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Word Count : 6000 

Song - Laakh Duniya Kahe | Talaash |

***

17 | Home Is Where The Heart Is

3rd May 2023 

| Evening - 1700 hours |

ASP Jishu Fernandes scratched the back of his hand as his gaze averted to the lady in a saree standing before him. "So, where do we start from?" He asked.

The other seven figures in her vicinity immediately straightened their spinal columns in attentiveness.

Shrugging her shoulders, Hinduja pointed her pitch-black irises at the entrance of the Special Investigation Unit's general headquarters. "Let Raghav sir come first." She said.

Everyone nodded.

As if on record, Raghav Katoch stepped out of the massive government edifice and strode towards them, clutching a green-colored file in his right hand.

"Alright, everyone, let's start with recording the testimonies of the aggrieved families of all the victims." The DCP announced, just as he reached the car parking area, where all nine members of his team were erect on their toes.

"But Saab ji, there are 455 families in total that we need to visit as of now, and god forbid, but the numbers will only increase in the coming days. So, where do we even begin the questioning from?" SI Daleep Bedi put forward a query.

Raghav peered at the interim forensic profiler for a second and then shifted his gaze back to the sub-inspector, who was scratching his forehead. "I have a solution for that." Saying so, he opened the file in his hand, scanned its contents with a keen gaze, and lifted his head again. "There are a total of ten people on the team. So, how about we create five squads of two members each and then divide the years in which these abductions took place among each squad?"

"It seems like a good plan." Hinduja said while the others bobbed their heads up and down.

"Okay then, ASP Rukmini Desai and SI Daleep Bedi?" Raghav started calling out the names.

The two figures dressed up in civvies came forward.

"You both are in squad one, and you will visit the families of all the victims of 2014 and 2015."

"Yes, sir!"

"Ji Saab ji!"

"Next, squad number two: ASP Gaurav Jain and ASI Maninder Yadav. You both will look after the cases of 2016 and 2017." He dictated.

Gaurav and Maninder nodded back.

"Squad number three, DSP Ramandeep Singhvi and Inspector Praapti Maartand, all the hundred abduction cases of 2018 and 2019 are your responsibility now."

The two assented as well.

"Squad number four, ASP Jishu Fernandes and ASP Patwardhan Singh, you will visit and question the families of all the sufferers of 2020 and 2021."

Both the men stepped forward and nodded their heads.

"Finally, myself and Profiler Rao, we will both be in squad number five and look after the cases of 2022 and the current year." He then rummaged through the file, took out a stack of stapled sheets, kept one with himself, and then handed out a list to each of the other four squads. "These lists that I am handing over to you are all classified according to their respective years. They contain all the basic details of the abductees that we had in our records, including the dates they went missing on, their house addresses, and the contact information of their parents. I guess you all already know what you need to do after that."

Eight voices of affirmation echoed in unity, while the ninth one stayed quiet and just replied back with a nod of her head.

"Here is a list of instructions for you to follow: Number one: Until the end of this month, you all will operate in your civvies. Please don't roam around in your uniforms until May 31st. Number two: Carry your duty revolvers along with yourself all the time, but keep them inconspicuous. No external entity should be apprised of the fact that you are carrying guns. Number three: Don't give away your identities to anyone else other than the immediate family members of the victim. Reveal your identities only if it's a matter of emergency or importance. Number four: Unless asked to do so, don't avail yourself of your government-sanctioned cars or the police jeeps and SUVs until the case is solved. Operate around in your private vehicles for the time being, and the department will reimburse the total cost of the gasoline or diesel that will be utilized. Lastly, the moment you notice any suspicious movement or activity around you, immediately call the police control room for backup, then inform me after that. Don't use your brawn always. Rather, I would advise you all to use your brains wisely and take action accordingly. Clear?" He briefed his juniors in an austere tone.

"Crystal!"

"Alright then, it's five-ten p.m. currently and we have already discussed the questions we need to ask the families, as per officer Rao's suggestions. So, if we start now, we can visit at least three to four families until nine o'clock. Theek hai?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Ji, Saab Ji!"

"You can all go now."

***

I will be reaching home late today. Don't wait for me; have your dinner on time. Don't burrow yourself into your files completely. Stay with Ani until I come back, and don't leave him alone till he falls asleep, or even better, ask Geeta Didi to stay back for tonight.

