The Complete Adventures of Feluda: Volume II (75 page)

Mr Tarafdar and his friend left at a quarter to ten. Just five minutes after they had gone, Feluda received a phone call that came as a complete surprise. He took it himself, so at first we had no idea who it was from. He spoke briefly, and came back to join us for a cup of tea.

‘I checked in the directory,’ he said, raising a cup to his lips, ‘there are only two such names listed.’

‘Look, Felu Babu,’ Lalmohan Babu said, a little irritably, ‘I totally
fail to see why you must create a mystery out of every little thing. Who rang you just now? Do you mind telling us simply, without making cryptic remarks?’

‘Hingorani.’

‘The same Hingorani we read about this morning?’

‘Yes, sir. Tiwari’s partner.’

‘What did he want?’

‘We’ll find that out when we visit him in his house. He lives in Alipore Park Road.’

‘Have you made an appointment?’

‘Yes, you ought to have realized it while I was speaking to him. Obviously, you were not paying enough attention.’

‘I heard you say, “Five o’ clock this evening”,’ I couldn’t help saying. This annoyed Lalmohan Babu even more. ‘I don’t listen in on other people’s telephone conversations, as a matter of principle,’ he declared righteously. But he was much mollified afterwards when Feluda asked him to stay to lunch, and then spent the whole afternoon teaching him to play scrabble. This did not prove too easy, since it turned out that Lalmohan Babu had never done a crossword puzzle in his life, while Feluda was a wizard at all word games, and a master at unravelling puzzles and ciphers. But Lalmohan Babu’s good humour had been fully restored; he didn’t seem to mind.

We reached Mr Hingorani’s house five minutes before the appointed time.

There was a garage on one side of his compound in which stood a large white car. ‘A foreign car?’ asked Lalmohan Babu.

‘No, it’s Indian. A Contessa,’ Feluda replied.

A bearer stood at the front door. He looked at Lalmohan Babu and asked, ‘Mitter sahib?’

‘No, no, not me. This is Mr Mitter.’

‘Please come with me.’

We followed him to the drawing room. ‘Please sit down,’ said the bearer and disappeared. Lalmohan Babu and I found two chairs. Feluda began inspecting the contents of a book case.

A grandfather clock stood on the landing outside. Mr Hingorani entered the room as the clock struck five, making a deep yet melodious sound. Mr Hingorani was middle-aged, thin and perhaps ailing, for there were deep, dark circles under his eyes. We rose as he came in. ‘Please, please be seated,’ he said hurriedly. We sat down again.

Mr Hingorani began talking. I noticed that the strap of his watch was slightly loose, as it kept slipping forward when he moved his arm.

‘Have you read what’s been published in the press about T H Syndicate?’ he asked.

‘Yes indeed.’

‘My partner’s gone totally senile. At least, I can’t think of any other explanation. Nobody in his right mind would behave like this.’

‘We happen to know your partner.’

‘How?’

Feluda explained quickly about Tarafdar and Nayan. ‘Mr Tiwari went to Sunil Tarafdar’s house to meet Jyotishka,’ he added, ‘and we happened to be present. That little wonder boy told him the right numbers for the combination and said there was no money in the chest.’

‘I see . . .’

‘You told me on the phone you were being harassed. What exactly has happened?’

‘Well, you see, for well over a year Tiwari and I hadn’t been getting on well, although once we were good friends. In fact, we were classmates in St Xavier’s College. We formed T H Syndicate in 1973, and for a few years things worked out quite well. But then . . . our relationship started to change.’

‘Why?’

‘The chief reason for that was Tiwari’s memory. It began to fail pretty rapidly. At times, he couldn’t even remember the simplest of things, and it became very difficult to have him present during meetings with clients. Last year, I told him I knew of a very good doctor who I thought he should see. But Tiwari was most offended at my suggestion. That was when our old friendship began to disintegrate. I was tempted to dissolve the partnership, but stayed on because if I hadn’t, the whole company would have had to close down. Still, things might have improved, but . . . but Tiwari’s recent behaviour really shook me. He came straight to me when he found his chest empty and said, “Give me back my money, this minute!”’

‘Is it true that he had once told you what numbers made up the combination?’

‘No, no, it’s a stinking lie! He kept his own money and personal papers in that chest. There was no reason for him to have told me the combination. Besides, he seems to think that I stole his money while
he was at his dentist’s. Yet, I can prove that I was miles away during that time. As a matter of fact, I had gone to visit a cousin who had had a heart attack, in the Belle Vue clinic at 11 a.m. and I returned at half past three. Tiwari, however, doesn’t believe me and has even threatened to set goondas on me if I don’t return his money. He’s lost his mind completely.’

