“When did she leave?” he asked, persistently. Fuli could feel them looking at her.
“Not here,” she said for the third time.
“I’ll give you one hundred dollars,” the man said, showing her two fifty-dollar bills. “If you can tell me anything about where my sister is.”
Fuli had never seen dollars before, although she knew they were worth a lot in the city. Some of the men had used them. She’d seen them changing hands, but they had been quickly pushed into a pocket or bag as she’d pulled aside the dirty curtain.
“Any information you can give me about my sister,” the white man said, showing her the photo again, the Indian man echoing the translation seconds later. Before Fuli could again deny, he picked up one of the hotel’s cards on the counter. “I’ll put my number on here, you call me if you remember anything about her and one hundred dollars is yours,” he said, passing her the card, the translation following.
Fuli looked at the card on the counter before looking up at the man. Without another word, the pair turned and descended the stairs to the echoing patter of footsteps.
“Who was that?” Chimini asked, opening the door from the bedroom, her wet hair wrapped in a towel.
“Someone looking for Allissa,” Fuli said, handing the card over. “Says he was her brother. I didn’t tell them anything.”
“Well done,” Chimini said, turning the card over in her hands. “People looking for you isn’t usually a good thing.”
Chapter 49
“There’s something she’s not telling us,” Leo said as coffee arrived. They sat in a small café across the square from the guesthouse.
“We don’t have to rush,” Tau said. “We can always come back here tomorrow.”
They’d made progress, that was good, but Leo wasn’t ready to give up for the day.
“I feel like she knew more than she was telling,” Leo said looking back across the square. It seemed quiet compared to the rest of Kathmandu, which was constantly punctuated with horns and traffic.
“That might just have been the translation,” Tau said.
“No, there was more to it than that, it was a look of surprise when I showed her the picture. Something to do with her age, too. I think a girl of that age is more likely to lie for her, she’s maybe a couple of years younger than her…” Leo chased the thought out loud.
“You’re just seeing what you want to,” Tau said. “She was a bit confused, surprised by your questions. If she does know anything, maybe she’ll call.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. If she knows Allissa, they’re friends somehow, and I think women of that age stick together.”
“Money can be tempting,” Tau said.
“We offered one hundred dollars for information on someone who we know has thirty-five-thousand,” Leo said, looking out into the square. “I wouldn’t count on it.”
Chapter 50
As Leo and Tau walked into the restaurant with the Chinese lanterns, they noticed Jack sitting across the busy tables drinking a beer, an empty bottle already at his side.
Leo had to be persuaded to go to the restaurant at all. If he had a beer tonight it would strictly be just the one.
“How ya holding up, soldier?” Tau asked, putting a hand on Jack’s shoulder and sitting next to him. Leo moved around the table and sat opposite them both.
Jack didn’t answer straight away, the bottle to his lips.
“I’m alright,” he responded, shrugging. “Just girls,” he added with a sideways motion of the bottle.
“It’s nice to have you back.” Tau grinned. “I haven’t spoken to you for about two weeks, since she got her claws into you.”
Jack smiled vacantly.
Tau ordered them another round of drinks by holding the empty bottle up in one hand and three fingers in the other. Leo watched the waiter notice the gesture and turn towards the fridge.
As Jack responded to Tau’s teasing questions, Leo looked across the restaurant, his own mind bubbling with the events of the day.
Tourists from the neighbouring hotels filled most of the tables. Many wore the colourful, baggy clothes which would seem inappropriate in their home countries, but in Kathmandu bordered on an expectation. Leo, not beyond hope that circumstance would bring him and Allissa to the same place, checked each table in turn.
When you spend two years looking for someone, sometimes circumstance is all you can hope for.
Leo’s eyes alighted on a man walking into the restaurant. Pretending to look at the menu, Leo watched him settle at one of the small tables in the corner. He didn’t look out of place, a little older than most perhaps, but that wasn’t unusual. There was something about him which interested Leo, though. Beneath the baggy, faded shirt, a large but toned body seemed to ripple. Unusual in someone travelling the world with little more than a backpack.
“Leo, Leo?” Tau said, looking towards him, holding out the bottle of beer.
“Yes, sorry, thanks,” Leo said, taking it and raising it in toast.
As the three ordered another selection of the restaurant’s creamy dishes and Tau told of their adventures of the day, Leo couldn’t help but watch the man in the corner. There was something about him, something in Leo’s consciousness that rang with the image. It was as though he’d seen him somewhere before. It was the sort of instinct Leo would normally put down to just a funny feeling. But right now, a funny feeling could be the break he needed. It could be the difference that finished the job, that found him what he was looking for. If he was an experienced investigator with knowledge of dark and dangerous tactics, then he could ignore these things. But he wasn’t, he was running on instinct, the help of strangers and, he hoped, a good dose of luck.
Taking a sip of the beer, Leo looked at the man again.
Maybe he had been here last night, he thought, trying not to let it become a worry. A thought that became a worry could easily become an anxiety. Leo had enough to be anxious about already. They’d been here twice, for someone else to do the same was not unexpected.
