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"What does it matter?" Neil said as he slumped down on the couch and took a sip from the bottle.
Armaan looked around and suddenly got worried. There were empty whiskey bottles and used syringes all over the place. The house was in a complete mess.
"Neil, you OK?" Armaan asked, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Why are you doing drugs, brother?"
"I can't sleep, Armaan" Neil said as a tear rolled down his cheek, "You got me out of jail but I've got nothing to live for. This house...I grew up here. And I lived here with Aditi and my children...the girls used to run around this house...we were so happy. And now Aditi is gone, and the girls hate me...and every time I close my eyes...I see blood everywhere..."
"Hey Neil," Armaan said, "I know life will never be the same again. But we will learn to live with this and we will do the best we can for each other and for the people we love."
Neil just closed his eyes as more tears rolled down his cheek. "I am sorry, Armaan," Neil said, "For everything."
"It's alright now, Neil," Armaan said, "Just get a hold of yourself, and sober up. I need a favor."
"Sure," Neil said composing himself, "What can I do for you?"
"I need those videos," Armaan said, "Pankh's videos that you recovered from Meera's laptop."
"I haven't really touched my laptop since we found Pankh," Neil said as he turned on his laptop, "But I do have all the videos stored securely."
As soon as Neil turned on his laptop, he got a notification that read "Upload complete."
Neil clicked on the file and an audio began to play. Armaan leaned in and listened intently.
"This must be the audio bug," Neil said, "It was still active."
"Shhhh...just listen," Armaan said, listening carefully to the audio recording.
(Reference: Please read The Search for Amairah -- Prologue)
Both men listened carefully to each and every detail of the conversation between Aryan and Meera. It revealed a lot of information they never knew about Meera. The recording ended abruptly as Aryan found the bug and crushed it.
"When was this?" Armaan asked.
"A week ago," Neil said, "The same night we found Pankh."
Armaan was registering the new information, but Neil interrupted his thoughts.
"Armaan..." Neil said, "Did you hear the part about Reyansh?"
"I did yeah..." Armaan said with a worried expression, "When was the last you spoke to him?"
"The evening the three of us met, that was the last..." Neil said hurriedly dialling Reyansh's number, "Shit! I can't reach him on the phone..."
"Let's go!" Armaan said, grabbing his car keys. Neil followed Armaan.
They rushed to Reyansh's house. The front gates were locked and his car was missing.
"Do you know his security codes?" Armaan asked Neil.
"No," Neil said as he furiously started working on the control panel, "But I know how to hack them."
Neil got the doors open in no time. Armaan and Neil rushed into the house and looked for Reyansh everywhere. But they couldn't find him.
Armaan looked around. The house was neat, just like Reyansh had left it. But everything was covered with a thin layer of dust.
"Looks like no one has lived here for a few days," Armaan said, feeling the dust on the surfaces.
Neil started working on Reyansh's laptop, trying to access the footage of the security cameras.
"Something happened to Rey," Neil said in a breaking voice, "Someone wiped the security footage clean."
"No! This can't be happening!" Armaan gasped, "Can you recover the deleted stuff?"
"I am trying..." Neil said as he worked with utmost concentration.
Armaan paced about as his mind was clouded with worry. Both of them were anxious about Reyansh.
Neil was losing composure and was almost tearful. "Why can't that bitch just put a gun to our heads and be done with it!" he screamed.
"Neil, please calm down!" Armaan said, grabbing his shoulders to comfort him, "Please...we need to find Rey."
Neil composed himself and started working again. It took him several hours, but he was able to recover the deleted footage.
They saw Reyansh leave the house in his car on the evening the three of them last met. But he never returned. That night a masked man returned and typed in Reyansh's security codes and entered the house without triggering any alarms. He walked straight to his room, turned on his laptop and started working on it. He seemed to know the passwords. Then he moved aside a particular painting to reveal a secret locker. Again, the man knew the codes of the locker and removed a hard drive from the locker. And then he erased the security camera footage and quietly left the house.
"This dude," Neil said, "He is not Reyansh! Still, he knew all the security codes and passwords, he knew everything about this house, he knew what was kept where!"
"They must have made Reyansh talk," Armaan said.
"They tortured him?" Neil spoke bitterly.
"I am worried about something else Neil," Armaan said, "If they got what they wanted and Reyansh still hasn't returned home..."
