‘What time is it?’ I asked.
‘Almost eight.’ He took a sip of tea. ‘So what now, sir?’
I extracted a rather battered packet of cigarettes from my pocket and offered him one.
‘Now we follow the only lead we have left,’ I said, taking one for myself. ‘Golding’s report.’
From outside came the growl of a car. I looked out of the window as the red Alfa pulled up.
The colonel and my omelette arrived at the same moment, though if the omelette had been as cold as the colonel’s expression, I’d have sent it back.
‘Captain Wyndham,’ he said.
‘Colonel.’ I nodded. I didn’t bother getting to my feet. Instead, I waved him to a chair. For a moment we sat in silence. I took a pull of my cigarette and exhaled slowly.
‘I expect you disagree with my actions last night,’ he said eventually. ‘You must know that I couldn’t disobey Punit’s orders. If I had, it would have been my head on that block in place of theirs.’
‘It seems to me,’ I said, ‘that our interests might have been better served by questioning them before—’
‘Before what, Captain? Before giving them a trial and allowing them to drag everything out into the open? Do you think the people want to hear of their young maharani’s betrayal? And then what? A custodial sentence? As you so righteously pointed out, under your laws we are not allowed to execute anyone, not even those guilty of the highest of crimes. As for questioning them, the men are fanatics. The one you confronted in Calcutta preferred to shoot himself rather than answer your questions. What makes you think these men would be any different?’
‘They might have known something about Golding’s disappearance,’ I said.
The colonel’s face contorted. ‘You’re clutching at straws, Wyndham. Our ways may be offensive to your sensibilities, but don’t try to rationalise things by claiming that allowing them to live would have helped your investigation.’
‘You’re sure yourself that the Third Maharani is behind this?’ I asked.
He leaned forward and placed his hands on the table. ‘It’s the only theory that fits. She knows that the Maharaja is not long for this world. As his favourite wife, she would have known for longer than almost anyone else. Once her husband had died, she would lose all influence. And what would become of her infant son?’
He picked up a spare napkin from the table and began absent-mindedly folding it. ‘She must have realised that the only way to secure Prince Alok’s future was to murder the two princes in line to the throne ahead of him. She would have hatched her plot in the zenana with the aid of Sayeed Ali. But that is where her plan starts to go awry. They are overheard by the concubine, Rupali, who leaves notes warning Adhir. In spite of this, the attack on him is successful, and it is only thanks to your actions yesterday that the attack on Punit fails and the assailant is captured and brought back to Sambalpore. Word of his incarceration reaches Devika and she and the eunuch plot the man’s escape. Who else would have such easy access to the Maharaja’s seal or to the purdah car?’
‘Maybe it’s my turn to tell you something,’ I said. ‘Are you aware of the Maharaja’s condition this morning?’
His brow furrowed. ‘No,’ he said. ‘What have you heard?’
‘It seems when word of your little spectacle and the subsequent arrest of the Third Maharani reached the Maharaja, His Highness suffered some kind of seizure. He’s not expected to survive much longer, which means Punit will be Maharaja rather sooner than expected.’
‘That truly is a tragedy.’ The colonel sighed, not bothering to clarify whether he meant the Maharaja’s health or the prince’s accession.
‘So why are you here, Colonel?’ I asked. ‘With all that’s happened last night, don’t tell me you came to see me just to salve my conscience.’
‘Golding,’ he said. ‘You told me last night that you’d found two reports in Davé’s safe?’
I turned to Surrender-not. ‘Maybe it’s best if the sergeant explains.’
‘Two versions, yes,’ said Surrender-not. ‘I went through both in detail last night. Much of the wording is identical, only the numbers and the conclusions are different. Both were signed in Golding’s name, though the signatures are not the same.’
‘What does that mean?’ Arora asked.
‘One version paints a picture of large reserves of diamonds still in situ, the other shows a much diminished picture. As such, the overall valuations placed on the mines are also considerably different.’
The colonel rubbed his beard. ‘I assume they can’t both be genuine.’
