IshRa FF Strangers Chapter 22-27 Page 94-95 *Completed* (3/3/15) - Page 3

Chapter 2

"Calm down Ishita! Calm down!" she heard her mind repeat on loop. She forced herself to take deep breathes and relax. Sure, she'd seen plenty of blood in her profession; she'd even peered into some mouths that would have caused a common man to faint. But nothing, nothing in her professional training had prepared her for the sight of murder - to see a man being shot through his chest. Ishita clenched her fists tightly and willed herself to calm down. She had to think of what to do next. "Yes, I'll wait right here for you. Yes, She is here with me," she heard the stranger's voice. He was turned away from her and her heart began thudding ominously again. Oh God! Who was this man? What if he was with the killer? Oh gosh! Had she just been kidnapped? In a moment of stupid insanity, Ishita tried to recollect what her mother had read in her horoscope that morning. Every morning, Madhavi Iyer made it a point to read out aloud everyone's horoscope for the day from the zodiac signs column of the newspaper; the only part of the newspaper that interested her mother. Mentally hitting herself for thinking of something so lame in such a dangerous situation, Ishita tried to focus her thoughts again. She'd just witnessed murder and now she was with a stranger in some unknown alley of Delhi in the middle of the night. If there ever were a recipe for danger and disaster, she knew this was one. She had to do something and fast. Without thinking too much about it, Ishita began to run.

Raman had just finished the call and turned around at the tic-tic-tic sound only to find the woman who he'd saved, missing. The tic-tic-tic sound, which he presumed, came from her high heeled sandals, was beginning to fade fast. Gosh! He had to be stuck in this situation with a brainless idiot of a woman, he thought to himself frustrated. His first instinct was to let her go. If she thought she was better off without him, then fine. Then out of nowhere, he remembered her face. That stricken look on her face, those bright, wide eyes, the way she'd trembled as he'd held her. What was wrong with him? This was definitely not the time and place to be thinking such thoughts. He rubbed his temple trying to get a hold on himself. This is Delhi, it's the middle of the night.. No matter how hare-brained of a female she was, he couldn't just let her run around the streets alone, he thought to himself. He started running in the direction he'd heard her footsteps.

He was catching up with her, she thought panicking. Was it him? Or was it someone else? She couldn't even run any faster with these stupid heels on. She'd stopped for just a second to take those damn heels off when she felt a hand on her arm, yanking her backwards. The sudden force made her unsteady and she'd have fallen if she hadn't been backed up against a wall with just as much force.

Her first instinct was to scream but a hand covered her mouth immediately. Her attacker pinned her one hand to her back and she tried to punch, slap and do as much harm to him as possible with her one free hand. She pulled at his hand covering her mouth but to no avail. Then she remembered her self-defense class from college times. She buckled her knee and decided to aim for his groin.

He knew what was coming next. He had to do something before she caused him serious damage. The only option given the circumstances was one he hated but he needed this woman to calm down and stop fighting him for just one minute so he could talk to her. He did the only thing he could to save himself and leaned onto her, pinning her with his weight so she couldn't move her legs even if she wanted to. He deserved that look of absolute disgust that he saw on her face but she hadn't given up struggling yet so he stayed that way. He saw the tears brimming in her eyes before she closed them tightly.

"Will you stop struggling for just a minute and listen to me? I swear I am not going to do anything to you!" he tried to sound as calm as possible considering how angry and frustrated he actually was. She was scared. It would do no good to scare her further, he kept reminding himself. She went still for a second. But he was not one to be fooled. She wasn't the kind to give up so he maintained his hold on her. "Listen! I swear I am not going to do anything to you. You and I have just witnessed a murder happen. I saved us both from getting killed. We are the only witnesses left to the murder and I am pretty sure, we are not going to look good on the killer's CV. For all we know, he is out there somewhere, this very minute, hunting us down. I don't know about you, but I do not wish to get killed. I've contacted the DGP of Mumbai, Abhinav Shukla, who is a good friend of mine. He will be here any minute to pick us up and take us to his office. Given our circumstances, that's the only way I saw out. Now, I'm going to let you go and if you have a better plan, that will not get me killed, because honestly, I don't care about you, then by all means.. Go ahead. If you intend to run again, be my guest. But let me remind you, this is Delhi.. And the middle of the night for that matter. And if you intend to scream and attract unwarranted attention, maybe even alert the killer we are here, let me warn you, I will not think twice about abandoning you right here and looking after my own safety. I will live the rest of my life happy in the knowledge that there is one less hare-brained female in this world." With that, he let go of her and stepped back, still cautious of what she might be upto.

Ishita felt a slight relief in knowing that he wasn't the killer. Yet at the same time, she felt like wringing his neck. He was such an insufferable, egoistic, thick-headed, chauvinistic moron! And she wasn't ready to trust everything his just said completely. She just had to think of a way out - somehow, anyhow. They stood on the deserted street in a sort of face off - each wary of the other for long moments before the honking of a horn brought them out of the stand off.

***

"You did the right thing," Abhi said as he handed Raman and Ishita their coffees. Ishita grabbed onto her coffee mug as if her life depended on it. When Abhinav Shukla had come to pick them up, Ishita had felt relieved. She had seen his pictures and read his interviews in the newspapers and recognized him. He was the youngest DGP Delhi had seen so far but was nevertheless one of the best ones too.

"So now what?" Raman asked. "I won't lie. The two of you do have a serious threat to your lives. This is a high profile murder case and whoever is behind this would not want to leave eyewitnesses behind," Abhinav confessed. Ishita felt a shiver run down her spine and she took a big gulp of her coffee.