Neil and Armaan just stared at each other, not wanting to say it.
"Let's go," Armaan said with an angry expression. Neil didn't ask where. He just got into the car next to Armaan.
Armaan drove to Mithila's house. It was late evening and they could see her silhouette in the living room.
Armaan called up Mithila.
"I am waiting outside your house," he said, "Leave your phone inside and come out. I need to talk to you."
Mithila was frozen in fear on hearing Armaan's voice. "I thought we had a deal. I thought we had nothing to do with each other anymore," she spoke in a trembling voice.
"I need you here right now," Armaan said in a calm but threatening tone, "It is not a request."
Mithila knew better than to argue with him. She made an excuse to her husband and walked out of her house.
She spotted Armaan's car. The way Armaan and Neil glared at her, she knew something was very wrong.
"Get in," Armaan ordered.
Mithila opened the car's back door with a trembling hand and got inside.
"Where are you taking me?" Mithila asked, "What do you want?"
No one answered her. She kept crying and pleading, but the men just wouldn't speak to her.
"Do yourself a favor and shut the fuck up!" Armaan warned.
Neil passed her a blindfold but didn't speak a word to her. She knew what to do. She slipped the blindfold onto her eyes and sat as calmly as she could. It was dark and Armaan drove off the highway and turned the car onto a deserted street. Mithila's heart was pounding in her chest at the anticipation of what they were going to do to her.
Armaan stopped the car in a secluded spot. It was dark and cold and there was barren land all around. Mithila knew that if she screamed, no one would hear. Armaan and Neil got out of the car and dragged Mithila out. There was an abandoned house. Armaan dragged Mithila into the house. She struggled to keep her balance as she was still blindfolded.
He took her to a room and roughly pushed her onto a chair and pulled off her blindfold. Armaan and Neil across a table facing her. Mithila took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimly lit room. The anger on Armaan's face made her shiver.
"Please don't hurt me," she begged.
"Reyansh is missing," Armaan said, gritting his teeth.
Mithila was shocked to hear that. "I didn't do anything...please believe me..." she said tearfully.
Armaan glared at her in anger. His gaze was so piercing it made her shudder.
"Reyansh went missing right after Meera ordered a hit on him," Armaan shouted glaring at Mithila, "And I don't think we are ever going to see him again!"
Mithila began to cry bitterly. "I really didn't do anything," she said tearfully, "Are you going to hurt me?"
"Right after I promise no more violence from my side," Armaan said gritting his teeth, "My friend gets tortured and murdered and thrown in a place no one will ever find him!"
"Reyansh was not willing to listen..." Mithila said tearfully, "So Meera said she would deal with him..."
"WHAT THE FUCK!" Armaan screamed at Mithila, "You knew about this?"
"You knew Meera was going to do this!" Neil said grabbing Mithila's hair, "You fucking knew she was going to murder our friend and you just let it happen!"
"I have no control over her..." Mithila wept struggling in Neil's strong grip.
"You know what Armaan," Neil said bitterly, "I am going to kill this worthless bitch and bury her somewhere here. I'm a fucking murderer already, one murder, two murders, doesn't make a fucking difference to me! Let's just make her disappear like Rey!"
Mithila screamed in horror as she saw the anger in Neil's eyes.
"Let go of her Neil," Armaan implored, placing a firm hand on his shoulder, "Please..."
Neil just closed his eyes and obeyed Armaan without question. He let go of Mithila. Mithila just stood there frozen in fear. "Please don't hurt me," she begged.
"Mithila all I ever wanted from you was the truth," Armaan said, "And you haven't told me everything you know. Who the fuck is Kabir? Who is Aryan? Meera has a child? Why the fuck didn't you talk about any of this before? I need to find Meera at any cost and you are not going anywhere till you tell me every little detail of what you know about her."
"Okay..." Mithila said, taking a deep breath, "I'll tell you all I know."
"Start from the beginning," Armaan said as he turned on voice recording on his phone.
"I first met Meera two years ago, while I was driving home after work. I found Meera lying on the road, badly wounded and barely conscious, her clothes were torn, and she looked like she had been raped repeatedly. She had been injected with heroin and she was completely disoriented and she had no idea who she was. I took her to her hospital...and we found the tattoos..." Mithila couldn't hold back her tears as she spoke.
"What tattoos?" Armaan asked.
