The Complete Adventures of Feluda: Volume II (60 page)

We reached the hotel in ten minutes. When Feluda heard our story, he put aside the blue notebook he had been studying and put on his jacket. Then, without a single word, he went out of the room with the two of us in tow. His brow was deeply furrowed.

On reaching Sukius’s house, he asked the bearer: ‘You have a driver, don’t you?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Send him to me.’

When the driver arrived, Feluda told him to take the car to the nearest police station to report the murder. The driver left.

We then went into the study.

‘Stabbed,’ Feluda said briefly, glancing at the body. ‘But the weapon has been removed.’ Then he bent over the desk and said, ‘He was writing a letter when he was killed.’

I had noticed it, too. Nearly a whole page had been filled. Then I heard Feluda exclaim, ‘Why, it was a letter to me! Well, in that case . . . I suppose I have a claim on it, even if it isn’t right to touch anything before the police arrive.’ So saying, he tore off the top sheet from the writing pad, folded it and put it in his pocket. Then he moved to the window and leant out. There was a passage outside—about four feet wide—beyond which was the compound wall of the house. Any able-bodied man could have scaled that wall.

‘It is obvious that the murderer was not an educated gentleman,’ Feluda observed. ‘As far as I can see, this is the work of a hired goonda. Ordinary burglary can be ruled out since nothing has been disturbed. The stuff in this room would be worth at least a hundred thousand rupees. A burglar would have helped himself to at least some of it. The question is: who hired a man to kill Sukius?’

‘Well, we need to learn something about Sukius’s history, don’t we?’ Lalmohan Babu suggested. ‘I mean, how much do we know about him?’

‘It’s not as if we know nothing. At least we know what a strange character he was. How many moneylenders are interested in building up a huge collection of antiques and art objects? That’s pretty uncommon, isn’t it? I believe his letter to me will also reveal a few things about the man.’

‘Aren’t you going to read it?’

‘Yes, at the right time, in the right place. It had “confidential”
written on it, which you clearly didn’t see. I don’t think Sukius saw his killer. So the letter cannot possibly contain his killer’s name.’

The police arrived in ten minutes. We met Inspector Pandey again. He shook hands with Feluda. ‘You seem to have taken a lead in this case, Mr Mitter!’ he smiled.

‘That’s how it might seem, but it’s all yours. Inspector. I am not going to meddle in it at all because I know that won’t do any good. Just let me know if you catch the murderer.’

‘What! Are you leaving?’

‘Yes. But I may see you again in a day or two. I’ve nearly solved that case of the missing necklace.’

‘Really? My suspicious have fallen on the young Biswas boy. Do you think that’s right?’

‘I couldn’t say. Please forgive me.’

‘We’ve got definite proof that he’s taking drugs. We’re having him followed.’

‘Well, best of luck. You’ve now got a murder on your hands. Tell me something: I know it’s possible in most places in the world to hire a killer. Lucknow, I take it, is no exception?’

‘Not at all. It is perfectly possible to do that here.’

‘Thank you. That’s all I needed to know. Goodbye.’

Feluda did nothing over the next couple of days except accompany us to the remaining sights worth seeing in Lucknow. I had never seen him behave like this when he was in the middle of a case. On the third day, I couldn’t help asking him. ‘What’s the matter with you, Feluda? Have you given up?’

‘Oh no. Half the mystery’s solved, dear boy. I need help from the police to solve the other half. Pandey has called me twice already. I think I’ll get the final news in two days.’

‘Why do you need the police to help you? Is it to do with the death of Mr Sukius?’

‘Yes.’

‘What about the missing necklace?’

‘There’s nothing to worry about on that score. The necklace is fine.’

‘Really? So all you have to do is find the killer? Surely you’ve got
some ideas about who might have done it?’

‘Oh, I’ve got ideas all right, but no proof. I’ll get enough evidence, I am sure, the minute that hired killer is caught by the police. I have definite ideas about who had hired him.’

Another day passed. In the meanwhile, we took Lalmohan Babu to see the museum. He had practically finished his sightseeing of Lucknow. We were supposed to return to Calcutta in two days.

