It's 11 PM. Right now, I'm inside Hasan's grandfather's wardrobe. What was I supposed to be doing, and what was I doing instead? Today, I won't be able to write even a single page. Forget about an episode. Here I am, standing inside. There was already a small hole here. From this, I'm keeping an eye on Hasan. The room is lit with a blue dim light. I'm in the wardrobe, and Hasan's uncle is standing in the corner beside the bed. I didn't ask Rima or Meem to come. I've been standing here for quite a while. Thankfully, there are no mosquitoes here. The killer hasn't shown up yet, but I know they will. When driven by greed, people become like animals, and their minds fixate on one thing—achieving their goal.
It's now 11:11. Suddenly, someone arrives. In the blue light, their face isn't clear, but they're tall, holding something and muttering under their breath, laughing like a madman. He's approaching the bed, getting closer to Hasan. At that moment, I switched on the light. Startled, he turned around completely. I smirked and said, "Checkmate."
The man is one of the seven. His name is Aditya Sarkar, and he's around thirty years old. He's holding an injection in his hand, his face becomes pale with fear. In a shaky voice, he asked, "Who are you? And what are you doing here?"
"I knew you'd come, so I was waiting for you. To give you the password."
"What? Tell me, tell me! If you tell me, I'll give you thirty percent of the money. It's a lot of money."
He was getting very excited. "No need to be so restless. Look behind you, and you'll get the password."
He laughed heartily, turned around, and saw a gun pointed right at him. Mr. Islam said, "Your game's over. You're under arrest. Now let's take you to the station. You'll get the hospitality you deserve."
The killer protested, "This isn't fair. This is cheating. I've been cheated."
Cheating, huh? How ironic, coming from a thief. "Haha, just wait until you get to the station. You'll have plenty of fun there. After that, I might give you the password. Just don't forget about my share."
Amid our conversation, Hasan woke up. "I'll..."
The killer, enraged, tried to rush at me, but Hasan's uncle grabbed him by the neck and dragged him away. I didn't hear the killer's last words. No need to. Hasan, overwhelmed with emotion, burst into tears. "This Aditya guy was one of Grandpa's favorites. In the end, he..."
I felt bad for Hasan. But he has to accept the truth. Anyway, my job's done. It's time to go home. It's half-past eleven now, pretty late. When I get home, I'll have to deal with Naeem's questions. Suddenly, a call came in. An unknown number. When I answered, a voice asked, "Have you caught the killer?"
"Yes."
"Can we come over?"
"Where? Who is this?"
The voice on the other end, excited, said, "It's Meem. Don't you recognize me?"
"Oh, right. You can come over. No need to be so excited."
Seems like they're eager to come to see because of the thrill of catching the killer. It'll be good. They can console Hasan.
A little while later, they arrived. Instead of happiness, I saw anger on Meem's face. She said to me, "Why didn't you recognize me?"
"I didn't have your number saved. You never gave me your contact number."
She got angrier. "You didn't save my number?"
I got scared looking at her face. "Hey, the killer's caught, and we got the laptop back. So, let's celebrate a little."
She snapped, "Don't change the subject. You've really ticked me off. You don't even have the CR's number saved? I worked so hard to get to know everyone, and you don't know me?"
The situation wasn't looking good for me. Trying to act wise, I said, "That's why you're the CR."
"I'm making you the CR next time."
Seems like she said it after calming down a bit. I joked, "Go ahead, no problem. But you'll be my partner. You just have to follow my lead."
"Hmph!"
Meanwhile, Hasan had stopped crying, and Rima and Hasan were laughing. I said to them, "You don't have to laugh at someone's sad moment."
"This is your fault. Why don't you know our names?"
"I do. You're CR, nickname Meem. That's Rima, and that's Hasan."
Rima said, "Okay, stop now. We've been listening to your love quarrel for a while. Now tell us, who's the killer?"
"Ask Hasan. I'm going home."
I was ready to leave. Hasan called out to me, "Wait a minute."
"No, I have to finish an assignment tomorrow, so I can't stay."
Hasan looked down. "But the story isn't over yet." I turned around.
"Fine. We'll hear the rest on Sunday."
Meem said to me, "Listen, Sakib, it would be unfair to judge your intellect with just an IQ score. You're much smarter than the rest of us. You can observe everything closely and explain it in ways we can't. And I don't think it'll take much time to listen to him. So please, just listen?"
Please! Hah. When I heard her words, I thought she was teasing me, but seeing the seriousness on her face, I realized the depth of her request. I sighed and told Hasan, "Okay, tell us. We'll listen."
Hasan pleaded with me, "Will you help me unlock the laptop's password? There's a hint: 'Sweet Knife.'"
