Deadly incidents- 14

Read part 13 - here

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It was barely ten minutes. Pavil contemplated giving up his apprehensions to the open mouths of black void that was time, ready to consume everything and turn the worst of worries into past. Maybe his restlessness was just that and he did have a tendency to overthink. 

He reflected upon more encouraging thoughts driving back to the station when the phone rang.

It was Mrs Bedi.

‘Something you ought to know’ she sounded her usual joyous self and surprisedly exclaimed when Pavil informed her he’d just visited the deceased’s apartment. 

‘Oh, well. I think I missed you by a few minutes it seems. I’ve just gotten back from my walk. Oh yes, it got late today, in fact, there was something I’d been meaning to tell you, though nothing important, but kept forgetting about it. I’d lost your number.’ she goodheartedly guffawed. 

She suddenly seemed distracted. ‘Oh, let me help you’ her voice seemed distant like she was talking to someone else. 

‘Hello, are you there?’ she resumed. ‘Sorry, I was just..um..helping Mr Gor. yes, so what was I saying. Yes.’

Pavil listened to her on the loudspeaker as he drove and almost panicked at her last words. ‘Mrs Bedi, I need you to go back home right now.’ He near yelled inside his car but there was no answer.

The sudden lurch of his heart beating against his throat made him feel queasy. Pavil clutched the steering wheel through his sweaty palms to keep himself from shaking; bringing the car to a screeching halt and maniacally reversing.

His head was blowing incoherent fumes of questions and jabbing his thoughts with possibilities that could have been, that should have been. 

Both aggravated and with misgivings Pavil raced back to the apartment to talk to Mrs Bedi who had abruptly hung up, or so he hoped.

He was spooked and had not the time to pick up his phone that kept ringing. Time was of the essence, the timing was everything and he had been a fool. Khar was incessant with his calls but this was more important.

‘He’s still not picking up’ Reyan said pocketing his phone, ‘and Anik’s not in his office.’

‘Of course! Did Anik mention having met Toni before he married Avi?’

Reyan stared at Khar puzzled. ‘Uh, yes I think so.’ he produced a notebook from his pocket. ‘in passing. Said they met on a few occasions before their marriage and that Toni sometimes stayed in their house, but he didn’t much like him staying with them while he was around because it was awkward for him to make small talks. I believe Toni was of the same thought, which is why Avi invited him while her husband Anik was away. Why?’ He tried reading Khar’s concealed distress. 

‘Not a word on anything else, like what Anik did prior to their wedding. His job?

‘No. er, we didn’t ask.’ Reyan licked his lips unable to understand what any of this had to do with this sudden urgency to meet Anik.

Khar didn’t wait for Reyan who trailed behind him as he near sprinted to the concierge in the hotel lobby.

‘Anik Chowk, I need to meet him right now.’ he demanded.

‘Room 205’ Reyan chimed in almost out of breath.

The well-dressed woman behind the concierge desk looked too perplexed to react. ‘Uh, would you like for me to call him?’

‘yes’ Khar tersely replied looking at the wide-eyed woman who was about to ask the two men a few more questions since she didn’t wish to disturb the hotel guest but something about the deep timbre of the large man’s grating voice chilled her.

She looked up the computer upon having her calls go unanswered and immediately raised her eyebrows. ‘His room has a do not disturb sign for almost a week. No housekeeping in so long?’ she wondered to herself.

‘sir..’ she was about to repeat everything she mumbled but her voice had carried and the two men were impatient at best.

‘We need to go into his room. Call someone to unlock it.’ Khar’s cold voice froze her resolve to refuse them and a quick look at their id cards had her summoning room service.

Reyan was breathing steady, anticipating a surprise, though Khar’s urgency at the office seemed almost prophetic and he stared in awe at the man whose only discernible expression was that of cool detachedness. He readied his weapon while Khar unlocked the room and what he didn’t expect was exactly what he got. The room was empty. 

‘I thought there’d be a dead body or something’ Reyan sniffed the air for any signs of decay though he could only smell synthetic citrus of the floor cleaner if a bit musty since no one seemed to have been here.

There were some clothes on the bed, a few used coffee mugs, an empty wine bottle, and a large suitcase stuffed under the bed concealed behind the over hangings of the bed cover.

‘Anik’s luggage’ Reyan sated the obvious with no regard from Khar who pulled it out opened it, stared at the contents and made a dash for the door.

Reyan was still gaping and there was not a single shred of reasoning or logic nor connection to what he saw and what was going on. 

‘but, but..’ he stuttered to himself because Khar had suddenly disappeared and taken the car as the lone policeman stood outside the hotel ‘Where the hell has he gone?’

Pavil’s legs had developed into an entirely different entity utterly contradicted in their decisions. On the one hand he found himself running at breakneck speed towards the apartment building and on the other his legs shook wanting to stop and freeze in anxiety and the moment he spotted a small crowd gathered at the entrance of the building he knew the worst, for his legs halted as he tried to let his gaze meander through the small cluster of life that extended like a queue to the foot of the staircase where a body lay sprawled.

Pavil stared through the thin crowd and his ears began deafening under the noise vibrating within his skull as he nervously grated his teeth upon realizing what he’d just found out.

A pair of feet poked out from under a clump of people looking over the body in an effort to pick it up and place it someplace a bit more dignified than the floor.

That all efforts at trying to resuscitate the person now far from life had failed was something the quivering policeman could see from their surrendered eyes and just as he’d stopped Pavil found himself roaring with anguish and anger as he raced past the people who seemed to pay no mind to anything right now.