“Right guys, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Leo said, finishing his beer, standing, curling some notes from a bundle in his pocket and sliding them under a glass. “See you at nine in the reception, Tau. Jack, see you tomorrow night. If we find Allissa, I’ll have two beers to celebrate, I promise.”
Crossing the restaurant, his mind on the events of the day and the sleep he needed, Leo didn’t look again at the man in the corner. The food and beer were weighing heavily and he just wanted to get back to his room and close his eyes.
Stepping out into the electric night, Leo didn’t notice the man raise his phone, angle it towards him and take a photo.
* * *
“He said he was my brother and he was looking for me?” Allissa said to Fuli and Chimini in their small kitchen as they prepared dinner. Chimini translated to Fuli, who thought for a couple of seconds before answering in Nepalese.
“Yes, he came in here, had a picture of you, asked if you’d been here because he was your brother,” Chimini said, toasting the spices in the pan, the small kitchen already starting to sing with their fragrance.
Allissa looked morosely towards the onions she was trying to cut as finely as Chimini required. She thought of her brother – the last thing she knew he was working as a trader in London. When she left, he’d not tried to contact her once. Lucy, her sister, had a couple of times. But, with a pang of guilt, Allissa had ignored the messages, ultimately changing mobile phones and closing down her old social media profiles. She felt bad about that; none of this was Lucy’s fault, nor Archie’s, but out of the two of them he hadn’t seemed to care.
“What did he look like?” Allissa asked again. “Could you describe him in more detail?”
“White, westerner, thick dark hair, looked like a tourist,” Fuli said.
It didn’t really sound like Archie – his hair was light, like Lucy’s. Allissa couldn’t rule it out for sure. Why would someone be pretending to be him anyway? It didn
’t seem to make much sense. Allissa looked down at the business card on which the number had been scrawled, curiosity growing.
If it was her brother, she needed to know why he had come. If it wasn’t, she wanted to know why someone would pretend to be him. She’d been away for two years and no one had come after her, why would they want to now?
Deep in thought, Allissa didn’t notice the sharp, stinging pain in her left hand until a spiral of blood appeared on the chopping board. She winced in pain and dropped the knife. Running over to the sink, Allissa bathed it under the stream of cold water. Inspecting it dramatically, she noticed that the cut was tiny. The stinging subsided as the juice from the onion was washed away.
Turning back, she saw Chimini grinning at her.
“Didn’t they teach you how to chop onions in your expensive English schools?” Chimini said in a laugh.
“Clearly not,” Allissa said, smiling too. “I’ll write a strongly-worded letter about it.”
Chimini instructed Fuli to wash and finish chopping the onion that Allissa had started, which she did with a speed Allissa couldn’t fathom.
“I know what to do about these guys looking for me,” Allissa said. “I think you should meet them again.”
Chapter 51
“This will help us sleep,” Mya says, crumbling a bud of dried cannabis over two papers, skilfully compensating for the rocking of the train.
They’re travelling north from Mumbai to Delhi, nearly halfway through the nineteen-hour journey. The train moves slowly, rumbling its way through fields where people walk home after their day’s work, heading for houses of bright corrugated metal from which wisps of smoke curl upwards.
Licking, then rolling the spliff tight, Mya tucks it behind her ear and jumps from the bunk in the second-class sleeping section. Leo follows her to the toilet cubicle at the end of the carriage. They pass families bedding down for the night, children in brightly-coloured pyjamas and older people playing cards.
Both cramming into the cubicle, they close the door and stand over the hole in the floor which is used as a toilet.
Mya lights up, and the spliff flares to life. She takes the first inhalation, holds it for a moment and lets the thick smoke go. It dances across the inches that separate them before being sucked through the small barred window.
A violent hand knocks at the door, followed by barked instructions in Hindi.
“They’ll go away,” Mya says, taking another pull.
The hand knocks again, the same barked instructions.
Before either think to move, a key grates in the lock. The door opens.
The train guard stands there. Blue uniform, black hat, sharp eyes. Mya holds the spliff in her hand; there’s no getting away with it.
“You cannot smoke in here,” the guard says, in surprisingly good English.
“Where can we smoke then?” Mya replies cheekily.
The guard beckons them to follow. Turning right out of the cubicle he leads them to a door which he pulls open, revealing fields sprawling towards hills, behind which the sun begins its final descent.
The guard points to the step on the outside.
Mya sits down, Leo follows. The guard pushes the door almost closed behind them.
Below their hanging feet, the rails slide by at the sedate pace of the train. The countryside tumbles downwards. Big leaved trees, red earthen paths, new shoots of crops above square-cut fields. The corrugated iron roofs and patches of water reflect the pink of the sinking sun. A patchwork of light and dark from the cloud-speckled sky.
Now would be a good time. An unforgettable time. We’ll never be here again.
Leo looks at Mya, her face pink in the dying daylight. But the ring’s in his bag.
He could do it anyway, the moment’s perfect.
Leo inhales, a deep breath, the smell of vegetation in the wet air.
“I love how you never know what’s going to happen,” Mya says, breaking the silence and handing Leo the spliff. “I want to always keep exploring.”
