THE CAMBODIAN CURSE AND OTHER STORIES

by Gigi Pandian

  “You think I’m a good actor?” Kevin said. “You’re giving me goose bumps, Vik.”

  “At first,” Vik continued quietly, “a few newspapers claimed the curse had struck again, but Frank was able to hush it up. After all, it was most likely the young woman, barely out of her teens, had simply gone too far partying. But that’s when he added safety precautions. Even though there’s still no cell phone service out here, there’s now a satellite phone in the conservatory. Pretty freaky, huh? Two deaths of similar looking women.”

  “But the deaths were five years apart,” Elena interjected, her brow drawn in confusion. “Hundreds, probably thousands, of people have stayed here in the interim.”

  Sanjay agreed that the human mind likes to draw parallels even when none exist. In the cursed Cloud Castle, with the medieval vaulted arches above them, it was all too easy to succumb to such ideas.

  “I didn’t come here to be freaked out,” Priya said.

  Vik laughed. “Don’t worry. They were redheads. We don’t have any red-headed women here this weekend. You’re safe.”

  Sitting around the long dining table in the grand room, Sanjay helped himself to several platters in the magnificent spread. He avoided the burned loaves of bread but poured a second glass of the free-flowing wine. Vik and Geneva sat at the two ends of the long table, as if they were each holding court. Emilio and Elena sat at the far corner of the long table with Geneva. Sanjay sat next to Vik, directly across from Priya and Kevin.

  “I’m cold,” Priya said, standing up. “I’m going to get my sweater.”

  “My jacket is in the entryway,” Kevin said. “If you’d like it.”

  “I think I can handle walking twenty yards to my room,” Priya said.

  A few moments later, as Sanjay was serving himself a scoop of mashed sweet potatoes, an earsplitting scream rang out through the house.

  “She killed him!” It was Priya’s voice.

  Vik and Sanjay rushed up the broad stairs to the mezzanine. The others stared at each other, stunned. Vik was the first to reach the top of the stairs. Priya ran out of her room and into his arms. She was sobbing so hard she was hiccupping. Vik cradled his little sister in his arms as Sanjay pushed past them into the room.

  The scene inside made Sanjay turn away. He wished he hadn’t eaten second helpings. Broderick lay sprawled on the hardwood floor. There was no question he was dead. The back of his skull had been bashed in by a bloody hammer that now lay next to the body.

  But how? The group had been together the whole time. None of them had the opportunity to kill Broderick. Even if it were possible that a deranged murderer was hiding on the island, which Sanjay found extremely unlikely, they would have seen him leave Broderick’s room.

  Careful to avoid looking at the bloodied dead man, Sanjay turned his attention to the solitary window in the bedroom. Styled with a Gothic arch, the window was easily large enough for a person to climb through. However, there was a glaring problem with that means of escape. None of the windows in the castle opened.

  It was impossible for anyone to have killed Broderick.

  The only explanation was the curse.

  As the others piled into the room, Sanjay forced himself to look back at Broderick. It was hard to believe that the charming entrepreneur, once so full of life, was actually dead. Sanjay felt a pang of guilt for thinking uncharitable thoughts about the man earlier that day.

  Broderick’s body lay askew with his right arm stretched out in front of him. The tips of his fingers were covered in blood.

  Sanjay stared at the message written on the floor with a viscous, dark red substance. Broderick’s last act had been to scrawl the name of his killer in blood: ELENA.

  Elena gasped when she saw her name. The “A” at the end was only half-formed, trailing off into nothingness, making the message all the more grotesque.

  Geneva knelt down at Broderick’s side. She took his wrist in her hand. After holding it for a few seconds, she stood up. She shook her head, a grave expression on her face.

  “I didn’t do this,” Elena whispered. “I didn’t do this!” She whipped her head around, looking imploringly from Geneva to her brother, and finally settling on Sanjay.

  With his arm around his sister’s shoulder, Vik stepped into the room. He stopped short when he saw Broderick’s body. “Elena?”

  “I would never—” Elena stammered. She stepped behind Emilio, becoming the shadow of her twin. The two of them put their heads together, whispering to each other as they often did.

