The Dead Disappearing

31 August, 1951

1:05 AM

The door opened creakingly. He sneaked in the room and bolted the door behind him. Turning back, he scanned the room. Among hundreds of motionless persons lying on bed, he found her!

His heartbeat began to race. He started breathing heavily. He was aroused.

She was lying on a bed on his left. Walking towards her, he unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it aside. Upon reaching her bedside, he removed the shroud over her, exposing her naked body. A wicked, carnal smile came on his face.

He caressed her tenderly. But she did not react.

“Sweetie, I feel shy in front of so many people. Let me take you to my place. We’ll make love there,” he whispered in her ears.

*

31 August, 1951

8:30 AM

“Dr Ganguly, it is the fourth incident of this month. How many more bodies will disappear? Who should be held accountable for these eerie disappearances of dead bodies from our hospital?” asked the president of the Medical Board.

Dr Ganguly, a 44-year-old surgeon, also the Chief Mortician at the hospital sat facing the president and other members of the board.

“Certainly not me, sir. I have taken all stringent measures to prevent such incidents. But I can’t help it. I feel solving this case is beyond human’s reach,” Dr Ganguly gave an explanation.

“What do you mean by ‘beyond human’s reach’?” the president asked, startled.

“I mean that these dead bodies are occupied by ghosts.”

“Disgusting Ganguly! It is highly irresponsible for a senior doctor like you to say such stupid things. The board has unanimously come to the decision to sack you from the Chief Mortician post.”

Dr Ganguly didn’t say a word. 

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.

“Come in, Officer,” said the president.

Ganguly turned his head over his shoulder and saw a man in police uniform standing at the door. 

“Dr Ganguly, you are under arrest,” the policeman said, holding out a pair of handcuffs.

*

1 September, 1951

9:00 AM

Sitting on the floor of the prison cell, Dr Ganguly reluctantly ate his breakfast of porridge as he was promised a newspaper after he finishes his breakfast.

The guard threw him the India Times after he requested for a newspaper. He saw his own smiling face on the front page. He read,

 Doctor Charged with Necrophilia Arrested   

A forty-four year old surgeon was on Saturday arrested on the charges of necrophilia and unnatural sex. Dr Ganguly, the Chief Mortician at City Hospital was on the top of police’s suspect list when dead bodies started disappearing from the hospital’s mortuary. Their suspicion turned into reality when they found a shirt in the mortuary yesterday, the day when another dead body of a woman went missing. The shirt allegedly belongs to Dr Ganguly.

Police on Saturday raided Ganguly’s house and found four skeletons and a corpse lying on his bed. His neighbours often complained of foul smell coming from his house. It is suspected that Ganguly had sexual intercourse with them. 

“Dr Ganguly’s wife died a year ago from cancer. He couldn’t swallow the truth and did not cremate her body. One of the skeletons is of Mrs Ganguly,” told one of the investigating officer.

The police feels that after his wife’s death, Ganguly had sex with her corpse and once her body started to rot and became a skeleton, he stole cadavers from the hospital’s morgue to quench his carnal thirst. Hence, the rest three skeletons and the dead body found in his house are the bodies that disappeared from the morgue in the past.

“Dr Ganguly suffers from a mental condition called necrophilia – an attraction to dead bodies. It is although not certain whether this condition developed after his wife’s death or is innate,” a senior psychologist from the hospital hired for this case was reported as saying.

The skeletons and the dead body have been sent to laboratory for forensic tests.