The Girl Who Disappeared by Vikrant Khanna

Author:Vikrant Khanna [Khanna, Vikrant]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789353057732
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2020-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

24

At the resort, Rishi is pacing nervously outside his cottage wondering about the search for Nisha. Are the police close to finding her? He stops, shakes his head and looks heavenwards, muttering under his breath. He continues looking up at the sky as if expecting an answer. He starts pacing again.

It is late evening and the sun has just about disappeared behind the hills. The sky looks beautiful—a huge canvas of boldly sketched shades of orange, yellow, some crimson.

Anand is sitting on a chair in the garden overlooking the hills, the ubiquitous cigarette in his hand. From the corner of his eye, he is observing Rishi.

Inside his cottage, Roy has drawn back the curtain from the window and has his eye on both of them. He is wondering the same thing as Rishi: have the police found Nisha yet?

Anand rises, drops the cigarette on the ground, stubs it with his right foot, and heads towards Rishi.

‘Hey, you okay, brother?’ he asks.

Behind him, Roy has stepped out of his cottage and is walking up to Rishi too.

‘I don’t know,’ replies Rishi, gazing at both of them. ‘I don’t know, man. The love of my life is missing, and I don’t know what to do.’

‘Hmm . . . if I were you, I would have joined the police in finding her.’ This was Roy offering his advice. Although he feels sorry for the guy, the real reason for this suggestion is to clear the way to steal Nisha’s bag from Rishi’s cottage. Sending Rishi out to join the search seems like a good start.

Rishi doesn’t reply. Frankly, he doesn’t care if he’s being rude. It has been a nightmarish past few days. It was supposed to have been a simple trip with just the two of them spending quality time together and planning their life forward after the Avni debacle.

‘Really,’ Roy insists, ‘I think you should go for the search. It’s better than sitting here doing nothing at least.’

Anand gives Roy a sidelong glance, studying him for a few seconds before Roy turns his attention to him. Roy raises his eyebrows, and Anand drops his gaze. He says, ‘Not sure how that would help. There are dozens of policemen deployed for the search, aren’t they?’

Roy gives him a cold look.

Rishi makes a sound of irritation. ‘So, I should just sit here?’

Roy smiles victoriously. ‘Exactly!’ He pounces at the opportunity. ‘Go up and down the hills even if it’s dangerous. Step up. Find her.’

‘Would you have done the same thing, Roy?’ Rishi asks him. ‘How much do you love Monica?’

‘Absolutely, buddy.’ Roy wants to tell him Monica is everything to him, that he’ll scale the highest peak in the world for her, swim across oceans, steal whatever she sets her heart on. For now, it’s your girlfriend’s bag, but yeah, you get the drift, don’t you, pal?

Roy pauses to study Rishi’s expression. It is blank, stolid, like he feels nothing. Almost lifeless.

He decides to answer the second part of Rishi’s question as well. ‘I love Monica so madly that I’ll do anything for her.

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