“Now you tell me!” Sonia snapped.
Suddenly Nidhi’s loud angry hissing filled the room. The little cat was standing on two paws, clawing the pane. A figure in white hovered outside the grilled window.
“Shh… ” Mohnish whispered urgently. “The ghost!”
Sonia darted to the window and grabbed the lamp. But just as she did so, a loud howl of pain pierced the night. Mohnish yanked the office door open and they raced out into the darkness. Just in time to glimpse the ghost stumbling over tree roots and fleeing into the dark. A white bedsheet trailed behind him and his waistlong dreadlocks hung like rags flapping in the wind. As the figure dissolved into the mist, Mohnish broke into a run, plunging into the darkness, chasing the ghost down the lane.
Sonia stared in amazement as another figure appeared out of the shadows. She switched on the emergency lamp. Jatin! And he had a hockey stick in hand!
“What are you doing here?” she asked, incredulously.
“Keeping watch, of course! I couldn’t trust the two of you together, so I decided to extend my duties and add my experienced vigil to the watch tonight. And am I glad I did! I’ve given that ghost such a whack with my hockey stick, he’s not going to turn up again in a long time,” Jatin reported triumphantly.
Sonia stared in disbelief at her Assistant. “Don’t you think trying to catch him would’ve been a more profitable option for us? Instead of just driving him away?”
“Well, actually I didn’t really think of that. I was longing to get my hands on that troublesome ghost and I certainly got the satisfaction. Anyway, the goal has been achieved. He won’t turn up again. Ultimately that’s what we wanted, didn’t we?”
Sonia sighed. “Yes, I guess, though finding out why he was haunting our premises would have been a bonus, right?”
“Oh…”
Mohnish returned, a little breathless. “Got away! What’s that?” He stooped and picked up something from the grass at his feet. “Another note?”
Immediately Sonia shone the light on the slip of paper. printed words stood out clearly on the crumpled sheet.
“You did not heed my warning. Now your cat will die!”
“Nidhi!” Sonia exclaimed and wheeled towards the office.
She rushed inside, her heart pounding with terror. The others followed close on her heels.
“Nidhi!” Sonia called again, desperately, and for a breathtaking moment heard only silence. Then a complaining meow answered loudly and firmly, and relief swept over Sonia. Nidhi was sitting by the window, awaiting Sonia’s return.
The detective swooped the cat up in her arms, cradling her like a child.
“My little darling!” she cooed. Turning to the others, she announced, “She’s here and safe!”
“Thanks to my whack,” Jatin reminded.
The night lamp flickered, announcing the return of the electricity, and Jatin switched on the tube, flooding the office with light.
“I guess it’s time to go home,” Mohnish said, tugging on his jacket. “That ghost won’t return in a hurry, now that he knows we’ve made the connection between his notes and him,” “And because of my whack!”
Sonia and Mohnish flashed each other amused looks. “And because of your thoughtfulness,” she acceded, and her assistant finally looked appeased and pleased.
Sonia settled Nidhi on her pillow again and stroked her till she curled up again.
“Okay everybody, pack-up time!”
Sonia studied the horoscope intently. She could very nearly visualise Asit - tall, silent, and romantic. She grimaced. Her head was groggy and filled with romantic nonsense, she realized, thanks to Mohnish! She had barely slept last night and the few winks she had managed had been interspersed with images of a make-believe Asit and a very real Mohnish. She had awakened disoriented and finding difficulty in sifting imagination from reality. She couldn’t help thinking back to last night. He had been different. More like the Mohnish she had met for the first time. Confident, almost arrogant with some hidden, inner knowledge. Mysterious, too, about the phone call. If the power failure hadn’t happened when it did, what would he have said to her? And more important, how would she have reacted to him? Sonia sighed. She felt totally confused and ill equipped to handle anything featuring beyond simple friendship. What had he said earlier in the afternoon? A delicate boundary protecting friendship. Had he overstepped his boundary of friendship? And had she also unknowingly trespassed over that line?
Sonia shook her head in frustration. She didn’t at all fancy her line of thinking. No doubt this case was giving her ideas and forcing amorous thoughts into her mind. She was an investigator and she had no time for relationships - at least, not yet. Besides, she wasn’t completely free of a certain man with blue-green eyes, who was invisible physically, but omnipresent like a road speed-breaker in her emotional path. There was only one thing to do, if she had to retain her wits and behave like a rational and practical human being - she had to forget the whole notion of romance!
With fresh resolve, she buzzed the intercom.
“Yes, Boss!”
“Jatin, I need music.”
“Right away, Boss!”
It was only when Jatin had slipped a hard-rock CD into the player and had speedily escaped from the room that Sonia recovered some semblance of peace. Theloud guitar music raked into her brain noisily. She focused completely on the horoscope, her foot tapping with the rhythm. Suddenly, her eyes were drawn to a constellation. The Lord of the fourth house Mars was in the ninth house in his own sign Aries! Which meant that ultimately Asit would settle in a city and in his birth place and prosper there. Where was he born, she tried to recall. Mumbai! That was it! Mumbai was where he ought to have settled. Something else attracted her attention. Venus and Mars in the ninth house indicated a very fruitful career in arts and media. There was a great possibility of him changing his career along the way. A powerful Mars, and
