The rain had eased by morning, leaving behind a damp stillness that hung in the air like a breath unspoken.
The Masked Detective arrived at the police station just as Inspector Ratan stepped out of the forensic room, a file clutched tightly in his hand.
"She wasn't who the report said she was," he said without preamble.
The Detective took the file. Her eyes skimmed the first page—
And froze on the name.
Ananya Mukhopadhyay
Age: 17
Reported missing: 23 months ago
Case status: Closed—presumed runaway
"This girl..." the Detective whispered. "I remember this case. She was in the news briefly. Then—nothing. Just faded away."
"No one connected her to the body in the apartment," Ratan said grimly. "No ID, no family that followed up, and... no one questioned why her file just went silent."
"Until now," she said, her tone sharper.
She flipped to the next page. There was a scan of the autopsy photos—painful to look at, but necessary. Her face had been deliberately mutilated. But there was something else.
The triangle mark—burned into her wrist.
"This wasn't suicide," the Detective said. "It was ritual."
Ratan looked shaken. "You think this is... the same group? The same people who took the others?"
"I don't know," she murmured. "But now we have a name. Ananya. And a timeline that links her disappearance to just a few months before Sanchayita."
"Do you think she knew Sanchayita?"
"Maybe," the Detective said. "Or maybe Ananya was the first. The prototype. And after her... they got bolder."
Ratan's phone buzzed. Another message from forensics.
He read it aloud.
> "Diptesh Chanda's prints were found... on Ananya's file."
They stared at each other.
"That means he accessed her record," Ratan said. "Before he died."
"Or before he was killed," the Detective replied darkly.
She walked over to the corkboard and moved Ananya's photo—placing it above the others.
"Maybe this didn't begin with Sanchayita," she said.
"It began with Ananya."
Outside, the clouds rolled back slowly, but the storm within Subarnagarh was just beginning.
"I need to go somewhere again," the Detective said suddenly, turning away from the board.
Ratan narrowed his eyes. "Where... again?"
She paused at the doorway, her back still to him.
"Sorry," she said softly. "I can't tell you."
And just like that, she was gone—
Leaving behind more questions than answers.
---
To Be Continued...