On the Run

Chapter 26 : Deliberations and Decisions

10:30 pm, Riverside Apartments, Mumbai.

I stood at the balcony of my own flat and watched the police car parked outside the apartment gates. I felt like a prisoner in my own home! They had been keeping a watch on us ever since Manik escaped!

Manik! If he appeared in front of me right at this moment, I didn't know what I'd do to him! One part of me wanted to throttle him for his pigheadedness and the other part of me wanted to hug him to offer him comfort!

It had been nearly three days since I'd last spoken to him! When I informed him about the recording the Singhanias possessed, I finally thought Manik would allow us to help him! After all, Fab Five was his family! But, no! Instead, he insisted on extracting the recording all by himself! And in order to do so, he kidnapped an innocent girl?!

I knew that he was planning to do something crazy! But this?! He had completely lost his mind! In order to prove himself innocent of one crime, he committed another?! How stupid could he get?!

And the girl, I had absolutely no idea who she was! Was she connected to the Singhanias in any way? Is that why Manik kidnapped her? In order to use her as leverage to blackmail the Singhanias?

Cabir! Calm down! Don't let your thoughts run wild!

I was sure that Manik had a good reason for committing such a crime, but was it really worth it?

I still wasn't sure if I should have told him about the recording or not! I knew that he was an impulsive soul, and he would be hasty in his actions! However, I told him about it to give him hope-something he seemed to be desperately in need of at the time!

It was such a spot of luck that Dhruv and I had overheard Ram Singh speaking to Mukesh Singhania on the phone! Both of us had then coerced Ram Singh into confessing that he had been betraying the Malhotras for a while! The police had no idea about the bug, but I was convinced that if we got our hands on the recording, Ram Singh would corroborate our story. That man seemed too weak willed to withhold the truth for long!

I was brought out of my contemplation when I heard Dhruv scream my name.

"Cabir! Yahan aa jaldi!" He screamed.

I sighed in frustration as I said. "Coming!"

I immediately stepped into the drawing room of my flat and closed the door to the balcony.

"Kya hua?" I asked Dhruv, in a bored voice.

"Dekh-news pe kya bol rahe hain..." He replied pointing to the T.V screen.

I scanned everyone's face in the room and realized that something was seriously wrong! Dhruv, Alya and Mukti seemed utterly shell-shocked!

I turned my eyes to the television screen and watched a news reporter as she said. "So in the top news today...the mystery of Shrikant Malhotra's death is once again in the forefront, as more news surfaces about his son Manik Malhotra. According to investigations carried out by the police, Manik-the main suspect in his father's murder case- had gone missing for a number of days after fleeing from the scene of the crime. However, now his location is no longer a secret as a video of him and his supposed romantic partner-Nandini Murhty-singing at a beach in Goa has gone viral on social media. Earlier, it was believed that Manik had kidnapped Nandini Murthy, but according to a tip that our channel received yesterday, she eloped with him of her own free will. And the video confirms the same! Although Manik isn't currently in police custody, the police have increased security in Goa to catch him as soon as possible. Stay tuned to News Express for more updates on this story later...until then, let's have a look at the snippets of the video that's gone viral..." She said.