P.S.: In case Geeta Didi makes beans sabzi for dinner, don't feed it to Ani, or else he'll fart all day tomorrow. And, if you want to gobble up another ice cream secretly after dinner, do it at your own risk, because, in the event that you do get bloated, I am sorry, but I haven't restocked the Hajmola stash.

Sent

To M. Dogra

5:15 p.m.

Checking her phone screen for one last time, she put it on silent mode and shoved it inside her black satchel.

She then turned around to look at the man standing next to a gray-colored Thar. "Sir, can I drive?" She volunteered.

"You want to?" Raghav quirked his left eyebrow up.

"Yes."

"Go ahead then." Saying so, he threw the car keys at her, then opened the passenger door of the  Thar and settled inside it.

She caught the car keys as her footfall advanced towards the car.

Five minutes down the line, she took a left turn from the gate, and drove through the long main road.

"Bhavyaa Nath." Raghav glanced over at the list in the file. "The first victim of 2022, she was fifteen at the time of her abduction. She went missing on May 1st, last year. Her family resides in Habitat Apartments near Ravel Grudge Park. Drive straight through the next flyover and then take a right turn to Bandichowk Market---.

"I know." She interrupted as her right foot pressed down on the accelerator.

"Oh, good." Raghav shrugged his shoulders, gazing at the reticent bearing of his colleague. "You have been to that area before?" He asked.

"Yeah, sort of." She muttered.

"Okay."

***

Sweat trickled down her forehead as she pulled on the breaks and ceased the engine.

The door on the side of the passenger seat was unbolted, and Raghav got out of the car just as she gathered up her satchel from the back seat and opened the door to step out of it.

"What is the apartment number?" She asked while adjusting the pallu of her saree.

Roaming his eyes around at the aged apartment complex, Raghav replied, "405—fifth floor, block D."

She hummed as her specs-clad obsidian eyes squinted at the alphabet 'D' painted in the hues of chartreuse on a building situated at the far left corner of the apartment complex built for the interests of the middle class. "There." She pointed her finger at the building.

Raghav nodded, his eyes still examining his surroundings to find any CCTV cameras.

"You won't find any form of surveillance here; there is not even a watchman around, let alone a CCTV camera. These apartments were constructed in 1999, keeping in mind the financial capabilities of the middle-income group, by a builder from Kerala. From then to this date, the security conditions have been the same, primarily due to the society's low maintenance budget." She said as both of them trod in the direction of the specified block.

"How do you know?" He probed as they entered the block, his eyes searching around for the lift.

"I do my homework on time, sir." She shrugged, moving towards the stairs, but then turned around and said, "By the way, there are no elevators here."

Raghav rolled his eyes, passing a lopsided smile at her.

She smirked back.

The petulant senior-junior pair eventually reached the fifth floor and walked towards the door on the left side of the wall.

D-405: Kul Bhushan Nath, the nameplate read.

Raghav pressed his thumb on the the doorbell. Within ten seconds, the door unbolted from inside to reveal a middle-aged woman in a loose cotton salwar-kameez and Oodhni staring at them with her sunken lifeless eyes. Hair neatly tied in a bun yet damaged and dehydrated in appearance, crow's feet marring the corners of her erstwhile beautiful amber eyes, she looked drained.

"Yes?" A feeble voice echoed in the vicinity of the investigator-profiler duo as they glanced at each other and then looked back at the lady in front of them.

"Uhm, good evening, ma'am. I am DCP Raghav Katoch, and this is criminal psychologist Hinduja Rao. We are here to talk to you regarding the Maia's month abduction cases. Your daughter, Bhav -----"

A thunderous bang resonated in the corridor as the woman closed the door of her house on their faces.

"GO AWAY!" Loud sobs erupted from behind the wooden barrier. "WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE EVEN HERE NOW?! JUST GO AWAY!"

Hinduja took a deep breath as she stepped closer to the door. "Nandini ji, please. We really need your help; fifty more innocent lives are in danger now, just like Bhavya. I request that you please help us."

"Nandu, who is it? And why are you crying?" Suddenly, they heard a male voice as well.

The senior-junior pair flashed their gazes at each other in a trice just as the door of apartment number 405 opened once again.

Kul Bhushan Nath peered at the two strangers standing outside his house with inscrutability. "Yes, who are you both?" He asked, holding his wailing wife tightly in his pacifying embrace.

