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Read part 18 -here
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Why does everything have to happen on a Sunday?
Khar’s unyielding questioning stare made Nehar feel like she was back in school, standing in front of a teacher answering a question she doubted was correct.
No one had uttered a word and Khar’s blank expressions had a mute persuasiveness to them. She darted a quick look at Pavil to avert the growing pressure hoping that he’d help extricate her from the crushing weight of Khar’s unsympathetic glare, but Pavil wasn’t looking at her.
This whole charade looked well practised between the two police officers or at least Pavil as naive as he looked was well tuned to these settings, or maybe he wasn’t nearly as jejune.
What on earth does he want to know?
Khar wore his impassive demeanour like an armour, and as easy as Pavil was to see through, Nehar found it impossible to penetrate the vacant expressions of this man who didn’t seem to look like much at first glance but grew into something mountainous on closer looks.
There was a soft quality to his face, his time-worn features held an attractive ruggedness that could only be appreciated by discerning eyes. There wasn’t a set grimness to his face and suddenly she wanted to see how he looked when he smiled.
‘Have you seen how closely Jumaid resembles Majid? of course you’ve never seen him alive, but still, they look almost alike, and each time I looked at either of them they reminded me of the other.’ Nehar didn’t know where she was going with this, but her fingers trembled around the hot cup of tea and she held on to it to let the warmth seep through her fingertips.
‘This was exactly what I thought when I’d met Jumaid that day, that Sunday.’ She sipped on her tea, looking through the thick steam emanating from the cup at Khar, hoping he’d averted his inquiring stare, but he seemed to have been made of marble that instant.
She sighed and found herself talking again. ‘Like I said, he’d called me and I didn’t really have to go out of my way to meet him because I was headed to the city centre myself. Uh..that’s where he wanted to meet me’
‘You were already headed to the city centre then?’ Pavil sounded curious, though he already knew the answer to that.
‘Yes. I uh..had some grocery shopping to do and decided to include that chat session in my overburdened itinerary from that day’ she spoke while slyly noticing Pavil referring to his notebook to cross-reference her previous statements.
‘He met me at a Chinese restaurant. I think it’s called Wok Fusion, though I wish I hadn’t met him because he had a lot of rot to say and as difficult as it is for me to even look at him I had to suffer solid forty minutes of his monologues’
‘Anything specific that he spoke about?’ Khar asked.
‘He specifically asked me to leave Veda alone, and to steer clear out of their way; though he was much too dramatic about it and he did put on a good display of acting as the sad lover disenchanted with life and what not.’ Nehar suddenly paused to decide if she wanted to go any further and her eyes silently moistened.
‘I’d been hurt ever since I’d come to know the truth and worried for Veda’s sake and mine and Jumaid’s words and demands wounded me. He had no idea of the invisible lacerations each beseech and insistence caused within me. I’m embarrassed to admit that it broke me down that moment’ she went quiet and Pavil tried to mentally tally the accuracy of her statement to those of the waiter’s from the restaurant and it almost all matched up.
‘All this inside a restaurant?’ Pavil asked.
Nehar slowly brushed her eyelashes with her fingers to wipe away any nascent tears. ‘No, we walked to a desolate parking lot. He was trying to convince me and I couldn’t understand his rational reasoning behind this nonsensical ask and It was getting difficult to take anymore of it and soon after that I left for the superstore at the city centre. I was getting late. I had to pick up my son from the school’
‘And his friend Majid’ said Khar.
‘Yes him too’ Nehar replied with a sneer.
‘But you did get late to pick him up’ Khar asked looking at her with a near raised eyebrow.
‘I did. As I have already told you I reached much after four’ Nehar’s voice was agitated.
‘At four fifteen’ Khar half smiled and Nehar concluded that he was indeed a rather good-looking man.
‘Yes,’ she smiled back.
Khar was silent for a moment. ‘Alright, that is that then. Thank you, Mrs Sinhal. You have been very helpful. We will reach out to you in case we need your help’
‘Oh, please do. I better be going as well. I’ve to be at the city centre for a small meeting’ Nehar sipped the last her of tea and got up to leave.
‘Is Mr Veda home?’ Khar asked without looking at her.
Nehar’s face suddenly lost its ebullience. Her almost forgotten fears began heaving back. ‘But..but.. he’s in the clear, isn’t he?’
‘For now, yes. It’s just routine Mrs Sinhal. Is he home?’
‘Yes,’ Nehar whispered.
‘Great’ Khar rose up. ‘I’ll be paying him a visit.’
Nehar said nothing and stood rooted, contemplating the questions Khar might ask. What need had she to worry about anymore, but why did he say for now? Everything was out in the open. She’d told them almost everything, but she still worried. Worried about what Veda might have to say.
The skeletons in the cupboards were dancing, graves had been dug, the flesh had been buried and bodies were rotting.
Pavil noticed she’d been digging the heel of her shoe on the floor, and appeared pensive. Why did her stress make him sweat?
Was she hiding something from them? He hoped the forensics would find something and open another channel to this case because everything was at a dead end.
Somewhere in the distance, Khar had been talking, Nehar shut out her thoughts to hear what he was saying. He was talking to Pavil. ‘I’ll be going alone and taking the car. You can go with Mrs Sinhal to city centre’ He threw her a covert glance ‘I’m sure she wouldn’t mind’ Nehar nodded. ‘It’s fine’ she said.
‘Oh, another thing’ Khar spoke abruptly.
‘Was it you who called up Mr Wasim’s phone on Sunday’ he flipped the pages of his notebook ‘around eight and ten at night?’
‘Uh..yes. I..Uh.. called him to say that it was him not me who’d get out of Veda’s way. He didn’t answer my calls though’ she replied looking squarely at Khar’s face almost challenging him to look away from her.
Khar didn’t look away but his visage didn’t look as impassive ‘Ok, thank you Mrs Sinhal’ he shot Pavil a look, much like an affirmative nod and they walked out of the police station.
A most captivating man indeed. Nehar secretly smiled and started her car.
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