The Twisted Case Of Alipore

CID Officer Mr. Bose comes

   I was sitting on the sofa pondering over my friend cum brother, Shatadru Sen’s decision whether it was right or wrong. He was sitting on his favorite arm-chair smoking his preferred choice of Marlboro cigarettes. Silence was looming in the entire room. I was confused with his recklessly foolish decision and finally broke the silence, “Are you really sure of quitting your conspicuous job?”

   Shatadru turned and said with a broad smile on his face, “Oh yeah Mainak. I am decided.”

  I replied, “But why? Why are you so desperate of taking a voluntary retirement at such an early age of forty two? You are so much respected in the entire police department.”

   “Ah! That’s why I am quitting my job but I am not retiring. I will be a private investigator. The entire CID team has given me lots of respect and love me a lot and hence I have nothing more to gain from there. I won’t like to be in service anymore. I have inherited lots of money after my father’s demise and hence want to work for my own satisfaction, pride and honour now. Don’t worry! I will make you my assistant”, laughs Shatadru.

   “Come on. I have my own job. I’m not quitting like you”, I replied sharply.

   Shatadru said with a frolic smile on his face, “Who said to quit your job? You are a doctor and you do business by opening your chamber. You are the owner of your business and hence you can do whatever you feel like. Even if you close your chamber for two or three days for a case, no one will come and say anything to you. Think about your long desire of becoming a published detective novel writer. You will personally confront with hostile situations if you stay along with me in the cases that I solve and hence you will write excellently well. Imagine yourself as the most esteemed writer of all times like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Just think…” Suddenly there was a clang on the door-bell.

   Shatadru stood up from his arm-chair and approached towards the door puffing on his cigarette. He peeped through the peep-hole on the door and opened the door hastily and said gleefully, “Wow! What a pleasant surprise! Come, come in.”

   A tall well-built person walked inside. He had a mole on his left cheek and had black and white French-cut beard on his face which gave a unique look. Shatadru introduced him as Mr. Bose and he was working with the CID. He was Shatadru’s colleague cum friend.

   Shatadru said to Mr. Bose, “Meet my cousin brother, Dr. Mainak Sen.” I shook hands with him and Shatadru asked us to take our seats.

   “So, what brings you here from your busy schedule my friend?” asked Shatadru in an ecstatic manner.

    “A case! A really strange case which we think we cannot solve without your zealous help”, Mr. Bose said in a despondent voice.

   “But I’m a private investigator now and not a senior CID officer anymore. I’ll take my remuneration even from the Government if I have to solve the case. If the case is really a tough nut to crack then I’ll solve for pride and honour only else I’ll claim my remuneration”, said Shatadru in a very earnest and professional voice.

   Mr. Bose seemed relieved after hearing those words that he might take up the case. Mr. Bose replied with a sigh of solace, “Yeah sure. I’ll make all the arrangements if the case is really an elementary one.”

   Shatadru fervently said to Mr. Bose, “So tell me pal, what has been so much out of the box in this case that you need my help to find the culprits.”

The Case

   Mr. Bose carried on, “We received a call few days ago that a servant of the Sikdar family in Alipore had died because of malfunctioning of his respiratory system. Post-mortem reports revealed that he had consumed neurotoxin along with his food which paralyzed the breathing muscles resulting in respiratory failure. Moreover the neurotoxin that was found was that of Coral snakes which are found only in some states of U.S.A. mainly in the southern parts. Interestingly all the family members recently came back to India from U.S.A. concluding that it’s a murder.”

   “What can be the cause behind a servant’s murder and who gave you the call?” remarked Shatadru sharply.

   “Yes, most interestingly the family doctor, Dr. Ramen Mitra gave us the call as he surmised that the death was not natural because the servant was not suffering from any ailment. As soon as we started the inceptive round of investigation, we heard that the Head of the family, Dr. Abinash Sikdar had died in the previous night due to respiratory failure. The doctor thought that death to be natural as he was suffering from asthma and bronchitis. He thought that the medicine in the inhaler might not have worked though he was dubious in his decision-making. We could not do the post-mortem of Dr. Abinash Sikdar’s body as the obsequies had already been performed. We only drew the conclusion that Dr. Abinash Sikdar had also been murdered and the servant got murdered because he might have witnessed something in the crime”, said Mr. Bose with a lot of concern over his face.

   There was a bit of pause in the conversation.

    I was very much excited and hence asked, “What is the say of the family members?”

   “Well, there are three family members left in the family. They have all come back to India from U.S.A before two months or so. Rajat is the eldest brother and he used to work with the GTN Geographic channel. He is well aware of all kinds of animals and can also get access to these coral snakes. Debashish is a chemist and works with a leading medicine manufacturing company in the U.S.A. It is also easy for him to know about neurotoxin and also get it as well. Dinesh is a molecular biologist. He was also fighting a case against his uncle Dr. Abinash Sikdar to claim his share of property early as he was in need of money for his research in U.S.A. He is our prime suspect as he was fighting a case against his late uncle and moreover a molecular biologist will also have good information about neurotoxins and coral snakes. However we are not being able to find clue or evidence about the crime. Moreover the interrogations had also been fruitless”, said Mr. Bose in a downcast voice.

   “Okay! I’m in”, said Shatadru cheerfully raising up his right hand. “But I’ll take my assistant along with me. I do not solve any case now without my assistant, Dr. Mainak Sen along with me.” Shatadru looked up to me with that old frolic smile on his face. I knew I had to make my decision in the affirmative because there was no escape from my cousin cum friend, Shatadru and hence I just nodded my head to say yes.

   “So, I’ll meet you tomorrow at the Sikdar house in Alipore sharp at ten in the morning”, said Shatadru to Mr. Bose.