"We are from the Special Investigation Unit. I am Criminal Profiler Hinduja Rao, and this is DCP Raghav Katoch. We both are here to talk to you regarding your daughter's disappearance last year in Maia's month serial abduction case." Hinduja spoke out without beating around the bush.

"Kulu, just ask them to go away, please." Nandini Nath wept even louder, her eyes reflecting her apparent animosity towards them.

"Nandu, please. They need our help." He then swiveled his head around to look at the man and the woman before him, grief evident in his eyes. "Please come inside." He beckoned them to enter his home.

Nandini Nath somehow controlled her sobs with the end of her oodhni as Raghav and Hinduja stepped into the Nath residence.

Five minutes later, three pairs of eyes looked awkwardly at each other while the fourth pair kept shedding tears. The owners of all the four pairs of eyes were settled on the ancient sofas perched up in the Nath family's living room.

Kul Bhushan Nath cleared his throat. "Ji, tell me." His gaze fleeted toward his wife for a second. "How can we help you?" He asked.

"You must be aware of the abductions that happened yesterday and the day before." Raghav started with a soft tone.

"Yes, we did see the news." Kul Bhushan exhaled.

"The case has been reopened, and the investigation team has come to the conclusion that all these abductions are happening based on some common grounds. In order to find out the links, we need to talk to you regarding your daughter, Bhavya." He glanced at Hinduja, who nodded back at him. "Is it fine with you?"

"STOP THIS DAMNED DRAMA! YOU PEOPLE ARE HERE BECAUSE THE MINISTER'S DAUGHTER HAS BEEN ABDUCTED AS WELL!" The middle-aged woman in the room stood up in a flash and yelled out in fury.

"Nandu, please sit down. Let us help them. At least this way, we'll finally get a closure. We'll finally get to know where our Bhavi is." The fifty-something man with salt and pepper hair tried to conciliate his other half.

Nandini broke into fits of sobs as she dashed inside, into the familiar confines of her home.

Kul Bhushan's shoulders slacked, his eyes covered with a thin layer of tears, as he exhaled in defeat. "I am sorry. After Bhavya went missing, she---my wife---." He chocked on his own words.

"It's okay, we understand." Hinduja said, her eyes fixated on the family photograph hung up on the wall.

"Go ahead, ask whatever you want." Kul Bhushan said as he wiped the tears slithering down his cheeks.

"Okay." Raghav commenced with the questioning. "When was the last time you saw your daughter?"

" She used to skate in the park nearby. On 1st May 2022, also, she left home at around three-thirty p.m. I guess, to go to the park. We never saw her after that." He bit his lower lip in order to control in a sob.

"Did she have any friends? She used to go to the park to skate, so did she have any friends there?" The young criminologist shot the next question on the table.

"No. Actually, my Bhavya was a reserved child, more on the introverted side. Let alone here; she didn't even have any friends back in school."

"How was she in school? I mean academically?" Raghav asked.

"Normal, I mean mediocre. Neither too good nor too bad."

"Did you put any pressure on her regarding her studies?" Hinduja questioned.

"Yes, actually. She was barely passing in mathematics and social science, so we enrolled her in a tuition center nearby. She didn't wanted to go; we forced her. We did pressurize her to score better in her exams, and that was a grave mistake on our part."

"We already have information about the school Bhavya was attending; please note down the name of the tuition center here." Tearing a piece of paper from her notepad, she passed it on to the older man sitting before her, along with a pen.

Kul Bhushan assented. Scribbling something on the paper, he returned it to the imposing yet placidly calm figure of the woman in front of him.

Hinduja nodded, thoroughly examining the information on the piece of paper, and then continued, "Okay, Mr. Nath, this may sound weird, but did you notice anything uncanny in her behavior before she went missing? Like irritation, anger issues, or sudden emotional withdrawal from both you and Nandini ji?"

His brows knitted together, and a pensive mien unfolded on his visage for a few seconds as he finally answered. "Teenagers do exhibit such kinds of demeanors due to hormonal changes, and we both—I mean, me and my wife—thought that it was just a part of that phase and let it go. But now that you asked about it, yes, it was weird, but my daughter showed a lot of changes in her behavioral patterns before she went missing. Regular arguments with her mother, throwing and breaking things around in a fit of rage, signs of vexation if asked about her well-being, and she was in a bad mood almost all the time." He clasped his digits together and continued, "Believe me, ma'am, my daughter was a calm child overall, but I just don't know what happened to her suddenly."

