The Inconvenient Wife - Chapter 92

But Sneha was too determined to forget it. The next day, when she came back from school, she ran straight to Ramona’s place. She slammed her finger into the doorbell so hard, she worried he may have broken both her finger and the button.

Rohan, Ramona’s son opened the door. Sneha looked up at him. He was handsome. Taller than her, and a few years older, and clearly annoyed by her presence. Sneha just pushed past him and ran inside.

“Auntie Ramona, I have something to say!”

“Please clear the lunch dishes,” Ramona said to her help, before hearing Sneha.”What happened, Sneha? Is Ankur okay?”

“Yes, Auntie. But I’m here for something else.” Sneha excitedly shared her observations from the night before.

Ramona listened patiently. At first, it seemed insignificant, but then she suddenly remembered Sumit saying something about a row that took place between Raj and Vivek. Maybe it was just a foolish hunch, but she decided to tell Sumit about Ankur’s behavior when he got home.

Sumit was starving for something new. Anything. He just needed one lead that would help him see the case in a different way. He listened to Ramona carefully.

The next day, he went with his team to Vivek’s office. He asked the same two questions to each person he encountered: “What do you know about the explosion?” and “What do you know about the argument between Raj and Vivek?” He asked everyone he saw. Most employees were helpful. They took him to the lab where the explosion happened.

Sumit looked around at the room. It had been perfectly restored. You’d never even know there had been an explosion. Luckily, Raj wasn’t in the lab at that time or else he would have asked a lot of questions that Sumit wouldn’t know how to answer.

But no one could help Sumit with the argument part. Nobody knew whether such argument even took place. Many people told him it was just office gossip.

Sumit left the office, annoyed that he still hadn’t discovered the reason behind the argument. He needed to question Vivek.

Vivek, on the other hand, grew cautious. His actions became defensive, like someone realizing he is losing a game of chess. He called state ministers and asked them to suspend Sumit. “He came to my company and interrogated my employees without a warrant!” he insisted.

After verifying his claims, they scolded the senior police officials and told them to contain Sumit. If he was going to investigate the case, he had to do it legally.

Even though Sumit’s preliminary investigation with the employees went smoothly, getting to Vivek proved to be much more difficult. Vivek had a repertoire of the finest lawyers working for him. Apart from that, most of the top government officials and ministers in power were his close aides. As tempted as Sumit was to raid Vivek’s offices and factories in the hopes of finding anything that could incriminate him, he knew that Vivek’s connections would make it impossible.

Sumit’s superiors were annoyed when they learned he had gone to Vivek’s office. “This is a serious offense,” they scolded. “From now on, you are not to do anything without the permission of a senior official. And you better have a damn good reason for why you want to do it!”

But Sumit was determined. He knew the first thing he needed to do was obtain a warrant to interview Vivek. So, he devised a plan. He gathered his team and asked them to go undercover. As he plotted, a thought persisted in the back of his mind.

What if we’re too slow? What if Vivek slips away after all this work?