Ali asked Reva's parents, Ms. Desai and Shruti's mother to come in his cabin. When they came he told them that his men had located the temple but he didn't tell them about Mr. Dev's involvement. He thanked Shruti and allowed her to leave with her mother.

Now Ali was left alone with Shama and Anand and Ms. Desai. Anand looked at Ali for some lead but he looked lost. He was literally looking through Anand. Anand knew his friend well. He understood Ali was processing information in his head & was trying to put things together.

And then Ali suddenly blurted out, "Anand, we have to move quickly. Reva is up-to something. And that something has got to do with Mr. Dev the previous principal. She has been visiting this temple for past 1 week. She seems to be meeting Mr. Dev for the past whole week."

After hearing what Ali had said, Shama lost all her strength. For past whole week her little girl has been meeting a 40 something man who was accused of molesting a girl. It was too much for her to fathom. Anand almost sprinted from his seat saying "Reva has been meeting up with that bastard. Oh my god! Ali we got to run and find Reva."

 "Girls these days are so stupid." Ms. Desai surprised everybody by saying something so insensitive. She stood up and said, "Officer, may I leave now? Since you have already found some link I don't think I can be of much help now."

Before Ali could react to what Ms. Desai was saying there was a loud shout. "Mom, Dad what are you doing here?" Everybody turned to see the origin of this shout. There stood Reva rolling her eyes. Shama was the first one to run towards her. She started sobbing and hugged Reva tightly. Even Anand was fighting to hold back tears. He separated Shama from Reva and hugged Reva.

Reva rolled her eyes, shrugged her shoulders & looked at Ali the only smiling person and asked "Ali uncle what is this all about? Why these two are creating such a melodrama?"

"Shut up young lady! Stop you questions and tell us where have you been. And please introduce us with the other young lady with you" Ali sounded pretty relived.

There stood another girl feeling self conscious. "She is Mamta."  Reva said. Then she turned to Ms. Desai and said in a very pointed voice "Oh ho even you are here Desai Mam? How are you? I Hope you are fine."

"Yes I am Fine! Officer I got to go now. Reva is here so there is no point in wasting my time now." Ms. Desai started towards the door.

"Wait!" Everybody was surprised when Reva yelled and ran behind her. But Ms. Desai could not step out side the door because just then 2 men were entering through it.

There stood Mr. Dev along with another elderly gentleman. When Ali saw the other man he stood up at once and saluted the man. The man came ahead and shook hands with Ali. Ali introduced him to everybody present "He is Retired ACP Waghela. He is also one of the trustees of school." He turned to Mr. Dev and Mr. Waghela and offered them seat and said "Sir thank you for coming. My men must have updated you."

Ms. Desai said "I got to leave now."

Mr. Waghela gave her a stern look and said. "No madam you can not. Please take a seat. Ali by now you all must be wondering as to what is happening. Am I Right?"

"Yes sir! I am dying to know." Ali sounded impatient.

Mr. Waghela asked Mr. Dev to start first. Mr. Dev started in a calm voice "Inspector, last month Mamta had complained to the school management that I had misbehaved with her. Out of 4 trustees, only 1 i.e Mr. Waghela had faith in me and rest 3 were against me. A meeting was called for. Mamta and her family was also called to attend the meeting. But none of them turned up. Since I had not done anything wrong I was always ready to face anyone. But the trustees who were against me wanted me to resign right away or they were threatening to lodge a police complaint. Had they lodged police complaint, it would have earned a bad publicity for school. I have spent my life for the school. I am not married and I don't have any family. This school is my family. So I could not bear the thought of school being damaged by anything like this. So in-spite of protests from Mr. Waghela I decided to resign. However, they lodged the police complaint and the news spread and ultimately me and school did earn a bad reputation. And then last week Reva happened to meet me in temple. She somehow knew that I visit this temple in morning on a regular basis. She told me what she had heard from others. She wanted to help me. She said that she had met Mamta and already knows the truth. But I told her not to get into all this. But the girl is pretty adamant. She kept visiting the temple and continued persuading me to do something about it.” Mr Dev stopped and looked at Reva.

Then Reva spoke "Dev sir is my idol. I never believed in what others said. I knew Mamta very well. She was my badminton partner. When I heard this thing about Dev sir and her, I tried getting in touch with her but her family never allowed me to meet her. Only last week I somehow got in touch with her and then she told me the truth.”

