Arjun's POV:

Last night

"Where has Kashi gone?" Mehra's unexpected question piqued my interest. Nila had returned safely, and everything was fine, but Kashi had gone missing.

"Shouldn't she be with you?" Neil asked Mehra.

"She was with me at first, but then she went looking for Nila," Mehra panicked. "I don't have a good feeling about this."

"Calm down, Mehra," I said as I gently rubbed her arm. "Let's look everywhere, and Mehra, you stay here with Nila. If Kashi returns home, one of us should be there."

Mehra nodded and wrapped her arms around Nila. I turned to Neil and told him to search the right side of the society while I searched the left.

For the next hour, we searched the entire area but didn't find a single piece of evidence. She appeared to have vanished into thin air. I wasn't sure how Mehra would react to this. Everything seemed to be working against her. Her removal from the case, followed by the kidnapping of Nila and now Kashi.

How could a serial killer do all of this alone?

My mind wandered to the question. He could never get so much information about Priya. There should be someone who was helping him. Something we were overlooking.

"Did you guys find her?" Mehra asked immediately as we returned. Neil shook his head in denial as I looked at him. Mehra took a shaky breath and sat down on the stairs, despondent.

"It is all my fault. I shouldn't have challenged him in the first place," Mehra whimpered.

"Try calling Kashi once. Maybe her phone is still with her and if yes, then we can track her location with it."

Mehra looked at me and pulled out her phone. She dialled Kashi's number and put it on speaker. But the automatic voice said the number was switched off with which our last ray of hope was gone. Now we needed to move things officially.

"I think we should file the complaint and begin the search," Neil suggested and I agreed as it was the best we could do at the time.

I called Ajay, "Ajay get our team ready and go look for the girl whose photo I just sent you. Search the whole damn city and also see where her phone was active for the last time."

Mehra was sobbing and Neil along with Nila was trying to console her. Mehra was so attached to Kashi that it would break her if something happened to Kashi.

"We will find her, Priya. Relax please," Neil said as he gave her a reassuring hug.

"It's all my fault, Neil. She is innocent," Mehra burst into tears.

"It's not your fault Priya. We will find Kashi and punish the bastard who is behind all of this. But first, you need to pull yourself up."

He wiped her tears away and cupped her face in his hands. Nila took a look at them, then at me.

"Neil is correct, Mom. Please, don't cry," she said, pulling Mehra back a little to make space between them.

"In any case, I've informed Ajay. We'll get something soon, I'm sure," I stated. I desperately wanted to console her, but I couldn't. I didn't deserve her. I reminded myself that Neil was perfect for her.

Time passed as we continued our search. We parted in different ways but got nothing. It was 5 a.m. when we received the horrible news.

"Sir, we got a body, and based on the description you provided, I believe it's her," Ajay said.

"Ajay, how bad is it?" My voice was choking as I inquired.

"Really bad."

I called Mehra and asked her to meet me at the address Ajay had given me. I drove my SUV through morning Mumbai traffic as the sun rose. I had to get there, before Mehra, to see how bad it was. I need to act quickly.

The first thing I saw when I reached the spot was the forensic team investigating a mutilated body of a woman. Her face was destroyed. It looked as if someone smashed her face multiple times in rage. Her neck was slashed and there were marks on her wrists as if she was tied up.

"It's been 4-5 hours I guess," Ajay said looking at the body.

"COD?" I asked.

"Tough to say. I've called it in. Is she related to someone?"

"She is Mehra's best friend."

"What!?" The shock was evident on Ajay's face. "Is this the work of the serial killer?"

"Yes. He threatened Mehra in the afternoon."

"Shit! Ma'am has gone through so much already. I don't think she can take this too."

"I know and that is what I am afraid of."

"By the way, her parents?" Ajay asked, looking at Kashi's body.

"They live in Bangalore," I replied, half mindedly.

We remained silent as the medical personnel shifted the body to a stretcher. The body was found in the outskirts of the city so getting witnesses was difficult. The killer played safe.

I looked at the markings on the ground. Her body had been laid sprawled. I saw her phone in the plastic bag along with her other belongings.

"Did you get any fingerprints on the phone?" I asked the forensic head.

"No sir. It had only the victim's fingerprints." The killer once again had made sure not to leave any evidence.

I ignored the odour. Lots of people knew that dead bodies smelled bad. But I knew from experience that the smell varied depending on the stage of decomposition. Freshly dead but intact they smelled of meat. Disrupted they smelled of bowel, stomach and bladder content. Burned they smelled the same but with a porky barbeque tang. Decomposed they smell sweetly cheesy in an overpoweringly sickly, vomit-inducing way. This one was a combination of disruption and decomposition. The first time I had witnessed a similar scene, I had puked his guts out. The medical examiner had rolled his eyes and hustled me away from the mortuary. Now I was a bloody expert in tuning out my feelings along with the odour and tuning his objectivity in.

"In my career, I have never seen such a brutal and cold case," the examiner said as he removed his mask and gloves. "The murderer has no heart."

"What caused the death?" I inquired, even though I knew it should be the neck cut.

"The death occurred as a result of blood loss and vein injuries."

"What? Isn't it because of the neck cut?"

"It wasn't a deep cut. The victim was alive when he smashed her face with a sharp object. The killer must have had immense hatred towards the victim," the Forensic head responded.

"It's going to hit Mehra," I grumbled. "She'll be here at any time. Dammit..."

"Ma'am has arrived, sir."

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