That afternoon, Feluda finally got the phone call he was waiting for. He spoke to Inspector Pandey, then replaced the receiver quietly.

‘What did he say, Feluda?’ I asked eagerly.

‘The case is over, Topshe. They caught the man, a fellow called Shambhu Singh. He’s made a full confession and agreed to expose the real culprit. The knife that had been used to stab Sukius with, has also been found.’

‘So what happens now?’

‘We now raise the curtain. At seven o’clock this evening, in Jayant Biswas’s house, all will be revealed.’

Feluda had to make a lot of phone calls after this. The first one was naturally to Mr Biswas. ‘Very well, Mr Mitter,’ he said, ‘but would you mind telling all the others to come here? You’ve got their phone numbers, haven’t you?’

We reached Mr Biswas’s house at a quarter to seven. I felt both deeply anxious and curious. Feluda had said nothing after making the last phone call. Inspector Pandey arrived at five minutes to seven, together with two constables and a man in handcuffs. That was obviously the hired murderer.

The others arrived within ten minutes. There were five people from the Biswas household, the Saldanhas, and Ratanlal Banerjee. The big drawing room could accommodate everyone quite easily.

‘What is this farce?’ asked Ratanlal, taking a seat.

‘You may call it a farce, Mr Banerjee, but I think to the others it’s a serious matter,’ Feluda replied.

‘Have you found the necklace?’ asked Mrs Biswas in an urgent whisper.

‘You’ll get the answer to your question in due course,’ Feluda said to her. ‘Please bear with me.’ Then he ran his eyes over the assembled group and announced, ‘The mystery has been solved. Needless to say, nothing could have been achieved without the assistance of the police. All I want to do now is explain what happened. I hope all your questions will be answered as I proceed.’

‘I hope you won’t take long. I have a dinner to go to,’ Ratanlal muttered.

‘I will take not a second longer than is necessary. May I begin?’ There was a moment’s silence. Then Mr Biswas said, ‘Please do.’ Feluda started to speak again, ‘The chief thing to remember is that we had two cases on our hands: the stolen necklace and the murder of Mr Sukius. I questioned each one of you. Some of you lied to me, or tried to hide things, or just refused to answer me. Suspicion could fall on many of you regarding the necklace. Young Prasenjit here has got into the unfortunate habit of taking drugs. He needs money all the time. Sometimes he can borrow it, at other times he is lucky at cards. The second suspect might have been Mr Sudarshan Som. He has spent a large part of his life depending on charity. He might have stolen the necklace in a desparate attempt to start life afresh. Then there was Mr Saldanha. His shop isn’t doing well at all. He is certainly in need of money. Only one person seemed above suspicion. It was Mr Biswas, because he said his business was flourishing, he had enough money. However, someone else told me that that was not the case. Mr Biswas was apparently going through a rough patch financially, which had led to his drinking heavily. Of course, whether this information was correct or not is another matter.

‘Let me now turn to the murder of Mr Sukius. He was writing a letter when he was killed. It was addressed to me, and he had nearly finished it. The reason why he was writing was that he was leaving for Kanpur the same day. He knew he couldn’t meet me, so he tried to tell me in a letter all that he knew.

‘I learnt two things from his letter. One, Jayant Biswas had finally agreed to sell Shakuntala’s necklace to him, for two hundred thousand rupees. He was going to pass it on to Mr Sukius three days after their agreement. But Sukius was killed before this three-day period was over.

‘Two, there is someone present in this room who had borrowed fifty thousand rupees from Mr Sukius six weeks ago. He had promised to return the amount with interest in a month, but despite several reminders, failed to keep his promise. Mr Sukius then threatened to take legal action. He was killed because whoever had borrowed the money didn’t want him to tell me any of this. Sadly for him, things didn’t work out quite the way he had planned. His accomplice—a hired hooligan—did his job and killed his quarry, but
did not remove the letter the deceased had been writing. Obviously, he had no idea what had been said in that letter. The police have now arrested this man and he has offered to show us who had employed him.’

Feluda turned to Inspector Pandey. ‘Ask your man to come over here, please.’

The man in handcuffs and the constable were waiting at the far end. At a nod from the inspector, they brought the man forward.

