Too Ordinary Too Clean
Manit entered his apartment-drunk. He collapsed on the sofa. He opened his eyes and found himself tied
to a chair. Much to his terror, he was not dreaming. His attacker turned on the light. Manit recognised him
he wanted to leave a clue about his assassin but he could do nothing. His hands and fingers were tied
down by tape he could not move even a millimetre. There was a lot of tape on his mouth making him
unable to produce anything but muffled grunts. His attacker wrapped a cloth around his head. It had a
strong whiff of chloroform. Chloroform in excess kills.
--
Someone was banging my door.
“Coming.” I screamed.
I opened the door it was Harsha, Manit’s girlfriend, seeing her face, I forgot all my anger, her face was
terrorized, she was breathing rapidly unable to control herself, she was twitching with fear.
“Manit-not-door-open-4days.” She spoke in broken and rushed syllables.
“Relax, he does this a lot, he does not come out of his apartment for days.” I said as we were moving
towards his room.
“But we were supposed to spend the weekend together. He is not even picking up his phone. He always
calls.”
Saurabh and Prabhjot were already there. I knocked his door loudly, there was no response.
“Maybe he is using his headphones with full volume.”
“But I came here at night and yesterday morning also.”
I knew what she was implying but I did not want to say the words. “So, should I force open the door.”
“YES!” She screamed.
I asked Prabhjot to do this as he was the strongest amongst all of us. He took a step back and kicked the
door below the latch. It flew open, the loop holding the latch to the door frame had completely come off.
The room was dimly lit by light from outside. Curtains were drawn on all the windows, the atmosphere
was stuffy and extremely malodorous. There we saw someone sitting on a chair, taped to it and with a
cloth wrapped around his face. We did not want to remove it in front of Harsha but before, we could hold
her, she removed the rag. I did not dare to turn on the light and I think nobody did.
We all just stood there for sometime forgetting all about the poisonous atmosphere when Saurabh said, “I
am calling the police.” He took his phone out of his pocket and called, "Hello! C.I.D.?"

Harsha broke down and
started crying badly. Prabhjot tried to comfort her. I left too. It was difficult to grasp that a person you knew
died.
I was sitting in my room wondering what was going to happen next when, I heard a knock, it was
Prabhjot. He did not say anything but I knew, the police had arrived.
Manit was still on the chair, but the tape was removed. He was greenish, his eyes were barely open, they
were swollen. The windows in the room were opened and the atmosphere was breathable again.
“Adarsh.” It was Gopal, an old friend he was the detective in the case.
“Hi, bro. The situation is too grim for pleasantries.”
“Yes, I have to do my job and ask you some questions. I hope you will cooperate with me as you are also
a suspect.”
“No, problem. I will give you whatever you ask for.”
“You have to come to the police station.”
I did not want to go but I knew that I had to. I, Saurabh, Harsha and Prabhjot were sitting in the back of aMaruti Gypsy with Gopal in front and a constable driving. We reached the police station and we were
seated in the inspector’s cabin. I was called in first.
“I have to get to the point my friend. How do you know Manit?” Gopal asked.
“He was my colleague, we have worked in the same company for the past 5 years, we were good friends.
Recently, we stopped talking to each other but then, I had withdrawn from my social life almost
completely.”
“Why did you do that?” He asked getting a bit suspicious.
“I don’t know, I guess I have lost the purpose in my life.”
“It is never like that, I suggest you to go and talk to a therapist. Anyway, can you think of anybody at work
who might want to harm him.”
“No, we were nobodies. Few people knew us and were just acquaintances.”
“How was he in his personal life?”
“I don’t know.”
“You knew him for the past 5 years and you don’t know about his personal life.”
“He was a very private person. He never said and I never asked. I don’t have any right to talk about his
personal life. Harsha can give you a better insight and if he used to talk to somebody else, I don’t know.”
“As far as I know you, you were not that introvert, what changed you.”
“I just want to do something for the world. You have to make some sacrifices.”
“All I want to say is I may need some more help from you so, please don’t leave town.”
“I won’t. May I go back home?”
“Sure.”
I went away and Prabhjot was called next. I reached home and there was nothing to do. I did not wish to
eat so, I skipped lunch and just laid down on my bed. Not knowing what to do, I just stayed on bed and
looking on the clock at intervals of almost one hours. I got up when the clock struck 9:50. I had to eat. I
went out to get some food.
