The Trickster
Page 22
‘I have to escape,’ the professor said.
‘What do you mean?’
Diya’s grandfather told his friend about the warning Sona’s father had given.
‘I have thought about it and it is the only option.’
‘How can you be sure he is not lying?’
‘Even if he is lying, it is too great a risk. I will not allow my Diya to be harmed.’
‘Ok. I think I know a way.’
When their shift ended, the professor and his friend volunteered to help load the crates of freshly-baked bread in the bakery van. The bakery sold them to shops all over the district. They knew the driver well, but not enough to trust him. They chatted with him as they worked, trying to find out his route. Midway through his route, he would be crossing shops near Sunny’s home.
Professor Mishra had decided to go directly to the coffee estate, but changed his plan; it was much better if he went with reinforcements.
As the driver pulled out, the professor’s cell-mate called him to stop.
‘The back door is not locked properly,’ he said.
In the guise of locking the door, he opened it. Diya’s grandfather climbed into the truck and hid under an empty crate in the back.
‘Ok, you can go now. I’ve locked it up.’
The sentry at the gate only threw a cursory glance at the contents of the truck.
Professor Mishra could not believe how easy it was to escape. He hoped it would be equally easy to save Diya. Better still, that she was safe; but he knew this was just wishful thinking. He sank down on an upturned crate, his heart heavy with fear.
At each stop, the driver unloaded a crate and went to the shop. He never locked the door. For those few minutes, a sabre of light cut through the darkness inside the van. The driver returned after five or ten minutes with the empty crate which he stacked in a corner. He locked the door and drove to the next stop.
Soon the noise of traffic receded and the van started climbing up the mountain. When it reached its fourth stop, Diya’s grandfather was ready. He had swapped his jail uniform for a pair of old black trousers and a shirt he had stolen from the bakery.
Professor Mishra widened the crack between the doors. There was no one near his side of the van. He jumped out and strolled over to the other side, picked up pace and walked up a side road. He waited until the bakery van vanished up the mountains before coming down to the road in search of the path that led to Sunny’s home.
It was dark and he felt disoriented, like a zoo-bred animal suddenly let loose in the jungle. He shied away from people, afraid that they would be able to spot him as a convict. But there was no time to lose. He gathered courage and went to a tea shop. He bought a cup of tea with money he had squirreled away over the years and spoke to the woman behind the counter. She gave him directions to the hamlet where Sunny lived.
Professor Mishra recognized the house from the photos Sunny had shown him when he built the new room for Manu.
He stayed in the shadows watching the house. Sunny came out once, looked up at the sky, and went back inside.
Professor Mishra crossed the road and opened the gate. The hinges creaked and he waited with his hand poised over the latch, but no one challenged him. Light filtered out of the house and he could hear a television playing somewhere, but he could not see anyone. He circled the house but there was no sign of Sunny. He returned to the front of the house, debating if he should knock on the front door. He had already lost time.
A beam of light sliced through the dark and Professor Mishra crouched behind a low wall.
For a moment, he thought the police had found him, but it was only a car. He peered through the dark and recognized Ronnie.
Should he talk to Ronnie or wait for Sunny?
In that moment of indecision, Ronnie vanished into the house.
Professor Mishra cursed himself; it was hours since Diya had left. He had to find her before ...
He crept along the walls of the house to a balcony from where he could hear Sunny’s voice.
‘Where were you?’ Sunny was saying.
‘I was studying with George.’
‘You left George at 4 p.m. It’s 8 p.m. now. Where were you for the last four hours?’
‘Do I have to account for every single moment of my time?’
‘Why did you take the car today? You knew I needed it to bring chickens from market,’ Sunny was shouting.
‘You never told me, and anyway, the car is still stinking from the last time.’
‘You answer your mother; she has been eating my brains all evening.’ Sunny huffed out of the room.
Ronnie came to the balcony and sprawled in a chair, brooding over his phone.
‘Psst … Ronnie!’ Professor Mishra whispered.
Ronnie looked up, startled. It took him a moment to recognize the old man.
‘What are you doing here? Have they released you?’
‘I released myself,’ the old man said. ‘Let me in; there is no time to waste.’
‘Are the police searching for you?’
‘Talk, talk, talk! If the police have found out that I have escaped, they must be searching for me. What do I care?’ The professor climbed over the balcony railing.
‘But why are you here?’
‘Do you ever listen?’ the old man said. ‘Call Diya on your phone! I want to talk to her.’
‘Ronnie!’
Professor Mishra ducked behind the sofa.
‘What are you doing at home?’ a woman asked. ‘I thought all of you went to the fair.’
‘Why in the world would you think that?’
‘Rini said that you and Diya had planned everything. I thought that’s why you took the car.’
‘I haven’t spoken to Diya since last night.’
‘But Rini and Diya went to the fair.’
‘When?’
‘Rini left at 6 p.m. to meet you and Diya.’
‘How can I meet her if I did not even know about this half-baked plan?’
‘Ronnie, are you telling me the truth?’
‘Yes, and I am surprised you let her go.’