"I am sorry you are caught in this situation and I assure you we will do our best to protect you till the killer is caught and this whole mess is solved" Abhinav continued. "The next course of action is to put you under the Witness Protection Program. We are going to send the two of you to remote localities under false identities. We'll have to be extra careful Raman because you are such a well-known figure," Abhi explained. "As per policy, we will have the two of you housed in different places. Just so that in the highly unlikely event that the killer were to find one of you and something were to happen to one of you, at least we would have the other witness safe," Abhi continued in a professional tone.

"Wouldn't this be pretty much like telling the killer who we are? I don't know about her - who she is or if anyone knows her, but the media knows I was at Saxena's party. If I just disappear right after the murder, they are either going to speculate that I have a hand in the murder or that I know something. I can't just up and leave like that. The media will know and so will the rest of the country," Raman argued. Ishita cast him an angry look. Who the hell was this guy? Rather, who did he think he was? He was acting as though he was some Ambani or Birla - the kind whose sneeze made media headlines. "You know what, I have a better plan. I am just going to hire extra security around me and go about my life as though this night never happened," Raman said.

"You really think Mr. Shah, who was murdered tonight, did not have enough security around him?" Abhi asked. "Whoever this guy is, he is a professional. It was a well-planned, well-executed murder. Mr. Shah probably had moles within his close personal staff or security who informed the killer of his whereabouts. How many of your close personal staff or security do you trust blindly Raman?" The only name that came to Raman's mind was Mihir. "Okay, I get your point, but we still need to figure out how to keep this under the wraps with the media and my business associates and all," Raman replied.

"Raman, we don't have time to come up with a fool proof strategy right now. Both of you can make one phone call, just one phone call to the person you trust the most and who'll be able to manage your absence without causing much of a stir. Its up to you to decide who you are going to call and try to be as quick as possible. You can use my phone to make the calls while I go arrange for the both of you to be taken to your locations," Abhi said holding out his phone. Ishita was about to reach for it but Raman beat her to it. He didn't even bother to ask her if she wanted to go first and was already on his call. Ishita took the moment to think about who she wanted to call. Her first instinct had been Mihika, but maybe Appa would be a better choice. He'd manage Amma better as well.

"I can't tell you when I'll be back so you have to handle everything and everyone till then, okay?" Raman spoke urgently into the phone. "Mihir I told you na, that stupid female in front of me screamed and I turned to look and the guy was right there," Raman repeated frustrated. "I am fine." "Yes, yes, Abhi is taking care of us. You just take care of everything else." "Yes, I will try to stay in touch whenever I can." "Okay, bye!" Raman cut the call and was about to throw the phone angrily. Why on earth did this day have to turn out this way? He glanced at the stranger sitting on the couch twiddling her thumbs. Gosh! His very first meeting with her and someone ended up dead. "Here!" he said thrusting the phone in her direction.

Ishita took the phone from him and paused to think again. Appa was the better person to call she decided. She hurriedly dialed his number. "Hello Appa! Its me Ishu," she spoke in as calm a voice as she could manage. "Ishu! Where are you? Mihika just came back from the party and said you were missing? Are you alright? Someone was murdered at the party!" he told her. "I know Appa. I... I saw it happen," Ishu told him. "Please listen to me Appa. I witnessed the murder. I am with the DGP of Delhi now, Abhinav Shukla. He says I have to go into the Witness Protection Program. They have to send me to a remote location for a while till they nab the murderer.. for my safety," she told him all in one go. "No Appa, I don't know how long I will be gone and where they are sending me. All I know is.. All of this is to ensure my safety.." "But why Appa? I told.." "Okay, okay! Hold on," she covered the phone with her hand and looked around. Raman quirked an eyebrow at her questioningly. "Where is Inspector Shukla?" she asked him. "He's making arrangements for us to leave. What happened?" he asked. "My.. My Appa wants to speak with him," she said. "Good Heavens! Did you not hear what he said? We don't have all the time in the world. We're trying to resolve the situation as quickly as we can and here.. Madam is busy in her family drama. Give me the phone," Raman snatched the phone from her. 

"Hello Sir.." he started to speak in his serious no-nonsense tone. "Hello DGP Sir?" the voice from the other end of the phone sounded worried, tensed. Before Raman could correct him and tell him he wasn't the DGP, the voice continued, "Sir, Ishu.. She's my daughter.. She isn't involved in any of this.. She doesn't even go to parties.." the voice on the other end cracked and Raman could hear it. "Please Sir, please take care of my daughter. I mean, she can take care of herself but.. I am her dad and I cannot help but worry.. You might have a daughter too.. You can imagine how worried I am.. I can't say this to her because I have to be strong for her.. But please Sir, please consider this father's plea. Please make sure my daughter is safe Sir. Please.." the voice went silent on the other end but Raman could almost hear him trying to control his tears. "You might have a daughter too.. You can imagine how worried I am.." the words kept whirring in Raman's mind. "Its okay. I promise I won't let anything happen to you. I promise," he'd told her earlier. Her fear stricken eyes stirred up in the periphery of his vision. The words, the vision kept whirring in his head till he closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes, he spoke into the phone, "Don't worry sir. I won't let anything happen to her. I promise." "Thank you.. Thank you so much Sir," the voice on the other end sounded a lot relieved and Raman hung up.

Just then Abhi walked into the room. "Raman, I have arranged for you to go to.."

"She goes with me.."

Abhi and Ishita, both turned towards Raman who kept looking straight ahead as he repeated determinedly, "She goes with me!"