  “You little—” Priya’s words were cut off by her own sob. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Elena. Sanjay sensed what was about to happen a moment before she acted. Priya pushed her brother away and flew at Elena. Her hands wrapped around Elena’s neck. It took both Vik and Kevin to pull her off Elena.

  “I knew she hated me,” Priya said, pulling free of the two men as tears streamed down her face. “But I never dreamed she’d take it out on Broderick.”

  “It’s true I had a schoolgirl crush on Broderick a few years ago,” Elena said, “after Emilio and I met all of you. But it was nothing beyond that. Nothing! Someone is framing me.”

  “The police will figure it out,” Geneva said, reaching for her phone. Instead of dialing, she swore.

  “Why aren’t you calling the police so they can lock her up?” Priya wiped her nose on her brother’s sleeve and frowned at Geneva.

  “Remember there’s no phone service here,” Vik said, squeezing Priya’s shoulder. “We’ll have to get the satellite phone.”

  Sanjay had remained silent during the aftermath of the discovery of the body, taking in the scene, from the room’s layout to the group dynamics. Something had changed from a moment ago. What was it? He looked from Broderick’s body to the circle of people standing over him. Emilio was missing.

  Sanjay bolted from the room.

  “Where are you going?” Vik shouted after him.

  “We have to stop him!” Sanjay called back, not slowing his pace.

  But he wasn’t fast enough. When he entered the conservatory, he knew it was too late. The door leading outside stood open. Sanjay reached the doorway just in time to see Emilio throw the satellite phone off the rocky bluff into the ocean. Their only way to communicate with the mainland was destroyed.

  Emilio gave a start when he saw Sanjay. “I had to do it,” he said. “I had to give her the time she asked for.”

  “What are you talking about?” Sanjay looked from Emilio to the ocean surrounding them, a mass of black under the night sky.

  “I know my sister. She didn’t kill anyone. I know people think she’s strange—that we both are. Elena is a good person to frame, because she would look guilty to the police and a jury. But she didn’t do this. We need this extra time for you to prove she isn’t a killer.”

  “Me?”

  “She’ll explain why,” Emilio said.

  Sanjay spun around at the sound of approaching footsteps. The rest of the group caught up with the two men on the windy rocks. Sanjay explained that Emilio had destroyed their only way to communication with civilization.

  “They’re both insane!” Priya cried. “I always knew there was something wrong with you two.”

  “Come on, Elena,” Vik said. He stood stiffly but spoke with a calming voice. “Why did you ask Emilio to do it? Even without contacting the mainland today, a boat with forty people will arrive tomorrow. You can’t get away with this. You’re only delaying the inevitable.”

  “One of you,” Elena said, “is framing me.” Her large brown eyes locked on Sanjay’s. “You’re The Hindi Houdini. You’ve solved things like this before. I’ve heard how you’ve used your methods of creating illusions to solve strange crimes. I want you to clear my name.”

  “I told you she was insane,” Priya muttered.

  “Think about it,” Elen
a said. “All of you. You saw the way his skull was crushed. There’s no way he’d have lived long enough to write my name.”

  They looked from person to person, none of them able to raise an objection.

  “Only a guilty person would be afraid of the truth,” Elena continued. “Sanjay, will you help me? You have nothing to lose. Until a boat arrives tomorrow, we’re trapped here together.”

  Ten minutes later, the group of seven gathered around the dining table. Once everyone realized shouting at the twins wouldn’t do them any good, they agreed to go inside to figure out next steps. Vik grabbed two bottles of wine before sitting down. They certainly needed it.

  “If it wasn’t for Elena’s name scrawled on the floor,” Sanjay said, “I’d swear there was an invisible madman loose on the island.”

  Priya gasped and gripped her brother’s arm. “A madman? Vik, why did you have to plan your birthday on this stupid, cursed island!?”

  “It’s not a madman,” Sanjay said. “Even if he could have secretly escaped from the room somehow, Elena’s name spelled out with his dripping blood proves that it was one of us. Only…that’s impossible.”

