Clues

"SANDEEP SIR." The call made everyone in the police station startled. The owner of the name was not an exception.

"WHAT HAPPENED?" Sandeep shouted from inside.

"Sir come fast we found a clue."

It did not took him three seconds to come out of the office and stand in front of Rohan.

"Where?" He asked. Anticipating eyes dixed on Rohan.

"Sir, this is Mr. Sunil Bhattacharya." He said while showing Sunil to Officer Sandeep. "He came to complain about the missing car and then I told him about the murder case, then he came again and said that he can give us some clue about this case."

This time Sandeep turned to look at Sunil, who just recovered from his heavy breathing.

"You sure you can give a clue?" Sandeep asked.

"I don't know if it might be a help or not, but my wife once told me that something like that case. I mean skinning and then murder happened when she was in Darjeeling. Maybe eighteen-nineteen years ago or something." Sunil said, little confused cause he forgot the exact story that his wife Rita told him.

"Can we talk about this with your wife?"

"Um, let me inform her."

"Yes please."

Sunil called Rita.

"Rita what are you doing?"

—"Sharing my childhood stories with Aryan. What happened?"

"Actually it's about that story of murder you told me."

—"Which one?" She asked a little confused.

"That one where the victim's skin got removed and were murdered."

—"Ah yes that one. I remember. What about it?"

"Actually there's a similar case going around here and I told the police about your story. They want to talk to you."

—"What? Sunil are you for real? What were you doing in the police station the in first place?"

"Actually my car got stolen and I came to the police station to complain. I'm sorry, but can you please talk to them. It seems serious."

—"okay." After a long silence she agreed.

"Sir here." Sunil gave his phone to Sandeep.

"Hello mam, I'm inspector Sandeep Acharya. Can you elaborate the murders that happened when you were in Darjeeling."

—"Hello sir. Actually sir at that my whole family were living in Darjeeling. I was in class eight or nine when the first murder occurred. The police found the victim barely dangling on a tree trunk below a cliff. It looked like as if the killer tried to dispose the body by throwing it off the cliff in the forest, but it got stuck in a tree trunk. Also the victim was a girl and her skin was removed."

"Mam, anything specific you remember from that case?"

—"Actually no, cause it affected everyone so much that no one talked about it. Especially children, they were banned to talk about it. But then in the next three or four years total seven girls went missing, if I remembered correctly. Out of seven only three were found skinned and murdered. About the rest four, nobody knows. Everyone believed that they must've met the same fate as them. One of my friend Phurmit was a victim too." Rita's voice became heavy. Sandeep could feel that she would cry anytime soon.

"Thank you so much mam. Thank you for telling us. It is a lot of help to us. We will contact in the near future if we need anything more related to this."

—"Sure sir. I am ready to help anytime."

With the phone call ended.

Sandeep sighed a sigh of relief. He grabbed Sunil's hand and said, "Thank you so much sir and your wife too. You don't know how much tension we were facing regarding this case, there wasn't a single clue about this case. But now we found a lead. Thank you so much."

"It's nothing sir. We are happy to help you. Fighting." Sunil said feeling proud.

Sunil never felt this happy, even though his car got stolen. He was proud of himself and his wife that they could be of help to solve an unsolved case.

—

Aryan who listened to the whole conversation between his mother and the police inspector already messaged Nisha. He and Nisha were already on this case. This case was so interesting to them that they could not refrain themselves and began to search on their own. Even the new inspector Rohan is also with them. Even though Nisha's parents know about her obsession with crime, suspense and thriller they ordered her strictly to not get involved in this case. But Nisha is Nisha. She is the daughter of a police officer, she could not back down. So, she uploaded a post on an website where crime stories were told.

Aryan who is also a fan of crime, suspense and all, saw that post. He contacted the user and it turned out to be Nisha. Though he was so happy that he was on cloud nine, he kept his seriousness in front of her. Working with Nisha was like a dream came true for him.

Beside Nisha's father and his team, Nisha, Aryan and Rohan searched for everything that is related to this case. They almost gave up because their vacations were coming to an end. For a month it was like they were in a merry-go-round. The start became the end. But now they had a clue. They got a lead to start investigating this case.

Seeing Aryan's message Nisha immediately asked him to meet her.

"Ma, I'm going out with my friends for sometime." He said to his mother.

"Where are you going?" Rita asked.

"Pizza hut maybe. I don't know, they'll decide." He said trying to hide his nervousness.

It's not like this things did not happened before, where he had to lie to his parents and go out. But that day was different because he was going to meet Nisha after a month and moreover outside the school, alone in a Cafe. He was so excited yet nervous.

"Okay, have fun. But call me if you are coming for dinner or not, okay?"

"Yes ma."

Getting his mother's approval. He quickly got ready. When he was wearing his shoes his mother gave him some cash. He, in confusion looked at his mother who was standing by the entrance door with money in her hands and a playful smirk is being played on her face.

"Take it." She forcefully handed the money to him.

"But why? I have enough with me." He said still in confusion.

"Idiot. Take her to have something good. Don't hog up in a café." She said playfully.

A gasp escaped Aryan's mouth.

"You knew? How?" He asked eyes widened.