   Mr. Bose was relieved with Shatadru’s confirmation of taking up the case. He shook hands with us and bid farewell.

   I got so much involved with the case that I immediately asked Shatadru, “Who do you think has done the murders?”

   Shatadru replied, “Patience my friend! Have patience. We have not started our investigation. How can I draw a conclusion so early? Drawing conclusions prematurely is the biggest obstacle when it comes to investigation of something. Initially everyone is the culprit. Let’s have the dinner and sleep tight this night. We have some serious work in our hand now and I believe that it will be not an easy one.”

Revelations of the Servant’s Death

 It was sharp at ten o’clock in the morning when we reached the Sikdar house at Alipore. Mr. Bose along with his two colleagues was waiting for our arrival. We got down from our white Ambassador car. The two colleagues of Mr. Bose saluted Shatadru.

   Shatadru replied laughingly, “Relax. I’m not your boss anymore. I’m a private investigator now.” He turned serious and continued, “Well, neurotoxin was consumed along with food so take me to the kitchen first.”

   We all went to the kitchen. Nothing interesting was there but Shatadru opened the refrigerator and grumbled.

   Mr. Bose said immediately, “What? Did you find anything interesting or any clue?”

   “Yes I believe so but I can only be corroborated after speaking to the other servants of the house”, replied Shatadru in a low voice.

   He kept on glazing at something inside the refrigerator for some time and then closed the door of the refrigerator. He thrust his hand inside his pocket hastily and took out his Pack of Marlboro cigarettes and lighted one. He went deep in his introspection. He stared out of the kitchen window and kept on puffing on his cigarette.

   He asked to call the servants. He did not ask a single question to the driver of the house and let him go. He asked Mr. Bose and his colleagues to go out of the room so that he could start his round of questioning but asked me to stay.

   He asked the maid servant, Champa in a very calm composed voice, “What can you remember of the day on which Mr. Abinash Sikdar had died?”

   The maid servant, Champa was getting extremely nervous. I calmed her down and told her to relax as Shatadru was not a police officer and had just come to know some facts.

   Champa said, “It was just like a normal day. Abinash Babu usually had his dinner at around half past eleven in the night. The other members of the family used to have their dinner at ten o’clock in the night. After they finished, we also used to have our dinner as well. Hori used to serve the dinner of Abinash Babu in his room and as usually on that day also, he served him his dinner. Soon after dinner, he started having his breathing problems and the inhaler did not work and Abinash Babu died. Now police are saying that it is a murder and Abinash Babu had been poisoned by the food. But believe me Sir; we also ate the same food that Abinash Babu had.”

   Shatadru said in a soft intriguing voice, “Hmm! I know that but can you remember anything about the dal (pulses) that was given to Mr. Abinash?”

   Champa replied in an ecstatic manner, “Yes I remember. On that day, Abinash Babu asked Hori to reduce the quantity of dal (pulses) given by him as he was having some stomach problems. So Hori reduced the quantity of dal (pulses) and kept it in the refrigerator.”

   Shatadru asked sharply, “Was the bowl completely full?” Champa replied in the affirmative. Shatadru said cheerfully, “Thanks a lot Champa. You may take your leave. If any question arises in my mind again, I will let you know.” Shatadru kept on smiling as Champa took her leave.

   Mr. Bose and his two colleagues walked inside. Mr. Bose asked, “What did you find out?”

   Shatadru replied, “Take out that bowl of dal (pulses) from the refrigerator and send it to the laboratory. There has to be neurotoxin in it. The death of the servant, Hori is just an accident. The main target and victim was Dr. Abinash Sikdar. Just take a look at the bowl. It is less than half filled. Take a look at the sink-basin. Hori’s plate containing some traces of dal (pulses) and rice are still there as the kitchen was sealed after the murder was reported and Champa could not enter the kitchen to wash the plates. Everyone used to have their dinner before Dr. Sikdar which the murderer was well aware of as he is an insider only. On that very night, after everyone had their dinner, the murderer mixed the poison neurotoxin with the dal (pulses) which was to be given to Dr. Abinash. He asked Hori to reduce the quantity as he was having some stomach problems. Hori did so and kept it in the refrigerator but the bowl was completely full at that time which I identified by the mark that it was filled up to the brim and confirmed later by Champa. After dinner, Dr. Abinash had died due to poisoning only but everyone was fooled by the fact that he had breathing troubles as he was suffering from asthma. The next day, Hori had some rice with the poisoned dal (pulses) kept in the refrigerator which he was not aware of at his breakfast as people from villages prefer rice over anything else. Hence he died the same way as Dr. Abinash had died the previous night which caught the eyes of Dr. Ramen Mitra immediately. It was an excellently planned murder of Dr. Abinash but to the ill-fate of the murderer, Hori also happened to consume that poisoned dal (pulses).” We all kept standing spell-bound after Shatadru’s explanations.

Mr. Rajat’s Interrogation

  “Okay! Let’s carry on with the interrogations with the family members one by one. I want to talk to the eldest brother, Mr. Rajat first”, said Shatadru to Mr. Bose.

   We all went down to the drawing room. It was really gorgeously decorated and looked like a room that we see in the Hollywood movies. The sofa-cum-beds were all imported and sumptuous ones. One corner of the room was a home of trophies galore. Shatadru strolled up to that corner and keenly watched all the various accomplishments of all the different family members.

   Meanwhile Mr. Rajat came down from his room. He had a long face with a sharp nose and charming eyes. He had long curly hair as well and looked like a typical playboy. He looked like a desperate, arrogant and an uncouth person. He sat down on the sofa-cum-bed and lit up a cigarette. He offered Shatadru to have a smoke but he declined his offer as that was not his preferred brand. Shatadru took out his own preferred brand and lit up one cigarette again.

   Shatadru said to Mr. Rajat, “So why did you leave your much esteemed job of GTN Geographic channel and come back to India?”

