40. THE LONELINESS IN HER ABSENCE

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“Officer Avantika,” I stated, displaying my identity card issued by the  department

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“Officer Avantika,” I stated, displaying my identity card issued by the  department.

“Officer Rohan,” My colleague handed the card.

The manager nodded glancing at the names printed. Arisa wasn't able to join me as she was tasked with making a report of all the cases undertaken by the department in the last six months. So, I had to ask another officer, Rohan Vyas, who is also a part of Abhishek Chowdhury's case.

“Garv Singh Chauhan organized a reception last evening. We want to have a look at the CCTV footage. It's part of the case that we're investigating at present”

“The CCTV room is on the first right of the ground floor. Let me accompany you personally.” He offered and turned to the mentioned direction.

We reached the room and walked inside. The numerous screens informed the output of the cameras capturing various parts of the hotels, especially the corridors and gates.

The CCTV operator offered us seats while Rohan took over the role of searching the CCTV footage of last evening.

“Were the cameras working properly last evening?” I inquired, pulling the chair to sit beside him.

“Yes ma'am.”

“Can I know the time, Avantika?” My colleague questioned as the monitor displayed various files on the screen.

I pulled out the phone from my pocket and went through the group chat with my sisters as I remembered they were the last ones whom I contacted through chat.

Kavya. Who texts so many messages? She had a weird habit of bombarding the chat until someone replied.

300 messages. The icon was displayed before I could tap it.

Tapping on search, I typed the last word I was able to recall.

I remembered Geet Jija mentioning the media asking how I managed to deal with them.

Here it was.

“7.22 pm” I informed.

He selected the respective folder. We went through the footage from the second floor.

We watched Muskaan leaving the room and Garv walking into the corridor and after a minute, he exited the room lifting me in his arms.

Wait, where was the masked guy?

“Rohan, rewind,” I instructed and he obeyed.

The same footage repeated - Muskaan leaving the room, Garv entering and leaving with my unconscious self.

My eyes widened learning the time on the screen skipping from 7.24 pm to 7.40 pm.

“Rohan, look there. The time switched from 7.24 to 7.40 pm. Where are those missing sixteen minutes?”

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