Immediately noting down something on her notepad, Hinduja asked, "Since when? I mean, when did you start to notice these changes in her?"

Kul Bhushan scratched the crown of his head. "It's very hard to remember it that way, madam, but if I am not mistaken, it was October. We slowly started to observe the changes in her from October 2021." He thoughtfully vocalized.

"Any complaints from her school or tuition center concerning the same?"

"Strangely no." Kul Bhushan Nath replied.

"And it didn't dawn upon you or your wife that perhaps something was wrong with Bhavya?" Hinduja squinted her eyes as she asked her next question.

"I told you, ma'am, we thought it was due to the fragility of the emotional growth spurt she was going through. It never really crossed our mind that something else was wrong." Suddenly, he paused and unblinkingly stared at the two investigators before him. "Wait, you think her abduction is related to this?" He asked as his eyes widened slowly.

"We can't say anything as of now, Mr. Nath." Raghav said as he met his junior's eyes in a silent exchange.

Fifteen minutes later, Kul Bhushan was escorting both the officers outside his home.

"Wait!" All three of them turned around to look at the distressed and tired face of the tormented mother.

Nandini Nath walked forward with a mirthless smile on her lips. "This lady here, what's your name? I am sorry I didn't hear it clearly the first time." She asked, her amber pools fixated on Hinduja.

"Hinduja Rao."

"Unique name." Nandini humorlessly chuckled. "Anyways, officer Rao, do you know why I behaved with you and your colleague the way I did, some time ago?"

"Why?" The young woman whispered.

"Because, 365 days ago, when me and my husband were crying our eyes out and begging in that so-called police station of yours for our daughter, instead of being assured about her safe return, we were kicked out—brutally—without any remorse." Nandini enunciated, her face absolutely impassive, a single drop of tear rolling down her right cheek. "You know what the SI who was on duty that night said instead?" She asked with her left brow quirked up.

Hinduja just looked on, already deducing what the elder woman's next words would be.

"He said that my fifteen-year-old girl has supposedly fled away with her lover. My little girl was slut-shamed in front of an entire group of ostensible protectors in Khaki! And they even had a good laugh about it. They did file a missing report at the end, though, after three freaking days." Her lips upturned unamusingly. 

Hinduja stood rooted in her place, her eyes unblinkingly latched with the amber eyes of the 43-year old woman.

"And yet, here is the irony. The moment a union minister's daughter gets abducted, your police department goes bonkers to bring her back safe." Folding her arms across her chest, she stood tall. "Tell me, ma'am, is this what your kind refers to as justice? How is it that, despite being in the same age group, both of these girls were treated so differently? Not just my daughter, but every other girl who went missing in regards to this Maia's month serial abductions case in general? Is the term justice only created and preserved for the rich and powerful? Because it appears to me that people of our strata don't deserve it in the eyes of the law. Where is the equality here, ma'am? Or is it that the constitution doesn't hold any value for the system anymore?" She grimly snickered.

Raghav immediately ducked his head down in shame. Kul Bhushan, on the other hand, ambled closer to his wife and rubbed her shivering back.

"Officer Rao, I duly apologize for invading your privacy, but I see that you are wearing a Mangal sutra around your neck. So I take it that you are married?" The shivering woman asked again.

"Yes."

"Do you have children?"

"Yes." The soon-to-be 26-year old woman barely yet firmly mumbled.

"How many?" For the first time in the last twenty-five minutes, the middle-aged woman finally had a genuine smile etched on her face.

"One."

"Boy or girl?" Nandini continued her questionnaire.

"Boy."

"How old is your little boy, Officer Rao?"

"He will turn three in August this year." Her ever-so-indifferent eyes softened in a second as she thought about her little boy.

Nandini chuckled. "Do you love him?" She asked.

"More than anyone in this world." Hinduja faintly smiled.

The two men in the living room looked perplexed at the ongoing exchange of words.

"Then tell me, Officer Rao, what if one fine day, suddenly, out of nowhere, you discover that your child has disappeared? Missing from the face of the earth, somebody has snatched him away from you. He is just gone. You are not aware of his whereabouts. You are not aware of anything. How would you feel?" A barely perceptible smile still lingered on her lips.

In the blink of an eye, Hinduja's blood ran cold, her hands quivered, her breathing intensified, and her body turned stiff.

