Chapter Thirty-Eight
Iris
Since Arjun’s firing, I’ve been handling some of his tasks. Kian has hired a replacement from the interviews I set up a while back. His name is Manu Batra and he will be starting next week. Kian has assigned me to help him settle in and hand over the responsibilities that I’ve been managing.
I’ve been preparing notes and SOPs to make it easy for Manu. Since it’s time-consuming and I don’t want to make a mistake, I asked someone from the IT department to share Arjun’s laptop with Kian’s permission.
Plus, Kian has an upcoming meeting which Arjun was working on and he needs me to familiarize myself with the information as I’ll be joining him instead.
“Iris?”
I look up from my desk and recognize the broody man. “Hi, Zen.”
“I brought you Arjun’s laptop,” he says, holding the device in his hands and approaching my desk. Tapping the sticky note on top, he shares, “Here’re the credentials to log in. Once you’re done, please return it to me.”
“Of course. Thank you!”
Nodding in acknowledgement, he turns around and is gone in the blink of an eye. Shaking off his quick departure, I power up the laptop and type in the password. It doesn’t take me long to locate the files I’m searching for.
Arjun’s shitty attitude aside, he was excellent at his job. He’s even more organized than me and has concise notes for everything. I spend the next few hours working, feeling more confident by the minute.
When I’m finished, I hesitate to log out and send the laptop back to Zen. My curiosity nags at me to check his messages in the employees app. Everybody knows people gossip in those as well rather than simply using the communication app for work.
With no one around, I click into the app and go into the chat section.
Kian was right. I am nosy.
Even though no good can come out of it, I search Rhea’s name to confirm whether or not they were in a relationship. I wonder if they chatted and made fun of me in their messages. And I’m correct. Men and women gossip the same.
They’ve accused me of sleeping with Kian to get the job, which I didn’t need.
Saying I’m a double-dipping hoe.
Wow !
The conversation only gets worse. Maybe it’s not a bad thing he was fired. Such a despicable human being. Eventually, it’s Rhea who switches the topic. It’s plainly obvious that they were hooking up because they mention meeting in the printing room.
Wait… did they know there were no cameras in there?
I scroll up, noticing it’s Arjun who suggests the room and the floor. A nefarious feeling stirs in my belly. I recall the night of my first attack. The last person to see me was him, right before he left for the day.
Did he even leave the premises?
Could he be… No. I’m being crazy. My murder-mystery-solving brain is confusing fiction with reality.
I pull out of their chat, preparing to power off the laptop.
My eyes catch on the name at the top, causing my heart to lurch.
Vicky .
What the fuck?
I tap on her name and read their texts. They are a year old.
Terror grips me, nausea climbing up my throat as one of the missing girl’s names pops out to me.
It’s the girl Vicky said she was hanging out with.
The message mentions the three of them meeting up on the weekend, which is when the girl went missing.
The truth slams into me like a truck.
How did I not piece this together? It was her I talked to about the girls in the cafeteria. She had to have been working with Arjun. None of it can be a coincidence.
I need to tell Detective Rishi.
Right now.
The problem is that I’ve hidden his business card at the apartment. Scrambling up from my desk, I compose myself and knock on Kian’s office door.
His deep voice invites me in.
I cross the threshold, finding him in the conference room with an earpiece in. I walk up to the head of the table where he’s sitting, noticing he’s turned off his camera and is on mute.
“Did you need something, Rainbow?” he asks, pulling me in for a kiss.
I come up with the lamest excuse in history. “I’m not feeling so well. Can I ask Seth to take me home?”
Concern etches on his face as his hands roam all over me, checking my pulse and laying a palm on my forehead to see if I have a fever. “Do you want me to take you to the doctor? I’ll take you home.”
“No, love. You stay here.” Caressing his shoulder and bicep, I murmur, “I’m not that sick. I just need to sleep it off.”
