The news of the Principal's disappearance had spread throughout the village by noon. The news had triggered different sorts of speculations.
Some people thought he might have been kidnapped.
Some others thought he could have drowned in the floodwater.
Some people thought that the Principal ran away from the village to save his face after his bitter argument with Engineer Rashadh.
People who had evacuated Firdaws Garden had stayed at the school premises. Almost everyone had returned to their homes by noon on Monday. It did not rain again as they had expected.
Water remains stagnated for days after it floods in the maritime districts of Sri Lanka where the land is predominantly flat.
Hill country people are lucky in this sense. The water will quickly drain out soon after it stops raining in these places and Marudur is not an exception.
Every house in the Firdaws Garden area in Marudur looked muddy. The household goods had been destroyed by the water.
There were few policemen seen in the village investigating the Principal’s disappearance.
The officer in Charge (OIC) of the Vijayapura police station, Mr Ajantha had issued a formal order to search for the Principal. The villagers were also doing their part.
“If he had been drowned in the water, the dead body should soon be found,” a police officer-in-duty said.
It was really sympathetic to look at Hamzi’s face. He was terrified. He tends to believe his father is still alive. He was in a state of denial. Let alone Hamzi, even Shibly was hardly able to digest the thought that the strongman is dead and is no longer alive.
Shibly could still remember his very first unpleasant encounter with the Principal.
“Sir, this is our new staff Shibly”, in the night, soon after dinner, Rizwan Sir had introduced him to the Principal.
“Welcome,” the Principal stretched his arm and shook hands with Shibly. It was a strong handshake. His face was thickly emotionless.
The Principal had been a rugby player in his school days. He was physically and psychologically strong though there were some fears and sorrows hidden deep inside his heart. He had concealed all such secret insecurity behind his well-furnished image of authority.
Shibly knew only the side of his well-furnished image of the Principal, not the other half. He knew a Principal who wanted his students to compete with leading school students whose parents are from well-educated affluent backgrounds.
The Principal was not satisfied bumping mere information into the heads of his students. He emphasised the need for extra-curricular activities. Many people did not understand what he was trying to say. They simply misunderstood him.
The Principal also had a dominating nature and was not so emphatic with people when dealing with them. Naturally, many people hated the Principal for this very reason.
Shibly’s first encounter with the Principal occurred just a month ago. Shibly could not believe the number of changes that occurred since then.
Fahim Sir, Rizwan Sir and Habeeba Teacher are no longer here. They got transferred to their new schools in faraway places. Moreover, the Principal is no longer alive. Shibly was sure he was dead. For him, none of the other possibilities seemed feasible.
Kidnapping was unlikely to have occurred in Marudur. Doubtlessly, there were problems within the village. But, they were to a large extent interpersonal in nature. They could not have gone to the extent of killing or kidnapping.
The Principal could not have run away, either. He is not a kid, is he?
Shibly thought the only possibility was that the Principal must have drowned in floodwater. He must have visited the flooding area. For whatever reason, he must have fallen into the water and been dragged away. It is only a matter of time, his dead body will be found.
Inspector Ajantha's police brain was, however, thinking in a different direction.
****
“He should be found soon. If anything happens to him, all the culprits should go behind the bar. If not, you know, he is a school principal, you will have to face consequences. People will be agitated. I tell this for your own good,” said the local politician and hung up the phone.
Inspector Ajantha got irritated. He understood that the word of the politician is a prediction as well as a threat. He could easily understand that the missing man is someone with strong political connections.
Police Inspector, the OIC, Ajantha was a talented and well-mannered man in his late forties. He was naturally an honest person from Down-South. Since he served in many Tamil language speaking areas for several years, his Tamil was fairly good. He was always a mismatch with the politicians in the area where he served. For this reason, he had to face too many political transfers for his age.
He had been newly transferred to the Vijayapura police station two weeks ago. Marudur and many other surrounding villages come under the Vijayapura police station.
Inspector ordered a formal search operation in the flooded places as a matter of formality. However, he never believed that the Principal could have drowned in the water.
The maximum that the rescue workers would find could be the corpse of the Principal if they find anything.
It was not a sort of flood that could have killed a person. It could have killed a hen, not a man. Moreover, the Principal was safely sleeping when the flood was in its climax.
The place where the Principal’s house was not affected at all.
The Principal had some arguments with the villagers. The person who left the house afterwards never returned.
It sounded ridiculous for Inspector Ajantha to believe that Principal was trapped within the water unless the Principal foolishly stepped foot into the water.
The missing man is not a common man. He is a school principal. A man with deep social and political connections. If anything went wrong in this investigation, the Inspector's name would be in the national press.
Inspector has lived his life without a black mark all this time, despite the pains of his politcal transfers.
His children are growing older. He does not want any black mark at this time of his life.
Inspector, the OIC, Ajantha decided to visit Marudur once on his own, rather than relying on his subordinates. This is his first visit to Marudur.
“Tell me something about Marudur, Mr Sinnathambi '', Inspector Ajantha asked the constable who was sitting behind him in the police vehicle. Constable Sinnathmbi was the unofficial translator of the Vijayapura Police Station for several years.
“Police officers have good coordination with Marudur leaders all this time, sir. When there is any issue in Marudur, most of the time Marudur leaders manage to sort it out on their own, without police involvement”.
