Not Again

Chapter 13

Location - Golden Dust Hotel

Varshitha stood in the reception of the hotel, with a layer of make-up and still looked pretty like any other day. She was busy in the laptop when Assistant Commissioner Richard reached the desk looking for her. Varshitha took her eyes off the laptop and was surprised to see Richard in the reception desk.

"Sir???"

"Sorry to bother you right now. I need to talk to you. Definitely not more than ten minutes"

Richard had avoided his uniform and was in casuals. Varshitha quickly whispered to her colleague and came out of the reception area.

Richard pointed at a couch in the reception area, "Shall we sit there?"

"Sure"

They walked over to the velvet covered rich sofa and got seated.

"Miss Varshitha... The information that you gave on Varun is contradicting with what he is actually. For you, his image portraits a good boyfriend and a poet. But on the other side he is entirely different and can say a bit dangerous"

Varshitha's face turned to a panic mode.

"Sir?? I can't understand what you are saying?"

Richard took couple of minutes to explain Bio-Technologist Sanjeev's narration on the diagrams they found in Varun's room. He also touched the Vice Chancellor Indra's murder and its links to the diagrams. Varshitha looked stunned hearing the stories.

"Do you think that Varun has killed VC Indra?"

"No Varshitha... As of now, we are not concluding that. This is just our guess. With the latest proceedings and if we relate everything, that is where it leads to. It may be correct or false too"

"Sir... Varun is a warm hearted person. I can't imagine him killing someone"

"Do you know he visited Delhi couple of times?"

"Yes I do"

"But in our first discussion, you didn't convey this vital information"

"Sorry... That didn't come to my mind then"

"Do you know the reason for his visit?"

"He said it is an official visit"

"...which means that his office sent him...Right"

"That's right"

"But that's not true. He has lied to you"

"How did you know that he lied?"

"A few hours back, we had visited the 'MicroField' lab where he was working. We met the managing director and enquired about him. They confirmed that they didn't send Varun to Delhi and that it was he applied leave. He had informed the management that he is visiting Delhi for his personal work. As Varun takes leave rarely, they approved his leave request. They gave another piece of information too"

"What is that?"

"The management had seen lots of changes in Varun in the last one year. He started to learn other languages like French and Japanese. And he has met neurosurgeon Mr. Harish and threw him some tough questions. As he didn't have answers for those, he stunned him answering those questions."

"Sir.. Are these true? I finding it tough to believe all of these"

Richard smiled at her.

"I came here after meeting the neurosurgeon Harish. So these are real"

"Do you think that Varun is linked to the VC's murder?"

"Absolutely... Else there is no reason for him to safeguard that newspaper snippet in his room"

Varshitha went speechless for a while and she continued.

"Sir... I remember something now"

"Go ahead"

"When we both met couple of months back, he was checking with me whether I have a valid passport. I said that I don't have one. He requested me to apply for one as soon as possible. When asked for the reason, he said that he might get a chance to travel abroad and also that he wanted to take me with him"

"So... That said, he had a wish to travel abroad...Right?"

"I think so.... Else he wouldn't have said that to me"

"Listen Varshitha... His trip to Delhi might be for the research he was doing on Human brain. We don't know yet on where he had stayed and whom he met there. Had he ever called you while in Delhi?"

"Yes he did"

"Where did he stay in Delhi?"

"He said that he stayed in the lab's guest house"

"No... That's not the case"

"I don't know why he lied to me then"

"If he had lied you, there should be something wrong"

"Sir... There is a way to find out where he stayed"