Samsaara : Devadoot

All Chalked Out

A FEW HOURS AGO.

I had about 90 days' worth newspaper to skim through for more information. What aroused my interest in the matter was the conversation that I heard. The person mentioned the word 'Hartshorne'. In the olden days there were two sources where people would get ammonia from.

One was a raw ore called 'Sal ammoniac' which was found near the temple of Amun. The other was a solution of ammonia created from decomposition of hooves and horns of animals which was called 'spirit of Hartshorne'. So I wondered what these people were planning to do with a barrel of ammonia. My confusion was cleared while leaving from there when I saw foamy water in the gutters and steam in the chimney. That place was a laundry. Laundries are one of the few places where bleach is stored in bulk. The bleach is dissolved in water and used to whiten clothes. I remembered from my chemistry classes that bleach and an excess of ammonia react with one another to create hydrazine by the Olin Raschig method.

Hydrazine is a volatile, toxic and potentially explosive gas. These common household substances could kill someone and could easily be passed off as an accident as ammonia is a common cleaning agent. Now all I had to find out was why that man wanted to harm the people in the laundry.

That is where the newspapers would be of help. Within 2 hours of skimming the local newspapers I found three articles that gave me relevant information.

This old, well-dressed man whom I had seen was the builder. Using his sources, he must have figured out that he was losing the case and wanted to get his way by force. That is why he wanted the owner of the laundry dead. So even if he lost the case, there would be no one to stop him from continuing his construction. He would prevent a major loss for himself and it could be passed off as an accident easily. All I had to do was to buy enough time for the owner of the laundry.

I bought some stuff to complete my plan, dressed up in disguise and waited there till nightfall to carry out my plan. When everyone was fast asleep I broke into the temple and replaced the bleach with chalk powder so that there wouldn't be any reaction. Then I closed the doors and locked it as it were before so that no one would suspect what I did. To make sure that the younger guy would do as I expected I stayed behind in disguise near the temple door and watched silently.

At about 1.20am I was woken up abruptly by the sound of someone walking. I looked out from the corner of my eye and saw the younger guy struggling with the heavy plastic paint bucket. He picked the lock more noisily than I did and used an electric torch whose beams of light I could see falling on the window glass. He must have poured the liquid into the chalk powder because he came out hurriedly. He closed the door, pressed the lock shut and walked off in a jiffy. The characteristic pungent odour spread through the area and just as easily got dissipated in an hour's time.

Although my work there had been done I wanted to wait and see the results of my actions. Plus, I had some great canine company to prevent me from getting lonely.

In the morning I saw what I expected, the owner of the laundry won the case. He also had no clue about how close he had come to death. It was satisfying to see that old builder so frustrated. All due to a box of chalk!