"It might have been a little trouble to you darling, but it’s said that he is a dangerous man. He craves for women. And this, after all is a world where one fears even moving out", Srish tried to explain.
"It’s not a trouble to me but it might be a trouble to my girlfriend. Ha ha!!", Gauti tried to lighten the mood.
But the atmosphere was fearsome. It was a dark, gloomy, quiscent area in a suburb and so was the night and there was fog and humidity and traces of precipitation.
"It is", continued Srish "said that he craves for sex. Two years ago he attacked his maid. His only son prefers not to live with him. That’s why he lives here in a less populated area. I’ve worked under him and to me he had been courteous. But I didn’t want to take risk. Life is precious, isn’t it?"
They walked upstairs to reach the mezzanine floor of a little multi-storied wooden house. Sobyasacchi Dasgupta occupied the whole house, all alone. Srishti or Srish was a journalist and had worked for the Real Times magazine for about three years. She was later promoted to the newspaper sections of the publication house. Sobyasacchi DasGupta was a retired editor-in- chief of the Real Times and Srish was assigned the duty to invite him for the silver jubilee celebrations of the magazine. She thought him not a man to visit without company and took the company her friend Insp. Gautam aka Gauti as everybody would address him.
Knock, knock!!
They knocked the door thrice. No one came forward to open. But the door slung due to force when knocked the third time. DasGupta, a man in his late sixties was sitting with his coffee mug. A dumb waiter stood nearby. A supposedly dinner, consisting chiefly of junkies was seen lying on it. His eyes looked stary, as if they were under spell.
"Mr. Das! Hello!", said Srish in a low and suspicious voice. "Remember me Mr. Das?”, she uttered while she stepped forward.
Dasgupta didn’t utter a word in response
“Mr. Das..” Srish tried to move a little more forward, when she heard
“Mr. Das!” this time it was the boyish voice of Gauti “are you alright?".
He put up his gloves and tried to feel life under his neck.
“Oh no! HE IS DEAD”, said Gauti coldly.
***
Soon there were cops in the house.
“Doesn’t look like a natural death, sir.”, Rizwaan Sheikh, a tall handsome man in his late thirties appealed to his superior Gautam. “His eyes were wide open and staring. 'am sure that HE WAS DRUGGED! We sent the body to the forensics sir. We’ve found no other clue!”
“Srish!” Gauti turned to the girl “you worked with him for three years! You think anyone wanted to take his life?”
“He was a big pervert!! All the women hated him. He was never good to the staff either!! So all in all everybody hated him. He liked elderly women and young girls didn’t interest him, so he never bothered me but I know how exactly he was! I’ve seen him do things!”
“What about his family?”, Gauti inquired more.
“I don’t know him in person. Let’s ask the neighbours!", Srish gave an honest reply.
***
Dasgupta’s house was fenced and the neighbourhood gathered round the entrance gate. As they saw cops approaching, many disappeared in thin air. Mr. Singh and gossipmonger Mrs. Patel and a few street loafers stayed.
“His son would often come to see him”, informed Singh
“Nope! He never showed since the old man shifted here. He had been showing only since past six months! His woman is believed to have had a pre-marital affair with her own father-in-law and that boy hated him, I heard”, corrected Mrs. Patel. “He wasn’t rich anymore. He spent all his earnings on his rich life, beer and..and WOMEN”, she continued.
“You mean there were women??”, this interested Srish. “
“Not many! We think he had one..or a few!! Not sure..”, Mr. Singh informed.
“Yes! There was one!! I saw her many times! I threw passes at her, but she didn’t even blink at it!! I guess she was too much fond of her old scum!!”, babbled another guy, that gave the appearance of a street ruffain and who was also involved in the conversation, while his friends guttered a laughter.
“Or she was too much fond of his money!! If he had any..I mean the hidden one!!” said Mrs. Patel as she made her way home. “My son must be back home!! I must go!!”, she said.
Others also moved.
“They couldn’t give much information. But we know that there probably was a woman”, Gauti noted.
“He must have been bringing in wenches!! We know that he was a sex-maniac! There might have been one or there might have been several.”, Srish made it more vague.
“No!! There was only one!!”, the silhouette of old widow Mrs. Rominje appeared approaching from the entrance of the fenced house in the neighbourhood. She had difficulty walking. Gauti rushed towards her and took her to and comforted her in a recliner in her garden.
“Thank you!”, her voice quivered as she continued “My feet and voice have turned feeble over this period. But my eyes and ears are sharp. She was with him since past few months. The son also appeared after she appeared. I heard him shouting to his son and sometimes on phone that he was out of money and this might be true. He stopped seeing girls for a while. Then came this woman! She was very beautiful, I tell you. But..”
“Please feel free to speak Mrs…”, Gauti comforted her.
