Second Lives (31 page)

I dropped the bra and shrugged. ‘It was a couple of kids making out.’

Neel asked Omar, ‘This was familiar ground for you, right?’

He shook his head. ‘Too risky for anything more than a smooch-and-grope. Not my style at all.’

‘Well, what about Miss Menezes?’

‘You idiot, that was Roy here. Your mind is getting muddled with age.’

Neel turned to me. ‘Omar’s right, of course. The one teacher we all lusted after, and you were the lucky bastard who ended up scoring with her.’

I didn’t deny it but Neel was inaccurate in one aspect. Miss Menezes was not the archetype of the sexy, cleavage-flashing, wide-hipped teacher. She was the object of widespread schoolboy love, rather than lust. She was not someone you fantasised about but a woman for whom you wanted to bring flowers or write poetry.

Miss Menezes had been our Biology teacher, a pretty, vivacious woman in her late twenties. She wore her hair in a bob cut, which suited her oval face and petite figure. I still remember her infectious, deep-throated laugh. Along with the boys, I’m sure many of the men in the staff room also had a crush on her, especially as she was young and single.

‘…were so jealous.’

Omar’s voice brought me back to the present. I muttered vaguely, ‘Yeah, I know.’

‘Guys, let’s get to the point,’ said Neel irritably. ‘What do we do about Karan?’

‘Is there anything we need to do?’ I replied. ‘As long as he doesn’t change his plans for tomorrow, it should be okay.’ I didn’t feel as confident as I tried to sound.

‘Roy, don’t forget that Karan is very smart. And after all these years, his instincts must be as sharp as a jungle predator’s. Do you think he suspects something?’

‘I doubt it. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have come at all.’

‘Maybe he wants to finish us once and for all. A final showdown.’

I didn’t think so but remained silent. We couldn’t afford to be complacent with Karan in the vicinity. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that we were dealing with an extremely dangerous and cunning man. The course of action we had chosen had put our very lives on the line. But there could be no turning back.

I said grimly, ‘We need to be doubly on our guard for the next twenty-four hours.’

Neel patted his trouser pocket. ‘I have my insurance with me.’

I retorted, ‘Next time, just make sure the damned Webley is loaded.’

He gave a sheepish smile.

Omar said, ‘That’s right, Neel. Then all I need to do is stick to you and I’ll be all right.’

‘Omar, I almost forgot,’ said Neel. ‘Have you got the DVD along?’

He nodded, and handed over a padded envelope. ‘Here it is. I think it’s come out pretty well.’

Neel put the envelope into the waistband of his trousers, and said, ‘Let’s hope so.’

‘She almost had a change of heart at the last minute but I managed to convince her.’

I moved towards the stairs. ‘Let’s go, guys. Stay safe.’

But it wasn’t to be.

77

Neel

I tried calling Roy several times. His phone kept ringing. So I went looking for him. My mind was sick with worry.

Roy had got himself a job as a sound technician. He was tagging with the event management company putting together the whole show. He apparently knew a thing or two about music. It was a plausible cover. The owner of the outfit had received a call from a renowned film actor. He had been ecstatic to hear the famous voice making the polite request. And readily agreed to the little subterfuge without asking any questions.

I eventually found Roy near the under-construction stage at one end of the Big Field. It was where most of the events were going to be held. The name was derived from the fact that it was truly enormous. The size of two football pitches. It stood on a natural terrace jutting out of the hillside. Two rows of viewing stands had been hewn out of the rock.

A dry run of the next day’s event flow was in progress. Roy was in the thick of it. Setting up and testing all the audio equipment. Placing and adjusting microphones according to the acoustics of the venue. Checking the controls for volume and clarity. It explained why he hadn’t heard his phone ring.

I mentally cursed Roy’s choice of cover. But the backstage access he enjoyed was crucial to our plan. He finally noticed my frantic gesticulations. Handing his cue-sheet to one of the other technicians, he walked up to me.

I glared at him and hissed, ‘Why the fuck aren’t you answering your bloody mobile?’

He took the phone out of his pocket and looked at the display. ‘Sorry. What happened?’

I looked around furtively. ‘I can’t find Omar!’

‘Have you tried his phone?’

‘Yes, continuously over the past one hour. I keep getting a message that it’s switched off. That’s very unlike Omar.’

‘Do you think he may have found some girl to…’

‘No,’ I interrupted. ‘Certainly not under the current circumstances. Omar’s not that irresponsible. And after our discussion in the morning, we’ve been kind of sticking to each other.’

