Chapter 9:

the Pretend Boyfriend

Whispers heard in the dark


its a dry and hot day, but nothing stops people from working harder in their routine lives. what can be done, one day lost means not giving the people their justice and prolonging it by another day. According to Reavan, one should try to solve any case as soon as possible and this doesn't mean that one should be negligent to the actual truth and take the shortest way to solving them.

 The shortcuts are the ones that seem to be taking you towards the path of success quickly, but will definitely drop you in the middle of the journey to a place that would require a longer time to reach the goal. One cannot say that its good to always take the longer road, but whatever one does, that activity should be backed up by truth and an honest day of work. 

Sometimes its also observed, that people who initially work hard in the beginning end up working more faster and proficiently that the smart worker as their hard-work is imbibed into them and becomes a habit and their very nature. 

These though were what Reavan believed in, were not just mere beliefs but facts and truth that he had witnessed through his entire life. As Reavan was having his own joyful time of introspection,  he gets called to help his subordinate to interrogate the accused of the case of Lizzy. 

The accused is the boyfriend of Eliana, at least that’s how the case was presented. Reavan moans as he is compelled to feel that nothing works in his absence, and that every single person in his crew is useless, all they are good at, is at following orders. It was as if, there was only one person who was actively participating in solving the case and is giving every single case their full potential while others were lazy to initiate or trigger their neurons to function. 

In other words, their brains were all in a vacation, who knows when they might be back. The worst thing about easing a bit is that one gets so used to that that they don’t want to return or revert back to their regular life, if they are compelled to do so, they get further stressed and again their efficiency decreases.

Thus there is no other way now, but for Reavan to work. everyone does know the truth that the workaholics keep working their ass out while the lazy ones keep lying around with nothing to do, as in someway or the other, their improper and incomplete work will also be taken care of by their superiors, who are in a superior position as they are workaholics again. 

He thus glares at his juniors, threatens of giving a bad review to the chief as he get up from his old, squeaky chair to interrogate John. Yes, that’s right, John, the one elected by Aron to act in the murder of Lizzy, and this may or may not be a setup by Aron to deviate the focus or direction of investigation of the executive force.

************

John is cuffed up in a room that has pale, dirty while walls with nothing but a table in front of him and a chair, there also is a thick one way glass from which Reavan’s team has been observing him for the past fifteen minutes, which is, ever since John was admitted into the room. Some of them look so worn out as if they could really use some coffee, while others looked genuinely concerned about bringing justice to Lizzy after all, they all could somehow relate to it when they considered their mothers, sisters and cousins in the poor girl's position. Well, the whole story behind why she was killed was not yet known to them, but they were already biased towards the girl's side.

Based on their ongoing investigation, one thing was for sure, Lizzy was recently introduced to John by Eliana, there was no way that Lizzy was involved with him prior to that since the reports suggested so. Further investigations suggested that they had met twice until then and that the second meeting ended up with an outcome of the current scenario, implying there was something more to the case and the motive of the murder was completely different.

As the team observed more, they found his body language to be so different than what they had imagined. Instead of a clumsy criminal, he seemed to act smoothly. His activities were so soft and impact-less that there was a definite possibility of not finding clue at all. If he was the actual culprit, one might have definitely needed more than a mere 'Black'(as in, Pure Luck) to put him behind bars. If this was true, it might also be plausible to consider that he got caught as he chose to do so, implying that there was an ulterior motive behind all of this….

Upon figuring this much out and post discussing with his team, Reavan had a somewhat distorted but yet visible scenario and the probable questions that he could ask next.

He entered the interrogation chamber, John turned and commented with a smug face, “well, hey Baby Boo! How long until you return from work?”

 Reavan stopped moving, dread and anger engulfing him, he couldn’t believe what he heard. After all, those were the last words he ever heard from his dear wife Ria, who had expired in an accident that had happened over a year ago. 

He was trying to forget about it all, which was not a possibility hence he chose to make himself busy so that there was no time left to think about her. he tried to apply the concept of "empty mind is a devil's workshop" it somehow seemed to work until then, but was utterly defeated by his memories of Ria that he looked as if he was possessed by a ghost.

fortunate enough for him that his mind still functioned well, he clearly Knew that John was trying to lure him into a trap and that if caught into the same, the interrogation will be in accordance to John and his manipulation of thoughts. Reavan thus escaping by a hairline, responds to his comment saying, “I’m already here darling, care for a dance?”

With a failing attempt, John has no other option but to agree, thus starts the bombardment of questions. John answers them all with such a clarity that it all sounds true and pretty convincing to Reavan. It all happened to fill the empty pieces of the puzzle.

************

The team observing outside were tired and sweating, they had no idea of the time they had been sitting there for, but it seemed too long. All that went through their mind was to go home, they wanted to end their day’s work fast and leave. They regained hope upon seeing Reavan leave his chair. It was finally over.

