by Jisha Rajesh
Muskan’s fist knotted into a ball as she watched the woman touch her husband with such authority, which was only her legitimate right. She was curious to know who the woman was, who had so much command over her husband. But the next moment, the woman herself answered Muskan’s query, leaving her stunned.
“Rahul, my son,” the woman said as she stepped in the house with Sandeep, “your father is here.”
Muskan felt as if the world around her came to a standstill and turned into a vacuum. The noises coming from the stalls couldn’t reach Muskan’s ears. She couldn’t even hear her own heartbeat and doubted whether it had stopped too. She dropped down on the floor benumbed by the severity of shock and her back slid against the wall of the cottage where she was hiding.
‘No, Sandy can’t do this to me!’
A voice from within her said and left her bewildered as she found the wife residing within her still retaining faith on her husband even after witnessing everything with her own eyes.
“My Sandy will never do this to me,” she kept muttering as she got up and walked towards her car, “He is someone else. My Sandy will never do this to me.”
The manuscript fell down from Ayana’s shivering hands as she looked at the photograph of Shanaya hung on the wall opposite to her bed. In that picture, she was flashing a wide smile while lovingly hugging Ayana.
“The protagonist Sandeep from her story had a furtive family,” Ayana said as tears rained down her cheeks in a torrential flow, “Does that mean…”
She gasped as the waves of shock passed over and she came to her senses. The outcome of the DNA analysis of the sample obtained during Shanaya’s postmortem examination ran through Ayana’s mind. She sprang to her feet and grabbed her mobile phone. She hurriedly punched Varun’s number as tears filled her eyes again and clouded her vision.
“Varun,” she struggled to suck in air as her racing heart made her breathless by the time he picked up, “I know who Mr Kumar is trying to cover up for!”
* *
A ring at the door woke Ayana up from the warm veils of the quilt. She turned to her side and switched the table lamp on. The clock on the bedside table showed it was 1 a.m. She sat on the bed wondering who could be knocking at her door at such an hour. The doorbell rang again, even more urgently is time jolting her out of her reverie. She pushed away the quilt, wore her slippers and made a bun of her hair as she hurried towards the door.
“You were right, Ayana,” Varun said panting out of excitement as he pushed himself in and bolted the door behind him.
“About what?” Ayana’s somnolent eyes grazed quizzically thorough Varun’s frenzied contours.
“About the manuscript, about Mr Kumar,” Varun said as he walked towards the table and poured a glass of water for him, “and about his son.”
“What!”
“Yes,” Varun said as he gulped the water down in a single sip and thumped himself on the sofa heaving a long sigh, “he has a son.”
“But how did you trace him out?” Curiosity propelled Ayana and she almost jumped beside him on the sofa.
“As I told you earlier, I was sure that Kumar was trying to protect someone who must be the real villain in the Shanaya murder case. But then the question arises why was he willingly taking such an immense risk to shield someone else? It was sure that the person meant a lot to Kumar and from the skin debris recovered from Mrs Kumar’s nails, it was evident that he was closely related to him. That led me to think that if Kumar is hiding him somewhere, he must need money to do so. I checked his bank transactions and found that a huge amount was being regularly transferred to his private secretary Ajay Dewan’s account since the murder case has come to light. I started furtively following Dewan to keep a close watch on his activities. Though he initially succeeded in dodging me several times, but finally, he fell into my trap revealing Kumar’s precious secret to me. “
Varun put his arms around her as his eyes sparkled with a triumphant twinkle. Ayana wanted to ask a thousand question but words would just not come out of her mouth. She kept staring at him utter amazement.
“Dewan used to visit a guy in his mid-twenties at regular intervals and hand the money over to him. He was also a regular visitor of Kumar in police custody and was the mode of communication between the two. So, the next step was to find out the identity of the person. As both, the evidence recovered from victim’s body and the manuscript pointed out the same thing, I sent some of my subordinates to Kumar’s hometown to investigate his past. His neighbors told them that Kumar was married to a woman by the name of Sharada a year before his marriage to Shanaya and the couple has a son too. The officers searched Sharada Kumar’s residence secretly and found a photograph of her son. He is the same man who Dewan used to visit at Kumar’s farmhouse located on the outskirts of the city.