Surrender-not shrugged. ‘I don’t see how.’
‘So which one is the real report and which the fake?’
‘I can’t say definitively until I’ve seen, the geological report and Golding’s back-up papers. They’re still in his office. I was planning to examine them this morning.’
‘We’ve been working on a theory,’ I said. ‘It implicates the Dewan, but it has holes in it.’
‘Holes?’ asked the colonel. ‘You think you can fill them?’
‘We’re going to try. Now that you’ve crushed our other enemies underfoot, there seems little else for us to do.’
He grimaced. ‘That’s the spirit, Captain.’
There was a knock at the dining-room door and Carmichael entered, grinning like a mule.
‘Mr Carmichael,’ said the colonel. ‘What brings you here?’
‘I have a letter to deliver to Captain Wyndham,’ he said, handing me a rather damp envelope with my name typed on the front. I tore open the seal and extracted one sheet of paper with the crest of the India Office at the top and the Viceroy’s signature at the bottom. Carmichael mopped his brow with a handkerchief.
‘The humidity’s unbearable,’ he said by way of answer to a question no one had asked.
I quickly scanned the letter. One paragraph, typed, single spaced, ordering me and Surrender-not back to Calcutta.
‘The telegraph lines are back up, then?’ I asked.
‘No,’ he replied. ‘They’re still down, but I sent a message explaining the situation on Monday night’s train to Jharsugudah. A telegram was sent to Delhi from there. The Viceroy himself has sent the letter recalling you. It was delivered by messenger less than an hour ago. I’ve taken the liberty of booking you a compartment on this evening’s train.’
‘Decent of you,’ I said, passing the letter to Surrender-not. ‘Take a look at this, Sergeant, and tell me if it’s in order.’
‘Of course it’s in order,’ Carmichael exclaimed. His forehead was already dotted with perspiration again. ‘It’s from the Viceroy himself. There’s no higher authority in India.’
’Still,’ I said, looking to Surrender-not, ‘best to be sure.’
The sergeant looked up and nodded.
‘Very well,’ I said. ‘If there’s nothing further, Mr Carmichael, I’m sure you have a lot on your plate today . . . or haven’t you heard?’
‘Heard what?’
Colonel Arora and I looked at each other. ‘Mr Carmichael,’ said the colonel, ‘perhaps it would be best if you made your way to the palace and requested a meeting with the Dewan.’
I watched Carmichael and the colonel depart, then stubbed my cigarette butt into a silver ashtray. A black mood descended. My time in Sambalpore was up. Two men mutilated; a maharani arrested; a maharaja struck down by a seizure, and a case ostensibly solved. For a moment, I fervently prayed that it was solved. Otherwise the blood spilt the previous night and that which might be spilt going forwards would be on my hands.
I stood up.
‘Where are you going, sir?’ asked Surrender-not.
‘To pack,’ I replied. ‘I suggest you do the same.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘What about Golding? I thought you wished to find him.’
‘That was before we received the Viceroy’s little note.’ I sighed.
‘But the reports, sir?’ said Surrender-not. ‘We know there�
��s something untoward going on. You said yourself that finding Golding could be the key to everything.’
I shook my head. ‘Golding’s dead,’ I said.
Surrender-not looked as though I’d slapped him. ‘You don’t know that for sure, sir.’
‘His pills,’ I said. ‘I found a bottle in his bathroom cabinet. They were sodium thiocyante, used for a heart condition. Whether he was abducted or he left of his own accord, he probably needed them to stay alive.’ ,
Surrender-not slumped back into his chair ‘But surely, sir . . .’ His voice trailed off.
‘All we have is a theory,’ I continued, ‘that Golding stumbled upon some fraud perpetrated by the Dewan. There’s nothing linking his disappearance to the assassination of the Yuvraj. We’ve no proof of anything.’
‘So we give up?’ he asked.
‘You read the Viceroy’s letter,’ I said. ‘He’s ordered us back to Calcutta, probably on pain of deportation. At least he kept the damn thing brief.’
