0 8 min 4 yrs

It was nearly afternoon when my father received a call. To tell you a secret, my father has always been a rather whimsical man. But when he gets a call to solve some conundrum, his face becomes serious. It’s funny to see a man laughing at silly jokes of his own 2 minutes before, suddenly turn pale and serious- a rather metamorphosis of personality occurs. “Strange!”

Written by Aishani Chowdhury, B.Sc. Agriculture, 3rd Semester

I have always accompanied my father since childhood. He used to take me to all the places he had been assigned to as a detective. I simply enjoyed his presence of mind and was amazed by the way he delivered his thoughts and solved the mystery within the blink of an eye. “It’s not easy.” He used to say. “You have to be in someone else’s shoe. Don’t let these emotions get you.”

There was a case nearly 3 months back- case involving a criminal. Now every case has a criminal mastermind, but this was different. This time a criminal needed our help. You may wonder how so let me get into the details without further ado. It was nearly afternoon when my father received a call. To tell you a secret, my father has always been a rather whimsical man. But when he gets a call to solve some conundrum, his face becomes serious. It’s funny to see a man laughing at silly jokes of his own 2 minutes before, suddenly turn pale and serious- a rather metamorphosis of personality occurs. “Strange!” he said as he finished taking on the phone. “I need to go to the lockup really fast now”. “What’s the matter?” mom asked. “I guess we’ll have to find out” father said looking at me. We reached the central jail within 30 minutes. The cops led us to the criminal’s cell. “Don’t know what’s gotten into him. It was all quiet and cops were patrolling the area when suddenly he screamed out loud for help. He was saying that some man was trying to kill him but how is that possible?” one police officer briefed us with the story. Father entered the cell and asked “Did you see anyone?” I looked at the man and saw terror in his eyes. “I was sleeping at the corner sir. Suddenly I saw a hand emerging from the darkness and he started choking me. I am scared sir.” “Did you see his face or anything that might help you identify him the next time when you see him again?” I foraged through the surroundings but it was too dark to notice anything suspicious. “No sir. The place is too dark and moreover I was in a drowsy state. But he had a strange scar on his left palm.” “Officer please ask them to fix a new bulb here. The person who wanted to kill him might come again and it would be better to have some light in this dungeon.” “Sir, but how can you possibly believe that anyone came here in this tight security just to kill him?” the officer asked my father on the way out of the cell. “Why not sir?” father said. “Do you think everyone is as honest and hard working as you?” “So you think that there is someone among the cops who got bribed or something for killing that criminal.” “Indeed sir. And I am sure Mr. David might know something about it.” All our heads turned unanimously towards Mr. David who was lurking in the corner to hear our conversation. Being discovered Mr. David became rather flustered and said “I am sorry to eavesdrop sir but in the morning I saw Cooper and Albert talking in a corner and exchanging some materials.” Cooper was the criminal who needed our help and Albert was the guy next to his cell. “Is that so?” father asked and went to Albert’s cell to interrogate him. Albert was a very skinny man with a roughed look and scars all over his face. I quickly noticed his hand and could not find any scar on his left palm. Upon interrogating him father returned and I saw Cooper’s cell being lighted up and this time I could see him more clearly. The terror had not disappeared from his sulked face. Why would anyone want to kill him? For finding that out we needed to know his past and all the previous connections he had and who could possibly be the one wanting to kill him so badly from outside. Upon heading outside the officer handed my father a pile of papers. On our way home I saw my father engrossed in thinking. “Father I just wanted to tell you something” I said “…second time when we crossed Cooper’s cell I noticed he had a very strange looking scar on his left palm.” Father stopped for a while and smiled. “I am getting really old.” I could not understand what he meant by that but did not question him further. I saw father rummaging through all the papers and making a lot of phone calls when we reached home. Next day we reached in time. “I think I know who wanted to kill Cooper” father said. All eyes and ears were on him. “Cooper Williams was not involved in any drug dealing business nor in any kind of trafficking so there is no possibility of having any connections who thought of him as a threat. Cooper and Albert were neighbors and both of them were found guilty of killing a bunch of kids on their way home from school. They were not murderers but petty burglars. I scoured through their past and found that both of them were arrested on the same date and they only had records of petty thefts. But for some reason the bus hijacking went wrong and 10 kids were killed in the process. Cooper could not handle the trauma and Albert knew about it. So today morning he tried to talk some sense into him and handed him a picture of Cooper’s own kid. Cooper saw his own kid’s face in all the 10 dead bodies. He could not control his emotions.” Father paused for a while. “Cooper has alien hand syndrome. The trauma led to affect his mental health and his left arm became uncontrollable and started choking himself. His hand often seems to take on a mind and will of it’s own. Cooper needs therapy. No one tried to kill him. It was his own guilt and regret.” I was stunned upon hearing the revelation and even shocked to know about such a psychological disorder. Father patted my back on the way home and said “It was all because of you” and smiled the brightest smile I had seen in years.

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