Mourning Raga Part 6

'On their own,' he agreed. The ancient Rolls turned majestically into the drive of Keen's Hotel. 'In our country, too,' said Girish levelly, staring ahead between the high hedges, 'there are neglected and forsaken children.'

They argued it out between them over a lunch for which neither of them had any appet.i.te, and came to a decision. Even if they had not been gently prompted by the Swami they would probably have come to the same conclusion.

'Even with the police in on it,' said Dominic, summing up, 'we've still got to face our own responsibility. We simply have to let someone know what's happened. k.u.mar's out of reach, and Dorette let's face it, what good would it be telephoning Dorette? All we'd get all Anjli would get would be hysterics. Dorette wouldn't come out here to take charge herself, not with a film half-finished, and that's the sober truth. And even if she did, she'd be no use at all. But there's Felder. She She turned to him when she needed somebody here, in a way he's a sort of representative of Dorette. And he's sensible, and knows his way about here. If he says we must call Dorette, then we'll do it. But let's at least consult him first.' turned to him when she needed somebody here, in a way he's a sort of representative of Dorette. And he's sensible, and knows his way about here. If he says we must call Dorette, then we'll do it. But let's at least consult him first.'

So he telephoned Clark's hotel at Benares, and by luck the unit happened to be in for lunch. The sound of Felder's vigorous voice over the line was cheering, and the promptness of his decisions bracing.

'Now look, you hold it right there, and I'll be with you as soon as I can. We haven't finished shooting, but this is an emergency, and they'll just have to get along without me. There's an afternoon flight, if I can get a seat on it. Don't worry, the airlines office is right here in the hotel. You stay close to home, in case there are any messages, and I'll come straight to you there.'

'Messages?' Dominic repeated, thinking hopefully of the police calling to tell him Anjli was already traced, and as good as found.

'Well, they can't get at him him, if no one knows where he is, can they? And you're the nearest available channel to Dorrie, aren't you?'

Air travel comes into its own in India, where you can transport yourself at very reasonable cost from Calcutta to Gauhati, or Trivandrum to Madras, or even from Delhi to Srinagar across a minor range of the Himalayas, in roughly the time it takes to go from Birmingham to London by train. Thus it happened that Ernest Felder, having bluffed and persuaded his way into the last available seat on the afternoon plane from Benares, was in Keen's Hotel by seven in the evening, his grey hair on end, his lined, easygoing face for once desperately grave. Over dinner, which by that time they all needed, he got them to tell him the whole story all over again, in detail, and with as much detachment as was possible in the circ.u.mstances. He didn't exclaim, he didn't swear, he simply listened with every nerve, helped out with a question here and there, and soothed them by the very fact of his large, zestful, intent presence and the degree of his concentration. If sheer compact energy could recover Anjli, she was as good as saved.

'Now, let's not get tangled with non-essentials. The facts are, someone went to a lot of trouble to get Dorrie's girl. And there's no reason on earth why such an elaborate plot should be laid to get her into the right place, except just plain money. Somebody knows her value. There's a rupee millionaire of a father, and a film star mother. There's money, and plenty of it. Right?'

They could not but agree.

'So they now have to get in touch with all that money, in order to tap off as much of it as the traffic will stand. Right? And as we've said, the father is out of the picture... unless unless the kidnappers know more than we do. If they know how to get in touch with him, so much the better, that will bring him into the open, and we can all join forces. But if they don't they're going to be after Dorrie. But my guess would be, not directly. There are complications once you start sending messages of that kind across frontiers, from here to Europe even if they know where to find her, and my guess is they may not, though pretty obviously they must know who and what she is. No, they'll make their play in the safest and nearest direction. And that's the kidnappers know more than we do. If they know how to get in touch with him, so much the better, that will bring him into the open, and we can all join forces. But if they don't they're going to be after Dorrie. But my guess would be, not directly. There are complications once you start sending messages of that kind across frontiers, from here to Europe even if they know where to find her, and my guess is they may not, though pretty obviously they must know who and what she is. No, they'll make their play in the safest and nearest direction. And that's you you! You represent Dorrie here, you're Anjli's temporary guardians. My bet is that you can expect instructions from whoever's got Anjli, and pretty soon.'