Surrender-not took off his spectacles and wiped the lenses with a corner of his napkin.
‘The next train doesn’t leave until ten tonight,’ he said finally. ‘Do you propose we sit quietly in our rooms till then?’
‘Well, Sergeant, what would you suggest we do?’
‘You’re the senior officer, of course, sir,’ he said tentatively, ‘but we could always stick to our initial plan of examining the back-up papers in Golding’s office?’
The boy was right, damn him. Something did feel very wrong and Surrender-not knew it too. We had no choice but to keep digging.
FORTY-ONE
I told Surrender-not to get started and that I’d meet him at Golding’s office in an hour. Before that, there was somewhere I needed to be.
There was little to see in the deserted streets. Where the purdah car had crashed, there was nothing save a bent telegraph pole. I drove on and parked outside the Beaumont. There was a different clerk behind the reception desk. I ignored him, made my way up to room twelve and knocked on the door. I held my breath and waited for Annie to answer, but the seconds ticked by and a thousand thoughts, none of them good, ran through my head. I knocked again, this time louder.
‘Just a minute,’ came a muffled voice and I breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Who is it?’ she asked, her voice clearer now.
‘It’s me. Sam.’
The door opened and I was met with the scent of her perfume and the sight of her dressed in a silk bathrobe with her hair wrapped up in a towel. I found myself wishing that the sight was as familiar to me as the scent.
‘Is everything okay, Sam?’
‘Not really.’
‘Is this about last night?’
‘You know about last night?’ I said, trying hard to mask my surprise. ‘Punit told you what happened?’
‘What’s Punit got to do with it? I was talking about your little disappearing act. What are you talking about, Sam? Has something happened? Has it got something to do with Colonel Arora?’
‘What?’ I asked.
‘Last night. I was there when the colonel telephoned Punit. We were still dancing when the call came through.’
‘What happened exactly?’
She stood back from the door. ‘You’d better come in.’
I walked into the room. It was almost identical to Miss Pemberley’s, except that this one contained five large bouquets of roses, each garlanded with a red silk ribbon and placed in vases the size of buckets.
‘You’re taking up horticulture?’ I asked.
‘They’re from Punit,’ she said matter-of-factly.
‘All five of them?’
‘All five.’ She nodded. ‘One bouquet each morning, and one each afternoon.’
‘Seems rather excessive,’ I said. ‘Have you checked them for aphids?’
‘Maybe I should have kept you waiting outside,’ she replied.
‘Maybe you should have,’ I said, ‘I get terrible hay fever. You’d better tell me what happened before my eyes start watering.’
I took a seat on the side of her bed, making a point of pushing a vase that had been placed on the bedside table as far away as possible.
‘Well,’ she said, moving it back, ‘it must have been after midnight. We were still in the salon – Punit, Davé, the Carmichaels and me – when a guard burst in. It was the foxtrot and Punit wasn’t best pleased at the interruption, but he went to the telephone. He returned a few minutes later and called an immediate end to the proceedings, saying he had something urgent to attend to. And that was it. He left the room. The party fizzled out after that. I went looking for you, but couldn’t find you anywhere. Where did you run off to, anyway?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ I said. ‘Now think carefully. What was Punit’s reaction when he came back?’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Did he seem surprised or in shock?’
She thought for a moment, then slowly shook her head. ‘No. At least, I don’t think so. Look, Sam, what’s going on?’
‘The Maharani Devika’s been arrested,’ I said. ‘It’s possible that she and her eunuch were trying to clear the path to the throne for Prince Alok.’
She raised a hand to her mouth. ‘I can’t believe it,’ she said. ‘Is it true?’
‘She had a motive.’ I sighed. ‘The facts seem to fit.’
Annie walked over to the window, then turned to face me. ‘There has to be some other explanation. Have they questioned the eunuch? What does he say?’
‘Not much,’ I replied. ‘He’s dead.’
‘How?’
