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