“Hey Adarsh, you seem to be very affected by Manit’s death.” It was Gopal standing besides me.
“Not much. We were not that close. Apart from work, we had nothing in common. Does the press know?”
“Yes, I gave some information to the press for newspaper. The most difficult part is telling the family.”
“So, are they coming? How upset were they?”
“Very. Manit had cut them off from his life but still. They will be here tomorrow morning. So, are you fine?”
“Yes, it is just that I have nothing to do. I am always like this.”
“Ok, then let us find something for you to do. Help me solve the case quickly.”
“I don’t know if I can be of any help.”
“Cheer up mate. Show some energy we cannot do anything to bring him back but we can surely punish
the criminal.”
“Ok, so where shall we start?”
“Now that is the Adarsh I remember.”
It is always better to be busy or else the mind takes control. “So, who could be benefitted by his death?”
“Read a lot of mystery novels.”
“Not for quite some time but that's how they always do it.”
“Lets first discuss the crime scene, you were there what did you observe?”
“The room was dark and malodorous, curtains were drawn on all windows wait, let me start with the way I
interacted with everything.” I gathered my thoughts and started again.
“The room was locked from inside that means the killer came with him or he knew the killer or the killer
locked the door from inside and left through the window, we can eliminate that as all the windows were
barred although not locked, I don’t know how the door was locked from inside.”
“You are directly jumping into conclusions without considering all the facts, first layout all the facts. We
know that all the windows were barred and the door was locked from inside, what else?”“There were some cardboard boxes in the room.”
“What about the condition of the house? Everything was messy.”
“No, that is how he lives.”
“There also weren’t any rugs or mats on the floor.”
“I never noticed anything like that.”
“See, we found something odd.”
“No, I mean that I had never noticed rugs ever. I rarely ever went to his house, he came to mine and I
don’t have rugs either.”
“Even the floor was dirty, did he stay like that too.”
“I don’t know you must ask Harsha or Saurabh, they went to his place more than me.”
“What about his emails and orkut?”
“I think his password for one of them is ‘thetimesofindia’ or ‘voltasac’ without spaces all small.”
“How do you know?”
“He never hides it and keeps it written in a piece of paper.”
“So, did he not have secrets?”
“Maybe, but he did hide contents of his computer.”
“So, he also has a desktop pc.”
“No, just the laptop.”
“Right, you also call a laptop - computer. Has he ever hurt a woman? I mean, not physically.”
“I don’t know, I have known him to be with Harsha since, I have met him.”
“Well, it is getting late. Would you be alright on your own?”
“Yes. Don’t worry about me.”
Gopal left, I finished my cold egg roll and went to bed. Surprisingly sleep was easy to come by.
In the morning, I went to the crime scene with some enthusiasm to try to help Gopal. He was not there.
The door was locked.
“Move along.” Somebody shouted. It was a constable.
“Can you please tell me where I can find Detective Inspector Gopal?”
“No.” He replied with a single word. He had a stick. I have known by Gaurav's experience that a
policeman with a stick is more dangerous than an armed one.
With reduced enthusiasm, I went back to my room.
There was something I had to do, I didn’t know whether I should help Gopal or stay out of his way. I
prepared lunch and sat down, I was halfway eating it when someone knocked the door. I got up and it
was Saurabh.
"Hi."
"Hi, come in. I was eating."
"Oh, I am sorry to disturb you but I have to ask you something."
"You can ask me while I am eating." I said and sat to eat.
"It is something about Manit."
"Go ahead. Did Gopal just interrogate you?"
"Yes. You and Manit used to talk to each other but then you suddenly stopped." He asked.
This made me a bit uncomfortable as he was treating me like a suspect. "I convinced him to try an idea of
mine. We spent lot of time and money on it and it failed miserably. He lost more than I did. I was ashamed
to even face him."
"What was it about?"
"It was related to online processing and bit-coin mining."
"So, what happened?"
"It was getting too expensive to be profitable."

Gopal was going from room to room checking the windows, all were grilled properly with steel rods. It
could not have been a suicide. Doors were locked, windows were locked. There has to be some way out.
Ventilators. He got a step ladder and analysed each one. All were caked with dust and had cobwebs. The
murderer could not have escaped via ventilators.
Stuck on one point, he went for the other, why was he packing. Harsha had no idea about it. He went to a
nearby general store to ask them if he bought the cartons from them.
"Yes, sir. He bought 1 kg of cartons."
"Did he say why?"
