After leaving the room, Byomkesh carefully shut the door behind him. He stood with a frown on his face for some time; then suddenly he looked up and said, ‘Now? Oh yes, Phonibabu. Come, I think that’s his room over there.’

After passing Karalibabu’s room along the corridor and turning the corner, we came to a room on the left. Byomkesh knocked on the door. A young man of twenty- one or twenty-two opened the door. Byomkesh asked, ‘Are you Phonibabu?’

He nodded and said, ‘Yes. Please come in.’

His very posture made one feel there was a deformity somewhere in his body, but its exact nature could not be spotted immediately. He was quite well-built but his face was a trifle haggard, as if a protracted but suppressed suffering had lent his face some extra wrinkles. As we entered the room he hobbled ahead and indicated a chair, saying, ‘Please sit down. ‘ His gait revealed exactly where the deformity lay. His left leg was abnormally thin, almost like a dead limb. Hence he limped quite a bit when he walked.

I sat on one end of the bed and Phoni sat down beside me. Byomkesh seemed to be lost for words at first, then said, rather uncertainly, ‘I suppose you are aware that the police is suspecting your brother Motilal on this matter?’

‘I know, ‘ said Phoni. ‘But from my side I can vouch for it that Motida is innocent. He is very belligerent and combative—but I cannot believe that he is capable of murdering Uncle.’

‘Not even his hostility at being deprived of the legacy can make him do the deed?’

‘That motivation applies not to Motida alone but to all of us—all three brothers. Then why should only Motida be suspected?’

Byomkesh avoided the question and said, ‘I presume you have already told the police all that you know; still, I would like to ask a few—’

Phoni was slightly taken aback, ‘You are not a policeman then. I thought perhaps you were from the CID.’

Byomkesh laughed and shook his head, ‘No, I am just an Inquisitor, a Seeker of Truth.’

In wide-eyed wonder Phoni said, ‘Seeker of Truth? Byomkeshbabu? You are Byomkesh Bakshi, the Inquisitor?’

Byomkesh nodded and said, ‘Now please tell me, how were Karalibabu’s relations with the other members of the household? In other words, who he liked, who he disliked— all these details.’

Phoni sat with his face held between his palms for a while, then he smiled wanly and said, ‘You see, I am lame—God’s curse is on me—so I have never been able to mix very well with other people. This room and these books have been my sole companions all my life. It will be quite impossible for me to say accurately whom Uncle loved the most amongst all of us. He was of a very testy disposition and he certainly didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve. But from what I could gather through tacit gestures