‘Do you have any idea as to who might have stolen the money?’

‘To start with, Mr Mitter, I don’t believe there’s been a theft at all. Tiwari himself must have kept it elsewhere or spent it on something that he’s now forgotten. I wouldn’t put it past him, really. Have you ever heard of anyone who forgets the numbers of his own combination lock, having used it for over twenty years?’

‘I see what you mean. Let’s now come to the point, Mr Hingorani.’

‘Yes, you wish to know why I called you here, don’t you?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Look, Mr Mitter, I need protection. Tiwari himself might be forgetful, but I’m sure his hired hooligans would never forget their task. They’d be cunning, clever and ruthless. Now, protecting a client from criminals does form a part of a private detective’s job, does it not?’

‘Yes, it does. But I have a problem. You see, I am going to be away for about five weeks. So I cannot start my job right away. Do you think you can afford to wait until I get back?’

‘Where are you going?’

‘South India, starting with Madras.’

Hingorani’s eyes began shining. ‘Excellent!’ he said, slapping his thigh. ‘I was going to go to Madras, in any case. Someone told me of a new business opportunity there. I’ve stopped going to our local office here, you see. After the way Tiwari insulted me, I just couldn’t face going back there. But obviously, I can’t stay at home all my life. So I thought I’d try and find out more about the offer in Madras. Are you going by air? We could all go together, couldn’t we?’

‘We are travelling by train, Mr Hingorani. In fact, I am going simply in order to protect somebody else—a little boy of eight. He’s the child called Jyotishka who helped Tiwari. Three different men want to use him for their own purpose. Mr Tarafdar and I must ensure no one gets near him and puts his power to misuse.’

‘Of course. But why don’t you kill two birds with one stone?’

‘How do you mean?’

‘If you start working for me, I’ll pay you your fee as well. So you can keep an eye both on me and Jyotishka.’

Feluda accepted this offer. But he gave a word of warning to Mr Hingorani. ‘I’ll do my best, of course, but please remember that may not be sufficient. You yourself must be very careful indeed in what you do and where you go.’

‘Yes, naturally. Where will you be staying in Madras?’

‘Hotel Coromandel. We’ll reach there on the 21st.’

‘Very well. I’ll see you in Madras.’

We left soon after this. On our way back, I said to Feluda, ‘I noticed two empty spaces on the wall in the drawing room, rectangular in shape. It seemed as though a couple of paintings had once hung there.’

‘Good observation. They had probably been oil paintings.’

‘And now they are missing,’ Lalmohan Babu remarked. ‘Could that have any special significance, do you think?’

‘It’s obvious that Mr Hingorani got rid of them.’

‘Yes, but why? What does it imply?’

‘It can have a thousand different implications, Lalmohan Babu. Would you like a list?’

‘I see. You are not treating this matter very seriously, are you?’

‘I see no reason to. I’ve noted the fact and stored it away in my memory. It will be retrieved, if need be.’

‘And what about this second case you have just taken on? Will you be able to manage both?’

Feluda did not reply. He looked out of the window of our car with unseeing eyes and began muttering under his breath.

‘Doubts . . .’ I heard him say, ‘Doubts . . . doubts . . .’

Many of the leading papers next morning carried reports of Tarafdar’s forthcoming visit to Madras. His first show there would be held on 25 December, they said.

Feluda had gone to have a haircut. When he returned, I showed him the reports. ‘Yes, I’ve already seen them,’ he said, frowning. ‘Clearly, Sunil Tarafdar couldn’t resist a bit of publicity. I rang him before I left to give him a piece of my mind, but he refused to pay any attention to what I said. He told me instead how important it was for
him to make sure the media took notice of what he was doing. When I pointed out that those three people would now come to know about Nayan’s movements and that wasn’t desirable at all, he said quite airily that they wouldn’t dare do anything now, not after the way he had handled them the other day. I put the phone down after this since he obviously wasn’t gone to change his mind. But this means my job is going to get a lot more difficult and I have to be ten times more alert. After all, I know Nayan is still in danger.’

A car stopped outside and, a few seconds later, someone rang the bell twice. This had to be Lalmohan Babu. He was late today. It was almost ten-thirty.

‘Have I got news for you!’ he said as he walked in, his eyes wide with excitement.

‘Wait!’ Feluda said, smiling a little. ‘Let me guess. You went to New Market this morning, right?’

‘How do you know?’