"Artworks."
Gopal started to get suspicious. Manit must have been involved in something shady.
The forensics reported that the cloth was doused with excess amount of Chloroform. There was no sign
of any bottle or something to store chloroform or something similar. The killer must have taken it with
himself or thrown it nearby. He ordered some constables to come to the crime scene.
"We need to find a glass vial or bottle nearby."
"But sir, what kind of glass bottle? There are a lot of glass bottles."
"Leave any that has something that looks like liquor or cleaners. Check for medicines or improperly
labelled. Also, they must not be old."
They looked for a while. "Sir, there is no bottle that might fit to your description."
"Get some rag pickers. They will search thoroughly."
Within minutes, a rag picker was arranged. He was filled in on the details. A few hours later, he separated
different kinds of bottles. Old, new, alcohol containing, medicinal etc. Gopal searched from the medicinal
ones and found nothing. Hours of work to no use. The murderer must have thrown it somewhere farther.
He called the district magistrate for a search warrant in his office for records.
Someone knocked my door, I opened it. It was Gopal, he looked tired and reeked of garbage and sweat.
"What are you making?"
"Okra."
"So, spicy?"
The house was pungent with the smell of spices. "I misjudged the amount of spices needed in the tadka."
"Ok. May I use your bathroom to clean up?"
"Sure, just try to keep the area dry."
"Ok."
He cleaned up, changed into his spare clothes he kept in his bag. Took a shower to remove the stink.
Cleaned up, he looked majestic in a white kurta. His combed his beard and along with his thick mustache,
he created a presence in the room.
"Will you be joining me for dinner?"
"Sure," he replied.
I laid out two plates and served 4 chapattis and some okra.
"You knew I was going to join for dinner?"
"Yeah, I guessed when you came here tired and stinking. I thought you will need some food and rest."
We ate in silence. That was unlike both of us.
When we finished eating, I soaked the plates and put them away. We washed hands.
"Do you want to talk?" Adarsh asked.
"I don't know if it will be alright with you being the suspect. I am sorry."
"Me too. There must be something we could do or are you too busy?"
"Ok, here is the thing. There is nothing that I can connect. I am not able to find anything from his house.
Tomorrow, I am going to talk to his colleagues."
"Ok. Can I do anything to help?""No. Apparently not." Gopal left.
Gopal got up the next day and checked the contacts and messages in Manit’s phone. There was nothing
significant. His sent messages had only the texts needed to be sent to telebrands or voting in reality
shows. He had no other sim card issued in his name. His contact list had very few contacts all is family,
friends and his colleagues in work. For a programmer, he sure did not use much technology. That was
very odd.
A constable came to his house to deliver the warrant. With the warrant in hand he left for Manit’s work
place.
The office building was to open at 8. Gopal thought of going in before everyone arrives. He reached a few
minutes before 6, the door was locked. A security guard was sitting next to it. He looked at Gopal.
“Open the door.”
“Why?”
Gopal produced his ID showing his post. The guard jumped up and said, “Right away, sir.” He unlocked
the door and let him in.
He knew Manit’s cubicle. He looked into drawers, the top one was filled with pens, blank A4 size papers,
a stapler without pins. The middle one was empty and the bottom had a dirty tiffin box. There was nothing
special or odd. He checked behind the table but there was no space. He tried to move it but is was nailed
down to the floor.
He gave up searching. There was nothing out of the ordinary. He waited for a while and someone entered
the office. He was tall, lean and with thick spectacles.
“Excuse me, what is your post in this office.”
“Senior design supervisor.”
“Are you Manit’s senior?”
“I don’t know him. He must not be working under me.”
“Ok, who is the head here.”
“His name is Abhishek, he is the divisional head. He can tell you everything.”
“Ok, thank you.”
He sat down on a bench near the divisional head’s cabin and waited at about 10 minutes to 9, a tall man
with an athletic body and greying hair entered into the cabin.
Gopal knocked on the glass door. Abhishek signalled him to come in.
“Sir, I need some information about Manit.”
“I cannot give it unless you have a search warrant.”
“Yes, here.” He handed out the documents which stated that the company should cooperate with the
detective for the aid of investigation.
He read it carefully. “Ok, sir, may I see an ID.”
Gopal handed it to him.
Abhishek returned both and said, “Everything is fine. Whatever you need please ask me.”
“I want to know that was Manit an odd person or did he caused any disturbance.”
