The Trail to Spring

Chapter 13

I stared at the detective in amazement.

What made him suddenly change his mind?

Nevertheless, I muttered an almost inaudible 'thanks' before walking inside again. Rakesh showed me to his living room and offered me a chair. He pulled the other unbroken chair exactly in front of me at about a metre apart and sat down.

A few minutes passed by as we stood facing each other and none of us uttering a single syllable. The detective sat silently, resting his arm over the chair handle and rubbing his index finger on his lips. I could see that he was observing me carefully and I couldn't really decide whether I should break the silence. Finally the detective drew first blood.

"This problem seems to be quite important for you since you gave up on the trip you were planning to go," Rakesh observed.

I nodded my head before realising that I hadn't even told him about my Puri trip before.

"How did you...," I tried to ask.

"The first thing I noticed when you had entered my room was your huge backpack," the detective started explaining in his bored voice before I could even finish. I guess he must be used to these types of questions.

"Now, you wouldn't really need to pack so much stuff in your bag if your main aim was to consult for help for whatever it is that you need. There was a probability that you could have come directly from outside the city but then your sweaters and your jeans would have been wrinkled to a much greater degree. So you have set out on this very day. Secondly, you have recently polished your nails but you don't really seem to be the type who cares for her looks. Case in point, your minimal make-up and absence of any earrings, bangles and such. Hence my conclusion that you were only trying to glamify your outward appearance to indicate to someone your 'supposed' excitement for this 'trip'. You wanted some people, most probably your family, to think that you are going away while in reality you had entirely different plans."

"Right! I mean, it could be, probably," I said, trying to hide my amazement to the best of my ability.

"You mentioned earlier that your name is Maya Ganguly," he continued, "Are you sure about it?"

"Of course I am sure. Why, have you heard of me before?," I asked. I wasn't really sure where this was going.

"Should I have?," the detective asked in return.

I realised that I hadn't really done anything worthwhile in my life yet to be widely recognised. So I shook my head, followed by another minute of awkward silence.

"So?," Rakesh asked after a while.

"So?," I replied.

A smile spread across the detective's face.

"State your case, Ms. Ganguly," Rakesh hinted.

I told him about dada who had run away from home fourteen years ago, probably to the detective's orphanage and how we had spent all this time hoping he would return and how he never really came back. Then I told him about Grandpa's illness and his last wish and how badly I wanted to bring my family back together again.

Rakesh listened to all this, his brows crooked and I noticed that his left hand was busy fiddling with his harmonica again.

"So here's the crux of your case: your brother ran away from home fourteen years ago breaking up your family and now you want to bring him back after all these years to fulfil your Grandpa's dying wish," Rakesh said. He deliberately made it sound dramatic and I felt my face turning into shades of red.

"His name is Arjun Ganguly, right?"

I looked up the detective in surprise. I hadn't told him my brother's name yet. I noticed that he was taken aback by his own words too.