The stormy night

Next morning, Adams Corp:-

*Police recovered a woman’s dead body from the forest Big Woods earlier this morning. The terrible condition of the body indicates sexual harassment before the murder. The police have sent the body for autopsy, only after that, they will answer any questions. For more details —*

Viaan switched off the television before the reporter could complete it. Throwing the remote aside, he sat quietly in his office chair, however, his whole body was tensed now.

Being free from two of his consecutive long meetings, he decided to watch some news for some time as refreshment. But, when the news of police recovering a dead body from the forest Big Woods flashed on the TV screen, his mood soured more. Firstly he didn’t pay attention, but then he heard the reporter saying that the time of the murder was last night, his mind got alerted.

A firm expression masked his face as his mind rewound the news. A woman’s dead body in forest Big Woods, the same forest which was some miles away from the road where he had left Kia.

‘Could it be her?’ His mind chipped in. He frowned then denied his assumptions,

‘No, no, it was evening when I dropped her there, she would have gone towards the town by then.’ shutting his mind up with some made-up reasons, he opened his laptop to work.

However, somewhere back in his mind, the question probed strongly, stressing his nerves more than his work.

Viaan tried to focus on his work and stared at the laptop for some good minutes, but nothing fruitful came out. His mind was diverted for good. Sighing in frustration, he slammed his laptop shut, and leaned back on the chair, losing his tie.

After being in dilemma for about ten minutes he calls Leo. Even for the sake of humanity, he needed to know what he was thinking was wrong. Though he has nothing to do with that girl, if this news was in any way related to her, he wouldn’t forgive himself for a lifetime. This whole drama since the previous day had affected him badly and now he wanted to put an end to it by confirming that it wasn’t Kia.

“You called me, Sir?” Leo entered the cabin,

“You saw the breaking news today?” Viaan asked straightforwardly.

Leo frowned for a second as he tried to link his boss’ query with anything in his knowledge then straightened his eyebrows recalling the particular news. He somewhere guessed what Viaan was going to ask as the impatient expression on his face indicated only one thing.

“Yes, Sir, but I have no information about it.” His tone was apologetic,

“Then get the damn information, Leo! Get me the confirmation that it isn’t that girl.” Viaan slammed his hand on the glass of the mahogany wooden table, as he furiously ordered.

“Right away, Sir!” Leo nodded, taking the order.

He had just turned to go out when Viaan’s call again stopped at his feet.

“And when you’re confirmed that it is not her, then search for her. I need to know her whereabouts.” His voice laced uncertainty as he commanded.

However, being his bodyguard for four years, Leo knew better. He can see the lines of tension on Viaan’s forehead and he knew his boss must be internally blaming himself for being so inhumane last evening. He turned towards Viaan.

“Will do, Sir. Rest assured!”

With that Leo left his cabin hastily. Viaan was again alone with the terrible thoughts and the bad vibes coming from them.

We can’t justify our actions once it has resulted in someone’s destruction. Viaan’s case was the same in the meantime. He tried to give his mind a break from those bad thoughts and indulge himself in the pending work.

An hour later Leo knocked on his door and stepped inside,

“Tell me what I want to hear, Leo!” Came an impatient request from Viaan as soon as he saw Leo coming in.

“Only if that was possible. Unfortunately, the killer had brutally spoiled the face of the dead body, which makes the identification tougher.” Leo sighed, explaining the scene in the police station as he got to know.

He had somehow managed to extract the information at the earliest.

“Exactly what I needed to calm my nerves,” Viaan banged his hand against the table, fiercely glaring everywhere.

“Sir, I have instructed our men to find that girl. But they too are clueless as we have no photo or nothing of her.” Said Leo, sighing in defeat,

“You and Mark go with them, I need her whereabouts at the earliest!” Barking orders in frustration, Viaan dismissed him.

He leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes. Only if he knew what havoc that stormy night was going to create in his life, he would never have taken the help.

*Flashback*

The weather was roaring with scary thunderstorms as the rain intensified. The drizzling had suddenly turned into a heavy downpour making it hard for Viaan to drive further. He had been on a business dinner and had sent his bodyguards earlier, hence was driving back home all alone when it started to rain suddenly.

The heavy wind had now started shaking his car. Any sane man would know the risk in driving further and so did Viaan, hence he decided to pull the brakes at the earliest spot.

However, it seemed like God, too, wanted to protect him from the roaring weather, so his car broke down suddenly.

“Shit,” Viaan cursed as the engine stopped suddenly. This was certainly not what he was expecting tonight.

He tried a few times to start the engine but all in vain. He couldn’t even call anyone amid this weather as the single strength was negligible. Sighing at the situation, he ran his eyes everywhere through his windscreen so as to find any spot to spend the night. For sure the mighty storm wasn’t going to stop any time soon.

To his luck, his eyes spotted a yellow light bulb lit up in the front of a house, about ten meters away from the car. Thanking the Almighty for the help, he fetched out his important documents and phone and tucked them in his coat’s inside pocket.

Running at a good speed, he was at the door, shrugging the water droplets off his clothes. The clouds collided louder, flashing a series of thunder. His eyes scanned the whole dark area around the house, but to his surprise, it was the only house in close vicinity or probably the rain had fogged his vision in darkness.

Viaan knew he had no other option than to ask the residents for some help. Thus, he knocked on the door with hopeful eyes.

He kept knocking for some minutes but when the door was not opened, he exhaled in frustration.

“God, where am I stuck,” his fingers pushed the wet strands back from his forehead as he racked his hands in his wet hair.

Losing the hope to get the help he sighed and turned around before pulling out his phone. Once again his eyes checked for the signal on his cell phone but it was barely there.

Frustrated at the events, he pushed back the phone in his pocket. Luckily the house had a veranda as its entrance. Taking one last glance at the closed door, Viaan decided to sit near the stairs and wait for the storm to come to an end.

He was about to take a step when a creak of wood indicated the opening of the door, reviving his hope. Not wasting a single second, his feet spin around and he spoke out in hurry,

“My car broke down in the rain and the storm had intensified can yo—” all his words were caught up in his throat when he saw who was standing near the threshold.

His eyes widened on their own, “You?”