Is forever for R.E.A.L?

Chapter 25: It can't be true

“What?” Larry, Esha and Ashish asked.
“It wasn’t only you three who visited that ward as long as I remember.”
“Who else was there?” Esha asked.
“Your father.” I told her.
“But.. but he left early. Maybe just as we entered the ward and the nurse left.”
“Did you see him leave?” I asked.
“No but how does it matter?”
“It matters as Rehan could have blamed Esha’s father and noticing this, her father would have ran away. And because no one was behind Larry as everyone looked back, we thought it was Larry who was blamed.”
“Seriously this is something insane.” Ashish exclaimed.
“What?” I asked confused.
“Like it feels like a movie. Or a thriller story!” Ashish exclaimed.
“Can we talk about the comparison of our lives and fiction later?” Esha said in a impatient tone. I realized how hard it was for her.
“Yes.” Larry said in a way to indicate he agrees to what Esha says.
“I am sorry.” Ashish apologized.
“Whatever. Rahul why do you think Rehan will blame dad.” Esha asked.
“I feel it’s your dad who is behind the murder.” I said in a low tone afraid Esha would bash me for blaming her dad.
And she did.
“What? How can you say that? You don’t even know him. You can’t go on blaming anyone just for the sake of making Larry talk to me.” She screamed at me.
“I just told my opinion. And I didn’t mean to offend you. I am sorry.” I said.
“It’s okay.”
“Yeah.”
“Should we check if Rehan was really pointing the blame at my father?” Esha said after a while and I felt relieved. Her suggesting this was better than any of us
“But how?” Larry asked.
“Don’t worry. I am quite good with computers and securities.” I said and took them to the hospital.
It took a while for me to sneak into the security room even though I had been trained by a close relative of my dad to be spy. It was by him only that I learnt hacking. Who knew it would be in use to solve a (supposed) murder case.
 
“Have you brought the tapes?” Ashish asked. We decided it was too risky to watch it in the hospital so I bought the tapes at Larry’s home and Ashish was going to bring the name’s list of people in hospital that day so that we could check who others could have any ties with Rehan and could have a hand in his murder.
“Yes. The person outside nearly caught me though. He made me take out everything in  my bag.” I sighed.
“What?” They looked at me with a shocked face.
“Yes.”
“What did you do?” Ashish asked while cleaning the cd with his tshirt.
“I didn’t have to do much. They were already in my pants.” I said.
“What the......” Ashish said and dropped the CD.
“What happened?” I asked with a confused expression.
“Where did you say you kept it?” Ashish asked astonished and started to wash his hands with a nearby sanitizer.
“In my pants. Why are you asking again and again?” I asked.
“Are you mad?” Ashish screamed and we were looking at him with a confused expression when it struck me.
“Wait. What the hell are you thinking? I meant inside my pockets.”
“Oh.” Ashish said and all the four of us were laughing like crazy. It took some minutes to get over that small dirty joke but we continued on our work as soon as the joke died out.
I had gone through all the tapes. Some were of Rehan crying; rather than trying to cry as his condition was so bad that he had to stop crying or he would need to call for a nurse to clean his teary face. I wished he was crying because of his physical pain and not because of Larry and Esha.
But there was a minute issue.
“There is a problem.” I said in a low tone.
“What?” they asked.
“I can’t find that video here.” I said.
“Does this mean it is deleted? Esha asked in a low tone. Things started looking down now.
“I don’t know to be honest.” I said.
“Okay.”
“We can check the list still.” I said ruffing my hair.
“I will hand it over.” Ashish said in the same gloomy tone.
“It was in the pockets only right?” I joked but no one laughed. That feeling described how lame my jokes were.
I read all the names but there was not a single Singh there.
“What is your father’s name?” I asked Esha.
“Pratham.” she said.
I searched for her father’s name but it wasn’t there in the entire list.
“Your father’s name is not here.” I told Esha.
“What? It’s not possible. The security is very strict here.”
“I know.” I said and smiled at her indicating how we took all these even though the security was strong.
“Check the other names. If there is some other clue.”
“Yes. Wait.”
I checked the list again and found a name which could have ties with Rehan.
“Karim Khan.”
“What about him?” Esha asked.
“Rehan had the same surname.” I said.
“Khan is a very common surname.”
“It won’t hurt to check once in the database.” I said.
“What database?” Ashish asked.
“I have this application which has access to every person in the country. I can get information about any person here.
I searched the name while others sat doing their own things quite disappointed that we couldn’t find the recording.
“I searched his name. The photo is loading but the information is visible. He is from Kashmir and his father’s name was Riyad Khan. But there is no information about what happened to him after his age of 20. No input.” I sighed. Now the interest was reducing for me too. Until,
“Wait. Riyad was Rehan’s grandfather and he had a uncle named Karim he said to me once. His uncle ran away because of a fight between the father and son before Rehan was born.” Larry said this awakening my interest once again.
“This means he might be Rehan’s uncle.”
“Maybe.” Esha said still not showing a bit of interest.
“I should leave.” She said but the photo loaded just then.
“I guess you should have a look at Karim once.” I said knowing this would shock them.