‘A cash memo of Ideal Stores in New Market is peeping out of the front pocket of your jacket. Besides, that big lump in your side pocket clearly means that you bought a large tube of your favourite toothpaste.’

‘All right. Next?’

‘You went to a restaurant and had strawberry ice cream—there are two tiny pink drops on your shirt.’

‘Shabash! Next?’

‘Naturally, you didn’t go into a restaurant all alone. You must have run into someone you knew. You didn’t invite him to have an ice cream. He did. I am aware that you don’t have a single close friend—barring ourselves—with whom you’d want to go to a restaurant. So presumably, this person was someone you met recently. Now, who could it be? Not Tarafdar, for he’s far too busy. Could it be one of the four greedy people? Well, I don’t think it was Hodgson. He hasn’t got money to waste. TNT? No, he wouldn’t travel all the way to New Market to do his shopping. That leaves us with—’

‘Brilliant, Felu Babu, absolutely brilliant! After a long time, you’ve shown me today that your old power of deduction is still intact.’

‘Was it Basak?’

‘Oh yes. Nandalal Basak. He told me his full name today.’

‘What else did he tell you?’

‘Something rather unpleasant, I’m afraid. Apparently, Basak added ten thousand dollars to their original offer. But even so, Tarafdar refused. That naturally annoyed Basak very much. He said to me, “Go tell your snoopy friend, Mr Ganguli, Nandalal Basak has never been defeated in his life. If Tarafdar does a show in Madras, he’ll have to drop the special item by that wonder boy. We’ll see to it!”’

My hands suddenly turned cold not because Basak’s words meant that he had recognized Feluda, but because there was a hidden menace behind his words that I didn’t like at all.

‘That accounts for Basak,’ said Feluda coolly. ‘Tiwari is out of the picture. So we now have to watch out for Tarak Nath Thakur and Hodgson.’

‘Tarak Nath cannot do anything by himself. It’s Gawangi we have to deal with.’

Feluda started to speak, but was interrupted by the door bell. I could hardly believe my eyes when I opened the door. Never before had I seen telepathy work so quickly. TNT himself stood outside.

‘Is Mr Mitter in?’

‘Come in, Mr Thakur,’ Feluda called. ‘So you’ve worked out who I really am?’

‘Of course. And I also know who this satellite of yours is,’ TNT said, turning to Lalmohan Babu. ‘You are Jatayu, aren’t you?’

Yes.’

‘I had once thought of keeping you in my zoo, do you know that? After all, in the matter of writing absolute trash, you’re quite matchless, I think.
Hullabaloo in Honolulu . . .
ha ha ha!’

The sound of his loud laughter boomed out in our living room. Then he looked at Feluda again. ‘So we’re meeting once more in Madras, I think?’

‘Have you made up your mind about going there?’

‘Oh yes. And I won’t be alone. My Ugly from Uganda will accompany me, of course. Isn’t that marvellous? Sounds just like the title of one of your books, doesn’t it, Mr Jatayu?’

‘Are you going by train?’ Feluda asked.

‘I have to. Gawangi couldn’t fit into a seat in an aircraft.’

Mr Thakur burst into a guffaw again. Then he rose and began walking towards the front door. ‘There’s only one thing I’d like to tell you, Mr Mitter,’ he threw over his shoulder. ‘In some situations, brain power can’t possibly be a match for muscle power. Your
intelligence may be thousand times stronger than Gawangi’s, but if it came to a physical combat, he’d win with both his hands tied behind his back. Goodbye!’

Mr Thakur disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared. I’d love to see this Gawangi in person, I thought.

There was no sign of either Gawangi or TNT on the train. Our journey to Madras proved to be totally eventless.

‘I fail to see,’ Lalmohan Babu remarked on our way to the hotel, ‘why Madras is clubbed together with cities like Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta. Why, any small town in Bengal is more lively than this!’

In a way, he was right. The roads were so much more quiet than the streets of Calcutta. But they were wide, smooth and devoid of potholes. There weren’t many skyscrapers, either; nor were there any traffic jams. I began to like the city of Madras. Heaven knew why Lalmohan Babu was still looking morose. However, he cheered up as we entered the brightly-lit lobby of our hotel. He looked around a few times, then nodded approvingly and said, ‘Beautiful. Hey, this is quite something, isn’t it?’

We had already decided that we’d spend the first three days just seeing the sights. Nayan and Mr Tarafdar would, of course, accompany us. ‘We’ve seen the Elephanta caves, Ellora and the temples of Orissa,’ said Feluda. ‘Now we ought to visit Mahabalipuram. That’ll show us a different aspect of architecture in India. Have a look at the guide book, Topshe. You’ll enjoy things much better if you’re already aware of certain points of interest.’