"Your eyes gave away. You can't lie properly Aryan. Also I'm you mother, you can't hide anything from me. And look at you dressing up and all. A small kid will be able to tell that you're going on a date."

"What are you? A telepath or something?"

"Maybe." She winked at him. "Anyway. Enjoy."

Aryan just shocked went outside the house, but he felt relieved as his mother did not scold him or anything for not telling her.

"Bye ma." His mother waved her hand.

He was walking all excited silently across the corridor outside his mother's apartment, when again his mother shouted, "Have a great date my son."

"Ma, stop." He whisper shouted at his mother who only laughed watching his face turned into a red tomato.

—

Nisha was nervous as hell when she asked Aryan to meet her. She feel in love with him at the first sight. She held her feelings in for two years because at that time studies mattered more. But on the last year she came to know that Aryan too likes her. Her happiness became ten times more when she came to know that he too loves music and want to become a sound engineer like her. So she asked a friend of her who was not afraid to tell anything. It was her best friend Simran though. She asked her to know which college Aryan wanted to go for sound engineering.

Guess what?

It is the same college she was thinking about. This time she made sure that she would confess her feelings to him. But after the finals she forgot to ask his number and that is how they never contacted each other. But thanks to the murder case they got together again. Her happiness was beyond the moon. They continued to chat online and talked about the case most of the times. They were more like shy to say anything other than important things.

And when he said that he got a clue about the case, she did not gave a damn about her feelings. She immediately asked him to meet her at Sunrise café. When the message got seen and a reply came, then reality hit her.

"What the fuck did I just did?" She questioned herself.

Dwelling over it for ten minutes she finally pulled herself together.

"Okay, what's done is done. Let's do this. I can do it." She encouraged herself and let herself dressed in a pretty sky blue dress.

Seeing her all dressed up her mother who came to her room to bring her juice was shocked.

"Wow, you look so beautiful Nisha. Are you going somewhere?"

"Thank you mom. Well...um...yes..." She kinda said in a shy way.

"Oh! I know." Her mother said snapping like she remembered something interesting.

"What?" Nisha asked.

"Did you asked him out on a date?" She asked holding Nisha's shoulder.

Nisha who was blushing very hard could not help but whispered a shy "Yes." Then quickly said, "It's not a date thingy. I just asked him to meet me bracuse we need to discuss something important reagarding the case."

"Really?" Her mother teased.

"Mom! It's true." She whined. "He said that he found a clue, so I asked him to meet me to discuss."

"Great move, my daughter."

Nisha laughed at her mother's proud face.

"Anyway mom. I think dad already know about the clue. Don't let him know that I know something too."

"Yes, yes, rest assured. My lips are sealed when it's something secret about my daughter."

"Mom, you're exaggerating."

"Anyway, enjoy your sweet little date. I can't believe you're an adult now who's going to date."

"Mom, it's not a date."

"Whatever. I wanna believe what I want to believe."

Nisha laughed at her mother's silliness. But inside she was feeling butterflies in her stomach whenever her mother mentioned the word date.

'Maybe...let's consider this as our first date.' She thought and smiled.

As she entered the café she could see Aryan sitting by the window looking devastatingly handsome. Her eyes got stuck at the sight that she did not realized she was standing at the entrance.

"Excuse me miss, can you move please?" One customer talked which made her travel back to the real world.

"Oh sorry." She said quickly embarrassed. She slapped herself mentally and went to where Aryan was sitting.

"Hi." She said grabbing his attention towards her.

*Clanck* the sound of an utensil falling. Seeing Nisha the spoon from Aryan's hand dropped. The noise was so loud at the café which made all the person present there turn their attention to them. Embarrassed he quickly picked up the spoon and apologized.

"Hi, I'm sorry please take a seat." He said politely to Nisha.

While sitting Nisha noticed that his eyes were fixed on her. She suddenly felt shy. Then her eyes widened when she realized that he was wearing a sky blue shirt too. This time she could not help but think that it was absolutely a date. She controlled her excitement which was about to explode, but she could not hide her blush.

"Oh! Are you sick? Why are you so red? Are you okay?" He asked her which made her blush more furiously.

"Um...no, no. I'm absolutely fine. It's just that it's so hot and I'm a little sensitive to warm weather. I became red easily." She said quickly. But she lied. She was absolutely fine.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Oh no it's okay. Why are sorry for? It's nothing serious."

"If you're saying then it's okay."

The atmosphere was becoming slowly awkward.

On the other hand Aryan took a mental note that Nisha is sensitive to hot weather. He was damn nervous too, but was also happy to know that they were matching too. He celebrated with his soul inside saying 'It's a date! It's a date!'

"So, let's talk about the case." She talked which made Aryan pay attention to her.

"Ah yes. Let's talk about it."

'Right we are here for something important.' He mentally slapped himself. 'Let's celebrate later.'

"Would you like something? Coffee?" He asked first being a gentleman as he should be.

"One vanilla latte for me. What about you?"

"I'm having an Americano with whipped cream. I'm going to order now okay. Anything more you need?"

"No. That's all."

Aryan walked to the counter to order, but his mind still drifted towards Nisha even if they are in the same café together.

Young love!