THE INSCRUTABLE NIGHT | Anwesha Mitra
Incomprehensible noises turning into loud perceptible noises, he can hear footsteps-a lot of them- someone talking about fire - faint sirens. With some effort, he opens his tired eyes, two pairs of feet rushing towards him, and seconds later, they pull him up and aid him in getting back on his feet. As his vision clears, the flaring yellow lights seem brighter while the air reeks of burned odor. Two cops on either side are clamping his arms. He turns back, staggering to find the warehouse engulfed in flames. "THERE'S A FIRE," he gasps in terror.
"We are aware and handling it," one of the cops utters, "luckily, but not for you probably, the fire didn't go wild."
Those words strike him. "Not for me? What do you mean? That is my warehouse. My warehouse is on fire!—" he yells.
"Some passersby are claiming they saw you starting the fire," one of the constables adds, looking at him.
"Why on earth would I set my property on fire? And fire scares the hell out of me." he argues, "the only reason I came back after twenty years to this worn-out town is to sell off these properties; why would I cause my loss–"
Before he can finish, the cops lead him to a concrete bench near the warehouse, offering him water. "I know who did this; it's Dani; she loathes my very existence."
Suddenly a firefighter and a cop come running from behind the flame-engulfed building. "There are heaps of charred smuggled goods inside the building. It seems the primary target was to destroy those".
"So that's why you set your property on fire?" The inspector asks.
"SMUGGLING?" He yawps before letting out a bitter laugh. "Are you out of your mind? I am an athlete; I own a renowned chain of gyms, there's branches all over the city; I don't need to do such things" He tries to free his arms, but the constables keep clamping them. "I got it. I got what's happening here; it must be Dani. Her businesses are shady, or maybe Bill, he has despised me since middle school, or it could be Conrad. The lab he owns isn't even authorized; they must have started conspiring against me when they heard I came back to this town. But they didn't think I, too, had dug up information about them."
"Mr. Adam Cooper, I don't think you would want to say anything that might go against you, as much as I want a confession, but it's my duty to inform you," the inspector raises her hand to stop him "bring the cuff" the inspector orders one of the constable holding him. He goes to fetch it in the car.
"Are you going to arrest me?--I get it now, you too are involved" he keeps yelling, but the inspector walks off to attain a phone call ignoring him. Skepticism begins to latch onto him; what if all of them are a part of the plan? They are all trying to frame him - here, he can trust none. His mind echoes with his thoughts, sirens and chattering reduce to background noises. He darts his eyes. Everyone's focus is on the fire, the constable is still near the car with a cuff in his hand, talking to a firefighter, and the other holding him seems distracted.
Removing the gun from the holder warily, he pushes the constable beside him, causing him to topple down. He bolts into the woods amidst the commotion caused by his action and the repeated warnings. Screams of the cops ordering him to surrender and heavy boots chasing him echo in the woods as he heedlessly runs through the spaces between the trees. Heart hammering in his chest and his mind going numb, suddenly he hears the inspector announcing, "This is the last warning, surrender yourself or we have to start shooting!" but he paces up, preparing the gun he snatched. Within seconds the sound of the first shot shakes the night. Moments after another shot, Adam turns back to fire a bullet while running for his life. The cop tailing him fires another though he keeps hiding in the darkness of the night. After running a few more minutes, panting hard realizes he is hugely outnumbered, so he scampers to seek refuge behind the tall rock maize in the woods. The cops arrive at the place with flashlights and guns; he looks from behind the rocks, holding his breath. Adam silently slides from one stone to another. He has known this maze since childhood; he got lost and found his way out of it countless times. As the three cops rummage through the trees and behind the rocks, he keeps switching his hiding spot until he gets the right moment, and he rushes out of the place while the cops keep wandering in the maze. He keeps running until he collapses on the grassy forest floors panting; notices the sirens and the voices are no longer audible. Gradually he starts trying hard to wrap his head around the event of the last hours- how did he end up in the warehouse? Why can't he remember anything- only a faint, faint memory of some people, a bunch of lines on a huge paper, and a dull buzzing noise? He clutches his head in frustration, but then he returns to his senses. He is being framed! But by whom? He needs to find out before the night ends because if the cops get to him again, there will be no escape, so he must find evidence against the person behind all this. Desperately getting up, he sprints away.
