this chapter is dedicated to Mrabbs. Thank you, Love. ❤

Ambar POV

I sit with Avinash in his cabin, smoking as he types on the computer. He sat on the head chair while I took the couch.

No, I'm not a very addicted smoker, but when I'm stressed I still feel the need to go back to my old ways.
And today, the stress was exceeding my limits.

I started off smoking in college as a show-off which slowly turned into addiction. I did control myself before the last semester exams, to be clean infront of my parents, but I still steal a moment for myself here and there.

And today I needed a lot of such moments. This is my third.

I look at Avinash typing as I feel an unsettling sense within me.
I get up off the couch and pace around the room in agitated frustration.

"Any luck?" I ask for the fourth time in the past ten minutes.

"No. The caller is smart. He barely talks for more than thirty seconds." Avinash says pulling up a list of some contact numbers on the screen.

Yes, I have my father-in-law's phone tapped.

Over an hour ago, when Samayra kicked me out of the house, I called Avinash.

I told him everything. And by everything I mean when I talked to Karan in the hospital on the day of my FIL's surgery.

Karan had clearly told me that he wanted to get Jeet's Legal will altered, if Sabina could agree. He needs the money and he could stoop to any level for it. This definitely seemed to be his evil doing.

A man who sees woman only as a source of money and entertainment isn't very far from using his child for money as well.

My first evidence was Karan's sudden change of heart. He has never been good to Sabina, whether she says it aloud or not. And suddenly going to pick Danish from school because it's karwachauth, was a desperate move.

Secondly, Kidnapping a child 101. You call either of the parents and not a person whose not even his real grandfather. Sabina is Samayra's cousin. If Jeet's account has so much money, the victim should have been Sammy or me. How can a stranger know Jeet's closeness with Danish?

Third, the amount demanded was too high and precise with Jeet's balance. How did they know how much his Fixed deposit has? Until Avinash traced the source of the money. The person who brought the property that Jeet sold was a client of Karan's bank. The amount transferred to Jeet's account was under Karan's supervision.

Fourth, after I picked up Avinash, we drove towards Danish's school to inspect the CCTV cameras. The school cameras didn't show anything but the cameras across the street were helpful.

I saw Karan put Danish in the car and walk away. But what was weird that he walked in the direction away from the ice cream stand and returned without the ice cream.

Why would he get an ice-cream for his son, if he already knows that he is kidnapped? If he expected Danish to be inside the car, where was the ice cream ?

Too much coincidence.

So, I called Mr. Rohit Mahajan to get an approval for tapping the phone and told him everything. He agreed that he felt something was off with Karan as well and gave me permission to tap his phone as well, along with Jeet's.

"Karan hasn't called anyone in the past almost two hours. I think all of that was a coincidence. He must have wanted to ask the flavor of ice cream or to know where the ice cream truck was, so he came back to check on his son." Avinash says as I raise my eyebrow in suspicion.

"I thought you got over your daddy issues." I say taking a puff from ny cigarette and he groans.

"What does my father have to do with this?" he asks.

"Abandoning your 5 year old and his mother is kind of like kidnapping your own 3 year old." I say as I feel the smoke of my last puff exhale from my mouth, with each breath.

"Shut up." He says and goes back to typing as I sarcastically smile at him.

"Though I'm sure my wife will never kick me out from my in-laws house." He says with a one-sided cheshire cat grin.

"Too low, brother.."I say putting a hand on my heart mocking pain.

"Got it." He says turning the laptop towards me.

"Got what?" I say looking at a screen filled with numbers and time.

"Something suspicious in Karan's phone record. I received it when you were driving. This number that he has called frequently in the past few days and the one calling for Ransom were bought from the same shop three days ago. He's behind this all."

"Not enough evidence to arrest him, especially if there's no police complaint filed. The numbers are not same. Can be ruled out as another coincidence." I say bringing the cigarette to my mouth.

"Try talking to the mother and secretly get a complaint lodged. All we need is his motive. If we can find out what he wants to do with the money, his wife will surely cooperate. If she isn't involved in all of this, herself." Avinash says with a shrug.

