Mumbai Noir

15

The weight of Mrs. Kapoor's confession hung heavy as I dialed Raj's number. He was the last person I expected to hold any information about Ayushi, but desperation fueled my every action.

When Raj opened the door, his eyes were wide with fear, like a cornered animal. Two stern shouts from Patil were enough to send him crumbling.  Tears streamed down his face as he confessed a dark secret – he used to have a crush on Ayushi.

"But Tejas," he choked out, referring to Ayushi's brother, "he was super protective. He threatened me all the time if I even looked at her the wrong way."

Shame colored his voice as he admitted to stalking Ayushi, peeking at her in inappropriate places. He claimed Tejas caught him once and delivered a vicious beating.

"I wanted revenge," he confessed, his voice dropping to a whisper. "But before I could do anything…" his voice trailed off, thick with regret.  "She was gone."

Raj's confession painted a picture of a lovesick teenager, one who wouldn't dare to kidnap Ayushi.  Yet, we couldn't afford to ignore any leads.

We confiscated his phone, extracting all call records. His house was scoured from top to bottom, but the only evidence found was a small stash of stolen photos of Ayushi from school days, a pathetic attempt to hold onto a forbidden affection.

Despite his lack of a kidnapping profile, we were forced to keep Raj in custody until a more thorough investigation could be conducted.

However, his final words sparked a flicker of something new in my mind. "Verma," he stammered. "He was very protective of Mrs. Kapoor too."

My mind raced back to Raj's story. He'd seen Ayushi and Tejas walking hand-in-hand, only to witness a strange encounter between Mr. Verma and Mrs. Kapoor. Verma, seemingly taking her saree off, then she rejected it and took the saree back and said something Raj couldn't hear. The details remained murky, Raj unable to hear the conversation.

Everything seemed to circle back to Mr. Verma. The accusations, the stolen clothes, the strange possessiveness towards Mrs. Kapoor. But could a man like him, seemingly meek and unassuming, be capable of kidnapping a young girl?

A wave of unease washed over me.  The picture wasn't clear.  We had a suspect, yes, but his motives remained shrouded in mystery. Was he obsessed with Mrs. Kapoor, and did that somehow lead to Ayushi's disappearance? Or was there something more sinister at play?

We decided to pay a visit to Verma and asked him the whole story about his affair as if we believed him so he could properly open up.