Your fabricated lie

21 - Stage one

I proved myself stupid in every possible angle. Gautham offered me a glass of water and I was sitting on the couch when he was walking up and down aggressively.

When I was sipping on water having an innocent look on my face, "No. I don't understand how it is possible. I mean – "

"Gautham, for next five minutes… just listen to me," I didn't even request him. Instead, ordered him. "This text was our secret code for an emergency meeting. Remember?".

"One of our secret codes for emergency meetings!" He corrected me by stressing 'one of' as we had four of such codes. He continued, "We had four of that kind. Then why this one out of all the other four?"

I stayed silent as I didn't have an answer for that.

Gautham further said, "Look, I understand that you miss Karthik but it is also time for you to acknowledge that he is no more. That text was not sent by Karthik but by Aditya". After a short pause, "If there is someone you got to meet then - then it is him," he said.

It was absolutely more than just disappointment from him. I looked away and was ready to leave. I finally understood that this guy is not going to help me anymore.

"Apologies for the inconvenience," I said before leaving. To be honest, that was just an act to make him feel sorry for behaving that way. I realized that my puppy act succeeded when his adorable hand stopped me from leaving.

Sighing heavily and being tired keeping up with my stupid acts, "What's the plan?" he asked.

There you go. This is how it goes and it has always been this way. He knows I am stupid yet keeps with all my stupid acts.

This act of mine or this stupid decision to follow my instincts might make me look like a lunatic but what if it's true?! I am not going to let a single chance of getting Karthik back slip off. Even if this is a trap, I am more than ready for it.

Gautham still seemed unsure about it.

"What's with that look?" I asked.
After thinking for a while as to how soft he should sound so that I won't get hurt, he said, "Anu, I don't think it is a good – "

I interrupted him with a call and had it on speaker. "Missing me?" was the first dialogue Aditya said.

"Adi, do you know Korean?" I asked, ignoring his flirtatious moment.

"Nope," he said. "But I can learn it for – " I cut the call because he was acting weird at the wrong moment. "See… he doesn't even know K in Korean," I spoke to Gautham.

"What if it's a trap?" he asked.

"It's me who they are dealing with," I was a bit overconfident of myself as I wanted him to trust me. "Gautham, think about it. Initially we received information stating that Aditya's wife was burnt alive. Then we got to know that her wife was not burnt alive but burnt after abusing her. Exactly a week ago I got to see her and she was doing more than fine," I rapped at 2x speed trying to convince him.

"YOU SAW HER?" Gautham asked. Though it hurt as that was the only statement he heard, I was a bit satisfied because of his not so sufficient attention.

"Fortunately or unfortunately, I did". I said, "But look at the coincidence, Gautham. We had news stating that Roshini was burnt alive and the DNA reports matched though it was not her. She was absolutely fine when I saw her". After taking a pause and getting ready for the second part explanation, "Same goes with Karthik too. We were informed that he was dead in a car crash and we were given some ashes. Stupid us! We took those ashes and were so emotional to the point where we ignored the fact that finding the ashes of a person when the whole car was on fire is difficult!"

I continued saying, "The picture is clear, Gautham. Roshini's body was burnt, Karthik's was burnt too. Roshini's DNA reports matched. Karthik's matched too. Roshini is alive – "

"KARTHIK IS ALIVE TOO!" He completed my statement.

"Exactly!" I exclaimed.

We stared at each other and things started falling in its place automatically. Syllogism was clear but still both us were unsure. It is always said that nothing matters other than FACTS. Without them, the science of criminal investigation is nothing more than a guessing game! We began to play a guessing game too, where our hypothesis was clear and objective was crystal clear!

After two fruitful hours, he was finally convinced and I felt like I won stage one.

Phew!

Now, stage two - finding ways to get a hold of Karthik's whereabouts.