The Adventures of Detective Momo – Short Stories

A detective is born

"Sherlock Holmes of course," I said making my point clear. "He was the best detective ever; I shall surpass him one day." I said dreamily. My cousin just shrugged, he was least interested in the discussion.

I had come home on my annual winter vacations from boarding school. This academic year had been a very exciting one, reasons being, I had moved to the senior school as a ninth grader, and most importantly, I had chosen a career path for myself. I was proud of what I had achieved in the last eight months, finishing off volumes of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot mysteries available in the library, and spending hours on the mountains polishing my skills of deduction and observation.

Now, I had the perfect opportunity to bring into use the powers I had gained in the hills, and embark on a journey of intrigues. My cousin Amit was not at all amused with my career progress, and sat there mocking at me. Though only four years elder to me, he thought himself as a reincarnation of Socrates, ‘sigh’; I pity philosophical people who don’t follow methods and order.

‘Ha!! Aunty, Momo wants to become a detective’, ridiculing my candid revelations, he went out laughing to spread the news. A detective had just been born, all I needed was a case to start off my budding career and prove to the world my finesse at the art.

Like my idol, I also needed a Watson to compile my cases and act as my eyes and ears and I just gathered who the lucky one was.

"My dear Watson, I have a job for you?" I said to my younger sister Nita, who was busy dressing up a stupid Barbie doll in her room. My sister though only a year younger, had still to learn the basics of real world which was unlike her Barbie doll house. But she had potential and I was willing to mould her, what other options did I have?

‘Watson eh, who’s he? A new film star,’ she said innocently.

"Nita my sister you don’t understand, your brother is going to be famous soon and you are going to be a part of his success. Have you heard of Sherlock Holmes?"

‘Is he a film star too?’

"Never mind forget them, well you see that greeting card," I said pointing to a card lying on the table.

‘Yes I do, in fact Mom had asked me to open it earlier,’ she said, stooping towards it.

"Can you guess whom is it from?" I said with a superior nod of my head and embarking on to give her a small sample of my skills. ‘How can I know unless I open it? The sender’s address is also not mentioned.’ She said with a puzzled expression.

"Well I can tell you without looking at the envelope, it’s from Canada and Aunt Anita is the sender. Open it."

‘Wow brother you are right, how did you know?’ she said looking at me with awe plus admiration and puzzlingly at the envelope.

"Watson it’s the art of deduction. Observe it’s an airmail which means the letter is from abroad, we don’t have any relatives besides Aunt Anita who lives there and could have sent us a greeting. Finally the Canadian stamp on the envelope confirmed the identity of the sender. So you see it is all nothing but logic."

‘You are great brother,’ Nita exclaimed, with the awed expression becoming even more awed.

‘It was so simple but yet complicated, anyone could have noticed the stamp and guessed.’

"That is the difference between you, me and anyone; you still have to learn a lot. I have been practicing my powers since the last eight months." I said haughtily.

The small but fruitful dialogue finally got me an awed associate, though a little low in grey cells content, but I could manage. I still had to take her into complete confidence with few more demonstrations of my newly found powers. I Shall do it positively tomorrow, I reminded myself.

The morning was a beautiful one and I had a feeling that my first official case was around the corner. Nita was eyeing me the entire time while we finished off having breakfast, maybe trying to convey a message across.

"Well what is it?" I asked her tugging her inside the drawing room.

‘You know my friend Shruti, don’t you?’ I nodded in approval.

‘I told her I am Washburn or whose son, whatever, and you are Detective Momo now.’

"Its Watson," I intervened.

‘Yes Wat-a-son, she was impressed when I told her about the envelope case, you should have seen the awed expression on her face, and guess what?’

"What?" I replied with an exhilarated feel of having two awed followers already.

‘She has a case for you to investigate, it’s a murder.’

"What murder eh?" I said overjoyed hugging Nita, ‘but murder is nasty business, we have to be careful. Call her in the afternoon and let us hear about the tragedy. And you get a diary and start making notes, this is our first case," I said to her excitedly.

Even Sherlock Holmes’s first case would not have been a murder; things were moving fast, I had expected a minor theft or misunderstanding but a murder never. It was always good to start early in life and I had the gift.

The skills my idols acquired during a career spanning their lifetime, I had in fact mastered in a few months by just reading all their ways and methods, an intelligent shortcut I would say, which deserved a pat.

We gathered after lunch in the Drawing room, making sure everyone else in the house was asleep, especially Amit, I didn’t want dumb witted moron’s intervening in between matters of grave concern. I sat on the head Sofa with my fingers crossed giving a serious and thoughtful look, Watson sat at my side with her Barbie doll notebook and finally Shruti opposite us, looking awed with the ongoing charade.

