A Quadruple Murder Mystery

The president of the Parrots’ Association appeared in the court of King Sher Singh to request an investigation into the death of a member, who was murdered along with his wife and two grown-up children.

Many animals secretly believed that the King’s younger brother Prince Jagir Singh was behind this heinous crime, as the deceased parrot had been lately parroting his misdeeds.

The oh-so-mighty and ever-so-just King summoned the chief police officer Mr. Fox to investigate the deaths.

Mr. Fox solved the case in just three hours. He brought five witnesses who said that the parrot’s family members were at loggerheads with each other, hence they bludgeoned each other to death with logs.

But the deceased parrot’s brother was not convinced. “First of all, this is absolutely ridiculous. Even if the family members killed each other, where did their body parts disappear?”

“Though they beat each other at home,” clarified Mr. Fox, “they were so ashamed of themselves that they flew to the lake and committed suicide by drowning.”

“How could that have been possible? Their wings and legs were found among some remains under the guava tree, on which they had a nest,” the brother insisted.

The King was also not satisfied with Mr. Fox's account, so he ordered a fresh inquiry.

The next day, Mr. Fox seemed to have really cracked the case. He presented the culprit, a tiny squirrel, who confessed that she had killed the parrot family and buried them somewhere she didn’t quite remember. Mr. Fox described in great detail how the squirrel had killed the family members one by one and then dragged them to some unknown place deep in the forest.

The members of the Parrots’ Association dismissed the confession, saying that a squirrel could never overwhelm a parrot. They were adamant on bringing the real perpetrators to justice.

Due to a great hue and cry from every direction, the King had to order a fresh investigation once again with a caveat to Mr. Fox to come up with a sensible solution.

This time Mr. Fox took three days to find out how the parrot family had died.

At the end of his investigation, he presented his findings in front of a jam-packed court, “On that fateful day, February the 18th, His Highness’ brother Prince Jagir Singh was sleeping under a guava tree.”

There was a stunned silence in the court at the mention of the Prince’s name, as if it were going to doom them all.

“He was sleeping under a guava tree with his mouth wide opened, and a guava fell into his mouth. The parrot and his family members started eating the guava from his mouth. As a result, they were unknowingly swallowed by Jagir Singh in his sleep.”

A combined sigh was heard in the court, though an outsider couldn’t tell whether it was a sigh of relief or of disbelief. But the case came to an end. So pleased was the King at this amazing breakthrough that he rewarded Mr. Fox with a medal, a promotion, and a plum posting.

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Picture source: Google images