Chapter 6

By the time both of them reached Pujari's household, the roads and entire area had been filled with police and media vehicles. Snaking their way through different cars and media vans, they were stopped by a police constable, who was in charge of filtering the area that can cross inside the barricades put to prevent media from breaking into the minister's house. Kavin and Purvi pulled their ID cards and badges and showed them to the constable. He saluted them, before opening the barricade.

Once they crossed the initial blockade they were met with a few more police cars. Purvi found a parking spot rather far away from the main entrance. Holstering her gun and locking the car door, she silently followed Kavin, who had thankfully not said anything since their little conflict in the car and Purvi was thankful for it. She was not in the right mind to handle a word out of his mouth again.

Not much later Kavin's knocking on the door, that they were invited inside by a house-help. Both of them thanked the person with a smile and asked where everyone was, given the fact that with at least 7 police vehicle outside, the living room was almost vacant. They were shown to the minister's office room where everyone was gathered.

The first person to notice them was DCP Pradyuman. After the promotion, Pradyuman rarely got time to visit the CID bureau. The family dinners or lunch when nothing as crazy was going on was when his former team would meet him. When he saw both of them, he smiled and announced, as a proud mentor he was

"Here comes my brightest officers." He stood up from in front of the minister and extended his hand as if to show both of them off. "I am giving this case to both CID's intelligence and field branch. So, Ovika will be home once we have all the details." He assured minister Pujari.

"Thank you for joining us, you two" He turned towards both the officers and asked them to take a seat.

"Thank you, Sir" Kavin responded, and looked at the victim's father. "We would like to ask you some questions, Sir. Is that okay?" Pujari nodded his head

Purvi leaned forward and noticed his hands and face, an indication for any feigned worry. "Let's start with, have you got any ransom calls yet?" she pulled out her notebook to dot down the details. Until a few months ago, she tried taking the notes with her bureau issued tablet, but she found writing faster.

"No, no ransom calls yet. No one has even claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. We don't know what to expect. Don't kidnappers call for ransom after a few hours, why are they not calling us?" Ovika's mum cried out. As her husband put his arms around her to console the crying mother, Purvi looked at Kavin, who was looking at the pictures hung on the wall of the empty living room, just outside the minister's office.

"Ma'am, please calm down. Yes, kidnappers call for ransom within 24 hours of kidnapping and it's been only 16 hours. We still have 8 more hours to figure out who kidnapped your daughter. As you already know, some of the best detectives in this country are working on this case. I want to assure you that we will find your daughter soon. We already have another team looking at the CCTV footage from the stadium. We will find something." Purvi promised the sobbing woman, who is nearly passing out from grief and exhaustion.

"Now, can you please tell us, do you suspect who could be behind this?" Purvi looked at the father - finance minister of the state to get any information.

"I like to believe I have as many enemies as I have friends. I am the finance minister of the state, it would not be a surprise if someone from the opposition would be involved in this kidnapping. But I cannot point my finger to a single person who would be responsible for this." he shrugged, thinking hard.

"Yeah, I don't think anyone from the opposition would be involved in this," Kavin announced, sitting on the sofa with Purvi. Everyone turned to him, "With the state election approaching in the next 4 months, I don't think the opposition would take the chance to smear off their name from the campaign. It is a tempting but pretty stupid idea to go through."

"Then who do you think is responsible?" Minister Pujari questioned with an annoyed tone to his voice.

"Well, that's what we are here to find out. We promise to look at opposition too, just so that we don't leave anyone out, but we would still need you to tell us if you suspect anyone" Purvi responded, "It would be really helpful if both of you could give us a list of names to start off. Separately."

"We will do that, but I am still telling you the opposition would go to any length to harm us, to hurt us if that meant it would affect our election campaigns." Pujari pressed on. "

Kavin's phone chimed and he excused himself, while Purvi explained in details to the parents how they are planning to proceed with the investigation, leaving the procedural details out, as per instructions from DCP Pradyuman, who also helped them understand.

Pradyuman had let both young officers handle the case their way. He knew his officers were bright and didn't need any intervention from him every three seconds. When his phone rang, he excused himself saying he had to go back to the office to look at an urgent matter. Exchanging the parting greetings he left while Purvi continued with her interview.

Purvi wrote down a few details that both Pujari and his wife gave from off the top of their heads to look into.

"When Ovika takes the taxi, do you think she rides with the same driver or if it's always a different one?" Purvi looked at both of the parents. They looked at each other, unable to answer the simple question.

