In Plain Sight

 

The dead body of Robert knight was found at the corner of the street that was generally quiet and frequented only by the early morning crowd. The dead body, initially which was ignored, gained the attention of the increasing lot of people who passed by it. Unlike the other parts of the city, the west portion of city saw large movement of population during early mornings as people stepped out for work at destinations which were far away.   Saigon was the capital of Cochinchina, a French protectorate, which later on went on to be known as Vietnam.  It was in this Vietnamese city where Robert had landed exactly six months ago for his research on the historical background of the country and particularly the city of Saigon.  Robert was a British citizen, who had been lately passing his time travelling all around the world for his various research activities. For the police of Saigon to find a dead body of such British national was a matter of significant importance.

The year 1910 was a very busy year for the development and expansion of the city. As Robert had gathered in his information booklet, Saigon as a city was captured by the French in 1859 in disguise of trade and commerce and later on the city was ceded to France in 1862. For long the French had been eyeing the city in the potential additions to its list of colonies. However, the development that the French had brought with it couldn’t have been ignored and for Robert too this aspect was an important highlight in his research. The city which lately was beautified with tree lines boulevards, extra ordinary villas and also the development of a port city by the French had gained quite a bit of prominence for the French in a short period of time.  Robert was lately seen with many of the locals touring around the town. His place of accommodation was the Hotel Le Grande at the center of the town. As the morning had passed by, the news of the dead body of Robert knight had spread like a wild fire.

For the French government, it had become an important political and social issue which needed immediate solution or at least cooling off. For the previous many years, whenever the French found themselves in difficult situations in Saigon, only one man was again and again called for.

 Paolo De Romario was working for the French for the last five years as a detective investigating on matters happening in the city which were out of the routine order. Paolo, who was a representative of the French in many of its colonies earlier, was called to Saigon to enjoy his retirement peacefully mixed up with break in investigations. Though earlier there had never been any murder investigation which Paolo had to look into at Saigon, this one surely made his near old age an exciting one.

 Paolo, who was born and brought up in France, was the only child to a sweet French couple who had never had any inking of idea that their son would one day be a responsible official of the French government. Paolo as a child had a very sharp intuition about things happening around him. People referred it to God’s will or symbol, but for Paolo it was natural. As he grew up, he had become a known name in the neighborhood in solving small cases of theft and robbery. By the time he reached his teens, he solved cases of infidelity and cheating. Though inclined to be a detective, Paolo was made to be an administrative clerk at the French government’s revenue collection department. The routine works bored Paolo to hell due to which he observed and investigated many of the secret dealings in his office. The entire government noticed his talent when he uncovered a cash fraud that was committed by a group of experienced employees of the Crown. As years flew by, Paolo got married, had children and walked up the social and financial ladder like a very happy man with his break in investigations at every other interval. A point came in his life when Paolo travelled literally to many of the French colonies along with his families and settled at such places for two to three years before moving out to the next. It was in this manner, when Paolo was called to Saigon, one of the new cities to be taken over by the French.  He had brought his family along and his children which comprised two boys who had grown up by now and worked for the French government as civil engineers. It was evident for Paolo that the murder investigation of Robert Knight could end up being his last case, whether solved or unsolved depending upon time.

It had taken three more days before Paolo had completed the documentation process of taking up the case. His start point unlike any other case was not the scene of crime which by now had turned into a summer market place, but the hotel at which Robert Knight had resided. Hotel Le Grande was built by the French and coincidentally one of the civil engineers involved in the project was also his son. For Paolo, looking at Le Grande was a proud moment as a father. Inquiries were made with the hotel staff and Robert’s room was searched out in detail for any suspicious clue which could hint at any motive. The entire search operation had taken his next five hours. Not even an iota of clue or evidence could be found in the room. For Paolo the first point was a completed and stroked off.  The team’s next halt was the local guys with whom Robert was seen frequenting around the town. There was in all three loyal guys who would show Robert around. Two of them were clean and did not have any criminal background but one by the name of Rico was a history sheeter. For tracing Rico, they had to bind a field of followers who ultimately trapped Rico from a location which would be tight enough for not allowing any slip.

Rico was a petty thief who had often landed on wrong side of the law. It was during one of such robberies that he had come to know about a foreign tourist who wanted some local guys for his travel. Rico couldn’t control his urge for robbing off a foreign tourist of his belongings and foreign currency.  For many a day, Rico just waited for the opportunity to run off with the Robert’s things and money but the other two would often stick around and keep a close eye on him. As the news of Robert’s death had become public in Saigon, Rico had gone into a hiding fearing arrest in connection with the murder. For Paolo, it was an easy interrogation which concluded the fact that Rico wasn’t aware of any one or himself didn’t have any agenda other than robbing off Robert’s money and valuable which he even could have done with just tying him up or making him unconscious. Paolo had to put a strike off on the second point of their chase.

