Chapter 4 Bail Out

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. But what do I do? It's your behavior that got me. And now tell me was I right? Or was I wrong? You see, I'm not delusional and I don't force my theory on someone's throat. I tend to give the benefit of the doubt and explore other options. Only then can we confidently say that this option is right, isn't it Mr. Ashish? Unlike you, of course," she raised her eyebrows smirking even though her lips hurt as she did so. Thanks to the slaps that rewarded her with a torn lip.

"Everyone, disperse, now!" A command from Ashish and everyone went out.

"Hmphh! Afraid your little secret will come out?" Katherine smirked.

"You Bitch!" Ashish raised his hand to hit.

***

"Hello, Inspector-hmm..Maithili, right?" Maithili frowned at the new voice.

"Yeah, I'm. And you're?" she looks at a man dressed in black and white.

"I'm Advocate Goutham Khanna. Can I talk to your IP(In charge of Police) here?" he mutters politely.

Maithili, who was checking him out, after a heartful interrogation nods with a sigh.

"Wait a minute here. I'll have to inform Sir," she gestures to him to sit on the visitor's lounge and Goutham Khanna makes his way towards it.

He thought, without him, his team would be able to bail out his to-be-sister-in-law, Katherine, but turned out, he had to step in for the further process.

Goutham Khanna, when he steps in, the process has to be moved forward without much delay, he's smart, and as smart as he was, he's cunning too in his own manipulative way, a lawyer's trait had to be developed inside him as soon he hit the cases, and cases after cases.

***

"Sir, Advocate Goutham Khanna is here and insisted on meeting you," she informs their IP, Abhishek Mehra.

"Sure. Send him in." Abhishek had his gaze on the case file as he mutters gesturing to her with one of his hands.

"Okay, Sir." Maithili salutes him and walks away sighing on the way, taking her phone out to check any messages.

***

"Here's the bail for Ms. Katherine Gupta." Goutham Khanna hands over a file consisting of bail papers.

Abhishek checks them and verifies them with his officers in a few minutes.

"Anything you'd like to drink? Tea or Coffee?" Abhishek asks, for the sake of formality.

"No, thank you, Mr. Abhishek! I'm fine." Goutham Khanna is here to bail out Katherine, and no Tea or Coffee can give him that satisfaction. So, he had to deny him simply, and he did just that.

"Everything is fine, and I've completed the formalities too," an Inspector comes into the room, handing over the Bail Papers to his Sir.

"Thanks, Inspector Hitesh. You may go." In Abhishek's language, it was clearly a get out, just that it's more... formal.

"Come with me," Abhishek after taking a copy of it, files it in case of a file, as he gets up to walk through the corridor to the jail Katherine was kept in.

Goutham follows closely behind Abhishek, observing some prisoners who are in the garden, following up on the tasks given by the police.

He hoped against hope Katherine was in better condition.

He knows how police treat the accused, irrespective of laws and truth.

Well, most of them...and that's why they're police.

***

Another slap landed on her face. Her cheeks were red, and so were her eyes, not with tears but with contemporary rage.

Katherine Gupta was known to be patient if not more and patient that is, she is the definition of it.

Patience in the Dictionary could just replace its definition with her name.

Katherine Gupta.

It shouldn't be a surprise if she still smiled at Ashish, opposite to what her hazels - a little green and grey were saying at the moment.

"You realize you're talking with a policeman here?" Ashish grits his teeth in anger.

He was a short-tempered man who wouldn't mind raising his hands on women if they were at fault...or no-fault.

His ego and pride were his manpower and when Katherine Gupta dared to question him, he saw nothing but red.

Someday his damned ego would eat away his job! And he is yet to realize that.

"You realize you're talking with an accused woman here?" Katherine Gupta was known for another skill.

Give them back as good as they give you!

"Of course, you're an accused, and that's why you're subjected to this treatment. Aren't you?" Ashish spats, what a fool! He had to utter in his mind.

The reality was never on par with his mind and Katherine Gupta knows just that.

She's smart, and she had to come back with an equal retort, "I thought The code of Criminal Procedure number - 1973, 46, and 49 states 'No unnecessary restraint', especially on women by a male police officer. I hope you're aware I can get you imprisoned for this," she smirks pointing to the imprinted hand marks on her cheeks and the blood dripping from the corner of her lips.

Ashish was stupified for a moment before he recovered, this woman was more than smart! He had to admit and that didn't change anything. He was still a fool.

"Don't talk rules, lady. I know them better than you," he scowls.

"Yeah, I can see that," Katherine chuckles, a smile on her lips that didn't flicker in the little sparks of grey and green.

Someone said it right!

Smile and just smile, in front of them - who likes to hate you? Period.

Ashish burns more looking at the little curve she had on her lips.

And before he could pounce upon her, Abhishek walks in calling out for him, "Inspector Ashish?"