  “Could you be a little less graphic, Sanj?” Vik said, downing half his glass of wine.

  Elena glared at Sanjay. “What do you mean, it’s impossible?”

  “The seven of us,” Sanjay said, “were together eating dinner here in the main room while Broderick was killed. He went up to his room to do some work before dinner—a room only accessible by the door since the windows in this castle are sealed—then he told us he was going to keep working. The rest of us were together at the dining table the whole time. Nobody got up until Priya went to get her sweater and found Broderick dead.”

  Elena looked between Sanjay and her brother. “That can’t be right.”

  “Do any of you remember someone leaving?” Sanjay looked around the table, starting with Vik, Geneva, Priya, Kevin, and finally the twins. Each of them shook their head. Elena’s face was deathly pale.

  “We were all here,” Vik said. “But if that’s your line of reasoning, you’re not as clever as Elena gave you credit for. It’s clear there was a device rigged in the room to kill Broderick.”

  Sanjay shook his head emphatically. “Before this morning, nobody knew which room Broderick would be in.”

  “No offense,” Kevin said, which undoubtedly meant he was about to be offensive. “I think we’d all better take a look to make sure you’re right.” He stood up, as did Vik.

  “Knock yourselves out,” Sanjay said.

  Priya’s fingers braided and unbraided her long black hair. “I’m not going back into that room.”

  “You don’t have to,” Sanjay said. “You can stay down here with me.”

  Kevin paused at the foot of the stairs. “We can’t split up.”

  “Why not?” Sanjay pointed upstairs. “The room is right there. As long as nobody goes off by themselves, I don’t see why you and Vik can’t check out the room for hidden murderous devices.”

  “Um, isn’t that dangerous?” Geneva asked.

  “Nobody can kill anybody else without us all knowing who did it,” Sanjay said. “So nobody is going to try anything.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” Geneva said. “I mean if there’s a hidden device that killed Broderick, I don’t want Vik messing around with it.”

  “Don’t go, Vik,” Priya sniffled. “I just lost my husband. I don’t want to lose you, too.”

  “There’s no device!” Sanjay shouted. “I’m not wrong about this.” He hoped he was right.

  As Vik and Kevin climbed the stairs, silence descended upon the dining table. Sanjay watched as the two men disappeared into the room with Broderick’s dead body.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be doing something?” Elena inquired, breaking the silence.

  “I am,” Sanjay said. “I’m thinking.”

  “You’re going to go to jail for kidnapping in addition to murder,” Priya said to Elena. “It’s your fault your stupid brother destroyed our only way to get off of this island.”

  “If you really believe I’m a killer, why would I care about a kidnapping charge?”

  Priya squealed and put her head in her hands. “I can’t take this!”

  “Let Sanjay think,” Geneva said.

  After a few minutes, the group began to fidget. They’d already opened the second bottle of wine. Sanjay looked at their frightened faces. They could all hear Vik and Kevin above them, examining the room.

  “Let’s look at this from a different angle,” Sanjay said. “Who would want to harm Broderick?”

  “Elena,” Priya said. “That’s why she—”

  “Let’s hold off on the accusations,” Sanjay cut in. “Elena, you said you once had a crush on him.”

  Her shoulders slumped. “It was all so overwhelming when Emilio and I moved to Silicon Valley. Everyone wanted something from us. Everyone. We knew their friendship was fake. Until we met Vik. He didn’t need us to make money or feel important…”

  “But he liked us anyway,” Emilio finished for her.

  Elena nodded in unison with her brother. “Broderick was like that, too. Vik introduced us at a party, and he was charming with that funny British accent of his.”

  “It’s not funny,” Priya mumbled. “It’s Welsh.”

  “Flirting with a man three years ago, long before he got together with Priya, doesn’t give me a reason to want him dead,” Elena said.

  “Unless you’re a bitter little—”

  “Priya,” Sanjay snapped.

  She rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat. “Vik!” she shouted. “What’s taking you guys so long?”

  “We’ll be back in a minute,” he called down. With the door open above them, Sanjay could hear Vik as clearly as he’d heard Broderick the last time he’d spoken.

