BELLS IN NEW YORK

Chapter 08- part 01

Nearly half an hour later, Detective Sanders, Detective Addams, and I rang the doorbell to my house and waited for Pa to open the door. I could have easily opened the door myself, but it just didn't feel right since we were there on an investigation.

Pa opened the door less than ten seconds after ringing the bell. I had called him earlier that day to inform him about the visit, so he must have been waiting for our arrival.

"Come on in," he said, ushering us into the house and closing the door behind us.

While the two detectives introduced themselves to Pa and briefed him on how the investigation will go, I finally took a good look at my father. His big, dark brown eyes were bloodshot and sunken into the skull. His tan skin hung loosely on his muscles or lack of, might I add. His shoulder-length black hair, which looked beautiful just two days ago, was unkempt with streaks of white dotted throughout. It was almost unbelievable what had happened to this gorgeous man almost overnight.

The briefing was soon finished, and they decided to go ahead with getting Pa's statement before moving on to searching the house.

"So, Mr. Sharma," Detective Sanders began as he sat down on the couch opposite Pa, "give me a full account of everything that happened yesterday, starting from yesterday morning."

Pa began the account of his day from the moment he woke up. Soon after I had left for work, Pa had gone to the grocery store. He had taken the day off to spend time with my cousins. Having come back from the store, Pa had been lazing around while playing with Ivaan for the rest of the morning. Then he prepared lunch for the family before he left for the post office. After he got back, he cleaned around the house. At around four-thirty, detective Campbell had dropped by to play with Ivaan for about thirty minutes. After detective Campbell had left the house, Pa began preparations for dinner. Priya and Gopal had also decided to join him in the kitchen, leaving Ivaan alone in the living room to play by himself. Soon after, they heard the doorbell ringing twice but took a couple of minutes to answer it. by the time they reached the door, it was left open, and Ivaan was not where they had left him.

The room descended into silence as the two detectives continued to write on their notepads. After two full minutes of silence, detective Addams spoke up.

"Mr. Sharma, do you mind elaborating on detective Campbell's visit?" he asked.

Pa briefly glanced at me before answering the question.

"Detective Campbell had been wanting to drop by to meet Ivaan for a while. So, yesterday, he had told Drithi that he will be coming over to the house to meet Ivaan."

"And how close are you with detective Campbell" detective Addams pressed on.

"We are not too close but I know that he is Drithi's senior at work and that he had helped Drithi a lot with getting used to the workplace. he has also dropped by for lunch a few times before this."

"How long ago did he last come here?" this time, it was detective sanders questioning Pa.

"A little over a month ago, if my memory serves me right," Pa answered after a brief pause.

The two detectives continued to write on their notepads and I watched, part in confusion, part in awe.

"All right Mr. Sharma" detective Sanders finally said, standing up, "thank you so much for your cooperation. That is all for the questioning. Now, we would like to take a look around the house just to be sure we didn't miss any details that will be important for the investigation."

Detective Addams and I trailed behind detective Sanders and Pa as he gave the two detectives a tour around the house.

"I didn't know you were so close to detective Campbell. How did that come about?" detective Addams suddenly whispered to me as we went out the front door into our small front yard.

"We aren't that close," I whispered back, "he just helped me out a lot, and Pa invited him for lunch a couple of times to thank him for taking care of me. That's it,"

"Are you sure that's it?" detective Addams said, raising his eyebrows.

I glared back at the detective, surprised that he decided to go that far with his imagination.

"Are you crazy? He's so much older! He isn't even my ty- you know what? There's no point in even explaining it to you. Think whatever you want," I whispered harshly, praying that my tan skin would hide the heat that was starting to show on my skin. I did not expect detective Addams to be such a busybody. What was that all about?

I could hear the detective chuckling as I walked past him and towards Pa. he was standing to the side while detective Sanders looked through every nook and cranny.

"Pa," I said simply, as I stood next to him. Detective Addams passed by me, nudging me against the shoulder, as he walked towards detective Sanders. I scowled at his back.

"Drithi, how's work?" Pa asked, making my scowl disappear instantly.

"It's all right, Pa," I answered simply, looking at him. "You don't look too good, Pa. did you eat anything yet?"

He slowly nodded his head but refused to make eye contact with me.

"Pa. you haven't had anything to eat yet, have you?" I asked again.

This time, he remained silent.

"I'll order something for you, make sure to eat it, okay?" I said, less of a question, more of a command.

He simply nodded his head. I could feel tears welling up yet again as I watched the dejected man, struggling to keep his own tears at bay.

"Pa. we will find Ivaan. I'll make sure of it. So please look after your health. Ivaan will come back," I reassured him, hugging Pa.

The moment was immediately broken when detective Sanders suddenly spoke up, making the two of us look up at him.

"Here it is. I found what I had been looking for all along."

♧♧♧

I'm back! It's been a while, eh? I didn't realize it was going to take me this long to adapt to the new semester, and honestly, I'm still not as comfortable as I would want to be.

BUT!!! I managed to write a chapter! Yay!!!! It took a loooong time, but it's finally here!

Anyways, I hope you liked it. Keep an eye out for the next one. I will try to be as regular with my updates as possible, but no promises :)

My goal is to finish the book this year. We'll see how it goes!

See you in the next one!

ባይ
(Pronounced bai)
(Amharic)

18/03/2023