“Then why don’t you arrest him, Varun?”
“It’s not that easy, Ayana,” Varun’s face darkened as she got up and walked towards the window, “We have to run some blood tests on him to prove him that he is the culprit. But we can’t lay our hands easily upon him. Kumar has built an impenetrable wall of security around him. There are bodyguards all around his hideout. And I am pretty sure that Kumar must have made arrangements for his son’s quick escape if any emergency situation arises. As in case of a police raid, he will be alerted in time and will be safely transported to some other obscure location. And even if we somehow manage to nab him, Kumar will definitely use his influence to tamper with the evidence and prove him innocent.”
“Is there no way to bring him to book?” Ayana looked at him with a dejected face.
“There is only one way to do so.”
“And what is it.”
“To make him confess the crime.”
“What!” Ayana’s face turned pale, “but how could we get him to confess? You know Varun that is…”
“Next to impossible.” Varun cut her off as his eyes shone with excitement. “But believe me Ayana it is the only way in front of us if we wish to get him punished. But to do so we have to get hold of him at first. And for that we have to get inside his high-security fortress.”
“Do you think it will work out?”
“Yes,” Varun nodded as his long fingers tightened around the grills of the window.
“How?”
“He has a weakness,” Varun smirked as he ran a finger through Ayana’s gorgeous but bewildered face, “and we have to make use of it as a bait to make him fall into our trap.”
“What?” Ayana said as she read Varun’s unspoken words.
Chapter – 8 - Behind the Mask
Ayana sighed as she turned her eyes fixed to the glittering lights studded on the name board of the discotheque that read ‘Nirvana’. This was the place that she found was apt for trapping her prey. Aryan Kumar, the one and only son of Sujan Kumar and the suspected culprit, had been spending his evenings in here for the last few days. She kept a close watch on his activities for more than two weeks and now she was sure that it was time for him to get out of his secret hideout and drown himself in numerous shots of alcohol. She had to make the most of the few hours that he allowed himself out of the security of his obscure dungeon. It was the only chance she had in hand to work her plan out. She adjusted her mini dress and did a touch-up before stepping out of her car. She nodded her approval on her painstakingly glamorized appearance as she had to look her best to make her prey fall for her.
The deafening roar of music inside the disco made Ayana’s head swirl and she felt dizzy and suffocated for a moment after stepping in. But she instantly gathered herself up and braved everything as she was determined to nab him. She walked forward towards the bar table avoiding the lecherous eyes towards her on the way, attracted by the bewitching spell of her curvaceous frame that looked splendid in the skimpy attire she was clad in. She took a seat next to his usual one and waited patiently even as butterflies partied in her stomach. Her gaze kept swinging between the entrance and the exquisite watch tied aroun
d her slender wrist.
After a long wait of 5 minutes that seemed like a decade for her, he appeared at the door clad in a black long overcoat from below which only his shin clad in blue jeans was visible. He dragged his tall frame from between the crowd and made his way slowly towards his usual place at the bar table. Ayana sipped her drink and took time to study him as the blinking lights of the disco flashed at him. He was the spitting image of the younger self of Sujan Kumar with an athletic built-up, ebony-hued complexion and a well sculptured face. The only difference was that he was a little taller than his father. He inherited the fiery, captivating spell from his father’s eyes that could rivet anyone to their charm. When he was a few steps away from her, Ayana promptly bent her head down on the table and curled her hands around her head to make it appear as if she was drunk to the verge of passing out. Her heart raced as she heard him order a drink and get himself seated on the table next to her. She stealthily turned her eyes towards him without raising her head from the table and watched him sip his drink from between the strands of her hair that had cascaded over her face.
