Mildwave

Let the words flow. Let the pictures speak

The suspect

A young boy, mostly in his teens, clad in a blue polo t-shirt and dark gray trousers, had a plastic bag in one hand, a book within it, purchased hardly a few moments ago, his hand kerchief and the key of his prized pulsar, along with it. The other hand was fumbling in search of the token which was required to get his bag back. A wallet in one pocket, cell in the other, but the token seemed to be missing. Where could it go… About thirty minutes ago he had entered the shop, and like in all shops he was required to keep all his possessions outside with the guard before going in, for which he was given a token and while leaving on producing it, he would get back his possession.

The guard, hardly a few meters away, held a constant vigil on him. There was not much of a crowd in the shop, so not many eyes were on him. Not had many noticed the thirty long minutes he had spent at the shop. Nor none bothered to know what he did all the while. A cell in his hand, going through the range of books available for selection, he took his time to select the book he wanted to buy. He narrowed it down to a single book, ‘The hungry tide’ by Amitav Ghosh. After a while of thinking on whether or not to buy the book, he finally picked it, went to the billing counter, got it billed and was about to leave when he felt he had misplaced his token. He recalled no such incidence of placing the token somewhere, or any such thing, yet he couldn’t find it now..

Looking just once more, he finally found it, gave it to the guard, got back his bag, put his stuff within it, and hung it over his back. It was another favorite possession of his, his adventure worx bag. Just as he was about to leave a thought occurred to him, something seemed to have caught his eye. He immediately turned, gave the bag back to the guard, excusing himself for the moment, before the guard could question him, went in for a few moments and returned back. From there he took his own sweet time roaming around the mall, noticing every small detail that was required to him, observing every person crossing him. Not one bothered to notice him roaming around aimlessly in the mall, a lone stranger minding his own business, after all it was usual in malls, so this was no exception.

It was long after the setting of the sun that he finally showed signs of having to leave. It was quite dark, although the insides of the mall were fully illuminated. As for the outsides, there was a busy street out there, going in its own pace, brightly illuminated by the street lights, head lights and taillights, of the various vehicles going by. He stopped by a cane juice centre, had a cold cane juice and though it wasn’t entirely anything compared to the one he had a few months ago, it was filling and that was what he wanted it to be. As he was finishing his drink, he saw a group of four pass by, and one of them seemed to be very familiar to him, why, it was certainly a person he knew. He was sure it, also the who, but couldn’t place the reason for that person’s being there. He made a mental note to enquire about it later and got back to his drink.

It was high time he started back, for there were more things to be done.. He walked back to the bus stop, which was hardly a little away from the mall, waited for a while, skipped the first bus, and when he saw the bus he wanted, got on to it. He found it a bit disappointing to know that it was almost filled up, but thankfully there was a seat for him, which he occupied, settling himself for what was to come ahead.

The first half of the journey went uneventful, of course with the rush that there was it was quite obvious. At one particular stop, the person next to him got down, and so did the three behind him. Immediately he shifted and took the seat behind to the one that he had formerly occupied.

A man sitting across his seat, was deep in slumber, one leg upon the other, and as he was just looking by, his eyes suddenly caught sight of something!! Was it what he really thought it to be? He wondered.. On inspecting it more properly, he was sure it was what he took it to be in his first glance! A five hundred rupee bundle half out of his pocket. He thought about it further. It was certainly a five hundred rupee note that he had seen, for the color was unmistakably right and he couldn’t be wrong, no way. There was a rubber band on it, which meant there was more than one. Now if it was just ten or twenty it would have been folded, but it wasn’t. Also the rubber band was quite straight which meant there was easily a minimum of a thirty to forty thousand in there. He was quite sure of it, very much certain of the facts he arrived upon.

He looked across, the fellow still seemed to be in deep slumber, quite unknown of the fact that his possession was noticed, calculated out, and in moments planned out too. There were not many people in the seats behind him which meant that the chances of anybody noticing, was next to nil, unless something very stupid was done. There was a strong breeze coming through the window, and as he let it hit his face, he thought of the plan he could put into action. It was pretty simple and straight forward, there was no doubt in it. Perfectly clean, hardly any risk but for the timing, which would be the key for the entire plan. All he had to do was get up from his seat, flick the bundle and pocket it. All done with moments to the stop already decided upon, and once he got down, there would be no trail. It would be quite late before it would be known, and he would taken the next bus back. Very simple, indeed it was!!

He kept his gaze steady on his prize, but soon enough the person seemed to wake up at a slight disturbance in the road, when he chanced to glance towards the person looking at him, but before he could actually do anything, he was back asleep. Moments later he looked back again, as the person signaled to his pocket, but funnily he didn’t seem to notice at all!

With all thoughts clear in mind, his actions decided, he calmly walked up towards the person, gave an acknowledging pat on his shoulder saying, “Be careful to conceal your money the next time, when you tend to sleep” and before he could say or do anything, walked away.

Standing by the foot board, he noticed the man, realizing what had happened, turned around, and smiled as I got down from the bus, giving just another few moments to notice him smile again…

One Response to “The suspect”

  1. Alchemist says:

    nice way you brought about the story . hope to read more such.

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