'Supposing there's any choice,' said Dominic firmly, 'we can't risk Anjli.'

'No, I agree. Any instruction they give must be obeyed absolutely. We can't take any chances with Dorrie's kid. I wouldn't with anybody's kid, for that matter. What about this Cousin Vasudev you were talking about? You reckon they're likely to contact him?... as kind of a tap for the family money? Family is a great thing here, they might well figure he'd pay out for her, supposing he has legal access now to the funds. Company or family. I don't know how they're fixed.'

Tossa and Dominic didn't know, either. Their voices took on a certain reserve when they spoke of Cousin Vasudev.

'Sure, I know! He stands to gain. But he could be on the level, too. And if he isn't, it won't do any harm to shake him up now and again, he might give something away. But whoever took the little girl knew all about that gold dollar, that's what gets me. And this cousin of hers didn't or at least not from you, not until today...'

'But he could have from Kishan Singh,' Tossa pointed out. 'We told him we'd come straight from there, he might very well question the house-boy afterwards, and Kishan Singh would tell a k.u.mar everything. From his point of view, why not?'

'That's true, that's very true. Maybe a neighbour, even, could have overheard when she gave it to the old man. I don't know, I just don't know! All our bunch may have known all about it, from that time you telephoned for me and got Ashok, and gave him the whole story to hand on to me... but then, most of the bunch are away in Sarnath still, and have been since early the morning after you called, before Anjli was s.n.a.t.c.hed.'

Dominic had laid down his fork with careful quietness. 'Most?' He met the blank, enquiring stare, and elaborated uneasily: 'I thought you all all were.' were.'

'Well, all the working unit, yes, and nearly all the players. Not Kamala, of course Yashodhara doesn't appear in the Deer Park scenes. This is where the sacred brotherhood line begins. No women on the scene for a while.'

'I see.' Dominic reflected that he should have taken time off, like Anjli, to read the book, and he might have been somewhat wiser in his a.s.sumptions. All the women left behind in Delhi! He thought for a moment, and asked without undue emphasis: 'And Ashok?'

'Ashok? In India you don't ask an artist of that calibre to run around after you, you you run after run after him him. We show the rushes for Ashok, right here in Delhi, and he broods over them three or four times, and comes up with the music for the sound-track when he's good and ready. Oh, yes, he likes to spend a good deal of time with us down at Hauz Khas, but that's a bonus. He enjoys us. But not enough to go blundering about in Sarnath with us on the day's grind.'

'I see,' said Dominic again, making more readjustments. But this picture of Ashok, on the face of it, removed him still farther from any possibility of partic.i.p.ation in a sordid crime for gain. 'I suppose he must be in the film star cla.s.s himself, then?'

'Just about. I know what you're thinking of this tune you heard the chap in the garden here whistling but you don't even know that it was the chap who brought the note, do you? And for goodness sake, some of the sweepers and drivers around the villas and the office could have heard Ashok playing that theme and picked it up. He meant it to be catchy. And believe me, he isn't satisfied with one run through when he's recording, not to mention all the practising beforehand. I shouldn't worry too much about that. Even if you're right about it!' And plainly he was by no means convinced about that, and on the whole Dominic could hardly blame him. n.o.body else had been convinced, either, not even Tossa.

'Mind if I hang around with you this evening? Just in case anything happens?'

'I wish you would!'

'I shouldn't have any peace if I left you to it,' said Felder almost apologetically.

They adjourned to Dominic's sitting-room, and waited the evening through; and no one got much rest, when it came to the point. The strain of waiting for something to happen is not conducive to conversation, and presently even monosyllables faded out. Eight o'clock pa.s.sed, and nothing broke the tension. Nine o'clock, and still nothing. Half-past nine...

Felder shook his solid shoulders and sighed. 'Nothing's going to happen tonight, it seems. I wonder if they went for Vasudev and family loyalty, after all?'

And it was then that the telephone rang.

All three of them started wildly, as if a gun had been fired; all three of them came to their feet, staring at the instrument, even reaching out for it, half afraid to take the plunge. Dominic looked up over the white handset at Felder.

