When Mr. Shivam opened the door I saw Dhruva and Harish. In their backward I saw Mr. Adam and Harilal. Mr. Shivam welcomed them, asked them to sit and again went to the kitchen and come back with four cups of coffee. I thought, " Mr. Shivam is a very good person. Even he brings coffee for his servant also. Such a nice soul." But my thoughts were broken by Alex. He told me," What you see with your two eyes always, that doesn't mean you're looking the truth all the time, huh?"
Then he moved back to the audience and told them," Well, Gentlemen. Now it's time for solve the whole problems."
I was going to take coffee but I saw there was no coffee in my cup. I thought I drank the coffee or not? Suddenly Mr. Adam told," Mr. Alex, please tell me the wicked's name. I'll not let him go. I'll send him to hell. He took my brother. I'll kill him."
"Relax Mr. Adam. Your anger is true. But two policemen are also here. They'll take that criminal.", Alex told positively.
"So, where to start?", told Alex.
"Mr. Stark. Wait. I've to go to the loo.", said quickly by Shivam.
"Why, Mr. Shivam? Wanna flee from here?", Alex told him.
"Flee? how can I flee from my place? Can't I go to the loo? It's human nature.", now Shivam told it with a little hesitation.
"Mr. Shivam, how can I allow myself to leave the murderer from here?"
"What?", all the members of the room screamed together being amazed, including me also.
I asked Alex," What are you talking brother? Such a good person is the criminal?"
"Yes, Alan. He murdered Mr. Argus Rockwood."
"What rubbish! You have no prove against me.", told by Mr. Shivam with a little annoyance.
"Ya, you are right. I've no prove. Mistakenly I've proves Mr. Shivam. Let me explain."
Then my brother started exploring everything that I wanna listen after all these time.
"Okay. Two years ago in the auction Mr. Argus Rockwood bought many pictures. In that same auction Shivam was present there. But he failed to beat Argus in that auction. So, the real owner of the pictures is Mr. Argus Rockwood. They were the same arts or pictures in the hall room of Shivam that we saw yesterday."
"But how you can be so sure that they are those pictures?", I asked him.
"You remember that I clicked photos of the arts. I didn't click them to store my phone memory. I clicked them to show the photos to Mr. Advani, the auction creator. He told me that these pictures belonged to Mr. Argus Rockwood not to Mr. Shivam. Even he showed me the register book. I've another proof. When we're in the hall room I saw pictures hanging in the wall by the nails but the nails seemed to be new. If Mr. Shivam won the auction and hung the pictures on the wall for almost 2 years by the help of the nails, so the nails should be rusted. But they're new. Meanwhile, in the Rockwood's room I saw the nails attached in the wall but they're rusted. So, that means the pictures were hung in there. You killed him, stole the arts and hung them in your beautiful hall room with new nails. Even I saw the hammer in your hall room on the table beside those arts. I've another proof, your spectacles."
"Spectacles? That's insane." I asked with a surprising face.
"Ya. Spectacles. You remember, Alan. I found a piece of glass under the chair in Rockwood's home. The glass belonged to the second spectacle of Mr. Shivam. When I came here yesterday I went to the window behind the dustbin and the boot shelf. I looked outside of the window for a while then my eyewink fell upon the dustbin and boot shelf. In the dustbin I saw the broken spectacle with many pieces of glass and in the boot shelf I saw a pair of boot full of muds. That means Shivam went to his house. Behind his houser, you see, the road was muddy. Not only that Mr. Shivam has myopia. He can't see wide and far things. Now, I explain what happened that night. Mr. Shivam went to Mr. Rockwood's house to convince him for the last time to give him all the arts. Mr. Rockwood refused. Then Shivam lost his patience. They were fighting to each other. In that fight unfortunately, your spectacles had fallen and the glass had broken. Then you picked up the axe and hit him forcefully. That pitful man died. You heard that someone was standing behind the door. You got afraid. You hurriedly picked up all arts except one. At the corner of the room there was an old book shelf and in there was a hardcover picture of 200 years old. Now think gentlemen, a thief who wanted to have all the pictures but why he left just one. Because you have Myopia Shivam and your spectacles had broken, so you falied to see the pictures as it stayed far from you. You also picked up all pieces of glass but you were in hurry then, so you couldn't pick up all pieces. Unfortunately I've got one piece. And and and about the axe. The axe belonged to Harish but he has no connection with the case. In the time of conversation with Harish in the jail I understood everything. According to the postmortem report Mr. Rockwood was killed between 10 and 11 pm. Harish sleeps at night around 9:30 . After he had gone sleep, Mr. Shivam took the axe, went to Rockwood's house, killed him and fell it in the loo. Before Harish would get up in the morning unfortunately Mr. Dhruva arrived there and arrested Harish without knowing anything. Mr. Dhruva, please change your habit. Actually Mr. Shivam wore hand gloves. I had seen it yesterday when the maidservant got into the hall room with clothes. It seemed the gloves had been used before as it was torn apart.
