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the same secrecy is awarded to it as to the drugs trade for some reason. Nevertheless, that aside we did try, but got nowhere. The search was futile.'
    'How do you want us to proceed?' Rita asked.
    'As I mentioned before, first of all we need to contact Mr Jogani's office, house, friends, and track down Sishir Singh before we can even begin. As the murder happened in a hotel, a public place, you can well imagine we have picked up more fingerprints — latent, impressed and patent — than in any other case that I've been involved in. We've ruled out all the hotel staff, and whoever we had on the file, but unless we find a match all that remains is unusable.'
    Victor was correct. Finding prints in a hotel room was always a bitch, considering the number of people who'd have lived in the room before and touched the articles, equipment, walls, fittings and whatnot. And then, be it prints, hair, blood, skin residue, evidence per se was impotent. It had little value till it could be found. Once found — like Victor's team had — it should have been recovered from the crime scene and examined to establish its legitimacy, which Rita couldn't imagine could be the case in a hotel room. Nevertheless, even if there were, there should be something or someone that it could be compared to. Only then could it give any direction to the investigators. Otherwise, a drop of blood is only a drop of blood. Nonetheless, Rita was convinced the intruder — Sishir Singh or whoever — wouldn't have left any such evidence behind that could lead back to him. The whole incident was indeed a well-planned operation. And whoever masterminded it had enough IQ to recognise that was the first thing the police would look for: murder or burglary.
    'Witnesses? Not a one,' Victor concluded.
    'If Sishir Singh is in Mumbai, we will find him — it won't be easy, but it can't be impossible either.'
    Reasonable assurance without a promise but what other surety could Rita offer at this stage?
    'Thank you for the confidence exhibited. What do you need from us?'
    'Could we have a copy of this surveillance camera footage and the pictures please?' Vikram asked.
    Since Rita had known Vikram he had been a meticulous officer who was conscientious and focussed. He sounded like he was already imbibed into the case.
    'Of course… we made a copy of everything, you can keep them.' Victor opened his case again and took out a red box file — in the manner he lifted the heavy file Rita could assess that it weighed a ton — and placed it on the table. Neither Rita nor Vikram rushed for it. It lay between them like an orphan. What was the rush? The file would be with them now and they could sink their fangs into it at their earliest convenience. 'I'm cognisant that you will have questions when you read the file,' Victor carried on, '…and watch the footage and picture a few times, so if you want to ask or discuss anything I'm in Mumbai until Thursday, then I need to return. However, I'll be contactable twenty-four/seven on phone and email should you need me.'
    With a few other sundry details and a plan to meet the next day, giving the Indian contingent time to swallow the details and work on a blueprint, the briefing finished around 2 PM. A police driver from the pool had been allocated to Victor for his stay in Mumbai and he left for the hotel. He had only flown in the night before, ergo he was well past his bedtime according to his body clock.
    ***
    Vikram sat on the visitor's seat in Rita's office when Jatin came in. Inspector Jatin Singh had moved into Rita's team only since the last case that had brought the three of them together. He was just proving to be a prized asset when the misfortune of getting involved with some wrong people almost destroyed his career. But he was back. Rita appreciated his high levels of energy and his sharp intellect; he was much younger than Vikram and herself though. The fact that he succumbed to something stupid once did not alter Rita's