Now Reva looked at Mamta. Mamta spoke for the first time "Sir, I am really ashamed of what I have done." She could not look anybody in the eye while speaking. "I am an average student. There has been a lot of pressure from my family to do well in the coming final exams. Last month I had gone to Desai mam to ask how to improve my marks. She teaches science and there are lot of marks allotted for practical and orals. These marks are given by the internal examiner which in my case was Desai Mam" Now Mamta stopped talking and looked at Ms. Desai.

"Keep me out of this Mamta. This girl is unnecessarily taking my name." Ms. Desai yelled.

"Madam you will get chance to speak. So now you please be quiet. Mamta please continue." Mr. Waghela interrupted.

With a quick glance at Ms. Desai Mamta continued "While talking to mam I jokingly said that I could do anything to improve my internal marks. She didn't say anything at that time. But after 2 days she asked me to wait after classes got over. She told me that if I do what she suggested she would give me full marks at practical and orals. I was on cloud nine. Then she told me that I ll have to make this false complaint against Dev sir. She convinced me saying I shall get sympathy from everybody. Teachers would be generous in giving marks and parents will understand if I scored average marks. And like a fool I agreed to do so "

Mamta was feeling choked with emotions and could not talk now. Reva understood her situation she went to her and held her hand tightly to show her support.

Nobody could speak for some time. Mamta controlled her emotions and spoke again "One week back Reva came and met me at my place. I was dying of shame and guilt. In greed of marks I had done something terribly wrong to a man who was so decent and noble in every way. Reva told me that Dev sir kept telling her to wait till my exams get over. He didn’t want me to get disturbed by anything. But it was becoming impossible for me to live with the guilt. I had done enough damage to his reputation and character. Reva gave me courage to come out and speak the truth. Today mornig she came to my place and took me to Dev sir’s place. From there we all went on to meet Mr. Waghela. Mr. waghela suggested that we should come and meet you up. So here I am. My family is not aware about the truth. But now I shall take them in confidence and tell them the truth. And I am ready to face the consequences."

Mr. Dev walked up to Mamta and said "that is really courageous Mamta. Everybody makes mistake but only courageous ones accept it."

"Yes! That is right. Now Ms. Desai it's your turn." Mr. Waghela spoke sternly. "I already knew that you had this burning desire to be school principal. You were the senior most teacher after Dev but could not find anyway to supersede Dev. So you used this girl. I have also other proofs to show that you have joined hands with other 2 trustees & done some objectionable things with school funds. Ali you have got lot more work to do"

Ali nodded and looked at Ms. Desai but she could not utter a word.

Mr. Dev turned to Anand and Shama. "In these 5 hours you two must have gone through a lot I guess. I am sorry for that. I should have called you up and told you but I didn't have the number and then Reva dragged me and Mamta to Meet Mr. Waghela."

"You need not feel sorry sir. We were worried but now we are proud of Reva." Anand smiled.

"But Reva you should have taken us in confidence before vanishing like this." Shama sounded hurt.

"I am sorry mom. I never thought it would turn up like this." Reva said apologetically.

Ali turned to Mamta and said "Young lady I would like to record your statement. It will help me in closing the case against Mr. Dev. You may call your parents now." Mamta agreed and started calling her parents.

Then he turned to Mr. Waghela and Mr. Dev and said "Sir, please help me to finish off my job. And I am sure Ms. Desai will now cooperate."  Ms. Desai kept mum.

Ali said to his friend "Anand you three may leave now. Take your princess home and treat her well. And princess you be a good princess and don't repeat this vanishing episodes. Do you get me?"

Reva suppressed her giggles and nodded.

Reva bid goodbye to everybody and left with her parents.

Before starting his work Ali thought to himself "Children are pretty capable of giving you nightmares. Don't they?" He smiled, shrugged his shoulders and went on to do his job.

The End.

Hey guys! I Don't know if I have lived up-to the expectations while concluding the story. Hope those few people who have been reading this story won't feel that the final suspense was boring . If you feel that I have wasted your time then I am genuinely sorry. Actually I started writing it long back but somehow I never finished writing it. I had kept it hiding for a long time. But now when I have concluded it, I am somehow not happy with the end result  So guys do let me know what you think!!

Prutha.

It was 9.00 AM when Reva left from school. It was hard to lie to her school teacher but somehow she convinced her. And getting Shruti off her back was also tough. Actually Reva had not expected Shruti to offer to come along. Only last week they had fought and were on non talking terms. "A true friend she is." Reva thought.