Since it was already dark, we did not venture out in the evening. In fact, each one of us felt like an early night, so we had dinner by 9 p.m. and went to bed soon after that. The next morning, Feluda said as soon as we were ready, ‘Let’s go and find out what Sunil and Nayan are doing.’

Unfortunately, we had been unable to get rooms on the same floor. Ours was on the fourth, while Nayan’s was on the third. We climbed down a flight of stairs and pressed the bell outside room 382. Mr Tarafdar opened the door. We found Shankar Hublikar in the room, and another gentleman. But there was no sign of Nayan.

‘Good morning, Mr Mitter,’ said Tarafdar with a big smile, ‘meet
Mr Reddy. He is the owner of the Rohini Theatre, where I am going to have my first show in Madras. He says there’s a tremendous interest among the local public. There have been a lot of enquiries and he thinks the tickets will sell like . . .’

‘Where’s Nayan?’ Feluda interrupted a little rudely.

‘Being interviewed. A reporter from the
Hindu
arrived a little while ago to take his interview. This will mean more publicity for my show.’

‘Yes, but where is this interview taking place?’

‘The manager himself made arrangements. There’s a conference room on the ground floor . . .’

Feluda darted out of the room even before Tarafdar had finished speaking, I followed Feluda quickly, Tarafdar’s last words barely reaching my ears, ‘ . . . told him no one should go in . . .’

We rushed down the stairs without waiting for the lift. Feluda kept muttering under his breath. I caught the words ‘fool’ and ‘imbecile’, which I realized were meant for our magician.

A passing waiter showed us where the conference room was. Feluda pushed open the door and marched in. There was a long table, with rows of chairs around it. Nayan was sitting in one of them. A bearded man sat next to him, jotting something down in a notebook. Feluda took this in and, a second later, strode forward to grab the reporter and pull at his beard. It came off quite easily. Henry Hodgson stood staring at us.

‘Good morning,’ he grinned, without the slightest trace of embarrassment.

‘What was he asking you?’ Feluda asked Nayan.

‘About horses.’

‘All right, Mr Mitter, have me thrown out,’ said Hodgson, still grinning. ‘I have already got the numbers of all the winning horses in every race for the next three days. I shouldn’t have a care in the world for many years to come. Good day, sir!’

Mr Hodgson slipped out. Feluda flopped down on a chair, clutching his head between his hands. Then he raised his face and looked straight at Nayan. ‘Look, Nayan,’ he said somewhat impatiently, ‘if anyone else tries talking to you, from now on, just tell them you’re not going to utter a word unless I am present. Is that understood?’

Nayan nodded sagely.

‘There is one consolation, Feluda,’ I ventured to say. ‘At least
Hodgson’s not going to bother us again. He’ll now go back to Calcutta and put his last few pennies on horses.’

‘Yes, that’s true, but I am concerned at Tarafdar’s totally irresponsible behaviour. A magician really ought to know better.’

We took Nayan back to Tarafdar’s room. ‘Did you want publicity, Sunil?’ Feluda said sarcastically. ‘You’ll get it in full measure, but not in the way you had imagined. Do you know who was taking Nayan’s interview?’

‘Who?’

‘Mr Henry Hodgson.’

‘What! That bearded—?

‘Yes, it was that bearded fellow. He’s got what he wanted. Didn’t I tell you Nayan wasn’t out of danger? If Hodgson could follow us to Madras, why shouldn’t the others? Now, look, if you want Nayan to remain safe, you’ve got to do as I tell you. Or else don’t expect any help from me.’

‘Y-yes, sir!’ Mr Tarafdar muttered, scratching his neck and looking somewhat shamefaced.

‘Leave the publicity to Mr Reddy,’ Feluda continued. ‘Neither you nor your friend Shankar should go anywhere near reporters from the press. Many genuine reporters will want interviews and information. You must learn to stay away from them. Your main priority should be Nayan’s safety because—remember—if your show is successful, it will be because of his power and what he does on stage, not because of any publicity you might arrange for yourself. Do I make myself clear?’

‘Yes, sir. I understand.’

Over breakfast, we told Lalmohan Babu about Hodgson’s visit. ‘Good, good!’ he exclaimed, attacking an omelette. ‘I was afraid things would go quiet in Madras. I’m glad something like this has happened. It all adds to the excitement, don’t you think?’

