I asked, ‘What is this “Inquisitor” business?’

‘That is my identity. I don’t like the sound of the word “detective”; “investigator” is even worse. So I call myself an Inquisitor, a Seeker of Truth. What’s the matter—don’t you like it?’

Byomkesh had the entire second floor to himself—there were four or five rooms in all, quite decently kept. I asked, ‘Do you live alone?’

‘Yes. My only companion is Putiram, the domestic.’

I gave a sigh and said, ‘It is a very nice place. How long have you been living here?’

‘Almost a year now; I was away for just a short period in between when I had moved temporarily to your boarding- house.’

Putiram had quickly lit the stove and prepared some tea. Byomkesh took a sip of the hot liquid, ‘Aah! I must say these few days in disguise passed quite pleasantly indeed at your mess. But the doctor had caught me out towards the end. Of course, I was to blame for that.’

‘How was that?’

‘It was my mention of the window to the police that gave me away—can’t you figure it out? It was through the window that Ashwinibabu—’

‘Oh no, please begin at the beginning.’

Byomkesh took another sip from the cup and said, ‘All right, I will. Some of it I have already told you last night. Now listen to the rest. The police authorities were beginning to get quite worked up about the series of murders that were being committed in your neighbourhood every month. There was also a lot of pressure on the police from the government as well as the press, who didn’t miss a dig at them. Since this was the case, I sought an interview with the Commissioner of Police and said, “I am a private detective and I believe I can solve the mystery behind these crimes. “ After much deliberation the Commissioner granted me permission to pursue my investigations. The only condition was that this was to remain strictly between him and me.

‘I landed up at your mess. In order to conduct an inquiry it is necessary to have a base of operations which is close to the situation at hand; it was for this purpose that I chose your mess. At the time I had no idea that the opposition’s “base of operations” was located in that very boarding-house!

‘From the very beginning the doctor struck me as excessively nice. It also occurred to me that it would be only too convenient to have a homeopathic practice to camouflage an illegal drug-trafficking setup. But I hadn’t yet arrived at the conclusion that it was he who was the ringleader.

‘I suspected the doctor for the first time on the day before Ashwinibabu died. Perhaps you remember, that day an impoverished non-Bengali’s corpse had been found on the road right in front of the mess. When the doctor heard that the dead man had been carrying a thousand rupees in a pouch tied to his