The Window

76 Hours After...

"Another round?" The bartender's voice succeeded in bringing me out of my haze.

It had been just an hour or so since Detective Davis had left the office. Try as I would, I couldn't stop beating myself up for letting certain damaging details slip.

There was a reason Manik and I had rehearsed our stories! It was to avoid any screw-ups when the police came back to question us!

But in my anger, I'd grown far too rash! If Detective Davis had caught on to what I'd meant, there was a good chance that he'd start an internal enquiry at the NYPD. And that would only spell more trouble for us.

What the fuck was I going to tell Manik?!

I could only hope that he'd be more upset with Marlene for not being able to follow up on her promise of giving us a solid alibi. Arguably so, that was an even bigger problem.

I could see the police closing in on Manik, and I had no clue as to how to remedy it. Part of my anger had also stemmed from the fact that Detective Davis's concerns weren't baseless.

Manik had always been a conundrum, who I'd been curious to uncover more of. And after last night, I'd gotten a pretty good glimpse of his past.

How was I so sure that Manik didn't have more skeletons in his closet that I wasn't aware of?

Was protecting him and risking my own future even worth it?

I decided to block out these thoughts as I answered the bartender's question. "Yes, please."

I knew I was going slightly overboard with the drinks. I'd had two cocktails already, and it was barely lunch time.

The practice of day drinking had seemed quite unappealing to me, until a few days ago. But after the intense interrogation I'd gone through, I needed something to take the edge off.

The bartender placed a fresh martini glass before me, and poured the drink from his shaker onto it rather skillfully.

"Here you go. Another Cosmo." He said with a smile.

I decided that I had to cut myself off after this drink, or else I'd be too zonked to be even be remotely functional for the rest of my working hours.

"Put it on my tab, and have the cheque ready. I've got to use the ladies' room." I mumbled to him as I picked up my purse and dragged my feet to the relatively dingy restroom.

Thankfully, there wasn't a queue and I was able to finish up quite quickly. Whenever I consumed cocktails, I always had an inkling that my bladder did indeed shrink in half.

I went up to the wash basin and decided to splash my face with some water so as to feel refreshed.

I turned the tap on and proceeded to sprinkle droplets on my face.

"Miss Nandini Murthy at a run down bar, smack in the middle of the day. Now, there's something I didn't expect." A voice made me back away from the tap in alarm.

When I turned around, however, nothing could prepare me for the onslaught of paranoia that gripped me.

It was the very individual who I'd been shit scared of running into, ever since we broke into his home and practically ransacked it, in order to gather evidence.

The pervert. The corrupt, utterly, deranged law enforcement officer who'd been extorting us- Detective Charles Tremblay.

I felt as if the muscles in my voice box had suddenly atrophied to a point where I could no longer form any words.

"Uh...um..." Only bits and spurts popped out of my mouth as I tried to think my way out of confronting the sick bastard.

"Cat got your tongue?" Detective Tremblay snickered as he took a step closer, violating my personal space.