"Insp. Shokie, the kids (and I) would like to know if you ever get time for poetry."
"Have you watched your love's execution?
When it's time to #cave in for that deed,
The scene's never pretty, never stink free,
It's you who will live the eternal death."
"Insp., kids!"
#vss365
1986 (June 22,3 am)
A young lad bawled his heart out, wrote a poem about his heroes Socrates, Zico, Careca after Brazil's QF loss to France.
2022 (Dec 18,11:34 pm)
An old man keeps score but no more.
Where's the fiery love?
When did all the passion go?
Close the gate, sentry!
The lady is in the locked basement, chained to a wall, badly hurt, starving. Her rich husband, decomposing in the bedroom.
That isn't why Insp. Shokie found the scene #ugly.
She knows the Black Widow's MO. There won't be any trace of acid or remains of dissolved keys.
#vss365
"May I come in?"
"Yes."
"I need your help."
"Sit down," Insp. Shokie said.
"I was writing a novel. The MC..."
"MC?"
"Main character. Just a clichéd Nameless with a tragic past muddling with right and wrong."
"One of us."
"Yes, intentionally or not."
"What's the problem?"
"It's evolved."
"Evolved?"
"The MC played mind games. Initially, through dreams. Then, when I am awake."
"Proceedings of a heat-oppressed brain or whatever?"
"The Bard might say so and I thought so. It changed the plot. Even the other characters and theme too."
"For good or bad?"
"Truth be told, it produced a work I could not have thought of."
"You did not answer."
"Good, I think. No, bad. It's really dark. I don't think I can publish it."
"Why not?"
"The stuff the characters do, their thoughts, the message, if I can call it that."
"Total fantasy?"
"No, that's the problem. It's too real. It will get banned, for sure."
"Is that your problem?"
"Sorry, I should not waste your time. I should get to the point."
"Yes, please."
"It started to live outside it."
"Which it are we talking about?"
"The MC...outside the book."
"How?"
"It's made me do stuff to people."
"Bad stuff?"
"Maybe."
"Explain."
"I targeted a friend. It made me do it."
"How?"
"I had not even thought about the friend like that before."
"Please get to the point."
"Sorry. The MC brought up some incidents I had totally forgotten."
"And?"
"That friend is a pedophile waiting to happen. It's there in his family. Never got out. A few things he said. At various times."
"And you brought it out."
"Yes."
"How did that turn out?"
"Badly. For him."
"For you?"
"Lost a few friends I never had."
"You mentioned people. Were there more cases like this?"
"Yes, a teacher, a cousin. Various sins."
"Sins you knew of but had forgotten till this...MC brought it up."
"Yes."
"It's natural, isn't it? Repressed thoughts and all that?"
"Yes, I too thought there's a rational explanation. Till the most recent case. That's the real problem."
"Finally."
"The MC wants me to kill ..." the writer placed a note with a name in front of Shokie.
"Whoa!"
"Exactly."
"Do you know this person?"
"Not personally. Heard a lot, of course."
"The only decent person in today's public life, the hacks say so. Accused of what?"
"The MC wouldn't say. It does not believe in two-way communication."
"Like a spouse."
"You think like a poet."
"Like the police."
"Ah, yes."
"Have you ever met this person?"
"Never. No one in my circle either. I have not even followed the news reports that closely."
"How are you going to kill?"
"Don't know."
"Is it your MC or is it you trying to influence me?"
"I didn't think of that."
"What will make you kill a person?"
"I don't know. What will make you?"
"I don't know."
"What should we...I do?"
"Wait for the monster to make a move. Creator, I am your master, obey, didn't Frankenstein hear that from his sweet pet?"
"You are a poet."
"I should put you inside for that."
Insp. Shokie remained in a #torpid state.
5-member gang hacks restaurant owner and family for delay in serving idli; girl poisons former lover; politician wants investigation into alleged forged idiotic order...
She yawned. Looked at her watch. Not yet 9 am.
#vss365
Human sacrifice, cannibalism; politician's sexual abuse; a kid offered a drink that turns out to be acid;
and, as #foam on the bitter drink that's her day, a couple wanted Insp. Shokie to restrain in-laws.
"They don't even like us sitting close. But, they want babies!"
#vss365
Insp. Shokie barely heard the words of congrats, not even from the one she had saved.
Pure luck helped her catch the serial killer.
"I can catch any #hideous killer but...when people cared for and loved deeply by the killer are targeted, what can I do?"