I have to mention that the grey cell count of Nita and Shruti was fiercely competitive and I had to keep this factor in mind during our discussions. With a gesture of my hand I beckoned Shruti to start.

‘Well Momo it happened this way’

"Detective Momo or just detective," I said intervening.

‘Oh sorry detective,’ I could see the awed look reappearing on her face. ‘I shall try my best to relate the incident as clearly as possible, well; I left Nina in perfectly good health day before yesterday and..’

"Who the hell is Nina?" I cross questioned her. ‘Oh she is Shruti’s best friend,’ Nita cut in.

"Ok, so you have also met her, keep noting down," I said to her. "Yes Shruti please continue."

‘Nina suddenly disappeared yesterday, I tried looking for her in the house, colony, everywhere, and even Ramu Kaka was on to it but in vain. Finally today we discovered her body in the garden; somebody had cut her throat,’ she broke off sobbing.

"So you discovered the body in the morning," I said. (But of course in the morning moron, I guess I was being too logical hummph.)

‘No it was Rocky our Dog who found it.’

Hmm I though to myself, correct!! Dogs are the first people to smell anything dead. "And was Nina living with you?" I asked.

‘Yes Mom and Dad had brought Nina two years back,’ she said sobbing. I comforted her; Nina was an adopted child, her sister. What a ghastly incident.

"Have your parents informed the police?" I asked.

‘No, Mum asked me to keep mum, no calling the police.’ She replied.

"This is not good the police should have been informed and where is the body?"

‘Its still in the house, Mum said we will bury it on Sunday,’ she said with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"What? The body is still in the house I need to speak to Mrs. Gupta, this matter is serious," I beckoned Nita to get the telephone set. Shruti dialed her home and I was put on to a husky voice.

‘Yes, who is it. Oh Momo tell me,’ she said.

"Aunty I am really sorry to hear about Nina, Is it ok if I come down to have a look," I said with a voice of assurance.

‘Sure son come down, Shruti is taking it really very hard, I feel sorry for her, Nina was her sister, and we have to still catch the culprit who did this to poor Nina. I guess you can help her out.’ She said in a rather sad voice and hung up.

What have the elders come to? Keeping a dead body in their house was something totally insane. My mind was racing, already a hypothesis was forming but I needed to examine the scene of crime and the body to net in more clues and round up suspects. Every minute detail mattered in a murder investigation.

"Ok Shruti I will take up this case, we need to go to your house right now to investigate and let’s also finalize on our fees." I said.

‘What fees?’ She exclaimed looking rather surprised.

"Detectives don’t work for free, we work on a fee, I am sure you want to catch Nina’s killer, I’m your only hope." I said in a serious tone.

‘I can offer you two Dairy milks, that’s my entire wealth,’ pleaded Shruti.

‘Can I have the doll bed too,’ Nita giggled in.

"Shut up," I shouted in anger. "Nina has been murdered and all you can think of is dolls and only dolls, I shall exclude you from my internship.

The sentence on exclusion took Nita by surprise and she pleaded to be forgiven. After all she had seen my powers. So once everything was decided and agreed upon, I put on my blazer, gloves and cowboy hat, slipped in a magnifying glass which I had bought for three rupees, useless though but gave a professional touch. Being under age I could not smoke a pipe so I suffed a toothpick in my mouth making it a trademark style, a final look in the mirror and I was ready.

‘Where do you think you are going in that hideous dress, a Halloween party maybe, and what’s with the toothpick,’ said Amit entering my room bursting with laughter.

I was flushing with anger but ignored his comments as there were more important things to attend to rather than playing Aristotle, Aristotle with the dumb witted moron.

My mother soon followed after him, ‘what is this you are wearing Momo, and where are you off to,’ she asked sounding puzzled.

"Mrs. Gupta has called me to help her, there has been a murder at her place," I said seriously. There was howl of laughter in the background and I saw Amit rolling all over the floor.

‘The great detective Momo has been called to solve a murder hahaha!’ He kept on howling.

‘Amit shut up and Momo you better stop playing such stupid games, I shall speak to Mrs. Gupta on this subject and what’s with the toothpick,’ mumbling she left the room.
I had also by now seen enough howling of the baboon and decided to join my admirers who were waiting in the drawing room.

"Lets make a move," I said entering. Both the girls looked at me, then looked at each other and then again looked at me, this time with awe.

‘You look mind blowing boss,’ Nita said, full of admiration.

‘What’s with the toothpick,’ said Shruti.

"It helps me think in a logical way," I replied trying to sound intelligent and again was greeted by the very same expression I was getting used to now ‘awe.’

