Vikram Chandra - Sacred Games

Now it was clear that Lakshmi had blessed this house, this duplex apartment in Juhu. It gave Sartaj an idea for the angle of his attack. When Rachel Mathias appeared, he introduced himself and said evenly, 'We are looking into people who seem to have assets disproportionate to income.'

'Black money, you mean? Tax matters?'

This Rachel was generously built, but did not give the impression of being lazy or indisciplined. Her bulk was honestly come by, from heredity and from age. She was rather attractive, with her short, efficient hair and well-groomed hands. She looked steadily at Sartaj, giving nothing away. Yes, this was a woman who would have self-control but also deeply felt emotions, this was a person who would feel an insult down to her bones, and then have the courage to avenge it. 'Yes, madam,' Sartaj said, 'these are just preliminary steps, you see. We give people a chance to clear themselves.'

'You're saying I have too many assets? That I spend too much money?'

Sartaj swept his arm around and up. 'This apartment, madam. All these paintings and objects. Your life-style.'

'My life- style ? My ex-husband is putting you people up to this, yes? He's still trying to make me suffer because he had to give us this apartment. After leaving me and his two children for some twenty-year-old whore, he thinks I should sit at home every night?'

'Madam…'

'No, you listen to me. He doesn't give us enough to meet one-quarter of what his children need. Every other paisa I spend, I earn. All this furniture and art you see, this is for my business. I work hard.'

'Interior decoration?'

'Yes. And now I am going to open an art gallery with two other partners.'

'Very good. But there is still the matter of too much money, maybe. Questions have been raised.'

'Where? Listen, we do all our business in white. My accountant has every receipt, a copy of every cheque from every client. We can show you everything you want.'

Rachel was wearing a loose linen shirt in white, with grey pants of the same texture. The outfit brought out the rich brown of her very good skin, and the softer amber of her eyes. She had her hands poised elegantly on a knee, but she was worried now. Sartaj pressed on. 'Madam, there is no business that is done all in white. Especially interior decoration. It is all a matter of proportion. If we don't feel there has been enough co-operation, of course we will have to investigate properly.'

'What do you want?'

Sartaj stretched, and said very casually, 'Do you own a video camera?'

'What?'

'A video camera, madam. To take videos, you know, of marriages, prize-giving events, parties.' He mimed the action of taping. 'Nowadays very common.'

'Yes. We have two. One is old, and one is new. But, what…'

She was very confused now, and – Sartaj thought – a little afraid. It was time for a bit of the old police lathi. He leaned forward, and stared at her until she began to shift about on her pretty Mughal-style divan. The hostility in his eyes came easily when he summoned it, it swept from some endless reservoir of contempt for wrongdoers and rule-breakers, and he knew it was also tightening his shoulders and colouring his cheeks. 'Why two video cameras, madam? Why do you need so many?'

'I paid for the new one on a credit card, you can see…'

'That is not what I asked. What do you use the cameras for?'

'Like you said, celebrations. When we go on holidays. Like that.'

'Have you given a camera to anyone else? Lent it?'

'No. But why are you asking?'

'There is a case of blackmail I am investigating. A video camera was used.' He watched her carefully, and now he was sure that he had struck some potentially rich seam of fear. She was at the edge of the divan now, deportment forgotten. 'There is some indication that you may be connected to the case.'

'Me? How? What are you talking about?'

Sartaj shook his head. 'Madam, better that you do the talking now.'

Rachel wanted to, he could see that, but she grasped one hand over the other and swallowed and finally sputtered, 'I have nothing to say.'

He was sure she had heard the line in some TV serial. He stood up. He wasn't going to get a full confession just by showing up at a suspect's house. It had been known to occur, but it wasn't going to happen with this one. They would need to apply more pressure, perhaps with hard evidence picked up elsewhere. Meanwhile Rachel Mathias would worry herself into a nerve-racked condition of fear ripe for breaking. 'As you wish,' Sartaj said. 'Here is my card. Please call me if you change your mind.'

On his way to the door, Sartaj saw, on a marble-topped table, a picture of two boys laughing against a background of green mountains. 'Your sons,' he said. 'Very nice-looking boys.'

But this only seemed to frighten Rachel even further. She flinched. Sartaj was enjoying himself now. 'And not a bad frame either,' he said. 'Silver, and quite heavy. An antique, unless I'm mistaken. And even if I am, still expensive.' He ran a finger over the broad-leafed vine that ran around the edges of the frame, and then left her with, 'We will be watching your house.'

In the lift he felt quite victorious. This was an interesting suspect, this woman who had remade herself after being abandoned by her husband, who had constructed a new life. Who were the co-conspirators who were making the calls to Kamala? How had she found them, hired them? It would be interesting to find out.

* * *

Sartaj and Kamble were walking opposite sides of the street in front of the Apsara cinema, at rush hour. They were looking for Kamala Pandey's urchin, a boy of indeterminate age and appearance who wore a red DKNY JEANS T-shirt, who had been attired in red when he had picked up blackmail cash from her a month and a half ago, who carried a black tooth in his mouth. Kamble had been sceptical about their possibilities of success, and sulky, but they were out here looking. It was almost six, and the crowd shifted and swarmed over the pavements. The car horns made a fanfare that lifted Sartaj's heart. Pyaar ka Diya was the movie showing at Apsara, and it was a hit. Sartaj could feel it in the relaxed, post-climactic ease of the viewers coming out of the cinema, and in the happy eagerness of those going in. In this Apsara, on this evening at least, the flame of love still alight. Sartaj edged sideways through a gaggle of sharp-looking collegians dialling busily on their mobile phones. 'Jhakaas movie, yaar,' one of them said into his phone.

There were beggar boys and girls working the crowd, holding up their hands and trying out their patter. 'Hello, Aunty, give me something, only one rupee, aunty. One rupee, Aunty, I'm very hungry. Please, Aunty.' The chokras wore a variety of ragged shirts and banians, but no red T-shirt. Sartaj made his way down the road, all the way to the corner where the crowd thinned, and then he came back. He knew already the faces of the black-marketeers, who strolled the pavement with their own pitch: 'Bolo, balcony two-fifty, stall one-fifty.'

Kamble came across the road, dodging through the cars. He was in full black today, including new black shoes with some sort of silver lining on their complicated heels. He raised his chin at Sartaj, and Sartaj shrugged. 'No?' Kamble said. 'I saw three red T-shirts, but not on any chokra. One was a nice little round item, hair down to her gaand, and these…' He raised his cupped hands in front of his chest. 'Nice. You saw the blackies?'

'Yes.'

'There's also a toli of pocket-maars on that side. See the chutiya in the blue pants? He's the talker. Then over there on the left, the old man with the newspaper? No, no, there. He's the lifter.' There was a clean-shaven grandfather type in a very respectable and crisp white shirt moving inconspicuously along. 'Then, over there, that's the hand-off man.' This one was younger, slim and dashing in dark glasses and a loose grey shirt. 'Ah, there they go.'