Chapter 1
It was almost eleven, but Mumbai still didn’t look like it wanted to sleep. There were still cars everywhere, people rushing around, rickshaws trying to fit into spaces that clearly didn’t exist, and the usual traffic noise that Mihika had stopped noticing a long time ago.
She was sitting in a small café near her office, staring at her laptop. She had been working on the same report for almost an hour, or at least she was supposed to be working. Instead, she was looking at the same paragraph and wondering if she could just close the laptop and pretend tomorrow didn’t exist.
She checked the time. 10:47 PM.
“Okay. Last page,” she whispered to herself.
She knew she was lying to herself.
Her phone started ringing.
Mihika looked at the screen. Unknown Number.
She stared at it for a few seconds before letting it ring out. Probably some random call. The phone stopped, but a few seconds later, it started ringing again.
“Seriously?”
She picked it up.
“Hello?”
There was no answer.
“Hello?”
Still nothing.
Mihika pulled the phone away from her ear and checked the number before putting it back.
“Is this Mihika Mehta?”
She sat up a little straighter. “Yes. Who is this?”
“This is the police.”
“The police?”
“You need to come to the station.”
She frowned. “Why?”
There was a short pause.
“There’s been a death.”
For a second, Mihika didn’t know what to say. “Okay... and what does that have to do with me?”
“We’ll explain when you get here.”
The call ended.
Mihika stared at her phone for a few seconds.
“That was helpful.”
She looked around the café. Nobody seemed to have noticed anything. She looked back at her laptop, but the report suddenly didn’t seem very important anymore.
The police station was quieter than she expected.
Mihika walked inside, holding her bag a little tighter than usual. She wasn’t scared. At least, that’s what she kept telling herself.
A man sitting behind the desk looked up when she approached.
“Mihika Mehta?”
“Yes.”
“Second floor. Conference room.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
The stairs were almost empty. By the time she reached the second floor, she was already regretting coming alone.
She found the conference room and knocked.
“Come in.”
Mihika opened the door.
There were five people inside.
The first person she noticed was a man standing near the window. He was tall, wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He turned when she entered, and his expression was serious enough to make her stand a little straighter.
“Mihika Mehta?”
“Yes.”
“Captain Rudra Khanna.”
He pointed towards the chair.
“Sit.”
Mihika sat down.
There was a file open on the table in front of him. Another man was sitting beside it, going through some papers.
“Arjun Deshmukh,” he said. “Senior Detective.”
A woman standing beside him looked at Mihika.
“Riya Bhandari. Forensics.”
The younger man in the corner barely looked away from his laptop.
“Kabir Joshi.”
Mihika waited.
He finally looked up and added, “Detective.”
“Oh.”
He smiled. “Yeah. Detective.”
Mihika nodded. “Okay.”
The last woman in the room was standing near the board.
“Meera Nair.”
Mihika gave her a small smile. “Hi.”
Meera nodded.
There was a strange silence after that.
Mihika looked at Rudra. “So... why am I here?”
Rudra opened the file.
“Do you know Aarav Malhotra?”
Her expression changed immediately.
“Yes.”
“He was your client?”
“Yes.”
“How well did you know him?”
Mihika thought for a moment. “Not very well. Professionally.”
Rudra nodded.
Then he placed a photograph on the table.
Mihika looked down.
She recognized Aarav immediately, but the picture wasn’t one she had seen before. He was lying on the floor of his office.
Not moving.
Mihika looked back at Rudra.
“He’s dead?”
Riya nodded. “He died tonight.”
Mihika slowly looked at the photograph again.
“What happened?”
“We’re still investigating.”
“Then why am I here?”
Arjun closed the file in front of him.
“Because you were one of the last people he contacted.”
Mihika looked confused.
“He didn’t call me.”
“He didn’t call your phone.”
Rudra pushed another paper towards her.
Mihika leaned forward.
It was a screenshot of a message.
We need to talk. It’s about the report.
She frowned.
“When did he send this?”
“Three hours before he died.”
“I didn’t get this.”
“We know.”
Mihika looked at him.
“Then how did you get it?”
“His phone.”
She nodded slowly.
“Okay.”
Rudra sat down across from her.
“You prepared a risk assessment for his company last month.”
“Yes.”
“You found something.”
Mihika hesitated.
“Some things.”
“What things?”
She looked at the photograph again.
“Problems with internal security. Employee access. Some financial transactions that didn’t really make sense.”
Arjun looked up.
“Financial transactions?”
Mihika nodded. “I wasn’t saying someone was stealing money. I just said the pattern was strange.”
“And what did Aarav say?”
“He told me I was looking too much into it.”
“Did he ask you to stop?”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
Mihika looked at him like the answer should have been obvious.
“No.”
Kabir quietly smiled from the corner.
Mihika noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You smiled.”
“I did not.”
“You definitely did.”
Rudra looked at Kabir.
Kabir immediately looked back at his laptop.
“Sorry.”
Mihika almost smiled.
Almost.
Then Rudra picked up another piece of paper.
“There is one more thing.”
Something about his voice made her stop smiling.
“What?”
He placed the paper in front of her.
It was a photograph of a handwritten note. There were three names written on it.
Mihika read the first one. She didn’t recognize it.
The second one sounded familiar.
Then she saw the third.
Her own name.
She stared at it.
For a few seconds, she didn’t say anything.
“That’s my name.”
“Yes,” Rudra said.
“I didn’t write this.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t meet him tonight.”
“We know.”
“I didn’t even speak to him.”
Rudra nodded.
“Then someone else put your name there.”
Mihika looked at him.
“Why?”
Nobody answered.
She looked around the room. Everyone seemed to be waiting for her to say something.
“I don’t know.”
Rudra leaned back in his chair.
“That’s what we’re trying to find out.”
Mihika looked at the note again.
Three names.
One of them was hers.
She suddenly felt a lot less tired than she had an hour ago.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
Rudra looked at her.
“Okay?”
“I’ll tell you everything I know.”
“Good.”
“But I want something in return.”
Arjun raised an eyebrow. “You want something?”
Mihika looked at him.
“Yes.”
“And what exactly is that?”
“I want to know why my name is on that paper.”
Nobody said anything.
Mihika looked at Rudra.
“If someone is trying to involve me in this, I think I have the right to know.”
Rudra held her gaze for a moment.
Then he nodded.
“Fair.”
Mihika relaxed slightly.
“Good.”
She reached for her bag.
Rudra stopped her.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“You’re not going home.”
She stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
“We need your statement.”
“Can’t I give it tomorrow?”
“No.”
She looked at the clock.
“It’s almost eleven.”
“I know.”
“And how long is this going to take?”
Rudra glanced at the file.
“A few hours.”
Mihika closed her eyes for a second.
“Of course.”
Kabir looked up from his laptop.
“Welcome to the team.”
Everyone turned towards him.
He slowly looked around.
“What?”
Arjun laughed under his breath. Riya shook her head, while Meera simply walked out of the room.
Rudra looked at Kabir.
“Stop talking.”
“Right.”
Mihika couldn’t help laughing. It was small, but it was the first time that night she actually felt a little less uncomfortable.
She sat back down.
“Fine.”
Rudra picked up his pen.
“Let’s start.”
Mihika took a breath.
She had come to the station thinking she would answer a few questions and go home. Instead, she was sitting in a room full of strangers, talking about a dead man whose last message had mentioned her report.
And somehow, her name had ended up in his office.
She just didn’t know why yet.
And she had a feeling that finding out was going to be a lot more complicated than she wanted it to be.
