Book Excerpt: No Time To Blink By Novoneel Chakraborty

Kisha Sen is on a mission to catch her sister Anara's killers and to destroy the Heartbreak Club that led to Anara's death. She joins the club, vowing to unmask its members. Even as she struggles to get over her break-up with Tavish Mathur, she lays careful traps and pieces together clues, moving closer to solving the mystery of Anara's sudden disappearance and death. But in a world where everyone seems to have a hidden agenda, who can Kisha truly trust? Novoneel Chakraborty returns to Fairmont High International to tell a gripping story of love, desire and deception

Here's an excerpt from Novoneel Chakraborty's No Time To Blink

‘So, where were you on 9th November?’ Officer Pallavi came to the point.

Kisha couldn’t understand what she was trying to get at. The date didn’t have any significance in her life. Neither could she jog her memory back to that particular day.

‘I’m not sure, ma’am. I suppose I was in school.’ ‘Okay.’ Officer Pallavi took her phone out and held it in front of Kisha. What she saw on the screen shocked her to her core. Suddenly, the significance of that date was all too clear. Kisha glanced up at Selena. It was all over her face that Selena had told Pallavi the truth.

‘Selena and I had gone out,’ Kisha said, still trying not to give anything away.

‘Of course. I can see that.’ Pallavi gestured at the phone with a nod. ‘But do you mind telling me what I’m not able to see?’ She put her phone aside and looked at Kisha, her gaze as piercing as an arrow. She meant business, and Kisha realised she couldn’t play around anymore.

‘Selena and I had gone to the courier shop on the other lane.’

‘The courier that Vedan submitted was sent by you two, right?’

‘Yes.’

‘How did you know he is the Pawn?’

Another sharp glance at Selena, and Kisha knew there was no point lying. Selena had already spilled their secrets. Pallavi was only checking with her. If she said anything that wasn’t in sync with what Pallavi already knew, it would go against her.

‘Selena and I are part of the Heartbreak Club.’

‘Rook.’ Pallavi glanced at Selena and then at Kisha. ‘Bishop.’

Kisha and Selena nodded.

‘I understand the club’s members don’t know each other personally. But why didn’t you two come to the police directly? What were you doing approaching the other members?’

‘Every member has a video that’s in the King’s custody. It’s an initiation video where they confess to have messed with their target during their black handshake. It’s a pretty incriminating video. If that video leaks, there’s a chance that the target can take a legal action against the member.’

‘I can’t believe this. Students come to school to learn, to grow, and here’s a club which thrives on destroying their confidence and their future?’

‘The most disturbing part is that this club has been running for a decade now. Or so the rumours say. It means there are students who have willingly been a part of this.’ ‘I understand you became a part of it to figure out what happened to Anara?’ Pallavi asked.

Kisha nodded.

‘But why did you join it, Selena?’ Pallavi turned to her. ‘I was really young when I first heard of the club— in second standard. It sounded fascinating and cool. And when I learnt that they help their members to get placed in elite colleges abroad, I knew I had to be a part of THC at some point.’

‘Do you have proof of it? That they help place their members?’

Selena shook her head.

‘Do you think it’s safe to involve Vedan as well?’ Officer Pallavi asked them.
‘Involve in?’ Kisha asked.

Officer Pallavi was impressed; Kisha had caught the right word.

‘I want you girls to be the on-campus investigators. You are trying to figure out what happened to Anara. The police are looking for what happened to Anara and Ahaan. Let’s come together, and solve this twisted mystery faster.’

There was silence. Both girls glanced at each other. Pallavi understood their dilemma.

‘If you help the investigation, nothing will happen to you girls and Vedan when the club gets busted. The remaining three—King, Queen and Knight—will bear the brunt.’

Selena immediately had a glimmer of hope on her face. ‘Unless I find out that you had something to do with Anara’s or Ahaan’s murder,’ Pallavi added shrewdly. 

Kisha thought it was the right time to relay to Officer Pallavi how and why she had been involved with Ahaan. Kisha told her everything, from the time she came to Fairmont High, following an anonymous message, with the single-minded intention of uncovering the mystery behind Anara’s disappearance, willingly opting for the black handshake whereby Ahaan was her target to fake-woo, as asked by the Club, until Ahaan revealed himself to be a member of THC who then suddenly disappeared altogether, only to be found dead. Once done, Kisha had one last question for Pallavi.

‘You said nothing would happen to us when THC gets busted. You meant nothing would happen to Vedan too, right?

‘Yes, I’ve asked him to be here as well,’ Office Pallavi said.

As if on cue, Vedan walked into the cafe. He spotted Pallavi and waved at her. But when he spotted Selena and Kisha, his face went pale. He immediately assumed they had ratted him out.
‘But I said I was with you!’ he said, his voice quivering. It was clear to him that he had been busted, and Officer Pallavi knew everything. What would be its consequences? Officer Pallavi took one look at his worried face and decided to put him out of his misery. It took her only a couple of minutes to update him on everything she had been discussing with Kisha and Selena. Vedan confirmed his part of the story and admitted to being THC’s Pawn.

‘Why did you join the club?’ Officer Pallavi asked.

‘I had never thought of joining the club, even though I’d heard about it like every other student in Fairmont High,’ Vedan started. ‘So imagine my surprise when I received the black handshake one day. Obviously, Anara had broken my heart. And I hated—’ Vedan stopped himself and glanced at the table. By admitting to his hatred, he was underlining the motive he might have had to kill Anara. But this time, he didn’t hold back and said, ‘I won’t lie about anything today.

I hated Anara for the way she broke my heart. Of course, back then I didn’t know I was just a target for her. The hurt was fresh when I got my black handshake. The only reason I took it up was because I wanted to get back at her.’

‘Get back at her how?’ Officer Pallavi asked.

‘I didn’t know then that she too was a part of the club. So, I thought if I joined the club, I could do something to shatter her heart. Everyone knows that is essentially what
the club does.’

‘Did you ever know for certain that Anara was a member of THC?’ Pallavi asked.

‘I don’t know it conclusively. But after I joined THC, Anara came up to me once and apologised. That’s when it occurred to me that perhaps she did what she did only to join the club. And then came the coincidence of the missing Queen—exactly the same time Anara went missing.’

Extracted with permission from No Time To Blink, by Novoneel Chakraborty, published by Westland Books.