The telephone shattered the night?s stillness as it rang consistently before Raj picked it up. On the other end a voice boomed, ?Hello, may I speak to Mr Mukherjee, please??

?This is him,? said Raj.

?Hello Mr Mukherjee, my name is Richard Davidson. I stay at 22 Mandalay Road. There has been a theft at my home and I want your help in that?.could you please come over?? came an introduction. The voice (Davidson) didn?t seem to waste words, thought Raj. ?Now? It?s 11.35 p.m. Have you not called the police?? ?Yes, I did. They just left the house. Could you please come? I am very worried and any extra help will be most welcome.?

?I?ll tell you what?let?s wait till tomorrow?I will be there by 10. Will that be convenient??

?Yes! Thank you and good night.? The phone went dead.

The next day Raj Mukherjee could be seen driving his green Ambassador down the posh Mandalay Road. He drove up to a mansion of red bricks and ivy. On the left hand side of the gate there was a faded plate that read ?Richard Davidson: Numismatist? As he walked into the grounds there was an old world charm to the place ? the house looked a century old. There was also a sad neglect to the place.

?There you are!? The booming voice from the previous night greeted him from the interiors of the house. ?Please come in ...I am Richard...didn?t have any trouble locating the house did you?? Raj shook his head and smiled at the little giant that was towering before him. Nearly six ft four inches, the numismatist was a huge bundle of puppy fat that looked so incongruous on a grown up man.

After five minutes of introduction and exchanging pleasantries, Raj found himself settling on the sofa ? again comfy and cushiony but with a weathered look ? and hearing his client speak.

?I collect old coins as you may have figured out. There are in my collection both valuable and invaluable coins...but they are all my treasured pieces. Recently I made a bargain ..a fantastic one if you ask me! You must have read of the Gangarampur unearthing...I have, what I suspect, two coins from that place. They must have been smuggled out of the site. I had kept the two coins in a red velvet packet on the left drawer...there. I had planned to return them to the government after I had done the carbon-testing. Last night I came back late after a party, checked on my son Dick who was fast asleep and then checked the drawer that was locked and went off to sleep. This morning when I opened the drawer (it was still locked) there was no packet...can you please help me? What happened? I really can?t figure anything out!? The jolly giant was beginning to look worried.

?Who else knew about the packet and the drawer??

?Dick.? ?Where is he now?? The man looked a little ashamed at the question.

?Ummm...he is still sleeping. You know youngsters nowadays. They are totally irresponsible. Dick can sleep like a log if he wants to and then he can stay awake till the wee hours...no discipline. He only knows how to party. But he is a honest boy.? ?Did you have a duplicate key?? ?I don?t ...my son has...? came a slow reply.

The booming voice was mellow now. ?He said he has not touched the drawer. And the keys are somewhere in his CD-drawer,? said the father. Raj went up to check the drawer and found out that the lock was fine. Only there was a smallish hole on the side.

?My son made that. He was using the drawer for light tracing...he needed the electric wires to pass through the hole to light up a bulb.? Raj nodded his head. He had seen his younger sister use the same contraption. Take an empty drawer, put a bulb inside it and place a transparent piece of glass, switch on the bulb and use the drawer as a light tracing table.

But didn?t the hole look bigger than what was required. Could it allow more than just wires to pass through? Maybe human fingers...Maybe...he thought to himself. It somehow looked familiar. He had seen such holes in the kitchen when their house was getting fumigated and cleaned....

Before his thoughts could wander off a very cocky teenager entered the room and gave Raj what could be effectively described as a ?look?. ?Sit down I want to ask you some questions,? said Raj. ?Sure...? Dick sat down lazily, somewhat trying to create an impression that he was relaxed and nonchalant.

As soon as he sat down, Dick sprang up again and ran out of the room. Both the father and the detective were left staring at the door from where the young man had ran out.

Then there was a booming laughter. ?Oh-ho! He must have seen a rat..there are too many of those here and they are a menace. Dick hates rats. Detective where are you off to? Mr Mukherjee, where are you going? That?s the kitchen...are you looking for something??

While Raj rummaged through the kitchen drawers and crawled on the kitchen floors on all fours, Davidson looked almost worried.

Soon, with a cry Raj extracted a red velvet packet from a small hole in the wall. ?How did you...?? Davidson could not finish his sentence.

?The rats, of course! Your son had made the hole but rats had made it bigger and you could see their teeth marks. I have seen holes like that in my kitchen. Rats usually take their loot to their homes, which usually are in the kitchen.

They must have thought it to be food when they took it, they left it as soon as they realised that it was of no use for them. Thus the best place to look for the packet was somewhere in the kitchen,? said detective Raj Mukherjee, capping off his 100th successful case.