Secrets Hidden In Time (Time #1)

20 | The Search At Night

Two crisp knocks on the door caused him and Nishchay to divert their attention towards the entranceway.

"Enter." He instructed while scrolling through a few more blueprints on his MacBook.

Shortly after, Karim entered the majestic Victorian-era office with a cell phone in his hand and Manoramaa on his trail.

"Sahib." Karim bowed his head in respect.

"Sir." Manoramaa followed suit with a formal greeting.

The moment Mahadevan's eyes met with those of his most trusted aide, he knew something was up. So with two swift movements of his digits, he shut down the lid of his laptop and then turned around to face the heedless fourth human in his office. "Nishchay, can we discuss this later? I have something else to look after."

Nishchay Adhikari quickly picked up his laptop and got up from the visiting chair he was settled on. "Sure, sir. I'll take my leave."

Mahadevan nodded.

With one single bow of his head, the senior architect turned around and briskly walked out of the office, closing the door behind him.

Averting his eyes from the Brazilian Rosewood door, Mahadevan fixed his gaze on Karim and Manoramaa while folding his arms across his chest. "What happened?" He asked.

Karim glanced at the cell phone in his hand for a second and then said, "Geeta was trying to call you, and she said that you were not picking up her calls."

Mahadevan knitted his brows together in confusion while reaching out for his phone, which was kept on the table. As the screen of the handy device came alive, he focused his eyes on the man and woman before him again. "Oh, I apologize. She did call me. But I guess I mistakenly turned on the silent mode on my phone, so I didn't hear the ringtone."

"That's fine, sir. Here, she is on call." Saying so, Manoramaa handed over the cell phone in Karim's hand to Mahadevan.

Uncertainty shadowed his visage as he placed the cell phone on his right ear. "Yes... Geeta? I am sorry for not acknowledging your call. My phone was in silent mode, so I didn't hear the ringtone. What happened, though?"

"It's okay, Sahib. I just wanted to ask, Did madam contact you in the evening?" Geeta's worried voice resonated from the other side, along with someone's faint snoring.

A frown took over his face as Mahadevan wetted his chapped lips. "No, she has not." And then suddenly something dawned upon him: "Wait, what? You mean, she has not reached home till now?!"

"No, Sahib, she has not reached home till now, and this is why I was trying to contact you all along. She generally reaches home by eight p.m. every day, or at the most nine thirty. And even if she thinks that she'll be late, she promptly calls me to inform me about it. But today, it's already ten-forty p.m., but neither has she called me to inform me about her being late, nor am I able to reach her through the phone. She hasn't even left me a message, and the tele-operator is continuously repeating the same thing---that her phone is switched off. But, Sahib, what's worrying me the most is the fact that she hasn't called or face timed even once throughout the day to talk to Anirudh today. I mean, it's her routine---calling or face timing to check up on Anirudh every day from her office, at least twice." She sighed.

In a second, his hands started sweating as a certain kind of distress spread across his abdomen. His chest constricted painfully as he gulped with difficulty. "Don't worry; she must be stuck in some work. I'll go and get her, and then both of us will come home together." Rubbing his left hand across his face, he continued, "Where is Ani, by the way? Have both of you had your dinner? And who is this snoring in the background?"