Paakhi

T W E N T Y

Shantanu had used up a casual leave again today, which meant that he was going to have to visit the old age home in civil clothes. This also meant that he wouldn't be able to use any of his police privileges. Aritro had texted him about his arrival at his residence absolutely bang on time, and just that instant, he was headed to his vehicle downstairs to meet with him.

"I could have picked you up from your place, you know." Shaan said, when the man was within hearing range.

Aritro gave a quick nod in greeting, "It's okay, your place is not too far."

Since they were headed to Tulsihara, which was pretty far outside of the main city, they had decided to leave early to beat the morning traffic. Shaan hadn't really wanted to acknowledge it to himself, but it felt like this little road trip with Aritro was possibly going to help ease the unspoken tension that had developed between them in the past day or two.

"Do you want me to drive?" Aritro asked matter of fact-ly, eying his car, "I've been doing practically nothing for the past couple of days." He explained quickly.

Shaan hesitated a moment, but then found himself loosen up. He'd had long nights for many days in a row now. Plus, he could use the ride to freshen up a little so that he could remain focussed and alert once they reached.

But Aritro seemed to take his silence for a lack of trust, and added in earnest, "I have a license." He said this, as he started to pull out his wallet from the back pocket of his denims.

Shantanu laughed, "Why are you civilians so scared of cops?"

Mili had looked equally frightened the other night; it had been very amusing to him.

"But now that you've pulled that out..." he mocked playfully, as he took the driver's license from him and pretended to go over it.

Aritro rolled his eyes, snatching the card back from him and placing it back into his wallet. "Is that a yes then?"

Shaan handed the car keys over and quietly started for the passenger's seat. Aritro let out a small grin, and just like that; they hit the road.

"Can I ask you something, Sir?"

Shantanu had been busy making notes in his phone; this was a habit he had picked up from a senior and had found very useful for investigations; especially ones with a time crunch such as this.

"Go ahead."

"Um, it's personal. You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Shaan nodded, "Goes without saying."

Aritro's gaze remained trained on the GPS tracker in rapt attention as he cleared his throat, and asked, "You were so close to Vandana..." that caught Shaan's attention, "...you knew of her condition better than anyone else. Didn't you ever try to reach out afterwards?"

He actually had thought about her numerous times over the years, and had regretted not telling her the way he felt about her almost every, single day. In fact, he had tried reaching her once too, about a year after his first posting. He didn't know it then, but she'd already left her home by that time.

"I did, but she had changed her number." Even as he said this, he knew that it sounded pretty lame of an excuse for not reaching out to someone you claim to love; especially when you're a cop and have access to literally so many resources. Shaan cleared his throat, the volume of his voice lowering in decibels as he admitted softly, "I was kind of mad at her, for never mentioning Mohit to me."

"So, you'd assumed they were together?"

Shantanu blinked, "They were together, I told you about my conversation with her on the beach that day. She said he was practically the only person she cared about." And I was literally standing right before her that instant, ready to take on the whole bloody world for her if she would just ask me once.