He asked, ‘When did you last see him?’

‘I guess it was around four o’clock. We were at the dorm, and he said he was stepping out to get a coffee.’ My voice turned quiet. ‘He never returned.’

Even as I said it, a chill went through me. Omar was missing for over two hours already. This was definitely bad news. Under the circumstances, we had to assume that something had happened to him.

There was a small structure next to the stands. It had basic toilets and changing rooms. We used to call it the Pavilion. Roy pointed towards it and said, ‘Let’s go there.’ It was already twilight.

We walked across separately. And met behind the Pavilion. It was a heavily wooded spot. I asked, ‘What do we do now, Roy?’

‘I hate to say this but if Karan’s men are behind Omar’s disappearance, then he may already be dead.’

‘But…if there was any shooting or something, wouldn’t we have heard about it by now?’

‘I don’t think they would have done anything in public view. My guess is that they abducted him and took him away to a hideout.’

‘I just don’t believe Omar’s dead,’ I shook my head. ‘Maybe they’ve kept him somewhere on the campus itself. I’m sure Karan will first want to speak to him.’

Roy thought for a moment. ‘You may be right. If Karan hasn’t yet arrived, we might still be able to save Omar.’

‘But how do we find him?’

He rubbed the sides of his temple. ‘Think…If you were them, where would you have taken Omar?’

‘Let’s see. The dorms are out because all of them are occupied. It can’t be the library or gymnasium or any place like that. People could walk in there any time.’ My eyes narrowed. ‘You think they may be outdoors in the woods somewhere?’

‘Possible but unlikely. Again too risky.’

Both of us fell silent. Time was ticking. Every delayed second reduced our chances of saving Omar’s life.

‘I’ve got it!’ I exclaimed. ‘What’s the one place that’s bound to be empty during vacations?’

It struck him at the same time. ‘The academic block!’

‘Right.’

Without another word, we started running.

The academic block was the largest building on campus. The original structure had been rebuilt once. And extended twice during the school’s history. The entrance to the main lobby was barred by a collapsible gate. We went around to the back. There was a long corridor with a series of arches. It didn’t hold happy memories for most of us. The annual results would be put up on the notice boards there. At one end of the corridor was a short flight of steps leading up to a row of classrooms.

We raced up the steps. Knowing that at least one of the old shuttered windows of the classrooms was bound to be open. Most of them didn’t close properly anyway. It was very dark. We had to make our way largely by touch and memory. After a couple of attempts, we were inside.

I suggested that we check the top floor first. A few lights in the passageways were on. It was easier to move around. Roy took out his Walther. We walked silently up the staircase.

The upper floor existed only in the older section of the building. The new wings were single-storied. It contained the science labs, the accounts section, the principal’s office. As well as a large meeting room where the board of governors convened. I’m not sure if there was any logic to this layout. It was just the way it was.

We quickly discovered that the floor was empty.

The labs were locked from the outside. There was clearly no one in any of the offices. We walked down. Began to systematically check the ground floor. After twenty minutes, I declared, ‘I was wrong. They must have taken him somewhere else.’

Roy put the Walther back in his pocket. ‘Yeah, looks like it. We better go.’

We went back to the classroom through which we had entered. A light suddenly came on. A familiar voice said softly, ‘Look who’s come back from the dead.’

I whirled around. It was Karan.

78

Roy

My hand moved automatically towards the pocket where I had kept the Walther only a few seconds ago. I cursed myself silently for having let my guard down.

‘Don’t!’ Karan’s tone was menacing, but not as much as the Glock-17s in the hands of the two men who had stepped out of the shadows behind him. They were clearly no bumbling thugs but trusted henchmen, for he himself was unarmed.

I slowly raised my arms. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Neel follow suit. ‘That’s better,’ said Karan, his voice back to its soft, pleasant timbre.

I looked at him carefully. The short-cropped hair, the perfectly shaped moustache and the rimless spectacles gave him an air of amiable respectability, which I suppose was mandatory for the new breed of young politicians. He was wearing a white kurta and jeans. Back then, he had been powerfully built but bulky—now his body was fit and hard, radiating the strength I knew he possessed. His hands were enormous, hanging like large crabs by his sides. I am no weakling myself but even I used to avoid his bone-crushing grip in those days.

Had I not known better, it would have been difficult to imagine that this suave man was a mass murderer and a psychopath.

Karan gave me a long, hard stare. ‘How the hell did you survive that river, Roy?’

I met his gaze evenly but didn’t bother to respond, wondering how he had recognised me.

He must have read my mind. ