Chapter 17

25th December 2019

Noel's POV:

I pushed past the heavy traffic and sped to the tollgate in ten minutes. From that service road which is behind Cathy's hostel, there is no other way but to cross this tollgate to go wherever he wanted to go. So there is no way he could have escaped its CCTV cameras. I halted the car abruptly near a tree in front of the tollgate making an old beggar who was sitting on the platform freak out in shock.

I hopped out of the car before I hurried to one of the booths and spoke to the guy sitting inside it. He was in his early twenties and didn't look much friendly. I explained to him the whole stuff shortly and asked him if he could help me with the footage.

"Are you police?", is the first question he asked with a stern face. Did he have to make this harder than it already is?

"I have no time to inform the police. I will give you money if you want",  I said pulling out a thousand rupee note and forcing it into his hand before anyone noticed.

He refused to take it as he slowly started raising his voice against me. I got hold of his hands with both of mine and pleaded. He stared at me and then back at the money. He shook his head in frustration before reluctantly nodding and stuffing the money into his shirt pocket.

"Which one in particular? I need the time and the date", he said not taking his eyes off the screen in front of him.

"21st December", I said peeping into the small circular hole in the glass that shielded him around.

"And time?", he asked as I knew that saying it was morning would definitely piss him off. I excused myself for a minute and unlocked my phone to call Renita to ask the time. I doubted whether she will answer my call after what I did to her during a couple of previous phone calls.

I sighed in relief when the call was connected to the other end and I didn't wait even a millisecond, as soon as she attended the call,

"Renita the day you got burgled, I want the time from when to when you were not in the room"

"From 10:00 to 11:45 in the morning. Mithra's home is just five minutes from here", even she did answer very quickly and was probably ready for another abrupt disconnection of the call.

"Okay", I cut the call and turned to the guy who was staring at me impatiently. "From 10:00 to 12:00 in the morning"

"Please wait", he said as he furiously typed away in the keyboard. I paced back and forth near the booth stealing glances at the guy who was still working on his system. Meanwhile, another guy was diverting all the vehicles that came towards this booth to the adjacent ones.

He took ten minutes before he called me and played the CCTV footages of the tollgate of that particular moment I had asked him for.

I kept a close watch to the backside glass of all the vehicles that passed by in the video. As we stood there watching the footage, already so many vehicles had passed and there was no luck yet.

But a small voice from the back of my head kept telling me that this will lead me to Cathy and so I had to muster maximum patience as much as I can and I pay very close attention to all the vehicles that crossed the camera.

*

RENITA'S POV:

I am very sure from the glint of satisfaction and delight in his voice that he had definitely found something about Cathy. I couldn't wait to hear what he has got. A new ray of hope borne in me as I kept calling him again and again though he constantly cut my call. I was absent-mindedly calling him, staring at Cathy and I's picture, and this time he attended the call.

"Noel, what is going on? Did you find anything?", I asked standing up from the bed as Neha who was cleaning her wardrobe threw me a puzzled look.

"Yes, indeed Renita. I have found where she is", he said as my world stopped for a second. Looking at the change in my demeanor Neha dropped the folded clothes that she had in her arms and walked towards me.

"What? Did you? Really?", a happy tear escaped my right eye as my hands trembled with excitement.

"Yes, I am on my way to the place, inform the police that---", he stopped in the middle of the sentence.

With that, the call went silent. "Hello? Noel?" There was no response from the other end as I called his name a couple more times before the call got disconnected.

I called his number again as Neha was pestering me to tell her what was going on. I ignored her, gesturing her to keep quiet for a while. The female dispatcher's voice said, "The number you are calling is currently switched off. Please call again later"

Shit! His phone is probably dead. I punched the wall in exasperation as I quickly called Officer Paul. Neha was very much intrigued, waiting impatiently for me to tell her what had happened. I quickly briefed him about everything that had happened just minutes ago as Neha was listening to me from beside. She squealed in excitement and jumped up and down. Then she started shouting and running out of the room before I could stop her.

"Did he tell you the address to where he was heading?", Officer Paul asked as his voice was filled with astonishment.

"No sir, even before that the call got disconnected", I said barely breathing with impatience, to tell him what I have got.

"Oh! Okay, we will attend to it right away", with that he cut the call.

I threw the phone to the bed and looked at the picture of us as more tears of joy rolled down my cheeks. I walked towards it, placed my hand over Cathy, and rubbed against it.

"Noel is going to find you, Cathy. He is going to be your superhero.. don't worry! You are going to be safe!", I said as I heard a group of girls squealing from outside.

HAPPY READING!