Muthu was enjoying the freshly fried hot pakodas his mother had made, along with the masala tea that was granted to him only in the last few weeks of each year. Otherwise, it was always the boring plain milk that he was told boys his age should drink. When his grandmother was around, he would coax her to pour in a few drops of coffee decoction. At least, that way, the smell of milk was masked. God forbid if his father or mother came to know about this!!
While he used one hand to consume the pakodas and tea, his other hand held an adventure novel. The weather was lovely as the setting sun played hide-and-seek with fluffy bits of high clouds and the sunlight that came through his window lit up the pages of his book from time to time. Mystery …Adventure….Suspense – why did it always happen to The Five Find Outers, The Famous Five and Hardy Boys and not closer home?
He looked hard at the pakodas and his teacup to see if they would suddenly reveal some secrets. He let his imagination fly as he worked out ways to rescue a kidnapped lady. As he continued to stare at the pakodas and the teacup, a plan formed itself in his mind. He would dress up as a teaboy and serve tea and pakodas to the kidnappers and the trapped lady. In one of the pakodas, he would hide the duplicate key to the room where the lady was locked up. He would smartly reach that particular pakoda to the lady. He felt great as he had just created a mystery (albeit* with loopholes) and had solved it!
Now that he was totally convinced about his abilities to solve mysteries, he was sure that if he combined his special detection skills with the physical strength of Jones and the knowledge bank of Bala, it should be possible to search for and create their own adventures in their little town. It might be a good idea to get hold of a dog for smelling things out. Most mystery stories had a dog in them which looked up to the leader of the team, which in this case would be Mr Muthu himself.
So sure was Muthu about his friends joining him in his adventure that he moved on to the next step of analysing the crime scene in his town. The town sub-inspector, Mr Dharmalingam, was a close friend of his father's. From what SI Uncle told his father, most of the time, the cases were simple thefts or silly fights. Nothing awesome seemed to happen around him.
Muthu looked out of his window and noticed the hilltop bungalow which had been part of a rich man, Mr Solomon's plantation. He had disappeared a few years ago in a major fire which had broken out at the bungalow. The townspeople were convinced that his ghost haunted the house. Muthu felt his new team should investigate the forbidding* bungalow and allay the people's fears about it.
He felt a rush as he thought about this bright idea and decided it was time to get out of the cosy confines of his home, bear the brunt of the winter and set out for an adventure of a lifetime.