A few miles of the hasty walk leads him to the outskirts of the town, where a few tiny houses are lining the street. His footsteps and the sounds of crickets are the only noise amidst the dead silence of the night. He still remembers the rugged old house of Bill Brown; he squeezes his big frame through an open window. The inside of the house smells of alcohol and dampness, "still a stoner", he mutters, walking over the clothes scattered on the empty house floor. He combed the whole place frantically but in vain. While coming out of the house, he finds a rusty bicycle beside it; without further consideration, he starts paddling toward his next destination. Sounds of police patrolling and sirens are getting louder, wearing off the silence as his cycle gets closer to the town. They are searching the entire town; time is getting away faster than he anticipated. Riding stealthily, he reaches the neighborhood where Dani and Conrad's houses are, but the police guarding all corners seem like an impossible fortress to penetrate. Immediately he speeds away from the place, heading towards Dani's yacht, from where she operates her business.
At the dock, a small ship unloading some goods, at a distance, the only yacht in this small town is parked among the boats. Scampering through the shrubs near the dockyard, he reaches the yacht and leaps inside. The exterior has a lavish look, but the interior lacks maintenance, with machine parts, big cans piled in a corner, and tools lying around. Sneakily he goes into the cockpit to search; then he enters the only tiny cabin of the yacht, lights hanging from the ceiling. Scanning it, he finds a desk with four drawers, one of them locked. He hauls it out of the frame revealing a piece of paper with a date fives days before he arrives in the town and a shipping number. Below the paper lie several similar envelopes "this must be the ship in which they brought those goods, and then they planted in my ware–" Suddenly, he notices a logo at the corner of all the envelopes; the emblem of Conrad's lab. Crumpling the envelopes, he picks up a couple of tools before storming out of the factory in rage. Before returning to his hometown, he dug up all the details he could about those who can cause him trouble, he has always been a step ahead, so he decides to begin untangling these knots with Conrad, who is supposed to be at his lab instead of his house. While cycling over the muddy fields, he saw police cars passing through the concrete roads with sirens and flashlights. The night's end has already begun with the lighter shade of the sky.
Concrete walls and fencing wires surround the two-storied lab, and a couple of guards roam around the front gate. At a spot away from the guards, cutting the wire fence, he dumps the pliers and breaks a few spokes from the cycle tier before entering. Picking the back door lock gingerly with the spikes during the interval between the surveillance, he gets into a dark corridor leading towards a stair. The rest of the ground floor is hard to see; the only light source is bulbs outside the lawn, penetrating the glass doors. He starts climbing the stairs with alert steps and clutching the gun tightly. Suddenly a faint thudding sound vibrates through the air; he swirls with a jerk pointing his gun at a guard already pointing a gun at him. They both stand unmoving for moments "what are you doing here? Get out of here, or I'll shoot you", the guards slowly advance towards him. "And I'll shoot too," Adam jeered while trying to trace the last steps of the stairs with the back of his feet. Hopping up to the second floor, he nearly loses his balance but manages to drag himself away from the stairs dodging the guard's bullet. Sweat drips from his forehead, throat drying with the agitation of not knowing how many more guards are in the lab or where they might be, though he keep his grip steady.
Sprinting through the first floor, he turns right, pressing his body into the wall to ditch the guard, but the guard advances towards the wall he hides behind. Scuttling through a room with a locked door, he gets behind a massive cupboard while focusing on the footsteps trailing him. He sneakily follows one of the footsteps, knocking a guard out before the other guard can see him. The interconnected room has huge machinery, tangled wires, and blinking lights. Just as he touches the knob of a glass door, the blaring of the alarms intensifies. Taken aback, he rushes inside, but a series of lights blink rapidly. Swiveling with the gun, he sees a man in a white coat with a walkie-talkie.
"How did he get inside?" Is this what I pay you for? I need more security. Find him now!&