Intertwined Fates -- An IPKKND FanFic

Lunch with the Creep

By the time Shyam knocked on Khushi's door, she was marginally calmer. Thinking logically, she'd concluded that Shyam wouldn't attack Anjali until he had an airtight alibi as he did in the other cases. A friendly chat with the office secretary confirmed that he wasn't scheduled to travel for another three weeks. If Khushi had her way, he'd be travelling before those three weeks were up--but only to a jail cell.

Shyam took Khushi to a restaurant a block away from the firm. He brushed his hand against Khushi's several times as they walked side by side, and she hated that she had to let it happen.

Once they were sitting, he tried to reach across the table and put his hand on top of the one that she'd let rest on the surface but Khushi wasn't having it. To counter his suspicious scowl, she gave him a sweet smile. "There are people, here, Mr. Jha. Maybe..." she looked down shyly. "Maybe if we were in a more private setting."

He bought the excuse with a smarmy grin.

"So tell me about yourself, Mr. Jha. Tell me about your family, where you grew up, how you got here...I want to know everything."

They sat there for the whole hour. Shyam was reluctant to give details, but Khushi was persistent. She flirted and wheedled and flattered bits of information out of him, secretly recording the whole conversation. It wouldn't hold up in court, nor did she intend to use it this way. In fact, she'd delete it as soon as she wrote down notes because secret recordings could land her in hot water. But for now, she would use them as reference.

She learned that he was from Kolkata and that's where he had gone to law school. He wouldn't tell her the exact name of the school but revealed that he had graduated seven years ago. He had no family and his eyes welled up with what Khushi suspected were crocodile tears as he told her how lonely he was. She asked him about his marital status and with his signature smarmy look, he told her he was single. She lowered her eyes to feign shyness then reverted the topic back into professional waters, asking him where he'd worked before. He beat around the bush but she stuck to the topic until he mentioned Chennai and Agra. When she gushed about his worldliness and experience, he puffed up like a peacock and also mentioned working in Mumbai. She tried to get dates of when he'd been in each of the cities, but he swerved the topic and started discussing his loneliness again.

"All I want Khushi Ji, is someone who will love me and allow me to love her."

"Please, Shyam Ji. There must be something more you want. What should she look like? What should she act like?"

"It doesn't matter what she looks like--if I love her, I will find her beautiful. She can act however she wants, as long as she accepts my gift."

"Gift?"

There was an odd, slightly demonic glint in Shyam's eyes as he answered, "The gift of eternity Khushi Ji. I will gift her the knowledge that my love, my companionship was hers for as long as she was alive."

It was a convoluted statement, illogical with undercurrents of madness. Goosebumps covered Khushi's arms and something of her fear must have shown on her face because Shyam said, "What's wrong, Khushi Ji?"

She smiled. "Nothing, Shyam Ji. We should get back to the office."

Khushi worked diligently into the afternoon, going through the recording and marking down all the interesting points. Shyam's experiences at law had started in Kolkata, which was the city of the first murder. All the other cities that he'd mentioned also coincided with other murder locations, but this was very circumstantial evidence.

She looked up the law schools in Kolkata. There were six of them total. One by one, she pulled up their websites, checked to see if a Shyam Manohar Jha had graduated from any of them seven years ago. Then she'd checked for each of the other four names on the marriage certificates. Not a single one popped up. Just to be sure, she'd also looked into the graduating classes of eight and six years ago as well, but no cigar.

So Shyam had lied to her. Neither he, or any of his previous aliases, had a graduating degree, at least not from Kolkata. Did that mean the degrees were fake then? That would explain why he was such a bad lawyer.

She needed to get a hand on his law degree certificate to confirm. Upon hiring, she'd given a copy of hers to the firm so she assumed he must have done the same. All of the employees' records were kept in the basement, so she made a quick trip down there, found his certificate, made a copy for herself before returning the law firm's copy to its original place.

The certificate did indeed state that he'd graduated seven years ago from a small Kolkata law school but when Khushi looked closely, she saw that the logo was off. She printed a copy of the actual school logo and marked the differences with a red pen.

Khushi smirked. This wasn't enough to convict for murder but it was the strong evidence that Shyam was a fraud.

If only she had his other fake law degrees, but to get that she'd have to figure out which law firms he'd worked at exactly, visit them and steal the fake certificates. She could probably do it if she had enough time, but it couldn't be helped.

Glancing at her Devi Maiyya statue at her desk, she whispered a quick plea for inspiration before pulling up the police reports again to find other family members of the victims to question.

A few moments later, her phone rang and Khushi lifted her eyebrows in surprise when she saw that it was Pooja's sister, Mrs. Lashkari. "Hello?"

"Wakeel Saiba, I found a picture!"

Glossary:

Wakeel Saiba: Madame Lawyer

Author's Note:

Once again, thank you so much for reading. Just a quick question for my readers, how did you find this story?

Were you searching for IPPKND or Arshi fanfics or did Wattpad recommend this?

Next update will be on September 13. Until then, take care.