Calamity Of Life

   Calamity Of Life

The story of a man whose fate was reversed.

 The story of a man who was fed up with his wife and wanted to get rid of her in any way. But when he got rid of his wife, a new revelation came to him. The story of the man whose hard work went in vain. At the same time, he was also guilty of a big crime.

 Some would fill in newspaper puzzles for mental entertainment and some would solve chess puzzles, Harry was similarly devoting his intelligence to devising new schemes to kill his wife. He had seen his wife perish in countless ways over the past few years. He would also plan to push his wife off the top of a mountain, sometimes by locking her in the garage and choking her to death, sometimes by pushing her down the basement stairs.

 And sometimes saw him crushed under a speeding truck. Sometimes he would make plans to kill her by electrocuting her in the bathtub while she was taking a shower, and sometimes he would find ways to trick her into feeding her an entire vial of sleeping pills.

  In fact, he had killed his wife Agnes in forty-seven different ways in his mind. But in reality, he could not even put a slight scratch on his wife's body. He was fully prepared and did not want to take any risks before the right opportunity. He wanted to take full precautions in this matter.

   Harry knew all too well that when a woman died under unusual circumstances If she has no enmity with anyone and has more than five hundred thousand dollars in her bank account, the first focus of the police's scrutiny is the woman's husband.

 They are so cunning that they leave no stone unturned to entrap even innocent husbands. They also try hard to disprove the evidence of the absence of these people from the incident, and they feel a strange sense of happiness in this.

   If there was a clear justification for killing Agnes on someone other than Harry, he would have killed his wife long ago, under the guise of this person. But in the present situation, he was not ready to take any kind of risk. In the case of his wife's unexpected death, everyone could suspect him. This was the reason why he could not follow any of his carefully planned schemes till now.

For this reason, he had not taken any steps in the past even to date that the police could suspect him. In the eyes of others, Harry and Agnes' married life was considered more successful than that of other married couples. Harry seemed to be giving the same impression.

 None of his friends knew of Harry's thoughts that he had been planning to leave the confines of the luxurious house on Moss Street for a long time and roam around in new places. And he wanted to get the luxury of life from this wealth, which was rotting in the bank for a long time. None of their friends had realized that whenever Agnes referred to Harry's photographic processing shop as "Harry's hobby" or "Harry's cigarette" income, Harry was shivering inwardly. His friends dismissed Agnes as a joke. But the truth was that if Harry didn't have that shop, he would be desperate for money to spend on cigarettes.

   The house they lived in was inherited by Agnes's father. Agnes had made it clear to her friends several times that Harry's income from the photography shop could not cover his father's house expenses.

  His wife Agnes was not particularly beautiful. She was over thirty-five years old and her features were attractive and her body was plump. A bad diet could make her fat. She used to diet often due to which her body was in shape. But for a few years now, she had not only stopped dieting but was also careless in the use of food. The result was that she started gaining fat on her body. At the same time, Agnes, who was once fit and healthy, will become a heart patient.

  Harry was lucky in this case to have a golden opportunity. He had been patient for a long time and finally, he had the hope of getting the reward for his patience. His wife Agnes, by her stupidity, had given an unknown youth, who was addicted to dangerous habits, the best justification for killing herself.

  In fact, that justification was so effective that even when given the opportunity, Harry hesitated for a moment at the thought of giving this young stranger the opportunity to attack. But since the young man had already committed one murder and his method was not impressive, Harry postponed giving the strange young killer a chance.

  The young man shot and killed Dr. Soderman in his office. The doctor's office was located on Pine Street. Apart from killing his victim, the young man had not really done anything right. The reason why this young man killed the doctor was understood. It could be that the young man was addicted to drugs and entered the doctor's office with the intention of stealing drugs. 

But even after killing the doctor, he was unable to get these medicines as he sensed someone's presence in the outer room. He had run away from there as soon as he heard footsteps in the outer room. At the same time, he was foolish enough to forget his revolver and leave a number of eyewitnesses to identify him. And that eyewitness was Harry's wife Agnes.

  Agnes had been Dr. Soderman's patient for over a year. She visited Dr. Soderman's office once a week. Apparently, she was perfectly healthy. But for the last year, she started suffering from nervous tension. She used to suddenly complain of headaches and sometimes back pain. She sometimes even mentions the change in her current lifestyle. On the day of the murder, Agnes had a two o'clock appointment with Dr. Soderman. 

