An Imperial Affliction

Chapter 40- The farther backward you can look

Winston Churchill said, "The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you will see."

It was a chaos unlike anything else. Rakesh's case 

had barely quieten down- he had walked scott free of the heinous charges and shockingly the girl's Mother and Uncle proved to be guilty of murdering the teenager. It was cleared one day, and in the evening Rakesh was gheraoed by the media personnel outside his house. Here is where ETF and the police department made mistake. The sensitivity of the case along with fragile mental health of Rakesh meant he should not have been left alone, but the moment his name was cleared security was removed from his mansion. If guards were there, media people would not have barged into house, neither Rakesh would have pulled the gun on them, shot two of them and then committed suicide.

The gruesome part was it all happened live on camera.

Everyone was running to close this matter as soon as possible, and by afternoon Aisha felt a strong headache coming. This was one of those situations where many things went wrong and the matter might drag for weeks, months even. Her own team was not doing any better- the moment the news was out, Chotu had gone into a shell. He had witnessed Rakesh's previous suicide attempt and blamed himself for not overseeing the security part himself, as it was trusted to him.

"I am really sorry." The usually composed man's voice shook as he tried to look ahead, chin up, "Words are not enough, and this has been a huge mistake."

"It's not your fault." She tried to soothe.

"You told me to stay with him." He said forcefully, "I failed. I am not even sure if any punishment will fit."

"Patil." She spoke sternly and he blinked, looking down, "Let's just handle this together, yeah? We will talk later."

Before issuing an official media report before they tarnish their reputation further, Raghu sir paid them a visit. Aisha has been meaning to meet the man for a while now but something or else always held her back. Now they met, and circumstances can't be worse.

His face seemed to echo her feelings, "This has gone to dogs." Then looked at her face properly, "How are you holding up?"

She shrugged, exhaling a long breath,"This was a collective failure and I am just thinking how to put it across to the media in the next 10 minutes."

"Don't you wish you had Ms Anand around now?" At her look he raised his hands in surrender, "Just saying. Your department, your call." Looking around, he gave a nod to the other ETF core members before asking, "Where is Riya?"

"Leave." He raised eyebrows at that, "Family emergency."

"She was in the interrogation room." She did not know how he knew that, but then Raghu sir knew everything.

"So was Rawte." She replied, "Let her be, Sir. I will call her back when it's required."

He shrugged, offering to lurk around for the press conference, which went as bad as Aisha expected and longer with the questions which sounded like accusations. Once it was down, Sir left, not before saying this-

"Once this is over, you me and Riya needs to have a chat. Maybe we will even invite Rahane, I need updates on the Sahay matter."

The ETF team regrouped in the conference room.

"Since when Rakesh's family started to care?" Chotu burst out, leaving everyone perplexed, "They left him alone when he was at his worst, and now they are going to news channel to say how he was helpless? What they even know about his condition?"