Leo knows she’s right, that’s why this needs to be perfect. He’s got one chance. One chance to get this right.
Mya shuffles closer as Leo inhales. The train rumbles around another curve, leaving the moment behind.
Chapter 52
The night brought little rest for Leo. After two hours turning and twisting in the lumpy bed, he gave up trying to sleep and opened his eyes. He had been unable to normalise his body clock to the time difference so far and the events of the day kept running through his mind.
First, Leo thought of the case. They had made progress during the day, getting Allissa’s address from the bank and finding the guesthouse. They were closer than they had been that morning, that felt positive.
Allissa had been at the guesthouse, that much Leo knew. Now they needed to find out if the receptionist was lying for her or if Allissa really had moved on somewhere new.
Rubbing his eyes, tiredness stinging at the corners, Leo looked towards the window behind which the city, too, was restless and tired. Allissa was close, he knew it – something in the way the guesthouse receptionist looked told him she was near.
Lightning shimmered behind the thin curtain, still far off, but getting closer.
Then Leo thought of Jack. Leo knew how he would be feeling tonight, lying alone in the bed which, the night before, he had shared with Jem. He had come on holiday not expecting to meet anyone. Jem would have taken him by surprise, as would the feeling of loss as her taxi pulled away into the stream of traffic that afternoon.
And then, as usually happened, Leo thought of Mya. How they’d not even gotten to say goodbye. The night that should have been perfect. The night he’d waited for, ending not in the confirmation of their love, but her disappearance. Leo felt sorry for Jack, but in a strange way, jealous. The memories Jack would have right now would never be this fresh or clear again. Those perfect moments had become memories which would fade, yellow and distorted in the unstoppable march of time.
In the final moments of wakefulness, Leo felt she was close. It may have been the lateness of the hour, his lack of rest or confusion in the new place, but in that moment, he felt cautiously optimistic. As sleep finally took over though, he wasn’t sure whether he was thinking of the woman he was being paid to find, or the one he’d been chasing for years. But either way, he knew she was close.
Chapter 53
The night brought no rest for the city, the storm still tantalising with occasional far-off cracks of lightning, rippling through layers of cloud.
Leo woke after what felt like twenty minutes with the sun filling his room. Checking his phone, he saw it was nearly 8 AM and his alarm was about to sound. He lay still, listening to the hum of the air conditioner and passing footsteps in the corridor.
When his eyes had brought the world into focus, he checked his phone for messages. Two: one from his Mum – the formal tone of her messages always amused him. “Dear Leo, I trust you’re having a successful time in Kathmandu…” She and his dad were seeing his sister and nephew for the weekend. He would no doubt have had an obligatory invitation if he’d been in Brighton. The second message was from Stockwell. “Leo, I hope you’ll have news soon.” Leo read it and then dropped the phone on the bed. He didn’t like or need the constant reminders; he knew the job at hand and was working as quickly as possible.
Leo walked into the hotel reception ahead of the 9 AM arrangement and took a seat on one of the dusty sofas. The cheery receptionist insisted on holding conversation until Tau arrived.
If Tau had stayed out late the night before it didn’t show. He appeared confident and charismatic, waving to the receptionist with one hand while removing his sunglasses with the other. Leo wondered if he would be so confident in an unfamiliar situation.
“Alright boss,” Tau said, noticing Leo on the sofa and crossing the room. “You feeling better after your early night?”
Some people just had that openness, that acceptance, that confidence wherev
er they were, Leo thought, standing to greet Tau with his awkward handshake.
“What’s the plan for today?” Tau asked as they walked for the door.
“We’ll go and ask around in some hotels, cafés and shops near the guesthouse,” Leo said, the second half of the sentence louder to compensate for the noise of the traffic as they stepped outside. “We can’t just sit about and wait.”
“Coffee first though, mate,” Tau said, pulling his sunglasses back over his eyes.
“Of course, if it helps with the hangover,” Leo said with a grin.
Ten minutes later, both with large coffees, they started the walk towards the Teku Guesthouse.
The morning passed quickly. The hotels, cafés, bars, guesthouses, hostels and shops were numerous but not informative.
“We only need one to have seen her,” Leo said as they stepped back into the street from a tourist shop. Brass Buddhas shimmered in a diesel haze.
Tau knew many places by location if not by name, owner and family history. Those he didn’t, they stumbled upon. A hidden guest house occupying a floor of a residential building, a man behind a cart selling bottled drinks, or a large woman in a crimson sari selling leather wristbands and bangles from a basket.
“She was selling hash, too,” Tau said as they walked away.
“How did you know?” Leo asked, turning to look at the woman, now talking with a pair of tourists.
“She’s been around for years, always stands right there.”
“Don’t the police do anything about it? Isn’t it illegal?” Leo asked.
“Yeah sure, it’s illegal, sure. But she’s not doing any harm. Arrest her and who’s going to feed her family? Plus, she couldn’t afford to get out. They might even be watching her now.”
“What, watching and doing nothing?”
“Watching is not doing nothing,” Tau laughed. “They’ll be watching to see who she sells to. The buyers will have money and the police like to see a few tourists in jail every now and then.”
Kathmandu Page 12