She reached the doctor's office a few minutes before two o'clock. When she entered the office, the waiting room was completely empty. At the same time, she will look towards the examination room. The door of the consulting room was open. Agnes was a little surprised to see this. 

She called him to see if the doctor was in the room or not. At the same time, she went forward with the intention of peeking into the doctor's room.

   As soon as she reached the door of the inner room, a young man suddenly appeared from nowhere. He pushed Agnes aside and ran from the waiting room out the outer door and disappeared into the street. 

According to Agnes, the young man was twenty-two years old, with golden hair and a dirty jacket on his body. Agnes entered the doctor's room and found the doctor lying behind the examination table. There was a big stain of blood on the front of his shirt.

Then she noticed a revolver lying on the floor between the weighing machine and the drug cabinet. Seeing this scene, she started to get nervous and she came and sat in the waiting room with faltering steps. A couple of minutes later, as she was about to get up to call the police, she stopped when she saw Marcia Gillett, the doctor's receptionist, enter the office. Marcia had gone to lunch.

  These were the highlights of Agnes's statement which was published in the Chronicle newspaper the next morning. With the publication of this news, people not only got the information of all the incidents through the mouth of an eyewitness, but they also got to know the name and address of the eyewitness. 

 The newspaper published the name of the eyewitness, Mrs. Harry, along with the address of her residence at 379 Moss Street. Harry was only comforted by the news that there was now an individual in the town who believed that a woman named Mrs. Agnes Harry could lead him to the gallows. It was also clearly stated in the newspaper that Mrs. Agnes Harry was giving all possible assistance to the police in the investigation of the murder.

  Now only one thing was missing. The Chronicle newspaper did not publish a map of the area of the city through which the murderer could have easily reached their house. The police were not happy about the publicity of this incident. This was expressed by Lt. Dimmock when he came to drop Agnes back home after showing her photos of the criminals at police headquarters.

   "Your wife has acted very foolishly, Mr. Harry." Lieutenant Dimock said. "She shouldn't have had a conversation with a newspaper reporter about this."

  Harry was familiar with Dimock but had no idea that Dimock was involved with the police. He lived near his shop in the Kenan area. He had visited his shop four or five times for processing film reels. He was a heavyset person and his eyes always looked sad. His mustache hung down like a pendulum and he resembled a river horse.

  Harry was following Lieutenant Dimock's instructions carefully. He had locked all the doors and windows from the inside. He often strolled outside and checked the surroundings from the cover of the mailbox at the gate to see if any stranger, especially the young man with blond hair, was roaming around the house.

But instead of looking for a young man in particular, Harry's eyes wandered to a heavy-set, middle-aged man like Lieutenant Dimock. Harry had the idea that the police had started surveilling his house secretly.

so that if the murderer came thither in search of Agnes, he might be apprehended before he could attack. It could have been a trick. Harry thought it best not to ask any questions from the police to find out, otherwise, they might be suspicious. But he also wanted to know this in any case.

  As evening fell the next day, Harry was sure that no one was watching over his house. He decided to take advantage of this opportunity to carry out one of his thought-out schemes. He had considered each and every detail of these schemes for a long time. Scheme No. 32-B could have been effective in the current situation. It was a simple and rude recipe.

  According to this idea, a blow to the victim's skull with a heavy weapon was to kill the victim immediately. But there was also a condition that the weapon should not be so hard and sharp that any wound or scratch would appear on the victim's skull.

  Harry was afraid of the sight of blood. He especially did not want to see any blood stains on his clothes. The reason for this was that his wife was an eyewitness to a murder and the arrival of the police in connection with the investigation could be expected at any time.

   While Agnes was busy in the kitchen preparing a special dish from her favorite magazine, Harry sneaked down to the cellar. Reaching the basement, he took off his shoes and socks. Then he put one sock inside another sock. And fill the sand up to three-quarters in the double socks. This sand was already in the basement. When it snowed in winter, he used to spread this sand on the driveway so that the wheels of the car could not slip. Then he tied a knot in the open part of the sock.

 Now the socks had turned into a bag of sand. He had read many times about this type of weapon. And he had prepared a sketch of it in his mind, but he had never realized how much satisfaction he felt after having this kind of weapon in hand.

   He rotated the weapon in his hand three or four times in the air. A comfortable smile appeared on his lips. He laced up his shoes and then slowly pulled back the sand-filled socks, slamming them with all his might onto the folded carpet against the basement wall. As soon as the socks fell on the carpet, a solid sound was heard. Harry felt a sense of relief from this voice.