There was nothing serious but most of these matters are handled by Animesh. He is his immediate
supervisor.
It was almost 9 the place was now buzzing. Gopal went to Animesh’s cabin. He was not there. At about 5
minutes to 9, he arrived.
“Mr. Animesh.” Gopal said as he went in.
“I don’t have time.”
“It is important. I am Detective Inspector Gopal and I am working on the murder case of Manit.”
“What do you want to know?” He was to the point.“How was Manit as a person?”
“He was never punctual and unprofessional. He would always take a lot of holidays. He never completed
his assigned work on time. He would mess up the deadline of the whole team.” He said with a stingy tone.
“How was he with co workers?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he had some enemies?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was he especially close to someone else?”
“I don’t know.” He had started to become angry.
Gopal had a lot of experience with the type of these. They were the hard core workaholics. They would
give more information when spoken to politely. “Since, he was clearly not a sincere worker, what did he
do.”
“He used to talk to some other guy of some other team.”
“Can you tell me about him.”
“No. I don’t know his name and it is not my business to dwell on my subordinates’ personal life.”
“Thank you for your valuable time to help the police catch a murderer.” Gopal said.
Animesh got into his work and did not pay any attention.
There were four members in the team.
First, he went for Gaurav. He was a well built guy with a paunch. He was listening to music and
apparently coding. Gopal tapped on his shoulder, he turned around, looked at him puzzled and said,
“Yes.”
“I am Detective Inspector Gopal and I am investigating the murder case of Manit.”
He took off his earphones. “Ok, sir.” He said it with some nervousness.
“What do you know about Manit?”
“Not much sir. Only that he was a very absent minded and forgetful person. He never spent any time with
us. He only talked to Adarsh from the other team.”
“Anything weird about him?”
“Yes, he used to take a lot of sick leaves. I don’t think he got sick that often.”
“So, you are saying that he would leave work just for no apparent reason?”
“I don’t know sir, he has a girlfriend. Maybe he used to stay with her.”
That was a bit odd as Harsha said that he would spend a lot of time working. DId he have a secret life?
“Ok, can you tell me a bit about other team members?”
“Yes sir, there is Apoorva. She is a nice person and a dedicated employee, she is a south Indian but
knows Hindi and there is Jeyaram. He is also a south Indian but does not speak much Hindi so, he is
mostly lonely. He spends a lot of his time talking to his girlfriend on the phone. Animesh sir has
reprimanded him many times for this.”
“About Animesh, what kind of a person is he?”
“He is a very strict person. If you work hard and complete the deadlines well within time limit then he is a
nice person. He is very hard working and knowledgeable man but if you are late or take a leave for no
apparent reason between projects, he would become just as unpleasant.”
“Ok. Thank You.”
“Welcome sir.” Gopal smiled. It was clear to him that he has had some less desirable encounters with the police.
Second was Jeyaram. He was a Tamil with bad Hindi. He went to his cubicle. He was whispering in his
phone. Gopal knocked on his cubicle wall. He quickly hung up and turned towards him. He saw Gopal
and gave a deep sigh.
“Why did you suddenly hung up?”
“I did not and who are you?”
“I am detective inspector Gopal.”

“I was talking to my mother.”
“You were talking to your mother about breaking up with her?” He became silent. “Don’t worry. I am not here to scare you and sorry if I did.”
He smiled and said, “No problem. Is there a problem?”
“Yes, I want to know about Manit.”
“I don’t know much about him except that he never completes deadlines on time and he is the reason, we
have to work more. Why what did he do?”
“He was found murdered.” He looked at Gopal with horror. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”
“He used to talk to Adarsh a lot but then a few months, they stopped.”
“Did he still take holidays?"
“Yes.”
“Ok, thank you and sorry if I scared you.”
“No problem.” He tried to smile but could not.
He went to Apoorva. He asked the same questions and got the same answers.
He found Adarsh’s team supervisor. Nidhi.
He went to her cabin, “Are you Nidhi?”
“Yes.”
“Madam, I am Detective Inspector Gopal.”
“How may I help you?”
“It is about your team members.”
“What do you want to know?”
“What can you say about Adarsh?”
“He has a thin skin and he is a bad listener. He comes on time most of the time and leaves late and he
works a lot. He also comes on weekends.”
“Something about his personality.”
“He was cheerful and social earlier but now he just works and leaves. He apparently has no ambitions. He
never gives any exams or apply for promotions.”