We returned to our room to get ready to go out. It had been decided that we’d go to the snake park today. An American called Whitaker had created it and, by all accounts, it was certainly worth a visit. Just as we were about to leave, the doorbell rang. Lalmohan Babu had already joined us in our room. Who could it be?

I opened the door to find Mr Hingorani. ‘May I come in?’ he asked.

‘Of course, please do,’ Feluda invited.

Mr Hingorani came in and took a chair. ‘So far, so good!’ he said
with a sigh of relief. ‘I don’t think Tiwari knows I’m here. I left without a word to anyone.’

‘Good. But I hope you’re being careful. There’s something I really must stress, Mr Hingorani. If anyone rings your doorbell, you must always ask who it is, and open the door only if the person who answers is known to you.’ Before Mr Hingorani could say anything, our own doorbell rang again. This time, it was Tarafdar and Nayan.

‘Come in,’ said Feluda.

‘Is this that famous wonder boy?’ Mr Hingorani asked.

Feluda smiled. ‘Is there any need to introduce these two people to you?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Mr Hingorani, you have appointed me for your protection. You ought to have realized that if a client doesn’t come clean with his protector, the protector’s job becomes much more difficult.’

‘What are you trying to say?’

‘You know that very well, but you’re pretending you don’t. But then, you’re not the only one who did not tell me the whole truth.’

Feluda looked at Mr Tarafdar, who stared blankly. ‘Very well, since neither of you will open your mouth, allow me to do the talking.’ Feluda was still looking at Mr Tarafdar. ‘Sunil, you said you had got a sponsor from somewhere. My guess is that your sponsor is none other than Mr Hingorani here.’

At this, Mr Hingorani jumped up in sheer amazement. ‘But how did you guess?’ he cried. ‘Are you a magician, too?’

‘No, my guess had nothing to do with magic. It was simply the result of keeping my eyes and ears open.’

‘How?’

‘When we had gone to see Sunil’s show, Nayan had told someone from the audience the number of his car. It was WMF 6232. I saw the same number on your white Contessa. It wasn’t too difficult to guess that the young man in the audience was someone from your family, and that he had told you about Jyotishka.’

‘Yes, yes. It was Mohan, my nephew.’ Mr Hingorani still seemed bemused.

‘Besides,’ Feluda went on, ‘when we went to your house the other day, I noticed quite a few books on magic in your book case. This could only mean—’

‘Yes, yes, yes!’ Mr Hingorani interrupted. ‘When my father found out about my interest in magic, he destroyed all my equipment, but
not my books. I managed to save those, and have still got them.’

I glanced at Mr Tarafdar. He was looking extremely uncomfortable. ‘Don’t blame Sunil,’ Mr Hingorani added. ‘It was I who asked him to keep my name a secret.’

‘But why?’

‘There is an important reason. You see, my father is still alive. He’s eighty-two, but quite strong and alert for his age. He lives in Faizabad in our old ancestral home. If he finds out that I’ve got involved with magic and magicians, then even at this age, he’s very likely to cut me out of his will.’

‘I see.’

‘When Mohan told me about Jyotishka, I decided almost immediately to finance his show. By then it was pretty obvious to me that Tiwari and I would soon have to part company, and I’d have to find a new source of income. So I met Tarafdar the next day and made a proposal, which he accepted. Two days later, Tiwari came to me to accuse me of stealing. I just couldn’t take it any more. I wrote to Tiwari the following morning, and told him that I was unwell, and that my doctor had advised me a month’s rest. I stopped going to my office from the next day.’

‘That means you were going to travel to Madras, in any case, to see Tarafdar’s show?’

‘Yes, but what I told you about my life being in danger is absolutely true, Mr Mitter. I would have had to seek your help, anyway.’

‘What about the new business opportunity in Madras you mentioned?’

‘No, that was something I just made up. It isn’t true.’

‘I see. So I’ve been appointed to protect you from Tiwari’s hoodlums, and to save Nayan from three unscrupulous men. We can arrange for one of us to be present with Nayan at all times. But you must tell me what you’re going to do to make my job a little easier.’

‘Well, I promise to do as I’m told. I have visited Madras many times before. So I don’t have to go sightseeing. Tarafdar’s manager can keep me posted about sales figures, once the show starts. In other words, there’s no need for me to step out of my room; and most certainly I’m not going to open the door to anyone I don’t know.’

‘Very well. All right then, Mr Hingorani, I suggest you go back to your room and stay in it. It’s time for us to leave.’

All of us rose. ‘Come along, Nayan Babu,’ said Jatayu, offering his hand. Nayan took it eagerly. He and Jatayu had clearly struck up a friendship.