54 Chapter 54

Rohan wasn't showing up. Her frustration was rising. The anger was building up. He managed to give her the slip in Langkawi too. But not today! Sneha had switched off the lights in the meantime and was preparing to go to sleep.

She had begun to suspect that Rohan wasn't in town or had gone to visit his friends. It was past one and activity had ceased in the house. Even the neighbourhood was quiet. Not a soul moved. Her back ached from sitting for such a long time in the same position. By now she was certain that Rohan was not in town.

She got up from her position and peeped inside, her black silhouette looking eerie. Slowly she aimed her gun towards the bed where Sneha was sleeping, and fired a shot. Nothing stirred. Is she dead? She packed her gun and made her way back to the wall quickly.

She was packing her bags to move out of the town. She had to take a taxi since going by bus or flight was risky. She asked the hotel manager to arrange for a taxi to City R. She wanted to leave as early as possible. Without creating a fuss, she paid her bills with cash and sat in the taxi waiting. The driver was an old man who was using his own car to make some money. She was so angry to see him as she expected to reach City R in at least ten hours instead of the usual five hours! However, the taxi driver was a smart man; he drove fast and managed to reach City R in less than five hours. The taxi dropped her off at the airport, from where she caught the afternoon flight to City M.

---

Inspector Abdul wanted to collect as much evidence as possible to nail Rohan. However, hard he tried to do so, he wasn't able to gather anything. There was only circumstantial evidence. One thing was clear – Stella and Rohan wanted to marry and Sneha played a spoiler for them. The fact that Sneha managed to steal the show must have irked Stella immensely, to the extent that she had filed a sexual harassment case against Rohan, and this could have led Rohan to killing Stella. And he executed this murder very cunningly, with a flawless plan which left no trail of evidence. His thoughts were disturbed by the persistent ringing of the antique-like phone that police stations are usually allotted. It was truly a specimen of a by-gone era.

He picked up the phone to find Deputy Superintendent of Police on the line. "Good morning sir!"

"Abdul, a family from City K is here. Their daughter has been missing for a few days. She was working here as a software engineer. I am sending them over to you. Take a look."

"Sure, sir."

These girls come to City M chasing big dreams and then lose their way. Missing? Is she a child? She must have run away to the beach nearby with her friends and mustn't have contacted her parents!

He instructed his subordinates to have the family sit down while he was away. The Rohan-Stella case was taking him over. There were some loopholes and he had to investigate them. He was leaving to visit Stella's apartment. Maybe he would find a clue there…

Stella lived in a high-rise building in an average neighbourhood. The guard of the building was not used to seeing police in this area, and was shocked to see him. Abdul was used to this look, as police were taken seriously everywhere. He straightaway enquired about Stella, wasting no time. The guard escorted him to Stella's apartment. It was locked. He knew that he could not search it unless he got a search warrant, but tried his luck. He spoke sternly to the guard and asked him whether he had a master key that could open the apartment door. The guard didn't have any. Abdul knew it was a stupid question, but what the heck!

"I will come again," he said.