged, not having any physical evidence on her body of becoming unconscious, "We'll have to test her blood, her heartbeat, pulse rate, and blood pressure, everything is normal!"

"But if she's still unconscious, it might mean one thing. She was made unconscious," Nikhil continued. The girl's body wasn't cold too, or sweaty. No symptoms of getting fainted under low blood pressure or low sugar. If she was ok low sugar, her body would have been cold and sweaty. But they aren't. Moreover, he did check her sugar as well with the Glucometer he carries with him always. It's always in his car.

"Either through food or air, then!" Ananya guessed. If whatever Nikhil had said turns out right, they need to check the food she ate for dinner.

"I'll check her kitchen," Nikhil murmurs, voicing out Ananya's thoughts.

Ananya sighed and decided to do other work. If Nikhil is going to check the kitchen, she better search for something else, and what else than investigating her phone and the man's phone would do? "I'm gonna check her phone," she mumbles. Nikhil nods walking away to the kitchen and she takes the phone beside the girl to check. She checked her speed dial after opening her lock with the thumb impression of the girl. Her speed dial had Sameera's number and no one else. She checked her contacts and it was the same as Sameera's. No contacts from the family group. Ananya sighed, and closed the app, opening Zomato. She found no food orders from it. She opened Swiggy and there was an order.

Before she could check her more, Nikhil came running into the room, "Did you find anything in her phone?" he inquires and continues, showing her a cover, "I found this in the dustbin,"

"Food package!" Ananya looks at the cover and the name on it. Lucky Restaurant — it read and the girl's order was the same.

Nikhil nods in agreement, passing on more information. He could recognize the smell anywhere. "It's Special Chicken Dum Biryani."

"Ordered through Swiggy!" Ananya completes it, it was the same item she ordered in the app, and continues, examining the food package, the box in which the biryani was packed before smelled a little different, "I saw her order was delivered around 9:30 PM. But what's the smell?"

"The food has Trichloromethane," Nikhil croaked, clearing his throat. The name was already difficult, his voice was usually low, and that made it more different to understand his words.

No doubt Ananya would be confused as she uttered, "What?"

"I mean, Chloroform," he said in simple terms. He's so used to using chemical names that he sometimes forgets to use simple words.

"Oh," Ananya nods in understanding and continued with the conclusion she had on her mind, "So, Varsha is made unconscious by injecting chloroform in her food."

"Yes! In that case, she was unconscious for more than an hour now. Chloroform takes a few minutes to work on anyone's body. If we assume she completed her food by 10, she'd have fainted by 10:10 PM. It's 11:15 PM already and more than an hour since she was unconscious. The chloroform quantity must be high," he guesses and Ananya agrees with his calculations.

They divert their attention toward the man and stare at him as Nikhil murmurs in her ears, "What about the man?"

"I'll hack his phone now," Ananya declared. She had taken away his phone and kept it in her pocket for nothing.

"Okay. Let's take this man into our custody and treat Varsha on the way to the hospital while you do that," Nikhil suggested, and Ananya probed further in agreement. While Ananya searched the whole house for any kind of clues, Nikhil successfully took both of them to the car and dumped them in the back seat one after the other.

"Let's go," Nikhil calls out for her and they walk together, out of the house.

Ananya takes up the job to drive. After a few minutes of driving, Nikhil instructs her to stop the car at any pharmaceutical store. Ananya does after a few more minutes when she saw one.

Nikhil had got the injection to make Varsha conscious and she'd do it soon in half an more, he hoped.

————————————

Hospital,

In twenty more minutes, they had gotten into the Hospital. It was past 12 already. Varsha didn't get into consciousness and Nikhil had, anyway, even if she woke up, decided to admit her to the hospital. For, he needed to know the amount of chloroform she inhaled. If she inhaled more than what her body could take, it could be a slow poison to her. He wanted nothing to happen to her. Her health should be fine.

Varsha was successfully admitted to the hospital and another doctor, who was on night duty, had already taken her for a blood test. The reports would come tomorrow. They need to wait.

Ananya asked about Sameera but Dr. Karthik and some others were still looking into her case. Lolark had told them she was still serious. They are waiting in the corridor outside the room, for Varsha to wake up and Sameera to become fine.

Ananya was busy hacking the phone of the man. The man was still locked in Nikhil's car. Nikhil was hungry and it was no good to skip dinner. He gets up telling Lolark that he'd bring food. Lolark nods in agreement, he was hungry although he had his dinner. Ananya was too engrossed to hear them.

After a few minutes, Nikhil comes back with food packages and passes one to Lolark, and another to Ananya who doesn't even recognize what's happening around her. Nikhil sighed, rolling his eyes, and patted her shoulders.

And only she uttered still looking at the phone and typing a code on her Ipad, "What?"

"Food! We didn't have any dinner. Let's eat," he pushes the packet under her nose and Ananya leans back in reflex, pushing the packet away, "I'm not hungry. Let me work."

She doesn't look up and continued working. The doctor and lover in him came together, "Ananya, it's okay if you take a break for a few minutes and eat. You need energy!"

