“So ours is the only store sign that’s been broken?”

The boys remained silent.

All store signs stayed out in the open all the time. Nobody seemed to lock up the signs indoors when they counted the day’s proceeds and secured them in the safe at closing time. It was true that during the war, light bulbs were often stolen, but that was because they were in short supply. But even that happened only in vulnerable locations and only from house verandas, bathrooms, and car sheds. Never from the bazaar. There was no way someone could stand out on the street and aim stones at a store sign with no one to witness the deed. In that entire neighborhood, the tamarind junction was the one place that was never deserted. The second show at the cinema ended only at one thirty. Until then, there was always a crowd around the tree. Moreover, buses bound for Tirunelveli left from behind the tamarind tree at four in the morning and then every forty minutes thereafter. And by six, all the small merchants arrived to open up their shops. If it was a market day, they arrived even earlier, by four in the morning, to carry their wicker baskets. Those who planned to bathe in the Pazhayar River opened their stores to take the towels they’d hung out to dry in the back. They rubbed some oil on their heads and used burnt rice husk to brush their teeth. In addition to all this commotion, there was also the private Gorkha security that the merchants paid for, and that was over and above the regular police beat.

In such a setting, how did his store sign alone come to be vandalized? The moment the store boy called him to inform him of the situation, Khader had certain suspicions. Now that he knew his store was the lone target, he had reason to believe his suspicions were correct. This was no accident; it was clearly planned. The faint sense of foreboding he had been feeling of late that something untoward was about to occur had now come to pass.

Khader called out the boys by name, one by one. They had stationed themselves behind stacks of boxes, making sure they were not in their boss’s direct line of vision. Now they all stepped out, one by one, and stood next to the steel safe.

“So,” Khader said. “Who did this?”

No one spoke.

“This entire time you were all whispering to one another over there. Now that I ask you to speak, you fall silent. Are you afraid that you will be called to testify in court? Out with it!”

No one responded.

But it looked like Muthu alone was murmuring something. He was hidden behind the taller, older boys. Muthu was the youngest of the lot.

“What is Muthu saying?” asked Khader.