Inspector Rathod stepped carefully in the mess so as not to disturb the evidence but it was too much of a mess not to be disturbed. In fact the whole house was a big mess as furniture and things littered on the ground. The biggest mess was the dead body lying on the sofa in front of him.
The victim was a 57 years old single man. In his 33 years old job in police, he had seen worse. People getting greedy, jealous, angry, possessive to destroy life. He had seen perfectly sane people losing control for that one moment and regretting for the rest of their life. His team of investigative officers, each a expert in their own field searched for clues around the house. As of now, there was none.
He looked at the body. The blood on the smashed head had long dried up. The blow on the head was fatal from the cricket bat that lay nearby. Next to the body was a heavy book, probably a novel soaked in blood and next to it laid a smashed camera. The whole house was a mess with things broken, smashed and destroyed.
All the signs pointed out to a failed robbery but Inspector Rathod had learned a lot from experience. Looking at the house, it seems a lot of efforts went to give it the burglarize look, a little too much than needed. It look more than a staged robbery as if the person desperately wanted to prove it to be a robbery. The person had smashed the whole house and it would take a lot of time to find a clue in all that mess
“Somebody wants us to believe real hard” a voice spoke from behind.
Inspector Rathod did not look behind. The voice was of Inspector Naik, the rising star of the force. Young, intelligent and technology savvy. Naik believed that using new technology, the police could catch criminals quite easily and faster. He was fast gaining reputation of a good detective and was even complemented as being a Junior Rathod. But he lacked one advantage which Rathod had, patience. Lack of control had put Naik into a lot of trouble.
“You are late” Rathod said trying to decide where to start
“Yup! Out with friends yesterday” Naik was a matter of fact, unapologetic. Rathod hated that. Rathod believed in punctuality while Naik believed in flexibility. It was a whole generation gap between them but Rathod did appreciate his presence of mind and the way he could think. It had taken him years to think like a criminal and Naik had picked up fast.
“So?” Naik looked around
“57 year old male, living alone” Rathod had still not decided where to start “One daughter, married, living in US. Only other known relative, one younger brother, 54 years old and as per preliminary investigation, do not share a good brotherly relationship with his elder brother. For almost 15 years they have been fighting for this farmhouse.”
“And you have just been 2 hours here” Naik appreciated the old man. He liked the way the old man had an eye for details, coupled with an extensive experience, Rathod was an excellent investigator even though he did not appreciate his refusal to keep up with time and technology.
“Now where is the needle?” Naik joked
“In that haystack somewhere” Rathod smiled
“We will never find anything here” Naik remarked “It will take days to find something in there. I guess we should do a postmortem and try to find a fingerprint somewhere out there and maybe just label it as a burglary”
“Nonsense” Rathod was angry “You know no criminal is smart enough. He would…..”
“Always leave a witness” Naik completed his sentence
“Yes! and that witness can be a person or a thing, an evidence, anything” Rathod completed his own theory “But every criminal leaves a witness. We just have to find the witness”
“But you see this” Naik defended himself “Its such a big mess that you won’t be able to find any clue and this farm house is so far away from the main road that you hardly get any visitors, forget any witness”
Rathod clenched his fist. He knew Naik was right even though he hated admitting it. Getting through this mess and actually finding something in there looked just as difficult. He did not have the manpower nor the inclination of the seniors to back him. This was one of those cases he hated to lose.
“Do you suspect anyone?” Naik’s question broke his train of thoughts
“Brother”
“And where did he say he was?” Naik enquired “Any Alibi”
“Driving to Goa” Rathod said “But he was far behind schedule on the route as per the time he said he started for Goa. He should have been more near to Goa”
“And we cannot prove it?” Naik asked. It was a statement rather than a question.
“No! Nobody saw him here” Rathod explained “He said his car broke down and he was stranded on the road before he could get help and hence the delay”
“And we are supposed to believe that?” Naik was surprised at his senior acceptance “Right in the middle of Mumbai-Goa highway and no one to help? Strange!”
“We need a witness and he does not have an alibi to prove that he was not there but he does not have anybody pointing that he was here on the day of the murder”
“So we do not have a witness?” Naik stressed on the word witness
Rathod understood the taunt and smiled.
“We will have a witness” He replied
The house was really a mess and even though the police was working since last two hours, they had hardly found anything. Scanning between thousand of broken pieces of furniture and all the things, it was really difficult to find something they did not even know to look for.
“So?” Naik looked thoughtful
“Well!” Rathod said “We start with the body. Nothing to look there before the postmortem but it looks like his head has been smashed with that bat over there. The novel is completely soaked in blood. Nothing there too!”
“What’s that?”
“Oh! A camera and that is smashed too” Rathod picked up the broken camera
“What was he doing with the camera?” Naik pondered “That’s an expensive camera and a thief would certainly want to steal that one”
“Maybe his daughter sent it as a present” Rathod guessed “See the box there. It looks like it was opened recently”
“Maybe we could get some clue from the camera”
“Clue? It’s completely broken. It cannot take any photos”
Naik suddenly smiled. He always smiled when he could guess the answers to the question. He took the camera and tried to sort the mess.
“Let me get my laptop” He said
“Don’t tell me that you will use the laptop to solve the case now”
Naik smiled “I just might”
He went out and came back with the laptop. He tinkered with the camera and smiled again when he could separate the broken parts successfully.
“Do you remember the old movies where the pictures would be lost when the film is exposed to the light” Naik asked
“Yes!” Rathod answered unsure where it was leading
“The film is useless after being exposed to the light, right?” Naik was certainly enjoying this. He was feeling like a small boy who came first in class
“But those were old film cameras and the person who smashed this camera did not use a digital camera before” Naik continued “And a digital camera does not have any film. It has a memory card and the pictures are stored on the memory card”
“And?” Rathod was seeing hope for the first time here
“And when he destroyed the camera, the memory card has not suffered damage as he was looking at destroying the film inside and when I put this card in my laptop and read it…” Naik paused for dramatic effect
“Come on….” Rathod could not stop now
“I see the face of the killer just before the death of the victim because every photo taken by this camera has the time stamp on it” Naik turned the laptop toward Rathod. The photo was of the Victim’s brother and the time stamp showed the time just one one hour before the death was reported.
“That means that his brother was there one hour before his death was reported and not somewhere on the Mumbai-Goa highway as he claims to be” Rathod completed Naik’s analysis
Naik has the triumph written all over his face
“But that’s a small clue, not a strong evidence” Naik warned
“Yes! But enough for me to force a confession from his brother” Rathod knew how to deal with criminals
“So the work is almost done?” Naik asked
“Yes! and thanks to you” Rathod said “Maybe I should be getting more well versed with technology someday”
“But sir, whatever you said was right”
“Me? What did I say?”
“Every criminal leaves a witness” Naik smiled as he took the memory card in his hands “He did leave a witness”
Both of them laughed as the rest of the officers started preparing for the victims postmortem. The work was done!
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Note: The idea came to me when I was thinking about my Nikon D50 in the bus on the way to office. It was just an idea and my first attempt of writing a detective/thriller story. I could not build on the thriller part as it has been written/re-written over many days
Fictonaries