"Figure it out from the hint."
Hasan, disappointed, said, "If the password is entered wrong five times, the laptop will be locked. The killer has already tried three times."
If his grandfather's assistant couldn't figure it out, it would be foolish for me to try. I told Hasan, "Your uncle is a police officer. Ask him to consult a hacker to get the password."
"I can't let the data be stolen anymore," Hasan said with a raised voice.
"What? Why would it be stolen?"
Meem said, "He thinks if it's given to hackers, they might steal the data. That's why he's asking you. Give it a try."
"I'm not a hacker."
"Just try once. If you can't, we'll give it to someone else."
Out of five chances, three are already gone. If I make a mistake now, it'll become even riskier. Meanwhile, Meem and Rima seem very interested in this. It feels like they're always eager to uncover the unknown. And these mysterious unknowns are holding me back, satisfying their curiosity at my expense. There's no way out. Don't they want to home? If I refuse, Meem will scold me. What a situation! And what kind of hint is this? Sweet Knife! Never heard that before. Wait a minute! We still have one thing left. Even though we've found it, we haven't yet uncovered what's inside. I looked at the two diaries on the table. Seeing my silence, Meem waved her hand in front of my eyes. "What happened? Did you figure out the password? Tell us."
I stared blankly. How are they expecting me to figure this out? Am I some kind of alien? Well, I need to stay calm. I told everyone, "Okay, I'll try once. (I pointed to the diaries on the table) But before that, we need to go through these diaries. Each of you take one and check for any hints."
After bidding Hasan farewell, the three of us left. It was midnight, so I dropped them home. Although Mr. Anisul Islam and his two assistants were with us, the empty streets of Dhaka allowed me to reach home by one.
Luckily, my uncle had left the door unlocked. Otherwise, I would've been stuck outside all night. Tomorrow, I have to spend the whole day doing assignments—still have seventy-five pages left. What a mess!
On Sunday, the whole day, I was starved for anime. Instead of seventy-five, I had to complete eighty-one pages. And since Wednesday, I haven't had the time to watch a single episode. It's all my fault. Why did I take on the extra responsibility of catching that thief? It would've been better not to attend class at all. The pain of not watching anime for five days is something no one will understand
I leaned my head on the table, thinking about the tragedy of the last five days. Today, as a mark of mourning, I wore a black shirt. Just then, Meem called out, "Going somewhere today? You've dressed up so nicely."
The words hit me like a stab in the chest. Making fun of someone in mourning? I raised my head and looked at her. "No."
"Did you figure out the password?"
"No. There's no password in the diary."
Rima came into my area and, with great curiosity, asked, "What will you do now?"
"We'll see after the break."
A little later, Mr. Sharif came in. I submitted my assignment. Sir looked at me and asked, "Did you use your time wisely this time?"
"Yes, Sir."
Seeing my mournful face, Sir didn't say anything more. He probably understood my grief. After class, we all gathered at the gate. Hasan was overjoyed to see us. His smile was so wide anyone could tell how happy he was.
"How are you?" he asked.
"Tell us about the progress," I replied. he was a bit disappointed.
"We didn't find anything," Rima said regretfully.
Meem asked, "Did you find anything?"
"Maybe."
"Then tell us."
"Do you know what 'sugar knife' means?"
Meem replied, "Yes, it's a proverb that means 'sweet words on the outside, poison inside.'"
I could've just asked her yesterday—didn't need to bother asking Google. "Hmm. After reading the diary, I identified something."
Rima interrupted, "What?"
The girl's always in a rush and never lets me finish. "Hasan's grandparents visited America for a while. They stayed at Mr. Clark's house. Now, Mr. Clark had a big garden with many different kinds of flowers, one of which was the 'datura' flower. It's white, and Hasan's grandmother loved white flowers."
Meem asked, "You think the password is 'datura flower'? But why?"
"Not the flower itself. But I think it's 'angel's trumpet,' the name of the plant. It's very toxic. Hasan's grandmother couldn't get close to her favorite flower because of that. It's a bit like 'sugar knife'—the flower looks beautiful, but the plant is poisonous."
Everyone stared at me in astonishment. Meem said, "Wow, you're amazing!"
"Let Hasan go home and unlock the laptop first."
I looked over at Hasan, who had already turned the laptop on. He typed in the password, and the laptop unlocked. Everyone was overjoyed. Hasan said happily, "Thank you all so much. Now I can publish this in Grandpa's name."
Seeing his joy made me happy too. Finally, I was free of this mess. Tonight, I'll go home and enjoy watching anime. I'll rewatch the second season of 'Oregairu' and savor it.