The Case of the Love Commandos Read Free Page B

worked for Most Private Investigators Ltd., he and Rumpi had enjoyed only a few holidays away—and invariably these had combined work with pleasure.
    Take that Bangalore trip four months ago, for example. It had coincided with an international conference on digital forensics and cyber crime. Since then, he hadn’t spent a single day at home.
    A short break would do him a world of good. And the exercise—the family was due to make the pilgrimage to thetop of the Trikuta Mountain to visit the popular Vaishno Devi shrine—would be no bad thing, either.
    Besides, Elizabeth Rani had made plans of her own. Tomorrow being Sunday, she’d be at home with her father. But she’d been promised Monday and Tuesday off as well and arranged to take her nephews to see a movie at Select Citywalk mall. She was also looking forward to doing some shopping in Lajpat Nagar, getting her eyebrows threaded and having tea with her childhood friend, Chintu.
    How best to handle him?
    It wasn’t in her nature to bully. And arguing would get her nowhere. Any attempt to appeal to his need for time off would simply be met with a weary riposte like “Man was not made to sit idle, Madam Rani.”
    What was needed was a subtler approach. Sir, like most men, suffered from an acute fear of failure. If she could convince him that all would be well with the unsolved case, then she was in with a chance. A little massaging of his ego wouldn’t go amiss, either.
    “Sir, you owe it to yourself to take some offs,” said Elizabeth Rani.
    “And why is that exactly?”
    “Such sacrifices you make of yourself every day, assisting people from all walks of life. No doubt everyone will understand if you are absent for a short while.”
    “And what if some Tom, Dick or Harry has need of my services for some emergency or other? What then? Lives could be at stake.”
    “That of course is possible, sir,” she conceded. “Such incidents can occur at any time without warning.”
    “Crime knows no boundaries, nor distinguishes between night and day, Madam Rani.”
    “But it is not only here in Delhi that people require yourvaluable assistance. Who knows what might occur during the pilgrimage? What if it is your karma to be there on the pilgrimage?”
    Puri despised astrology and all forms of stargazing, often describing it as a social evil that afflicted his fellow countrymen and women. Yet he was not altogether immune to superstitious thinking. Nor from perceiving himself as the sun around which the solar system orbited.
    “Most true, Madam Rani, most true,” he intoned. “Who is to say what the God has in store for us, no?”
    He went thoughtfully silent for a moment, then added, “Naturally, duty to family is there also. They will be looking for me to lead them on the pilgrimage.”
    Elizabeth Rani reminded him that his senior operative, Tubelight, was also hard at work on the Jain Jewelry Heist case. He and his boys were trawling the underworld for any clues as to the whereabouts of the missing loot. “So it is hardly as if the case is lying idle,” she added.
    Puri’s countenance began to brighten. “I suppose a few days cannot hurt,” he said. “It is a pilgrimage after all. Some blessings will be there. Perhaps the goddess will offer me some sort of guidance with regard to the case.”
    “Some time away will help you see things in a fresh light, sir, I’m sure.”
    “My thoughts precisely, Madam Rani.”
    He picked up the file, put it inside the drawer of his desk and gulped down the second, still warm cup of chai. “To be perfectly honest and frank, I had already made up my mind to go,” he said in a confiding tone. “Just I was playing devil’s advocate, actually.”
    He spent the next five minutes frantically packing his things and calling out reminders to his secretary to do this and that while he was away.
    “Be sure to get Door Stop to polish the sign on the door each and every day.” “Ensure he doesn’t waste milk.” “Dusting of