Truth Amidst The Lies

Chapter 6

"What did DCP Roy want?" Lobo asked the moment Kelkar stepped out.

Kelkar watched him for a minute. He had seen Lobo walk over the DCP the second he left Kelkar's cabin. "Didn't the DCP tell you?"

"He said you are going to need all the help you can," Lobo smirked, "I was wondering what exactly did you do this time?"

Kelkar's face turned rigid, "Rather than worry about what I did, it might be more productive to worry about the case. We have to solve it in the next four days."

"We or you?" Lobo asked titling his head.

"Do you want to try going by your own timeframe and seeing if it is just me or you?" Kelkar asked before walking away.

***

It was past midnight when Kelkar tiptoed into his bedroom and sat gently on the bed.

"Did you have dinner?"

Kelkar sighed and turned around.

His wife was already out of the bed and walking out of the room as she said, "Get changed and come for dinner."

"You didn't need to stay awake," Kelkar told her as he sat to have his dinner.

"I wouldn't ...if I could trust you to have your food," she said resting her elbows on the dining table.

He sighed but didn't reply back.

She watched him for a few minutes, forcing the food down his throat, "What is bothering you?"

He looked up at her blankly.

"It would help if you can share what is going on in that head of yours," she said.

"You cannot help me," he muttered.

"Remember that next time you call me for help," she shot back.

He opened his mouth to speak a couple of times before muttering, "Sorry"

She shook her head, "Now tell me what is the problem?"

"That asshole–"

"Pradeep!"

"–Roy," Kelkar looked at her with a rigid expression, "I am not going to apologize for calling him what he really is. Not when it is just us."

She rolled her eyes but let him continue.

"He has come up with a new way to get me thrown out. A deadline for solving every crime. And if I don't solve it in time, I have to resign. This is just his way of making things difficult for me because he doesn't like me," Kelkar grunted washing his plate in the sink.

"You think he has personal grudge against you?"

"You know he does!" Kelkar shot back.

"He didn't get to that position by holding personal grudges."

"So you think I am wrong?" Kelkar gritted through his teeth.

She shook her head, "All I am saying is that there is more to the man and what he does than what we know."

"Which is what?"

She put the leftovers in the refrigerator and turned to look at him, "I don't know."

He fumed as he looked at her.

"So what is the deadline?"

"Four days," he said as he rested against the kitchen platform.

"You have been able to solve cases in that time," she reasoned.

"Not in a case like this where I cannot even make heads or tails. I have been shooting darts in the dark and my team ..." he waved his hands in the air, shaking his head.