'Yes,' said Felder rapidly, 'you take it. Hold it till I open the door, then answer it, and if it is is give me the sign, and I'll slip down to the switchboard and see if it can be traced. And give me the sign, and I'll slip down to the switchboard and see if it can be traced. And listen listen! if if it is, talk back, hold him as long as you can, give us a chance. it is, talk back, hold him as long as you can, give us a chance. And don't miss a word he says And don't miss a word he says!'

He took a couple of quick strides backwards and opened the door of the room. Dominic lifted the receiver.

'Hullo... Dominic Felse here.'

'You are the gentleman who has lost some valuables,' said a high, strident, clacking voice in his ear. 'I have them, they can be recovered.'

Dominic's mouth was suddenly so dry that for a minute he could not make any answer. He nodded strenuously at Felder across the room, and the big man slid noiselessly through the door he was holding open, and drew it to after him, releasing the latch slowly so that it made not a sound. In the telephone the voice crackled impatiently: 'I know you hear me. You want your lost property back. I can provide. Of course at a proper price.' An old voice, he thought, or at least elderly; its tone cracked when it was raised, it had no body in it, and no juice. On first bearing, either male or female; but he thought, male. He moistened his lips feverishly, and instinctively began to waste time.

'Who is that? Are you sure you're on the right number? This is Felse speaking, you wanted me?'

'It is you who want me, my friend,' said the voice, and cackled painfully in his eardrum. 'If you want Miss k.u.mar, that is.'

'How do I know you really have any information about Miss k.u.mar? Where are you speaking from? Who are you? How do you know anything about it?'

'That is very well put, how do I know! How could I know, except that I have her I have her? Oh, she is safe, quite safe. You want proof? Miss k.u.mar has American pa.s.sport...' Horrifyingly the old voice rattled off its number, the place of its issuing, the personal details of her description, and giggled unnervingly at the blank silence that ensued. 'You can have this lady back for two hundred thousand rupees cash.'

'But that's impossible... you must allow us time, at least, how can we command cash at short notice...?' Dominic protested, feeling round the apparently empty recesses of his mind for any prevarication he could find, anything to keep the man talking; while at the same time he struggled to record every word that was said. 'I don't believe you have her. You could have found her handbag, or stolen it, and got hold of the pa.s.sport that way. If she's there, let her speak to me, and I'll believe...'

The voice cut him off sharply. 'Listen, if you want her! You get that two hundred thousand rupees, you get it in mixed notes and put it into a cheap black school bag. And on Sunday afternoon at two o'clock...'

'Sunday?' gasped Dominic in utter dismay. 'But that's only two days! How can we...'

'... on Sunday, I say, you go, you and the woman also, to the Birla Temple. You leave your shoes with the lame boy who sits at the foot of the steps, on the right, and with your shoes the case with the money. Then you go into the temple and stay within for half an hour, not one minute less. Do not try to keep watch on your shoes, do not say one word to the police, or anyone else, if you want to see the girl again. Put on your shoes and go back to your hotel. On Sunday evening I call you again and we arrange about the child. If If you have done as you are told.' you have done as you are told.'

'But, listen, we want to co-operate, but it's a question of time, d.a.m.n it! You must give us longer than that...'

'Sunday. If you want her.' The line echoed one quavering ring, and was dead. Dominic held the receiver numbly for a moment, and then very gently cradled it. His knees gave under him, and he sat down abruptly. 'My G.o.d, it's impossible, we can't can't! I don't believe it can be done, not by cable, not even by telephone.'

'Why?' Tossa urged, pale and quiet. 'What did he say? What is it he wants?'

'Two hundred thousand rupees by Sunday. Sunday Sunday! Now we've got got to call Dorette Lester, we've got no choice. But I doubt if we can get the money through by then, whatever we do... whatever to call Dorette Lester, we've got no choice. But I doubt if we can get the money through by then, whatever we do... whatever she she does!' does!'

'We have have to. There has to be a way. I don't even know,' she said helplessly, 'how much two hundred thousand rupees is. It sounds a fortune.' to. There has to be a way. I don't even know,' she said helplessly, 'how much two hundred thousand rupees is. It sounds a fortune.'

They were still gazing at each other, stunned into silence, when the door opened, and Felder came into the room. Both tense faces turned upon him, though without much hope. He shook his head glumly.

