The Murder

It was unmistakably a dead body in the water. The face was hidden by the plants for the most part and only the eyes were barely visible. There was a also dark blue dress half sunk in water and touching the surface. In the darkness of the river bed surroundings, a passer by could not have noticed anything. Kathir used to frequent here early evenings almost every day and would sit near a large tree adjoining the river. "Should I tell the police?" He wondered. It could put him into trouble. He was recently graduated and looking for a job to accrue his skills if not out of necessity. The police might interrogate him, suspect him and complicate his life and career. He has observed enough of these problems as faced by the localites here, though they were not the perpetrators of the crime itself. He decided to ignore and leave the place immediately. Why not convey this to the police through a phone call from a public booth or drop a anonymous letter somehow? They may not have difficulty tracing him back if he did those things, perhaps. In fact it could become more complicated if they found him that way. Why he had to hide himself? they would ask

He left the place and went back home. Mother was very upset and angry

She said, "Did you see your father in the temple?"

"No, I didn't go inside"

"He didn't have his lunch. He went to meet some friend of his at the temple today morning. He busies himself even on weekends"

Kathir, while listening to mother's outcry went and fell on the sofa, trying to shred off the thought of the dead body from his mind. Perhaps he could tell his mother sometime later about it, he thought

"He would have called multiple times by now, don't understand where he has gone. He is not picking up his phone also"

"Amma, any snacks to eat?" he asked

"Good son you are. I am saying your father didn't even have his lunch. Why don't you find out? Didn't you have your lunch properly? It's not even evening yet"

Suddenly a disturbing thought came to Kathir if the dead man in the river was his father. He had to clear this suspicion out of his mind and had to confirm. Since that was a small town of few houses, such a thing could not be ruled out

"Amma, let me go out and check where father is. Don't worry. Please have something to eat ready when I come back, ok?". While he was a little hungry the thought that his father may have been dead worried him. He ran to the river, to the place where he saw the dead body. There was no dead body however when he went there. The shores seemed wet as if some water was pumped out of the river. Someone had apparently dragged the dead body to the land. Now Kathir lost all hunger. He badly wanted to confirm that his father was not dead and called his father multiple times on the phone. The phone just kept ringing without any response.

Should I now go to the police? What should I say? Father is missing? Saw a dead body before? They would ask why you didn't tell before. It could have sinked down in the water further, out of sight perhaps?. But that's a deep and dirty river. There's no way he could dive and swim deep inside to find. Perhaps he could try to search just some parts of the river. He removed his clothes and jumped into the river. Since he was not a great swimmer he couldn't go deep down further. If he went further towards the centre someone would be required to rescue him. Deep water scared him a lot. For few meters from the shore, the river was not as deep as he had thought, water was at his waist level if he stood. There were lot of weeds and plants that gave the impression of depth. It was slippery due to the weeds and gradually the depth increased steeply from the shore. There was no dead body within few meters of where he found it earlier. Water current was not strong at the shores, so the body could not have moved very far. Clearly the body was removed. Kathir came to the shores, waited a little to dry up and wore his clothes

Kathir's friend Jagan was not far away. Noticing Kathir half dressed he asked

"Hey Kathir. Good evening. What's up with your clothing?"

"Nothing, just came to practice swimming" he said

"I got the offer from Blusoft Infotech, interview was conducted 3 days back. Many of our friends had come there buddy, why didn't you?"

Wearing his clothes he said, "I heard there is work pressure and freshers have a tough time. My cousin is already working there. Let me see if something better turns out"

"The right opportunity, you may never get it. There are lots of jobs for freshers these days. After few years of experience we can probably switch to a suitable job.."

Kathir was not in the mood to listen, he didn't care about these menial jobs as much. He was well to do and even if he didn't earn, there was enough money to last two generations.

Curious about Kathir's manners Jagan said, "You seem upset, why da? Not able to swim is it?"

"What? No nothing of that sort. I was searching for my father. He didn't have his lunch and left home early.."

Surprised, Jagan asked sarcastically, "When did you become a responsible son? Your father would be the one to search for you"

"I am always a good son da... your comments are improper. If you will excuse me let me go find him"

"Wait Kathir.. hold on, I saw your father in the afternoon in the Balaji food joint. You know the place near our teacher's house right? He had someone with him. They were discussing with great involvement for a long time. I thought of meeting him at the table and say hi but arguments were bubbling up and I thought perhaps next time. I was with my brother and had to reach home early, so I left"

Kathir was now curious why his father did not come home for lunch when mother had asked him to and instead was lunching with someone else. Some problems, looks like else he was not the type who ate outside food

He bid good bye to Jagan and left for the joint to see if he could get any information about his father's whereabouts. At the joint it was crowded. He couldn't find his father and went inside till the length and breadth to check everywhere. He felt intuitively that his father or his phone must be around and dialled his number again. There was no response on the phone and noise at the joint made it difficult to hear any ring tones even if the phone were to be few meters away from him. He kept walking and dialing again. As he reached the kitchen door a phone was ringing and it was unattended to. To confirm that it was his father's phone, he disconnected the call and dialed again. The phone ring reciprocated with his actions confirming him that it was his father's. He went inside the kitchen and found it lying on a slab. The cooks were busy preparing dishes. It seemed like nobody wanted to attend to this phone. He enquired the supervisor who was at the other end of the kitchen. He said, "Today after noon there was a big brawl here, and these customers were asked to leave the joint. This phone was found below table after they had left"

"This is my father's phone. He is missing since afternoon. Can I take it?"

