The party was in full swing: some people swaying to the music, others indulged in conversation while the rest preferred fretting it away at the bar. The host of this carnival was Rob Odane, the newly promoted CEO of Globocorp. This party was to celebrate his promotion and as a result all his colleagues including subordinates had been invited to the party. Finally on everyone’s request, Rob went to the stage to “say a few words” in honor of the night. With the cigarette still lit in his hand, Rob was pondering what to say when he found the mike thrust under his chin; well, he thought, just let me go with the flow. He started, “Friends, it has been a great ho………..”; suddenly the whole world just seemed to spin in front of his eyes and he fell down on the podium, eyes staring wide into blank space.

“These were the last words that ever escaped Rob’s mouth”, said Jess and broke down in tears. Jess was Rob’s fiancé and they were to tie the knot the very next month itself. According to the medical reports, Rob had died from a heart seizure or in layman’s words, a heart attack; quite a natural cause for death and yet here was Jess seated in front of Inspector Mc Gregory for she believed that foul play was involved.

James Mc Gregory, 28 years of age was also called “Sherlock Greg”. Using his keen observational powers combined with uncanny deductions, he had already solved 49 cases among which many were so high profile that they were never revealed to the public. So there is no wonder when he became the youngest man ever to attain the position of Detective General.

Rummaging through the case file, he could not find anything of special importance. After graduating from Stanford, Rob had taken the corporate world by storm. His eclectic choice of business strategies had left even his competitors hold him in admiration. And yet here he was dead. As Jess said, “ How can a healthy man just die of a heart attack when it was known that Rob was an avid fan of adventure sports such as rock climbing and trekking. After all these sports were not for the weak hearted, is it, Inspector?”“No not at all, not at all….”, replied James, consoling her. Well, she did have a point, he thought but how can a natural cause of death be foul play when there is no motive involved as well.

The next day, James was seated on his desk, going through the list of the guests who had attained the party. Rob’s secretary had created the list and had even written down the designation of the guests who were at the party. He was trying to make a list of all those persons who he could be possible suspects. Suddenly his eyes fell on a particular name: Smith Adam, General Manager. “I had heard this guy’s name somewhere but where……where…”.He called his assistant and told him to feed the name into the police records for further information.

Just then the postmortem report came in. Everything was as had been indicated by the initial medical report. The only thing that seemed to be out of place was two pieces of information: Firstly, the deceased had an incision in the forefinger of his right hand, about the size of a pin-prick. Secondly, Rob was actually diabetic and that too Type-2, which means that he had an aversion to sweet things and yet his blood sample showed and excess level of sugar in it. Strange, he thought, Jess never told me anything about Rob getting injured or so.

It has been a tiring day for James, the entire cross checking and interviewing had taken its toll and now all that he wanted was a warm bath and a quick tuck in into bed. However before going home, he had to report to Headquarters once more and as he dragged himself back to his office, he started thinking about his interview with Adam. Adam was definitely terrified when he heard about his arrival and that was evident on his face. Although the look was soon replaced with a smug confidence, James just could not forget that earlier expression – that guy sure had something up his sleeve.

The next day, no sooner had James reached Headquarters than his secretary came up with the good news – Adam had a criminal record and not just some parking tickets but it was rather large. At the age of 14, Adam Smith had been convicted for drug-trespassing and had been sent to the Juvenile Correction Academy. Even there a few incidents of violence regarding him had turned up but finally he mended his ways. He turned a new leaf and went on to work for Globocorp, where he quickly rose through the ranks and was even touted to be the next CEO before…. “before Rob became the CEO”, James completed his assistants report. “Well, Well, this is definitely something new!!! This can establish Adam to be a suspect but for what – killing Rob by making him suffer heart attack……Absolutely ridiculous!!!!”

Suddenly, his assistant told him that Jess had been there earlier to visit him and had left him with the discs showing the footage of the whole party caught with a secret camera hung at the entrance. James hung up his coat on the peg and told his assistant to play the Cds. Although most of the footage adequately displayed the tomfoolery that goes with middle aged people, there was one particular incident that struck him. It was when Rob came out to invite Adam in; now just before Adam entered, he dripped his index finger into a small pouch. The pouch evidently carried some powder, for by magnifying the footage, James could see that it was covered with a white powder. And now the most interesting part, as Rob extended his arm for shaking it, Adam somehow twisted his own , so that Rob got nicked in the index finger – that very finger that had that cut. “So, that explains the incision on his finger. Guess we need to call Mr. Smith for an interrogation.”

“Your façade did slip away, Mr. Smith”, a scorned James said. After two hours of hard grilling, Adam had finally admitted to the murder and that too after James had managed to procure that vial of powder. It was no ordinary powder but was actually, 100% sugar mixed with steroids for increasing the heart beat, commonly known in the drug market as Cycloxane. The interesting fact about this drug is that although is to be used via cigars, once injected into the blood the steroids mix with the sugar to give an impression of excess sugar in the blood. Adam said, “After all those years I have slogged away at Globocorp, I was the one who deserved to be the CEO not Mr. New-Hot-Shot. So as soon as I came to know about the news I decided that it was time to take back what is rightfully mine. I knew Rob was diabetic and that too critically – so I got one of my old accomplices to get hold of this drug and when Rob was not looking I injected into his blood via the cut I made with my nail.”

Adam was locked up and allowed to make a call to his lawyer, although James knew that with the confession that he had got from Adam, it was hard to see him getting out before 14-15 years. As James sat down to prepare the report, he silently congratulated himself on the accomplishment  – he had finally completed his half-century

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