"What are you doing down there in the basement, Harry?" his wife Agnes's voice sounded in his ear.

Harry didn't answer.

  "How many times do I have to tell you dinner is ready?" Again Agnes's scream was heard.

  Harry wanted to remind Agnes that she hadn't said a word about dinner before. And this was the truth, but he could not put his intention into words. He was willing to put up with Agnes and her every little transgression tonight.

  Then he stomped out of the basement and came upstairs. The entrance hall was dark. If Agnes hadn't been so narrow-minded and stingy, then in the light Harry would have had a hard time hiding the sand-filled sock behind the pot on the table by the door.

 Even if they had a maid in the house, Harry would have had trouble carrying out his scheme. Agnes did not keep any servants because of her habit of stinginess. However, this turned out to be better in Harry's favor.

  During the dinner, Agnes had been rambling. She was habitually issuing complaints and instructions. Agnes, however, had not said a word about the young murderer.

  It was Harry's responsibility to wash the dishes after dinner. Usually, he used to do this very recklessly. But today he was cleaning the dishes very hard and why not! Today he was going to cut Agnes out of his life forever.

  Finished with the dishes, he washed the sink and took a deep breath as he dried it with a cloth. Then he heard the voice of a man speaking from the drawing room. He was shocked. Then he realized that the voice was coming from the television. Agnes sat down to watch television. He could not kill Agnes while she was watching television because the back of the armchair she used to watch TV in was very large and Agnes's head would hide under the back of the chair.

Agnes had to get out of that chair by some excuse now, Harry thought. The outer hall was still in darkness. This would have been the perfect place to stab Agnes. Especially Agnes's foolishness in opening the door to the arrival of a stranger would have given the assassin the best opportunity to strike. Yes, this hall, and especially the discovery of Agnes's body near the outer door, could effectively draw attention to this persuasive young man. But how to lift Agnes in front of the TV? Harry was lost in thought.

  And then the thought suddenly popped into Harry's mind. He could not help but praise his mind. It was not a difficult task. Agnes had an emotional attachment to the hereditary house she inherited from her father. This was the reason why they had been unable to change the house till now.

  Arriving in the hall, Harry picked up the sand-filled sock hidden behind the pot on the table in his right hand and hid it under the right cuff of his trousers. Then he stood in a place where there was complete darkness. He looked towards the drawing room. In the light of the table lamp, Agnes' hula was clearly visible sitting on the armchair. Agnes's lips were slightly pursed and her eyes were fixed on the television screen. Two people were threatening to kill a third person on TV.

  "Come here for a minute, Agnes," Harry called to his wife from the outer hall.

  Agnes paid no attention to his voice. Harry's voice reached her ears. But she had apparently become a stranger. Harry only hoped for Agnes. This time he had exploited Agnes' weakness.

  "There is a crack in the roof above the stairs. I don't understand how this crack is happening. I think this house is no longer habitable."

  As soon as Harry finished, she was at him like a bullet. Harry carefully hid his weapon, feeling very foolish. He could have gotten rid of Agnes in an instant by choosing any sharp chakra. But now was not the time to think about these things.

  "Where is that crack? I can't see it anywhere," said Agnes.

She had stepped on the first step. Her back was to Harry. And her eyes were fixed on the roof above the stairs. Harry's gaze scanned the top of Agnes's neck. Agnes had her hair braided. Harry imagined an imaginary bee on the hair just above the braided. And then he waved the pair of sand-filled socks he held in his hand in the air and took a step back, taking aim at the mock bee, and gave Agnes a full blow on the head!

  Harry's attack proved effective. Agnes's body rolled down the stairs like a lifeless rigid object. Harry looked intently at the part of Agnes where he had stabbed. There was no visible wound or blood on Agnes' head. 

Then he took Agnes's wrist and checked for a pulse. The pulse was silent. He let go of the wrist. The wrist fell down lifelessly. Harry stared at Agnes's dead body for a long moment. Agnes was lying face down on the bottom four steps. Meanwhile, a woman's voice was heard from the drawing room, praising a laundry powder.

  Harry was startled at first by the sound, but then remembered that the television was playing in the drawing where Agnes had been sitting a while ago. He would have to leave the television on, Harry thought. In this way, the impression could be established that Agnes was busy watching television when the assassin rang the doorbell.