“Anything you can tell about your team.”
“Well there is Shruti. There is nothing much to say about her, Ketan he is also a good worker and person
and there is Sumant, he is different. He is very absent minded, day-dreaming person and is almost
always alone.”
“Ok, thank you.”
He went to Ketan. “Ketan.”
“Yes.”
“Detective inspector Gopal. Did you know Manit?”
“No properly sir, I talked to him a little in the office party.”
“About what?”
“Nothing, he was just saying that the party was too lame.”
“Ok, how well you know Adarsh?”
“He was a great friend. Always cheerful.” Gopal knew that about him from the college. “Now though, he is
completely silent. He leaves the last and does not spend any time amongst us.”
“When did this transition occur?”
“A few months ago. He used to talk a lot to Manit about different technical stuff related to
cryptocurrencies, how open source softwares are best for security. He said that microsoft and all its units
only want to sell you their products, create monopoly and then if a hacker attacks then all will be stuffed.”
“What did he use if not Microsoft and Windows?”“He was a big fan of the Linux. His personal one had red hat. It is a bit outdated and does not have so
many functions but he uses it for anonymity.”
He had not yet thought of all that. “Ok, thanks for the information.” Manit must also be using something
like that.
He came, while I was coding.
“Adarsh.” He shouted.
“What? Oh Gopal.”
“Listen, what operating system do you use?”
“I use windows but I also have Linux Red hat.”
“Can you show me red hat?”
“I don’t want to but if you want to search my computer, you need to give me a good reason and just
investigating for Manit is not going to work.”
“Adarsh, it is important. Manit did not seem to be using much technology. He must be having one of the
secure software you use.”
“He was not that tech savvy. I used to put windows in his computer. There is no way he could learn to
have dual boot all by himself.”
“I will get a warrant to seize your pc and get a hacker to open it and it will take a long time.” Gopal
threatened me with that calm voice which persuaded me.
“Ok, but at least tell me what you are looking for.”
“No.” It was his answer.
He took my computer and turned it on. It showed the grub menu. He selected red hat. It was annoying me
because all my life’s work was in it.
“Whatever you do, please don’t leak the information. It is useless but I spent so much time, reputation and
money on this. I hope to become successful and I think I still can make it.”
“Don’t worry about that. So, you claim that all the data in this is absolutely yours.”
“Yes, everything that is not in the red hat package is mine.” I still did not believe that he would keep the
data safe.
“What is the thing about?”
“Bitcoin mining, ways to use others computers as servers to increase processing power.”
“Explain.”
“This is a program in which, I could put a small file in other computers that would free up a particular
amount of processing power in their devices for my purposes. Then, I would then use that and give it to
different domains that would then use those computers along with mine as a server.”
“You mean like a virus.”
“No, I mean it can be used like that but I never intend to use it that way. If enough people agree, we can
have large amounts of processing power and even small institutions can use them.”
“And you want them to pay you.” I did not like that he was accusing me of being selfish, he knew better.
“I would make them pay me for better speeds and better hardware. Not exactly pay but get donations. I
was hoping big institutions would buy it and make it better. Manit wanted to make money off of it.”
“And you were against that.” He was suspecting be again.
“Yes.”
“And what is this obsession of yours with cryptocurrency.”
“It is the future. With increase in e-commerce, I think this will be used more and it will be a good idea to
invest in these.”
“Thank you for being so cooperative. Please excuse me for being rude.” His apology did soften me. “But I
will need to get these analysed by some experts. Which I will personally make sure don’t take anything
out of your codes.”And he did it again. “The experts may do little changes in the codes and make it look as their and there
will be nothing I would be able to do.”
“They will be high paid police tech experts. They will not need your code to get rich. I will try to get it done
as soon as possible.”
It gave me a little hope but I was still worried.
He went to Abhishek’s office to check the attendance of the Manit and Adarsh.
Adarsh and Manit took holidays almost on the same days until 3 months ago. Adarsh stopped taking
holidays but Manit’s holidays were the same. Manit must have started the shady business. Without
Adarsh’s knowledge. Maybe Adarsh found out and killed Manit. Gopal thought of all this and decided to
search Manit’s house to get something that could help him. He searched about the different ways to keep
multiple operating systems. He read about live boot. A cd or usb flash drive could be used to store an
entire computer environment without leaving any trace. There has to be a usb flash drive or cd in his
house. He had to search one.