“Rominje!! My husband Rominje died eight years ago and left me with this house alone!! Since then I’ve been observing the outer world. That woman was beautiful. But she was lame. The pig carried her in arms at times dragged her upstairs at others. He probably used this poor unfortunate girl to satisfy his thirst. He was rude to her. I once saw him shoving her into his car. She didn’t even utter a word. She probably.. was also dumb. I pity her. Any woman would want to get rid of such a monster”
“You mean she might have killed him to escaped his tyranny?”, Srish tried to reach a conclusion.
“I doubt yes!! Someone might have helped her escape”, murmured the old woman.
***
“He died” Sheikh reported, “of overdose of anesthesia, Sir and..and his LIVER HAS BEEN FOUND MISSING which was removed through surgery, and this surgery was quite recent!!”
“Well excuse me sir, we have a visitor” interrupted constable Shirine
Gauti went into the waiting room. Srish followed him. She was preparing a crime report of the case and assisting her friend.
“Hello Sir..I am Shrivastava. I live next to Mrs. Rominje..you talked her that day..I.. I saw..”, said Shrivastava who was a thin dark man and looked a little scared.
“Please feel free to speak Mr. Shrivastava”, Gauti conforted him in his usual way.
“Well..I wanna confess something..err..I saw him bu..bu burn her..”, said Shrivastava in a stammering voice. “Ye..yes..he burnt her and..and then he took a bag..i am sure he kept her in that bag and buried somewhere very f..far..Didn’t report that, I was not sure! I wasn’t even sure that the woman existed!! There were often flames from his house..he burnt a number of things..But I didn’t want to bother a neighbor..be him whoever..without reason..And moreover..I was afraid of him..What if I was wrong and later he might have tried to cause us trouble..in revenge..as my wife suspected..so I didn’t report..”
Suddenly there was interruption. “Excuse me sir..a woman’s clothes have been found in the house!!”, came constable Shirine with the news.
“Aha!!” exclaimed Gauti “So, there is a woman!!..look for her DNA!!”
***
Real Times was one of the major selling business magazines in the country. Dasgupta had been working there for forty years.
“He, brought us where we are today!” informed Miss Meera Shyam, the new editor-in-chief of the magazine. The response of the staff towards querries was the same. “He was gentle and humble,” they said.
“Liars!!” murmured Dixit and went off the desk room. Gauti noticed him and followed him in the canteen. He signaled Srish to carry on with inquiry at the desk room.
“Yes gentleman!! You got anything to say?” Gauti kept a gentle hand on Dixit’s shoulder and asked.
Dixit inspected the room first and then started.
“He promoted that bitch, that Meera Shyam to the highest post!! And why? Because she slept with him!! That bastard!! My wife deserved this position. She didn’t succumb to his evil wills! He sacked her off the job and after that he kept bothering me…never let me have my deserved promotion either!! We made the Real Times!! What was this shit of papers before we joined in here?? And my poor wife!! She took to drinking out of frustration and died with my child when she was carrying it!! She went out drunk one day and she was found dead due to liver failure”
“Aaah!!”, thought Gauti loud “Any ailment?”
“Yes!! Cirrhosis of LIVER”, said Dixit.
***
“The son Sudhodhan Dasgupta is a self made industrialist. His father spent all his earnings on his lavish life and saved not a penny for his son. The son rather lent him some money as a loan to keep his house and living. He gains nothing from the death." reported Sheikh.
“Dixit”, started Gauti after Sheikh left, placing the photographs of the suspects on the desk in front “whose wife died of cirrhosis of the LIVER, a son who benefits nothing from the death, daughter-in-law, I’ve enquired, had dated DasGupta before she dated his son, the son seems unaware of this, then there are some jealous colleagues, as you said you noticed, fearing neighbours, Shrivastava said some feared to let their girls out because he lived there when I further inquired...Humm..what about the maid you said he attempted to rape?”
“Shomita chetterjee!” Srish informed, “I heard she lives in the Raven villa, we can find out exactly where!!”, Srish gave the information she had to her cop friend.
“Let’s do it then”, Gauti said.
***
“He tried to exploit me when I begged him money for the medical treatment of my husband”, Shomita expressed her grief with tears. “When I refused, he tried to force.”, she continued “I somehow managed to escape his clutch. I made a complaint. But who listens to the poor? The media didn’t support me! I had no evidence. He was granted an immediate bail and soon was set free.”
Shomita was a healthy woman in her late thirties. a very beautiful face she had!
“What kind of ailment did your husband have?”, asked Srish.
“HEPATITIS B!!”, said Shomita.
