A Killer in Kailash: Adventures of Feluda (11 page)

‘Do you remember the colour of his car?’ Feluda interrupted him.

‘Oh yes. It was a blue Fiat. I decided to follow Chattoraj. But I ran into some more problems. A burst tyre meant an unnecessary delay … so I lost him for the moment. However, by then I was absolutely determined not to give up. I knew he'd want to sell the statue again. So I went back to the Grand Hotel. It meant waiting for a while, but eventually I found him and followed him to the railway booking office. He bought a ticket to Aurangabad. So did I. He was still carrying a heavy bag, so it was clear that he had not been able to get rid of the statue. I came back to my flat, rang my office in Bombay and told them what had happened.’

‘Yes, we know about that. You had said, “The daughter has returned to her father”. What we did not know was that by “father” you meant Chattoraj, not yourself.’

Mr Mallik smiled, then continued, ‘I kept waiting for a suitable opportunity to remove the stolen object. I knew if I could catch the thief at the same time, it would be even better. But that proved much too difficult. Anyway, last night I went and hid near Kailash. When I saw that everyone from the bungalow had gone out in the direction of the caves, I returned quickly, slipped into the bungalow through the side door that only the cleaners use, and removed the statue from Chattoraj's room.’

‘I see. Did you have any idea you were being watched by a detective?’

‘Oh no. That's why I couldn't speak a word when you arrested me! I must have looked very foolish.’

Mr Ghote burst out laughing. Feluda took up the tale, ‘When I saw that you had travelled with Lewison in the same car for many miles, but had done nothing to sell him the statue, I realized you were innocent. Until then, although I'd come to know you were a detective, I could not drop you from my list of suspects.’

‘But Chattoraj was also on this list, wasn’t he?’

‘Yes. Mind you, initially it was no more than a slight doubt. When I saw that his name had been freshly painted on an old suitcase, I began to wonder if the name wasn’t fake. Then, Lalmohan Babu told us yesterday that he had gone out wearing a raincoat. When we were passing cave number fifteen, I noticed someone was in it, and threw a pebble in the courtyard. That made the man run away. I then went into the cave and began searching the surrounding area. In a smaller cave behind the big one, I found the raincoat. It had a specially large pocket, in which was a hammer, a chisel, and a nylon rope. I left everything there. It became obvious that Raxit—or Chattoraj—was the real culprit. As we returned to the bungalow, we saw him desperately searching for something in his room. In fact, he seemed to have gone mad, which is understandable since he had come back to his room to find that his precious statue had gone. This morning, Mr Kulkarni told me you had called Bombay and said, “The daughter is fine”. That meant you had the stolen statue with you. So you had to be arrested.’

Feluda stopped. No one said anything. After a short pause, he went on, ‘While we were worrying about statues and thieves, Shubhankar Bose got killed. On examining his dead body, we found a piece of blue cloth in one of his hands. You were wearing a blue shirt yesterday. But I didn't think of you, since my suspicions had already fallen on Chattoraj. What really happened was that he reached Bose's body before me and, pretending that he was trying to feel his pulse, pushed in that torn piece into the dead man's hand. It had become essential for Chattoraj to throw suspicion on someone else for Bose's death. The torn piece had, of course, come from Chattoraj's own shirt. He had cut out a piece and hidden the shirt amongst the plants and bushes behind the bungalow. I found it myself.

‘However, although I had gathered some evidence against Chattoraj, it was not enough to actually accuse him of murder and theft. As I was wondering what to do, Tapesh and Lalmohan Babu told me that someone had been through their belongings. This had to be Chattoraj, for he had lost something valuable and was naturally looking for it everywhere. In Lalmohan Babu's suitcase was his notebook, which mentioned the theft of the statue from Bhubaneshwar, Silverstein, and the plane crash. I knew at once that Chattoraj had read every detail and was feeling threatened, thinking it was Lalmohan Babu who had stumbled on the truth. So I sent him a little note, pretending it had been written by Lalmohan Babu, asking Chattoraj to meet him in the Das Avatar cave at 8 p.m. Before that, however, I told Chattoraj that whoever had tried to steal a statue from Kailash the night before had been arrested. I knew this would set his mind at rest, and he would stop being on his guard.’

‘That man with the goatee!’ Lalmohan Babu and I cried together, ‘Was that you?’

‘Yes,’ Feluda laughed. ‘That was my disguise number two. I felt I had to stay close to you, since we were dealing with a dangerous man. Anyway, he swallowed my bait at once. He thought a few sharp words from him would really make Lalmohan Babu return the head to him, and he could get away with it once again. Well, we all know what happened next.

‘There is only one thing left for me to say: Mr Mallik and his agency will get full credit for their share in catching this gang. And I shall pray for a promotion for Mr Ghote. I must also thank Mr Kulkarni for the important role he played, but if a medal for courage and bravery could be given to anyone, it should go jointly to Tapeshranjan Mitter and Lalmohan Ganguli.’

‘Hear, hear!’ said Mr Mallik, and the others clapped enthusiastically.

When the applause died down, Lalmohan Babu turned to Feluda and said a little hesitantly, ‘Does that mean … this time my weapon didn't come into any use at all?’

Feluda looked perfectly amazed. ‘Not come into use? What are you talking about? Where do you think all that smoke came from? It was no ordinary bomb, sir. Do you know what it was? A 356 megaton special military smoke bomb!’

Read the other Adventures of Feluda in Puffin

The Emperor’s Ring

Trouble in Gangtok

The Golden Fortress

The Incident on the Kalka Mail

The Royal Bengal Mystery

The Mystery of the Elephant God

The Bandits of Bombay

The House of Death

The Curse of the Goddess

Trouble in the Graveyard

The Criminals of Kathmandu

PUFFIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Books India (P) Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Books (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

Penguin Group (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Block D, Rosebank Ofice Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Office: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in Puffin by Penguin Books India 2003

Copyright © The Estate of Satyajit Ray 2003

This translation copyright © Penguin Books India 2003

ISBN: 978-01-4333-566-5

All rights reserved

This digital edition published in 2011.

e-ISBN: 978-81-8475-213-7

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This e-book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser and without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above-mentioned publisher of this e-book.