Page 5 of The Pursuit
“Maybe,” he responded coyly, leaving me momentarily speechless.
I looked away, unable to decide how to take this conversation further.
Krish was openly admitting that he was tailing me. What was that
supposed to mean? As I continued to stare at Table number 7, I heard Krish tapping his finger on the table to get my attention.
“If you stare at him so openly, he’ll figure out in no time that you are here to catch him,” he warned.
I turned back to Krish, trying to keep my focus split between him and the suspect.
“I know. I am not making it that obvious,” I countered defensively.
To distract myself, I picked up Krish’s mug and took a sip of his coffee. In a split second, I realised my slip-up and put the mug down. But it was too late. Krish already had a mischievous grin on his lips.
“Woah! Didn’t see that coming,” he teased. “I’m glad ourcoffee ‘date’ is coming true, though you’re more fixated on the suspect rather than the man whose coffee you are sipping.”
He never could stop flirting, could he?
“I have never seen a boss who distracts his own agent from focusing on her mission,” I retorted, giving him a scolding look.
Krish leaned back, crossing his arms in front of him.
“This is the second time you are mentioning that I make you lose your focus, Trisha... Does that mean something?”
I didn’t know what it meant, but with Krish around, I did tend to lose my focus, even if it was for a fraction of a second. Unsure of how to respond, I avoided meeting his eye again and shifted my attention to Table number 6 instead. A handsome man was sitting there, texting on his phone. Something about him seemed off, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It was like he was pretending to be cool.
Soon, my gaze returned to Table number 7, and that’s when a tall man entered the café. He glanced at Table number 7 and swiftly walked over. He had a look of a criminal, making me instantly alert. Working against crime for years, I had developed a keen ability for identifying suspicious behaviour, intuitively reading their intentions from subtle cues. This man and the one at Table number 7 didn’t give me good vibes.
“It must be him,” Krish alerted me too.
I nodded gently, my eyes returning to the door, which opened again, and a woman entered, happily running to the guy at Table number 6. They exchanged a quick kiss before sitting down.
“Looks like the deal is going to happen any moment now,” Krish murmured, and I was instantly attentive to every detail at Table number 7. However, my focus shifted occasionally to Table number 6, where the couple was now holding hands. The way their fingers intertwined seemed peculiar, raising my suspicion.
“You look more interested in the lovebirds than the suspects,” Krish interrupted. “I think them holding hands, exchanging kisses... is distracting you.”
I shot him a deadpan look.
“This is not the time for your jokes, Krish. Let me focus.”
He chuckled softly, acknowledging the gravity of the situation. As the tension in the air escalated, I noticed from the window that Team Beta had arrived, and were disembarking from a speeding van and waiting for the right moment to intervene. The man with the navy blue cap at Table number 7 retrieved something from his pocket and handed it to the menacing-looking man who had recently joined him.
“Hands up!” Team Beta shouted, intervening at that very moment to arrest them both. Guns were aimed at the suspects seated at Table number 7, sending shockwaves through the other customers in the café.
“Everyone else, out…” the head of Team Beta ordered, instructing civilians to leave the premises. As the chaos unfolded, I stepped forward, taking out my gun and aiming it at the couple from Table number 6, who were preparing to leave with the rest of the crowd.
“Trisha? What are you doing? Why have you aimed the gun at these innocent civilians?” the head of Team Beta shouted at me, his confusion evident.
“They are the real suspects, not the ones at Tablenumber 7,” I replied firmly. Ignoring their curious gazes, I proceeded to frisk the woman at Table number 6 thoroughly. To everyone’s surprise, I uncovered a stash of diamonds concealed in the inner pocket of her denim jacket.
Team Beta’s leader looked stunned as I handed him the diamonds. Simultaneously, his team frisked the two men at Table number 7, finding nothing. I had been right.
“How?” Team Beta’s head asked, his disbelief evident.
“I sensed something was amiss the moment I arrived here,” I remarked. “The way this couple was tightly holding hands suggested an exchange was taking place. Their expressions, eye contact, and the winning smirk on their faces as they openly smuggled diamonds in the midst of this crowd—pretending to be an ordinary couple—did not escape my notice. That’s how I identified them as the suspects, not the men at Table number 7. Although the latter initially appeared suspicious, their expressions and behaviour didn’t match those of true criminals.”
As soon as the words left my lips, a round of applause erupted behind me. Krish was clapping, clearly proud of my insight. Soon, everyone in the café, including the fake suspects at Table number 7 and the couple from Table number 6 from whom we recovered the diamonds, joined in the applause. Even the Beta Team members, who had initially aimed their weapons, now lowered them with smiles on their faces.
