Friday, Afternoon
The hotel lobby was no longer buzzing with people leaving for the stadium. Chief Walia had given the kids their passes to the match and left for the stadium with the players’ bus. ‘I probably trusted your skills more than I should have,’ he said just before boarding the bus.
That comment hurt the Super Mystery Solvers of Solan – it hurt them very badly. They lingered in the lobby brooding over Chief Walia’s words. The match they had been eagerly waiting for was about to begin, however, they were in no mood to go watch it in the stadium. The TV in the hotel lobby was showing the pre-match analysis. Any minute now, the captains of the two teams would be called to the ground for the toss. Normally, the children would have been watching all this keenly.
Today, however, all they could think of was Pingu – specifically their failure in finding Pingu. The realization that they would be in part responsible for Rahul’s poor performance, and for Rhea to never see her cat again, was a huge burden.
Kabir walked towards the window in the café that overlooked the valley and quietly looked outside. He tried hard to hold back a tear that rolled down his cheek. Failure is always difficult to digest.
Akriti sat in the lobby, quietly scrolling through her Instagram videos. Aditya walked up to Kabir and placed his hand on his shoulders.
‘Come. Let’s go and at least watch the match in the stadium.’
Kabir turned, brushing off the tears quickly with the back of his hand. ‘Yes, let’s go,’ he said. ‘Akriti, come, we are ready to leave.’
Akriti didn’t respond. She was lost in her phone.
‘You and your Instagram,’ Aditya chided as Akriti continued to look at the various Instagram stories.
‘Give me a minute!’ Akriti said, oblivious to Kabir’s impatience.
Both of them stood near her waiting for her to get up. When Akriti didn’t respond for the next couple of minutes, Aditya called out again, ‘Isn’t your minute over yet?’
This time Akriti looked up, a serious look on her face. Aditya’s look of exasperation turned to seriousness. He knew that look.
‘Wait a minute! I know this look! Tell us Akriti! What have you suddenly figured out?’ Aditya excitedly asked his sister.
Attempting to put the last piece of the puzzle together in her head, Akriti stood up.
She spoke very slowly, almost in a whisper. ‘I think I know who Pingu’s kidnappers are.’
‘Who?’ Aditya and Kabir asked in unison.
Instead of replying, she commanded, ‘Follow me.’
‘Where?’ Kabir and Aditya asked, again in unison, but Akriti didn’t respond.
