Into The Shadows by Aayush Borulkar (smart ebook reader txt) 📗

piece to get a clearer picture of what it was.

“Looks like a key chain to me,” said Avinash as he walked in with two cups of tea from behind.

“Does it?” Erika wondered.

“Yeah, I guess. It does have a tag on it. There is something embedded on it,” said Avinash offering one of the tea cup to Erika.

“It’s a ‘T,’ ‘X’ and ‘I’. And is that something numerical written below the alphabets?” said Erika as she tried to read the tag.

“A car key, huh?” thought Avinash.

“Are you thinking along the same lines as I am?” asked Erika.

“I mean, it’s worth a try. We have nothing on this case right now,” Avinash said. “A shot in the dark, and let’s hope it hits its mark and let’s take this to the forensics too”

“Alright. Let’s do this,” said Erika getting up, brushing off her jeans.

Erika called the constables and once again gave them the same instructions which she had given the day before, regarding keeping a vigil on the group and handed them a small sample of the mud. Then the duo got into the car and sped out.

“I have a strong feeling that this car key belongs to Vivek. I mean, hypothetically, these dots do join. This could be our guy. We just need these keys to be identified by his parents so that we could start somewhere,” said Erika holding the evidence bag containing the rusted key.

“But what if he has nothing to do with this case and these are not his keys. Then we are again to level one. We will be questioned by our superiors, to which we have no answers,” said Avinash sounding concerned about the situation.

“Why is that truck following us?” Erika asked. She saw a truck in the rear view mirror that was at their trail for quite some time.

“Which truck?” asked Avinash checking the mirror.

He then steered slightly to the right so that the truck could pass, but instead it slowed down and slowly and gradually went out of sight.

“Probably, it was nothing. It is nowhere to be seen now,” he said. “What I believe is that we should start weighing in on the possibility that these people have no connection with the case, and that we are just heading in the wrong direction,” he added.

Erika sat quietly on the passenger seat, completely zoned out, looking out of the window. They both did not speak for the rest of the journey.

They reached Vivek’s house and rang the bell. This time his father opened the door. As they were acquainted now, the couple welcomed them into the house, unlike last time.

“Any news on Vivek?” asked his father with hope dripping through his words.

“Uhmm…actually no, but we have something in which we need your help,” said Avinash taking out the keychain. “Could you tell us if this keychain belongs to you or Vivek by any chance?”

The father took the keychain and stared at it, trying to remember.

“Ei Vivek cha asa” called out the mother from behind in Konkani.

“Tuka kasa mahiti. Hey, tar yevda juna asa” father replied.

“Aplya porgya chi vastu visart nasto” she said firmly. “Apan teka techa jalmdivas la dilo nahi ka”* 2

Vivek’s father flipped the keychain trying to check for any familiar marks on it, but it was extremely corroded. But suddenly he found something peculiar engraved on the keychain.

“This belongs to him,” he said.

“We had gifted him this silver keychain on his 20th birthday, and it had a heart on its backside with ‘VS’ engraved on it. And it does feel like a heart shape to me on the backside,” father replied.

“Okay, but you aren’t sure?” asked Erika, to which the father nodded.

“And the number on it, Sir, what is that about?” asked Avinash.

“That is the number of the car he drove,” the father replied.

The duo stared at each other in surprise, as if they were conversing with each other through their thoughts.

“Thank you for your co-operation. We will keep in touch with you,” said Avinash leaving the house.

“We should probably give it to the forensics now...

“But that means more waiting, and we can’t make any move till then,” Erika interrupted as they were heading back to the villa.

“If we could have gotten some confirmation that it belongs to Vivek, then we could get some breakthrough in this,” sighed Avinash while driving the car. “Need to make a stop for petrol. Need anything?” he asked, turning into the petrol pump station.

“No thanks, I am good,” she replied

Avinash turned the car off and stepped out of the vehicle. He went into the store to get some water. And when he came back, he saw that there was a long line of cars behind his car and people were honking for their turn. He ran to his car hurriedly, and drove away. Just as he came out of the petrol pump onto the highway, he realized he hadn’t taken the change in a hurry.

“Oh! I forgot the change,” he said, looking at Erika. “I will just go and get the change. Will be back in a jiffy,” he said, parking the car by the roadside.

Erika sat in the car, oblivious to what was happening around her, waiting for Avinash to return. All that was going on in her mind was how to get that one breakthrough that would just put everything into order. Where is that one piece that needs to be fitted in the right area to complete the puzzle? That one piece!

As she was thinking about all this, she peeked into the side glass for a second. Image of a truck in the mirroe caught her eye. Probably it was the same truck, or probably not. But this time, it was speeding in her direction and coming closer really fast. She turned back to see and saw that the truck was in their car lane and was coming full speed towards them. The truck wasn’t stopping or slowing down. She saw Avinash coming towards the car from the left. She signalled him to stay