   Mr. Rajat replied in a low voice, “I did not like the job anymore. It was a hectic job of staying out always in the wild. It was taking a toll over my body and hence I had resigned. I actually came back to India to see my uncle whose health was deteriorating day by day.”

   Shatadru was sharp to spot Mr. Rajat’s nervousness in his voice. Moreover he stammered a bit and felt uneasy when he was asked about his job. He was also not being able to keep eye contact with Shatadru while speaking to him.

   Shatadru continued after a brief pause, “You liked outdoor sports. I’m really impressed to see your achievements in it. You are a sports enthusiast and a born sportsman, aren’t you?”

   Mr. Rajat smiled and boasted of himself, “Yeah! That’s for sure. I really love sports and adventure. I was also an expert at mountain climbing. I believe that life without adventure is simply meaningless. That’s why I chose my career in the GTN Geographic channel.”

   Shatadru was quick to interrupt him, “So then why did you leave the job? It was only two years, right?”

   Mr. Rajat again started to stammer a bit and said that he had already said the reason for putting down his paper. Shatadru observed that he was fidgeting and hence asked him to take his leave calmly.

   After Mr. Rajat left the drawing room, Shatadru turned to Mr. Bose and said, “Get in touch with the GTN Geographic channel. Find the actual reason for why he left the job and try to get me the contact numbers of Mr. Rajat’s colleagues and superiors. He is concealing something. We have to know the complete truth.”

Mr. Dinesh’s Interrogation

   Mr. Dinesh came to the drawing room for his round of interrogation. He was a stout, little bent and soft-spoken person. He wore thick glasses. He was very calm and well-mannered. He did not seem at all to be a murderer but who can identify a cold-blooded murderer.

   Shatadru asked him to take a seat and continued with a penetrating look on his face, “So you filed a lawsuit against your uncle to claim your share of property but unfortunately you lost the case recently.”

   Mr. Dinesh got nervous and hurriedly started to reply, “Yes but believe me, I did not murder my uncle. I was in serious need of money to continue my research in the DNA project that I was working upon in the U.S.A. I had asked my uncle for money first but he rebuffed and hence I had to come back here to take the help of law to claim my share of property so that I could sell and carry on with my research. Rajat also claimed his share of property verbally but he did not like to take any legal action. He had left his job and hence started to enMainak his share of property by staying here only.”

    Shatadru offered a cigarette from his pack to Mr. Dinesh. He turned down his offer and replied that he did not smoke. Shatadru hence took out one from the pack and lit up. He smiled and said, “Well Mr. Dinesh, did I accuse you of homicide?”

   Mr. Dinesh immediately became edgy and defensive that police were suspecting a murder and hence he said so.

   Shatadru again smiled back and in a very calm and composed manner said, “So according to you; Mr. Rajat was also claiming his share of property but can you tell me why he needed his share so desperately? Your need is justified but why Mr. Rajat was claiming his share; do you have any idea?”

   “No I’m afraid not”, replied Mr. Dinesh in a very tense voice.

   Shatadru carried on, “Molecular biology, a really intriguing subject. A person needs to be very knowledgeable in Chemistry as well to be a molecular biologist. Am I right Mr. Dinesh?”

   “Yes that’s true”, replied Mr. Dinesh promptly.

   Shatadru again asked, “Where did you live in U.S.A?”

   Again there was a prompt answer, “I used to reside in Florida.”

   Shatadru said, “Okay Mr. Dinesh, you may go now. If I have any more questions I’ll give you a call.”

   Mr. Dinesh walked out of the drawing room with a sigh of relief. I asked Shatadru eagerly, “What did you understand?”

   Shatadru replied back, “Well it’s a vexed question to answer. Coral snakes are found in Florida. Moreover he has to be extremely knowledgeable in Chemistry and Biology both as he is a molecular biologist and hence knowing about neurotoxin and getting it as well is quite possible for him. Before being asked any question, he said that he did not murder his uncle. According to human psychology, if a person is guilty he will feel always that he is being suspected but it is too early to draw a conclusion and moreover there are no clues as well.”

Mr. Debashish’s Interrogation

   Pin-drop silence followed after those words of Shatadru. Suddenly Mr. Debashish called, “May I come in?” Mr. Bose asked him to take his seat in front of Shatadru. Shatadru composed himself quickly getting out from his deep introspection.

   He said, “So Mr. Debashish, you are a chemist right?”

   Mr. Debashish simply nodded in the affirmative. He did not like to speak much and was very calm and composed. Unlike the other family members, he was short-heighted and had a rustic look.

   Shatadru carried on, “Where did you work and reside in USA?”

   Mr. Debashish answered in a very soft voice, “I work as a pharmaceutical chemist in Roxbax Pharmaceuticals and I used to reside at Houston in Texas.”

   “So what brought you over here in India?” asked Shatadru quickly.

   He continued to answer in a low voice, “I had heard about my uncle’s illness and just came to see how he was doing. I came here for about ten days.”

   Shatadru again asked with some eagerness, “Did you know anything about Mr. Rajat and Mr. Dinesh’s claim of their share of property?”

   Mr. Debashish continued, “Yes after coming here, I have heard that Dinesh was fighting a case against uncle which he recently lost but I do not know anything about Rajat. I like to stay within myself. I just came here to see my uncle and would have left for USA by today unless this tragic incident happened.”

   Shatadru again thought for a while. There was a pause in the conversation and finally asked Mr. Debashish to take his leave. He turned to Mr. Bose’s colleague and asked him to call Champa again.

Champa reveals something interesting

   Champa walked in the drawing room again very nervously. I asked her to relax and have a seat.

   Shatadru said in a soft voice, “Do you know anything about Mr. Rajat’s claim of share of the property?”