"Why does it matter?"

"Well, Ma'am, if it's the same driver we need to look into his background. If he knew which days she took the taxi, what her timing is he might have had hands behind the kidnapping. Also, do you think Ovika has any boyfriend?"

"No, my daughter does not have a boyfriend. She is a bright young woman focused on her career. She doesn't have time to tend to a boyfriend" Minister Pujari's voice rose an octave, as he stood up, looking down at Purvi with fiery eyes.

"Sit down, sir" Kavin, who had finished his conversation on the phone and returned from the living room - where he went to take the call, said sternly "I will not have you talk to my partner like that. It is a valid question. Your daughter is 17 years old and it's the 21st century. There is nothing wrong with it. Stop making an issue out of such things and focus on the bigger picture here. If she had a boyfriend or anyone she was interested in we would need a name. We need it to investigate. Now, do you have a name?"

Minister Pujari shook his head instantly, while his wife looked like she wanted to say something. Purvi coaxed her.

"There was this guy. He was asking my girl to go on a date with him for a long time. Ovika didn't want to go because she liked this other boy, who didn't even look her way. Ovika always tried to get his attention but he was just not interested. She would often cry about it to me. I told her, maybe she should try being his friend first." Ovika's mother shared this detail, while her father looked at his wife with wide eyes.

"Do you know the names of both the guys? We would need to interview them." Purvi asked, and wrote the names down when Pujari's wife shared it.

"Okay, thank you, ma'am. We will interview these boys. If you remember anything else please call either one of us or Pradyuman Sir, we will be here as soon as we can. There will be some officers here, if you receive a phone call from any unknown number, do let them know before receiving the call. We will track every call that comes through. We will send a team to set up the system. We will take your leave now."

Once again, thanking both the parents, Purvi and Kavin left the house. They met Dushyant waiting by their car with two files in his hand.

"How did it go?" Dushyant asked, looking at both of them. Kavin brought his pair of sunglasses from his pocket and put them over his eyes.

"That minister is a douche" Purvi huffed, closing her notebook and throwing it inside her car. "I need a cup of tea. He gave me a headache. He is hellbent on believing that the opposition had to do something with it. What did you get from the forensics?"

"Nothing much, really. I went over all the details. The only thing that matches is that they both had been grabbed, while they are returning home from their practices, one from dance and the other from her sports. I will need some more information from this case to find a connection." Dushyant showed her the files and an adversative report he had prepared. Kavin's phone chimed again and he excused himself from both of them, " Hey, Mary….."

Purvi looked at Kavin, who was busy talking to someone named Mary, and wondered who the person on the other end of the phone was.

"No, Mary is not his girlfriend." Dushyant clarified.

Purvi turned her head to him, shrugged her shoulders, putting her pair of sunglasses over her eyes, "I didn't ask."

"But you were thinking." Dushyant smiled, lightly bumping his shoulders with her.

"What are you, mind reader?" She tilted her head, challenging him to say one more word. "We should go to Ovika's school, interview these two guys her mother was talking about. According to Mrs Pujari, one of the guys was interested in Ovika, but she was interested in this other guy."

"Ah, a teenage love triangle. This case is going to be messy, isn't it?" Dushyant claimed.

"If the abduction is in fact a teenage rivalry, maybe. But I have a feeling it is more than that. But I would still like to interview both of the guys, before giving them a clean chit." Kavin reached both of them after ending his phone call.

"Where to next?", he questioned, pocketing his phone.

"Ovika's school, Acadia Front Academy. Gotta interview her friends and these two guys that mother talked about."

"Let's go, I will buy you a tea on our way," Kavin exclaimed as Purvi covered her distance to the driver's side. Dushyant got in the backseat.

"Woah, dude. Where is your car?" Kavin questioned, turning his head around to glare at his best friend.

"I didn't bring. We could save some petrol." Dushyant smirked and buckled his seat belt.

Kavin knew his best friend was trying to make him mad, while he is trying to win Purvi back. He shook his head, and murmured under his breath, you are going to get it back on the mat, best friend or not.

A/N: Hi guys, I hope you all are doing wonderful and staying safe. Here's chapter 6. I know KaVi's storyline is going slow, but trust me it will pick up its pace. Please, please leave a comment. Your comments inspire me to keep writing free stories like this. thank you. take care, stay safe. and if you see what more i write follow me on my Instagram /kukirahj. Just tell me you are from here and we can talk about loads of things.