As promised here's the next and the final update for the day.

Have a fun and mysterious read.

*

Neil was seated at his desk at the police station. He was to study the individual murder cases along with the personal case history as provided by Ananya. The amount of data provided was enormous. He very well knew it would be a task to analyze the reports.

Apart from Neil, the only officers who were present at the station were the ones who had their night duty.

He was going through the recent murder case, when his eyes zeroed onto the date and the day of the murder.

16th November, Thursday.

He looked at his notepad for the previous murders. He let out a curse, whilst pushing the chair aside. He couldn't have been this thick while investigating. Each murder that took place was on Thursday; every alternate Thursday.

And today is Thursday, the thought numbed him.

He looked back at each of the incidents as he recorded the time and crime sites for each of those murders. Again, he found another clue. The murderer chose the wee hours of the morning to execute its plan. His entire body went cold, however, at the same time he felt beads of sweat rolled down his temples.

He spared a quick glance at his wrist watch only to read 30th November, Thursday, 2:15 a.m.

He didn't know how much more time did he have in his hands to save a life. Fidgeting through the pile of files on his desk, he grabbed the receiver and dialed the control room. The line was not yet connected, when a constable barged into his cabin. Seriousness scribbled all over his face.

"Sir, we have received a call from the control room, there was a suspicious moment traced," his voice reflected the urgency of the matter. Neil didn't need to dig much into it for he already knew what was to be expected out of this.

He rushed towards the exit while shooting commands, "Call up DD and ask him to get to the location with the team, now," he walked past the constable and looked at another one, "Get in touch with the patrolling team nearby and ask them to handle the situation till we reach," he ordered. Grabbing his wireless, he walked towards the police jeep. "Move," he commanded at the constable at the driver's seat.

"Where is the goddamn patrolling team?" he fisted the wireless into his hands as fury took over him. Without waiting for a response from the other end, he asked the constable seated next to him, "How much more time would we take to reach the location?"

"Sir, twenty more minutes," he replied helplessly. They were to reach to the other end of the city from one.

"Keep me posted," Neil spoke into the wireless and put it aside.

No matter how badly he wished to save a life but he couldn't. He failed. By the time he and his team arrived at the location, it had already turned into a crime spot. The murderer had taken another life.

The body was lying lifeless on the driver's seat of a sedan. The car had slammed into the heap of cement near the construction site after the victim was shot through his head. The windows were scattered into pieces and the engine had crashed. His team was scanning the area and the body was to be taken to the forensic department.

"Sir," DD approached him, "We found this on the body," handing Neil the contents of the victims bag, he continued, "His name is Viraj Dutt." DD filled him with another bunch of detail about Viraj. While Neil went through the contents, DD had a look uncertainty as he stated, "We also found this note on the body."

Narrowing his eye at DD, Neil grabbed the piece of paper. His muscles tensed as he read the note. The murderer had openly thrown a challenge at him. This time he was handed over the target's name. Determined to ensure he grabs hold of the culprit and save the life of its next target.

He reread the name, Ananya Verma.