The Mountain Shadow (70 page)

‘What?’

‘I want to bail out three prisoners, with cash money.’

‘Which three?’ Lightning asked, suspicion pinching his face.

‘The three you’re kicking the shit out of.’

He laughed. Why do people laugh, when you’re not trying to be funny? Oh, yeah: when you’re the joke.

‘I’m happy to do it,’ he grinned. ‘For the right price. But will it make a difference to you, to know that one of those men has raped several little girls, and I don’t know which one of them it is yet, until I get a confession? Of course, the choice is yours.’

You try to do something right. My ears were ringing, and pain was waking my face. It was the kind of angry-pain that shivers in you, and won’t stop shivering until something very good or very bad happens. The bells wouldn’t stop ringing. A child molester? Fate is Solomon, forever.

‘I’d like,’ I croaked, and then cleared my throat. ‘I’d like to pay you to stop beating the three prisoners. Have we got a deal?’

‘We would have a deal for five hundred American,’ he said, ‘whenever you find it.’

He knew he’d cleaned me out. And the constable had wisely kept the hundred-dollar notes I’d given him to himself. Dilip gasped when I pulled the notes from my shirt and threw them on the table.

‘I have eighty more prisoners upstairs,’ he said. ‘Would you like to pay me not to beat them?’

At that moment, beat up and crazy, thinking that Lisa’s body had been at that police station, and that every cop in the place had seen her dead, and knowing that Lightning Dilip had beaten Karla, probably on the same gate he chained me to, I didn’t care. I just wanted the screaming to stop for a while.

I threw some more money on the desk.

‘Tonight, everybody,’ I said.

He laughed again, scooping the money from the desk. The cops in the doorway laughed.

‘This has been a profitable night,’ he said. ‘I should beat you more often.’

I walked out of the office, and along the white porch to the steps.

I passed under the archway, leading to the street, knowing that all I’d bought was silence for one night, but that they’d be beaten the following night, and others would be beaten after them, every night.

I hadn’t stopped anything, because all the money in the world can’t buy peace, and all the cruelty won’t stop until kindness is the only king.

A black limousine pulled up in front of me, and Karla got out with Didier and Naveen. My happiness was a cheetah, running free in a savannah of solace. And pain ran away, afraid of love.

They hugged me, and settled me in the car.

‘Are you okay?’ Karla asked, her hand cool on my face.

‘I’m okay. How did you know I was out?’

‘We’ve been waiting. Didier called us, and we’ve been waiting across the road, outside Leo’s. We saw you get thrown out of the station house, and we gave you a minute.’

‘That was Karla’s idea,’ Naveen added. ‘She said
Let him get his pants on in peace
. Then we were just coming toward you, when the black Ambassador stopped.’

‘And then, after it left, you went back inside,’ Didier said.

‘Which seemed a little brazen,’ Naveen smiled, ‘so we waited again, getting ready to bust you out, and then you came outside.’

‘We have news,’ Didier said.

‘What news.’

‘Vishnu talked to me, after you left,’ Didier said. ‘He told me who it was, that went with Concannon to see Lisa.’

‘Who?’

‘It was Ranjit,’ Karla said flatly, taking the cigarette back from Didier.

‘
Your
Ranjit?’

‘Matrimonially speaking,’ she said. ‘But it looks like I could be a widow, before a divorcee.’

Ranjit?
I remembered how scared he’d been, when I’d gone to his office looking for Karla. He thought I knew.
That’s why he was so afraid.

‘Where is he?’

‘He skipped town,’ Karla said. ‘I’ve called all his friends. I drove them nuts, but nobody’s seen him since yesterday evening. His secretary booked a flight for him, to Delhi. He disappeared completely after he landed there. He could be anywhere.’

‘We’ll find him,’ Naveen said. ‘He’s too successful to remain discreet for long.’

Karla laughed.

‘You got that right. He’ll come up for bad air, sooner or later.’

‘You can relax now, Lin,’ Didier added, ‘for the mystery is solved.’

‘Thanks, Didier,’ I said, passing Karla her flask. ‘It’s not solved, but at least we know who can solve it.’

‘Exactly,’ Karla concluded. ‘And until we track Ranjit down, let’s focus on matters at hand. You look a little beat up, Shantaram.’

‘Sorry to intrude,’ the uniformed driver asked. ‘But may I offer you the first aid kit, sir?’

‘Is that you, Randall?’

‘It is indeed I, Mr Lin, sir. May I offer the kit, and perhaps a refreshing towel?’

‘You may, Randall,’ I said. ‘And how do you come to be steering this big, black bar around Bombay?’

‘Miss Karla offered me the opportunity to serve,’ Randall said, passing the first aid kit across the seat.

‘Knock it off, Randall,’ Karla laughed. ‘No-one serves anything but drinks and first aid in this car.’

I looked at Karla. She shrugged her shoulders, opened her hip flask, poured some vodka onto a swab of gauze, and passed the flask to me.

‘Drink up, Shantaram.’

‘Any opportunity to serve, Miss Karla,’ I said, smiling at her acquisition of the barman from the Mahesh hotel.

She cleaned up the few cuts on my face, head and wrists expertly, because she’d done it before, to a lot of soldiers. One of Karla’s best friends from the Khaderbhai Company days was a corner man, who kept fighters fighting. He’d taught her everything he knew, and she was a good corner man herself.

‘Where to, Miss Karla?’ Randall asked. ‘Although the destination is the journey, of course.’

‘Where do you want to go?’ Karla laughed, asking me.

Where
did I want to go? I wanted to say goodbye to Lisa with my friends, and let a branch of grieving fall. Knowing that it was Ranjit who gave the pills to Lisa gave me the little peace that I needed for goodbye.