Ramu Kaka opened the gates for us as we entered. "I am really sorry Kaka about Nina,’ I said in a comforting tone.

‘What? Who? Eh Nina, ahh yes it is sad very sad,’ he said scratching his head.

"Can you show us where the body was found Shruti?"

She guided us to a spot in the garden, ‘here’ she said pointing towards the grass. I chewed on my toothpick and went down on my knees, feeling the grass.

"Hmm I see two set of footprints, and some of the grass has been ruffled here in this place, which means that the body had been dragged from the verandah, " I said thoughtfully putting my magnifying glass back in the pocket in a professional way.

"Ahh what do we have here," I said and bent down to slip an object of interest in my blazer pocket.

‘Can we have a look with that glass? We can’t see anything,’ Nita said.

"Not now," I replied, "maybe later we are finished here, nothing much to see eh! Let’s examine the body," saying I glanced around one last time like any other detective would and noted the same expressions which I don’t need to mention now on the faces of my interns.

Ramu Kaka was still scratching his head as we crossed him, looking at us in an amused manner.

‘What’s with the toothpick Momo baba,’ he said scratching his scalp even more vigorously.

‘It helps him think in a logical way,’ Shruti jerked in before I could open my mouth. I nodded in approval.

‘And the hat helps in keeping his big brains inside his small head,’ cut in Nita enthusiastically trying to gain my nod of approval. I looked at her in disgust as we entered the house.

‘Let us go to my room directly, Nina is sleeping there,’ said Shruti. Hearing her only gave me the creeps, how can one keep a corpse inside the bedroom and where are the elders? They have no concern or brains.

‘There it is,’ she said pointing towards the bed starting to sob again.

I looked in the direction but was unable to see anything, maybe it’s under the bed and quite logically it should be there I thought to myself, where else can it be. Slowly I eased myself under the queen bed. There was nothing there.

‘What are you doing under the bed, the body is on the bed,’ retorted Shruti.

‘Boss is looking for clues, I am sure,’ replied Nita, saying something intelligent for the first time. Well I did not see any body on the bed, I thought to myself, must have missed it, let us see again. I came out in the light again.

"Where?" I asked.

‘There,’ said Nita pointing on the bed

What I saw next should have brought about a turning point in my detecting career but due to my inner strengths and resolve I survived the shock. There lay on the bed a ‘Barbie doll’ with a cut on her throat. I was taken aback by the sight, I had no words or as they say, mum is the word.

‘Isn’t it shocking,’ said Shruti wiping her tears.

Nita comforted her with an equally matched answer, ‘I would have felt the same if someone had done this to Jessie.’

I felt like tearing my hair and running like a madman on the streets, I had actually overestimated the little and the tiniest grain of grey matter which was there in the two brilliant brains. My hopes had been dashed, the first case had become a fiasco; I was actually investigating the case of a murdered doll. Amit’s howls of laughter started ringing in the background.

‘So what do you think detective?’ said Shruti breaking into my thoughts.

"What do I think Eh? What do I think? Both the nit wits had no clue what I had been going through, they wanted me to catch the murderer of a doll. Thinking logically at the same time, I could not reveal my lines of thought so far otherwise I would make a fool of myself and also end up losing my two followers, especially their expressions.

Also I had accepted the fees for the assignment and the code of a detective does not allow him to turn back. What would Sherlock Holmes say? I pondered.

"The show must go on, as said by someone, sometime for some show." I got a sudden vision on how to solve this crazy mess.

‘Boss is everything all right?’ nudged Nita, waking me up.

I picked up the doll examined it closely and then gave a slight smile, yes the same smile which brings on the expressions. It was very clear from the scratch marks that the culprit was none other than Rocky, Shruti’s dog.

"The case is solved, I know who the killer is," I said with a triumphant wave of my hands, followed by throwing away of my toothpick with the click of my finger.

(Well I cannot describe it; you had to be here in person to see the expressions on both the faces. No wait a minute I sensed rather panic on Nita’s.)

‘Can I have a word with you in private brother,’ she pulled me outside the room. Shruti was still mesmerized on her spot.

‘Will you really tell her the Killer’s name,’ she said now approaching tears.

"Yes I have to Nita, I hope you remember we had accepted the fees and this is my job. But why are you behaving like a loony." I said amusingly.

‘How did you find out that I had killed Nina, don’t tell her please, I will give you my dairy milk chocolate,’ said Nita desperately panicking.

"Well, Well, I say," my mind was going round and round and round. So Nita had taken the doll, that’s why she was dressing her up the other day or rather undressing her as it was found dead nude. I never thought from this angle. My powers were failing me; I had to think of something. An idea struck me instantly; it pays to be a real detective.

