The Mountain Shadow полностью

‘Wait a minute. Mukesh Devnani is one of the richest guys in Bombay.’

‘He took in a lot of black investment money from somewhere. He wanted to move from building convention centres to building whole towns and cities, straight off the plan. The only people with the real money to make that dream come true –’

‘– were the short-tempered guys. And now they want their money back, with interest.’

‘Right. It’s a weird thing that Ranjit is mixed up in this.’

‘Ranjit? How?’

‘He was running a campaign in his newspapers against one of the big new cities that Mukesh was set to build. The scare stories forced the government to change course, and cancel Mukesh’s permits. The whole thing started falling apart. It’s gotten so bad that when the cops come to his mansion, we never know if it’s to protect him or arrest him.’

‘He has to pay up, Naveen, even if it bankrupts him.’

‘That’s what I say. That’s what I told him, respectfully. But there’s some hitch. I don’t know what it is. I don’t get up to the mansion in Juhu very often now. I put this together in the few chances I got to rummage around in his office. I think Diva . . . I think she’s a kidnap, waiting to happen. Her Mother died six years ago. She’s his only child. His only heir. It’s a way for his enemies to hurt him. It’s just logic, in a twisted way. I’m worried, man.’

‘You really think it’s that bad?’

‘I do. I’m . . . a little freaked out. This is over my head, and I really care about this girl, even if I think her father is a prick.’

‘Take her out of the city.’

‘I’ve tried. She knows that something’s up with her dad. She won’t leave.’

‘You could hide her, for a while.’

‘How? Where? She’s famous, man. I spend more time dodging the press than I do dodging bad guys. And she loves it. I had to ban the phone. She was calling the paparazzi and telling them where she’d be. She knows them on a first name basis. She buys them rounds of drinks. She’s a godmother to one of their kids.’

I laughed, but then saw that he was still too serious for laughter.

‘She thinks discretion is anything that doesn’t involve skywriting, which she’s done, for her eighteenth birthday party. She told me. It’ll be the same wherever she goes.’

‘You could hide her in the slum,’ I suggested. ‘If she’s game for it. I hid there myself once, for eighteen months, and it’s one of the safest places I’ve ever been in my life.’

‘Would they take her in?’

‘The head man’s a friend. And he loves a party. He’s gonna love Diva. But it’s not for everybody, and Diva certainly isn’t everybody.’

‘Are you serious, about the slum?’

‘Unless you can think of a better place to hide a Bombay Diva from the madding crowd? But no promises. I have to run it by my friend, first.’

He looked again at the girls. Karla and Diva were honking with laughter, covering their mouths and noses to smother the noise.

They were drinking something. It looked good.

‘Listen, Naveen, if you still think it’s a good idea when I come down from the mountain, I’ll ask Johnny Cigar about it. Okay?’

‘I’m not sure how I’d to sell it to Diva, but okay. Yeah. Please do it, Lin. I want every choice I’ve got, if things go bad with her father’s friends.’

‘You got it, Naveen. Let’s find out what the girls are drinking.’

We talked together for a while, four friends bound in fear as much as in faith; in comradeship as much as companionship.

At the first break in laughing-talk, Karla and I said goodnight, gathered a batch of blankets, some water and a lunch box, and walked by torchlight to Silvano’s Point.

I set up a bower for us, using two blankets as lean-shelters, and padding the ground with the rest. We settled on hips and elbows. I opened the lunch box to show cold fried pakodas, pineapple, cashew and lentil cakes, a few handfuls of nuts, and Bengali custard in small clay pots.

She closed it again, and emptied her purse, throwing two hip flasks, a cigarette case and a gold cigarette lighter with a small watch set into it onto the blanket. The hands on the watch were set at twenty-three minutes past midnight.

‘The watch on your lighter has stopped,’ I said, reaching for it.

‘Don’t wind it,’ she said quickly. ‘I like it that way.’

‘Karla, I’ll be back in a week, and I’ve been –’

‘Let me go first,’ she said.

‘Okay.’

‘I’m putting some money into a business venture with Didier and Naveen. They’re going to expand the detective business, and I think they’re on to something.’

‘Okay, but I was actually thinking of a black market money franchise. I’ve got the contacts, and I can buy their cash, if not their loyalty. I can make a good living for us.’

‘I’ve got money.’

‘And you should keep it.’

‘We don’t know how long we’ll be here in Bombay,’ she said, taking a sip from a flask and passing it to me. ‘Let’s enjoy this ride as much as we can, and as safely as we can.’

‘The detective business isn’t on the top ten list of safe occupations. I’m pretty sure it’s not on the top hundred.’

‘It’s still way above crime and punishment, Shantaram.’