THE MAGICIAN WHO LOST HIS WALLET by GAUTAM ACHARYA

Author:GAUTAM ACHARYA [ACHARYA, GAUTAM]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mobilism
Published: 2014-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

15

Debu liked to get up late on weekends, but this Sunday was an exception. The alarm rang at seven-thirty, and he was out of his apartment in less than an hour. He reached Howrah station when the nine-twenty Burdwan local was about to leave the platform. Morning trains heading from Kolkata were usually not crowded, and he managed to get a window seat. He was carrying a small bag with him. It contained a water bottle, a railway timetable, and several newspaper cuttings.

The day before, after receiving the call from Pratik, Debu had visited several neighbours and managed to find two other newspapers that had mentioned the accident. One of them carried a larger photograph of the demonstration that was organized by the local politician. A cluster of trees next to the track was visible in the background. The underlying text confirmed that the demonstration was held in the same place where the body was found. Debu was confident that with the help of the photograph he would be able to find the exact location quite easily.

The journey was brief, and a pleasant one. Debu got up one station before Konnagar, and looked back at the compartment from the door. He could see only two rows of seats facing him, each containing three seats. The other seats were either not visible, or facing the opposite direction. He shook his head in a dissatisfied manner. If Amlan Ghoshal was thrown out of the train, then at that moment those six seats were either empty, or the people sitting there were asleep. An odd coincidence, he thought. This point had actually occurred to him the night before, but he had not been able to come up with a good explanation so far.

When he walked out of the Konnagar station, it was a quarter to ten. He surveyed the area outside the station and decided to take the road parallel to the railway track. According to his rough estimate, the average distance between two stations in the Howrah-Burdwan line was about four kilometres. Since the body was found between the two stations, it meant half an hour of walking for him. After the first fifteen minutes he was sweating profusely, but he could see that he was already outside the town.

He had to walk for another kilometre before he reached his destination. He did not have much difficulty in locating it. As he had foreseen, the cluster of trees in the photograph served as a signpost. The road on which Debu was walking was very close to the spot; only a narrow patch of grass separated it from the track.

Apart from the road and the trees, there were huge paddy fields on either side of the track, stretching all the way to the horizon. The sun was a little harsh, but there was also a cool breeze.

Debu crossed the road and went to examine the area. There was no way to pinpoint the exact spot where the body had lain, so he searched the whole place very carefully.

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