"That's everything, right?" Rishav asked, seating across from Radhika and Keshav at the dining table, his fingers wrapped around his phone.
"Yeah," Radhika responded swiftly.
Keshav rested his forearms on the table beside her, which brushed against her, and for a brief moment, Radhika felt grateful for his existence. All that talking at the hospital helped. "These are all potential leads. We need to search them."
Last night at dinner Radhika told Rishav about the scar thing on Azad kaku's face. His appearance suddenly four years after her father's death was increasing her doubts, even though she wished her doubts to be wrong from the bottom of her heart.
She didn't want to feel betrayed yet again.
Keshav talked about his visit to the school Sen's, finding some books on black magic from a locker in Mr. Sen's office room, and how he got attacked by a person when he came back to the hotel at night.
He couldn't figure out whether it was a man or a woman but the person did mention Keshav's actual identity.
"Well, I still can't believe it, will he hurt Ishaan, his son?" A look of disbelief was prominent on Radhika's face as she spoke.
"Everything is possible in this world, Rai...People can do anything to achieve what they want. Even if it includes hurting their own family." Rishav said while getting up. "Well, I have messaged Dhruv. He will send two guys to keep an eye over Mr. Aditya Sen and Azad Kaku."
"And what about Keshav's identity? How did the killer find out? We only talked about this in the department."
"Well, this can mean only one thing." Rishav prompted. "There's a mole on lose...."
...................
It was after lunch when Radhika found Keshav searching for something on the laptop, sitting on the sofa in the living room. There were some books too which she recognized to be her father's.
"What are you doing?" Radhika asked as she sat beside him, grabbing a throw pillow to hug.
"Well, I," Keshav breathed, "I saw some books on the shelf about the tarot cards so I was reading them. You know... to find any clue. By the way, sorry for taking it without permission."
"You don't need to be sorry. I also searched but didn't understand anything. I may be the daughter of two magicians but I don't understand anything of this."
Keshav chuckled before saying, "Well every tarot card has a meaning. It is mainly used to advise people but sometimes it could be used for detecting something bad. But I didn't find something important."
"Then what do you think? Is the killer trying to achieve something by these killings or it was just for some grudge?"
"It could be anything. Being magicians who make people happy by showing magic tricks does not mean that they had never done something bad in their whole life. We all have different kinds of insecurities, which sometimes makes us do something wrong-"
"But it's on us to see how far we are going and whether we are ready to face the consequences. Being able to do something others can't, doesn't mean we are outside the law of God, outside the law of humanity."
Radhika completed the last few sentences of what Keshav was saying. It was the same thing both their parents used to say in their childhood.
"I was thinking about something. Can you show me the ring of your father? You know.... if you don't mind..." Keshav asked hesitantly, trying his best not to make Radhika remember anything that can hurt her.
"Stop asking so hesitantly," Radhika said before getting up. "You are my friend. Don't act like a stranger. Now come."
A smirk formed on Keshav's face as he walked up to her. "Just a friend??"
Ignoring his teasing Radhika went to her room and opened the locker of her wardrobe. Every day while using the wardrobe Radhika saw the ring but it was the first time in ten years, that she was going to take it out.
Her fingers shook as she forwarded her hand to take the ring out. Feeling Keshav's hand on her shoulder she felt a little stronger. Taking a deep breath, she took out the ring from its holder.
The very next moment both of them looked at each other surprised. It was not for the ring but the strange sound of something moving. Turning their heads towards the sound, they saw, the back wall of the locker moving downwards revealing another drawer with a brown-colored file in it.
"A secret drawer!!!" Radhika and Keshav both said at the same time being amazed. Radhika didn't ever think of finding something like this in her room.
Snapping out of it at first, Keshav took out the file. Taking a look at Radhika, he slowly opened it. There were some old papers. "Looks like DNA report to me, Rai."
"DNA report?" Radhika asked wearing the same look of confusion as Keshav as he flipped through the pages to find out more, stopping at the last page, eyes widening in the next second.
Radhika froze in her place when her eyes landed on the last few lines of the report.... 'Probability of paternity indicated above is 99.999998%. Hereby proving Mr. Vikram Sengupta as the biological father of the tested child, Ishaan Sen.'
YOU ARE READING
The Lines of Fate
Mystery / Thriller"But that smile on your face, that's the real magic." Radhika Sengupta had spent most of her life studying and training to be in the Criminal Investigation Department of Alipore, Kolkata so that she can solve her father's murder case. When she is fa...
