‘File 6, case#39
Do you really remember all the cases that you have worked on?’
‘Yes. You have heard it right. The odd ones remain longer in memory though.’
He took the case file and skimmed through a few lines. Then almost instantly his eyes lit up.
‘This one is hard to forget.’
The case seemed to unwind in his head. He told them how the events had unfolded. Most of this was already in the case file, but what was missing was what he had seen in the people involved in it.
He remembered his team saying how cases were few and reporting work was getting more that week, and then they got a call. The voice was steady, the message was short- that a body was found in the caller’s garden and the address was shared.
Initial questioning resulted in what was mentioned at the start of the case file-
Body found by maid when she started her shift.
Her employer, the man of the house, was the only one who stayed there and he was blind. He had not heard anything.
From what was seen, the deceased had fallen on one of the bricks that were part of a makeshift border for the lawn.
‘I remember looking at the blind man and searching for some emotion at least. None. He looked like he was calculating something, his mind was certainly busy, his eyes were too focused. Or maybe that’s just how he looked. I couldn’t get my eyes off of him.
The maid was taken for another statement, for the time and such details, while the man was ignored. I went to him and asked if there was anything unusual that he had noticed recently or anyone he suspected. He said there was nothing unusual to report and added- ‘I will have to run my hands on the person’s face to check if I can identify him. Do let me know when I’ll be allowed to do that. You probably don’t want anything touched or handled right now’.
I told him that he was right and that I would come back when it was fine for him to go with them for an identification. I asked him a few more questions and found that he had been blind since a very young age. This had been his home since then, his father had made this bamboo garden for him. Some of the other trees there were also planted by his father. The rest were all his fruits of labour. He said that he liked gardening and the people who worked even before he lost his father, were the ones who still helped in hiring hands for reaping and trading whatever he grew in his garden.
The interesting part was that even after we went all around his home, through the bamboo strips, on the pebble paths, he turned right at the spot where the body was found, when I asked him what he thought about the accident.
It made me wonder if growing up blind in the same house for so long was the only reason for that, or was it even an accident.’
To be continued..