"Please give your contact details and you can take the phone". Kathir took the phone after this and feeling weary decided to go home. Should he tell his mother? He was not sure. Mother is not a very healthy type. She had high blood pressure and any upsetting news about father had to be avoided altogether. He went home and mother gave him some snacks enquiring earnestly "Did you see him?"

"Yeah, he gave me his phone and said he would be late. He said he has some party with colleagues"

"Why did he give his phone to you? How will I reach him if I want?"

Noticing that the battery had little power he said, "No ma see there is no charge, he asked me to recharge it.."

"Is it going to take him so much time to come home? Does he realize he has a family here. Doesn't tells me if he wants lunch to be prepared or not". She continued murmuring to herself, "Having a son old enough to be married still thinks like a kid". Kathir could hear, this which has been a routine, he knows that mother is affectionate towards father and even if she made these comments openly to him he would never have agreed with her cause they were never meant for him. Now he was only worried where father would be. Without the same interest, he had his snacks and decided to call father's friends

He came to the back side of the house and dialled a number

"Hanumanth uncle, he is missing since afternoon. He was in Balaji joint today and it looks like he had a quarrel. His phone was lying below the table and I got it from the hotel management. You have any idea if he had problems in office?"

"No Kathir. In fact, I was out of station for a week. I don't understand why he gets into these troubles, let me check. I'll call you after sometime"

Kathir sat there for sometime. He later went to mother and said, "I have to visit a friend, i'll be back by night"

"Why are you taking your father's phone? Leave it here, in case he calls. You have your own phone with you right?"

"If I see father on the way somewhere i'll give it him, his phone is charged now, see"

"Why are you so strange Kathir? Is your father in any trouble?"

"No ma, why do you ask? I might see him on the way, i'll give the phone to him"

"If you see him then ask him to come home soon, I didn't have my lunch properly too. You can take the phone" she said in low voice

Sympathizing with his mother he left home with a sense of foreboding

As he was walking, the phone rang. "It's Hanumanth. Our colleague Raghu says that someone used to come to office almost every day to meet your father. They had heated arguments, from what I hear"

"How did he look like?"

"Very dark skinned and fat. He wore a dark blue lungi. Your father never liked any of us showing interest in his private matters, he would go out of the office and speak secretively you know"

Perplexed Kathir said, "OK uncle. Let me know if you get any other details" and hung up the phone

He recollected something, the dead person in the water he saw earlier wore blue dress too. That was distinctly visible. His father didn't have a blue dress as far as he could remember. Something flashed his mind, what if father was involved some way in the death of this man and was absconding now? If he wanted to abscond, he might have at least come home at some point to tell mother before escaping right? Why would he hide himself from his own family? What could be wrong?

The phone rang again "Your father, Kathir"

"Appa, where are you? Are you fine? We were very worried"

"I have got myself into some trouble. I will not be able to explain everything on phone. If your Amma there around? Can you give the phone to her?". Kathir ran to mother and handed over the phone

"Where are you? Why do you give big headaches? Can't you tell me what you are up to? You will make me sick someday. Tell me are you doing fine?"

Frustrated he said, "I am not fine Indira. I got into an unfortunate affair with some people. One of them is dead and they want to frame the murder on me"

"What are you saying? Did you kill someone?"

"No. I didn't. I just don't know why they killed their one of own guys. Now they are threatening me now to pay a ransom or they will hook me unto this"

"Who are they? What transaction?"

"I'll tell you later. I called you tell to not worry on my account, I am safe. And also.."

She interrupted, "How can I not worry? I knew there was something wrong afternoon itself. I have known you all these years"

He continued, "Don't worry. Listen. You and Kathir go out of station for sometime. These guys could harm you. I'll get back to you later"

"Did you have your lunch Prashant?" she said

"No my dear but i'll not keep myself hungry for long, I have some cash. I'll take care but please leave home right now like I said. Don't delay", saying so he disconnected the call

Indira deeply upset told her son "Your father is in trouble and says we should vacate the house and go out of station for sometime"

They both packed the essentials and left in moments to a nearby town where Indira's sister Ananya lived. Ananya was a much younger sister who was just a few years older than Kathir. When they reached her house, she received them warmly

"How come you two at this hour? Come inside Kathir. I hope you people don't have any complaints"

"Complaints for what?" saying so Indira explained everything to her and Kathir mentioned all that he knew including his sight of a dead body at the river bed

Surprised Indira asked him "Why didn't you tell me about the dead body?"

"Amma if everything was fine i would have told you by now, we had enough trouble already"

Listening to their laments, Ananya's eyes became brighter as she said "I am surprised. It was been my husband Mahesh who wanted to meet your husband every day. I should have told you earlier about this but Mahesh asked me not to. He said he wanted to talk to your husband first"

"What are saying?"

"A large piece of land had come for sale. We were willing to buy half of it but they wanted to sell all or nothing. Mahesh wanted to persuade your husband on buying that"

"What's wrong in telling me about it? Would I cancel the deal? If I don't like the deal no amount of discreetness will prevent me from cancelling the deal. I really don't like your husband's attitude. Without my consent, Prashant will not buy any land"

"Sorry Indira. Please don't be angry. Mahesh badly wanted to buy this land for his business expansion. Don't be upset, for my sake"

To be continued... (request readers to put their comments)