He went to Manit’s home. He unlocked the front door and entered the atmosphere was still stuffy. He
closed the door behind him and began his search. Manit was a two-faced man. He probably will keep it in
obvious places as double bluff but that is what a normal person thinks. So, weird places. He must be
using a usb flash drive as it is easier to hide places.
He went to the bathroom to look for it. He checked behind the flush tank, one the ventilator, the window,
below the sink. Nothing was in there. Next, he went to the kitchen. He checked the utensils, food storage
containers and all the shelves. There was a lot more to cover but he got bored and tired. He called his
subordinate, Senior Officer Manish to help him search the place. He looked in the water filter and then the
refrigerator. He checked the top, below it and even inside. He looked behind and it was clean. He turned it
around. Most of the places that were not in direct view were caked with dust and cobwebs. The rear was
clean. He tilted the refrigerator backwards and a slightly dusty flash drive and some water of
condensation came out. The flash drive fell on the water. Gopal quickly too a handkerchief from his
pocket and tried to dry it. He got what he was looking for.
His phone rang, he picked it up it was Manish asking him to open the door.
He opened the door. “You need some help finding something?”
“Well, I found it.” He said and gave him the flash drive wrapped in his handkerchief.
“What is it?”
“It is a usb flash drive. So, don’t let it get wet.”
“Ok.”
They went back to the head quarters and checked the flash drive. Predictably, it was password protected.
They gave it to the hackers to unlock. Which they said may take days without any hint. Gopal did not have
enough time. He decided to go to Manit’s house to search for a password and sent Manish to Harsha’s to
get some clue to his password. Gopal looked for any piece of paper just in case Adarsh was correct.
Gopal knew where to look - any place that does not have dust and cobwebs will be it. He went to the
bathroom.
He was a sloth right, he never dusted his house. All the window sills were caked with dust. The bathroom
window was clean.He took a chair and climbed on it. On observing, he saw that the grill edges didn't align
well with the marks. He pushed the grill and it gave way. He removed it and there was enough space for a
medium sized person to get out. This has to be the only way out. This was a major step closer, someone
might have seen a person jumping out of the window or some tracks. He tried observing near the window
but it was no use. The ground was paved and there was a lot of garbage which would in no way reveal
anything. He went back in to search the password.Manish went to Harsha’s home. He rang the doorbell. Prabhjot answered. Harsha was in a better mood.
This did not give Manish a good impression.
“I want to search this place. Do you mind?” Manish said.
“No. Please do what you can but I don’t think there is something.”
“I will take care of that. Is there anything that Manit gave to you like a book or diary or something.”
“He has given me two diaries blank and many books.”
“Please give them to me.”
“Why?”
“If you want to catch Manit’s murderer then cooperate.”
“Ok sir, go ahead. I don’t have any secrets.” She said as she sat on the couch with Prabhjot.
Manish started the search with the kitchen. He had no idea what was he looking for. It would be like
looking for a needle in a haystack. There was no way of searching for some random lettering in an entire
house. If something so important was in the usb, he would put the password outside his mind only to tell
someone. Harsha must know something about the password if not the password. Would she tell?
The best course would be to arrest Harsha to make her reveal the password. If it is something that could
possibly have made them rich she would never tell.
He called Gopal to discuss the idea. “It is a horrible idea. Manit never told her anything. He was trying to
run away without telling her. She knows nothing.”
“We cannot search a piece of paper not even a piece of paper, just some random characters.”
“Yes, you are right. Come to the headquarters, we will discuss the course of action.”
The men checking Adarsh’s codes reported that it was indeed what he said. There were also some
encryption and decryption tools. Gopal thought it was a strong probability that Manit used the same tools.
He gave the hackers the decryption tools and they quickly unlocked the flash drive completely. It had all
the files with a few modifications. There was no mention of Adarsh anywhere. There were also some logs
showing the money he received from weird sites and some account numbers and some locations and
details in Romania.
It was now clear nobody knew about this except Adarsh. Adarsh must have seen this. With his idea, Manit
was making tonnes of money. Adarsh must have killed him for betrayal.
He called the district magistrate to issue Adarsh’s arrest warrant
.
My doorbell rang, Gopal along with another police officer was standing at my door. “Adarsh, you are
under arrest for the murder of Manit.”
I knew this was going to happen. I extended my hands forward and they handcuffed me. They took me to
the lock up and started asking questions.
“Why did you do it?”
I replied what every guilty and innocent person says, “I did not do it.”