"Some very degrading words written on her body," Mithila said, "In permanent ink... and the gynecologist told me that her uterus has been damaged so she can never conceive again. My heart went out to her, she had been through something so awful. Eventually she recovered her memories and she remembered that she was a slave somewhere in the gulf, and a guy named Kabir helped her escape. She said Kabir loved her...but I've never met Kabir...Meera said he died trying to save her from the local opioid dealers who abducted her."
"How did Meera escape from the gulf?" Armaan asked.
"Kabir helped her," Mithila said, "Meera told me that she and Kabir were slaves in the gulf. Though most of her memories were erased, she could see some flashes of her life there. She said Kabir helped her escape in a garbage truck up to the harbour and from there through the sea route in a cargo ship."
"Does Meera have a child?" Armaan asked.
"No one knows for sure," Mithila said, "She had been having these visions about a hazel eyed girl child who she believes is her daughter she birthed when she was a slave. She believes Kabir was the father but she doesn't remember him ever mentioning a child. When I tried to recover her memories, they were so traumatic that her heart stopped, so I had to resuscitate her. She had visions about both of you too, multiple times...she had scattered memories about her childhood but she couldn't remember your names."
"How did she find us then?" Armaan asked.
"She saw Neil," Meera said, "At the Intercontinental, on 4th of November, last year. She got his name from the license plate of his car. And once she knew his name, all her memories came back..."
"Who is Aryan?" Armaan asked.
"I don't know..." Mithila said, "She never mentioned this name before."
"I don't want to hear 'I don't know' from you Mithila," Armaan growled, "You were her fucking therapist! She must have shared a great deal of information with you."
"I really don't.." Mithila stopped mid-sentence as she began pondering something, "The last time I heard this name Aryan was when a man came looking for Meera at the hospital claiming to be her brother."
"Great," Armaan said, rolling his eyes, "Now Meera has a brother?"
"No, Meera said she didn't know this man," Mithila said, "But he mentioned his name as Aryan Sinha at the reception."
"Did you see him?" Armaan asked.
"Only in the CCTV footage," she said.
"When was this?" Armaan asked.
"Almost 2 years ago," Mithila replied.
"Then I don't think we are going to get a chance to look at that footage," Armaan said, "What did he look like?"
"He was young, about 25-30 years of age, tall, fair...he was quite good looking actually, had dimples and all," Mithila said, "Meera suspected he was a member of the opioid dealer gang who abducted her."
"Anything else you know about this Aryan character?" Armaan asked.
"I am sorry I don't..." Mithila said.
Armaan banged his hand on the table and growled, "Think harder!"
Mithila panicked and whimpered. "I really never saw him again. Meera never mentioned him ever," she said.
Armaan was visibly disappointed. Aryan seemed to be one of Meera's key supporters and he really wanted to know about him. The fact that Meera never mentioned him even to Mithila made it even more certain that he was really important to her.
Armaan walked out of the room. Neil followed him, locking the door behind him. Both men sat on the front porch and lit their cigarettes.
"What now?" Neil asked.
"I'm thinking," Armaan said, taking a puff, "The way Aryan has been helping her, and Meera mentioning to Mithila that she suspects that he is a drug dealer...I'm guessing this guy's got to have a criminal record. Can you hack into the jail database, and look for anyone with this name? Although the chances that the name is real are slim, but, we could try."
"Sure," Neil said as he got his laptop from the car and started working on it.
Soon he found a few records of men with the name "Aryan Sinha". Armaan showed each of their pictures to Mithila. She nervously observed the pictures of different men and finally stopped scrolling on a familiar face.
"That's him," she said.
"Are you sure?" Armaan asked.
Mithila nodded nervously. Once Mithila identified Aryan, Armaan and Neil left the room to dig for more information about him.
"Hmmm...he was a murder suspect," Armaan said, "Of his girlfriend, but never convicted...hmmm...interesting...so not a drug dealer after all, huh?"
Armaan called up his trusted informer, Raghav.
Armaan: I'm sending a photo. His name is Aryan Sinha. I want to know everything about him.
Raghav: Aryan? Hold on, let me check...hey, I know him. He is an informer, just like me. A good friend actually, why are you after him?
Armaan: I just want to know him. His name has come up in connection with someone that I am interested in.
Raghav: Yeah...I could tell you things, but hey...you are not gonna hurt him, are you? He is a good guy.
