The Window

2 Days After...

I woke up at around eight in the morning despite having a disturbed sleep the previous night. But, could you really blame me for being worried?

After all, Manik and I had decided to go on a little trip to see if we could track down the blackmailer's residence. Obviously, I was beyond paranoid! There were a million things that could go wrong, but I knew that if I didn't accompany him, I'd never be able to get on with the day without wondering what he'd found out.

I took a hot shower and slipped into a casual pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I quickly made some passable scrambled eggs for myself, and put the coffee maker on as well.

I shifted the eggs to a serving plate, and waited for the coffee to be brewed to perfection.

I flipped through the newspaper as I took small bites of my food.

However, when I stumbled upon the headlines of the fourth page, I nearly spat out the gobbet in my mouth, in alarm.

It read- "Fourth Missing Person's Case Reported"

And right below it was a picture of the person reported missing. The very same face that had been tormenting me for the last two days-that of Luna Chan.

Sweat beads appeared on my forehead as I compelled myself to read the article.

To my greatest relief, there wasn't anything in it that the police hadn't already told us. The girl had been reported missing by her sister and all that was mentioned was that the N.Y.P.D was "following every line of inquiry to gauge her whereabouts." It didn't have Manik's name in it in any shape or form, which meant that the press didn't have much information about the case.

However, I did pick up more information about the other disappearances. The women were all of similar age and professional background. All of them had gone missing in the past two months or so. There were pictures of each of the other women as well.

It was strange. Several people went missing in New York every day, but a corpse would invariably be recovered a few days later...

If the police hadn't been able to locate the victims, there was a good chance that a serial abductor was on the loose...

*****

I sent an e-mail to my colleagues at the office calling in sick for the day, and locked the door to my apartment once I'd gathered my things.

I was to meet Manik at the curb at nine 'o' clock, and I didn't want to be late.

I headed downstairs and exited my building only to find him pacing outside.

"Hey." I said casually, in order to grab his attention.

"Hey." He muttered in response, rather distractedly.

"So, are we all set? Where's your car?" I asked.

"So Nandini, here's the thing. I still think it's a bad idea for you to come along. Don't you think your colleagues will suspect something if you're not at work?" Manik asked, rather impatiently.

I scowled at him as I answered. "We've already had this discussion. And I said, I'm coming. Besides, I already called in sick at work, and I think I'm entitled to take a day off after working my ass off daily for the last few years."

"There's no changing your mind is there?" He asked with a smirk, as his shoulder blades flexed slightly in a surprisingly attractive manner.

"Nope." I replied.

"Well, then let's get going. The Subway station's this way." He said as he started walking after taking a right.

"The what?!" I burst out.