Reva crossed the road and started walking. Gradually she increased her pace. And then she spotted what she was looking for. A telephone booth! She picked up the phone and dialed a number and waited. She started talking when she heard 'Hello' from the other end. "Dev Sir Morning! Reva here . No .. I have left from school . Yesterday only I told you No Sir please don't try to persuade me. Now I will not change my mind so see you in another half an hour .bye"

 After hearing the news from Shama, Anand felt numb. But somehow he gathered himself and asked Shama if she had called up relatives and friends. When she answered affirmatively he asked her to wait for a while. He quickly left his workplace. On his way he called up his friend Ali. Ali was a police inspector. He was the officer in charge of the police station in their vicinity. Ali asked him to come to the police station immediately. He knew Reva very well.

Anand told Shama to come to police station. They both reached almost at the same time. Ali had already sent alerts to his force and sent his men to all possible places with the description of the missing girl. Shama always carried Reva's and Anand's snap in her purse. She gave Reva's snap to Ali.

Ali had called up school Principal Ms. Desai and asked her to come to police station. To his surprise she was little hesitant to come saying she was tied up with work. But then Ali told her that Reva has been missing for almost 5 hrs now, so they can not wait any longer.

As he was talking to Anand and Shama Ms. Desai arrived. She looked worried but composed. With the police force at work, Ali turned to them all and got talking.

Ms. Desai was the first to talk "Reva is a good student, basically an all rounder. She takes interest in other activities also. But recently she has been behaving little strangely. Her class teacher had told me that now-a-days she was not that attentive in classes. I had decided to inform you about this tomorrow in PTA."

When Shama heard this she could not hold back her tears and started crying. "Anand our baby was so disturbed. I should not have waited so long. I should have done something earlier this week only"

Anand told Ms. Desai and Ali about Reva leaving early for school for past 1 week. He told them that they had seen her today morning while she was entering school. "She had surely gone to some temple. She was carrying half cut coconut, flowers and stuff when she entered school. We had planned to talk to her about this tonight. But I guess we should have talked to her in morning itself."

Inspector Ali looked pretty excited and he jumped to his feed when he got this piece of info. "Anand there are 3 temples on the way from your home to school. Reva must have stopped by one of them. Great! Some lead at last."

Without bothering to talk to any of them he ran with his radio and started calling a few cops. He instructed them to visit all 3 temples and find out any trace of the girl and then he joined the conversation again.

He offered tea to all of them but nobody was in mood to have anything. As they were waiting, Shruti walked in along with her mother. Ali wanted to speak to Shruti since she was Reva's best friend. Shruti looked petrified. This was the first time she was seeing a police station. Ali smiled at her and said "Come little girl. Would you like to help me find your friend?"

Shruti nodded nervously. Ali turned to everybody present there and announced "I want to talk to Shruti alone. So if you all don't mind will you please move to other room?"

Everybody understood that Shruti will not open up if Mrs Desai, school principal and other elders were there. They moved out. Then Ali turned to Shruti. "Young lady, it's so brave of you to walk in the police station. If you help me we can surely find Reva."

Shruti appeared little bit nervous when she spoke "Sir, Reva is my best friend. We normally confide in each other. But this time Reva has not told me a word. I know only one thing. Reva was pretty upset about something for past 10/15 days ."

"Didn't you ask her what was bothering her?" Ali asked.

Shruti wiped her face nervously. "No. I didn't. Actually last week only we had fought and we were on non talking terms for past 7/8 days." Shruti stopped talking as her eyes filled up with tears. She tried swallowing her sob and continued. "Sir, I am feeling guilty. Reva was so disturbed and I ignored her egoistically." Now she couldn't control her tears anymore.

Ali let her cry for some time. Then he spoke calmly "Beta, we all make mistakes. So stop feeling guilty. Try to remember something about Reva which might throw some light on what was bothering her. It might lead us to her."

Shruti wiped her tears and looked composed. "Last month when Dev sir resigned Reva was very much upset. Actually everybody was talking that he had done some umm wrong things with Mamta. She is studying in 10 th standard. When she approached school management Dev sir got frightened and resigned. But Reva was the only one who didn't believe this. She kept saying that this can not be true. She knew Mamta. She was her badminton buddy so she wanted to meet Mamta and confirm the fact. But Mamta has not been attending school since then. She said Dev sir just can not do anything like this. I even pulled her leg saying she thinks like this because she has a crush on him. At first she blushed & took it sportingly but when everybody teased her she got mad at me for initiating it. This was the main reason she was not talking to me."

As Ali sat listening to Shruti he recollected that 1 month back one of the school trusties had approached his police station for lodging a complaint against the school principal. But after lodgment of the complaint Mr. Dev had suddenly resigned This had created a lot of ruckus in their small city. People were talking back and forth about him. The man had earned lot of bad reputation in the past one month. The investigation was put on hold at the request of the same school trustees.

