94 Chapter 94

Sumit wasted ten days trying to unravel this case, but there was no evidence, no motive, no leads. He questioned every single one of his close family and friends. Nothing concrete came forward.

During this time, he was unable to focus, or even work, on Mala's case. Everything had gone haywire. "You need a break," his colleagues said. "You're going to drive yourself mad." But Sumit didn't listen. He had made up his mind - he would focus on Mala's murder above all else.

He started to carefully plant bait for the murderer. He calculated the perfect moment to strike, knowing exactly how to trap Vivek.

Sumit had the gift of leadership. It helped him unify his team while convincing his superiors to give him permission to act. They had to keep the plan quiet. Nobody in Vivek's powerful circles could know about it.

Sumit met Raj a few days later.

***

Raj went to the office and acted like normal when he received a phone call from Sheila in the afternoon.

"I think I found something from the murder," she said, her voice husky from crying. "You need to see it right away and take it to the police! I can't be around it any longer."

"What is it Sheila?" Raj asked, his voice full of concern.

"I don't know Sahab, but it looks like a pen. When I tried to click it open, a spike came out instead of a nib," she replied." I know Sneha doesn't have a pen like this, and Ankur baba never uses pens."

"Sheila, keep it safe and I'll come and collect it in the evening," Raj assured her before he disconnected the phone.

He went back to working on his experiment, losing track of the afternoon. He checked the hour, shocked to see it was already time to go home. He hurriedly took off his lab coat, removed his gloves and eyeglasses, picked up his car keys and headed towards the parking lot, where he met Vivek.

"Hi Raj!" Vivek said with a smile. "Where's the fire?"

Raj looked at him, confused.

"You seem to be in quite a hurry today!" Vivek explained.

"Yes! Sheila called me and she thinks she found some evidence related to Mala's unfortunate incident. I'm going to see it!" he replied.

Without waiting for Vivek to respond, or even react, he got into his car and sped away.

Vivek was shocked. He watched Raj's car speed down the lane – nervousness and fear gripping him. "How can this be? There was absolutely nothing for two months and now there's evidence! What evidence? There were no fingerprints. I cleaned up all of them! Did I leave something behind? Did it fall out of my pocket?"

He had to go there and get it.

Vivek tossed in his sleep that night, unable to shake the memory of his conversation with Raj.

Even a vision of Mala came and disturbed him that night, reminding him of the horror of his actions.

The next day, he went to the office early to catch up with Raj.

"Hey Raj! How are you?"

Raj seemed surprised to see him. "I'm good!" He had never seen Vivek at the office so early in the morning.

"So I was just curious... What did Sheila find? I mean… it's a good thing that she found something… maybe you should hand it to the police." His voice stuttered over the words, fighting to sound casual.

"Definitely, Vivek! I'm going to take it to the police straight after work. I may even take a half day today just to get it there sooner," he replied. "But thanks for your concern."

"Ah, it's nothing. I want justice for all of you," Vivek answered weakly. "You are more than welcome to leave early."

He watched Raj walk to the lab and waited until he was out of sight. He looked at his watch. It was 9 in the morning. Why did he say that dumb thing about Raj leaving early? He should have insisted he stay late to buy him more time.