Keeping Secrets

Chapter 3

All eyes inadvertently turned towards Aryan, who was sitting wrapped in a blanket and still trembling. His t-shirt had been stained with blood, on Nikki's side of the bed, and had been collected by the forensics team as evidence.

"I understand this is stressful, Aryan and we appreciate your cooperation," Gaurav's most compassionate pat on Aryan's shoulder was firm enough to make him shudder.

"Sir, I was initially in the bigger bedroom when I woke up with a pounding headache to loud yelling sounds from downstairs. I felt like it had barely been two hours since we slept. I was still feeling dizzy, as I rushed downstairs without thinking, and the folks in the other two rooms were having a huge fight... I wanted to calm them down or figure out what it was about, but I was feeling too hungover and nauseous... I ran upstairs into the first room that I could reach where I rushed to the restroom and vomited. I was so dizzy after that I just stumbled to the bed somehow, lay down straight and closed my eyes until I passed out. I had... no idea... Oh God, no!" Aryan buried his head in his palms and burst into tears before he ran to a corner of the lawn, retching into the grass along the way.

Gaurav gestured to a colleague to give Aryan some water before he turned towards the other two groups. "Do you all know each other?"

"No, we met here, last night," said Anushka. The two girls were almost similar in height but seemed to be polar opposites in every other way. Deblina was fair, with a pixie cut. She was dressed in an oversized cropped pullover with simple jeans and seemed awfully quieter than Anushka, who was dusky, with waist-length hair and bright pink streaks. She was dressed in a halter top with a denim shirt and shorts. She seemed as snappy as she was beautiful.

"So what was the fight about earlier this morning?"

"Oh, that?" Anushka stole a quick glance at Debbie before gesturing towards the burly drummer from the boyband and saying, "Well, Mr Handsy here could not keep his hands to himself, so I told him I knew a way, but he wasn't going to like it too much." A passive-aggressive smirk meant to indicate the victory of putting him in his place and calling out something she found obviously disgusting was pasted across her face.

Ahmen (the drummer) was clearly infuriated by this. He was over 6' tall, and hefty. The tiny gold studs on his nose and tongue gleamed against his dusky skin, making his face an interesting assortment of distractions. His friends Neil and Asad held him back to keep his body language in check, "This girl is crazy. That is not even close to the truth."

"Then what is?" Gaurav was still being patient. He was dealing with a group of youngsters and wanted to establish some confidence. The price to pay was patience.

"I saw it myself. When I woke up and could not find Debbie, I came outside looking for her and saw him trying to corner her near the pool. She was pushing him away, but he wouldn't let her go. When I shouted, he got distracted and she got a chance to run away. She has been crying ever since and will just not talk to me about it," Anushka sounded angry and certain about her opinion.

"You're so fucking obnoxious, it's pitiful," Ahmen said to Anushka with disgust before turning towards Gaurav, "Debbie had been upset all night. I was just asking her about what happened, but she wouldn't say anything. Sir, I think you should ask the crazy woman here where she slept last night," Ahmen's tone transitioned from exasperated to smug as he approached the last sentence, gesturing towards Anushka, who turned around to face Debbie, her jaw hanging, her apathetic eyes widening to replace her snarky expression with dramatic and visual disbelief.

"You're upset because I fell asleep in their room last night?" she asked, pointing towards Ryan and Kevin.

"Oh come on, Anu," Debbie broke down as though she had been holding it in for a while now. "You always pretend you can't remember anything you do after a few drinks. You know why we came here, and of course, you know what you did, so let's stop pretending like everything I feel has no reason."

Sifting through the quandary of the living to seek justice for the dead was a necessary evil in his profession, and as much as Gaurav hated dealing with young adults because of their unnecessary insolence, he was taking mental note of the facts and dynamics. He knew there was a right time to bring each issue up. He took a deep breath to keep himself from an unnecessary reaction and decided to speak to Nikki's five friends first. If anyone had had an issue with Nikki, at least one of them had to know it.

"So, three years of friendship! Did you all meet in college?" Gaurav tried to start with better times.

"Yes, sir. We met on the day of our college orientation, and since then we just never left. Each of us has our own hobbies and interests and clubs and classes, we do everything we can together: assignments, group study, coffee, movies and sleepovers." Kevin's tone was flat with a glimpse of habit. The line sounded rehearsed and Gaurav could bet that this was not the first time he was saying this.

"Good, and are all of you equally close to each other?"

"I would say we are. We have a group where we share all our important life updates with each other: good, bad, whatever. It's our safe space." Ryan added, his frame still tall despite his slouched shoulders.

"Was there anyone in this group, or in general, who did not like Nikki or might have wanted to hurt her?"

"How can you say that, sir? We all love each other to bits. We'd give our lives for each other, and besides, Nikki is the nicest girl in the world. She's the reason this group exists," Ruby's pitch shot up higher than usual amidst tears. "We often joked that we could be called the Nikki club because she was quite literally, our social glue. She was always there, for each of us and all of us. Even this trip, it was most important to Nikki. She was the one who made all the bookings and was most excited about the trip. If it wasn't for her, I might not even have come here," Ruby's brimming eyes inadvertently stole a glance at Maya as she ended her sentence.

"Ruby, right?" Gaurav took every direct interaction as an opportunity to observe each of his potential suspects closely. "I'll be more sold on your friendship when one of you, 'close friends of Nikki' has told me something that is useful for the case. Right now, chances are that it was one of these friendships that cost your friend her life. I can tell you what I know for sure right now: Nikki's death was definitely not an accident. So let me ask once again, was there anyone who would have wanted to hurt Nikki? Did she have a boyfriend, a one-sided lover, a bitter ex?"

The gazebo fell silent once again. All her friends agreed that Nikki's last relationship had been in high school in her hometown across the country. Everyone was equally confused. Even the idea of it being one of them was earth-shattering, but if it wasn't, then who else could have wanted Nikki gone?

"I have one last question for you before I start seeing you all individually. Does any of you know where Nikki's phone is?"

"I had plugged it in, next to her bed last night," Ryan spoke up. "Actually, I was on a call with my girlfriend on the balcony when I saw Kevin and Maya bringing Nikki upstairs. She was feeling a little nauseous and was not walking straight. We took her to the first room's washroom since it was closer and she wanted to throw up. After coming out, she was barely able to make it to the bed there, and she seemed comfortable, so they tucked her in and headed down. I was back to the balcony too and called Preeti back. Within a minute, I heard Nikki again, and when I went to check, she wanted her phone. I promised her I would find it and keep it safe, but she would not listen. Nikki canno.... could not live without her phone. She stayed up till I brought it to her. I put it on charge right next to her and told her she could sleep peacefully now. Then I left a bottle of water next to her and came down right after."

"And this morning? Kevin? Aryan? Do either of you remember seeing Nikki's phone by her bedside?"

They both hung their heads in disappointment, their memories too blurry to remember anything else they had seen that morning.

With that, Gaurav decided it was time to talk to them one-on-one. "There are five men and women officers who will collect your phones and some samples from each of you: fingerprints, DNA samples or any other details needed in the case. If you need to move out of this gazebo for any reason, you must be escorted by one of them. I'm sure I don't have to remind you how urgent the situation is and I hope I can expect complete cooperation from all of you," he said before leaving the youngsters to each other and the issues they had just stirred up.