Armaan: Can't promise that. Not until I know what I want to know. If you are not up to the job, I'll just get someone else to do it.
Raghav: That's not necessary. Me and my kind, we know to handle ourselves. I'll tell you what you want to know.
Raghav went on and told Armaan everything he knew about Aryan. Armaan was a bit sceptical to believe Raghav this time since he said Aryan was his friend. Armaan cross checked the information Raghav gave and found it to be every bit accurate.
"So he's gonna alert this Aryan character as we speak," Neil said.
"Aryan is already alert," Armaan said, "He was the one who found the bug. He knows that I am coming for him."
Armaan and Neil returned to the room where Mithila was locked.
"You said something about Meera seeing me on the 4th of November last year at The Intercontinental," Neil said, "How do you remember so precisely?"
"Because she came to me that night," Mithila said, "After she followed you to your house, she found her way to her childhood house. There she found out about someone named Naina..." Mithila couldn't hold eye contact with Neil as fear overwhelmed her as she mentioned Naina's name in front of them. She remembered what they did to Meera after she confronted them about Naina.
"What does Meera know about Naina?" Armaan asked sharply.
"Everything I guess," Mithila said, "She found Naina's diary in that house, Naina had fondly mentioned Neil several times. Meera found her own childhood photographs and her birth certificate and that's how she found out her real name. No one really lives in that house. People say it is haunted. Meera also claimed to have seen Naina's ghost there...which I believed to be a hallucination."
"Where is this house?" Armaan asked.
"I don't know..." Mithila said tearfully.
"I know," Neil spoke softly, "I know where this house is."
Armaan then looked at Mithila and said, "Get back in the car."
Armaan and Neil got into the car and drove off. Armaan ordered Mithila to put on the blindfold and she obeyed. Mithila quietly sobbed in the backseat. "I am sorry Armaan," Mithila said, "I loved Meera, I took care of her...she was so wounded and broken when I found her, I just wanted to heal her...but I couldn't save her. She was a good girl, but her wounds festered and corrupted her. I never realized when she became a monster..."
Armaan rolled his eyes as he looked at Mithila in the rear-view mirror. "I am not interested in your poetry, Mithila. I am holding up my end of the deal. I won't hurt you or your family. And I expect your cooperation. And if I find out that you are in touch with Meera and you are not telling me or you had anything to do with Reyansh's disappearance, the deal is off, get it?" he said.
Mithila just nodded as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Armaan dropped her back at her house. Mithila quietly got out of the car and walked towards her house.
"Tell me where Naina's house is," Armaan said to Neil.
"Why are we going there?" Neil asked.
"Understand this, Neil," Armaan said, "Meera could do what she did because she knew everything about us and we knew nothing. I think it is high time we know her whole story. And I need her childhood photographs. I am going to find out what exactly happened after she was sent away. If Meera really has a child, the people who kept her as a slave would know about it."
"Meera is already a week ahead of you," Neil said.
"Yeah but I'm gonna close this gap pretty quickly," Armaan said, "Did you hear the part in the tape about a lot of money in cash? If she is going to illegally enter a country with that much cash, she will most likely travel by sea, and I am going to book the next available flight."
Neil guided Armaan to Naina's house. Armaan parked his car in front of the deserted house. Neil felt a chill as he read the name "Patil Niwas"
Armaan broke open the padlock on the gate with a crowbar and pushed open the iron gate. Neil followed him with trembling steps. Armaan kicked open the door and entered the house. Neil felt a sudden chill as he stepped in the house, but Armaan proceeded with demonic speed.
They explored all the rooms of the abandoned house hoping to find anything useful. Finally, they reached Naina's room.
Armaan began to search the almirah and found Meera's childhood photos. His heart skipped a beat as he recognized Meera as a child. He collected all the photos.
(Reference: The Story of Meera -- Chapter 6)
Neil found Naina's diary on the table and began to read it. Tears continuously flowed from his eyes as he remembered how he cruelly manipulated and tortured a girl who loved him so much and was ready to take anything for his pleasure. When he looked up, his vision was blurry due to his tears. But he saw a figure. And as the figure moved closer Neil could see Naina. She was wearing the same red dress she wore that night he had last seen her. He stood frozen as Naina smiled sweetly at him. There was still so much love in her eyes, Neil could feel his guilt strangulating him. He was barely able to breathe.
