Chapter 24

26th December 2019

Renita's POV:

Its already been nine days since Cathy went missing. I sat by the window as always gazing at the sky, thinking over what Officer Paul told me the previous day when I had called him. He told me everything that he found in Kanyakumari and Tirunelvi through their investigation and also told that now Noel was officially reported missing. The fact that his car was found parked in his apartment made me sick.

I was starting to lose my mind after all these. I can't stand the fact that I couldn't even help Noel in finding Cathy and now he has also been kidnapped. I had been the last person both of them spoke to before they went missing, which only tells me one thing clearly, I am such a loser!

Neha had literally told the whole hostel that Noel was going to find Cathy and the police have also stepped in. Eventually, Mithra, Vicky, and Shahid had also heard about this. Everyone was just happy as to how I was except that this time I noticed Shahid getting pissed at the mention of Noel's name.

Now my phone was buzzing with messages from them asking what has the police done so far and whether Cathy was found yet. I didn't know what to reply and so I just ignored them. I was mad at Neha for telling everyone in the hostel about this already and so she totally stopped coming to the room and stayed in Preeti's room all day.

I have also started noticing changes in Shahid's attitude and attire. He is least bothered about his looks nowadays which is very unlike him. He is always lost in his own world but that didn't exactly look like he is being sad. He is not being regular to his medical check-ups too.

His parents complained saying that he is not being home mostly and even asked us whether he is hanging out with us. When we asked him about this he just spoke random things that we didn't understand. Maybe Cathy's disappearance is starting to affect him too just like its been killing me. At least someone else other than me was concerned about her.

The newspaper columns occasionally spoke about how Cathy was not still found. They called the police department irresponsible. The media was trying to contact the inspector but he kept ignoring them. They even tried interviewing me thrice but I paid no attention to them.

Noel's disappearance is kept a secret from their ears. If they learn about it they will start blowing it into a bigger issue than it already is just for their trp rates and publicity.

I haven't heard from Cathy's parents after they had come to see me. Neither did I call and bother them. I just hope they are fine though they obviously won't be.

Days melted away, the sun rises every morning and sets every evening, a moderate range of rainfall didn't fail to bath the city at least once every day, nothing has changed much, including the emptiness that had invaded all over me.

*

Paul's POV:

As I just woke up from a deep sleep two hours past the time I set in my alarm, I realized how exhausted I was from the journey yesterday to and from Kanyakumari. A few minutes later, I unfolded the morning paper and sat in the dining with a steaming mug of coffee in one hand.

The first page was occupied by a massive road accident that happened yesterday in Pollachi. My heart stopped for a second as I frantically searched for the people involved and relaxed when it didn't have Noel's name anywhere. It doesn't mean that I was not bothered about the people involved in the accident if it's not Noel. Of course according to the statistics of road accident rates in Coimbatore city, one dies every thirty hours. Either busy or lethargic people and their pathetic driving!

While returning back from Kanyakumari by yesterday evening, I called Renita to inform her whatever we had found via investigation. My heart broke when her excitement gradually died down as I went on feeding her the whole thing that had happened. We had also had Noel's colleague thoroughly checked and investigated in a hope that we will find something about Noel's whereabouts but in vain.

As I was going through the pages of the newspaper my phone rang from beside the coffee mug. The caller ID displayed an unknown number. I attended the call and pressed the record icon before starting the conversation.

"Hello, Inspector Paulson here", I said turning to the next page.

"Sir its Savitri from Tirunelveli, you came to our home yesterday", I stopped before dropping paper on the table. I instantly got up and hurried to my room to get my notepad and pen, "Yes, yes ma'am. What is it?"

"I have got something to tell you. My husband didn't want to get too much involved and so he hid this piece of information from you. But one of your men did tell us that it's regarding a girl who went missing ten days back. We don't have children sir, so I thought that helping you would save that girl, wouldn't I do that if my daughter went missing?", she said.

"Wow, ma'am thankyou! Now please tell me. What is it?", I sat on my bed in a comfortable position to note down whatever piece of information she is going to give me.

"Sir Vijay and his daughter Lily did live upstairs fifteen years back. And yes it is true that they never told us anything about themselves except that his wife got killed in a fire accident. But one thing kept nagging me ever since I saw them. The daughter who was said to be fifteen years old didn't look like one", she paused as if she wanted me to interact.

I wrote down quick short points as I asked, "Why?"

"Her body built looked more like a lady's than a girl's. Like you asked, even we wondered why she chose to work than study when they had so much money", she said.

"But you never asked them why?", I asked the same question that I had asked them yesterday in person.

"No! We never really got good vibes from them, so we didn't. But I have something very important to tell you more than all that I had told you before", her voice turned cold.

"What is it?", I asked carefully listening to her.

"One evening when I was coming out of my house to buy some groceries from a nearby market, I heard a short scream from above and stopped. I had this gut feeling to go and check what is it. So I climbed upstairs and silently walked to the house door.

As I neared the house I started hearing weird noises, so I discreetly looked into one of the windows that showed the living room of the house. What I saw then was something that I won't forget for my whole life", I can sense from her tone that she really wouldn't forget that incident ever.

"What did you see?", I asked scribbling down the information as curiosity egged on me.

"The girl was lying on her stomach on the couch and her father was on top of her, and both of them were naked", she said them quickly as if she wanted them to slip out of her lips as soon as possible.

I stopped writing and scrunched up my nose in disgust, "What?"

"Yes sir, even I was shocked just like you. After making sure that it's Lily and Vijay I ran to my house and informed my husband. The very next day he asked them to vacate the house"

I wrote down the remaining information and asked, "Did they tell you anything before they left?"

"No sir, they didn't even question us why we asked them to vacate. They just left"

"You have anything else to tell me?"

"Just this sir, don't tell my husband that I helped you", she said in a hurry.

"I won't. Thank you so much for your help", with that I hung the call. What the hell was all that? Now things made sense, Lily was not his daughter, he didn't have a daughter after all. Then who was it? If only they both stayed there, where did Victor go?

This case only became more and more complicated as we went on fetching new information.

HAPPY READING!