Let's have a chat!

While Shiv was taking his time in the interrogation room with his inner conflicts, someone was hustling inside the jail. Dhruv had made new friends during his time inside jail; that was occupied by pickpockets, regular robbers, traffic rule breakers, and of course, some innocent men. Dhruv had his charms, ways to get around people. Within those four hours, he had won everyone over, even gaining their trust, something that people take ages to build. People enjoyed his company and his twisted sense of humor.

As he was talking to one of the cellmates, he noticed lady constables taking Pooja to a nearby lady cell. As he saw her, something struck him, he got excited, and now he wanted to talk to Shiv. He started shouting for constables, asking them to arrange a meeting with Shiv so that he can talk to his beloved 'Officer'. As obvious as it would have been, none of them were ready to do so. Dhruv started shouting Shiv's name, and as the other inmates got along, the whole police station echoed the name 'Shivkumar Rathod' as if soldiers chanting the name of their enemy to exhibit fear in their enemy's hearts. It wasn't long till the sounds reached the owner of the name. He was in a state of confusion when he heard his name being chanted as if someone had been summoning some demon. His remorse had to be kept on a pause as he had to check what was all the shouting about. And the sight shocked him like seeing a unicorn at the end of the rainbow. There was silence as soon as Dhruv saw Shiv and pointed everyone they stopped.

It was clear why all of this was happening, the killer wanted a chat. Shiv wasn't in a state to talk to Dhruv, he knew he wasn't capable of handling Dhruv's pointy humor. All he wanted was a little peace of mind, but the undeniable truth was that no matter what he does, how much force he applies, the kid was always going to be face to face with him and salt his wounds. He asked the constables to bring the boy, it was going to be hurtful but Shiv had to face it no matter what. Dhruv was excited about the whole thing, he came running to his seat and asked Shiv,

Dhruv: It was her, right?

Rathod (In a sad tone): Yeah, it was her.

Dhruv: What's with you old man? You look a little demotivated! CHEER UP! You have caught your son's murder and well also solved the serial killings, I mean if not completely but maybe 80%. But the point being, you have done your work as an honest Police Officer, and nearly all your cases have been solved!

Rathod: You think that?..... None of my cases are solved yet! I have all the proof in the world I need to prove that Pooja killed my son, but that's not enough! I need Pooja's confession! Only that way I would consider my son's case closed because it's not justice that I want, what I want is the truth! What my son did to her, maybe he did deserve to be punished and maybe he deserved to die for it. But I just want her to tell me "I KILLED YOUR SON". And if we talk about your case, it's not 80% solved, it's 80% unsolved! I have your confession but nothing to prove it, not even a single clue!

Dhruv: Don't say that! I did give you a clue!

Rathod (Angrily): Yeah, BUT A MEANINGLESS ONE!!

Dhruv: Who said it's meaningless?! You just haven't considered the possibilities! Don't worry you will get its real meaning with time. Until then, let me help you once again!

Rathod: What do you mean?

Dhruv: Let me talk to Pooja, I'll make her pay for all her crimes!

Rathod: Pay for her crimes?! What are you going to do, torture her as you did with others?!!

Dhruv: NO!... I won't even lay a finger on her. I'll just talk to her and let her decide what she wants to do! But there are some things I need. I need 15 to 20 minutes alone with her in this interrogation room and yeah, no cameras! And when I am talking to her I just need one constable standing outside the room, not a single person is supposed to be there apart from him, not even you. I will ask that constable to tell you as soon as I am done talking to her. And yeah, I need my phone!

Rathod: Your phone? NO! You won't get it! Who knows what you'll do with it! I can arrange other things but you won't get any phone, not yours, not mine, not anyone's!

Dhruv: Then you won't hear her confession!

Shiv and Dhruv argued for some time, and things seemed quite stiff from Shiv's side. He wasn't going to let Dhruv have what he wanted but Dhruv wasn't the losing kind. He by this time knew that in some odd way Shiv trusted him, and now he used it for his advantage. He made sure that Shiv believed him completely; to be honest it didn't even take a lot of convincing. Dhruv attacked Shiv's desire for truth, he knew Shiv was desperate. And to the end, the cop got manipulated!

Shiv made arrangements for Dhruv to talk to Pooja. He did everything as Dhruv demanded. This gesture of Shiv was making other officers anxious; they'd never seen him so helpless. It was hard for them to believe how Shiv was taking it all, insults, humiliation, and orders from a seventeen-year-old! But as Shiv, they were also helpless; they could see Shiv's desperation on his face. With no objection, Dhruv was provided everything.

Pooja was brought to the interrogation room. Unlike her talkative nature, Pooja was silent, it was even justified. With her nervous steps, she entered the interrogation room. She was both, surprised and terrified when she saw Dhruv in the room on his chair. The fear was in the atmosphere, and when the door behind her got closed her body started shivering in terror. Dhruv calmed her and made her sit and talk to him for a few minutes.

While Dhruv was busy talking to Pooja in the interrogation room, Shiv was desperately waiting for the positive news about Pooja's confession in his office, those 20 minutes felt like hours to him. He was completely unaware of what Dhruv might be doing out there in that room, it wasn't just Shiv, everyone in the station was intrigued to find out the same.

Not a single word the duo uttered went past those 4 walls and when it finally did, the silence in the atmosphere was broken. The constable who was guarding the interrogation room went running to Shiv's cabin to inform that Dhruv had finished talking to her. Now Shiv wanted to know, had the kid done his work of convincing the girl? The answer was a partial yes. Dhruv said that Pooja would confess everything in the next 3 hours. He reasoned by saying that she needed a little time to calm down, he said she confessed everything but she was emotionally very fragile at the time and needed some space to be able to talk again. His claims seemed true to everyone as they saw the girl crying rivers. They took her back to the cell and Dhruv requested that he be left in the room. Dhruv never gave a reason why, but Shiv was happy with Dhruv's work and he granted him his wish. He was very generous and all his colleagues knew, things were going the wrong way! They tried to explain to Shiv that the kid was manipulating him in their ways but the message was never understood. Shiv went back to his cabin, back to solving the clue Dhruv gave.

Two hours passed and Dhruv was sitting in the interrogation room, he had a grin on his face. He was tapping his leg in a rhythm as if counting the second's pass. He was awaiting a storm, a storm he created. His gesture of silence and patience was odd as if predicting a future he knew he was going to witness. And it happened! The door was opened with the loudest bang he ever heard, it was Shiv. Dhruv could see the anger in his eyes, the tears that came with it, his closed fist telling him that some violence could be expected. Shiv came raging towards Dhruv, he picked him up with his shirt, banged on the wall, and started punching him and Dhruv barely reacted, as if he knew this was going to happen. Once Shiv stopped he said,

Rathod (Angrily): HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!!..WHY!... WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO IT!!!!

Dhruv (Breathing heavily): Did… wh..(Coughs) What?!

Rathod: DON'T PLAY WITH ME!!!.... I KNOW IT WAS YOU!! YOU ARE... BEHIND ALL THIS!!

Dhruv: Be….behind… what?

Rathod: POOJA!! SHE WAS FOUND DEAD IN HER CELL 3 MINUTES AGO!... SUICIDE!!!! And I know you were behind all this!

Dhruv (Laughing loudly): HA HA HA (Coughs) HAHA! Seems like she has finally paid for her crimes!

Shiv drops Dhruv and he falls on his back and as Shiv stood watching Dhruv laugh, he knew the devil had finally shown his colors. And with his bloody face, Dhruv asked, "Shall we play the game again?"