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| Sunday, 18 September 2005 |
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Magazine |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Tiger by the Tail
He looked up to see the full moon smiling benignly. The boulder he was standing on gave him a view of the mountainside below. There were dark patches of grass but the clumps of trees were bathed by serene moonlight. He laughed aloud. His left side of lip went up like a sneer when he laughed without concern. He looked satisfied. He had pulled it off. He had months to prepare for that night. He had executed every step, every move in the manner that it should have been executed. Perhaps it was perfection in a true sense. But then he realized his mistake. He held the tiger by the tail. If he let go, it was all over for him; but the tiger was going deeper into the jungle and time was running out. No one to tell, no one to applaud, no one to acknowledge its presence. He had to keep hanging on to the tiger's tail for dear life. The evening News reported a news item 'Mistake of foul play. Last night was an eventful one for the Police Department. The killing of a well-known and wealthy businessman, Mr. Asiri despite his own security was a puzzle. The Police Department was currently searching the site of the victim's house where he was gunned down, as well as a large area of the surroundings. More details will be made known in the following editions. Mr. Asiri kept many houses in Colombo. Two were for his living and were lavishly built and decorated with landscaped gardens and one had a swim pool too. He entertained in another and had yet another for his visitors, mostly foreign. Another house was for his private office and the last one for his personal staff. He had living quarters in all except the last. One among his many businesses was his gem business. He did it successfully as he gave good prices to all sellers of gems who came to him. He owned gem pits too and had studied and was very knowledgable about gems. He did not underprice the gems that came to him. Therefore, there were more and more people coming to him and his business thrived. But, this made him very unpopular among the cartels of gem merchants. At the present time there was a certain restlessness among the gem merchants. The newspapers of the next few days carried many articles about Mr. Asiri and his many enterprises. That fateful night Mr. Asiri had arrived late at his abode with the swim pool and as was his usual practice, he took a midnight swim. The killer had shot him with a silencer rifle as he was getting into the pool. It looked as if Asiri had dived in and when the bodyguards noticed he was floating with face downwards for more than a minute, they become alert and ran about shouting to the rest of the staff and trying to see what had happened. A couple of Asiri's friends with drinks in their hands, stepping into the garden from the living room, too were nonplussed for a few moments. It took a little while to get the body to the edge of the pool and hoist it up when the neck started bleeding. There was no blood in the pool as perhaps the water had served as a cold compress when he fell in. The police was summoned and they arrived quickly. They started their work by dispatching the policeman to search the garden, house and the surroundings. Some questioned the staff and the two visitors. Some questioned Mr. Asiri's secretary as to his employer's programme that day and night. Meanwhile, there was no sign of clues about the house and garden. It was surmised the killer was on the roof of the next door house which was about 60 meters away. Maybe he had climbed an adjacent tree and got on to the roof and escaped the same way down. There was a canal some way behind the house and most probably would have provided the gateway route. The funeral arrangements were made in the following days. Radio and TV also gave details from time to time. Mr Asiri' wife was visiting their two married children abroad and they were notified and all arrived post haste to the tragedy and to witness a huge crowd coming to condole and pay their respect. Asiri's staff and clients of his many businesses alone amounted to a few thousands. The funeral took place with the usual religious ceremonies, the funeral procession, the speeches and cremation with his relatives lighting the pyre. He had watched TV and listened to the radio and knew what was happening. He was back in Ratnapura and had got himself into a team of gem miners who were cutting a new illang or vein in a gem pit. He had ready excuse, when the others asked him where he went during his long absences, whether he was ill, etc., as he did not work regularly. Evening found him at the mouth of rock cave where he sat with his back to the rock and smoking a cigarette, high above the Ratnapura river in a forest glade. He was a loner and this was a favourite place of his. The stunt he had pulled off should give the gem cartels a good boost. He knew that these people had discovered some new illangs of blue sapphire and cats eye which were very lucrative and of immense value. The gem cartels were trying to monopolise them keep them under cover to sell them much later at jacked up prices. Mr. Asiri had got wind of it and he was going to inform the authorities. That's why he was given the assignment to eliminate Asiri. He thought about his prowess in shooting and his quick getaway. How he changed his attire and placed his clothes in a covered tin in a hole up a tree trunk. How he broke up his latest modern rifle into three and carried it in a loose brown paper covering. How he had run along the canal and went up a quite side road and then to a main road, jumped a private bus and was in Avissawella, all within one and half hours. From there it was easy to get to Ratnapura. He reminisced, how he took aim and shot Asiri who was on the verge of getting into the swim pool. Time and again something was puzzling him. The smile of Mr. Asiri was unusual and very catching as it lit up his entire face. He had noticed it every time he had surreptiously shadowed Asiri in the previous months when he was planning his modus operandi. Now, he was feeling sleepy and nodding off when he remembered a similar smile on the face of a young man who had rescued him when he was being swept away in the same Ratnapura river when he was a small child. Was it Asiri who had rescued him? He was fully awake now and trying to remember the name of the young rescuer. But it eluded him. The long passage of time had completely erased the name from his memory. Did I shoot the man who rescued me? Anyway, I have got the tiger by the tail and it is impossible to let go. by Shireen Senadhira |
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