#vssmurder
#vssmurderA
"..They decide the market, they decide the majority's fate, untouched by riots, crying hoarse patriotic #verse. We will sacrifice people we love. We will target people like you and me."
Insp. Shokie closed the document. "Another manifesto, another call to mass-murder."
#vss365
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2020/11/like-you-and-me.html
"Insp. Shokie, Scrabble with you is like a session with a yenta," her nemesis Shekhar said.
"Phpht!"
"I had #cwtch in mind."
"Brr."
"Byrls?"
"Not after caziques."
"Opened too much with your tits."
"Your horn, too."
"Hornswoggle!"
"With you, that came naturally."
#vss365
"Wife tried to kill me. Found me with lover. A thief entered. Thief fell, down the stairs, along with my wife and lover," he said.
"I like his #play, not lying not telling the truth either," Insp. Shokie said. "With only one body, the thief, lover and wife must be one."
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2015/07/not-really-surreal.html
"Who killed him, Insp.?"
Shokie closed the diary of the dead man.
"His writing. This 'diary' is a story in reverse narrative. He knew she wouldn't read it right and skip the epigraph too:
Words be Death's fave #Muse.
Infidelity one way,
And love in reverse."
#vss365
"12 murders in 6 months! Plenty of clues, I hear. Why haven't you caught them, Insp. Shokie? The people demand results."
"Yes, Minister. Too many clues, in fact. The murderers are from your party."
"Oh. Leave the file. People voted us in. They are fine with what they know."
"Insp Shokie, why were you removed from the case?"
"Told them he isn't guilty."
"With all the evidence?"
"They didn't get one part #right in the photo that spoils his alibi. The shop-owner's dog. #Forgot it was dead a week by then."
"They?"
"The Deep State."
#vss365
#ConverStory
"#Lead end, dead end..." Insp. Shokie kept muttering to Pink Panther's tune. "Your neighbour says the shots came from here."
"Is he saying I shot her, placed her body in his bedroom?"
"How did you know the body is in his bedroom?"
"I can see her from my study, with him."
#vss365
"Villagers hear kids cry. On these rocks."
"They would."
Insp. Shokie remembered her first case: the village that offered their kids to the rich; arriving too late; 14 kids, their throats slit, turned these rocks red that night. #Flies touched those files, not justice.
#vss365
“What a tough case to #crack! A dozen involved in Aneesh’s death, with his blood on them."
"With one killer on the loose," Insp. Shokie said. “Aneesh.”
“What?”
"Contact other states. Look at cases with a man #snatch-ed or presumed dead, and many in custody.”
#vss365
#ConverStory
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2017/09/tick-tock-tick-tock.html
A man was caught with a human carcass in the boot of his car.
"It's a custom in my #community, to dump bodies on these hills," the man said. "Mine are near pine trees with love-signs."
"Natural," Insp. Shokie muttered, "the sublime brings out the worst in people."
#vss365
based on scenes from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/04/story-tellers-sabbatical.html
"An #astronaut, alone in ISS, found dismembered."
"A murder in space," Insp. Shokie paused, "a first for us."
"There were others?"
"First one on the moon...they murdered her for Cold War's sake."
"Really?"
"As for this, it's god's job. But, let's not hurt sentiments."
#vss365
"Lazy idiots love love at first sight. Look at us..."
"But, we are not in love. You are married, I have a partner. We are not even attracted to each other."
"Exactly! What will make us fall in love with each other?"
"Oh..."
"Isn't that worth a thought?"
I talk too much
When I should be silent,
I laugh too much
When I should be crying,
I joke when I should be serious,
I tease when I should not,
I remember the day you cried
(not because of me)
In our shared public space,
And all I had to say was,
"Do you know what others will think
if they caught us like this?"
It made you laugh.
Is that when I fell in love with you?
I guess not.
The day I feared has come,
When you ask,
"Tell me about you and Ma."
If you were a son,
I would try,
"Don't be stupid"
Or
Senseless empty verse
With admirable phrases
And great vocabulary.
He wouldn't buy that
But that's the way
With fathers and sons.
Not with you,
my dear girl,
Image of our love
And my darker self.
You won't say it
But your look says,
"Seasons are just
Six-letter words.
As for four-letter ones,
Fu*k, su*k, li*k and lu*k
Are better than love.
Tell me what it was."
"#Periwinkle," SI Anu said.
"What?" Insp. Shokie said.
"The flower on the body, the colour."