Saigon off late, post the French intrusion had become an important point for Trade on the sea and the high seas. The development of the port that was made by the French had majorly contributed to this rise in trade through the entire south east. Robert Knight had been lately researching and spending lot of his time in analyzing the impact of the rise in trade on the country and city. For this, he would often spend hours at the city’s port. For Paolo, it was obvious that they should be having a round off of the Port too. During that time the Saigon city port was a busy one which saw the hustle bustle even during mid- nights. Stock after stocks and lots after lots of import and export of goods were being exchanged and sent off. Paolo’s team had to conduct a very detailed examination of the entire port to look for loose ends which Robert might have fallen too. After a thorough search of around five days, Paolo finally had to strike off the third and final point of their investigation which was the Port.  They had to report their findings to the higher officials above.

The next fortnight, Paolo had a secret meeting with three of the higher officials of French government who were based in Saigon. For the three, the investigation by Paolo was the most crucial thing in their careers lately. It was during the interaction that Paolo was told that Investigators from Britain would be arriving to Saigon after a month. Paolo gave a grin to the three of them.

“And what would they find?”

“Nothing!”

“We have checked all the corners of the city and all the points of contacts with whom Robert interacted.”

Paolo explained the officials that the Murder looks like a one-off event, perhaps of a kind of some rogue gang or robbery.

The three officials looked at Paolo and one of them spoke,

“So, you are sure there is no evidence that Robert was murdered for some specific link”

“Nothing at all.”

The meeting had ended and Paolo returned home after a tiring end to the entire investigation. He relaxed for some time near the window and walked near to it and lit a cigar. He looked out into the infinite sky.

 It surely was a difficult task this time.  He had to cover up the three French official who had warned him that unless he finished this assignment he wouldn’t be going back to France. He was forced to conduct the investigation to make sure that there was no evidence available in relation to the murder of Robert Knight who had got on wrong side of those corrupt French officials. Paolo was hired to conduct the investigation in a manner so as to bring out any evidence, if available, which would eventually be changed or made to be disappeared before the Britishers would land up at Saigon.

 For Paolo, the entire investigation was just a disguise through which he himself discovered why Robert Knight was murdered. In the hotel room he had found out some noting on a white pad which was hidden in the bathroom. The noting hinted at one of the locals who had informed Robert of a huge Opium trade consignments landing at the city’s port which were later sent off to other countries from there. For this, those three French officials were earning huge commissions. Robert, during the course of his research on Saigon had unearthed this aspect which he wanted to send it to Britain. He had contacted Rico for this but Rico had alerted the French officials and they made sure that Robert wouldn’t be alive to speak to anyone. The murder was committed in a manner and at a place where the suspicion could only be towards robbery or some rogue gang fight.

Paolo had become old and tired. He just wanted to go home to his country. His entire investigation had made the officials happy. There were no trials, no clues and no evidences because everything was wiped off by him. The Britishers would not find anything.

The Missing Coins - The Detectives Boys - Short Story 3

 Bhuno da was a happy man of late. His Paan shop had earned quite a name in a short period time. Located near the Dhakuria Railway station, it had always been Bhuno da’s dream to open a paan shop as was the tradition of their family. Bhunolprasad Mukherjee, whom people lovingly referred to as Bhuno da was a resident of a distant suburb of Kolkata until he shifted his base to south Kolkata. Often travelling by train, he would get down at the Dhakuria Railway station along the hundreds of others and walk down the Babu Bagan Lane to go towards the city. He particularly loved the hustle around the Dhakuria Railway station. Bulky in appearance with curly oiled hair, Bhuno da would often be seen in his favorite dress of a cream kurta and white pajama. Still single, he planned to get married by the end of 1997.

For long he was in search of a small little space to open a small little Paan shop. Inquiring all around the city, finally he had got a small pace near the Dhakuria Railway station on the bus depot side. It was a small little shop without a cover in the summers and with an umbrella during monsoon. Slowly, the shop earned good name due to its variation in various Paan flavors. People getting down from the local trains would approach Bhuno da’s paan shop before they would continue towards their destinations. Lunch time and dinner time would see the maximum rush during which Bhuno da would be exceedingly busy to concentrate on anything other than serving the various Paan variants.