   Champa replied hastily and with eagerness, “Yes sir. Rajat Babu did claim his share of property also and even threatened Abinash Babu to kill him if he does not give his share. Rajat Babu always needed plenty of money because he expended behind liquor and ladies. Moreover he used to go to the race course to play for high stakes where he daily used to lose lots of money. One day Abinash Babu even slapped Rajat Babu for this and he said that he would take revenge for it.”

   Shatadru raised his eyes and looked at me. Shatadru again asked, “Can you tell me anything about Mr. Debashish and Mr. Dinesh?”

   Champa carried on, “Dinesh Babu was fighting a legal case against Abinash Babu and had recently lost. He went into depression and hence pleaded to Abinash Babu several times for his share of the property as he wanted money for some work of his. He was using some terms as ‘journal writing, research, etc.’ Abinash Babu was adamant and refused to give any money. However after that Dinesh Babu stopped claiming any money as he thought that to be useless. Abinash Babu asked him to go a friend of his who was a scientist and thereafter Dinesh Babu used to go to Abinash Babu’s friend’s house at times.”

   Shatadru immediately asked Mr. Bose by the use of gestures to get some information about those words from Mr. Dinesh.

   Champa carried on, “Debashish Babu always confined himself in his room and rarely visited Abinash Babu’s room to see how he was doing. He always liked to keep quiet and did not speak much.” Champa then took her leave.

   Mr. Bose came down to the drawing room again stating that Mr. Dinesh used to visit Dr. Abinash’s friend Dr. Anjan Chowdhury. He was a scientist and also invested on some scientific research projects if he felt the proposal worthwhile. He was having his research proposal’s discussion with him for some days so that Dr. Chowdhury gets interested and invests for his research work.

Shatadru finds something

   Shatadru decided to take a break and we both went out in the garden. Shatadru lit up a cigarette again. Puffing on it he said, “What have you understood?”

   I replied, “Both Mr. Dinesh and Mr. Rajat might be the culprits and both of them did have some motive but Mr. Dinesh’s was however solved by Dr. Abinash only leaving Mr. Rajat as the prime suspect now.”

   “Great! But why does Mr. Debashish always remain confined in his room? Is it his nature to remain silent? May be but there is no evidence of crime. Moreover more investigation needs to be done before pointing fingers”, said Shatadru.

   We walked towards the backyard of the compound. Shatadru looked up and saw that we were standing just under the kitchen window. He walked up to the boundary wall from the kitchen window. The boundary walls were lined up with flowering plants. Shatadru bent down and started searching for something and finally got a jar-like glass container though small in size. He picked it up with his handkerchief. He thrust his hand in his pocket and took out his magnifying glass. He examined it carefully and said, “No. No fingerprints. It won’t be easy to catch the culprit. This person has excellent brain.”

   I was amazed to see that and asked, “How did you spot it?”

   Shatadru smiled and said pointing to the kitchen window, “From there Mainak. I was puffing on my cigarette when my eyes fell on it. At least, we found a clue. Let’s go back today. I need to do brainstorming a lot.”

   Shatadru then went back to the drawing room and asked Mr. Bose to get the information about Mr. Rajat and we bid farewell.

Shatadru gets information about Mr. Rajat

   After getting back, Shatadru confined himself in his favourite room and I started to ponder over my next doing. I was thinking whether to open my chamber or sit down and start writing about the case. Finally my desire of being a detective novelist over-ruled my decision of opening my chamber. Soon after I found myself busy penning down the interesting case at hand.

   The next morning at around nine, there was a clang on the doorbell. I opened the door and found that Mr. Bose had come to our place with the news that he had collected all the information as told by Shatadru. Mr. Rajat had lost all his fortunes by spending recklessly on ladies, gambling and liquor. He was completely an addict and used to live a desperate life. Moreover he lost his job because he was thrown out of the company by the management for sexual harassment.

   Shatadru asked, “Did you collect his colleagues’ contact numbers?”

   Mr. Bose said that he could get two of his friends’ numbers.

   Shatadru immediately dialed, “Hi Mr. Neil! I’m Mr. Rajat’s friend from India. He has actually gone into severe depression after losing his job in U.S.A. Can you tell me anything what had happened over there which he is not letting us know and suffering from such a depression? We can then at least give a try to help him get out of depression.” He chatted with the person for some time to get the information out with tremendous expertise.

   After the end of the call he said that what Mr. Bose said was perfect. Even his colleague cum friend in the U.S.A could not believe that Mr. Rajat could go into a depression after that incident and repent. He actually tried to force himself on a colleague which resulted in his termination. Moreover he lost all his fortunes that he had earned by gambling and spending endlessly on ladies and liquor. Hence he had to return to India and was in dire need of money.

   Shatadru then turned to Mr. Bose and said, “I have to search all the rooms and belongings of all the persons in the house but without any search warrant as the criminal is too clever to catch. If we go with a warrant, he will immediately get aware and might vanish something which can be a clue with which we can move further in the case. So you need to call everyone in the drawing room and interrogate whatever you feel like; actually to spend time with them so that I get at least an hour to search all the rooms minutely.”

The search in Mr. Rajat’s room

   The next morning we arrived at the Sikdar residence sharp at ten in the morning. Mr. Bose and his associates were waiting for our arrival at the main entrance. We entered together in the house and as planned Mr. Bose called for all the family members together to interrogate; mainly to spend time so that Shatadru gets ample time for his search.

   Mr. Rajat, Mr. Dinesh and Mr. Debashish came down at the drawing room from their respective rooms and they were asked to sit together on the gorgeous sofa cum bed. Mr. Bose’s colleagues kept standing while Shatadru and I started to roam around the drawing room aimlessly. Mr. Bose started asking them various questions most of which were irrelevant to the case in order to spend time which made Mr. Rajat’s behavior repugnant. However they could not do much as they were being interrogated. After roaming around for two minutes in the drawing room, we both sneaked upstairs surreptitiously through everyone’s eyes. Shatadru and I wanted to check the room of Mr. Rajat first.