As Ali was thinking his radio came to life. Ali excused himself and ran to the adjutant room. It was one of his men. They had found out the temple Reva had visited. They had showed Reva's snap to the priest and he had recognized her. It seemed that Reva has been visiting that temple since past 1 week. Not only this, but another man used to be there when she visited the temple. The man who was probably in his late 40 s. The priest even knew who is was! He was Mr. Dev the erstwhile School Principal! Priest's daughter studied in the same school

Going by Mr. Dev's current reputation this was something to fret about.

It was almost 10.30 PM. Reva was at her study table. She had just finished her home work. After setting aside books, she took out her diary. She wrote for some time and then she closed her eyes and slumped in her chair. Few moments later she sat upright and made final entry for the day in her diary "God please give me strength to carry out what I have determined "

"Mom I am getting late! Where is my lunch Box." Reva yelled at top of her lungs. She was so shrill that Anand almost jumped in his seat. He peeped over the newspaper and looked at his daughter. She was studying in 9 th standard and was all set to go to school. Shama came running from kitchen carrying her lunch box. Without a word she handed it over to Reva. Reva quickly pushed it in her waiting school bag and ran through the open door.

Anand looked at the wall clock. "Shama this clock is behind by almost half an hour. It's showing only 7 AM. And Reva has already left. She leaves at 7.30 AM na?" Shama closed the door, came and stood in front of Anand. She slowly put her hands on her waist and continued staring at her husband. Her body language gave Anand chills all over. "Oh My god! I have definitely done something wrong." Anand thought.

He threw the paper on the table and stood up. He bowed in front of Shama and said "Madam I know I have done some sin but if you don't tell me, my peanut size brain will never come to know about it."

Shama tried her level best not to smile. "Anand for the past whole week Reva is leaving half an hour early for school. And only today you noticed?"

"Oh .that I remember you told me Reva is attending some special classes before school time." Anand was now feeling confidant.

"This proves that you never give your 100% attention when I am talking." Reva was beginning to boil. "Last night I also told you that I met Shruti's Mother in market. She was not aware about these special classes."

"How can Shruti's mother be so ignorant?" Anand quipped.

"Anand she is not ignorant but you are! Last night I suggested that we should visit Reva's school and find out about this. Shruti is studying in Reva's class. If there was any special class her mother would have surely known."

"Shama, her school Principal Mr. Dev had resigned last month na? May be the new principal has started these special classes "

"No Anand. I don't think so. In that case in last PTA Ms. Desai the new principal would have told us so."

"Hmm So where does Reva go after leaving half an early every morning?" Now Anand understood gravity of the situation.

"Not only this Anand. For past 15 days Reva has been behaving differently. She has been exceptionally quiet. Normally at dinner table I have to ask her to stop talking and eat. But these days she hardly talks. For past 15 days you have been coming late from office so you probably don't know about this." Shama told Anand.

"I didn't observe this Shama. When I came she used to be asleep . Dear lets not waste time and go to her school right away." Anand said.

They both got dressed and left for school in their car. When they reached school it was almost 7.45. The school was about to start at 8.00 AM so kids were pouring in. As they were about to step out of the car, Shama clutched to her husband's sleeves and pulled him in the car. "Shhh there comes Reva." She whispered. As they watched silently, Reva passed by the car and entered school. She had a small plastic bag in her hands. It contained flowers, half cut coconut and other things like kumkum.

With both being worried, drive back home was quiet. "Anand, this is strange. Reva shares all small things with us. She is so close to both of us. Or so we thought " Shama was the one to speak first.

"Shama don't jump the gun dear. It is clear Reva has been going to some temple. She surely lied about this to us. But at least she has been going to some safe place." Anand said.

"Hmm " Anand was talking sense but as a mother Shama could not stop worrying.

Before Anand left for work he and Shama decided to talk it out with Reva after dinner.

But it never happened.

Around 1.30 PM Anand got a call from Shama. She was all worked up and spoke so fast that Anand had to first calm her down. What he finally gauged was pretty scary. Shruti, Reva's close friend had come to their place after school. She had come to inquire about Reva. It seemed that Reva had left school around 9.00 AM telling the teacher that she was not feeling well. Teachers obviously allowed her half day off. Shruti had even offered to go along with Reva but she had refused saying that it's just 10 min walk to home.

After that Shama had called up everybody she knew. Even Shruti's mother had come to their place. And with her help Shama had called up almost all possible people and places where Reva could have gone. But nobody knew abut her. The girl seemed to have gone missing…