Blood Money (20 page)
‘And,’ said Hex, ‘look at the handwriting. Compare it with the handwriting on the bribery lists.’
‘It’s the same.’ Li looked up, puzzled. ‘Trilok wrote out these reports? He’s not a doctor.’
‘I think he’s forging those reports.’
‘Why would he do that?’
‘Because he can charge money for them. Remember the man Amber met in the clinic? He needed dialysis two days a week but could only afford one because he was paying for tests. The doctors said it was a waste of time because he was too ill for a transplant – it would kill him. But Trilok told him he would find a kidney for him and kept finding donors to test. But no matter how many he tested, none were a match.’
Li was immediately on his wavelength. ‘Trilok was making that poor man pay for tests – but there was no one to test. That’s why the test reports are in his handwriting. He pretends he’s having donors tested and pockets the money. That’s disgusting.’
Hex looked grim. ‘That’s not the only patient he’s ripped off. There are loads in there, going back years. They stop after a while—’
‘Probably because the patient dies.’
‘Exactly.’
‘He must have bankrupted so many people. Really sick people.’ She shuddered. ‘Then why does he bother with all that committee stuff? He must make enough money by doing this.’
Hex looked at her gravely. ‘Have you ever known a greedy person who didn’t want more money? Besides, it’s good for his reputation to have a few successes. His customers die after a while so he has to get new ones. So a successful transplant is a good advert for his business.’
Li shuffled through a few more papers. ‘Is there anything in here about the eye bank?’
‘I didn’t see anything. But I haven’t looked through all the papers yet.’
Li riffled through another file. ‘Here’s some correspondence from the Ethics Committee. It’s on their headed paper. It’s a list of appointments, times and dates, and case histories. One of them’s for today.’ She handed the paper to Hex. ‘Look at this:
Patient seeking second live transplant
. . . Mootama’s kidney was for someone who needed a second live transplant . . .’
Patient seeking second live transplant
. . . Mootama’s kidney was for someone who needed a second live transplant . . .’
They realized at the same time. The donor must be Bina.
‘When’s the meeting?’
Li scanned the page. ‘Three-thirty.’
Hex looked at his watch. ‘That’s in half an hour.’
Li got to her feet. ‘Let’s take some of these papers; we’ll hide the rest here. If we tell the meeting that Bina was forcibly abducted, we might be able to stop it. Have you got the key to our locker?’
They put the rest of the documents in the steel locker that contained their luggage. When they’d first taken the room two days earlier, Paulo had reinforced the lock and hinges so it couldn’t be forced open. Now they were thankful they had somewhere secure to store the evidence. Then they grabbed the papers they needed, wrapped them in a plastic bag and secured them in Hex’s small rucksack. There was no time to lose.
30
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Alex crouched behind a delivery crate inside the van. The vehicle gathered speed, the tyres singing out on the wet road surface. That was good. It would help cover any sounds he made. He stood up. Bina was lying peacefully on the trolley, her eyes closed. Was she drugged, or was she trying to stay asleep because that was less frightening than being awake? He’d heard that animals in captivity tended to sleep more than was usual to cope with being held prisoner.
He’d have to try and wake her. But if he scared her and she cried out, the driver might hear. Gently he put his hand across her mouth.
That was enough. Bina’s eyes flew open. Panic dilated her pupils, making her eyes look enormous.
Alex put his other hand up to his lips, indicating that she should make no noise. He kept his voice low. ‘It’s me, Alex. Remember?’
Under his hand he felt her relax. He took it away. ‘We must be very quiet,’ he said. ‘Are you all right?’
Bina nodded. She tried to speak and it took a couple of goes for her voice to work. She probably hadn’t spoken to anyone since she left the village.
‘H-have you come to take me home?’
Alex nodded. ‘Yes.’ Although he hadn’t quite worked out how he would do it. Here they were, in a van heading who knew where, the two of them helpless passengers. Bina, though, needed to believe in him. He couldn’t let his uncertainty show.
A tear slipped down Bina’s cheek. She squeezed her eyes shut for a few moments, as if not wanting him to see. She was talking to herself very quietly. It sounded like Hindi – a prayer of thanks. Alex put his hand on hers, reassuring her.
I won’t let you down, Bina. We will get you home
, he told himself.
I won’t let you down, Bina. We will get you home
, he told himself.
After a few minutes, Bina had recovered. She sat up and wiped her hand over her eyes.
‘Better?’ said Alex.
She nodded.
He sat down next to her. ‘Do you realize how long we’ve been looking for you?’
She looked a bit embarrassed. ‘Sorry.’
‘No need to be sorry.’
‘No, it’s my fault. I went to meet him. I thought I would help. Mum couldn’t get our dowries so I thought I would. I went to meet the kidney man, but he wanted me to come immediately. He was so frightening. I changed my mind. That’s when he grabbed me. He put me in a car and took me to Chennai. There was this clinic – the clinic that Mum went to. They took some blood to do tests and locked me in a room. I was so frightened. It was dark and there was this horrible medical smell. I was in there all night. In the morning they gave me an injection and put me on a trolley. I couldn’t move. They took me to a van with a load of boxes. Then I went to sleep. I kept waking up but it was like a nightmare where I couldn’t move. Sometimes I’d be in the van; later I was in a red room.’
Her whispering voice made the story even more terrifying. But Alex had to focus on the facts. It all added up. After they had gone looking for Bina at the clinic and reported her missing, Trilok must have whisked her away to the eye bank.
‘They drugged me last night and put me in the van again. They drove me back to the clinic in Chennai. I was so frightened. I thought this was it; they were going to do the operation. But they didn’t. They did more tests, then drove me back to the red room.’
Alex nodded. So they had done her tests at night. That way no one would ask why she was so drugged, or being ferried in with the medical supplies. He grimaced. How appropriate. Bina was one very important medical supply.