Nandini slowly walked closer to the her. "I don't even need you to vocalize what you are feeling right now, because your body language at the current moment is enough to speak of the heights of horror you are going through, just by the mere thought of it." A mother's aureate eyes clashed against another mother's ebony ones. "That is the same kind of horror I have been dealing with for the last one year. I have no idea where my daughter is. I don't even know if she-- she is alive or--or-- dead." Nandini struggled to speak. "My tears have dried down, my lungs are toiling hard to breathe, my soma is steadily giving up, and my spirit is lurking around in the murkiness of my little one's absence. And I—I am just pathetically subsisting in the deprivation of my own motherhood."

"I am sorry." Scarcely, Hinduja whispered.

Nandini weakly smiled. "Your sorry won't change anything, officer, because you know what's even more disconsolate about this entire ordeal? I might be numerically wrong, but there are about four hundred mothers more, who, just like me, have been robbed of their lights; the luminous orbit their lives revolved around—their blazing little sun shines."

A drop of tear rolled down the left side of her weary phizog as she gently clasped Hinduja's pale and smooth hands in her own thin ones. "I have lost my will, officer; I have fallen apart." One after the other, drop by drop, tears of sorrow dropped down on the young criminologist's hands, her eyes still deeply locked with the eyes of the middle-aged woman before her. "I have a request—from my side and from all those mothers as well." Saying so, Nandini took a deep breath. "Will you accept it?"

"Go ahead."

"Nab that fucker down, whoever he or she is. If you are really sorry---Nab. that. fucker. down!" Flames of retributive justice flared in a pair of amber swirls and then coursed through a pair of obsidian ones.

"I will."

Just two words.

Yet those two words carried the distinguished weight of a war cry.

A war cry of a macabre battle of justice against time.

 ***

At six p.m. that evening, Hinduja found herself in the living room of the Bhatia family.

A portrait of the second victim of 2022, then seventeen-year-old Shreya Bhatia, who went missing on the morning of May 2, was hung up on the front wall of the living space with a flower garland dangling around it.

Hinduja averted her gaze from the portrait and directed it towards the father of the girl in the portrait, Aravind Bhatia, who stared at the senior-junior duo with a poker face and a cup of tea in his hand.

"Any more questions?" The fifty-two-year-old man asked, taking another sip of the gingery concoction.

Raghav tipped his chin at Hinduja, and she nodded back.

"The portrait..." She pointed her finger at the portrait on the wall. "There is a garland around it. You are already done with the funeral?"

"We didn't know if she was dead or alive anymore—this was the only way we had, to get a closer." Something soft flashed across his eyes; his shoulders slackened a bit, yet the face still remained deadpan.

Raghav shifted awkwardly on the sofa and then asked. "Mr. Bhatia, we are already done with all the questions, but I just wanted to ask you one last thing." He said.

"Go ahead." Aravind Bhatia replied, as his wife, Moulina Bhatia, crossed the threshold of the living room and ambled towards them with an agonized expression on her visage.

"Did you notice something out of order in Shreya's bearing before her abduction? Like constant annoyance, anger, and resentment towards you and the other members of your family?" Raghav asked.

The Bhatia couple knitted their eyebrows together and then took a brief look at each other.

Moulina Bhatia walked towards the plastic chair in front of the center table and settled down on it. "Yes, actually. Our daughter was a diffident and calm child overall, very reserved. But then, we suddenly started noticing the slowly yet gradually changing patterns in her behavior. Rage always sat on the tip of her nose during that time. She was slowly withdrawing herself from us too." She said.

Raghav and Hinduja met each other's gazes and then pivoted their gazes back to look at the Bhatia couple. "And since when did you start noticing these changes in her?"

"I guess it was November 2021." Aravind Bhatia replied.

All of a sudden Hinduja's attention was piqued by a pair of small feet hiding behind the curtains hanging just over the living room threshold. Then she saw a gleaming pair of innocent brown irises staring at her.

"Alright, we'll take our leave then." Raghav declared as he got up from the sofa and waited for the profiler to follow him.

Five minutes down the line, as they both descended the last step of the stairs, a guileless voice called them out from behind.

"Didi!"

Hinduja about-faced to find the same pair of innocent, earthy eyes looking at her. Raghav followed suit.

"Didi, wait!"

The owner of the voice finally reached them. "Will you bring back Shreya Didi?" He asked.

