Vikram Chandra - Sacred Games

Ramu shook his head curtly. 'I don't remember anything like that.'

'Are you sure?'

'Of course I'm sure. Even if I had done something like that, I do ten jobs a day. How can I remember something from long ago?'

Tej and Jatin had their heads bent over their plates, but Sartaj was sure he had seen a very small stiffening in Tej's shoulders, a barely discernible break in the steady rhythm of his chewing.

'Think hard,' Sartaj said. 'You were wearing a red T-shirt. It was in the evening.' Ramu was very good, with his impenetrable glare, but Sartaj was sure that Tej had been along that evening too. He was twitchy now, working hard to keep up the eating.

'No,' Ramu said.

'Why don't we just take them out behind the dhaba?' Kamble said. 'And give them a lathi up their gaand? They'll remember then.'

Sartaj slid a photograph out of his pocket and put it on the table, between Ramu and Tej. 'This was the woman you took the package from,' he said. 'Remember now?'

'I told you,' said Ramu with exaggerated patience. 'I didn't do anything like that.' He was getting into the part now. He raised his hands, let them drop.

But Tej had stopped eating, and was staring at the studio glamour shot of Mrs Kamala Pandey.

'Maybe you don't remember,' Sartaj said. 'But Tej knows her all right.'

Tej tried his best now, his chin sticky with rice and grease. 'No, no, I don't know her,' he said.

Sartaj put a fifty-rupee note next to his plate. 'Yes, you do. I saw you look. She's like a film star, isn't she?'

'Be quiet,' Ramu said to Tej, who had a dreamy fix on the money as he gathered up another large chunk of rice in his fingers.

'Ramu,' Sartaj said. 'Why do you want to fight with me? Are the men who hired you to get the package your friends? You think you have to protect them? Or are you scared of them? You think if you tell me, you'll get into trouble?'

'I'm not afraid of anyone.'

Ramu had his head down, and his shoulders up, and his voice low. Sartaj recognized the anger: it was Amitabh Bachchan in Deewar , or Shah Rukh in any of his films. 'I don't mean to insult you, boss,' Sartaj said. 'You have information I need. You name your price.'

Ramu leaned back, rubbed at his nose with the back of his hand. He was very thoughtful. Sartaj thought he had a price in mind already, but he was being the businessman for the benefit of his followers. He announced it finally. 'Five hundred rupees.'

'Too much,' Sartaj said. 'I'll give you two hundred.'

Ramu came forward now, his eyes sharp. He put his elbows on the table. 'Three-fifty.'

'Let's settle at three hundred,' Sartaj said. 'Not yours and not mine.'

'Fine. Let's see the cash.'

Sartaj suppressed a smile, and put the money on the table. 'Let's see the information,' he said. 'So who were they?'

Ramu took the currency notes, riffled professionally through them, put them away. 'I don't know who they were. They just found us near the cinema.'

'How many of them?'

'Two.'

'Old, young, what?'

'Old.'

'How old? Like Uncle here? Or like me?'

Ramu stabbed a contemptuous thumb towards Kamble. 'No, old like him here.'

Kamble knuckled the top of Ramu's head, crisply enough to make him wince. Tej and Jatin grinned. 'Careful, chutiya,' Kamble said. 'I'm not as nice as Saab over there. So, these two men, you got names?'

'No. They didn't give names.'

'So how did it work?' Sartaj said.

'They came up to us just before the evening show. They said they would pay us to get a package.'

'Then?'

'We walked with them.'

'Down the road?'

'Yes, a little bit. They showed us the car. They stayed on one side of the road. I went across. I knocked on the window. The woman rolled down the window. She gave me the package.'

'Did you say anything?'

'Yes, I said, "Give me the package." They had been speaking to her on her mobile. She was expecting me.'

'So you brought the package back?'

'Yes. And gave it to them. One of them made a call on his mobile. They walked away, they went. Bas, that was it.'

'You ever saw those two again?'

'No.'

'What did they look like?'

'Nothing special. Just ordinary.'

'Ramu, your information is not worth the money. Come on. Try again.'

'There's nothing to tell you. They were wearing shirts and pants. Bas, what else to tell you?'

'Something useful, Ramu. Something useful. How tall?'

'Not like you. Like him,' Ramu said, jabbing a thumb towards Jayanth.

That was all Ramu had. 'Tej, did you notice anything?' Sartaj said.

Tej shrugged. 'No, they were like he said.'

'Tell me anyway. What did you see?'

But prompting Tej elicited nothing but the same vague impression of two average men wearing average clothes.

Jatin, the little one, hadn't said a word so far. He didn't look up now, and kept turning his glass.

'Jatin, you also tell me. What were these men like?'

'They were both wearing black jeans,' Jatin said. Kamble blinked, and leaned over the back of the seat, trying to get a look at Jatin. And Jatin went on steadily, 'One of them was half-taklu, no hair over here. The one who had the phone, that one, he was this taklu.' Jatin tapped the front of his head. He spoke without looking up, in a quiet, small voice, and said 'jins' for 'jeans', but he was very sure about the two men.

'That's good,' Sartaj said. 'Now, this taklu one, what kind of shirt was he wearing?'

'White T-shirt. And the other one, he had a blue shirt with long sleeves.'

Jatin was smaller than the others, with a malnourished mouse-face. He tilted his head when he spoke, towards Sartaj's breast pocket, and in that quick glimpse Sartaj saw that he had a bit of a wandering eye. He wouldn't look at you if you were looking at him, and so he passed unnoticed, with his bony shoulders and his drooping head. Sartaj took a tissue and began to fold it, over and over, and he kept his eyes on it. 'Yes, Jatin,' he said, 'so what else did you notice?'

Jatin was shy now. He turned his head away from the table, and twisted his arms together. But Ramu, with the money in his pocket, was feeling magnanimous. 'Ay, Jatin,' he said. 'Tell him if you know anything. It's all right.' And then, to Sartaj, with a little twirling motion of the forefinger at his temple, 'He's always like this. But he remembers everything.'

Sartaj unfolded his piece of paper, and then began folding it again. 'Jatin, were they driving a car? How did they come?'

'We didn't see them driving anything,' Ramu said confidently. 'They weren't the type who would have a car. Maybe they came in a bus.'

Kamble shook his head at Sartaj. Jayanth was starting to look sceptical, now not quite as enthusiastic about the possibilities of successful detection. Sartaj felt the let-down himself: maybe this was all the boys had. Maybe this was a dead end. 'Were they carrying anything, Jatin?' he said. 'A book, a newspaper?'

Ramu shook his head patiently. 'I told you, his bheja is fried.' He tilted his head to one side, and hammed up a cockeyed impression of Jatin. Tej giggled. And Jatin sat very still, not flinching.

'All right,' Sartaj said. 'Want a falooda, Jatin?'

Kamble held up a hand. 'I'm going to go,' he said. 'Okay, boss?'

'Yes,' Sartaj said. 'I'll see you tomorrow at the station.' He motioned at a passing waiter. 'Three Royal Faloodas over here, quick.'

Jatin reached across the table for a tissue. Kamble unfolded himself out of his booth and walked towards the entrance. He was pressing keys on his mobile phone. Jatin was folding his tissue.

'Bip-beep-beep-bip,' Jatin said, and his tissue was a triangle now.

'What?' Sartaj said.

'Bip-beep-beep-bip- bip .' Jatin balanced the triangle on one side. It stayed in place, balanced.