Bombay Romance ♡ COMPLETED

[ 66 ] Gunbattle ■

'What are you doing here?' Amarnath demands as Parthiban gets into the car beside him.

'You need my help.'

'I don't need your help.'

Parthiban ignores this remark and drops a file on Amarnath's lap. It contains hand-drawn plans of a house.

'Rajashekaran's house. This is the room where I've put a microphone,' Parthiban points to a large room on the first floor.

Amarnath turns to him with a surprised, quizzical gaze. 'Microphone?'

'It was for your case investigation. But we didn't get any help from that. If you're lucky, you might hear them speaking.'

Amarnath pauses for a moment, not quite knowing what to say. 'Thanks ... '

'Don't get emotional, I still don't like you,' Parthiban says and gets out of the car, feeling nauseous at the unusual bonhomie.

'Yeh kaun hain?' Amarnath asks as two constables drag a boy in handcuffs towards the jeep. He is slightly limping due to the trashing from the police canes.

Parthiban whacks the thin boy on the head. 'Tell him!'

'S-Saab, Raju bhai sent me ... t-to inform him what's happening inside the court ... I don't know anything els-'

'I'm taking him along with me,' Amarnath says immediately, putting his head out the car window. 'Put him in that jeep.'

The constables nod and lead the boy to the jeep behind Amarnath's car. Parthiban lets out an exasperated sigh. 'Do you really have to interfere in everything I do?'

●●●

Suraj hurls his whiskey glass at the wall; it shatters and sprays the floor with several tiny glass pieces. 'Pata tha mereko, something like this will happen. Ekdum bakwass hain aapka plan!'

'Suraj ... '

'Then what, Raju bhai?? I knew all this drama wouldn't work. Usko ek maar mein tokna aasaan tha! But you said people will turn against us if he dies. You said they should lose respect for him. But the opposite happened in the front of the court today. Don't know what happened in the hearing ... that useless Hari should've been here by now ... '

At the same moment, all the lights go off and the house becomes pitch dark. Faint moonlight slowly seeps in through the open windows of the first-floor drawing room.

'Torch ... ' Rajashekaran rummages through the drawer noisily. 'Gopi!'

'Ji bhai!' A man abandons his playing cards and comes running up the stairs, holding a flashlight.

Suraj takes the torch from his hand. 'Check if the fuse has tripped.'

The man nods and yells at someone downstairs to check the switchboard. One of them shouts something in response.

'Nahi bhai, sab theek hain,' The man says. 'No power in any house.'

Suraj looks out the window. It is dark, except for the moonlight. The street lights are gone too. There is an insistent sound of crickets chirping with an occasional bat wafting from one tree to another. The leaves are absolutely still.

'Bhai, kuch gadbad hain ... ' Suraj pulls out his gun, pasting his back against the wall next to the window. 'Extra bullets kahan hain?'

'Below my bed.'

'Gopi, there must be a bag below Bhai's bed. Bring it here, fast!' Suraj tells the man. 'And everyone be alert. Don't go out of the house.'

The man nods and dashes downstairs.