She went back to her list. The original twenty-three names, now reduced through alibis and eliminations. She'd crossed off all but four. She stared at the four remaining names.
One of them was Vikram Patil.
Her Sub-Inspector. Her most trusted team member. The man who'd been at every crime scene, who'd had unsupervised access to her office countless times, who'd driven her car, held her evidence bags, and stood two feet away while she reviewed her most sensitive files.
The man she'd been trusting with her investigation from the very first night.
The nausea hit her so hard she had to grip the edge of the desk. She breathed through it. Then she did what a detective does — she tested the hypothesis.
She called Vikram's phone. It went to voicemail.
She called the Crime Branch front desk. "Where is Sub-Inspector Patil?"
"He left about two hours ago, ma'am. Said he was following up on a lead."
"What lead?"
"He didn't specify."
Priya called Rajan. "Where are you?"
"Your apartment building. Routine check."
"Leave the apartment. Get to the Crime Branch. Now."
"What's happening?"
"Vikram is the source. He's the one who fed Ajay my case notes. And he left two hours ago without telling anyone where he was going."
Silence. Then: "Priya, your daughter is in Pune."
"I know."
"If Vikram knows where she is —"
"I know."
She dialled Ananya's number. No answer. She dialled her mother's landline in Pune. It rang eight times. Her father picked up.
"Papa, where is Ananya?"
"She went out, beta. To the market. With that nice young policeman you sent."
Priya's blood stopped moving. "I didn't send any policeman, Papa."
"But he had ID. He said you asked him to —"
"Papa, listen to me very carefully. Call the Pune police. Right now. Tell them your granddaughter has been taken by a man posing as a police officer. His name is Vikram Patil. Do it now."
She hung up. Called the Pune Police Control Room herself. Then the Highway Patrol. Then Rajan, then Deshmukh's replacement (the interim ACP, a woman named Meghna Joshi who'd been brought in after Deshmukh's suspension), then every contact she had in the Pune district.
Then she ran to her car, started the engine, and drove toward the expressway.
Mumbai to Pune. 150 kilometres. Three hours by car. Maybe two and a half if you drove the way Priya drove — with the single-minded disregard for speed limits that comes from knowing that every minute is a minute your daughter is in the hands of a man who's been lying to you for months.
Case No. 7 of 7. The disappearance.
It had been about Ananya all along.
