Chapter 7 – A New Beginning
(Five Days Later)
It was nine o’clock in the morning.
Sameer stepped out of his house, pulling his jacket tighter around his shoulders as the cool morning air brushed against his skin. He had barely taken a few steps toward the narrow road when the sudden sound of an engine made him pause.
A police jeep stopped beside him.
Sameer frowned, startled. He had lived in this area for years, yet never once had the police stopped him like this. Two uniformed officers stepped out of the vehicle, their expressions serious but not aggressive.
One of them, clearly the senior officer, looked directly at him.
“Are you Sameer Ranjan?” the inspector asked.
“Yes,” Sameer replied carefully. “What’s the matter?”
The inspector nodded slightly.
“Do you have a friend named