   We entered his room. The flavour of strong scotch blended with strong Russian vodka filled the entire air of his room. The ash-tray was lying almost full with the left-over parts of the cigarettes and ash on his bed. Even the expensive bed-sheet was covered up with traces of ashes of cigarettes. Mr. Rajat’s laptop was switched on and Shatadru immediately started to check the history of the browsed web-pages. I started to check all the drawers and files in the cupboard. I found something interesting and immediately showed it to Shatadru. Mr. Rajat and his colleagues did some research about different snakes’ habitat for his GTN Geographic channel. Shatadru immediately switched on the camera on his mobile phone and clicked pictures of the same.

   I asked Shatadru, “What did you find from the history of the browsed web-pages?”

   Shatadru replied in a low voice, “Nothing much apart from a lot of porn sites and his personal mail inbox. Only one thing which got me hooked was that he browsed web-pages related to snakes’ poison as well but now it is clear that he might have done it for his research work in the GTN Geographic channel as the date suggests so.”

   We decided to not waste time and kept all the belongings in the exactly same spots as before. Not a single person could understand that the room had been searched though nothing interesting could be found from there. Mr. Debashish’s room was just beside Mr. Rajat’s and hence we went in without wasting time.

The case turns 180 degrees

   I started to feel it was a waste of time searching in Mr. Debashish’s room for a clue. He was completely an alien kind of person who always liked to keep to himself and kept himself confined within those four walls. Moreover he almost had no motive to murder Dr. Abinash as well but however Shatadru always suspects everyone to be a criminal until the last moment when he finally gets caught.

   Mr. Debashish was fond of antiques and his room displayed it in quite an extravagant manner. All the furniture in his room were antique pieces and were of pure Burmese Teak wood. I went up to search the cupboard but it was locked. However a bunch of keys was lying on the table. I grabbed it hurriedly and started to open the cupboard by trial and error method with the bunch of keys. Ultimately the cupboard got opened. Nothing was in it except his clothes; however I kept on searching while Shatadru got himself busy searching Mr. Debashish’s study table.

   The laptop was switched off and Shatadru had to switch it on to check the documents and browsed web-pages. The first hurdle was to crack the user password. The password hint flashed “flower” as a hint. Shatadru typed “flower” but the access was denied. Shatadru was however quick to understand that Mr. Debashish was not a fool to keep the password and password hint the same. His eyes fell on the adorable garden-fresh white orchids in the flower vase displayed exquisitely on the study table. Shatadru quickly typed white orchids as the password and again the access was denied. He again tried with white orchid and to our delight, the password was accepted and Shatadru got logged into Mr. Debashish’s laptop. Meanwhile I pulled out the drawer of the antique cupboard and saw a wooden box in it. Luckily it was not locked and I opened it with great astonishment.

   The box had glass containers of different snake venoms. Even the rarest snake venoms were available in the box. I asked Shatadru to take a look; Shatadru just glanced over the box with penetrating eyes and asked me to take photographs of everything from all possible angles. He got busy with the laptop again and grabbed his pen-drive out from his pocket. He copied some important documents from the laptop in his pen-drive and remarked that the case had taken 180 degrees turn. Shatadru said, “There is no time now to analyze properly. Let’s be quick and put all things at exactly the same places and move on in Mr. Dinesh’s room. We need to go to our home and analyze everything. We have to collect as many clues as possible to move on in this crooked case.”

The search in Mr. Dinesh’s room

   Mr. Dinesh’s room was on the other side of the floor and so we crept stealthily towards the room. Shatadru looked at the ash-tray that was kept on a table in the centre of the room. He checked it thoroughly.

   I asked, “Why are you checking the ash-tray so much? What can be in it?”

   Shatadru remarked, “Didn’t you remember Mr. Dinesh had said that he did not smoke. Hence I’m searching the left-over parts of the cigarettes. Mostly it contains Mr. Rajat’s brand but there is also another brand in it. It establishes a good relation between Mr. Rajat and Mr. Dinesh as they spend quite a lot of time together as suggested by the left-over parts of Mr. Rajat’s brand of cigarettes but I am getting utterly baffled by the left-over parts of cigarettes of the other brand. Let’s carry on with the search.”

   The cupboard in his room was not locked and hence I had no problem searching it. It only had Mr. Dinesh’s clothes. I also kept on searching the files and books to find something while Shatadru was busy taking a close look at the oil paintings of Mr. Dinesh. He checked all the tools of Mr. Dinesh that he used for his paintings and clicked pictures of them as well. Shatadru then checked Mr. Dinesh’s laptop. Luckily there was no user password set in his laptop and Shatadru freely accessed Mr. Dinesh’s documents. He was doing research with DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) of various living beings on earth including snakes of various habitats. There was also a list of details of famed scientists and investors who used to invest in various science research projects. Shatadru again copied all the documents in his pen-drive and after keeping all the things in exactly the same position before, we left the room. We came down again as silently as possible and no one understood that their rooms had been searched.

   Shatadru wanted to leave for the day and asked Mr. Bose to carry on with his investigation. Together we took leave from the Sikdar house and drove straight back to our residence.

The Analysis of Different Evidences

   We came back to our residence. Shatadru was deep in his thought and I decided to keep mum so that he could carry on with his introspection. Soon after, the door-bell rang and I opened it to find a poor old lady standing. Her husband was suffering from high fever for the last three days and since I was the only doctor in the locality to help the poor, she had come to me and broke down in tears in front of me to save him. I immediately went with her to check her husband while Shatadru retired in his room for contemplation.

