Two days after the murder, Inspector Dattagupta rang Feluda. He had a lot to say. Anikendra Som, it turned out, used to teach at the Kanpur IIT. He had no family there, but the police had located a brother in Calcutta, who had identified the body. Apparently, Mr Som was a loner. He was barely in touch with his relations, although his brother agreed that he had always been a brave and honest man. Secondly, there were no fingerprints on the kukri. But it was possible to tell from the way it had been used that the murderer was left-handed. The shop in the Grand Hotel had confirmed that the weapon had indeed been sold by them, to one Mr Batra. He was staying in the hotel and had left for Kathmandu by the nine o’clock flight the same morning Mr Som was killed. Finally, Anikendra Som’s name could not be found on the list of passengers on the flight from Kanpur. However, the police had checked the passenger lists of all other flights that came in on Sunday, and discovered that Mr Som’s name featured on the Kathmandu-Calcutta flight. It had reached Dum Dum at 5.30 p.m. Mahim Babu finished by saying, ‘Since the culprit seems to have escaped to Nepal, there’s nothing we can do from here. The case will have to be passed on to the CID (homicide), and the Home Department. Once the Home Department gives the go-ahead, the government of Nepal can be requested to help with enquiries. If they agree, a man from the CID will travel to Kathmandu.’ Feluda said only one thing before replacing the receiver, ‘Best of luck!’ Feluda sank into silence after this and, for the next couple of days, said virtually nothing. But I could tell that he was thinking deeply and trying to work something out, from the way he paced in his room, cracking his knuckles absentmindedly, and occasionally throwing himself on his bed, only to stare at the ceiling. On the second day, Lalmohan Babu arrived in the evening and stayed for nearly two hours, but Feluda did not utter a single word. In the end, Lalmohan Babu told me what he had come to say. ‘You know what, Tapesh,’ he began, ‘I’ve just been to see a palmist. His name is Moulinath Bhattacharya. An amazing man. He doesn’t just read palms, but also does his own research. And his theories are fantastic. According to him, monkeys, like human beings, have lines on their palms and it is possible to read them. So he spoke to the curator of the local zoo and actually went into the cage of a chimpanzee. Apparently, it was a very well-mannered and well-trained animal. Mouli Babu took ten minutes to look carefully at his palms, but he didn’t seem to mind at all. Only, as Mouli Babu turned to go, the chimp stretched out a hand and pulled his trousers down. But that might have been an

accident, don’t you