‘But you were all going …’
‘How do you know that was the case? Since when have you started taking our word?’
‘But she showed me messages from Diya.’
‘There is no time to waste.’ Professor Mishra came out from behind the sofa.
‘Who are you?’ Ruth hid behind Ronnie.
‘Don’t worry, he is Diya’s grandfather. He escaped from jail.’
‘There is no time to lose. Your daughter and my granddaughter are both in grave danger.’
‘Check with George,’ Ruth said.
‘Call Diya,’ Professor Mishra suggested.
‘I have been calling her all evening but she is not answering.’
‘Then we must go to that house in the estate.’
‘What is wrong?’
‘I will tell you on the way. Let’s go.’
‘What’s the commotion?’ Sunny asked.
‘Sunny, I need your help.’ The professor accosted him. ‘Rini and Diya are in danger.’
‘What are you doing out of prison?’
‘I escaped, what else? No time for chit-chat. I will tell you when we find them.’
‘Why do you think they are in danger?’ Sunny asked.
While Sunny talked to Professor Mishra, Ronnie tried calling Diya once again, but she did not answer. He called George and asked him to meet him at Gowrish’s estate.
‘I am going to the estate,’ Ronnie announced.
‘Why don’t we call her mother’s aunt? She can reach there faster than us,’ Sunny suggested.
‘You do all that and call Arun as well; he is a decent chap, but I am going now.’
‘Wait, I am coming along,’ Diya’s grandfather said.
Sunny was bewildered by the urgency.
‘Remember to call these people,’ Ronnie reminded him.
‘Are you sure?’ Sunny asked.
‘Does it have anything to do with the Chakwa?’ Ronnie asked.
‘It has everything to do with the Chakwa. I hope we reach in time. Drive like the wind if you love her.’
‘What makes you think I love Diya?’
‘You should see your face when you look at my granddaughter,’ Professor Mishra laughed. ‘If you were anyone else, I would have bashed you up.’
THE RESCUE
‘W
hat were you doing on this lonely road at night?’
‘I told you I came to meet someone.’
‘Your boyfriend?’ he suggested.
Diya rolled her eyes. Raghav was back to being the irritating brat.
‘I don’t have a boyfriend. I came to meet an old lady. She was once an actress. I think she is related to us.’
‘Dolly?’
‘Yes.’
‘What about her?’
‘I just wanted to meet her.’
‘You met Dolly today?’
‘Yes. Why?’
Raghav pulled over to the side of the road and switched on the light.
They had stopped under a street lamp, near a dumpster.
‘Take off your shoes,’ Raghav whispered.
‘Why?’ Diya was startled by this sudden demand.
‘Because my little friend is asking politely.’
He had a gun in his hand, pointed at her heart.
Raghav must think she was the Chakwa.
‘I said, take off your shoes. Now!’ Raghav shouted.
Diya’s heart pounded with fear. Raghav’s gun hand was trembling.
Her nervous fingers fumbled with the shoe laces as she struggled to pull off her sneakers in the narrow confines of the car. Finally, she managed to get them off and showed him her feet.
‘At least your feet are pointing the right way,’ Raghav laughed in relief. ‘Now look at my feet. Please make sure they are fine.’
Raghav’s bare feet were the right way around and Diya almost wept with relief.
How could she have been foolish enough to get in the car without checking if the driver was really Raghav and not the Chakwa in disguise?
‘Why did you want to see my feet?’ Diya knew the answer, but she wanted confirmation. Raghav had never acknowledged the Chakwa’s existence.
‘Because you said you met Dolly today.’
‘So?’ Diya was puzzled.
‘Dolly died last week,’ Raghav said gently.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes, I arranged for her funeral.’
‘How did it happen?’
‘She was old and unwell. She had dementia,’ Raghav shrugged.
‘So who was the woman I met today?’ Diya said aloud, but she remembered the menace behind the old woman’s sweet, crooked smile.
‘I don’t know who you met today, Diya, but poor dear Dolly has been dead for a week, God rest her soul. We could go back and check if it was an intruder who was raiding the house for Dolly’s moth-eaten old clothes and fake jewellery.’
Raghav laughed, but there was no humour in his voice. His face was white and his hands gripped the steering wheel tightly.
A chill spread through Diya’s body as the aftershock of the close encounter with the Chakwa hit her. She wrapped her arms around herself to stop her panic from blooming into hysteria. ‘You thought I was the Chakwa,’ she asked.
‘I don’t believe in the Chakwa,’ Raghav said.
‘Then why did you check my feet? And why do you keep those feral dogs?’
‘Honestly, I don’t know what to believe.’
Diya was furious; not at Raghav, but at the events of the last few days. She refused to accept Raghav’s explanation.
‘Why were you driving on the lonely road at night?’ Diya asked Raghav.
‘I was searching for you. I have scanned every street and alley in town since evening, looking for you.’
‘How did you know I was here?’
‘Arun told me he had dropped you here.’
‘Why were you searching for me?’
