The Adventures of a Dumb Detective and his Wily Mate.

Untitled Part 14

Chapter 14

Agni stood at his usual spot in the balcony and watched Rudra walk away. Rudra turned the corner and disappeared from his view and he stood staring into space.

'You really have forgotten me, haven't you? How easily you moved forward! And here I am, still the same.' He sighed and shook himself.

A massive crisis was looming ahead. He could feel it in his gut. He didn't have the time nor the luxury of wallowing in self-pity. His family needed him.

He was working in his office when Animesh and Suni entered. He looked up at their frantic faces. Animesh's clothes were stuck to his back and his face were shining with sweat.

He said, 'I visited all 5 and withdrew as much as I could. I had to threaten Mr. Jagat with the gun, Mr. Motilal was crying. He begged us to wait, give him some time. I felt so bad for him.'

Sunita mopped her face and flung herself into the sofa. She said, 'We have to ride this storm. We have to believe my source in Bombay. He has tendrils everywhere. If he thinks we should withdraw then we should do it. There's no harm in it at least. We'll lose all the interest but at least most of the capital will be safe with us. We can't afford to be soft hearted now, Ani! If there is a real collapse then we'll be done for. If we don't pay heed now, we might end up penniless.'

'We have paid heed, Suni. But these people are my father's friends and look how we had to behave with them today.' Animesh said and wiped his face on his sleeves.

Agni looked at them both and asked, 'where is it? Where did you put the cash?'

Animesh said, 'For now , it's in a crate in the Rajabazar factory. Tonight, we'll pack it in suitcases and bring it here.'

While these three were sitting, agonizing over an imminent collapse of the private banks of the state, Rudra was sitting in Flury's eating pancakes and coffee. He needed to kill some time and craved breakfast.

He thought about his young client and decided to tackle that first. His meeting with Sameer was still a couple of hours away. He pulled out the paper and looked at the names again. He recognized a couple of famous sir names. He chose one and decided to pay a little visit.

He hopped on a bus and headed towards south Calcutta. The family was well known, the kid's father was a judge in the high court. When he reached the gate of that quiet residential neighborhood, the lane was still. Post lunch slumber had wrapped its tendrils around it. It was a sweltering day, the heat and humidity of the late monsoon afternoon was keeping even the crows quiet. Rudra sat under a tree next to a small tea shack and waited.

Soon, a shiny black MG saloon turned into the lane and a child just Ronnie's size hopped out. He skipped over to the tea wallah and said, 'Give me a cream roll.' The man wordlessly pulled out a cream roll from a jar and handed it over to the boy.

Rudra stood up. 'Are you master Arindam Roy?'

The boy eyed him suspiciously and then nodded with some reluctance.

'I see. I'm here to meet with your father.'

The boy shrugged and said, 'make an appointment. My father doesn't meet just anybody off the streets.'

'Oh, I believe he'll meet me when he knows that it concerns his only son.'

'Me? Have you come to talk about me? Then you should talk to me first.' The boy said haughtily. Rudra smiled.

He nodded and said, ' well, Master Roy, I'm here representing Master Ghoshal. I'm his lawyer, do you understand?'

The boy blinked and stepped away.