Taking a glance at each other, both of them crouched down to the child's height. "You are her brother?" Hinduja asked.

"Yes!" An instant reply came from the eight-year-old kid.

"What's your name?" The DCP asked softly.

"Ayush." He hastily replied and then asked again, his eyes shining with innocuous hope. "Will you bring back Shreya Didi?"

"No beta." And the hope vanished in a second.

"But you were asking about Shreya Didi at home?" His tiny roseate lips puckered out to form a frown. "Did the bad man really take away Shreya Didi? She will never return home?"

Hinduja sighed as her warm palm caressed the boy's cheeks.

"It's all due to that friend! She even stopped playing with me after her friend came!" He flung around his arms sulkily.

As if on record, the investigator-profiler pair immediately perked up their ears.

"Which friend, Ayush Beta? Do you know the name?" Raghav asked.

"I don't know," Ayush Bhatia replied.

"Okay, no problem, beta." Hinduja shot the next question at the child. "Tell me, is it a boy or girl?"

"I don't know."

Both of them sighed together.

"Okay, do you know if this friend of your Shreya Didi, was from her school or from your colony?" Raghav somehow held on to a last bit of hope.

"I don't know. Shreya Didi had no friends at all, so she used to play with me. But once this friend of hers came, she stopped playing with me." He blabbered in his childlike voice.

"Have you ever seen this friend?" Hinduja asked.

"No, I just heard it once from Shreya Didi herself. I had scribbled on her homework notebook using my sketch pens. She was really angry at me that day. She said that she'd soon stop playing with me completely because she had a new friend."

Hinduja's jaws tightened, as did her fists.

Yet she somehow pacified herself for the child before her. "Okay, beta, we can't promise you, but we'll try to find your Shreya didi." She faintly smiled while caressing the crown of his head. "Now, go back to your home. Your mom and papa must be getting worried."

He bobbed his head up and down and hurriedly ascended the steps to go back home. "Bye Uncle!" "Bye Didi!"

Raghav's eyes widened in an instant. "Did that chimp really called me uncle?! And he freaking called you didi?!" 

Hinduja rolled her eyes.

***

The sky was shrouded in a layer of pitch darkness.

The clock struck nine when Raghav and Hinduja finally got done visiting the families of the third and fourth victims of the previous year, respectively.

Hinduja peeked at the glass dial of her analogue watch as they got out of the Basu household.

Fourteen-year-old Mihika Basu was the fourth victim of 2022. She was abducted on May 3rd. The third abductee was sixteen-year-old Ritu Verma, who went missing on the evening of May 2nd.

"Let me drive from here. I'll drop you off at the SIT headquarters, and from there you can commute in your own car. Okay?" Raghav stated as he sat down in the driver's seat and beckoned her to settle down in the passenger seat.

"Sure sir." Hinduja acceded.

As the car got out of the gate colony, Raghav said, "When you were talking with Ritu Verma's parents, I actually called the others to ask if there was any progress from their side. It turns out you were actually right. All these girls are actually similar to each other. The parents of the other girls also said the same as the ones we visited."

"Yes, apart from being in the same age group, having curly or wavy black hair, and having a round face, all these girls were introverted by nature. And surprisingly, all of these girls were not exactly on good terms with their families before they were abducted. All of them had slowly emotionally withdrawn themselves from their parents, were irritated almost all the time, and had developed anger issues, and that too around seven to eight months prior to their disappearance." Hinduja voiced out her thoughts, her eyes gazing at the distant nothingness outside the car window.

"Exactly! Rukmini, Daleep ji, Maninder ji, Gaurav, Ramandeep, Praapti, Jishu, and Patwardhan—all of them got the same testimonies from the families they visited today." He ceased his words as his gaze shifted towards her nimble fingers, drumming the window seal.

"What happened? You have something on your mind?" He asked as he rotated the steering wheel to take a left turn.

She sighed. "Do you remember what that kid Ayush said, sir?"

"About that friend thing?" He counter-questioned.

"Yes."

"He is a child, officer Rao. He must have just blabbered some random, unrelated things his sister told him before her disappearance." He said it nonchalantly.

Hinduja shrugged her shoulders. "Perhaps you are right, sir, but all of this seems so sinister. Any news from the control room, by the way?" She turned her face around to look at him.

