บท 15: Chapter 15- Caught the culprit
Meanwhile Archie and Augustin were partying in the car, not knowing all the chaos that was happening at the mansion when she suddenly freezes and holds her chest.
"My dream college…?"
Augustin bursts out laughing, unable to control his amusement while Archie giggles nervously, realising it was too late and all she could do about it now was laugh.
…
Back at the mansion, Raj was preparing to send out his men in search of his daughter. As he counted the workers and divided them into search vehicles, something wasn't adding up. Where there should be four cars with four men, there was one car with just three. One of them were missing…
~
'13 hours, 918.5 miles to reach Illinois, hotel Viceroy Chicago' Archie read on the navigator. She had never seen one before but she was catching up to its features pretty fast.
"Illinois? Archie questioned"
"We will be stopping at Illinois and Colorado since it will take us nearly two days to get to San Diego. I would need a break from all the driving."
"Oh… are you fine with-"
"It's fine, I'm quiet used to late night driving. We reach there by 12 in the afternoon if the road is clear."
"Thanks Augustin. And I can drive too if it gets tiring."
"We'll see, miss Krishna."
Archie got comfortable in her seat, leaning back a bit when her smile slowly faded.
What was she thinking? How could she trust this man? Especially one who deceived her father for just a couple million dollars
She observed his face slowly. His looks suggested innocence although she knew him better than that. She was to have her guard up.
Augustin could feel Archie's eyes scanning him through his peripheral vision. He understands what she's thinking although he couldn't blame her for not trusting him. As far as she knew, he was just a worker who deceived his boss for some cash. But it was much more than that…. He grew too close to Archie to betray her but no matter how much he explained, it wouldn't be enough to convince Archie and he knew so.
~
Back at the mansion, Tanvi nor Raj could think that she would intend on leaving New York. As far as they knew, she was alone and had no provision, assuming she couldn't have left the city.
Although search parties had left to find his daughter, he couldn't brush the thought of the last worker. He couldn't even recollect his name as Augustin was a new comer. While Raj was deep in thought, Tanvi approaches him, hopelessly.
"She left on a white Jeep. I doubt there was someone with her."
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME EARLIER?"
His voiced echoed like the roar of a lion through the walls of a cave. He immediately picks up his phone and calls the workers to look for a white jeep in sight instead.
As he finished making the final phone call, a thought came to his mind. The cameras. How could he have forgotten?
Tanvi stands by the front porch in confusion as Raj runs upstairs and down the hallway to the room which almost always remained locked.
He sat desperately on the chairs and replayed the system to 9:30 pm. Raj waited patiently until a black, semi-transparent cloth is thrown onto the camera facing the porch as soon as it turns 9:45. He slams his hands on the desk until he brings his face closer to the screen, hardly getting a glimpse of two figures through the cloth. One he knew was Architha, but the other was tall and built, nearly twice her size. It was a male.
"Augustin…Goddammit, I knew I shouldn't have trusted him..."
~
Back in the White Jeep, the two were getting to know each other better. It had been an hour since they started travelling, and Archie was only just getting adjusted to it. She was to repeat this for another 12 hours until they reached the hotel.
It was now 12am.
"Have you eaten anything?"
"Oh, completely forgot about that."
"Miss Krishna, how about we stop at a restaurant."
"No, it's fine unless you wanted to."
"I guess not then."
Archie looks outside the window of the jeep. Rain was slightly drizzling.
"I've never been inside a restaurant."
Augustin slowly turns his head to face Archie with a very sympathetic expression.
"You've been missing out. Must have been torturous eating the same old food of chef Daniels."
"He's not that bad." Archie giggles
As the atmosphere was getting quieter, Archie decides to play around with the music system, trying to get it to run a song.
"Here, I'll do it for you. We'll reach Illinois by the time you figure out how to use this."
Archie couldn't help but laugh.
"Oh my, you call this a song?"
"It's called 'Shape of you', by a famous singer called Ed Sheeran."
"Never heard of it or him."
"Uh. "
"Play some South Indian music."
Augustin reluctantly plays South Indian flute music while rolling his eyes.
"Ahh, so relaxing." Archie mutters as she leans back comfortably on the seat.
~
Back at the mansion, Raj had called for every worker to return and they were now gathered at the main hall waiting for his next instruction.
"There is no use now. She has Augustin with her. If she wants to leave, let her leave. I'm not the one to force anyone… I'll just pretend I only had one daughter!"
These words brought a feeling of sorry and guilt over the workers for not have been a slight bit more careful. But nobody knew she would make such a move… not even Tanvi.
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