‘The time is right to set the trap,’ she thought and she raised her head up from the table.
She sneaked a look at him from the corner of her eyes and saw him sitting lost in a world of his own without paying any attention to the helplessly drunk girl by his side. She got up from her seat and pretended to stagger and lose her balance. She threw herself on him to bring him out of his world and pivot his attention to her. He instantly threw his arms around her waist and held her upright to prevent her from hitting the floor. She held on to him and pressed herself tightly to his chest to balance herself.
“Oh, I am really sorry, sir,” she said as she looked straight into his eyes and panted heavily.
“Are you okay?” he asked unable to take his eyes off her gorgeous face in which her titillating touch kindled sparks of desire.
“I am fine,” she flashed a blushed smile as she noticed that he was still holding her, “Thank you.”
She slowly drifted herself away from his arms but kept her eyes locked to his. He instantly took his hands off her and let go of her though his eyes were not willing to leave the alluring delicacy right in front of him. She walked a few steps on her own and turned her eyes back to him. She found him watching her from the table and had absolutely forgot about his drink that lay abandoned by his side. She smiled again at him as if expressing her gratitude and walked away. Ayana was now sure that he was hooked to her and will definitely come to her the moment she needed him. The next step in her plan was to make it happen in an entirely natural way without arousing suspicion in him. She knew he must be keenly watching her and it was time for her next move.
She grabbed her head in her hands and pretended to be dizzy. She staggered towards the sofa by the side of the dance floor and thumped down on it. She closed her eyes and her head slid down upon it in a stupefied slumber. One of the men who was sitting on the table opposite her elbowed his friend and turned to smirk at the helpless damsel. The other one winked at him as a signal to take advantage of the opportunity that had landed in their kitty. They walked towards her and sat on her either side.
“Wake up baby,” one of them said as he brushed away the strands of hair from her face, “let us take you home.”
“No,” Ayana said as he pushed his hand away from her face, “I can manage by myself.”
“No you can’t,” the other one said as he pulled her up by the waist and made her sit on his lap, “you need our help.”
“Take your filthy hands off me,” Ayana warned and struggled to get out of the arrest of his arms.
The man signaled the other one with a quick jerk of head and he pulled her legs up from the floor. The two of them stretched her upon the sofa and pinned her hands and feet down on either side.
“No, leave me!” Ayana cried as she tightly pressed her eyes closed in anticipation of the barbaric crime she was about to fall victim to.
The next moment, she heard one of them scream and opened her eyes to see blood dribbling down his face. Aryan had knocked him and broke his nose. Both of them ran away at once hurling abuses on him. Aryan helped Ayana to her feet after they were gone.
“I don’t know how many times I have to thank you,” Ayana said fluttering her eyes.
“That’s okay,” he said as his concerned eyes ran a quick check on her for any signs of injury, “Do you want me to drop you home?”
“No sir, you have already done so much for me,” Ayana said with downcast eyes, “believe me I am fine and I can drive myself back.”
“Aryan Kumar,” he said as his craving eyes started relishing her charms again.
“Ayana Sharma,” she said with a mischievous smile and a tilt of her head, “It’s already late and I should leave now.”
She swirled on her heels and walked forwards with an enticing catwalk that she learnt from a fashion show on television and practiced the entire night before her dresser till she got it perfect. She looked back again knowing for sure that his eyes will still be on her. She waved him goodbye and vanished among the crowd in the disco. He sat down on the sofa and closed his eyes in an attempt to flush the tickling memories of the ravishing girl. A few minutes later, he abruptly sprung up from the sofa and walked towards the entrance.
“The girl is drunk,” he thought as he got into his black SUV and turned the engine on, “she won’t be able to make it to home.”
* *
Ayana pushed the brakes on her car and looked at her watch.
‘He can be here any moment.’
