Must Read: Paradox Of Abel - Season 1 - Episode 29

7 years ago

Must Read: Paradox Of Abel - Season 1 - Episode 29

After detective Lot’s discovery of the half-burnt note, he demanded to know every member of the house. He was led by the footballer through corridors and finally into the very large living room where everybody was seated, absent only the mistress – Mrs Hannah Malik. Daniel explained to Lot that this woman was without sight, this explained her decision to always keep to herself.

To Daniel’s utter surprise, none of the family members appeared to recognize the man he’d brought in. They all regarded Lot as they’d previously regarded Daniel when he stepped, for the first time, into the room too. They all looked without interest at the detective for a short moment before diverting their gazes back to Daniel, their eyes demanding an explanation.

“This is Detective Lot, he’ll be investigating this case.” Daniel told them.
“Who gave you the authority to bring a detective here?” asked Ruth, not without a note of very obvious rudeness. “Who do you think you are? My father’s illegitimate child?”
“Are you not interested in knowing who killed father?” David asked his sister.
“Of course, I do,” replied she, “But this sewage disposal here is taking things far beyond his jurisdiction. Who needs a lousy detective when we can find out the murderer among ourselves?”

Lot being a man particularly proud of his status, did not smile at the adjective the prissy-mouthed dame used to qualify him. He reacted to the lady’s serenade of bleats and asked, “And how do you suppose to do that.”
“Do what?” Ruth asked back, harshly of course.

He had thought as much, a shallow brook babbles the loudest. “How do you suppose to catch the murderer?”
“What a question!” neighed Ruth, “After some serious tortures inflicted on us all by the police, the criminal would have no choice but to confess.”
This reply caused Lot more than a millimetre rise of the eyebrows. He paused and said, “I don’t mean to be rude, madam, but what just came out of your mouth is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. Someone may choke to death on hearing such an asinine idea.”

Ruth glared at him, she wanted to reply but stopped herself just when her mouth was about to open. Perhaps something in her told her told her that she would not win in the battle if she engaged in oral expletives with the big man. Hence both her hatred and admiration for the gumshoe. She still could not stop glaring at the man whose interest was already directed towards something much more interesting. She hated private investigators more than she hated poison.

Tunde turned to face Daniel and asked, “Who’s him?”
“ ‘He’,” Lot corrected, “ ‘Who is he?’. My name is Lot. I’m a private investigator.”
Lot could not but notice how his sidekick watched another fair lady sitting at the extreme furniture in the room. He sighed. When will the ninny ever learn, He thought disgusted, that beauty is dangerous? You don’t fall in love for beauty alone if there is no brain. However, brain itself could be a vice if all it contained were crimes. He’s seen many great men fall because they’d allowed themselves manipulated by hot ladies of Delilah descents. Of course, everything hot must surely scald. And this latest fancy of Daniel’s brought to him memories of stories like Samson and Delilah, Adam and Eve, and some of the Greek gods who were silly enough to put their lives in the hands of the fair opposite s*x. He shook his head, slightly in anger and slightly in amusement, at the fate of Daniel who would never stop falling for ladies who were potential suspects in murder cases.

His gaze left Remi and now settled on Esther whose beauty he appreciated better. This one – with her deep cleavage, bared belly, and aggressively sparkling smile – was powerfully intriguing. But the smile unnerved Lot, it was too sincere. The smile was one that could have charmed a snake into a mood of benign companionship. Her beauty was so generous that the poverty of language was unable to express its due praise. This particular beauty was one borne neither of suspicion nor of simmering temperature or icy coldness.

This was beauty most innocently graceful. This gracious woman, this enchanting lady, brought him flood of recollections that seemed to drown him in self-pity, in a tide of irreparable loss that had afflicted him years past. This captivation took him so totally that he was oblivious of his surroundings. He didn’t come out of his revelry until a palm was extended towards him.
“Nice meeting you, detective.”
The man was smiling warmly at him, a pleasant-looking young man of about Daniel’s age.
“Nice meeting you, Mr -” he trailed off, expecting the young man to fill up the void.
“Gabriel,” the man replied, “Gabriel Malik.”
Lot studied Gabriel. There was a quality about this person standing before him that Lot at once noticed; it was a quality of repose, of quiet watchfulness, his movements were deliberate.

Even his eyes had that deliberate faculty, and his voice was not raised. Lot hadn’t noticed Gabriel in the room. The young man was smiling broadly, and he appeared to be studying Lot too. He was dressed simply in a checkered brown shirt and black jeans trousers but he looked stunning. Unlike Lot who sported a considerable thicket on his scalp, Gabriel was not only mildly afro-styled but also clean shaven. Lot was beginning to like the man but he reminded himself that it was unethical for a detective to have any attachment with any suspect at a crime scene. That was what he’d been trying to teach the ridiculous Daniel who never seemed to be learning anything in the least. Lot nearly questioned why he’d travelled all the way from the comforts of his own bed to investigate a crime with a rather impossible sidekick. And to worsen the situation, he was rendering a free service! Goodness!