'A call box, somewhere central, that's all we had time to get. Probably on Connaught Circus. One step out of the box, and he'd be a drop in the ocean. Not a chance of getting anything on him. What did he have to say?'

Dominic cleared his dry throat and told them, practically word for word. It wasn't the sort of message he was in any danger of forgetting.

'He didn't give anything away... about himself? What did he sound like? I suppose,' he added, struck by a sudden doubt, 'it was was a he?' a he?'

'I think so. Yes, I'm sure. But at first I did wonder... a high-pitched, thin voice... old... No, he didn't give a thing away. And now,' said Dominic, 'there's nothing for it but to tell Miss Lester, and hope she can cable the money in time... But, d.a.m.n it, Sunday Sunday! It won't be a banking day here. We've only got tomorrow.'

'There's Vasudev,' ventured Tossa dubiously. After all, they had harboured doubts about Vasudev's cousinly solicitude. All that money, old Mrs k.u.mar newly dead, Satyavan, by his own design or another's, utterly vanished, and only this little girl between Vasudev, the dutiful manager and nephew, and all those millions of rupees and that commercial empire. Even if he hadn't got her out of the way himself, what a temptation this might be to want her kept out of the way now, to hinder, not help, any attempt to pay the ransom and recover her alive.

'And besides,' said Dominic flatly, as if he had followed her unspoken thoughts thus far, 'we've been warned, not a word to any outsider. Maybe they haven't realised that we've got Mr Felder in on the job already, but I bet they wouldn't miss it if we went near Vasudev between now and Sunday afternoon. And we daren't take any risks with Anjli.'

'It won't be necessary, anyhow,' said Felder slowly. He sat down heavily, and his big shoulders in their immaculate tailoring sagged back into the chair as if he had suddenly grown very tired. 'It won't be necessary to frighten Dorrie yet, either... if all goes well, it need never be necessary, only in retrospect. We'll put up the money, and we'll make sure of being on time with it. As you say, we can't take any risks with Anjli.'

They were watching him with wonder, and as yet carefully suppressing the hope that he knew how to work miracles, and could make his word good now.

'No, I I haven't got that sort of money here, don't look at me like that. I haven't, but the company has. We've got a big credit in the bank here to cover this Buddha film. And it so happens that it will run to two hundred thousand without being sucked dry, and when necessary my signature is enough to draw on it. If I left anything undone that I could do for Anjli, I'd never be able to look Dorrie in the eye again. And she'll replace the loan as soon as she knows the facts. Tomorrow I must draw the money out of our bank, and you can buy a cheap school briefcase, just as he said, and we make the payment. haven't got that sort of money here, don't look at me like that. I haven't, but the company has. We've got a big credit in the bank here to cover this Buddha film. And it so happens that it will run to two hundred thousand without being sucked dry, and when necessary my signature is enough to draw on it. If I left anything undone that I could do for Anjli, I'd never be able to look Dorrie in the eye again. And she'll replace the loan as soon as she knows the facts. Tomorrow I must draw the money out of our bank, and you can buy a cheap school briefcase, just as he said, and we make the payment. You You make the payment, rather and make the payment, rather and I I stay out of sight and keep an eye on your shoes.' stay out of sight and keep an eye on your shoes.'

The wild flush of relief came back to Tossa's face, and the brightness to her eyes. Dominic let out a long, grateful breath.

'Oh, lord lord, if we could could! Is it really all right for us to borrow it? But you wouldn't try anything then, would you? I mean, we agreed we had to obey instructions, for Anjli's sake.'

'I would not! But I'd have a shot at trailing whoever takes the briefcase, that's for certain. Once we get Anjli back, I'm all for putting the police on to her kidnappers.'

'But is it going to be possible to hang around and watch the place, like that? Won't you be too noticeable?'

'You haven't seen the Lakshminarayan temple on a Sunday afternoon! It's like a fun-fair. Cover galore and thousands of people. Might make it hard for me to keep an eye on him, but it will certainly reduce his chances of spotting me. It's worth a try, at any rate.'

'The Birla temple, he said,' Dominic pointed out.