  Harry inspected everything once more then took off the old raincoat hanging on the coat tree and headed for the outer door.

  On his way out, he left the door slightly ajar as if some mischievous young man had forgotten to close the door in his haste. He wanted to give real color to the fantasy of the fictional killer. The interior of the house was dimly lit to the outsiders because there was a bush right in front of the outer door. Which blocked the path of light. 

Even so, Harry had a faint hope that someone he knew might drop by or a neighbor might see the door open and peek in and discover Agnes' body before he arrived. Harry wanted someone else to discover Agnes' body and not have to report the incident to the police himself on his return.

In this way, the chances that the police could suspect him of being the murderer could be further reduced.

  The moon had its last dates. Therefore, the question of moonlight did not arise. However, there was a street lamp installed at the corner of Elem Street, which was shining its light on a part of the house. Harry left the house, taking cover of the dark side, and walked towards the backyard, the backyard that led directly to Elem Street. 

Then he left the shadow of the house and went into the shadow of the hedge of lilac plants. Which also served as the four walls of their house. But now this house was his property. Harry thought. He then approached the wall of a neighbor named Jackson under the cover of a fence. He then turned left onto Elem Street.

  While walking along the fence, he untied his sock and the sand in the sock began to fall on the dirt ground under the lilac trees. After he had dumped all the sand on the ground, he came out of the fence and entered Elem Street. He had stuffed the empty socks into the pocket of his raincoat.

  Reaching Elem street, he started walking towards his shop. His shop was located just three blocks away. He didn't run into anyone he knew during that time, but he didn't care. His behavior was absolutely normal. His plan did not involve any kind of time-warping or pretending to be absent from the scene.

  Harry's photography shop was located on the top floor of the Neadian Beauty Salon. He climbed up the stairs and turned on the light of the shop. He knew that the light of the bulb fell through the window onto the footpath below. By which people know the opening or closing of the shop. But now there could be no danger from the light falling on the pavement.

 He was often busy working at night and people knew about it. But no one knew that he often stayed up late at night reading paperback novels, not because of his busy work in the shop, but to escape from Agnes' closeness.

  First, he took his socks out of his raincoat pocket and headed for the deep sink where he washed the photo prints. He carefully turned the socks upside down and began sweeping the sand particles into the sink. At the same time, he also opened the water tap through which all the sand would flow into the water. 

Then he took off his shoes and put on his socks. While wearing the socks, his eyes fell on the two golden hairs that were shining from a distance clinging to the black socks. He carefully examined the socks and then put on the shoes again. After dealing with this task, he breathed a sigh of relief. And a comfortable smile appeared on his lips.

He took off his raincoat and hung it on a peg to one side and then surveyed the shop for the first time. When he closed the shop in the evening and went home, there was still some work left. A few color photo enlargements were left to be made, so why not start the work so that this part of his plan could be strengthened and the police could get the impression that he was busy working in the shop until late at night. ? He organized a program to give the final touch to the project.

  Preparing prints and enlargements of color photographs is a very demanding task. As Harry got busy with work, he forgot that tonight was more important than normal nights. When he started his work, his eyes were repeatedly raised to the telephone every half minute. He was eagerly waiting for the telephone to ring.

 He was wondering when and at what time the telephone would ring, but after some time of inattention, all his attention was focused on his work and he became unaware of his surroundings. He was so lost in washing them in the tray after preparing the enlargements that he didn't even hear the door to the downstairs shop opening. 

His eyes were fixed on the pictures lying in the tray, the colors of which were slowly emerging and becoming clearer. He had even forgotten for a moment that a crime had been committed by him.

  Then he was shocked when he heard the sound of heavy shoes in his ears. Someone was coming up the stairs.

  Harry's hands and feet were shaking for a while. He was stunned. He started thinking that when he forgot to close the entrance door of the lower floor, then what other things he must have forgotten. But now was not the time to forget or remember anything. At the same time, in the second moment, his anxiety and panic turned into pride and joy. Everything was as expected.

He was always convinced of the proposition that simplicity and oblivion are heavier than any kind of artifice. There was no possibility of any mistake or flaw in his plan. There could be no question of this.

   The man had now reached the upper stairs. The man's gasp was clearly audible, then the man called out Harry's name and Harry recognized the man's voice. That man was Police Lieutenant Dimock!