   The poor man was afflicted with severe viral fever and was almost in a sub-conscious state when I checked him. I decided to stay beside them until the poor person recoups sentience and feels better as there was no one beside the poor old lady to give any kind of moral support even. After about two hours, the person felt a bit better and I provided the lady with some medicine from my bunch of free samples that I get from the medical representatives so that they did not have to incur costs on medicine as they were extremely poor. I took my fees of one rupee instead of my normal fees of five hundred rupees per home visit as it is against my ethics of providing any free service in my profession. I could only extend my help to the poor people thus. I came back and found Shatadru sitting at his desktop and reading something from his pen-drive in which he copied a lot of evidences.

   I went up to the monitor of Shatadru’s desktop to check what he was looking at so eagerly. He was checking a document from Mr. Debashish’s folder.

   I said, “What are you looking at so eagerly? Did you find anything?”

   Shatadru said in an unlikely deep voice, “Hmm! Dr. Abinash made a remarkable discovery in the history of Science from which he could have been crowned as the greatest scientific thinkers of all times and was writing it in his journal before his untimely demise. Just take a look of Dr. Abinash’s paper.”

The paper written by Dr. Abinash was named as “The Cosmos of the Universe” and it was as follows:

   “The widely accepted theory about the origin of the universe is the Big Bang theory. Just at the time of the Big Bang, the universe was infinitely hot with large amount of matter and particles. A question arises that just before the Big Bang, where these matters were contained in? This question is mainly left unanswered and the answer to this question is in a black hole.

   Stars make up different galaxies and form when a large amount of gas mainly hydrogen starts collapsing due to its gravitational force of attraction and heat gets generated. The gas becomes so hot that it merges into helium atoms and the reaction is like a controlled hydrogen bomb. The additional heat increases the pressure of the gas and hence balances the gravitational attraction. The larger the star, the more heat it requires to balance its force of gravitation and the faster it uses up its fuel. When fuel gets finished, the star collapses under its own gravitational force to form a black hole. This black hole then ends up swallowing the whole galaxy and a time comes when all the galaxies get up swallowed in various black holes.

   When these black holes merge together to form a single black hole, the area of the event horizon of the final black hole is greater than the sum of areas of event horizons of the individual black holes.

   According to the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle, black holes apparently create and emit particles at a steady rate to prevent violations of the second law of thermodynamics.

   Now in the initial stages the final black hole emits mass slowly since its area of event horizon is huge. As it starts losing mass, the area of the event horizon becomes smaller, the temperature becomes higher and as a result the rate of emission becomes greater. Eventually the black hole explodes tremendously forming the universe and itself disappearing completely.

   The time dimension must get slowed up as we approach a black hole due to its huge gravitational force and the time curve eventually curls back inside a black hole. It moves back to the time of creation of the universe and starts again with the same process. So in order to create a time-machine, we have to create a black hole and control its gravitational force from outside.”

   After that Dr. Abinash provided with the mathematical calculations for scientific proof and establishment of his views. It was indeed a great scientific discovery in Modern Physics and an approach towards the ultimate unified field theory, the term which was coined by the great Albert Einstein.

   I looked up to Shatadru with dilated eyes in great astonishment.

   Shatadru seemed to be as cool as a cucumber and said, “Yes indeed a remarkable discovery but I am focused in the case. The interesting part comes now where Dr. Abinash was registering it in his journal before his untimely death and now I find it in Mr. Debashish’s laptop which he was copying it under his own name resulting in purloining of intellectual property as well as marking as a motive of Mr. Debashish to murder Dr. Abinash whom we least suspected from the very beginning. Moreover Mr. Debashish had almost all kinds of snake venoms in his kit and had an extremely good knowledge of them as the source of most of his drugs that he used to manufacture for his company, Roxbax Pharmaceuticals in U.S.A. were from snake venoms as he was a specialist in that area as suggested from his research works for drug preparation. He chanced to have a view of Dr. Abinash’s work in the dimensions of Physics and since he is a chemist, he has to have good knowledge in Physics as well and understood the remarkable discovery made by his uncle. Hence he might have killed his uncle to get the access of his work and make it under his own name so that he gets the credit of making such a discovery. Look here at the pictures that you have clicked of Mr. Debashish’s kit of snake venoms; the small glass bottle containing the coral snake’s venom is not completely full like the other bottles.”

   “So we should instantly get Mr. Debashish apprehended for homicide without further delay”, I said.

   “It will be foolish of us if we get hold of him so early as there is absence of strong corroboration; he can be arrested only on grounds of pilfering the intellectual property but cannot be charged with homicide as coral snake’s venom in his kit will not stand as evidence because he is a chemist and can easily come forward with an explanation of keeping the possession of the same in his kit for research work. The criminal has to be caught red-handed and for that I need to chalk out an immaculately planned trap. Mr. Dinesh and Mr. Rajat had a good relationship between themselves but there was also a third person with whom Mr. Dinesh or may be both of them used to spend some time together. Mr. Dinesh indirectly pointed the finger at Mr. Rajat for the murder initially during the interrogations and on top of that we must not forget that Champa confirmed that Mr. Rajat threatened to kill Dr. Abinash once. Moreover I need to meet Dr. Anjan Chowdhury as well to understand about the research work of Mr. Dinesh. I must say the famous dialog now, ‘picture is still left my friend’”, laughs Shatadru.

Shatadru was off

   The next morning I woke up a little late; yawning out of my bed I went up to Shatadru’s room to find him not present. I called him by his name but received no answer when suddenly I recalled his saying of paying a visit to Dr. Anjan Chowdhury. I made my coffee and sat down sipping it reading the morning daily when suddenly the door-bell rang. I looked up at the clock; it was half past eleven in the morning and wondered whether Shatadru’s meet was finished so early.