  “I can give you everyone’s motives,” Emilio said. “If you want to get technical about it, we all had a motive.”

  “Really?” Sanjay asked. “I thought you all liked him.”

  “He was a nice guy on the surface,” Emilio said, “but he made a lot of money off of other peoples’ work. He wasn’t a coder and he wasn’t an inventor. He was a guy who applied vision to other peoples’ ideas. He bought out one of Vik’s start-up companies, he took one of Kevin’s boring ideas and turned it into something people would actually buy, and he tried to give us a lowball offer for our company. If you’re hoping to use motive to solve this, it won’t work.”

  Sanjay groaned. Just then, Vik and Kevin started back down the stairs.

  “This isn’t right,” Kevin mumbled. “Leaving his body there like this.”

  “You were right, Sanjay,” Vik said. “There’s nothing rigged in that room. Sorry I doubted you.”

  “What do we do next?” Kevin asked. All eyes turned to Sanjay.

  “I can’t think like this,” Sanjay said.

  “Why don’t you go somewhere private like the conservatory?” Vik suggested.

  Sanjay swallowed hard. As much as he knew logically that there was no such thing as a curse, and no way a real murderer would strike again now that they were all on high alert, the thought of going off on his own made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He realized everyone was staring at him.

  “Fine,” he said, picking up his glass of wine. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the conservatory.”

  Sanjay ambled through the plant menagerie, remembering an illusion he did several years before. A variation on the apocryphal Indian Rope Trick, in which a rope is thrown into the air and a boy climbs the rope into the sky and disappears. In Sanjay’s illusion, his assistant Grace climbed up a strand of winding ivy that grew out of an unassuming basket.

  The sprinklers around the plants clicked on, nearly giving Sanjay a heart attack. He was too on edge to th
ink straight. He breathed deeply and paced between the greenery. Back and forth, he walked the distance of the conservatory at least ten times. On his tenth trip to one side, a shiny gleam caught his eye. Someone had left their music player in the dock on this end.

  “Sanjay?”

  His body tensed at the sight of Elena’s silhouette. Like the bedroom doors, the door of the conservatory was so thick he hadn’t heard her approaching. As he watched Elena turn sideways to avoid a prickly plant, it dawned on him. He knew what was going on.

  “You’re afraid of me?” she said, visibly hurt.

  “No,” he said. “I’m not.” He walked up to her and stood his ground directly in front of her.

  “I saw your face—”

  “Yes, but that’s not what my expression means.”

  “Now you look like you’re feeling sorry for me! Is that what this is about? You can’t solve it?”

  “I’m sorry, Elena. But quite the opposite. I’m sorry because I think I’ve just solved it.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  He grabbed her hand and ran with her back to the house.

  “Emilio and Elena,” Sanjay said, standing at the head of the table. “Brother-sister twin wunderkinds. Elena with her long flowing black hair, Emilio with his full shoulder-length hair, very distinctly their own people—except their profiles are the same. How easy would it have been for you all to remember seeing both of them at the dining table, when really it was only Elena who was there!”

  Sanjay waited for something—anything—to happen. For Emilio to run, for the crowd to applaud, for Elena to start crying because her brother framed her. Instead, they all stared at him in silence.

  “No,” Geneva said. “I was there at the far end of the table with both of them. Neither of them got up during dinner.”

  Sanjay cleared his throat. “You’re sure?”

  “I’m sure, too,” Vik said. “Even though the table is large, I was sitting at the head of the table and could see everyone. You’re wrong, Sanj.”

  “Sanjay Rai,” Priya said slowly, walking up to him and putting her hands on his shoulders. Her face was puffy from crying but was now free from tears. “I’ve known you almost my whole life. I know this is intense, but if you really believe Elena didn’t kill Broderick, I know you can prove it.” She lowered her voice and spoke so quietly he could barely hear her. “Forget about these guys who think they’re smarter than you. They’re not. I love my brother, but I know you’re the one who can get to the bottom of this. You’re the one with the magician’s sense of misdirection. What are the rest of us missing?”