'Same thing, laddie. Lakshminarayan is its dedication, and the Birla family built it. They had to do something with some of the money, it was getting to be a bore.' There was a faint snap of bitterness in this lighter tone; no wonder, when they had need of a comparatively modest sum at this moment for so urgent a reason, and were put to such s.h.i.+fts to acquire it.

'I can't tell you,' Dominic said fervently, 'how grateful we are for your help.'

'Not a word, my boy! I've known Dorrie for years, and didn't she ask me to keep a fatherly eye on you over here? But I tell you what, I'd better get out of here by the garden way tonight, hadn't I, and keep away from you except where we can be strictly private?'

He rose and stretched wearily. There were times when he looked an elderly man, but always withindoors and in presence of few if any observers.

'Is there nothing I can be doing?' Dominic asked anxiously, aware of having ceded his responsibilities to a degree he found at once galling and rea.s.suring.

'Sure there is. You can go out in the morning maybe alone would be best, if Miss Barber doesn't mind? and buy a cheap, black, child's briefcase. Somewhere round Connaught Place there are sure to be plenty of them. And about half past ten you could oblige me by being inside the State Bank of India, the one in Parliament Street. If you're seen going in there, that can only be a good sign. And I'll come separately, they won't know me. And we'll take out that two hundred thousand rupees that's something over eleven thousand pounds, I'd say offhand. You know, that's not so exhorbitant, when you come to think about it! and see it packed up all ready for the pay-off, and packed into that briefcase. And in a couple of days we'll have Anjli out of bondage.'

VIII.

On Sat.u.r.day morning they drew out the money from the film company's account in the State Bank of India in Parliament Street. Dominic was there waiting with his plastic school briefcase in his hand before Felder arrived; in good time to admire the imposing appearance his colleague made after a night's rest and a careful toilet, immaculate in dark grey worsted. The clerk treated the whole transaction as superbly normal, and was deferential to the point of obsequiousness, perhaps because of the size of the withdrawal. Felder was carrying a much more presentable briefcase in pale chrome leather; Dominic had never seen him look the complete city sophisticate before. Even his tone as he asked for the money to be made up in mixed notes was so casual and abstracted that any other course would have seemed eccentric.

So that was that. They were moving at leisure away from the counter, with two hundred thousand rupees in a.s.sorted denominations in a large, sealed bank envelope, linen-grained, biscuit-coloured and very official-looking. It seemed like having a hold on Anjli again. Suddenly it seemed an age since Dominic had seen her face or heard her voice, and he remembered the jasmine flowers, with the strange ache of an old a.s.sociation fallen just short of love.

'Put it in the case now,' suggested Felder in a low voice, proffering the crisp new parcel before they were in view from the doorway. 'Or would you rather I locked it in the office safe until the time comes?'

'Yes, you keep it. Drop it off at the desk for us tomorrow, there'll be plenty of people in and out. Supposing there is someone watching me now, he may think it a good idea to knock off this lot before I can get it back to the hotel, and then ask for more. How can I be sure?'

'All right, as you like.' Felder shrugged his shoulders ruefully. 'I suppose it is my responsibility.' The envelope disappeared into the chrome leather case, swallowed from sight with a magnificent casualness. Briefcases of that quality went in and out of here by the score, black plastic scholastic ones were much rarer in this temple of commerce. Dominic felt grateful that he had bought Everyman copies of the Hindu scriptures and the Ramayana and Mahabharata, to give a semblance of gravity to his own flimsy burden. They could easily have been mistaken for money, viewed from the outside.

'In the morning, then, about ten, I'll bring it to the desk. Better be somewhere close, in case. And when you leave the temple in the afternoon, come in to Nirula's for tea. I'll be there.'

'We will,' said Dominic.

'Go ahead first, then, I'll give you ten minutes or so.'

Dominic walked briskly out of the imposing doors of the State Bank of India, and away down Parliament Street, with his tawdry briefcase filled and fulfilled with the wisdom of thirty centuries of Indian thought and feeling. Worth a good deal more, in the final issue, than two hundred thousand rupees, even taking into consideration the relative impossibility of adequate translation.

