12 noon is usually the time for a siesta for many people. For some office goers, it is about half an hour before an early lunch.
But for Koel Dey, this was a painful part of the day, especially today. She had been summoned to the house of her boss, but not by the boss. By the police.
“Ms Dey, thank you for coming, please come in. Hope you found the place easily?” An affable inspector came forward to greet her as she crossed the main door, and entered the foyer, suitably flustered. “Reaching the building was easy with the GPS but within the building was pure hell. All these blocks look the same!” she responded, moving into the house, a few steps behind the inspector.
The foyer led to a large drawing room. Koel entered this room and gasped. The whole place was in disarray. Sofa cushions had been uprooted, tables turned (literally), and display cases looked more like a war remnant than holders of precious artifacts from across the world.
“What…. Happened…Here…?” she could just about mutter.
The inspector understood. “Would you like some water? I have it here.”
She took it gratefully and sipped.
“Am I the only one you have called?”
“Oh, no, of course not. Your peon, office boy, all the direct reports of your boss, and the domestic staff of the house, they have all been summoned. You were just the first to turn up.” The inspector smiled again. She was beginning to like this inspector.
“But, why did you call us? From the office, I mean?” she asked.
“As you know, your boss, Mr. Mehta, is away on a trip at the moment. He is unreachable. His scheduled return date is 5 days away. In the meantime, we cannot let a reported burglary remain uninvestigated. A neighbour called the building security to say she definitely heard a lot of strange noises from the house. Building security called us before coming to the door. That’s all.”
“No, but, why us from the office? He never brought any of us to his house! He was intensely private! Even today, I had to use the GPS to reach. Don’t think anyone from the office will be able to help you. I am sorry that his house has been burgled and all, but trust me, we will not be able to provide any information.”
“Maybe,” said the inspector, a little mischief in his eyes, “But you sound like a very intelligent young lady. Now that you are here, why don’t I share what we have found so far, and you can maybe share your thoughts? It will only take 5 minutes.”
“O..K…” she agreed slowly.
He took her around the room, “As you can see, this hall has two balconies attached. Both balconies have a storm drain pipeline that can be used to scale the building and enter any balcony. The balcony doors can be opened from either side – outside or inside. We think that the intruder came through the balcony.”
She stopped next to each of the 3 windows in the hall and stepped into the 2 balconies, examining the drain pipes and the other contents of the balcony. She took care to not touch anything though.
Koel shook her head. “No, no, I don’t think you are right about that. See, the eastern balcony has a lot of flower pots, so the intruder would have broken at least one of them while coming in or stepping back. Same way, the western balcony has these glass tealight holders, at least one of those would have been broken if the intruder had used this storm pipeline to enter or exit.”
“OMG, you are absolutely right!” the inspector seemed to have a light bulb go off in his head. Now, he was just impressed, and openly so.
“Ok, let’s take a look at the drawing room itself. See, this is the puzzling part – there are many expensive paintings here, some expensive pieces and antiques that are small enough to fit into a small bag, and will still make this burglary a profitable venture for the thief. But they are all here. Nothing has been taken. Why? And why would the thief overturn the sofa cushions?”
“Really, sir, it is most outstanding that you did not figure that out. Sofa cushions, at least in detective stories, are overturned only when a person is looking for something specific and thin – like a letter or a photograph or a hard drive or something. All of these can be hidden in any of these expensive antiques, or under a sofa cushion, or even in the upholstery – curtain pelmets, any crevice, basically. But surely you know that!”
“Oh, Ms. Dey, are you sure you are a journalist and not a detective? This is pure genius! I was so puzzled by the motive of this burglary and the minute we think of a hard drive or a photograph, it all makes so much sense!”
Koel blushed. Surely, the inspector had figured this out, and was only flattering her?
But he seemed genuinely impressed and surprised that he had not thought of a hard drive himself.
“Why don’t I show you the rest of the house also? Maybe there are further clues there?” The inspector volunteered, and Koel agreed readily.
They moved from the hall to the kitchen, where things were untouched, except for a small tea vessel in the sink, and some used cups.
Then they went to the 3 bedrooms. The bedrooms were spacious, and like the hall, their upholstery had been turned inside out. The curtains were curiously disturbed. Those that looked into another flat were not disturbed at all, while the room that looked out to an open field had been pulled down almost completely.
“We have dusted the pelmets for prints. As you can make out, the pelmets are rarely dusted, but unfortunately, our thief knew that too. All gloves, no prints.” The inspector continued.
Koel thought for a while and then said, “This is definitely a professional. An amateur looking for something will not remember to wear gloves. Also, the person knew the layout of the house. They knew which curtains they can pull down and search and which ones can only be felt and searched, not pulled.”
“Yes, there I agree with you, Ms. Dey. We do think that the person knew the layout of the house well. Which makes us think that it was possibly a member of the domestic staff who could not enter without a key, but knew where to go once they did enter.”
As they completed the tour of the house, Ramakrishna, the driver of Mr. Mehta, turned up in the foyer, having crossed the main gate, just like Koel.
“Sir, I am Mr. Mehta’s driver.” He introduced himself.
“Thank you for coming. Please give me a minute, and I will be right back with you.” The inspector said to Ramakrishna and then turned to Koel. “I should head back to the office now,” she said. “Maybe I should tell other people from the office to not come, after all? Because none of us can help you with any information.”
“On the contrary, Ms. Dey, you cannot go anywhere. I am holding you as a person of interest in this burglary.”
“You have got to be out of your mind!” retorted a shocked Koel.
Who do you agree with? Why?
- An original puzzle by Nidhi Arora
I feel the inspector is correct in suspecting Ms. Koel Dey for the burglary at Mr. Mehta’s residence. Ms. Dey talked about hiding small things like a letter or a photograph or a hard drive in curtain pelmets, so I wonder how did she know that there were curtain pelmets at Mr. Mehta’s residence when she had never visited his home earlier as she claimed.
– Bhavika, 9 years
I agree with the inspector as Ms.Dey:
1. Never saw the house
2. Is a journalist
3. Cracked many things the inspector couldn’t crack
And only the theif knows what they want and Ms. Dey gave an example what the theives could be looking for.
Even though it seemed as though Ms Koel didn’t commit the burglary, one can never be too sure. She was being a little suspicious too, repeatedly mentioning that neither she nor anyone from her office could be of any help to them.
The mystery of how the intruder came in (as stated by Ms Koel, not through the balconies, so, assuming they came in from the door) and the fact that they didn’t disturb the curtains facing other flats – in fear of being recognized, leads me to believe that not only did the intruder know Mr Mehta, they also frequently visited his house (or lived there).
I feel as though the information is too little to know whether Ms Koel was the one who burgled the house but I completely agree with the inspector in holding her back for a little while.