One should know that Shreya only let 8 people to be directly involved in things that pertain to her parent's case. And these were people she absolutely trusted and that trust was built through years of involvement. Initially, it was only she Akash and Adam who were involved in the actual investigation. She brought in others slowly after knowing them for years. And Srinivas had been with her for only a matter of months.

Everyone knew that Shreya trusted him. There were dozen other people like that including Andrew, Vicky, Ayush, Nakul.. she entrusted these people to protect her family and friends. But even them.. they primarily only follow orders. They know nothing about what was actually happening. Even though they could have probably guessed for most parts of what was happening from the bits and pieces they hear. But still, it will be limited to knowing that Shreya was investigating into her parent's death nothing more.

But then, bringing Srinivas into this discussion would mean full disclosure.

So, it was not really that much of an odd thing that they would be surprised by her action. After all, she had called them suddenly in the middle of the night.. the only thing that can make Shreya on edge like this was her parent's case. So, the reason they were here should obviously involve the case. Or else they wouldn't have rushed here so quickly either.

Srinivas came out of his stupor and looked around. When he saw the guys and their doubtful and suspicious gaze, he just simply shook his heads at Shreya and said calmly, "It's okay, Shreya. I will wait outside. You do what you need to do.." He was not really offended anyways. What little bond he has is only with Shreya.. and that too was only built over these past two weeks. And because of his quiet nature, none of the others here ever had any real contact with him. So, it was obvious that they wouldn't trust him.

"I am not being polite. You and I both know I have no patience for things like that. I just would like an opinion is all. So just sit.." She said and walked towards the guys.

Everyone scattered around her office and waited for Shreya to say for whatever reason she had called them here in the middle of the night.

"I need the logbooks and transaction doc.u.ments on that painting.." Shreya said straight away and then gestured at Pritham and continued, "You can use my system,"

Everyone looked at her confused while Pritham got to work without question. For him, he did not need a reason. For him what Shreya asks for.. he does it first and foremost. Only after doing it will he even have the mind to question.. but most of the time, the answer will present itself when he will be done with Shreya's requirements.

After a lot of hesitation and glances at Srinivas, Akash still couldn't hold back and asked, "Why? Is there something wrong with this painting?" He was still unsure whether or not he can ask this question in front of Srinivas or was he going to end up making things awkward for Shreya.

But his worry was uncredited. Because for Shreya.. there was never any grey area for her. Either she trusted people or she did not. And if she decided she was going to trust someone, she would never end up questioning her own decision afterward. She will give her absolute trust to that person.

"The problem is not the painting itself. The problem I have is why my dad bought it in the first place.. after all, it has no investment value whatsoever and we Srivastav's can't appreciate art to save our lives.. It would make more sense if he went ahead and bought a freaking hot air balloon than it does for him to actually buy a painting." Shreya replied but did not seem as calm as she usually does. It may be because she did not have a definitive answer for anything at all right now which made her feel on edge and agitated.

"So? He bought something stupid. Big deal." Adam said rolling his eyes at Shreya.

"Well, do my dad strike you as the guy who is so free and jobless that he would end up buying things out in random and put it in his office?" Shreya asked back sarcastically.

Everyone shut up after that. Pritham was furiously typing away on his computer.

"Damn Shreya. Your dad was practically a whiz!!" Pritham complained as he stumbled around to find out who the hell Adithya actually made the payment to. Even though he was just fishing in their own records, it still seems almost impossible to find.

Shreya went and stood behind him and said, "First show me the purchase receipt and then pull up the relevant month's bank statement.." And as soon as he showed the bank statement, Shreya's eyes trailed around the numbers rapidly.

"Slowly scroll it down.."

It took full 15 minutes just to scroll down to the end of the statement. Pritham's brains were fried by the end of it. All the numbers blurred into one single digit for him in his brain. Analyzing finances wasn't exactly his strongest suit actually. SO he usually brings the statements to Shreya and she will help him make sense of it.

In the end, Shreya actually gave a very quick scroll and pointed a bunch of transactions. All of them were odd numbers ranging from two-digit payments to 5 digit payments.

"Add them up, it should come to the amount mentioned in the receipt. Now track only those transactions back to its source." Shreya said lightly. As if she did not just remember and calculated endless numbers mentally.

Pritham seriously questioned his own IQ whenever he was around Shreya. Before meeting her, he always thought of himself as a whiz kid.. a genius when it came to computers and smart when it came to other things since he was good with socializing too in spite of spending too much time behind keyboards. But Shreya always somehow ends up crushing that confidence to pieces.