He didn't want to snatch the iPod and phone away. Even if he did, he was not sure if his cheeks would remain white. He came out of thoughts hearing her reply, "People need energy when they don't have energy. I have it."

He rolled his eyes. Ananya is too stubborn.

"Skipping dinner is not good," he was stern. Even if he was not sure of what would happen to his cheeks, he took the risk and took away the devices in her hands.

"What the f-" she was cut off by Nikhil. He put the food packet in her lap, sat beside her, kept the water bottles he brought on another chair, and gestured for her to eat. Ananya was furious and kept back the food packet in his lap, taking away her devices from him and an exhausted Nikhil couldn't stop her. As everything happened in a matter of few seconds. She started working on it again.

Nikhil glared at her, but Ananya didn't bother to even sense someone was glaring at her. He opened the food packet, having no choice but to eat.

..and make her eat — feed.

Ananya is too stubborn and he knows there's no way to make her eat than to feed her. Although he know she'd not appreciate it, he had to do that. No matter what happens. He isn't disturbing her anyway, she'd work and he'd feed her.

He took the veg sandwich out of the packet and forwarded it near her lips. Ananya rolled her eyes at him, her killing gaze was enough to tell how frustrated she was.

"I'm not disturbing you. You can continue your work while I feed you. You just have to open your mouth!" Nikhil saved himself from her further glares, as she opened her mouth shaking her head, and sighing in tiredness.

He smiled, ignoring a few gazes that were coming their way from a few people including Lolark. Nikhil was taking a bite from his sandwich as well when Ananya was busy chewing. He didn't stop eating and feeding her until both of their sandwiches were finished.

Ananya drank enough amount of water in a hurry before he could feed her that too.

"What's the hurry?" Nikhil chided, afraid she'd choke.

Ananya ignored his words and started her work again.

Only that she wasn't able to work anymore as Dr. Karthik came out of the room.

"How is Sameera?" Lolark was the first one to ask. Ananya and Nikhil stood up in attention as well.

Looking at his face, they are fearing it was not what they thought it was. They hoped for positive.

"I'm sorry, but Sameera is dead," Karthik declared. All of them froze in shock. Their hope shattered into pieces.

"We tried our best but couldn't save her. She wasn't responding to our treatment at all," Karthik explained sadly. Well, whenever his patients die, he always feels down. But need to concentrate on other patients too, so, excusing himself, he walked away. Sameer would be shifted to the Mortuary soon.

Before they could recover from the news, the nurse who was keeping an eye on Varsha had come out from another room.

"The patient is conscious," she informed. Ananya and Nikhil walked to the room while Lolark decided to look after Sameera's post-mortem formalities.

Varsha's room,

"How are you feeling now?" Ananya asked who was looking at the new faces and the room confusedly. How did she get here? The doctor came and examined her, after which he left leaving her with the two people. All she knew was she was unconscious till now. The last she remembered was eating the food and getting into bed in drowsiness with a phone in her hand. She was about to call Sameera before she slept away.

Nonetheless, Varsha answers truthfully, "I'm feeling nauseatic and have a severe headache but what happened to me?"

"We'll give you medicines for a day. You'll be fine in a few hours," Nikhil uttered, knowing the aftereffects would be there for a few more hours and medicines should make it fine. The reports will be there too and he'll have to inform to her.

Varsha nodded in confusion and wanted to know what happened to her. Ananya informed her, without beating the bush, "Varsha, the food you ate had chloroform in it."

It would be an understatement if we say Varsha was shocked, "What?"

They heard her utter and they told her in which condition they found her. Not telling her about Sameera yet. It again shocked her to the core. Someone was about to kidnap her? But why would someone do that?

"Why would someone kidnap me? I've no enemies and nothing!" she cleared out her word, gulping down the anxiety. She, by now, was feeling safe looking at two CBI officers who were at her home for reasons they didn't disclose yet and found the man who was to kidnap her.

"We'll know soon who did that," Nikhil mumbled informing her about her blood test as well to which she thanks him.

"My friend — Sameera. Where is she? Is she fine? She was supposed to be back home by that time?" she was worried for her friend. They had an unsaid rule between them. They should be home before 10 PM and if they don't by then, they have to call the other and inquire where were they. She was late in the office and had come home by 8:30 PM and ordered food after freshening up. She was about to call after her dinner looking at the time when she fainted drowsy in her bed. If she was home by the time she was attacked, she wondered if Sameera is fine! Is she also attempted to kidnap? The doubts roamed around her head.

Ananya and Nikhil looked at each other. She'd be devastated if she know yet they had to tell her and get more details.

"Your friend, Sameera is no more," Nikhil informed His statement was loud enough for Varsha and it took a few seconds for her to swallow the words and when she did, she could scream, "What?? Are you kidding me?"

"No. We are not kidding. In fact, we could save you only because we got to know your address from Sameera's phone. She was kidnapped in the evening in front of our eyes and then..." he recalled all the incidents thereafter and informed her about what exactly had happened. The tracing of location, the chase, and finding her thrown onto the side of the road till the minute Sameera was brought to the hospital. He explained the events and she was expressionless.

