BLAST OF A TIME

By Neel Anil Panicker

“It smelled? Well, it smelled of burnt plasticky, with overtones of sweet gunpowdery, charring fleshery, and concrete dustery.”

Inspector Sharma looked bemusedly at his colleague and shook his head.

When will these trainee newbies forego their English bred tongue and speak the language of the plebs, he wondered.

‘Yadav, I’m sure you must have taken pictures of the spot. Let me have a look at them.”

Moments later, the two men were peering into a pack of black and white photographs.”

“Sir, I spoke to the tribals. They say it’s always like this__i mean the air’s full of toxic smell. Gun shots, they say. Say it’s the Naxals undergoing weapon training, the forests serving as a natural shooting range”.

‘Ssshhhh…have a look at this.’

Sharma stabbed his forefinger at a grainy image.

‘See that white patch sticking out of the pot hole. That’s sulphur. It proves an IED blast killed the Home Minister. Now all we have to figure out is who killed him. And that’s a lesson I shall impart you post lunch, ok’.

©neelanilpanicker2018 #flashfictionforaspiringwriters #fiction #shortstory #175words