A Killer in Kailash: Adventures of Feluda (8 page)

What followed next took my breath away. Without a word of warning, Feluda began climbing down. He leapt, crawled, scraped himself on the ground, then swinging from a branch like a monkey, disappeared from sight. I stared speechlessly. Lalmohan Babu said, after a moment's silence, ‘He'll do very well in a circus!’

Cave number fifteen was at a lower level. That was where Feluda had gone. Three minutes later (it felt like three hours), he climbed up again, more or less in a similar fashion. How he could do it with a torch in one hand, a bag hanging from his shoulder, and a revolver tucked into his waist, I do not know.

‘That one's the Das Avatar cave,’ he told us, panting. ‘It has two storeys, and some exquisite statues.’

‘Did you … did you see who it was?’ I asked breathlessly.

Feluda did not reply immediately. Then he said, ‘It's not as simple as I had thought. It’ll take me a while to unravel this tangled mess.’

We found the main path again and climbed down to the bottom of the temple. But Feluda had not finished. He found one of the chowkidars and asked him if he had seen anyone going up.

‘No, sir,’ the chowkidar replied.

‘Did you hear any noise? Anything suspicious at all?’

‘No, sir. There's been a lot of thunder. I didn't hear anything else.’

‘Can we go into the temple?’

I knew the man would refuse, and he did.

‘No, sir. I have orders not to let anyone in at this time of night.’

We made our way back to the bungalow. As we got closer, we saw something extremely strange. Two windows on the eastern side of the building overlooked the street. We could see these from outside. One of them was Feluda's, the other was Mr Raxit's. Feluda's room was in darkness, but a light flashed in Mr Raxit's room. It was the light from a torch, but it did not stay still. In fact, whoever was holding it seemed to have gone mad. The light danced all over the room, then came to the window, shone once in the direction of the guest house, fell and moved on the bushes by the road before going back to the room. We could not see who it was. ‘Highly interesting!’ Feluda muttered.

We returned to the bungalow. By now, it had started to drizzle, and was pitch dark outside.

C
HAPTER
8

I
had noticed in the past that our adventures often took totally unexpected turns. When this happened, Feluda seldom lost his equanimity. In fact, I had always marvelled at his ability to keep calm while dealing with unforeseen complications. This time, however, what happened made him very cross.

Before going to bed at night, we had decided to leave early in the morning to go back to the spot where we had heard that funny noise. It required investigation, Feluda said. So we rose at 5 a.m. and left the bungalow half an hour later after having a cup of tea. Feluda was up before us to replace his make-up. I remembered to maintain a right parting in my hair. Lalmohan Babu expressed the desire to make some change in his appearance as well, but Feluda said ‘no!’ so firmly that he had to desist.

The caves were going to open for visitors as soon as the sun rose. We wanted to be the first, so we got there at 6 a.m. To our complete astonishment, we found the place crawling with people. A large number of cars and vans were parked outside. It was the sight of a reflector that told me what was going on. This was a film unit. They had arrived from Bombay to shoot a Hindi film, we learnt. The actors hadn’t yet arrived, but the rest of the crew were getting things ready. ‘Oh no!’ Feluda cried in dismay. ‘Why couldn't they find some other place?’

A young man was bustling about, clutching a film magazine. Lalmohan Babu called him aside.

‘What is the name of this film, do you know?’ he asked.

‘Oh yes.
Krorepati
.’

‘Who’s acting in it?’

‘Three of the top stars. Today’s shots will include Rupa, Arjun Mehrotra, and Balwant Chopra. The heroine, hero, and the villain.’

The mention of Arjun Mehrotra made Lalmohan Babu grow round-eyed. ‘Will there be songs?’ he asked.

‘No, no. We’ve come to shoot fights. Stuntmen, doubles, and the fight director are all here. The hero will chase the villain from a cave into the main temple.’

‘And the heroine?’

‘She'll stay in the cave. The villain has imprisoned her in there, you see. But now the hero's here, so the villain has to run for his life. The climax takes place on the spire.’

‘The spire?’

‘Yes.’

‘Who’s the director?’

‘Mohan Sharma. But these shots today will be taken by the fight director, Appa Rao.’

‘How long do you think the whole thing will take?’

‘Well … that's difficult to say. We hope to start by ten o’clock. Then we should finish by one.’

That meant they would occupy the whole complex virtually the whole day.

‘I don't believe this!’ Feluda said through clenched teeth. ‘How did they get permission to take the whole place over?’

Since we couldn't get into the temple, we decided to climb over it, just as we had done the previous night. But even the hills around the temple had men from the film unit setting up equipment. We learnt here that although the film crew were not letting ordinary visitors into the temple, they could not go in themselves, as the official letter giving them the necessary permission to shoot had not yet arrived. It was being brought in a different car. The chowkidar on duty had flatly refused to unlock the main door unless the letter was produced.

Feluda clicked his tongue in annoyance and said, ‘Let's not waste any more time. Let's see if we can get into cave number fifteen. At least we can look at those beautiful statues, away from all this noise.’

We climbed down from the other side and were walking towards the cave when we saw a huge yellow American car making its way to the temple. The three major stars and the fight director had arrived.

