Eighteen

The three of us sat in silence, sipping the ginger-scented tea. The night was drawing to a close. Lighting a cigarette, Byomkesh began again, “When Nanibala Devi first came to me, I viewed the whole affair from the opposite angle. The question was whether there was any danger to Prabhatbabu’s life. From what Nanibala told me, I saw no cause for fear. Still, one can never be sure. These are troubled times; people’s scruples regarding murder have greatly diminished. A primitive savagery seems to have settled over our minds—”

Byomkesh Samagra

I set out to investigate.

I saw Prabhatbabu; I saw Nimai, Nitai, Anadi Halder, Nripen, Kesto Das—all of them. Nanibala came again; I told her, “No one stands to gain by killing Prabhatbabu. On the other hand, there is profit in killing Anadi Halder.” And then, on the night of Kali Puja, Anadi Halder was indeed murdered.

In the last hours of the night, Kesto Das came and fetched me. Everyone believed Kesto Das was the murderer. But when I went and observed everything, I realized—this was not a crime of passion, but a murder carefully planned. If Kesto Das had committed the murder, he would not have quarreled with Anadi Halder before killing him. Besides, no matter how heated the quarrel, Kesto Das is not such a fool as to kill the goose that lays golden eggs.

However, there is one thing. If Kesto Das could get his hands on a large sum of money by killing Anadi Halder, he might well commit murder. But this logic applies equally to the other members of the household. If we accept this reasoning, we must also accept that Anadi Halder kept a large amount of cash in his house.

If Anadi Halder kept large sums at home, he would have kept them in his steel almirah. The key to the almirah was always at his waist. When I opened the almirah, I found only about two hundred and fifty rupees. Did Anadi Halder buy a steel almirah just to keep such a paltry sum?

No money was found in the almirah, but it was noticed that several books were missing from the shelf inside. The remaining books were the usual Ramayana, Mahabharata, and the like. The question arises: what is the point of keeping such ordinary books in a steel almirah?

There was a bank checkbook in the almirah, from which it was clear that Anadi Halder had given his new house’s contractor, Gurudutt Singh, more money than he had withdrawn from the bank. Where did the rest of the money come from? Surely, Anadi Halder had earned black money and kept it in the almirah. Now that the money is missing, it must have been taken by the murderer.

The motive for the murder was found. But who was the murderer? And how did he enter the house? At the time of death, Anadi Halder was alone in the house, and the door was locked from the inside.