Sense & Sensibilities

Present

ACP Arjun Rawte was always alone. Arjun was not, at least not in a way it was for the last couple of years. His Father was an influential man, naturally he had a clique of people around him- some became good friends, some were just there for connections. If he tried to remember his early days, school, college, even Police academy, he was a jolly man. His laughter used to be the loudest, he was the smartest man in the room with all the attention on him. That's how he met Sameer Rathore, another man with blue blood and expectations to make a mark in their tough field.

That's how he wooed his wife, and probably how he caught all the attention to himself, that led to his downfall.

Silence is a new, but comfortable friend since that night. He became alone by choice- part fear that he probably attracts negativity and broken relationsips, part rage that why he must suffer alone, why he can't die. His work became his life, and he was alone. He would separate from team, never share his theory with others, use force to extract confession, hit criminals because that was easier than hour long interrogation. Rathore was good at that, pretend someone he is not and trap them in their own words. Rawte works alone cause that's easy. And it was that way most of the time- Chotu and oassionally Shree accompanies him, but they are mere spectator.

So it catches him by surprise one day that he is not alone these days. During work, the Dr. is there with him. It's becoming an unwritten rule that she will be with him, and at times he feels irritated when she is not. When he sits in conference room, she is there, and he finds himself listening to her. With full attention. Off duty, he tries to learn what she knows and tries to implement them. He is getting influenced, and if he pin points the day it started, it was that day when he informed her about Roshni. One line, and she never asked anything. Never treated him with pity or looked at him with sadness. She was kind. He hated kindness, and now he did not.

He respects her.

There are frequent late night phone calls where he listens to her as she falls asleep on the other side. She still sometimes sit in the record room, always greets him with 'Hello ACP' and proceeds to talk about random things. He is getting used to that- random strings of sentences which don't interconnect, that full of knowledge. He is getting to know what she likes- obviously anything related to criminal psychology, but also about other things. For the first time in years, he has desire to know about other things- just to understand her better.

She sometimes slips pieces of herself without meaning to, and he takes them in quietly- like a secret between them. There was a case of a murder of a child, and they were in the child's room. The mother's wail could be heard all the way through three bedroom-apartment house.

Her fingers trailed over the drawings etched on the wall. "He was talented."

It's a sin that a kid should be spoken to like that. When he did not even live a full life. But such is their job.

Nodding, he picked up a toy off floor, crouching down. "He was."

"The parents cared too."

"Did you deduce it from the mother's cry?"

"They hung every pictures. Every school competition, even pre -school dates. There are toys that are clearly not used in a long time. The house feels like a child stayed here. In every corner, there are prints." Then, without missing a beat, she said, "My mother did not even like hanging a picture frame."

He frowned, but the moment went as quickly as it came. She hesitated, then brushed up mentally and launched into a theory that who could be the killer.