‘Tell me, Shambhu Singh, do you see the man who hired you to kill Mr Sukius?’ Feluda asked slowly.

The man ran his gaze swiftly through the group.

‘Yes, sir,’ he replied.

‘Can you point him out?’

‘Easily. There he is!’ Shambhu Singh raised his handcuffed hands and pointed. The pipe from Ratanlal’s mouth fell to the ground with a loud clatter.

‘What nonsense is this?’ he barked.

‘Nonsense or farce, your game is up, Mr Banerjee,’ Feluda said calmly. A second later, he continued to speak as everyone sat tense and taut in their seats.

‘Will you tell us why you borrowed that large sum of money, Mr Banerjee?’ Feluda asked.

‘I will not!’

‘Very well. Allow me to speak for you. What you spent was always in excess of your income, wasn’t it? Sukius wrote to me about your visits to singers and dancers and the kind of money you spent on them. When we went to your flat, we could smell attar. Perhaps you had been entertaining a singer, who was hurriedly sent inside when we rang the bell? You do not use attar yourself, do you? If you were in the habit of using attar yourself, you would have used it on the day of the party. This may well be a trait you inherited from your grandfather. He, too, was fond of all the good things in life, I believe. And like you, money had become a serious problem for him in his old age. His daughter had helped him out. You turned to Sukius.’

‘Oh my God!’ Ratanlal whispered, his head bent low. ‘I am finished.’

Inspector Pandey and a constable went over to him.

‘I haven’t finished,’ Feluda went on. ‘We still have the first mystery to explain. Mr Biswas wanted to take the necklace and sell it to Sukius, but someone else got hold of it before him.’

‘Who?’ Mrs Biswas gasped.

‘Let me clarify something. At first, most people assumed someone had crept out of the room during the film show and removed the necklace. But that was not the case. I had been standing behind the projector. The room wasn’t totally dark and I did remove my eyes from the screen from time to time to look at the others. If anyone left the room, I would certainly have seen him, or her. No one did. Prasenjit was restless. He left his seat and moved to a different chair, but he remained in the room. Then Mr Sukius came in. That was all.’

‘So when . . . how? . . .’ Mrs Biswas could barely speak.

‘The necklace was taken
before
the film began.’

‘Yes, I know that,’ Mrs Biswas now sounded a little impatient. ‘Sheela went and took it out. Then she brought it here, so you could look at it.’

‘Ah yes. But did she put it back?’

‘Of course she did.’

‘No. Sheela did not put it back, but kept it with herself. I had realized this, but couldn’t see why she should have done so. At first it was in her room. Then, much later, she dug up a flower pot and hid it in there. This is something I learnt from Sheela herself. Look, here’s your necklace.’

Feluda took out the necklace from his pocket and placed it on a coffee table. Everyone gasped in unison.

‘But . . . but. . . why did she do such a thing?’ Mrs Biswas asked, casting a perplexed glance at her daughter.

‘Because the night before, she had overheard you and your husband talking. Her room is next to yours, and there’s a communicating door. This door happened to be open. She heard you tell your husband that you had finally overcome your reservations and were willing to sell the necklace to Sukius. Sheela did not want such a precious heirloom to be lost. So she did the only thing she could have done, and removed it from sight. It is because she did so that you can still say it’s yours. I do hope it will never leave this house. You must not let go of something like this. It would be nothing short of a crime, Mrs Biswas!’

‘Felu Babu,’ Lalmohan Babu asked when we were back in our hotel, ‘Lucknow means good-fortune-right-at-this-moment, doesn’t it?’

‘Luck-now? Yes, if you want to put it like that.’

‘Well, who is the lucky one here?’

‘Why, you are! Didn’t you get to witness the brilliance of my intelligence, all for free?’

‘And think of the Biswas family,’ I put in. ‘Aren’t they lucky to have a clever girl like Sheela
and
to have their necklace back?’

‘True,’ Lalmohan Babu agreed. ‘A girl like Sheela is one in a million. What do you say, Felu Babu?’

‘If there is anyone who appreciates the real value of Shakuntala’s necklace,’ Feluda declared, ‘it is Mary Sheela Biswas.’