It was the longest Sat.u.r.day they ever remembered, and the only good things left about it were that they had at least a hope of recovering Anjli, and that they were spending the agonising time of waiting together. Felder kept away from them, and that was surely the right thing to do. And they made contact with no one, so that if they were watched the watchers might be quite certain that they had not infringed their orders. They went no farther from their hotel than the Lodi park, where they sat in the suns.h.i.+ne among the fawn-coloured gra.s.s and the flowers, the amazing, exuberant, proliferating flowers of the season, and looked at the towering rose-coloured tombs with which the Lodi dynasty had burdened the Delhi earth, and thought about Purnima's modest pyre by the Yamuna, and her little heap of ashes going back to the elements, and nothing left of weight or self-importance or regret. And it seemed to them the most modest of all ways of leaving this world, and the most in keeping with the spirit's certainty of return; until, of course, the cycles close in the last perfect circle, and you are free from any more rebirths.

But they did not stay away long, because they were afraid of being out of reach, even by ten minutes' walk, in case there was some new message. They had very little sleep that night. Felder, in the smaller villa at Hauz Khas, fared no better. All of them were up with the first light, and aching for the afternoon to come.

To reach the Shri Lakshminarayan temple, if you happen to be in the shopping centre of Delhi, Connaught Place, you strike out due west along Lady Hardinge Road, and it will bring you, after a walk of about a mile, straight to that amazing frontage. Don't expect anything historic; the temple was built towards the end of British rule, as a gesture towards the wholeness of all the Indian religions, which are still one religion, so that it belongs to orthodox Brahmans, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and anyone else, in fact, who comes with sympathy and an open mind. It is dedicated to Narayan and Lakshmi, his spouse, but it also houses images of others of the Hindu pantheon. Which pantheon is itself an illusion, a convenient veil drawn over the face of the single and universal unity; convenient, because its multifarious aspects provide an approachable deity for everyone who comes, from the simplest to the most subtle, and from the most extrovert to the most introvert, and all routes that lead to the universal essence are right routes.

What Dominic and Tossa saw, as they turned into the final straight stretch of the road and emerged into the broad open s.p.a.ce of Mandir Marg, facing the forecourt of the temple, was a huge, gay, sparkling construction in several horizontal terraces, above a sweeping flight of steps, and crowned above by a triple s.h.i.+khara, three tall, fluted, tapering towers, s.h.i.+rred in a pattern imitative of reed thatching, each capped at its sealed crest by a yellow cupola and a tiny gilded spire. The towers were mainly white, picked out with yellow, the levels below them were white and russet red and yellow, lined out here and there with green, arcades of mannered arches and perforated bal.u.s.trades. All the textures, all the colours, were matt and gauche and new; and with their usual a.s.sured recognition of realities, the modern inhabitants of Delhi had taken the place for their own. Felder had not exaggered. It was a fairground; a happy, holiday, Sunday-afternoon crowd possessed it inside and out.

Mandir Marg was teeming with people and traffic. They crossed it warily, Dominic hugging the cheap little briefcase that contained the bank's envelope full of money, which Felder had left at the desk at Keen's that morning.

There was plenty of s.p.a.ce for all who came, about the front of the temple. But approximately half of that s.p.a.ce was cordoned off behind frayed white ropes, sealing off the actual front of the temple wall beside the staircase. Within this enclosure stood and sat half a dozen or more vociferous Hindus, jealously guarding serried rows of footgear discarded here by the faithful, and waiting patiently for their return. Just to the right of the steps sat a diminutive brown boy, slender and large-eyed, one thin leg tucked under him, one, clearly helpless and distorted at the ankle, stretched out like a purposeless enc.u.mbrance at an improbable angle. A home-carved crutch lay beside him. He had more than his fair share of sandals and shoes to mind.

Tossa and Dominic shook off their sensible slip-ons, and proffered them tentatively across the cords. There is always the problem of tipping now or when you recover your property. The uninitiated prefer to play safe by doing both, even if this involves over-paying. Dominic gave the boy a quarter-rupee, reserving the other quarter for when they emerged, and held out the briefcase to be placed with their shoes. The child how old could he possibly be? Thirteen? seemed to be content. Even conscientious, for he lined up the two pairs of shoes with careful accuracy, and stood the briefcase upright between them. And yet he must be in on this thing... Or was that necessarily so? There could be somebody he knew and trusted, a credible story, a planned diversion... No, better withhold judgement.