I think it happened during the fight or when Shivam picked up the pieces of glass.
I also called Mr. Adam for some information. After the auction Mr. Rockwood sent his arts to his brother in London. The arts came here about one and half years ago. Then Mr. Shivam started disturbing him. Argus told Adam about Shivam. At last when Shivam lost all hope, being jealousy he killed Argus Rockwood, stole the arts as they're worth millions. "
"But why did he choose that day to murder him?", I asked.
"Because of Harilal. Harilal told us that he informed Argus about his absence of the next day because he had to go somewhere. He told this statement behind Mr. Shivam. Shivam didn't want to lose that opportunity. But unfortunately Harilal went to his friend the next day and he heard sounds, informed us and I solved a case. Oho, I've not finished yet. When Shivam saw us today, he thought that I caught the real murderer. Then you mixed poison in my and Alan's coffee, not to everyone's coffee. That's why I went to the window to dismount the coffee."
Now I realized how my coffee had vanished.
"You also know Alan I constricted your hand because I know you'll ask Mr. Shivam why he made coffee as this duty belongs to the servant. He wanted to mix poison in it. But I'm so so clever than him. I predicted that what could he do in the kitchen as he took 20 minutes for him to make a normal coffee. That's really insane."
"Oh! so that's why you're still alive.",told Mr. Shivam. Now he was looking to Alex like a wounded tiger, ferocious, it seemed he's gonna kill Alex. I immediately picked up my revolver straight to Shivam and told him,"Don't try Mr. Murderer. You're going to be arrested now. Hands up. Mr. Dhruva, take this criminal to the jail."
Before leaving the place last time Shivam told,"Remember Alex. It's not end. I'll surely come to burn your life and ruin your ego." I saw Alex just gave a sweet smile. I can't even imagine that the devil lived inside of this good guy, Shivam.
Then Harilal asked," The case isn't solved yet. Who's the third person in that room?"
"Ha ha ha. Oh, yes. The third person. The Third Person had no connection with this case. Actually the girl's screaming came out from TV."
"What?", now I screamed.
"Yes, my boy. You saw I was watching TV in Mr. Rookwood s house. Actually I predicted it before. I saw Mr. Rockwood was watching the crime channel. Well. Then I used my phone to see what the actual show was broadcasted that day between 10 and 11 pm. And in that show a girl screamed as the show was about a girl's murder. I also know the exact murder time as the girl screamed was heard by Harilal just at the time of Rockwood's murder. The time was 10:42 pm. At the time of fighting mistakenly Mr. Rockwood turned off the TV and the remote fell down. After the murder Shivam took the remote on the table and turned off the main switch of the TV."
"But why he turned off the TV as well as the main switch?", I asked.
"I think force of habit. He had the habit of turn off TV like these way in his own house.."
"But how did he escape from the place?", Harilal asked.
"From the loo. The loo had a window. A normal, slim person like Shivam could easily escape by using that window. ", now I told this with confidence.
"Then he fled from the farm house by using that ladder. Remember Alan, about the ladder. So, Mr. Adam now all the arts belonged to you and the farm house also."
"Thank you sooo much Mr. Stark. You're such a great detective. Thanks.", told Adam.
"Most welcome mate and be aware. There were lot of People like Shivam outside this house. Be careful."
"Sure, I'll look after that.", told Adam.
"But what's about this house of Shivam?", I asked.
"Oh!!! that's not my business brother. That yours. You think what you wanna do. Let's go. Mr. Goomes cooked chicken biryani today. I told him to cook it today. After solving cases, I become much more hungry. You know brother, force of habit. Ha ha ha."
After that I saw Alex went outside the room and I just followed him as I was being hypnotized by his great intelligence and sense of humour.


THE END


© Nahid Hussain