************

Upon returning to his desk, Reavan wrote a report, stating, “John confessed that he took Lizzy to the Abandoned Street and that he used his girlfriend Eliana to do so. Though this was so, Eliana didn’t know about any of this, and that she was innocent. He had nothing personal with Lizzy, all he did was follow the orders of his boss. He was not scared of the Abandoned Street as it doesn’t matter if he didn’t survive but if he did, he wanted the money to feed his family. When further enquired about his boss and his whereabouts, he says he would be killed and that all he can say for now is that their base is in the Abandoned Street and that his boss was a guy with cobra tattoo over his shoulders.”

he then becomes restless, knowing clearly well what Ashura had said the other day- To beware of the guy with the cobra tattoo. He wondered, what could possible go wrong? seems like I should meet Ashura again to get his justification about the same, i should maybe leave home too.... As he thinks about all this, due to the fatigue of overworking, he rests his head over his paper bunch and without his knowledge, dozes off.

He then slowly remembers all of the beautiful memories that he spent with his wife Ria….

***************

From how they met in police training to how she ran away from the same establishing her own start-up. She often used to tell him that he was the only light in her life, and that all she wanted, was to spend quality time with him, irony was that she never got to do so.

Every time when something magical was beginning to happen between them, it will be ruined as he would get a call from the office. He would rush back to office, calling it a day.

That had become his routine. Though he had his cherish-able moments with her, she never got the chance to do so. Whether on a date or at home, she always remembered the gist of what happened that day, which usually amounted to nothing but him caring sweetly for her and he vanishes as a call interrupts it all. The whole setup along with the mood would be ruined. At the end of the date she would be left by herself, all alone, sipping or eating the food in a table for two with an awkwardness of not having someone beside her.

Being disappointed about it all, she one day spoke to Reavan about it, saying she wants him to give her at least one evening for her to have fun with. She had wanted to go to an amusement park.

He agreed, they had it all planned out and the day for the trip came. 

As she was getting ready, he called her and cancelled the same. He promised to go with her the next day, though she agreed joyfully as she wanted to cheer him up, she definitely was disappointed.

 She was beautifully dressed in a pink gown and was making her hair when the call had come. She was so dejected and didn’t know what to do, she threw away the comb and crawled back into her bed, tears trickling down her eye involuntarily.

She started crying so badly, as she spoke to her friend who was nice to immediately decide upon a trip to waterfalls the very same day. (see? its all the wonders of socializing, but one definitely has to remember that everything in this world has their own pros and cons, implying if they are there for you, you should give then the support they need. its always, 'give and take' doesn't happen in one direction alone) 

Soon, the date had become a girl’s day out. They started, Ria and two of her friends drove to a nearby falls. On the way to the same, she called Reavan and said, “hey Baby Boo! How long until you return from work? Hope you return soon, my friends and I are going to so and so waterfalls, will be back before you return, see ya!”

As you know, she never returned……

He recollected her last words, it echoed in his skull until he could take no more. he woke up with a jerk as the security of the building woke him up. he had come around to do his rounds to see if everyone had left the building. His duty was to send them all out, lock the building and guard the entrance.

 Seeing that someone was lying on the table, he came closer to look at who he was. Upon realising it was Reavan, he woke him up. Reavan though dizzy, apologized and left for the parking lot, on his way, his mind still lingered around thoughts like, how did John get to know about it? Did he do a background check on me or was it to give me a hint that my spouse’s death wasn’t an accident, but a homicide?! Can it even be true? If so, how do I find the culprit? What actually did happened during their trip? I would rather start investigating….

As his monologue went on, he thoughts get dis-organized as he gets a call from Maya (well again an unusual sight) but he subconsciously ignores her call due to all that was going on in his head.

************

Ten minutes later, he’s on his car driving back home, completely forgetting about Maya’s call. The phone buzzes again, he connects his call to the car and replies, “Maya?”

All he hears is her sobbing. He freaks out, he has never heard her sob. 

Being the bread winner of the family and also being the mother of a special child without a husband though is a difficult task in itself and was sufficient to break any woman, she made it through them all boldly. Though now, she was doing what? Crying?!

He parked the car by the side, and spoke calmly, “Maya, don’t worry, whatever it is, it’ll be alright, everything will be fine. First calm down and tell me what’s going on?”

Initially he doesn’t get any reply but just her tears and sound of her, breathing hard into the phone. He waits patiently, he doesn’t want to let anyone dear to him undergo the same as that of Ria, he had changed and chosen to be there for people when they needed him. 

Another reason for the same was that he was in a higher post than he was before and could now decide what he wanted to do and wasn't much answerable to his seniors.

Finally, Maya spoke, “its, A-Ashura, he fainted again” he needed to know no more, he interrupted, “Where are you? Where is he?”

She replied weakly, “admitted in his hospital” he revived the engine and spoke, “Aah! I will be there in five” he hung up and rushed to the hospital…. he knew by her tears that this time it was not as simple as fainting, something else had happened but she was not in the condition to say it. He went to the hospital to find out more about it. Got to know with the show of his ID to the nurse' station that Ashura had fever leading to convulsions followed by unconsciousness. (well, what was it if it wasn't as serious as it sounds?)

 He called Maya as he went towards the paediatric ward, once she didn't attend, he decided to enter it and meet up in Ashura's chamber.  He found Ashura pinned to an IV line again, this time he was breathing with difficulty and was sweating profusely. He sat next to his bed silently, with fingers folded, thighs supporting the elbow, with his chin resting over his hand. He eyelids drooped down as he slept in that uncomfortable posture unit either Maya rushes towards him or until Ashura wakes up.....