Abhishek looked at his teammate who had rage visible on his face, he hoped he didn't hit Katherine Gupta.

"Yes, Sir?" Abhishek was good enough to know how each of his teammates worked and so, when he turned his gaze toward Katherine Gupta, he wasn't much surprised.

They're police and inside the four walls, anything could happen, he's just not sure if Ashish could get saved this time.

Better he doesn't!

Abhishek is tired of the ego and pride they keep showing the prisoners.

Goutham sighs closing his eyes a little, he knew the police and their ways, didn't he? He reminds himself, that he's here to save Katherine and a little thing, if could save Katherine, he doesn't mind pointing it out.

"I see no female here. Is that how you interrogate a woman here?" On Goutham's question, Ashish rolls his eyes while Abhishek tries to save their teammates.

"Inspector Maithili was here till a few minutes ago, Mr. Goutham Khanna."

"I'd like to see CCTV before buying that," the lawyer inside him was sharp.

"Yes, sure! You'd see that before trials anyway," Abhishek agrees, lost in the moment.

"Great!" Goutham nods.

"Ms. Katherine Gupta, you're out on bail! We just need your signatures before we let you go," Abhishek lets out the fact, without a hunch!

Ashish widens his eyes a little at what just he heard. After all, his means of ego-humiliator was getting released..on bail.

"Thank you, Mr. Abhishek!" she stands, with a little twitching in her legs.

She's been sitting for a long time, beaten up by the police, without any particular reason-justifiable if one could define it. It was obvious that she'd tremble a little.

Goutham comes forward to help her, but Katherine denies it. So what if she was beaten? She wasn't a best-selling author just like that, she was strong and strong enough to withstand more like this.

Although the pain was a little distant now, it wasn't distant much that she would just....forget it! Na!

Aaron Singh Roy had surely introduced her to happiness, it just doesn't mean she forgot the pain.

Never!

Aaron Singh Roy, her boyfriend made sure of that.

***

"Katherine?" Zeba heard Aaron murmuring the name, inconsistently.

"Aaron?" Zeba gulped, unable to believe her brother woke up.

Doctors declared he was in Coma!

And when she heard him murmur just after four days, she cried in happiness. Her brother is back and ...alive!

"It may take years, months, days, or never, Mrs. Roy. We're not sure. Human Brains react differently and so does your son's, his brain might react differently to our medicines and the poison didn't help much!"

Kavya remembered the doctor's words four days ago. Words that broke their hearts. Words that broke their dreams...her dreams! So when she heard her Son's mumbling, she wasn't less in being on par with her daughter, she burst into tears of happiness as soon as she heard her son whisper into nothingness after a whole ....four days?

They went near him, holding his hands as they cried together, except Aaron who had his eyes a little open, and murmuring Katherine.

"Aaron!" Kavya caressed his son's forehead a little, smoothening the frown and Aaron blinked his eyes a couple of times, his vision was blurry, and noncoherent words were being heard from the oxygen mask that was put on his nose and mouth.

All they could hear was, Katherine...Katherine...and just Katherine!

"I'll call Sameera and Goutham and tell them this," Zeba takes her phone out to inform her to-be-fiance and Sameera who was their family friend.

Kavya, on the other hand, had already called out for Doctors, and now as she stood out, doctors were checking on his vitals as Zeba started roaming in worry.

Goutham wasn't lifting his call.

Sameera's network was busy!

Zeba wasn't able to connect to ...any of them.

***

"What is it?" Sameera screamed into the phone.

"...."

"Just do what I said when that didn't work! Can't you understand a simple thing?" she was beyond furious.

"...."

"Kill him! I don't care," she snaps into the phone. Rage was so palpable and her deep black eyes screamed nothing different.

***

"Oh god! This medicine is... sort of poisonous!" A voice was heard in the lab.

"So, should we report to the police? Someone tried to kill him!" The same voice of a woman, who was about to catch the man in the morning but could only slip her hands into the medicine whispered.

"No, Sister Mary! It's about our hospital's reputation. I know what to do. You just keep silent. Do you get me? If people know there's no safety for our patients here, we'll lose our reputation." The man in a white coat, who's unfortunately called Doctor whispered furiously.

"I'm Sorry, Doctor!" Mary was none but a regular nurse in the hospital and she had to follow what they said, even if she didn't kinda..like it!

She had a family to feed!

***

"He missed the medicine, Boss!"

"...."

"Are you sure we should kill him?"

"...."

"Sure, Boss!"

He turns towards the other men in the group and whispers something in one of the men's ears, and soon a body is lying on the ground.

The group fell into their regular activities, trees around them giving them fresh air to practice the skills they're already expert at as they talked in a language unknown to the woman who had her hawk-like eyes on them!

Until a man in minimal clothes caught her staring at them...and she gulped!