"Goodbye Maya. Till next time."
Maya Ganguly has always felt a sense of loneliness in her heart since the time her elder brother had run away from home. Fourteen years ago. But things were finally looking up when she was able to convince her parents...
I quietly sat on the sofa and contemplated my next course of action.
There was something scary about Mr. Barui's controlled behaviour and I could not get his bloodshot eyes out of my head. So he was the one who had stopped Rakesh from coming back to us. He was the one who had kept him away from us all these years because Rakesh reminded him of his dead son.
I took out Blackie and held him in my hand. Rakesh had kept my teddy bear with him all these years despite everything he had to go through. He never forgot us. He had never wanted to leave us forever. I hugged the shabby teddy bear in my relief.
I stood up. Rakesh seemed to be in grave danger by the look of things. Mr. Barui sounded pretty desperate and his 'at the cost of his own life' didn't seem to be empty threats to me. I could not let my brother go away after all I've been through, and especially not since he was being forced to stay away from us.
I put my ear against the door in the hopes of hearing anything but I couldn't. I tried the door knob but it was locked. The door didn't seem to be much sturdy and I decided to try my luck and break it. I could have just as well used a hair clip or something but I had no idea how that worked and this was no time for experiments. So I took hold of a somewhat heavy trunk full of old and broken toys and smashed it onto the door. A loud bang reverberated out but the door didn't budge.
I put my ear to the door again to check whether anybody had heard it. I couldn't hear anyone on the other side.
So far, so good.
I did this again and again for two or three times before the hinges seemed to budge a bit. It was working! I put every ounce of strength in my body to smash the trunk into the door one last time.
A loud clutter and a bang ensued.
The door had come off its hinges! I dropped the heavy trunk to a side. It was strange that nobody had heard me breaking the door but then I wasn't about to complain. I took hold of my backpack and rushed downstairs to the hall. It was completely empty. My eyes travelled to the cabinet. The glass case containing the revolver was also empty.
My heart pounding, I stumbled through the rooms in search of Mr. Barui. Atifa had told me that Mr. Barui's place thronged with a host of servants but today, the whole house seemed to be deserted.
Something was definitely wrong.
Suddenly a blood curdling scream echoed through the empty bungalow. I swiftly went in the direction from where the noise originated. As soon as I rounded a corner, I was met with the man with the scar on his face. He was lying face down on the ground. I turned him over with the worst thoughts swirling in my head. But he simply seemed to be unconscious.
"You never got over the habit of sneaking into places," I heard Mr. Barui's voice from the adjoining room. The door of the room was open. I jumped out of view from in front of the door ledge.
Mr. Barui had surely seen me. I dropped my backpack in despair. He surely had the revolver with him. I bit my lips as I pictured him walking out of the room and finding me standing here. I realised that I had been holding my breath for quite some time now and inhaled quietly.
"What have you done with her?," I heard Rakesh's voice to my surprise. Hearing his voice somewhat cooled my nerves and I peeped into the room from a side of the door ledge.
Mr. Barui was standing a few paces in front, his back turned towards me. The detective stood facing Mr. Barui separated by a few paces.
I realised that the detective had put his hands up, the revolver pointed towards his face.
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