Rajiv Deshmukh Chapter 1: Thirteen Days Inspector Devendra Rao stared at the brass nameplate on his desk as if it were a stranger. The letters gleamed in the late afternoon sun—bold, authoritative, and now irrelevant. “Inspector D. Rao – Crime Branch.” Thirteen days. That’s all that remained before this title would be reduced to a fading memory and a dusty plaque on the wall of a two-bedroom apartment in Dadar. His colleagues were already taking bets on how long he’d last before boredom pulled him back in—if not officially, then at least as a “consultant.” The only paperwork on his…