"Ah!"
"Google says it's called flower of death."
"Anything else?"
"Doesn't take life seriously."
"How comforting when a serial killer says that. Find the head and the limbs."
#vss365
Every family has a few with an evil eye.
Three aunts bring normal bad luck (job loss, divorce, etc.). Black magic is used to #reflect this.
Not with Kunjappan:
"Oil's lovely" (vessel crack'd); "he works well" (he's paralyzed); "she's great" (she jumped into well).
I took my wife to the village festival.
"Stunning!" Kunjappan told her, without malice, without #reflection. That's the way to cast an evil eye.
When she died that night, the police put the cause as 'Evil Omen'. They ignored her broken neck, the scratches on my face.
#vss365
"Who killed them?"
"Who killed whom?" Insp. Shokie continued,
"Eldest daughter bludgeoned by father,
Younger twins sneaked about a lover,
They were poisoned by mother,
She was strangled by lover, hers.
Husband and lover are in that pyre.
An #innocent soul? Maybe."
#vss365
The ransom note said : 10 million in the alley behind where #snow melts.
"Snow in the tropics?"
Insp. Shokie snored.
"Boss, it's the Chief Minister's kid."
"Who is the owner of the hotel Where Snow Melts?"
"The Chief Minister's father-in-law. Oh!"
"Oh indeed!"
#vssmystery
Too old to have hope,
Too young to forget:
Walking arm-in-arm
Feeling self-conscious,
In aloof embrace,
The impotence killed,
Loneliness I chose;
With her, crowds vanished,
Always on passion's #crest,
Trust, desire, safe risk,
I know not, till then
No false company.
#vss365
"Relationships are about trust. If you have to play detective, then it's time to move on."
"Beguiling quote. And a bad #omen for the detective. On whose blog?" Insp. Shokie asked.
"The wife's. Should we theorize before we have a victim?"
"Find the source of mistrust."
#vssmurder
Why do gods come here
To deal with the likes of us,
To be forgotten?
Why do heroes fight
To send millions to their graves,
To be remembered?
Why do we support,
That selective pick and choose,
To discard many?
Why do we not stop
The repeat of history,
For resurrection?
When a common man
Can afford
A hit on another:
(10 for broken bones,
20 for hospitalization,
50 for 10 hacks,
75 for daytime public kill,
100 for 2, special discount)
They say,
"It's the Golden Age."
Or
"Everything Is Ok now."
Last weekend,
I tried a party--
In gruesome reality,
Not happy virtuality.
For a while,
I was fine--
Mostly silent,
A dumb charade,
With mental (dis)likes;
Forced to speak,
I tried emojis
With subtitles.
In writer-reader mode,
I saw Shokie frowning,
Where's the murder/story;
Cut the scenes
Leading nowhere,
Chekhov whispered;
How about poetry,
A la Gerontion or Wilfred Owen
In a trench full of grey guys.
I went through
A trashcan of memories
To get through the night.
I must have endured
Parties with guys,
Alas! Without a byte stored;
This lot was decent,
Friendship is tiring,
Scars of worse still itch;
The absence of women,
Is that why I searched
For the logout button;
But then, with those
The promise of tomorrow
Is the impossible requisite.
Don't you laugh, my love,
I don't need your clone,
How well I cope without you.
"She was only a witness to the victim's will. What motive could she have to kill?" SI Anu asked.
"Random suspicion is the #flip side of methodic investigation," Insp. Shokie said.
"Really?"
"No. But, a good crime story. What if she kills bcos her only motive is to kill?"
#vss365
"Met on social media, love at first post. Gives me precious gifts. Won't take, not even sex. Too good. How will the fraud happen?"
"This is, I think, a two-coffee problem," Insp. Shokie said.
"With a #dollop of cream?" SI Anu asked.
"With cyanide, lovers are involved."
#vss365
"Why didn't the dog #bark?" Insp. Shokie asked. On the 30th floor of the investment bank, the CEO was dead. 'Toxic subprime' printed with red lipstick near his scrotum. "Bring in the CFO, the one with lipstick on his collar."
"What dog?" SI Anu asked.
"A red herring."
#vss365
The miasma of #sweat loaded with garlic pointed at one suspect: the murder victim's husband.
"He has the means, opportunity, motive, which spouse doesn't?" Insp. Shokie paused, "As for the kids..."
"We've to break him."
"Yes, with the aphrodisiac."
"Garlic?"
"Love."
#vss365