“Okay,” he says reluctantly. “You go home. I’ll be there as soon as I’m done with this call.”
“You don’t have to take the day off.”
“I wasn’t asking, baby.”
Shaking my head, I kiss him once more. “Okay. Don’t drive fast.”
“Eat something before you sleep.”
Exiting his office, I meet Seth, who’s waiting for me with the car ready. I’m jittery the whole ride, but I hide it well. Otherwise, he will report it to Kian.
An hour later, I’m entering the apartment and running into the guest room. Lifting the mattress, I take out the small card. Plopping my ass down on the bed, I dial the number.
“Hello.”
“Rishi? It’s me, Iris.”
“Iris,” he says in recognition. “How may I help you?”
“I think I know who is behind the kidnapping.”
“Who are you suspecting?” His tone turns sharp and alert.
“Arjun Patel. He was Kian’s assistant. And a girl named Vicky.
They were both friends with a missing girl from last year.
Arjun had been dating Rhea. While Vicky was a close friend of Yukta.
” I explain what I read in the chats and how Arjun could be my attacker.
My voice turns hysteric as I insist, “You need to check their houses, Rishi. Maybe they haven’t shipped off Rhea and Yukta. ”
“Calm down, Iris.”
“You have to catch them before either Arjun or Vicky disappear.”
“Don’t worry. If you’re right, we will put them behind bars,” he reassures. “I have to go. You’ll hear from either me or Harshita soon. This is a solid lead. Be proud.”
I hang up and send a prayer that both Rhea and Yukta are safe.
That this is finally the end.
Kian
A knock sounds at my door just as I’m preparing to leave. My concentration is shot knowing my girl is sick. She has a habit of downplaying things.
Zenith pokes his head in.
The expression, or rather the lack of it, on his face ruins my mood. A bad feeling births inside me.
“What?” I grimly demand.
“You should sit down.”
“Spit it out, Zenith.”
“Iris was sent to spy on you.”
I laugh as I finish putting on my jacket. “Are you back to suspecting her? I thought you were done with that.”
“Do you know the name of her mentor?”
I draw a blank. A minute detail that I never bothered to ask, one she didn’t reveal to me.
“It’s Harshita D’Souza,” Zenith answers when I say nothing. “Know her?”
Of course, I do. She’s the investigative journalist who works closely with the local authorities in private criminal investigations. As I think about it, my mind refuses to connect the dots. Because accepting it makes Zenith’s accusation true.
Iris wouldn’t deceive me, would she?
“So, what if Iris is working under her?” I counter. “It could be a coincidence.”
“ Sahara Times isn’t launching just any new issue.
” Crossing the room over to me, he slaps a manila folder on my desk.
“Harshita was tipped last year after the girls started disappearing and you were called in for questioning. Ever since, she’s been closely watching you.
She pulled some strings to get Iris hired as an intern because of her connection with your family.
She sent her as an undercover agent to ask around about the girls. You were their prime suspect.”
Each word is a dagger to my heart. A knife’s edge slicing into my back.
I’m unable to digest any of it.
My Iris wouldn’t believe I could hurt a woman in a million years.
“I got confirmation from my source that Harshita is working with the detectives you met two weeks ago,” Zenith says in a cold tone. “It’s why Iris was attacked. The kidnappers must’ve found out she was snooping around and tried to scare her off. I bet she knows it too.”
Ice seeps into my bloodstream as I remember the agony of finding her bruised and unconscious. I had thought my world had come to an end. I confessed the same. Yet she kept me in the dark while sending me on a goose chase.
How could I have been so blind?
Why didn’t she tell me?
Till today, she’s been lying to me. Does she still believe I had something to do with my employees’ abduction? What has she told her mentor?
Was she ever going to tell me the truth?
“The folder has all the evidence I gathered,” Zenith says, while I stand mute and broken. Pity shines in his dark eyes as he stares at me. “For what it’s worth, I wish I had been wrong about her.”
Me too.