Curious Case Of Buckling High

 It was the second week of December, the weather had suddenly become cold, and the small hill station of Nainital was engulfed in a foggy mist, visibility was so low and thick; one could barely see a person walking at shoulder length. There was nothing different about the old, narrow, less traveled, winding road leading to “The Buckling High School”, it was as always isolated lined with pine and deodar trees but this chilly winter morning felt extra cold and chilly even though it hasn’t even snowed once this winter of 2016. This eerie silence of the road was interrupted with sound of the marching boots, sniffling and occasional panting of detective Karisha Rautela, sub-inspector Prakash Rawat and Constable Manchand Singh, who had been urgently summoned to Buckling High School, an elite boarding school for boys.

Nainital, a small hill station nestled in the Himalayas was also famous for its boarding school. Buckling High had high reputation and ranking in India. The Raja of Kashipur, who ruled over the Nainital decided to build a school, same as his own school in England. Over the years, the local children were replaced with kids from affluent families. The school looked great perched on the cliff, with its majestic colonial red building overlooking the serene and dark Naini Lake. It intrigued many travelers and tourists alike but almost nobody dared taking the road less travelled to the school through the thick deodar forest.

Detective Karisha Rautela was the only detective in Nainital, in fact the only lady detective in the whole district. She was all of 5ft1inch tall, plump with round face and high cheek bones, narrow eyes, which appeared closed whenever she smiled, which was rare. Her long black hair were speckled with streak of grey, indicating her time spent in police force, neatly tied in a bun at her nape and big red Bindi on her forehead beaming her marital status. She wore a long parka coat over her uniform, the collars of the uniform shirt peaked over her coat zipped right to the top!

Young sub-inspector Prakash Rawat was recently transferred and Constable Manchand Singh was counting days to his retirement.

“Thank god! You are here. I am Father Charles, the headmaster of the school”, said in an extremely stressed voice.

“I am detective Karisha Rautela, sub-inspector Prakash Rawat and Constable Manchand Singh”.

“Let’s go inside, what a crowd? It’s only been few hours and the whole Nainital is here”, said Father Charles. “There are these three boys missing since morning”.

Father quickly turned and walked away, the detective followed him, “I have been part of this iconic school for 30 years and never in the history of the school such a thing has happened. We have been searching the whole school since the roll call in the morning, when we realized that the kids are not there. The whole school including teachers, staff and even children have been only doing this since then” the father went ranting.

“Father you have to stop this search immediately! Your people could damage evidence” said the detective.

She asked for all the details about the missing kids including their academic performance and behavior with the other kids. Nothing seemed amiss except that they were related (cousins) and they mostly kept to themselves. She asked for latest photographs of the boys.

She asked Manchand to assemble everyone in the mess.

“I would introduce you to Mr Mathew, he is our sports teacher and takes the roll calls in evening and morning”. The father leading through long corridors, with very high ceiling. The corridors were lined with portraits and pictures of Alumni; reflecting the history and grandeur of the school.

Mr. Mathew, the sports teacher was indeed looking like one, he was medium built stocky and sported a thick moustache. He was a national level wrestler, but retired after an injury. “We have seven senior dormitories housing 40 students in all. The Janitors and other staff live in the west wing of the school, this is the far end of the school” said Mr. Mathew.

“I have retained dom five boys to remain in the room, in case you wanted to speak to them”.

“Thank you” said the detective as she stepped into a long rectangular hall, with neatly made beds on either side, a total of 20 beds. The toilet was far end of the corridor connecting all the dorms. She noticed that three beds were not made up neatly as the others. “These are the beds of three of them” explained Mr Mathew.

The detective asked Prakash to search the boy’s belongings. There was nothing much to search though consisting only of a bed, a study table, a small cupboard and a trunk at the foot of the bed. Surprisingly these rich boys lived a simple life within the school.

She then turned her gaze towards the boys, observing them intently and settled on a thin, small boy. He had pimples all over his face and wore horn rimmed round glasses. He seemed nervous, biting his lips and looking down at his shoes.

She asked everyone to go and wait in the library, except this boy. She asked, “What is your name”.

“Ved Madam; I don’t know anything”, said teary eyed boy.

Mr. Mathew intervened “Ved, no one is blaming you. Please answer whatever she asks”.

He turned towards the detective and mentioned that he is the brightest boy of the class, top of the class and very disciplined too.

The detective said, “Listen I know you are hiding something, I am a detective, I can tell. There is no pointing in holding things, sooner or later I will come to know. Mr Mathew tells me you are an intelligent boy, I am sure you know the consequences of lying to Police”.

“No, no madam I am not lying”, cried Ved. “I have nothing to do with them disappearing. I know that Yash, Jai and Rohan have always been sneaking out in the night to go to the abandoned tower or sometime sneak into the hostel kitchen and raid the pantry. They loved doing things like this. They called themselves “The Three Musketeers”! Last night they left the dormitory around 2 am and never returned. I know, as I was reading a book in the torch light. I slept shortly after that.”

Father Charles had reappeared and was astonished to hear these things. He stared at Mr. Mathew, who was looking very embarrassed.

The detective comforted the sobbing boy and assured him that it was wise of him to tell the truth. She asked Mr. Mathew to take them to the abandoned clock tower; at that very moment constable Manchand came and informed that the staff had assembled in the mess.

“They can wait”.

“Mr. Mathew please go to the mess and make sure that none of the staff leaves the Cafetaria and take a count”. Also assemble all the boys in the assembly hall and take their attendance, let’s see if anyone else is missing.”