“How can we believe you? Do you have any reliable albi?”
“No.”
“What were you doing at that night?”
“I was lying on the bed and staring at the clock.”
“Right, I don’t believe you. Ok, correct us where we are wrong.”
“You and Manit had an idea that could potentially make both of you rich. He stole the idea, made a lot of
money, you got furious and thus, you killed him.”
“You are wrong at firstly- where you said, stole the idea. It was partially his idea too. Second, he could not
have made money off of it as he knew shit about it. Even the language, I wrote it in- php, he does not
know. And lastly, I did not kill him.”
“Here is the fact, Manit knew all of it. Either it is your way of trying to dodge the blame or he fooled you.”
They showed me some logs and my files with some modification. He had made a lot of money and thedomains were rouge. He was using it as a virus and to transmit and store illegal data in unsuspecting
person’s computer..
“That bastard.”
“This we have found is from the backup. The last date is 3 weeks old and he has been taking holidays
even till a few days before his murder.” He showed me the pen drive in a ziplock bag.To get the money,
you will need original flash drive. As we speak, there is police searching your place. Any moment now, we
will have proof that you did it. So, you want to wait or confess now.” Gopal started to put pressure on me.
“Detective, if I knew what he was doing, I could easily use him as a fall guy and share money with him.”
“You said that you never intended it to use it the way he was doing.”
“Money changes people and once you have stepped in mud, you would not think where your feet are
going.”
“You are the only person that could have done this. We will see each other during trial.”
They never found the pen drive because, I threw it away in gutter. It was never about money. They could
not connect it to me because Manit wanted to keep it all to himself. On trying to erase his trail, he erased
much of mine too he destroyed any sort of connection between me and what he was doing. The police
and Manit’s parents filed a case accusing me of murder. There was no evidence to implicate me.
1 month earlier
Manit was still taking so many holidays. It was suspicious. I followed him, he would always go to his
home. One day, I saw him connecting a flash drive to his computer in the canteen which he removed as
soon as he saw me. Now, I had to find a way to get it away from him. There was one way, whenever
Animesh called him. One day, he might leave the flash drive there. His cubicle was in view from mine I
just had to stand up. I fixed my webcam and tried to see where he keeps it. I did not worry about getting
into trouble as that part of the office was not covered by any of the two surveillance cameras. The
company was cheap and lazy. He was now trying to remove it. I stood up and saw him putting it in his
bag. I waited till I could get a chance alone with his bag.
On Friday, just like every week, Animesh was warning Manit to be present on Monday at any and all
costs. I went to his cubicle searching the path not visible to the cameras and also hid behind the crowd of
people leaving. I entered his cubicle. It was properly organised unlike him and his house. I took his bag
and knowing him, I searched first in the main compartment of his bag. I found it easily in under a minute. I
took it with me and went home. I searched its contents. It was encrypted. I decrypted using some of my
tools. It had my complete program and my name and digital signature were nowhere to be seen. There
were also logs. He was making money at 16k a week being the lowest and 28k being the highest. All the
websites had rouge domains including the infamous soviet union’s ‘.su’. There were places in Romania.
He was planning to run away. It was the time for a confrontation. I went to his house he was not there. He
probably went to get drunk. I went back home and returned after a few hours. His door was ajar. I went in,
he was sleeping. I looked around, cardboard boxes, rubber gloves and a few vile of what appeared to be
poisonous chemicals. I wore the rubber gloves afraid, he might report my actions to the police. Looking at
his actions, there could not be any surprises if he suddenly decides to get violent. Why does he need
rubber gloves and chemicals? There was also a lot of tape. It would be easier to strike fear into his mind if
he would be immobile.I lifted him up and sat him on a chair. I taped his hands then his mouth, then hands
again, legs and even head. He started to stir up. I turned on the light. He looked at me for a long time
before he realised he was not in a nightmare. What can I do with him? He is not going to stop what he
was doing. The best course would be to just end it all. There was a lot of dangerous chemicals around
including a small bottle of what the label said was Chloroform. I spilled a little on the back of my hand to
feel. It was chloroform. It had a strong whiff that gave me a headache. I took a rag and doused it with
chloroform. Its smell was making me dizzy. I wrapped it around his head. He gave some muffled groans. I waited for a while after he stopped groaning. I checked his pulse on his chest, there was none. I had
gloves, I could make it look like a suicide but where is the fun when they won’t even try to catch me.