‘There’s something I’d like to do. And I’d like you all to do it with me, if you’re up for it.’

‘Sure, okay, certainly,’ they all said, none of them asking what it was.

‘Didier, do you think we can wake up your friend, Tito?’

‘Tito doesn’t sleep, as far as I know,’ Didier replied. ‘At least, no-one has ever actually
seen
him sleeping.’

‘Good. Let’s go.’

Didier gave Randall directions to the fishermen’s colony behind Colaba market. We parked beside a row of tilted handcarts and wound through dark lanes and alleys to find Tito, who was reading Durrell by kerosene lantern. He was lonely, he said, so he taxed us time: ten per cent of two hours. We smoked a joint with him, talked books, and then collected my kit.

‘What is our new destination, sir?’ Randall asked, when we were all in the car.

‘The Air India building,’ I said. ‘And a funeral in the sky.’

Chapter Forty-One

T
HE NIGHTWATCHMAN REMEMBERED ME,
accepted some money, and sent us up to the roof of the deserted Air India building.

The red archer was turning slowly. The night was clear, the star-horizon wider than the sea. The waves below seemed fragile, their crests of foam like strips of floating seaweed, seen from our perch in the sky.

While they were admiring the archer and the view, I set about making a small fireplace. Naveen helped me gather bricks and broken tiles from the wide concrete roof. We made a base of tiles and built a small hearth around them with bricks and stones.

I’d taken a newspaper from the nightwatchman, and began screwing the pages up into small, tight balls. When it was ready, I uncovered Lisa’s box of things from the bag that Tito had kept safe.

The metal wind-up toy was a bluebird, attached to a device with finger holes like a pair of scissors. I pressed the scissors together, and the bird moved its head and sang. It was Lisa’s. She’d had it since she was a child. I gave it to Karla.

There was a yellow tube with brass fittings at the end, which held all of my old silver rings. I’d made it as a paperweight for Lisa. I gave it to Naveen. The stones, acorns, shells, amulets and coins fit inside a blue velvet jewel box. I gave it to Didier.

I tore the photographs into fragments and fed them into the fireplace, along with anything that would burn, including the hemp sandals and the box itself, marked REASONS
WHY, ripped into small pieces. Her thin, silver scarf was last into the pile, curled and coiled like a snake.

I lit the lowest of the paper balls around the fire, and it caught. Didier helped it along with a swish from his flask. Karla did the same. Naveen fanned the flames with a chunk of tile.

Karla took my hand, and led me to the edge of the building where we could look at the sea.

‘Ranjit,’ I said softly.

‘Ranjit,’ she repeated softly.

‘Ranjit,’ I growled.

‘Ranjit,’ she growled back.

‘How are you holding up?’

‘I’m okay. I’ve got other things on my mind. Are you okay?’

‘Ranjit,’ I said, my teeth clenched.

‘He always liked her,’ Karla said. ‘I was so busy projecting him into the limelight that I didn’t see how close they got.’

‘You’re saying Ranjit had a thing for Lisa?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe. I never asked him anything about his sex life, and he never told me anything. Maybe it was just because
we
liked her so much. He’s a competitive man. But like all competitive men, his balls fell off when the going got hard.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘I’ll tell you, one day, after we find him. My problem with Ranjit isn’t important now, and it had nothing to do with Lisa. His problem was a fear of success. Surprising, how common that is. There should be a name for it.’

‘Ambition fatigue?’ I suggested.

‘I like it,’ she laughed softly. ‘What do you think Ranjit was doing with Lisa, that night?’

‘Rohypnol is a rape drug, but sometimes people take it together because they like it. So, either Ranjit is a rapist, and it went wrong, or they had a thing, and that went wrong. Thing is, I didn’t think they were that close, except that she liked his politics.’

‘His politics?’ Karla laughed, to herself.

‘How is that funny?’

‘I’ll explain it one day. How was it tonight, Shantaram, in the cage with Lightning Dilip?’

‘The usual. Short back and sides.’

‘Bad cops are bad priests,’ she said. ‘All confession, and no absolution.’

‘How are
you
comin’ along, Slim?’

‘I’m okay. I’ve got bruises like Rorschach tests. One of them looks like two dolphins, making love. But, you know, maybe that’s just me.’

I wanted to see the bruise. I wanted to kiss it. I wanted to beat the man who put it there.

‘The car and Randall,’ I said, ‘and staying at the Taj. It costs. I’ve got some money put away, a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I can set you up in a safe place somewhere, with the car and Randall and whatever else you need. While Ranjit’s on the loose, you should play it safe.’

‘Listen,’ she said. ‘I told you that I’ve been working with the economists and analysts at Ranjit’s paper. I made some money, and put a little aside.’

‘Yeah, but –’

I spent two years on it, with the best advice the boss’s money could buy, and quite a bit of the boss’s money.’

I remembered the bike-talk, me telling her to save money and put a down payment on a house. And she was working with professional economists and stock market analysts all the time, and didn’t say a thing. She was even sweet to me.

‘You’ve been playing the market?’

‘Not . . . exactly.’

‘Then
what
 . . . exactly?’

‘I’ve been manipulating it.’

‘
Manipulating
it?’

‘A bit.’

‘How much of a bit?’

‘I used a proxy vote to leverage the theoretical worth of all of Ranjit’s shares in communications, energy, insurance and transportation, and I built a secret buying block, for sixteen minutes, and then I closed it down.’

‘A buying block?’

‘And I bought my brains out, with six guys on six phones, for sixteen minutes.’

‘Then what?’

‘I moved the stock prices in selected arm’s-length companies, where I’d already bought preferential stock.’

‘What?’

‘I rigged the market a couple of times. No big deal. I made my cut, and got the hell out.’