In Sunshine or In Shadow ✔ [Completed]

Chapter 21 - Chiron

The team had been scheduled to meet at the bar already when Riddhima made her decision to reignite her investigation. So Vansh just sent them a text telling them that both of them were coming. O'Malley's had a sparse crowd at the slightly early hour coupled with the fact that it was a weekday. It was the perfect time for them to discuss the case.

The rest of the team was already there with beers and plate of nachos to share. Vansh took Riddhima's hand as they walked inside, giving it a gentle squeeze. There was no point in hiding their relationship after Kabir's broad announcement, at least when they were off the clock.

"So this is where you all have been running off to," Riddhima announced when they arrived to the large, circular booth.

"Yeah," Angre said, "We didn't want to give up on the case, but you wanted to distance yourself from it so this seemed like the best option."

"Sneaking around behind my back?" The three of them shared guilty looks until she smiled. "Thanks."

She and Vansh slid into the booth and were passed around some beers.

"Okay, so tell me what you have learned?" she asked, "Or do I need to learn the secret handshake?"

They filled her in on their list of accomplishments, but their major point of success was managing to narrow the suspect list to sixteen possibilities. Riddhima listened to their story and how they had managed to do all of that. "Wow, you guys really have been working."

"We couldn't let it go," Kabir said.

"Even though I told you to?"

"This affected all of us. You would need the closer eventually and we all knew we needed that too."

Riddhima nodded. "I understand. I'm sorry, I never really thought about how all of you felt about it."

"It's okay, boss," Angre said, "This is our job, not yours."

"That's where you're wrong. We're a team. We are in this together, including me. Officially, Kabir is in charge and I'm fine with that. But I want to catch this bastard too." She gave them her best scolding look and then asked, "Now, where do we go from here?"

"That's the problem," Sara said, "We're stuck. We have sixteen suspects, but we can't narrow them down."

"Okay, then let's go back to the beginning. I was attacked between 11:23 and midnight. He wore a suit or tuxedo of some kind and he had a scar on his shoulder. He must have had training of some kind in order to take me out. Now, who was our first suspect? Hathaway, right?"

Angre shook his head. "No, it was actually Lee Myers."

Riddhima blinked at him. "Who the hell is that?"

Vansh grinned at the memory of Myers's interview. "He was the event organizer. We saw him staring at you in the video, but he was still in the ballroom during the attack."

"Why was he staring at me?"

Vansh's smile blossomed and his eyes twinkled. "Apparently you have the hottest ass outside of a filthy magazine."

Riddhima's mouth fell open while the others struggled and failed to contain their laughter. "I guess I'll take that as a compliment," she said.

"Hathaway was our next suspect," Angre said, "We found out about his complaint against you and he was pretty cheerful over the whole thing, but he was eliminated because he alibied out."

"And he didn't have any combat training," Vansh said.

Riddhima nodded and grabbed another file. "Ryckart. He was your last suspect?"