"No, she can't be." I say trusting my gut.

"Great now we need to dig some dirt on Karan. I'll put my best informants on the task." Avi says.

+++++++++++

Around half an hour later, we had Karan's life summary infront of us as I read it, while Avinash worked on the logistics of getting a location, next time the kidnapper calls Jeet.

"So, he gambles." I say as Avinash smirks. His "informant" told him everything beforehand.

"This man has a problem. He has left no stone unturned in the area. Not just your usual card games and stuff but Car-racing, horses, Derby, betting on cricket matches and what not." Avinash says.

"And he sucks at it." I say looking at the stats.

"He is no virgin in gambling, but the way every other gambler has tattered his ass in two, I'm sure kidnapping his son was a desperate move. He sure owes people a lot of money.." Avinash says.

"What if one of the people he owes money to, kidnapped his son?" I ask and he stops typing and looks up.

"A very precise amount to match with Jeet's bank balance." He says as my phone rings. I look down to see my informant call.

"Excuse me." I say and go out of the cabin we were sitting in to talk to my informant.

Yes, I have them too, but considering I don't directly work many cases being a senior officer, I barely need them.

He informed me every detail of his debts and in total that Karan owed 1 crore 40 lakhs to people.

I go inside and immediately call Sabina from Avinash's phone. She must have my number, ignoring it and Karan might be around her. We don't want him alerted.

She picks up at the fourth ring.

"Hello.." She says in her raspy voice, indicating that she had been crying. But her voice didn't echo, which meant she wasn't on speaker.

"Your husband owes around 1.5 crore to people. He is a gambler and he also told me in the hospital on the day of Jeet's surgery that he wanted his property." I say in one single breath so that she doesn't disconnect the moment she hears my voice.

"Are you.." She hesitates.

"Yes, I'm Ambar." I say and close my eyes shut. I hope she doesn't hang up. I fear her. I fear for my life. She gives me the literal chills. She's gonna roast me on a grill and eat me for a treat after Danish comes home.

"Okay.." she says as a sign to continue further. I tell her all the evidence or 'coincidences' as some would call them. She listens attentively.

"What can I do?" she says and I was sure motherhood can turn any strong woman into melted wax.

"Don't let him know, I called. We don't want to alert him. He can harm Danish. And we need you to file a complaint for Danish's missing and the call for ransom. I'll need to get some junior officers involved and initiate a proper rescue operation. All I've down till now wasn't documented. "

"I can't do that without coming to the..." she starts to say as I hear Karan in the background.

"Sabina, where are you?" He shouts. Sabina had moved away from all of them in the washroom to answer my call and I knew from the shuffling and door sounds When I was telling her about the coincidences.

"I'm gonna record your next words, where you will verbally tell me everything. I will file the report on your behalf and get it signed from you later." I say as she starts narrating the whole thing. She tells me everything about Danish's missing and the call of ransom.

"Any suspicions, Mrs. Shah." I say in my professional voice and her confidence in her voice flares a little.

"My husband." She says, as I could imagine tears going down her cheeks.

"We'll immediately get on it." I say and switch off the recording button.

"You are a brave girl. Take care of yourself." I say as she hangs up.

"We are on." I tell Avinash and he smirks.

"Let's get that bastard in a cell." He says as he shows me something.

The kidnapper calling Jeet.

"If the last call was about withdrawing money, this time he'll tell us the location for the drop." Avinash says as we wait for Samayra to pick up the call. Yes, it's Jeet's phone but Samayra has been the brave one, supporting everyone. She is the one handling everything.

Needless to say, I'm proud of my wife.

"Xeno mall." Avinash says as the call ends.

I nod and call police back up. I tell Avinash to go to my in-laws and keep an eye on Karan's movement. He already had his phone tapped which had no activity until now except the number he called a lot in the past few days and it's retailer being the same person as the one that sold the kidnapper's number.

"Do you have a gun?" I ask Avinash double checking mine as I decide to walk out.