"No. After Prisha Dhar, Navami Sharma, and Naina Ahuja went missing this afternoon, no other girl has been reported missing till now. Moreover, the patrolling jeeps have stationed themselves at every nook and cranny of the state. The police are guarding all the checkpoints, toll gates, and highway entrances, and on top of that, traffic barricades have been set up everywhere." He explained.

"That's good."

***

Closing the door behind her, she tossed the keys into the wooden key cabinet and then made a beeline into the bedroom.

And there he was—the blazing little sunshine of her life—his chubby little body slumbering in the middle of the bed.

She hastily unclasped the flats around her feet near the diwan and then promptly wended her way into the bathroom to sanitize her hands properly.

She then smiled ear to ear as she stepped out of the bathroom and advanced towards the bed, ensconced herself on it, and cradled his tubby frame up in her arms. A layer of sheen shrouded her impenetrable sable pools as she caressed his rosy cheeks.

"Mamma." He sluggishly mumbled.

She faintly chortled, for even in sleep, her little boy was calling her out.

"Mumma loves you, little cub." And instantly, the said little cub was smothered with kisses all around his sleepy face. "And, she promises to always be your strongest shield." 

"You are back?" A masculine bass voice reverberated in the bedroom.

Her eyes coruscated, and her shell pink lips uplifted tranquilly as she turned around to lock gazes with the cognac eyes of her husband. "Yes."

"Collector Sahiba, I also deserve some of your time, don't I?" He clasped his herculean arms across his taut chest as his giant figure leaned against the doorjamb. "Apne bete ko toh dekh liya aapne, thoda apne pati par bhi nazar maar lijiye."

Her eyes dropped down as her cheeks flushed crimson. He chuckled as he looked at her shy countenance, a familiar kind of soothing calmness enveloping the pulsating organ in his sternum. "Come out; let's have dinner."

Her gaze went up again. She looked at him in confusion. "You have not had your dinner till now? I told you not to wait for me."

"And I wanted to wait for you. It's as simple as that." Straightening his back, he turned around and strolled into the dining hall. She stroked the toddler's cheeks for one last time, and then she followed her husband out of the bedroom.

"Okay, how about this? We will both have at least one meal of the day together? -----Deal?" He suggested, as both of his brows quirked up.

"Deal." She gesticulated a thumbs up.

"Alright, sit down. I'll heat up the dinner." He said this as he walked towards the kitchen island.

She nodded. "Where is Geeta Didi, by the way?"

"I reached home early today, so I asked her to leave early as well." He replied while putting a microwavable casserole inside the microwave and then setting up its timer.

He then took out two plates from one of the chic kitchen drawers and kept them on the countertop.

Both of them reveled in the peaceful silence of their home for a few minutes. 

"I am sorry." He faintly whispered out of nowhere.

She instantly surmised the reason behind his apology. "If it's about you getting drunk yesterday, it's fine."

He turned around to meet her gaze. "You are not angry about me getting drunk?"

"Disappointed? Yes. Angry? No." She shrugged.

He trained his eyes curiously at her.

"Drinking is not a good habit at all, Dogra Sahib. Honestly, I don't like it at all, but that doesn't mean that I'll enforce my likes and dislikes on you. You are an adult, and I am under the impression that you know what's good for you and what's not. Additionally, the more you try to avoid something, the more intensely you'll crave it. It's the same with alcohol. But if you consume a small portion of it just once or twice a month, it's fine. But too much of it, now that's detrimental." She perched herself up on the kitchen island as he handed out a plate of biryani and raita to her. "You were drunk yesterday night. What if Karim Bhai was not with you at that time?"

An introspective guise took over his phizog as he ambled closer to her.

"I apologize, Inu. I'll never repeat it again." He said.

"You shouldn't." Keeping the plait down on the island, she clasped her svelte phalanges together. "Before drinking, a person should be consciously aware of the certitude that there is a family out there waiting for him or her somewhere in a cozy little home."

They kept looking at each other for a second. 

"Can I get a hug?" He asked as a serene smile spread across his visage.

"What if I say no?" She teased him, her eyes displaying her blatant mischievousness.

"Then I'll snatch it!" And he immediately encased her slender figure in his hefty arms and warm embrace. Loud giggles escaped her lips as he snuggled his face all over her neck, face, and shoulders, inhaling in her essence.

'Home is where the heart is, Inu.' 

He thought as his mahogany eyes took in her serene and gleeful self.

***