   I went up to the door and opened it. I did not know how to respond; whether to be happy and excited or whether to feel pity for my cousin cum friend, Shatadru; it was my sister-in-law, Shatadru’s wife, Sneha standing in front of my eyes. She hurriedly entered into the house and was looking for Shatadru in a menacing mood. I attempted to placate her but to no avail. I said jokingly, “What happened? Why are so furious with Shatadru?”

   Sneha snarled, “Why didn’t you tell me about Shatadru’s eccentric decision of quitting his job?”

   I started to mumble and tried to change the topic of conversation as I had no other option in hand.

   She got even more furious and said grabbing the newspaper, “Let him come today. What does he think of himself, huh? He is not the decision maker of the family. I am. He will do what I will tell. He won’t even give me peace to spend a few days at my maternal home.”

   Finding the situation difficult to tackle, I slowly crept towards my room leaving Sneha alone as I was quite familiar with Sneha’s fury. It would only get dissipated by Shatadru’s presence. There is no other person on earth to handle Sneha and her fury better than Shatadru.

Arrival of Shatadru

 It was around one o’ clock when the door-bell rang once again. I knew it was Shatadru but did not dare to open the door for him. Sneha went up and opened the door. Shatadru’s eyes got wide open with shock at the sight of his beloved wife standing in front of his eyes with the same old very familiar anger on all over her face. Then the famed shouting of Sneha started at Shatadru and I could see my friend molding from a lion into a cat. Sneha’s shouting and scolding continued for his eccentric decision of quitting his esteemed job without even telling her. Shatadru was making all kinds of expressions on his face manifesting his fear of his beloved wife’s indignation and I was really getting amused and at the same time feeling pity for him. Even the bravest and courageous of all men becomes a coward when he comes under the rage of his wife like my friend cum cousin, Shatadru. I really do sometimes feel that I had done the right thing of not getting married and hence I am like a free bird and moreover it is veritably really difficult to understand women psychology.

   After the scolding was over it was turn for Shatadru to appease her. He started nagging and pleading for forgiveness with his voice sounding like a cat’s; stretching his arm; grabbing her and getting close to her to express his love and care for her; and then started to tell her about the interesting case at hand.

Shatadru tells about his meeting

   After initially providing Sneha a rundown about the case, he sat down on the arm-chair and carried on, “This case has taken another turn. Dr. Anjan Chowdhury has also become a suspect in my eyes now.”

   “But why do you suddenly think so that he might have murdered Dr. Abinash?” said I.

   Shatadru smiled and answered, “Firstly, the left over parts of the cigarettes in the ash-tray that we came across in Mr. Dinesh’s room were of Dr. Anjan Chowdhury as the brand suggests so evincing that Dr. Anjan Chowdhury used to come quite frequently at Dr. Abinash’s residence and also spent time with Mr. Dinesh in his room. Secondly and most significantly, Dr. Anjan Chowdhury and Dr. Abinash Sikdar were partners of a research organization which used to buy the patents and formulae from various scientists around the globe utilising them and earn huge profits by doing business and the value of the organization currently stands at around five thousand crores of rupees. After the demise of Dr. Abinash Sikdar, Dr. Anjan Chowdhury is the sole owner of the entire organization and this news was intentionally concealed by Dr. Anjan Chowdhury during our conversations.

   “And why do you think so?” I asked.

   Shatadru smiled and looked down to the earth for a second and then again continued staring like an owl at me, “I inquired him about his business and chatted with him about his friend Dr. Abinash also. He said about his organization also but slyly never ever mentioned that Dr. Abinash was also a partner of the five thousand crore research organization. Moreover the person is extremely cunning which I got the impression by looking at his face only. You are quite aware of my face reading abilities sweetheart, aren’t you?” Sneha showed her tongue childishly to Shatadru to express her love filled with disgust and silly anger on him. Shatadru smiled broadly and again continued, “I came across a photograph hanging on the wall outside Dr. Anjan Chowdhury’s office where Dr. Anjan Chowdhury and Dr. Abinash Sikdar were in the pose of shaking hands and there it was inscribed that both were the directors of the organization. I quickly made friendship with the extremely beautiful charming lady receptionist of the office and asked about the directors of the organization. From there I came to know about everything and Dr. Anjan Chowdhury mainly looked after the entire administration and even the research formulae or research proposals were checked and evaluated for business potential by him before purchase. Dr. Abinash Sikdar did not even look after those things. He only used to check the profits and the value of the organization at where it was standing.”

   I started with a keen interest on my face, “So what do you really think now? Has Dr. Anjan Chowdhury murdered Dr. Abinash to become the sole owner of the organization? Did you find out Mr. Dinesh’s research topic? Was there anything of interest in his research topic?”

   Shatadru cheerfully said, “Yes I did but to your first question, I will only tell that Dr. Anjan Chowdhury is also a suspect now in my eyes but I need to have more concrete proof of him involved in the crime before jumping to a conclusion. Coming back to your next question, Mr. Dinesh was doing a research on DNA of certain animals and was trying to make clones of them. If that was successful then he would start with human DNA and start making clones of human beings also. Yes I understand from your facial expressions Mainak that you are spellbound but you have to admit that invention in science comes from fiction only. What is fictional today can be invented tomorrow and it does not remain fictional afterwards. And in Mr. Dinesh’s project, huge investment was required to carry on the research. Dr. Anjan Chowdhury and Mr. Dinesh had several discussions over this matter time and again but ultimately there were some errors in the hypothesis in the research model which Dr. Chowdhury identified and pointed out to Mr. Dinesh. Okay; let’s now celebrate my beloved’s return from her maternal residence. I will cook for you today, my majesty.”

