The Eternal Trust

10 • The stalker

"You're getting on my nerves now." Anirudh sighed and spoke without any hesitation. "You better spill your part before I find my ways to not believe you."

Adhiraj scoffed and folded his hands together in a fist. "They have someone supervising them. There's a mastermind behind all this- we heard them talking about saying some truth to their leader. I deeply doubt that....it was their leader who murdered them. In a... clever, yet appreciative way."

Anirudh took in Adhiraj's words, which seemed to feel like truth. He nodded and closed his eyes, engulfed in deep thought. 'Shall i trust him? But, he's just a kid.'

He looked at Adhiraj who reached his pant's pocket to pull out his phone. He went through some application and brought the phone screen in front of Anirudh's eyes. "Proof."

Anirudh took the phone from his grip and stared at the photos. He swiped the screen and stopped at a video, kindly asking Adhiraj if he could watch it. Adhiraj nodded and said, "That's the actual hero of the case."

Anirudh turned on the video and listened to each and every word, the man spoke. The faces were not clear as it was night but the reflection of the dim street light against their clothes were strong enough to identify their clothes.

Anirudh shot a proud grin to Adhiraj and said, "Quite a mischievous yet brave person you are. But care to explain me about these?" He pointed towards the picture of the unusual box, then swiped to the picture of the pit. "We didn't see any pit there during investigation. Where is it?"

Adhiraj took the phone back to his hands and frowned, "What the heck!? You didn't see any pit? It was right under the Banyan tree. Vaishnav and I went inside and found this box. It was locked and some weird white powder was creeping out of it. How could you not see it? It was quite a wide pit."

"White powder? Was it some drug-"

"I still have the handkerchief, unwashed, inside my desk's drawer, with which I held the box. You can inspect it." Adhiraj stood up and said while looking at the wall clock, "I should leave. Maa, would be worried."

"But, you didn't finish your story!" Anirudh sprung up. "It's important, Adhiraj." He said while looking at Adhiraj with pleading eyes.

Adhiraj sighed and spoke, "I'm just a normal witness, until you suspect me. I told you these things because I can't share these with Baba. He would ground me and put me on a curfew. You like my sister so, I thought of telling you for the sake of your love. Don't you dare of saying anything to Di."

Anirudh scoffed and shoved his hands into his pocket, "You're warning me or what?"

Adhiraj smiled and shook his head, "No, no it's not like that. I'm threatening you. Good bye, Jiju. Keep everything confidential. I'll be there in case of any trouble." He winked and marched towards the exit.

"I'll have to confiscate your phone." Anirudh spoke as he held the door.

Adhiraj turned back with shooting glares, "What the fu- oops sorry. But, no way! Why would you? You can't be doing that! It's my only property."

Anirudh lifted his brows with a 'you serious?' expression and parted his lips, "By judging the way you threaten someone so easily, irrespective of their social status, I thought of you to be more smart. But, you're a total fool."

Adhiraj smirked and leaned against the door way with his hands inside his pockets, "I've already prepared a pendrive containing the pictures and the video. I just wanted to see how smart you are." Adhiraj pulled out a black pendrive and passed it to Anirudh while saying, "Pay me back, okay?"

Anirudh looked at him with disbelief and gave him an extraordinary irritated look. "Delete them from your phone. Otherwise you might get tracked if the mastermind has really mastered his name."