Part 2 of 25 · 6 minThe First Interview

The rain fell in sheets that blurred the streetlights into streaks of gold and bruised purple. Rohan squinted through his wet glasses, watching Suresh Iyer approach from the dim glow of a nearby petrol pump. The lorry driver was soaked, his yellow uniform clinging to him like a second skin, but he moved with a practiced, bouncing gait that suggested exhaustion rather than fear.

"Rohan bhai," Suri said, nodding as he came closer. "You still standing there? I thought you'd be gone."

"You knew I was here, Suri," Rohan replied, stepping into the shelter of a small awning to avoid the worst of the downpour. He held his umbrella high, though it did little against the city's humidity. "Said you were just adjusting your mirror. Took you twenty minutes to do that, didn't it?"

"Just checking alignment," Suri muttered, shaking water off his cap. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled handkerchief, wiping his face. "The side view was slightly crooked. Important for narrow lanes in this sector."

"And the cargo?" Rohan asked, his voice low. "You claim to have inspected the bay. What about the crates?"

Suri hesitated. His eyes darted toward the back of the truck where the tailgate remained slightly ajar, revealing only a dark void despite the rain hammering down inside. "Mostly fine," he said finally. "Just needed to let some condensation settle. You know how it gets in these old vans."

Rohan stepped closer, ignoring Suri's shrug. He crouched beside the rear tire, his eyes scanning the wet asphalt. The water didn't just pool; it behaved strangely, forming concentric circles that rippled outward as if something heavy had recently passed beneath them. Near the tread marks of the rear wheels, he noticed tiny droplets arranging themselves into a faint spiral pattern, almost like ink spreading on paper rather than rainwater finding its level.

"You walked away for twenty minutes," Rohan stated, more to himself than to the driver. "What exactly were you doing in those seconds?"

Suri looked at him, then back at the dark truck bed. "Adjusting the mirror is a technical job, bhai. You need to be precise. If the angle's off by a degree, you scrape paint on corners. Not every day you get this kind of lorry in Mumbai traffic."

"But where were your hands?" Rohan pressed. "I saw you standing near the rear wheel, not looking at the mirror. You were tapping your foot."

Suri grinned awkwardly. "Habit. Keeps me calm before a long drive. Besides, the rain made the glass hard to see through anyway."

Rohan stood up slowly, watching a single droplet roll off Suri's cap and hit a puddle near his boot. The impact created a perfect circle, but within seconds, smaller droplets formed around it in a geometric arrangement that defied simple physics. It was as if the water itself remembered something before it could spread freely.

"Come with me," Rohan said, gesturing toward the side of the road where Anjali Rao's forensic team would likely arrive shortly. "Let's talk properly."

They walked to a dry patch under an overhang next to a closed shop, away from the streetlights that hummed overhead. Rohan pulled out his notebook, the pages already damp at the edges. "Tell me everything, Suri. From when you parked the truck until you left again."

Suri sat on a crate, wringing out his soaked shirt. "I parked near the junction like usual. Checked the mirror. Felt the rain getting heavy. Decided to walk around and make sure no one was following us—standard protocol for high-value cargo runs. You know how some competitors try to sneak into trucks in these alleys."

"And you walked all the way here?" Rohan asked. "The junction is only a hundred meters away."

"Rain made it slippery," Suri explained. "Also, I saw a cat near the grate. Thought someone might be watching us. So I circled back to check if anything was out of place before heading off again."

Rohan tapped his pen against the notebook. "The water pattern near your tire suggests something heavy passed beneath you recently. Or perhaps something lighter that displaced the surface tension in a specific way."

Suri frowned, glancing at the spinning droplets on the ground. "Maybe it's just the magnetic fields from the new sensors we installed last month. The company said they'd make loading safer. You know how these tech upgrades can act weird sometimes."

"Magnetic?" Rohan repeated. He looked down at the swirling water again. Yes, the movement was rhythmic, almost deliberate, as if guided by an invisible hand pulling it into shape. "You mentioned sensors. What kind? And where are they mounted?"

"Under the chassis," Suri said quickly. "Small discs, about the size of a coin. Magnetic locking system to secure the crates during transit. They claim it prevents shifting even in rough roads."

"And when you parked…" Rohan trailed off, watching Suri's hands fidget with his cap strap. "…the water formed a spiral. That kind of pattern usually indicates rotation. Something spun beneath your tires before you moved again."

Suri laughed nervously. "Maybe the truck's engine was still running a bit, warming up the hydraulics. Or maybe the rain just acted funny tonight. I haven't seen anything else odd."

"But if something heavy vanished," Rohan whispered, leaning forward, "it didn't fall through the floor. It moved laterally. As if pulled by an unseen force."

Suri's smile faded. He looked at the dark rear of the lorry, then back at Rohan. "You think someone tampered with the sensors?"

"I think," Rohan said, watching another droplet spiral into a perfect hexagon before vanishing under a passing shoe, "that the water remembers what happened here tonight. And so does the truck."

A sudden clap of thunder echoed across the street, followed by a burst of lightning that illuminated the spinning droplets for a fleeting second. In that flash, Rohan saw them align momentarily into a shape resembling a gear before scattering again.

"So," Suri said, breaking the silence, "what do we tell the insurance office? That I adjusted my mirror in twenty minutes?"

Rohan closed his notebook with a snap. "We tell them you were adjusting something far more important than a mirror, Suri. Something that makes the water dance."

He stood up and looked toward the dark silhouette of the lorry. "Come back tomorrow when the rain clears. We'll check what lies under your wheels."

"And what if it's not water anymore?" Suri asked, his voice dropping to a whisper. "What if it's something else entirely?"

Rohan smiled faintly, feeling the chill seep into his bones. "Then we'll find out what came to collect you next."