   We both started to cook some special Thai dishes and started to have a light moment amongst us. In the evening Shatadru went out with Sneha for a romantic long walk and decided to have a candlelit dinner while I got myself busy writing the incidents that have occurred till now.

The Study

   Next day I had to wake up early in the morning as Sneha would not let anyone doze even after eight o’clock though I was somnolent. I went downstairs and could not find Shatadru and hence inquired Sneha of his whereabouts. He was made busy by her for his fitness workout on the roof. I went upstairs to see him and have my tea there. Shatadru was giving the push-ups when I reached the terrace. Sweat was dripping down his sinewy arms and his face was red with exhaustion as he was working out after a long time since no one was around him to maintain a vigil on him and he skipped his fitness workouts getting lazy. I could not control my laughter bursting out at his piteous sight which made him indignant. He did not even speak to me and after the completion of his workout he went straight to his study room closing the door which meant he could not be disturbed then.

   It was four o’ clock in the evening when he opened the door of his study room and came out dancing like a mad guy. He asked me to get in the room and observe his sketches.

   I could not understand a single thing about his sketches which made him ecstatic. Then he grabbed a ball in his fist and started to throw it at the wall. Feeling disturbed I asked, “I cannot understand anything what you are trying to tell me.”

   He put his arm around me and whispered in my ears, “The game lies in the study of trajectory. The murderer is caught but the drama needs to be created to catch him red-handed. Wait till tomorrow for everything. I should call Mr. Bose and tell him about our trap and so that he prepares his force.”

The Trap

   The next evening we again went to the Sikdar family and as usually Mr. Bose was there well in advance. We entered the house and summoned all the family members including Dr. Anjan Chowdhury at the drawing room.

   Shatadru coolly and in a very composed manner started, “Dr. Abinash Sikdar had been murdered by the presence of Coral snake’s poison in his dinner which resulted in paralysis of his lungs and the doctor failed to identify that as he had been suffering from asthma. A truly brilliantly planned execution but the murderer has left a clue behind his crime. I also know who has committed the crime but I am waiting for the clue to come into my hand and hence tomorrow the sniffing dogs had been called for to find the clue. There had to be some container in which the venom might have been carried to the kitchen room and must have been thrown out through the window after use. The sniffing dogs will do it everything tomorrow.”

   No one uttered a single word and everyone was baffled as how to react. We took our leave leaving them in a perplexed state of mind.

   It was ten o’ clock in the night when we mustered again outside the boundary wall of the Sikdar family. Shatadru and Mr. Bose easily crossed over the boundary wall of the compound as they were great athletes while I was helped by the associates of Mr. Bose to climb over. We were all inside the compound and took our respective hiding positions. Shatadru and I were however hiding together and hence I had the chance to ask him softly, “Do you really think the plan will work?”

   Shatadru smiled which I could see in the faint light gleaming from the street lamps and whispered, “Yes; I am sure Mainak. It is criminal psychology. He must come.”

   We waited continuously for two hours and everyone was asleep in the house. Not a single light in any of the room was glowing. It was ten past twelve in the night when suddenly the main door of the house tweaked. Everyone became alert and everyone’s eyes were focused on the main door. A person came out stealthily from the house wrapped in a shawl with a torch in his hand. He crept towards the boundary wall from where Shatadru picked up the small jar-like glass container. He was searching everywhere with the torch when suddenly Shatadru went out and said in displeasingly harsh voice, “Game over.”

   Mr. Bose and his associates came out and grappled with him. He was then tugged into the house again and made to seat in the sofa cum bed. Everyone present was again summoned to reveal the murderer and his motive.

Final Revelations

   Shatadru opened the shawl and it was Mr. Dinesh trying to hide his face with his arms. Shatadru started to say proudly, “Do you remember Mainak; yesterday I said everything lied in the study of trajectory?”

   I simply nodded in the affirmative.

   “I was studying the trajectory of throws. Mr. Rajat is tall and well-built. He was also a good sportsman and had he thrown the container from the kitchen window, it would have easily crossed the boundary wall and would have been cleaned up the next morning by the street sweeper. Mr. Rajat was hence out of the picture and moreover it was a cold blooded murder which Mr. Rajat could not have ever executed.

   “Then Mr. Debashish was a great suspect as he had the possession of Coral snake’s venom in his kit and also had a serious motive but he is short heighted. Had he thrown from the kitchen window, it would have landed in the middle of the garden. Hence I crossed him out from the suspect list.

   “Mr. Dinesh is a bent person and hence I studied his trajectory very carefully and hence came to the conclusion.

   “Moreover after meeting with Dr. Anjan Chowdhury I came to know that he did not find his research work apt for investment and pointed out flaws in several areas of his hypothesis resulting in excessive grudge on his uncle Dr. Abinash Sikdar who referred him. He went blind and became thirsty for revenge as his work was considered to be flawed but he kept his cool and planned a brilliant sadistic murder.

   “I believe he got access of the snake venom from Mr. Debashish’s kit without his knowledge as we saw the container containing the venom of Coral snake half-filled in his kit. Also the glass container which he used to carry the venom to the kitchen and which he threw out was an empty container in which he kept his colours for his paintings. The company’s name and structure of the container suggests so. I found out the container on the first day itself when my eyes fell upon it from the kitchen window. There were no finger marks on it and I understood the murderer was a perfectionist. I found gloves in Mr. Dinesh’s room which he used for oil painting and I was sure on him though others also had their respective motives in committing the crime.

   “Mr. Bose, you also have to arrest Mr. Debashish for stealing Dr. Abinash’s research work. Dr. Abinash had made a prodigious discovery in the history of Physics and he was making it under his own name. You can charge him on purloining of intellectual property. You also need to take care of Dr. Abinash’s research work and make sure it gets proper acclamation. Promotional offers have started in arresting also, arrest one and get another criminal for free,” laughs Shatadru.