‘Do you know if you’re a match for the patient?’
Bina nodded. ‘Yes. The kidney man told me. I’m a very good match. Just like Mum.’ A tear squeezed out of her eye. ‘But I don’t want to do it. They keep coming and giving me more injections. They are really painful.’ She put her hand out and gripped Alex’s arm. ‘You’ve got to get me out.’
Her voice was rising. Alex had to keep her quiet. The road noise might provide cover but only while the van was moving fast. If it slowed or stopped unexpectedly, the driver might hear them talking. Alex held her hand and looked at her intently. ‘Bina, listen to me. Are you all right? Have you had food, water?’
Bina nodded. ‘When they came to give me drugs they gave me a drink of water.’ Her whisper was barely audible. ‘I didn’t want to drink it but they said they’d pump it into me if I refused. They said they had to keep my kidneys working. Every few hours they’d bring me a bed pan and when I’d finished they’d take it away to do tests on it. It was horrible, degrading. I thought they might let me go if there was something wrong with it so I found some red ink in that red room. They said if I did anything like that again they would put a tube inside me take it from me by force.’
Alex winced. The poor girl had been treated like a piece of meat.
‘You know where we’re going now?’ added Bina. ‘To the hospital.’
Hex and Li were running through the streets to Mount Road, and suddenly everyone around them was running too. Shoppers at the market stalls were scurrying for cover, trying to protect their heads with plastic bags, boxes – anything that came to hand. Stallholders scrambled to cover their goods. The rain came down, roaring like thunder, and within seconds the shoppers and stalls were shadows in a blurry mist.
Hex shielded his eyes as he ran after Li. He could no longer see her clearly; he had to identify her by the way she moved.
They dashed up the steps of the office building Hex had followed Trilok to. Hex was about to pull open the glass doors, but Li pulled him back.
She steered him out of view. ‘Chopra’s in there. He must be waiting in case there’s trouble.’
‘Are you sure?’
Li looked at Hex earnestly. ‘Believe me, I’d know him anywhere.’
The doors to the offices opened and a bulky figure stepped out. Sergeant Chopra. With him were several other officers.
Li hadn’t stopped Hex in time; they had been spotted.
‘Run!’ said Hex.
Li raced after him. ‘We don’t know those other officers are in on the scam,’ she said.
‘I don’t suppose they are,’ Hex called back over his shoulder. ‘But do you think they’re going to take our word over Chopra’s?’
Fat raindrops splashed into their faces. It was like running blind. The rain pelted down and they could no longer see where they were putting their feet. In seconds they were up to their ankles. The street was filling up like a river.
Hex heard Li yell, ‘Look out!’ and then she grabbed him. A rickshaw was skidding towards them, the driver wrestling helplessly with the front wheel. It slid past him, hit the invisible kerb and capsized.
Li seemed to know where they were going. She ducked into a side street and then up an alleyway. Hex followed. They were running hard, but the policemen were still behind them. The water slowed everything, made their feet slip, their clothes cling to them.
They could outrun the policemen, no problem. But that wouldn’t be enough. Time was ticking away. Soon the committee would approve Bina’s operation. Once that happened, she was doomed.
Hex grabbed Li and stopped her. ‘Bina’s case is up in five minutes. I’ve got an idea. Can you set up a distraction?’
Four khaki shadows appeared at the end of the alleyway. The policemen. ‘No problem,’ said Li. She looked at the buildings around her. ‘Let’s go in here.’
It was a building site: a frame of bare concrete walls rising out of the street like a stack of shoeboxes. Scaffolding scaled the outside; spindly tower cranes leaned over the top, rocking in the rain. Li ran in and looked around. Work had stopped because of the downpour.
‘This’ll do. You do your thing. I’ll give our friends a workout.’
Hex scanned the area. He needed somewhere dry. There was a large orange tarpaulin over on the other side of the ground floor. He dashed over to it.
Li stood in the open side of the building site, waiting for the policemen to come past. Their shapes loomed out of the drizzly air like elephants through a mirage. She moved deliberately and obviously and they responded with shouts. They had seen her.
It was show time.
Li sauntered into the interior of the building. She heard heavy footsteps and more shouts behind her and took off at a gentle run. Let them catch up a bit. She had something in mind.
As the policemen started off in pursuit, Li accelerated into her run-up, preparing for her next move.
Above her was a hole in the ceiling; obviously where the stairs would go. Li bent her knees and leaped upwards. Her hands met the concrete lip of the next floor and the momentum plus the strength in her arms pulled her up through the gap. She twisted round into a crouching position and stayed still for a moment, getting her breath – and watching. Down below, the policemen were looking around, shouting angrily.
She stood up. Just as she had thought, there was another stair-hole further over. She ran over to it at an easy jog and peeped up through the hole. On the ground floor the policemen were getting a ladder so that they could climb up after her.
She looked around. There must be some useful props up here too. Sure enough, a pulley from one of the cranes was dangling through another stair-well from the floor above. Li grinned, an idea forming in her head. She grasped the rope, shinned up it like a monkey and landed lightly on the next floor up.
Then she pattered across to the other empty stair-hole. The police were now two floors below. Sergeant Chopra was holding the ladder and yelling at one of his subordinates to climb up. Li sat down crosslegged and called out to them, waving cheerfully.
All hell broke loose when they saw her. How had she managed to get all the way up there without being seen? Sergeant Chopra shouted at his men. ‘Get up there, get after her.’
Meanwhile, Hex scrambled under the tarpaulin and felt around with his hands. Good, it was dry. He got out his palmtop. There wasn’t a minute to lose. As if that wasn’t enough, they hadn’t had a call in from Alex, Amber or Paulo for a while. He had a very bad feeling about it.
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