She thought as her gaze returned to the long stretch of the road drenched in darkness ahead of her. His bungalow was just a street away. She rubbed her nervous hands together, which were damp and cold. She looked sideways for a while and then closed her eyes and drew a deep breath to soothe her racing heart. She opened her eyes abruptly as she heard the sound of a car approaching her from behind. As the headlights of the other car bathed the desolate road in a golden light, she ascertained that it was him. Without wasting a moment, she jumped out of her car upon the pith dark road, to be spotted by the headlights of the oncoming car. She waved a hand at the car as her eyes furtively scrutinized the number plate. The car sped through, turning a blind eye to her vulnerable situation. Her face turned ghastly pale as his absolute avoidance brought the curtain down on her plans even before she could pull the trigger. She kept staring at his car in utter disbelief with an almost wailing heart. But much to her relief, she heard the screeching noise of the tyres as he pushed the brake suddenly. She exultantly drew air into her lungs as blood returned to her face. He put the reverse gear on and walked straight into the trap she set for him.
He pulled the window down and peeped out after he stopped his car next to hers. She ran to him with a nervous smile embellishing her ‘damsel-in-distress’ look. His eyes glowed with an astonished twinkle as he recognized her.
“Hey, it’s you,” he said with the hint of smile, “what are you doing here in the middle of the night?”
“My car,” she pointed a finger towards her car, “It broke down, Mr Kumar.”
“Oh, I see,” he looked at the machine lying dead behind her, “I will get someone to take it to the garage. Till then, let’s go to my place.”
“Thank you so much, sir.” Her face lit up with a bright smile as he opened the door for her.
“Call me Aryan,” he said as his gaze slid down her curves.
“Thanks, Aryan,” Ayana turned her eyes down and tugged her hair behind her ear with pretentiously nervous hands while flashing a coy smile.
* *
“Make yourself comfortable, Ayana,” Aryan said waving a hand towards the sofa as he ushered her into the elegant hall of his luxurious villa, “what will you like to have?”
“I am fine, thank you.” She flashed a sweet smile again.
“Well, then,” Aryan said rather unenthusiastically, “let me arrange a mechanic for you.”
H
e turned his back towards her and made a call from his phone. Ayana ruefully realized that she had only won the first level of the game by gaining entry into his place. The second, and the most important one, was to win him over. If she didn’t make her moves carefully, she could lose the game forever.
‘I have to do this,’ she said staring at his back, ‘at any cost.’
“He will be here soon,” Aryan said as he turned to her.
“That is so sweet of you, Aryan.” Ayana flashed another smile but his cold faced nod told her that smiles were not good enough. She had to act fast, really fast. As he was about to walk away from her, she sprang up on her feet making him throw a quizzical glance at her.
“It was so old outside,” she said as she unbuttoned her knee length over coat, “I almost froze to death.”
She slid it down her shoulders revealing her skimpy top. She triumphantly noticed that his eyes didn’t make any effort to deviate their focus off her for the first time during that night.
“Let me help you with that,” Aryan jumped forward and pulled the overcoat rest of the way down her fair, slender arms.
“You are such a sweetheart, Aryan.” She winked at him as she pulled her hair open and let them cascade down her waist.
“My pleasure,” he said as he forcibly dragged his eyes away from her to put the overcoat on the hanger.
“It has been a long tiring day.” She sat on the sofa and crossed her long, slender legs.
“But you look as fresh as a daisy,” he said as he sat opposite her.
She smiled rather mockingly as she thought, ‘It’s quite obvious you fool, I am just out of the beauty salon!’
“Hey those look gorgeous!” she said pointing towards antique pieces arranges on a shelf at the opposite side of the hall. “Can I have a look at them?”
She stood up as soon as he nodded and strode past him swaying her hips in an inviting manner. She leaned by the side of the shelf and picked a piece up her eyes sparkling with adoration. She kept her profile turned to him so that he could take a good look her voluptuous frame and she estimate how deep he was drowned in the web of her charms. She looked from the corner of her eyes and was assured that her plan was heading on the right track as she caught him ogling her.