Feluda had already told us that the fifteenth cave was the Das Avatar cave. We ran into two modern avatars on our way. They were Lewison and Raxit. We had spotted them from a distance, standing near the entrance and speaking rather animatedly. As we got closer, we heard the American say angrily, ‘I see no point in my staying here any longer.’ Then he strode off in a huff. Mr Raxit walked up to us, shrugged, and smiled somewhat bitterly. ‘He was complaining about the arrangements here. I mean, in the guest house. He said to me, “How can you expect me to spend my dollars here, when you don't even know how to fry an egg?” Just because he's rich, he thinks he owns the whole world.’

‘That's strange!’ Feluda remarked. ‘Isn't he supposed to be a connoisseur of art? How can he talk of fried eggs, standing in a place like this, surrounded by the best specimens of Indian art?’

‘How,’ Lalmohan Babu wanted to know, ‘do they fry eggs in America, anyway?’

Mr Raxit opened his mouth to speak, but had to shut it immediately. A loud scream from the temple made us all start violently. Lalmohan Babu was the first to recover. ‘That must be the villain!’ he exclaimed. ‘They’ve started shooting. The villain’s shouting and making his escape.’

But no. A babble had broken out. There were many other voices, also screaming and yelling. There was something wrong, obviously. Feluda had already begun walking in that direction. We followed him quickly. As we returned to the temple’s entrance, we saw a man in a purple bush shirt being carried out. He appeared to be unconscious. He was taken to the yellow car. Then came the three stars. Rupa was walking slowly, leaning heavily on Arjun Mehrotra. Balwant was holding her hand, and murmuring into her ear, as if she were a frightened child, in need of comforting.

A second later, we saw the same young man we had spoken to earlier.

‘What happened? what's wrong?’ Lalmohan Babu asked him.

‘There's a … there's a dead body lying behind the temple. It's horrible!’

‘Oh my God! Who was that man they carried out to the car?’

‘Appa Rao. He was the first to discover the body. One look, and he fainted.’

Feluda and Mr Raxit had gone into the temple. The film crew were all coming out. There was now no question of shooting a film here today.

Lalmohan Babu and I walked along the passage to our left. To our right, below us, were several statues of elephants and lions. They looked as though they were carrying the whole temple on their shoulders. We stopped as the passage turned right. There was a group of men, peering down into a gorge. Perhaps that was where the body was lying. Mr Raxit emerged from the crowd and stopped us. ‘Don't go any further,’ he said. ‘It's not a pretty sight.’ Quite frankly, I had no wish to see the body, but I did feel curious about the dead man. Who was he? Feluda came out and answered this question even before I could ask it.

‘Shubhankar Bose,’ he said. ‘I think he fell off the edge of the cliff straight onto the rocks below.’

‘Strange, how strange!’ Lalmohan Babu muttered under his breath. ‘This is exactly how my own villain, Ghanashyam Karkat, is supposed to die!’

Feluda started walking away, so Lalmohan Babu and I had to move on. Mr Raxit was ahead of us, but he turned and stopped. ‘I saw him last night,’ he said, shaking his head, ‘I told him not to try climbing in the dark. But he paid no attention to me. How was I to know that he was planning to commit suicide?’

Mr Raxit left, having given us something to ponder on. The idea of a suicide had not occurred to me. I looked at Feluda, but he had started to climb the hill on the left of the temple. Mr Bose must have climbed the same hill.

The people gathered near the cliff had gone. Mr Bose's death had, in a way, made things easier for our investigation. Feluda went close to the edge of the cliff and examined the area carefully.

There was a small hole in the ground, only a few feet away from the edge. People had walked over it and around it, making it almost disappear. But when Feluda took out a steel tape from his bag and pushed it in, we realized it was a fairly deep hole. Now Feluda peered closely at the ground again. Lalmohan Babu and I both saw what had claimed his attention.

There was a deep crease on the ground, running from the edge of the cliff to the hole.

‘Do you know what this is?’ Feluda asked me. I couldn't answer. Feluda went on, ‘This mark was left by a rope. Someone had tied a rope to a crowbar, dug the crowbar deep into the ground, and gone down—or tried to go down—the cliff, using that rope. Remember the noise we heard yesterday? It was the noise of the rope being pulled back. Since there was no way to get into the cave below from the front, someone found this way to reach it from the rear.’

‘But … what sort of a rope could it have been?’ Lalmohan Babu asked. ‘I mean … if you had to climb down a hundred feet, you’d need a remarkably strong rope, wouldn't you?’

‘Yes. A nylon rope would do the trick. It would be light, but very very strong.’

‘That means there was a second person here,’ I said slowly. ‘I mean, apart from Mr Bose.’

‘Right. This second person removed the rope, and the crowbar. We don't yet know whether he was Bose's friend or foe, but there is something that indicates he might have been the latter.’

I looked quickly at Feluda. What did he mean? In reply, he took out a small object from his pocket and placed it on his palm. It was a piece of blue cloth, torn presumably from a shirt. Who was wearing a blue shirt yesterday?

Mr Jayant Mallik!

‘Where did you find it?’ I asked. My voice shook.

‘Bose was lying on his stomach. His arms were spread wide. His right hand was closed around this piece of cloth, but a small bit was sticking out between two fingers. He and this other man must have struggled with each other by the cliff. Bose clutched at the shirt the other man was wearing. But then he fell, taking this little piece with him.’

‘You mean he was deliberately pushed off the cliff?’ Lalmohan Babu gasped. ‘You m-mean it was m-m-murder?’

Feluda did not give a direct answer. After a few seconds of silence, he simply said, ‘If the statues in the temple are still intact, we must thank Mr Bose for it. It was because of his presence here last night that the thief couldn't get away with it.’

C
HAPTER
9