The perfect crime
Date: Equinox 2024.

“He’s laughing at me” Aalok exhaled sharply, looking somewhere in the vastness of the city out of the window of the fourth floor. Closely packed houses and residential buildings shone in the afternoon sunlight.

I looked up, taking my eyes off the diamond I was observing with an eyepiece.

“What? Who?” I asked him.

“The thief, of course.” He turned towards the room and pointed to the diamonds in front of me in an insisting manner.

“I doubt he is laughing.
Ramakant is not a kind person when it comes to suspects in holding.”

“Oh that welder they caught is certainly not happy right now.” Aalok explained, and turned to the window again. “The actual thief is laughing at me right now.” Said he, pressing his face into the grill of the window. He had gripped the rusting iron rod with flaky anti-corrosion paint with a crushing strength.

“This Nitish person is not the thief? We found the half of the stolen jewellery in his house. He was going around the jewellery lane, trying to sell the loot. What are you on about?” I turned my wooden chair, making a screechy noise and faced Aalok who was scratching his face on the window grill.

“Arjun sir, why are you bothering with him?” The bespectacled Ashish said to me from across the table. Ashish was writing a report about the case that we had just solved. He talked while still looking at the paper he was holding .
“You know Aalok sir, don’t you? A suicide has to be a murder, the Butler didn’t do it and a theft has to be a set-up. What would private detectives do without such whimsies?” He said, half singing.

“Aalok, what is your case?” I asked him, faithfully.

“Look”, he said, quickly sitting back down in his chair, “The jewellery did not appear for a year. The person who has such patience is not a fool, he or she won’t suddenly appear in the market one day and start attempting to sell jewellery without knowing who is an informant and who isn’t. It is too easy.”

“We found the loot in his house, Aalok.” I reiterated.

“Yes, it was placed there. He told us he found it in his luggage, didn’t he?” Aalok replied.

“Oh yes, I know about the famous class of criminals who don’t take things, but put them in random places.” mocked Ashish, lightly laughing.

“You only found half of the jewellery, where is the other half?” Aalok asked.

“He has probably stashed it somewhere or sold it off. And he may not even be the thief, he probably bought the jewellery from the real thieves who could not find a trustworthy dealer.” Said Ashish, looking Aalok in the eye this time.

“With what money? Have you seen his house?”

“Maybe he took a debt, paid off the debt with 50% of the diamonds he was able to sell. So you don’t see any luxuries yet.” Ashish shrugged.

“I don’t think he is the thief. The job was done too precisely and carefully, this man is an amateur.” Said Aalok. “They sacrificed half of their diamonds on him so the case is closed.”

Ashish: “Interesting theory, mister. What if he confesses?”

Aalok: “He would confess to the murder of princess Diana when he is dipped into water upside down.”

This angered Ashish, he blurted out, “You sleep a good night’s sleep because we do that, so shut your weak mouth and let us do our work.” gripping his pen hard.

“Alright, Aalok, let’s check with Ramakant, let’s go.” I hastenedly pulled Aalok out of the room. The hawaldar outside the room frisked us before letting us go.

“It’s the perfect crime, Arjun.” Said Aalok. “This is the only way to commit a crime without leaving any evidence that can be linked to you.”

We started walking towards the staircase.

“How, though? They will have to sell the diamonds at some point. That’s our link.” I said, while we hopped down on the staircase. Aalok said nothing until we were at the ground floor.

“Let’s have a cutting tea first, come.” Aalok motioned me to the tea-shop.



“This is how you commit a perfect crime. You have no criminal records. You choose a crime you wouldn’t need to do, have no reason to do. You use tools you would normally have no access to. You don’t sell the loot at all. You don’t get caught because nothing points in your direction. When you get bored, you dump the loot at a poor worker’s house. Why? Just to laugh. The whole crime is done just for laughs.” Aalok said over the curly tea vapours in salty air.

“That’s quite a stretch. Why only dump half then?”

“If he dumped fully, my case would be stronger at the station, people would start thinking about this possibility.” Said Aalok.

“Since it’s a perfect crime, you shall not be able to catch him, is that what you really are saying? I asked.

“Yes, that is exactly why he is laughing at me. I cannot do anything and nobody would believe me.” Aalok squeezd the white paper cup into a ball and angrily threw it in the bin.

“Your theory is unfalsifiable, Aalok”

“It’s the perfect crime, Arjun.”