Murder in a Snooker Table

Murder in a Snooker Table

This is a first attempt on this genre, obviously hasn't had the knowledge to detail enough nor the luxury being a short story, excuse me for that.

It was well past midnight and there was a call on the emergency line of K2 police station from the elite snooker club of the town. Apparently minutes back there has been a murder on a snooker table, suspected murder.

The Inspector immediately rushed to the crime scene, the victim being a leading politicians’ offspring pressure mounted in the form of calls from the collector, undersecretary, etc.

The politician was well ahead of the inspector and at the crime scene and was literally swearing at his opposition instead of even crying. A politician is a politician, how good it would be if he is this fast when really people who voted for him are in trouble.

The inspector ordered clearing the scene and all were out in minutes. The photographer was taking snaps, while another constable was marking religiously.

The area was clean and apparently confirmed there had been no fight of any sort. The snooker table was clean. The strange thing was the balls were arranged neatly on the table, not the usual way but in a heart shape as in the picture.

The body was resting in a chair with the left hand pointing down and there was an empty wine glass lying on the ground broken. The cue was also lying down on the right hand side. On enquiry it was revealed that the victim was playing alone, as he normally does being a regular. Only there was a new visitor holding a guest pass and he was there around that time. The visitor looked to be a college student.

With a handkerchief the inspector picked the broken wine glass and smelled, definitely it didn't smell wine at all. It was more of a chemical rather than wine, duly sent to the lab for tests. The upper buttons were off the shirt of the victim and there was a knife mark with blood still oozing out and hadn't dried. The death was not due to that, it was certain. The knife wasn't around as well.

The body was sent for post-mortem and the room was sealed for further investigations. The inspectors’ mind was busy linking the jig saw puzzle, though had come home late for bit of rest well past 4 in the morning.

By 10 the officer received a call from the lab saying that the wine glass had traces of Dihydrogen Monoxide and the blood mark and injury was from a precision dissection knife commonly used by surgeons and at medical colleges.

In the city there were only 2 medical colleges and the inspector was sure it was from there, since the guest pass visitor to the club looked like a college student. Immediately rushed to those colleges and on inquiring the lab attenders for missing precision dissection knife and a small bottle of Dihydrohen Monoxide, the college was identified and the student in a short while would be.

The other puzzle raced through the officer’s mind – the love shaped ball arrangement, that seems very odd and an important clue to track the culprit.

Station record room was alerted to find if there were any recent allegations/cases against the victim and were instructed to limit those to only related to sexual abuse/rape/murder, if not there will be no end as the victim is a politicians son.

Within hours it was known that there had been quite a few and the recent one was a year back, in which a girl was raped & murdered. The family of the girl had lodged a complaint seeking justice that their girl was loved by the now victim and was pregnant, forcing the guy to marry her, eventually the guy had killed her in the very same snooker table, where he was also found dead last night.

Being a politician’s son, the case was quashed and the guy was Scott free making merry as ever. The dead girl had a younger brother who vowed to take revenge, but was warned being a school final year student aspiring to become a surgeon.

All the pieces fitted very well and the inspector was very relaxed and sipped a hot chai as he would, when his spouse prepares, serves and sip along with him with a light instrumental music of Ilayaraja playing in the background.

When explained, the assistant was surprised and asked Sir shouldn’t we be rushing to nab the culprit????

The inspector let out a smile and replied, he has punished, whom we couldn't legally. The victim had over 10 such cases and hadn't been punished yet. He would continue to do so if he had lived. Also he would soon become an MLA, Minister and we can’t do a thing about it and symbolically pulled a hair out and blew it away in exasperation.

Ordered the assistant to meet the lab attender and warn/forbid him not to report the missing precision dissection knife and a bottle of Dihydrogen Monoxide.

Sir how did the death happen, the assistant asked. Aren't we also eager to know that? The Inspector explained – the brother of the dead girl had gone there to kill. He had waited for the crowd to disperse, knowing that the guy has a habit of playing alone late in the night sipping wine tastefully. The chemical was mixed along with the wine and the victim was forced to drink that at knife point – precision dissection knife.

When a small bottle of that chemical is consumed, it kills the person shortly. After the killing the snooker balls were arranged in the form of a heart shape by the culprit. He had not left any clues other than the injury mark on the victims’ chest.

Now to clear the culprit from the murder, the lab assistant was taken care of not to report missing items; the post-mortem report was altered to read as chest injury due to victim slipping under the influence of wine and drug combo on to the snooker cue. The victim is a drug user and has been using this chemical and wine mixture to boost his skills and energy. Sports personalities have been reported for using small quantities of this chemical to enhance their performance. The club Security cameras were checked and the tapes were damaged, not to reveal the culprit.

Having closed the file, the inspector had one last thing to do. He went to the culprits’ house to have a chat with him. Visibly the guy was trembling on seeing the inspector; the parents had no clue on the purpose of the visit. Actually the family was just watching the TV news that was reporting the death of the politician’s son and were very happy hearing that, moments ago.

Nothing to worry, I came here to inquire as a formality since there was a case against the dead, lodged by the family last year. The inspector took the guy out and lit a cigarette and stared at his eyes intently. Tears started rolling out from his eyes and the Inspector put a hand around his shoulder and whispered, I know that you murdered him, he is to die but law couldn't do anything. But you had done it to avenge your sisters’ death. Let this be the first and last, concentrate in becoming a renowned surgeon and serving the society, uttering that the inspector left him and walked away to his jeep.

Tears were still rolling from his eyes but were expressing gratitude to the inspector’s act and a sense of satisfaction for having avenged his sister’s death and all other girls who had a similar fate at the hands of the politicians’ son.

Right or wrong is something that is debatable but what the law is meant to do, an individual has done it to save more girls from falling as victims to such inhuman creatures…

Murder in a Snooker Table