“Then, what do you do here, if they sort everything out on their own?” Inspector sarcastically asked Constable Sinnathambi.
Constable answered with his usual smile. “It was easy for the police to concentrate on more important things, sir”.
“I understand”.
It was soon after the Luhar prayer. The sun was almost straight up above the heads and was peeping into Marudur through grey rainy clouds. Despite the sunshine, the weather was still chilling.
Police Jeep entered Marudur and stopped in front of the Thajudeen Tea store. Inspector Ajantha and Constable Sinnathambi got out of the jeep.
Thajudeen Nana was still struggling to clean his shop. It was full of mud.
Inspector Ajantha raised his voice and asked Thajudeen Nana. “Heavy loss it seems, ah?”.
Thajudeen Nana came outside the shop stutteringly. He had never been to a police station recently. He had not talked to a police officer in person for the last many years.
“Yes, Mahaththaya, heavy loss,” said Thajudeen Nana with a broken Sinhala accent.
“You can talk to me in Tamil. I know Tamil very well. Enakku Tamil Nalla Theriyum”.
“Yes, Mahaththaya.”
“Did you see your school Principal yesterday?”
“Everyone says he is missing?”
“That’s why I am here to investigate. Tell me, did you see him yesterday?”
“Yes, I saw him, Mahaththaya”.
“At what time, you saw him?”
“I am not sure, Mahaththaya. Maybe five’o o'clock in the evening”.
“Was it after it started flooding?”
“Yes, Mahaththaya, water entered my shop. I was trying to save the important things. Then, he came”.
“Who? The Principal?”
“Yes, he came and asked me whether I needed any help. I said ’No’ ''.
“Then?”
“Then, he went”.
“Did you see him afterwards?”
“No, Mahaththaya”.
“Was he walking when you saw him or was in a vehicle?”.
“Yes, Mahaththaya, he was walking”.
“Was anyone with him?”
“I can’t remember exactly. The street was full of chaos”.
“Do you remember any familiar faces with him then, like his son or any of his friends?”
“No, his son was not with him, Mahaththaya. His friends…? Well, most of the time he goes here and there with Shareek Hajiyar. He was also not with him. As far as I can remember, both his son and Shareek Hajiyar were not with the Principal yesterday, Mahaththaya“.
“Who is this Shareek Hajiyar?” Inspector asked the constable Sinnathambi.
“Sir, he is Mr Shareek. The person who came to lodge the complaint today morning,” said constable Sinnathambi.
“Aaah, that man…! I remember he said he is the village secretary?” said Inspector Ajantha. The Inspector had met Mr Shareek that morning. For whatever reason, the Inspector hated the man.
“Ow, Mahaththaya, he is our new secretary”.
“What do you mean by new secretary? How long has he been secretary?”
“For nearly ten days.”
“Just for ten days?” laughed the Inspector. “Then, who was the secretary before that?”
Thajudeen Nana felt uncomfortable.
Inspector Ajantha was probing him with questions one after another. Thajudeen Nana was not sure whether he should tell everything or not.
Many people were gazing at him with watchful eyes standing from a distance. He was not sure whether they would be able to overhear his conversation.
Thajudeen Nana tried to make everything short.
“There was a problem in the community. So, a new chief and a new secretary took responsibility”.
Thajudeen Nana tried to be as diplomatic as possible. But, being diplomatic was not part of his persona. So, he ended up telling everything that started with the attack on the Principal a month ago.
Inspector Ajantha randomly questioned many other people as well.
There was no news about the Principal until evening five o’clock.
Inspector Ajantha decided to arrest some people on suspicion. Engineer Rashad, Minhaj and Japan Hajiyar were among the prime suspects.
“Sir, I think we are too fast. Why don’t we wait till we find the corpse?” Constable Sinnaththambi humbly suggested to the Inspector.
Inspector got agitated, “how did you come to the conclusion he is dead? What if he was kidnapped? I don’t want to take any chances. I want an impartial investigation. Understood?”
Constable Sinnathambi was from neighbouring village Coffee-Garden. He knows there were no incidents of kidnapping in Marudur recently as far as he could remember. But, he did not dare to confront his superior once again.
“It doesn't matter how important these people are in the village. We will investigate from every angle” Inspector said again.
“Yes, sir,” said Constable Sinnaththambi hesitatingly.
“I have enough problems on my own,” said inspector Ajantha to himself.
The inspector had been irritatingly getting several phone calls from big shots since today morning. They sounded as if it was the most important case in the city. There were many other important cases that the Inspector should attend to. But, he was wasting his time here. He felt exhausted.
A police vehicle soon departed Maurdur with the prime suspects. The whole of Marudur had gathered in Marudur Bazar watching what was going on.
People saw Minhaj, Engineer Rashadh, and Japan Hajiyar getting into the jeep. There was another very familiar face among the arrested. To everyone’s surprise, it was Mohideen Hajiyar.
“When did he get to Maurudr from Colombo?” Marudurians started questioning each other.
((To be continued))
_ _ _ _
Previous chapter: chapter 23 (2) - the cousin brother and elder brother
Next chapter: chapter 24 (1) - the toy flood
* Characters, events and the places in this story are fictional and a mere product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real-world events or characters is merely coincidental.
** Vijayapura and Marudur are fictional places.
Riza Jaufer
Akurana -Kandy,
Sri Lanka