The detective without wasting anymore time literally ran to the old abandoned tower at the far west end of the school. This four storied tower was at the edge of the cliff. A very narrow and unkept path led to the tower, in fact the path was now covered with shrubs and creepers. Constable Manchand asked panting “Do we need to go all the way up? It looks like it can fall any moment”.

“You stay down here and search the grounds for any clue, Prakash you come with me”.

“Where is the torch?” asked the detective. The door leading inside the tower was closed but she examined and give a light tug, it gave way. She opened the door gingerly and stepped inside, a cold draft of damp air greeted her. There was even more depilated wrought iron stairs going up. They did see some small footsteps in the dust but couldn’t make out if there were fresh or old.

Very carefully they started climbing up the creaking and rickety ladder. When they reached the top to their surprise they saw a clean place. They realized that this was boys den; an old rug spread on the floor, an oil lamp, few candles, two shoe boxes filled with biscuits and savories were neatly arranged in a corner. They searched the whole place, looking for a clue, but failed to find anything.

The detective decided to go back and speak to the staff. She was sure someone would have noticed something amiss. Deep in her thought she carefully descended the rickety stairs. Prakash was leading the way with torch, she was following with one hand on the railing and other on the wall of the tower. Her hand brushed across a loose stone, she stopped to examine it.

“Prakash show the torch light here”. She took off her gloves, wriggled the stone brick from the wall, it moved easily and came off the wall. She asked Prakash to take off the stone and threw the light in the cavity. There seemed to be something wrapped in old polythene bag, she reached out and pulled it out. The bag contained a pocket diary and few other things. She felt blood rushing with excitement.

“Did you find something?” asked the headmaster hopefully “any clue where the boys could be? The parents would be here anytime.

 “Detective I need to know, do you think this is kidnapping, these three boys come from very rich business family and are related, they are cousins! It has to be kidnapping, but we have not received any ransom call or note”.

“I hope, I have not put their life in danger by calling the police”.

 “Father, I need some place private and quite, where no one will distract me”.

“I would suggest you take the my office, where there would be no one to disturb you ”.

She found the headmaster’s office turned on the light. She took out all the contents she found in the tower on the small table, there. It was a book of secrets, about teacher, students and staff. It spoke about how Father Charles loved to smoke cigars secretly behind the school dorm and eat pepper mints. Mr. Mathew, the sports teacher, aspired to be an actor and would secretly go for auditions to ‘Delhi’. Ved the boy in the dorm, who knew about their night adventures. But there was something that intrigued the detective the most, the mention of Kitchen cook, who had recently joined them from Mumbai, how he caught them raiding the pantry but did not report them, in fact how he would share stuff and became their friend. The detective quickly rushed towards the mess, where all the staff were assembled. She did some routine inquiry and let them go. She briefed Prakash and Manchand to keep an eye on everyone, especially enquire about the new cook.

It was almost lunchtime the kitchen became very busy, Manchand positioned himself at one corner in kitchen and started chatting with the kitchen staff as they were all local residents. He learnt that the new cook did not live on the campus but had a cottage in nearby village with his cousin brother, who was also employed with the school as laundry boy. Manchand slipped out and related the whole news to the detective and sub-inspector.

They kept an eye on the duo, and saw them huddling and whispering after the lunch in a corner, pretending to eat their lunch. It was almost late afternoon by the time, the detective decided they should not waste any more time and asked Prakash to bring them in for questioning.

She let them go after, questioning warning them to stay in the school premise itself.

She quickly called Prakash and Manchand asked them to go to their cottage in nearby village immediately and call her once they reach there. She called for their employment file and made few calls.

After that she called the laundry boy and made similar inquiry and sent him back too.

She was disturbed by a call from Prakash, she rattled off some instruction.

Prakash and Manchand were back by the evening. She immediately called both Cook and Laundry boy. She spoke to them for a long time, in the middle of night, she called for Father Charles and Mr. Mathewand informed them, “We are taking both of them under arrest for kidnapping and attempt to murder! The kids are safe and being treated in the hospital already for bruises and minor injuries”

The father was very shocked and exclaimed “There must be some mistake, they both came with very good reference from my good friend Father Agnelo from Mumbai!”

The detective said with a sly smile “Father Charles, I am sure you could check with your friend Father Agnelo, he never wrote that letter. In fact, don’t bother I have already spoken to him, he has not signed that letter, though he know these people as he used to visit the Central Jail”.

“Central Jail!” exclaimed everyone.

Detective Karisha narrated that these both were in Central Jail for robbery in a Bank in Mumbai. They were caught but the money could never be recovered. Father Agnelo used to regularly visit the Chapel for Sermons in Central Jail. They both befriended the father, he remember mentioning about his friend in Bucking High School. They managed to flee during a hospital visit and came to this small town to hide away for some years. Only their family members knew about this hideout. They also had a third partner in robbery, when he learnt about their hideaway, he came asking for his share of loot. They both decided to murder him and bury him behind the abandoned tower in the middle of night. However they ran into the boys in the middle of night. They managed to overpower them but couldn’t risk killing them. So they managed to tie them and smuggle them atop a mule, covered with laundry bags. The guards casually let them go!

When I questioned them, one of them mentioned as friend and other as brother. There were lots of discrepancy in their statements and therefore I asked Prkash to immediately search the cottage, as they are not locals, they would not have access to any other place to keep them, while they planned ahead.

The parents were happy to learn that the kids are safe and demanded to see them immediately. Just then Manchand walked in with them, the kids ran towards the parents and there was lots of tear shedding all over.

Father Charles profusely thanked all of them for great work and swiftly finding all of them. The kids promised to stop their night time adventures of the three musketeers!

All is well that ends well!