Cold Wars - a Lawyer-Cop Romance

What A Mess

Shankaree went straight home from the police station. She was comparatively quite early to reach her home. She never reached home before 7:30 pm. Her work kept her busy from 9 am to 7 or 7:30 pm on a regular day. She had left the office for this case in the afternoon. Fortunately, the DC was surprisingly good at solving the problem and, thankfully, Chanda uncle was released without any case under his name. Exhausted by the whole ordeal, she plopped on her couch and lied down on it. Her mind wandered to the eye candy DC. It was impossible for her to not think of him. He was that impressive. The way he carried himself, how he sorted out the issue within an hour, how dedicated he was to his job and, of course, his face. For her, it was not just the way he looked . What made him special was that he did the right thing. Self-righteous people have gotten harder to find in the world.

‘There was no point in thinking about him anymore. There is absolutely no chance of meeting him again. Unless Chanda uncle was really gonna trade drugs.’ She thought and chuckled. She took a long bath to cool down. Her day was as crap as hell. All she wanted was to eat some of the unhealthiest foods on the planet. She ordered a burger, a small pizza and a slice of cheesecake through her phone app. Soon, her food arrived and she was delighted. She was starved and tired. She skipped breakfast and missed lunch because her senior chided her, which took up a significant amount of time, and then she had to run to Chanda uncle’s house immediately. She gorged the food down like the hungry person she was at the moment. After that, she went straight to bed to get a peaceful sleep, but was still thinking of a face which made it difficult to sleep.

One month later

Out of the blue, Vishwanath got a call from the Deputy Inspector General of Police, to discuss a private matter no less. He had no clue why he was summoned to a restaurant when they could’ve met at the DIG’s office. That evening, Vishwa met with DIG Dev Sharma. He was someone Vishwa admired and was like a mentor figure while he was working in the law and order wing. DIG Sharma ordered a drink, while Vishwa refused it as he was driving back himself.

“Thanks for coming, Vishwanath.” DIG Sharma said. The DIG was sitting back comfortably in his large cushioned chair.

“How can I refuse when you called.” Vishwa said politely. He was leaning forward, showing respect to his superior.

“How’s Narcotics?” Sharma asked.

“Its going well so far. Cleaning up the city one drug bust at a time, spreading awareness among youth, some new programs etc.” Vishwa said.

“What about the false case?” Sharma laughed and asked.

“Hmm?” was all he said. Not said, he just made a noise.

“You saved the CI and AI from a suspension, didn’t you?” Sharma smirked at him.

Vishwa lowered his head and said “Yes, that happened.” Vishwa suddenly looked at him and asked, “How did you know about it?”

Sharma chuckled. “Boy, I know everything that happens in this city.” He said, sipping the drink.

Vishwanath sat back in his chair; he was embarrassed such a thing had happened while he was the head of office. He was embarrassed that such a thing had happened at all. His mind immediately went to the fiery lawyer who practically destroyed him, in every way. He constantly thought about the incident, how he failed a lawful citizen and the woman whom he occasionally thought about. He put in extra work in the station to avoid any such incidents again.

“A woman, was it?” Sharma asked in a condescending way.

“A lawyer.” he said. She was a lawyer when she came into his office and demanded Chanda’s release. She was impressive. Assertive. Persistent.

“I heard. You were smart there. It’s a dead issue now. You handled it well.”

“Thank you, Sir. So, why did you want to see me?” Vishwa wanted to know.

“Yeah, there’s a small problem I got into. Accidentally.” Sharma said.

“What issue?” he crooked his eyebrows.

“A false case. A woman is threatening me to file a complaint against me.” Sharma said.

Vishwa sat forward and nodded at him, conveying to Sharma that he understood.

“What case, Sir?” he asked.

“375 IPC. Her name is Mithra.”

“r**e?”

“Yes. Specifically, having s*x with consent obtained by false promise of marriage.”

“And this is a false case.” Vishwa stated but with a tone of doubt.

“I’ll be honest with you boy, we did have s*x. A few times. She now wants me to leave my wife to marry her.”

“So she knew you were married.” Vishwa said.

“Of course, she knew.” Sharma said and gulped down the remaining of his drink.

“Okay. I understand the issue here. Why exactly did you call me here?” Vishwa was uncomfortable learning his mentor cheated on his wife. More importantly, a woman threatened to sue him for r**e.

‘Did he do it? You never know.’ he thought, but didn’t share his thoughts with the DIG.

“I want your help to sort this out.” Sharma said dryly.

“Me?” he was surprised.

“Yes, you. You’ve proven yourself to be good at solving issues without them exploding.” Sharma said with hope in his eyes.

“Uh… Sir, I must refuse. I cannot be a part of silencing a r**e case.” He said in a mild tone.

“Its not a case, yet. She’s just threatening me. She won’t charge in any case. I know her. She wants something and I don’t know what. She left her home and blocked me on social media and my phone number. There is no way to get to her.” Sharma was too calm for a person accused of r**e. Like he knew the case was going to be charged.