Silence prevailed in the room.

Ananya started comforting Varsha who didn't have a single tear in her eyes although her eyes looked pained, "Look, Varsha. We need to ask you some questions. I hope you'll answer them. We need to find out who is behind it."

At her nod, she asked her first question, "Do you both live alone in the flat?"

"Yes, her family lives in another village and I'm an Orphan. We live in the flat sharing our rent," she mumbles tiredly.

"Why does she have no phone numbers saved in her phone from her family?" Ananya shoots another question, picking up her answer to her first question. If she had a family, why are there no numbers?

"What? She had numbers saved of her mother and father," Varsha was getting shocks after shocks. Sameera has a small family, a farmer father, a housewife mother, and a working sister. How can she not have their numbers on the phone?

"But we didn't see in any family group nor there were any chats with her family members in Whatsapp," Ananya puts what she knows in front of her.

"Her parents don't know how to use Whatsapp. They are backward. They only talk on the phone. But she does chat with her sister sometimes, very rarely actually, exchanging a few quotes and all! Can I see her phone once?" Varsha asked after informing them why she shouldn't have found chats in WhatsApp.

Varsha goes through the phone and mumbles more confused, "The numbers are not saved and are in the blocked list. But why would Sameera un-save their contacts?"

Ananya and Nikhil frown at the information. Weird! Very weird!

"Does anyone uses her phone, someone who knows her password?" Nikhil throws the next question and Varsha nods in agreement, "Her boyfriend and her sister."

"Did she meet them recently?" Ananya took over Nikhil and asked, arrowing her gaze.

"Her boyfriend is in the same office as hers and her sister, although in the same office but works in a different department. She comes to our flat to spend some time with Sameera. That's why they chat less on Whatsapp!"

Well, the information was quite handy.

"Where do her sister and her boyfriend stay?" Nikhil inquired. Is it possible that anyone from them is involved? Why didn't her boyfriend call her yet?

"I've no idea where does Sanjay stays but her sister is just half an hour away from our flat," she was truthful. She only met Sanjay when they go out. She never knew where his address was.

"Why doesn't she stay with you?" Ananya grilled more, wondering why Sameera's sister doesn't stay with them. The rent would lessen even more. Won't it?

"She's in a live-in relationship with her boyfriend," Varsha implored, pressing her head.

"Okay. Let us just call her sister and parents and inform them. Take care." Ananya and Nikhil walk away letting the doctor enter room who came to examine her again.

————————————

Outside Varsha's room,

"What did you get from the phone till now?" Nikhil asked, turning off the recording as soon as they were out of the room. He had recorded Varsha's statements on his phone. They'd need to speed up. Hence, he asked her, pointing towards the man's phone as she worked away on the phone fast.

She waited for a few more minutes for the information to load and started telling whatever she had known till then, "There are some contact numbers and two coordinates. I checked with them and one indicated the location of the house and the other location is away from Sameera's house.!"

"Does that mean there was another girl who was kidnapped?" he wondered in shock.

Ananya nodded, sighing, "We did check the man's car, right? But there was no woman in the car."

Nikhil too remembered that, before they got here with Varsha and the man, they checked the man's car and they found nothing there except for injections having chloroform solution.

"Anything else?" Nikhil probed further and Ananya nodded, telling him more, "I checked his WhatsApp. There was one contact named Munna Bhai and the coordinates were sent from the same number."

"Phone number is registered on?"

"Illegal sim," Ananya was disappointed when she found out that and saw the same expression on Nikhil's face minus the anger she felt in addition.

"But I can trace the location of the sim," she mumbled, working on the same now. She had to back up some of the data too.

"Do that," he muttered under his breath, walking towards Lolark, and calling Sameera's parents to inform them. Ananya sat down continuing with her work.

————————————

Outside the Mortuary Room,

Lolark had put his doubt forward after half an hour when they are looking into the formalities. They can't work on the case unless the state requests a shift to CBI, "This case should be officially taken by CBI. Only then we could work on the case."

"FIR is registered by local police already. We'll make sure the state requests — with her parent's consent. The central government has to agree, or at least the high court Or supreme court. But it will take a lot of time. Until then we'd help our best," Nikhil rumbled, pointing towards the constables the area's inspector had sent after filing an FIR on Ananya's instruction, the same man with whom Ananya had an argument. They had even taken the man in his car to their police station a few minutes ago. They arrived when he and Ananya were with Varsha. 

"So, we'll have to investigate in person until then," Lolark mumbles. It meant double work and not that he was complaining. He'd be glad to help.

"I don't think that's necessary." Ananya walks in cutting their conversation and making them frown at each other.

"And why is that?" Lolark asked, raising his eyebrows. Nikhil looks at her in anticipation.

"Look at this video. It was formatted before but I backed it up." She showed them the video.

Such was the video that had only shocked them! 

To be continued..,

Let me know what you think of the update.

Can you guess what's there in the Video?

Regards,

polymath_land

19/01/2023