  Harry realized that someone had discovered Agnes' body. Apart from that, what could be the purpose of Lieutenant Dimock's arrival so late at night? Lieutenant Dimock had now entered the shop. His face was slightly sweaty from climbing the stairs and he was panting. He propped himself up against Harry's counter and looked at Harry sadly. He looked like someone who wanted to break some big news.

  "I was passing by here, saw your light on, and came here." Lieutenant Dimock began to speak after a short pause. Then he hesitated as if to avoid further conversation, then turned his face to the other side and stared at the cartons of film reels placed on top of the cash box.

  "It's not really business hours, Lieutenant, but if you need a film roll, I'd be more than happy to accommodate you," Harry said innocently.

  "That's not what I came here for. I think you should take a seat, Mr. Harry. I've come to give you some very sad news." Lt. Dimock's tone still contained an expression of inner conflict.

  "What do you mean?" Harry said in shock. 

At the same time, this thought also quickly emerged in his mind why he should not play the role of a citizen whose wife the police had failed to provide protection to. While an unknown killer had a real reason to kill his wife. This justification was not hidden from anyone because his wife was the only eyewitness of a murder incident. "Is everything good at my house?"

  "I don't know what you mean by well-being at home. However, there is definitely sad news regarding your wife. It has to do with something that I shouldn't tell you, but I am telling you because of my personal relationship. I am. After all, I am an old customer and neighbor of yours. That's why I moved here. You could even call it an emotional attachment."

"My wife? What do you mean by my wife? If my wife

If something happened to the wife, I will not leave these people, they had failed to protect her from this wandering alien killer. I am telling this clearly."

  Expressions of embarrassment appeared on the watch of Lt. Dimock.

  "I'm sorry I misled you a bit in that regard. I had to."

  "What led me astray? In what context are you referring to misleading, Lieutenant?" Harry asked, looking a little mischievous.

  "I assured you of the golden-haired youth. It was said that your behavior with your wife would be natural."

  "We were assured about this murderous young man? What was the reason for not believing in his existence? Dr. Soderman's funeral is being held tomorrow.

What other reason could there be for this young blonde assassin to exist? What are you talking about?"

Lieutenant Dimock shook his heavy head.

  "It's not rubbish, Mr. Harry. We were convinced from the start that there was no such thing as a young man with golden hair. If you were a member of the police, you would understand why.

  Not a single thing your wife said about this young man fits the story. Also, Dr. Soderman's receptionist, Marcia Gillette, had returned from lunch ten minutes earlier but had been sitting on the street in front of the door in her boyfriend's car for ten minutes. 

The entrance door of the doctor's office was in front of her eyes, then she said goodbye to her boyfriend and came into the office where your wife was getting up with the intention of calling the police. Marcia Gillette did not see anyone leave the office during the ten minutes she was sitting in her car with her friend. I did not say that it would be better if you sit on the chair."

  Harry slowly sat down in the swivel chair. A grain of sand was sticking in his right paw. This particle was causing him pain again and again. Probably he had not worked carefully in washing the socks.

"Then which person Dr. . . ."

  "Your wife, Mr. Harry. Who else but your wife could have done this. That's why I was hesitant to tell you the truth. Your wife and Dr. Soderman have been having an affair for a long time. They considered themselves far-sighted and wise and believed that no one knew about their relationship, although Marcia, the doctor's receptionist, knew everything about them. She even overheard their conversations. According to Marcia, Dr. Soderman wanted to end the relationship now, and your wife has been very upset over it for the past few weeks.

  Could the woman he was referring to be his wife Agnes? His wife Agnes? The woman he himself described as a cold-tempered lady?

  "Now there is no room for doubt about it. We have also traced this evening from which shop that revolver was bought. This revolver was bought by your wife herself from Stocken's counter.

  Lt. Dimock's tone was slightly complaining. He was probably laughing at Agnes in his heart. Who tried to fool the diligence and intelligence of the police in a foolish manner.

  "Two of my colleagues have left me here and gone to your house to arrest your wife. We will get confirmation on the phone from them in a couple of minutes that your wife has been arrested. I thought it appropriate that you mentally "Prepare to hear the news. I am sorry that you will now be deprived of your wife's company, Mr. Harry."

  Lieutenant Dimock shook his neck in regret.

  "But I hear she'll leave a lot for you," Dimock said in a whisper.

  "Is that true?" he asked, looking at Harry quizzically.

At that very moment, the telephone started ringing.

                                                                                                     THE END