"Ahhh its ok dear, I knew it from the beginning it was you who had done it but I just wanted to hear it directly from the horse’s mouth," I said calmly.

‘Really brother I must say, you are brilliant. I always wanted Nina’s dress for Jessie but Shruti would never give it to me, always showing it off, so one day I pinched the doll. While I was undressing it the razor struck her throat accidentally and the soft neck just gave way, not my fault though. Then after finishing off, I went and threw the carcass in Shruti’s garden.’ She finished with her hideous story. What a dangerous girl, but can come handy to ward off danger in times to come, I might use her as a potential weapon against my future enemies; I think I sensed it right.

"Well that is a very bad thing to do even though I know Shruti is a show off, it does not mean that you go on a stripping and slitting spree, I should not hear of this again, you understand." I said in an authoritative tone.

‘I promise, but what are you going to tell Shruti now,’ replied Nita.

"Leave that to me, I am a detective," I said wincing at her. (Yes I saw the expression; you don’t have to tell me, Momo is not a fool)

"People gather around as I am now going to reveal all." Shruti looked around there was no one else in the room. (And I was not in a mood of doing a full Monty) I saw her concern and quickly rephrased my sentence, "Well just sit both of you and I shall bring out the facts."

"The killer is an insider Shruti," I said bringing some pain to my voice, "and I can prove it."

‘An insider I can’t believe it,’ she shrieked completely shocked.

I pointed to the corner where Rocky was busy licking his tail and proclaimed, "He is the culprit." Rocky was caught unaware, I guess. He panicked suddenly at my outburst and making a yelping sound ran out of the room.

‘What proof do you have,’ Shruti said with certain excitement.

"Well you observed when we were in the garden; I had picked up an object." I reproduced the object from my blazer pocket.

‘That is Rocky’s name plate from his leash,’ puffed in Shruti.

"Precisely, I discovered it at the crime scene, also one of the set of footprints there were Rocky’s. With precision and a magnifying glass, a good detective can ascertain the difference between human footprints and a paw." I signed off on a winning note.

"Now let me re-construct the entire scene for you, Basically there could only have been one suspect because uncle was on tour, aunty was busy watching recordings of the K-factor drama throughout the day, Ramu Kaka is too old to pinch and slit dolls, Nita was no where near the house when you discovered the body, she was with me and you my dear cannot murder your own friend, so logically who remains." I said finishing off confidently.

‘Rocky, who else?’ punched in Shruti with admiration.

"Precisely, I believe he had a grudge against her. You always dressed Nina in beautiful clothes and poor Rocky was ignored always. Jealousy got on too him and turned him into an animal, so he sneaked inside your room when no one was around and dragged Nina to the garden through the path, where we observed the ruffled up grass."

‘Poor Nina, but where are her clothes? And who slit her throat,’ Nita asked in a puzzled manner. (Well you should know better nitwit, I thought to myself).

"Ohh its pure logic again, Rocky is three months old and at this tender age dogs have an itchy feeling in their canines, I correctly presume after studying the scratch marks, that Rocky took out his itch on Nina keeping in mind the grudge. After his itch had been satiated he realized what he had done, so he took off with all shreds of evidence from the crime scene, I mean whatever was left of her clothes."

Nita was even more wide eyed than Shruti after my brilliant expose; the expressions just kept getting better.

‘You are a genius, can I also work under you like Nita,’ Shruti said pleadingly.

"Well, well, we shall talk about recruitments later, I am really tired after such a tough case, and my brain needs some rest. Nita are you coming home?"

The sun was setting on the horizon throwing a bright orange streak across the sky; I was followed out by my admirers with Rocky yapping at their heels. The poor soul had been convicted wrongly though I confirm I had seen his itch marks on Nina’s face. Well that was the price he had to pay for his canines, I guess.

Shruti bid us goodbye thanking me again and again with the ‘look.’

‘Detective Momo you are the best,’ she said clasping her hands together. I just flicked my hat with the tip of my fingers and moved on. Ramu Kaka was still scratching his head.

‘Eh Momo Baba where is the toothpick,’ he said in a confused tone as we crossed him.

‘His brain is sleeping and cannot think logically now, so the great detective does not require the toothpick,’ Nita cut in with enthusiasm to gain my vote of confidence. I nodded blankly, reminding myself of her grey cells level as we trudged along.

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{This is just the beginning of Momo’s adventures, he was not aware of the greatness he was destined to achieve in his mohallah and the next mohallah, mohallah’s of other cities, and international mohallah’s, in the coming future.

He with his entourage of awed grey less cells and moron’s was the best thing to have happened to the detective fraternity, and it is as we say again ‘just the beginning.’}