‘What does he want me to do in this?’ he wondered.

It was like he answered his thoughts. Sharma spoke, “That’s where you come in.” Vishwa gave him an exasperated look and sat back on his chair. Sharma obviously wasn’t getting the signs, or rather he was talking too much to notice it.

“She talks through her lawyer and I want you to have a negotiation meeting and know what Mithra wants.”

“Me?” he asked, surprised by the demand.

“Yes, you. As I said, you’ve proven yourself. You must do it under all secrecy, of course. You can manage it. You talked to a lawyer and no one died in that room.”

‘Well, only literally. She killed me in that room metaphorically.’ He thought

“Sir, I can’t be a part of this. I won’t do it.” he said sternly. He was about to stand up when Sharma pleaded to him.

“Please. Just talk to the lawyer once. Once, that is all I ask. You can walk out after that.”

Vishwa kept one hand on his forehead. He didn’t know what to do. He decided to find out the real issue and to know who was saying the truth. After all, he was a policeman; he investigated things.

“Fine. Once.” He finally said, taking his hand off his forehead.

He noticed that Sharma was on the edge of his seat, on the verge of kneeling and begging. He was totally under Vishwa’s mercy at this point.

“Oh, thank you. I’ll give you her number. Call her. Tell me your talking on behalf of me. I’ll say another thing . You are incredibly good looking. The women around you want to climb you like a tree. I’ve seen it myself.” Vishwa wasn’t sure where this conversation was going. It got weird quickly once he said the last part. He thought Sharma was done but the man hadn’t shut his mouth.

“Use that face and boy charm on her you meet her. She’ll go easy on me.” Sharma sat on his chair, like someone lifted off a stone from his chest. Vishwa ignored the comment about his looks and ‘boy charm’ and concentrated on the important matter.

“Her, Mithra?” he asked.

“No no. Not her. I want you to speak to her lawyer. By she, I meant her lawyer. It’s a woman.” Sharma said.

“Alright. Give me her contact number.” He said in a lifeless way and that’s exactly what he felt. He didn’t become a policeman to clean his superiors’ dirty laundry. His phone chimed with a notification.

“I’ve sent the number. Also got her home address and office address, just to keep an eye on her. If I cant find Mithra might as well know about her lawyer.” Sharma said. He didn’t give any attention to the conversation. He took out his phone and checked his phone for her contact information. It read ‘Adv. Shankaree’ on it.

“Shankaree? The lawyer’s name is Shankaree.” He asked.

“Weird name, isn’t it? I haven’t met any young women with that name. Such an ancient name, isn’t it?” Sharma said.

“Of course, it is. There wont be anyone else with such a name” He said and smirked at the screen. He wanted to meet her. For the last month he thought about her a lot. Those dark eyes, prominent cheekbones and red lips. Something definitely a guy can’t forget.

On second thoughts, his excitement dissipated.

‘She’s representing a blackmailer? Either that or she is representing a r**e victim.’ He thought. He didn’t know what is what. He had met her only once but he felt like she had a fight in her, a fight she used to protect vulnerable people. But he didn’t know any longer.

“I’ll take my leave now. I’ll contact the lawyer.” He said and stood up.

“Please do. Or else I might be in trouble.” Sharma said.

Vishwa didn’t bother to reply, he just nodded and walked out of the restaurant. He called her before even reaching his jeep. He called her while walking towards it. He didn’t want to wait; he always did things without any delay. Or was it just because it was her? He didn’t know. He didn’t know what to say or how to approach her, for he knew how hostile she could be. She picked up after a few rings.

“Hello.” She said. 'It is her.' he thought.

“Hello, I’m calling on behalf of Dev Sharma.” He said very, very, very politely. He wanted her pity to move forward with this mess of a.. well, mess.

“Ah, yes. The DIG. What does the DIG want?”

“I’ll be doing the talking for him. Can we meet? To discuss this matter? This is not something we should talk on the phone.”

“Of course, please come by my office at 4 pm tomorrow.”

“No, I would like to speak in a private place. So that others don’t know about this.”

“I can assure you my office will maintain confidentiality. I certainly don’t have to tell them why you came.”

Her voice was so graceful and calm. ‘She knew how to talk like that?’ He was surprised by this poised version of her.

“Still. Please understand.”

“Fine. Please come to my house. By 8 pm. I’ll text you the address.”

“I know your address.” He accidently blurted out.

“What? How the hell do you..” he heard her pause. “I forgot for a second that I’m dealing with the DIG.”

An awkward silence filled between the phone line. He heard her take a deep breath.

“Just come by around 8.” She sounded irritated.

“Alright. I’ll be...” He said, completely embarrassed. She cut the call before he could finish his sentence.

He just wanted to bang his head on something and he did. He banged his head, lightly, on the steering wheel, multiple times, thinking of the exchange he had with her.

It struck him at that point that he was gonna meet her the next day. At her house.