"Two.." he says and I wanted to ask more about it, but I decided it wasn't the time. He has only one weapon according to his papers and arms license.

But He's nuts. And I just gotta deal with it.

++++++

After 35 more minutes, I was stationed in the parking of the mall with policemen in civil clothing surrounding the area. I set the location accordingly as I.G Rohit had his best men patrolling the area of the cell tower from where we had received the call. The exact location was still untraceable since his call had barely lasted 30 seconds, but we had the location narrowed.

"The car at the parking spot 136, make sure you have eyes on the exit." I say in the headset as the driver gives me heads up.

My phone rings and I pick it up.

"Karan left the house, I'm driving after him. He called Samayra and asked to join Jeet and her. She agreed." Avinash says.

"Good, Don't let him know you are tailing him." I say.

"Don't worry, I've followed more girls to their homes than you can imagine." Avinash says.

"Avi Stop, That's downright creepy." I say disgusted. Why do I even call him my best friend?

"It's all in the past." He says.

"You were fucking a married woman, when I called you yesterday." I say as he groans.

"I never said she was married." He says.

"I know you better than you think." I say as a policeman parked near the entrance flashes his headlights.

"Got to go." I say and disconnect.

"Sir, this car that drove in has a fake registration number." The man speaks over the headset.

I carefully look at a old around 2003 model white Honda city drive in. The number sequence entailed it to be in the market at around 2016.

Now, The Indian car numbers are in the way as the first two alphabets donate the state of registration, the next number for the city than the alphabet serials donating the year of launch and model. The last four numbers are the registration number. Sometimes people use old numbers for new cars, but new numbers for old cars hasn't ever happened.

So why would a 2003 car have a registration number from 2016 ?

"Bloody noobs." I whisper to myself as the policemen all try to stay incognito and avoid being noticed by the new comers.

My phone rings again and I look down. It was Sabina. I immediately pick up.

"Hello, we think we have eyes on the person, but.." I go to say as she interrupts.

"Kill him." She says and I could feel the anger build in her voice.

"What.. Um.. I'm not sure that's how police.."

"If push comes to shove and you have a choice between Karan and Danish, don't think about him as your sister-in-law's husband. Think of him as a kidnapper, rapist, and a wife-beating jerk." She says as words fail me.

"Sab..." I say with my jaw ready to unhinge and drop on the floor. The suspected car was now sitting normally in the parking. No one came out of the car or sat in. The two men on the front were now calling someone.

"I'll be thankful to you.." she says and disconnects.

What the fuck just happened? Those are some serious allegations.

I look down and see my phone ring again.

"Avi..." I say as he speaks.

"They changed the location. They've called him in the basement parking of the mall." He says.

"What? That's way too stupid. One entrance. One exit. They are trapped. You sure you heard it right?" I ask with my eyes still on the car.

"Hold a sec, Karan's getting a call." He says and after a while of hearing the tele-operator telling me that I was put on hold, I hear him again.

"Something's seriously wrong here.." Avinash says.

"What happened?" I ask preparing for the worst. Nothing can surprise me anymore than what Sabina just told me.

"Karan is taking your father-in-law in his car, leaving your wife alone in the other."

"What.. why?" I almost scream.

"Ambar... Because Samayra called Karan and told him to get Jeet to the hospital."

"Is he okay?" I ask and there's silence on the other end, for a while.

"Boss.. I think your father-in-law just fainted before making it to Karan's car. Should I help him?" Avinash says as I facepalm myself with a loud groan.

Why the fuck, did she throw me out of the house?

And If she wants Karan to take Jeet to the hospital, is she going to the kidnapper's alone ?

Why did I marry such a hot stubborn ass ?

+++Author's note+++
Hi, to the most beautiful readers out there.
I am about to get very busy, but I'll try and finish with the suspense part, so I don't leave you guys hanging.
I don't want you to forget what happened earlier, by the time the next chapter comes.
So.... get ready for some updates.. 😍
Lots of love.
Reet.