Raghav could not have known she was planning to visit Dolly. She had not mentioned the purpose of her visit to Arun, and she had never mentioned Dolly to Raghav or Arun. As far as they were concerned, she had never met Dolly.
‘You remember Professor Madhavi, your mother’s friend?’
How could she forget her first close encounter with the Chakwa? Had it not been for that experience, she would have been off-guard today. The beast in Dolly’s guise would have lured her to death in a dark corner of the house.
Like her grandmother, her dead body too would have been lying in a dusty corner of a locked house until someone stumbled on her decomposing body with ants on her arms.
Ants seemed to be crawling up her arms. Diya shook herself so violently that Raghav glanced at her.
‘Are you all right?’
‘Yeah, I am fine,’ she lied. ‘What about Madhavi?’
‘I was puzzled about why she’d asked you to meet in the woods that day. So today, after I finished my match, I went to meet her.’
‘What did she say?’
‘She wasn’t there to say anything, but the police were.’
‘Why?’
‘The cops said a shepherd found her body in a ravine today morning.’
‘How long had she been dead?’
‘They don’t know yet, but she was wearing the same clothes she had worn at the party.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘They showed me the photos. I remember that gaudy sari she was wearing.’
‘What do you think happened?’
‘Diya, can you honestly tell me that it was Madhavi you were following into the woods?’
‘Yes Raghav, why would I lie about it?’
‘I am not saying you are lying. I just want to be sure. I am sorry, but I think something dangerous is afoot. In the past few months, so many things have happened that seem to have no rational explanation that ...’
‘Like what?’
‘The day before Thomas, our old estate manager died, he told me that he had seen a strange figure wandering around the estate on two occasions. On the first occasion, Thomas shouted and chased the figure, but it vanished into the woods. The next time, he sneaked behind it, hoping to catch it by surprise. Instead of running away, the figure turned back on him. Thomas said he had never seen anything that scary in his life. It was as if his own face, distorted through a crazy mirror, was looking back at him. The hair and the head were the same, even the ears, but the face itself was contorted and stretched.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘I wasn’t sure at the time.’
‘Then?’
‘A few days after Thomas died, I saw it too. I had to leave early for a tennis match. It was still dark when I came out of the house. Someone was standing near my car; no one could have been up that early, so I shouted thinking it was a thief. It turned towards me and I can assure you it was a horrible sight. I ran back inside the house. I must admit I was scared. I stayed inside till the workers came. I missed the tournament but I escaped with my life.’
‘How can you be sure?’
‘On a hunch, I had the car checked. The mechanic found that someone had sawed through the axle. He said it would not have held for more than two kilometres before snapping.’
‘What did this thing look like?’
‘It looked like me; it was even dressed like me, except that the face looked like it was hurriedly made of putty by a not-very-skilled artist.’
‘And that was the only time you saw it?’
‘Yes …’
Diya sensed the hesitation in Raghav’s voice.
‘Did you see it today?’
‘No, but my father saw it.’
‘And what did it look like?’
‘Like him, except for the face.’
‘I think I saw it too, early this
morning,’ Diya confessed.
‘Why didn’t you tell me before?’
‘I did not know it was of any significance.’
‘Diya, it means you are in more danger than I thought. I think all of us are in danger.’
‘So what does seeing the monster mean?’
‘I don’t know. All I know is that it is not a friendly neighbourhood monster. It is a killer. It has killed before, and it is trying to kill again. Thomas took it as an omen of death and he was dead the next day. I saw it a few weeks ago but I am still alive, and I plan to stay this way until a ripe old age. The house is safe; there is something about the house that keeps it at bay, and the dogs secure the grounds, so between them we will be safe. I think it is a good idea to reach the house without wasting time.’
LOCKDOWN
R
aghav drove fast, unheeding of the steep climb or the barely-there roads. On several occasions, the car wheels barely hugged the shoulder of the road. Diya was afraid that instead of falling prey to the Chakwa, her life was destined to end at the bottom of a ravine.
As they approached the familiar road that led towards the estate, Raghav switched off the headlights and slowed down. The purr of the powerful car was hardly audible even in the deep silence of the night.
The outline of the fence and the massive gates loomed in sight at the end of the dark tunnel dimly illuminated by starlight
Raghav stopped the car but did not get out. Was he afraid to get out of the car and into the dark night, Diya wondered.
The car hissed and ticked as the engine cooled. In the eerie silence, they sounded like muted moans of an animal as its bones were broken, one at a time.
‘Looks like father went to bed.’
‘What about the servants?’
‘No one is around today.’
‘Yeah, I forgot about the festival.’
‘Just gives them another excuse to get drunk.’
Raghav finally got out of the car and Diya followed.
Under cover of darkness, the silent mountains seemed to have crept closer, dwarfing the manmade structures under the shadow of their massive bulk. Diya shuddered and retreated to the warmth of the car.
Raghav opened the gates, got back into the car and drove in. Once inside, he got out and locked the gates with a heavy padlock.
The grounds were pitch black; the faint afterglow of the lit-up house in the distance was barely enough to see the path.