The Adventures of a Dumb Detective and his Wily Mate.

Untitled Part 10

Chapter 10

The Meeting .

Rudra arrived at the gates of G.S. Ghoshal and sons, promptly at 10 am the next morning . He wore his black and white lawyers' suit and looked smarter than he usually did. He had a court appearance later in the day.

He walked into the building and the guards next to the doors opened them with a flourish. Cool, perfumed air rushed out from the gilt and glass clad interiors. He shook his head at them .

'I've an appointment with Mr. Animesh Ghoshal.' he told them.

They called upstairs and showed him to the lift. The office was busy. He stood at the door until a peon noticed him and led him to Animesh's room. Animesh rose from his desk and welcomed him in.

'Call dada.' he said to the peon and the man answered , 'Dada hasn't come down yet.'

Animesh called upstairs through the intercom, ' Hello, Baba, the lawyer is here, where's Agni?'

He spoke briefly over the phone while Rudra explored the room.

One section of the room had an enormous showcase with full-sized mannequins of a Bengali bride and groom in complete wedding regalia. It looked like they were dressed in real jewelry worth lakhs.

'What's going on? Why are you still upstairs? The lawyer is here, come down now. Huh? Ah, achha, ok, I'll take him up, then.'

Rudra turned to Animesh as he walked over to him.

'Are the jewelry on the mannequins real?' he couldn't help asking.

Animesh nodded with a smile. 'Yes, we dress all our mannequins with the latest products we have to offer, whether that's clothes or jewelry. The ones which showcase our jewels are kept behind locked glass cases. These cases have reinforced safety glasses, they are not easy to break. Only the three of us have the keys to them. Me, my brother and my chief of accounts. We have 24 hours rotation of guards and dogs around the property . The first two floors are virtually like fortresses and have never been targeted, but this floor has had a few break-ins. We've always caught the thief though.' He added with a casual shrug.

Animesh continued talking as he led Rudra out and took the private staircase that led to their flat upstairs. 'Our security is very tight here, it has to be. In earlier times we used to collect cash and keep it in the safe at home but about 10 years back we had a massive break-in at our old house. The burglars poisoned my elder brother, sister-in-law and my wife. They opened our safe with his keys and took off with 5 lakh rupees in cash and quite a lot of gold. My brother died that night but his wife survived for nearly a year afterwards but couldn't gain back her strength. She died about a year later.' He heaved a sigh.

'When we moved here, we ensured ironclad security for our living quarters. Nowadays we don't keep any cash at home but bank it on Saturdays, leaving only petty cash in the office. We still have people attempting to steal from us from time to time, of course, who doesn't? But so far, it's always been small time insider jobs and we've managed to catch the perpetrators almost immediately.'

Rudra listened in silence, wondering why Animesh spoke at such length about thievery when he'd just made a passing remark. What about the case? He wondered. Why wasn't he talking about the actual case he was here for?

Animesh opened two layers of grilled doors and then rang a bell next to an ornate wooden door. The door was opened by a servant and he ushered Rudra inside.

'My mother isn't feeling well today, so Agni my brother, is looking after her. You can conduct the interview right here in the living room. Please take a seat.'