***
“Avantika Dixit was found dead”, reported Sheikh to Gauti “in the Rosalynd woods. It was a natural death due to LIVER failure. She was carrying a baby but she kept drinking!! She suffered great deal of depression, it is marked. Her husband Pradyuman Dixit swore a revenge on someone nobody knows of”
“Humm! Anything else?”, asked Gauti
“Yes sir, this”, Sheikh brought in a file to Gauti is “Sir, is the medical report of Mr. Sudhodhan Dasgupta, that you asked for He is all over a healthy person, he got his liver transplanted last month, exactly on the day his father died. Someone stabbed him in the LIVER, some eight months ago, while he was walking towards the car park. He survived the injury for a few months. But then it became almost impossible for him to survive without a transplat.”
“What?? In the LIVER?? You sure??” Gauti growled, but with astonishment.
“Yes sir in the LIVER”, said Sheikh coldly.
***
Another month passed. Gauti and his team went in to explore Dasgupta’s cottage again. There were lots of eatables, rotten pizza, burger buns, breads, oat cakes, aerated drinks, some gold chains and rings, rich furniture and clothes. And there were women’s clothes!
“Sir, sorry for interruption, but there are visitors!”, constable Shirin escorted a few visitors.
“Aah!! Mr. Sudhodhan DasGupta!! Please come!!”, Gauti welcomed Sudhodhan DasGupta, the son of Sobyasacchi Dasgupta. His father’s neighbourhood and some colleagues of important designations followed him.
“Hello sir!!”, said Sudhodhan DasGupta, a middle aged man of fine health and a neat moustache, his hair was neatly done and he wore a light colored suit. He continued “Sir, I find it very inappropriate to interfear with your investigations but I am sorry to say that I am a bit disappointed with what the police is doing. They say they have no clue of what has happened to my father. They gathered nothing very noteworthy yet!! It’s been two months and no clue of who killed my father! Sobb!!”, Dasgupta wiped a drop of tear in eye.
Others also showed dissatisfaction.
“Investigations take time when the slayer flees. But no worries!! The killer has left his HAT in the basement!! There must be scratches, boils, hair samples. Sooner or later we’d find a DNA sample and get the match!! The forensic experts shall come and pick it up by tomorrow morning. Till then I suggest that we evacuate the house.”, Gauti gave a quick and short answer.
“Moreover,” continued Sheikh, “there are two other blood samples and these samples give us very important clues!! We’ve identified those samples. The HAT could not belong to those two persons. It is a rich and very costly designer hat that the people identified cannot posses. So, we suspect that there was also a third person!! And actually we found a hair sample in the hat that doesn’t belong to the victim and the other two identified! It could belong to the killer”
“Were you stabbed in your LIVER a few moths ago Mr. DasGupta?”, Gauti asked suddenly.
DasGupta and Gauti started.
“Yes! It was ten months ago. A thin small figure rushed towards me. It stabbed me violently and fled. I shot it in the leg as it rushed away. My liver got damaged in that accident. For a while it seemed I recovered but later the doctors found the need of replacement and I underwent sugery.”
“Did you feel like your attacker targeted your LIVER?”
“Well I am not sure..I didn’t notice!! But may be..I don’t know. But the way the attacker overcame my resistance and did it..it’s just possible that a target organ was set!!”
“Mr. Dasgupta..”, said Gauti grimly, “I am sorry but looks like YOUR LIFE IS IN DANGER”
***
Sudhodhan Dasgupta rested in his armchair. He saw a mysterious shadow in the backyard. He rushed towards the door but before he could open the door, he heard a knock.
“You!!”, he was amazed to see the person at the door “You? Inspector Gautam?”, he screamed.
“Convict’s HAT!!”, Gauti wore a Hat and moved it in a Cowboyish manner.
DasGupta stared at him with mouth wide open.
“Ha ha!! This is only the hat. The hair sample has been removed and kept safe at the crime scene. Forensic experts from the Investigation Deptt. Shall pick it up and see tomorrow morning!! We assume that YOUR LIFE IS AT RISK Mr. DasGupta. I’ve come here to guard you!! I’d stay here tonight, keep eye on everything and plan security measures for you!!”
DasGupta hesitated first but later agreed. “Please make youself comfortable!”, he said
Gauti investigated the house. Late at night he came back to the huge sitting room. DasGupta offered him dinner. They dined.
“Mr. DasGupta..are you an architect?”, asked.
“I’ve got my degree in the architechture. But I don’t get time for thi hobby anymore”, said DasGupta.
After dinner DasGupta went into his room to sleep while Gauti jumped on a couch in the living room. Mrs. Shuporna Sudhodhan Dasgupta frowned at him. She had known that he had been enquiring about her relationship with her father in law.
***
The basement staircase at the crime scene. A shadow creeped slowly upwads towards the living room, where the cops had laid their tables and lockers where they kept various sample. It wore a cowl. It crowled towards the table. It kept a master keys of various designs and seemed well adept in making their proper use. It pulled open several drawers and cupboards and finally found the hair sample!!