It was one such afternoon of the winter of 1997. Bhuno da was busy serving his Paan dishes. Once he would collect the money from the customers, he would immediately put the money in the drawer, however if there were coins, the same would be put in a wooden bowl which was kept on slab behind him. At the end of the day, he would count the collections and tally it with the number of Paan’s sold. To the surprise of Bhuno da that night the collections didn’t tally as there was a gap of some thirteen rupees. “Did I miss taking money from someone?” thought Bhuno da to himself.

That night Bhuno da kept recollecting the events of the entire day but couldn’t link anything to the gap in collections. Next day he promised himself to be careful. He ensured that the customers handed over the money to him before he would hand over the Paan. He carefully kept the money received from the customers. However, to his surprise, that night again there had been a gap of some eleven rupees.  Bhuno da was surprised again to no ends. In spite of bring so careful he couldn’t understand the reasons for the gap in collection. 

That night again he sat down the stairs that led to the platform to Dhakuria Railway station and continued to look towards the Babu Bagan Lane. From the Babu Bagan Lane side two young boys walking down towards the station, observed Bhuno da sitting silently immersed in some thoughts. Ritwick and Deep Das were regular at Bhuno da’s shop and knew him very well.

“What’s the matter Bhuno da?” asked Deep Das.

Bhuno da explained everything to Ritwick and Deep Das. Even Ritwick was surprised.

“Don’t worry Bhuno da. Tomorrow we will come to your shop and observe whether there are people who just run away without giving you the money?”

Next morning, Ritwick and Deep Das reached Bhuno da’s shop early and got themselves a comfortable place to sit near the shop to watch over the customers.

“Today we will get hold of the bugger who would run without giving the money.” Commented Deep Das in heavy excitement.

The entire day had passed and Ritwick and Deep Das had actually counted all the customers who had come. Everyone had handed over the money. But to the surprise of all three, there was a shortage of seventeen rupees that night. Ritwick and Deep Das were left dumbstruck.

That night Ritwick was immersed in deep thoughts. He recollected the entire events of the day. It seemed as if they had missed something. He looked at his favorite white ceiling which would often give him ideas. That night was no different. There surely had to be something else than a mere gap, thought Ritwick.

Next morning, Ritwick met Deep Das at his house.

“Are we again going to the shop today?” asked an excited Deep Das.

“Of course, we are, and today our modus operandi would be different.”

It was sometime around ten in the morning. Bhuno da had already opened his shop and customers had started to come in.

Ritwick and Deep Das today took a different place to sit. A position which was exactly opposite to the shop. Ritwick had carried with himself a small little mini-binocular which his grandfather had gifted him.

“Are we going to follow the customers today?” asked a confused Deep Das.

Ritwick didn’t answer. He continued to look at the shop with his binocular. There was nothing to be excited until lunch time arrived.

Suddenly, Ritwick had a smile on his face.

“Oh my god, look look what is happening?”

“Koi (where) I am not able to see anything?” questioned Deep Das.

Ritwick handed over the binocular to Deep Das. Deep Das snatched the binocular from Ritwick’s hand and immediately focused on the shop.

As Deep Das looked at the shop, he was indeed dumbstruck. It was an act of genius.

Ritwick and Deep Das had confronted the culprit after about fifteen along with Bhuno da. It surely was something unthinkable.

While Ritwick was observing with his binoculars, he had observed a thick thread coming from the top towards the shop and exactly above the bowl where Bhuno da had kept the coins. The thread held a magnet at the end. The magnet would attract the coins from the bowl to itself. Once some coins were attached to the magnet, the thread would be picked up and after some time it would again come down and take more coins away.

Ritwick was astonished with the brains of the culprit. The culprit was new to the area and sensed an opportunity when he had seen Bhuno da’s shop and especially a shop without a cover. There was six feet wall behind the shop and the culprit would hide behind the wall and slowly release the thread down towards the shop.

Once confronted, Bhuno da recovered all the money from him. He was warned by Bhuno da of not to indulge in such activities in future.

“Thank You, Ritwick, for all your help. It really wouldn’t have been possible without you and Deep Das.”

“But how did you guess that the problem was with the coins and not the printed notes?” asked a curious Bhuno da

“The amount of gap which you had repeatedly observed had been thirteen on day one, eleven on day two and seventeen on day three. All had been odd numbers and I had observed on the third day that everyone had either given coins or notes and the notes didn’t include the one rupee note or two rupees note. So, the gap was due to the coins.”

Deep Das like always had been left speechless with his friend’s sharpness.