I thought back to the previous night’s execution. The cheer of the crowd as Sayeed Ali’s skull was crushed. ‘It’s best you don’t know.’
‘What about the Maharaja? Didn’t he stop them arresting his wife?’
‘He’s in no position to stop anything,’ I said. ‘When presented with the evidence of her involvement, he had a seizure. To all intents and purposes, Punit’s in charge now.’
That seemed to take her by surprise.
‘Well, congratulations, Sam,’ she said definitively.
‘For what?’
‘I’d imagine Punit will be very grateful to you for saving his life yesterday. Maybe he’ll offer you a position here.’
I couldn’t tell if she was joking.
‘I doubt it,’ I said. ‘Besides, the Viceroy’s ordered me back to Calcutta. The train leaves at ten tonight. I just thought I should let you know.’
FORTY-TWO
The drive back was hardly pleasant. The sun was still hidden behind a wall of grey clouds but the heat was stupefying. Every so often there came a low rolling growl, the rumble of thunder somewhere far off.
The Rose Building was in a state of animation. Harried-looking men armed with files and chitties ran along the corridors from one office to another. Fighting my way past them, I walked upstairs to the still-deserted corridor outside Golding’s office and opened the door.
Surrender-not was seated at Golding’s desk, his head buried in a sheaf of papers.
‘Found anything?’ I asked.
‘Yes, sir,’ he said, looking up. ‘I came across these documents when we were in here the other day. They didn’t mean an awful lot to me then, but having examined the two versions of the report, I’m quite sure I can now determine which one is genuine.’
‘How long?’
He looked up. ‘Five more minutes. If I’m not interrupted, sir.’
I left him to it and wandered over to the window. It offered a view of the palace gardens and the Surya Mahal in the distance. The flag above it still flew at full-mast. That was a relief: whatever his condition, the Maharaja was still alive.
With nothing better to do, I turned my attention to the map on the wall, the one marked with the crosses. I’d not paid it much attention the last time we’d been in here, mainly because I hadn’t known what I was looking for. Now, however, it intrigued me: not so much the cluster of red ‘X’s to th
e north of town, but rather the solitary black ‘X’ down to the south-west. I looked more closely. It was situated near a settlement, a town or a village of some sort, called Remunda. I walked over to the desk and dialled Colonel Arora’s office. It was answered on the third ring.
Arora.’
‘It’s me, Wyndham.’
‘What can I do for you, Captain?’ He sounded wary.
‘Are there any diamond mines near Remunda?’ I asked.
‘Why do you want to know? You’ve been ordered back to Calcutta. You’ve no more business here.’
He was correct, of course. But still.
‘I’ve never been particularly keen on orders, Colonel,’ I replied. ‘And there’s still the small matter of Golding’s disappearance.’
‘Go on.’
We’re close to proving the link to the Dewan,’ I lied.
There was silence from the other end. I could hear him breathing.
‘What do you want to know?’
‘Remunda,’ I said. ‘Golding marked a spot near it on a map. Are there any mines there?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘The only seam of diamonds in the entire area is in the north, in the plain between the Mahanadi and Brahmani rivers. Whatever you’re looking for near Remunda, it’s not a diamond mine.’
‘I’d like to head out there,’ I said, ‘find out exactly what it was that made Golding mark it on his map.’
‘Remunda is more than twenty miles from here,’ he said.
‘I still want to go,’
‘On a wild-goose chase? Very well,’ he said abruptly, ‘I won’t stop you. I’ll even organise you a car. When will you need it?’ ‘We’ll head off as soon as we’re done here.’
I replaced the receiver.
‘What can you tell me, Sergeant?’
He laid a document down on the desk, took off his spectacles and leaned back. ‘The report with the lower figures ties in with Golding’s papers, sir. It appears to be the real report.’
‘Good work,’ I said. ‘If I were a betting man, I’d wager a tidy sum that the Dewan intends to present the other one to the Maharaja and Anglo-Indian Diamond.’
A Necessary Evil Page 29