“Looking for the hair sample?..”, asked Srish “Mr.Sudhodhan DasGupta!”, said she with a cunning smile.
Sudhodhan removed his cowl “So..you knew it was me!!”, he said, quickly taking out his pistol. He was about to press the trigger, at once but he got a sudden blow from behind. It was Sheikh. He banged him down and later held him in his stern captivity.
“Now tell us Mr. Das junior..why did you kill you father??”, asked Srish
“For the LIVER”, Gauti’s voice came from the entrance. “His liver was damaged in an accident. He had only one matching liver and that was his father’s!! He urged him to donate it to him! He refused, so he forcefully took it off from him!!”, he said.
DasGupta denied the conviction first but after getting a few blows from Sheikh he confessed.
“Yes. He had no one. I have my family. My wife is a fool. She’d spend all the savings on her boyfriends and leave my kids to starve. I hired two goons to kidnap my father. Dad was a tough guy. They gave him a high dose of chloroform. He was given anesthesia again. We got his liver extracted and left him the car. He was greatly drugged. But still he somehow managed to drive home. He probably didn’t realise what has happened to him under the influence of the dose. He prepared some sandwitches and then died of the overdose!! I didn’t want to kill him. After a week then I gave contract to the two boys I hired to finish the doctors and the nurses. They did. Then I shot them dead in the basement of this very house!! Ha ha ha! Right under your nose. I am an architecht. I designed this house for my father to suit his use. I constructed this alley that leads to a lift that opens a mile away from the house in a desserted plot so that he could bring in wenches withot bringing them to public notice!! But he was a fool he didn’t make proper use. I did. I called in the two goons I hired to take their money and shot them dead. I flew them off in my car that stood in the desserted plot that opens a mile away from this house electrocuted and disposed them. The cops however recovered their burnt body remains in trash cans.”, DasGupta confessed.
“You must have been week after surgery, how did you carry the bodies?”, Srish asked.
“I cut them into many pieces and filled them in light weight wheeeled bags and pulled them quite easily across the passage. Though later I suffered owing to the stress I took. I used silencer, kept careful with any kind of noise that could be made. I anesthised the goons first and then shot, so that they don’t give a shout. I wiped away blood stains and every possible evidence before I left. But unfortunately, I guess the cops recovered some remains!!”, DasGupta told.
“This is a punishable offence Mr. Dasgupta. Now the court will see you!!”, said Gauti grimly
***
After the cops left, Gauti offered to drop Srish home. Srish was still left with many questions and so they started.
“But how could you be so sure that only the murderer would show up at the scene to pick up the hat?”
“Owing to killing of three doctors and four nurses in a car accident and two goons who were shot dead and chopped henceforth. These were studied as a separate cases. When I saw Dr. Ranjan, one of the victims’ name on DasGupta’s medical file, I got a hunch! The investigators of that case found out that two goons Shiva and Sonu were hired to kill the doctors and their nurses. When the sample of their blood was found in the basement, which wasn’t earlier found, I knew what it was!! DasGupta was a clean man, his extreme will to keep secracy of the sin he did tempted him to kill more”
“But why did he choose this house to finish the goons?”
“His extreme will to keep secracy again!! Noone new of the lower deck of the basement! It was a secret place. The cops discovered it later when they discovered Shiva’s blood that had reached the upper deck through a rat’s feet that led them to the lower!!”
“And what about his hat?”
“Ha Ha!! No the hat was not found at the crime scene!! I just asked Sheikh to secretly investigate Sudhodhan’s backyard. He found a blood stained raincoat and this rich hat. He brought the things to me. We assumed, with quite surity that he used these during the day he killed the goons. But the blood was only of Sudhodhan, probably his liver bleeded after he took stress, so no use. But, I planned to use this hat. Sudhodhan might have thought that he might have dropped the hat in hurry. We made it a public hoax that we found the hair sample of the convict. And he then took all the risks and came up to pick up the hat. I just kept my fingers crossed that he doesn’t send a hired dog to do this. And as I assumed, he didn’t! He planned to use me. I was at his home. He had a senior inspector to witness his alibi and no one would doubt him, he thought. That’s why I kept you and Sheikh waiting there with other guards and moved at a distance of ten minutes fron him from his house.”
“Oh genius!! You solved the case!!”
“Nope!! Not completely!! We’re still left with a mystery. We still don’t know who the WOMAN was..they say that he burnt her and dumped her somewhere in the heck!! No trace of DNA in her clothes”
“Well..I don’t think so..while we were looking for clues..I found this in a frawer..hope this might help”, said Srish while pursing in a naughty smile and passing Gauti a piece of paper.
“Oho!! Ha ha!!” Gauti laughed “So this it was!!”
Gauti carefully folded the paper and kept in his pocket. It was a receipt of payment to “Nylece Sex Doll Manufacturing Firm.” for the order of a doll.
***
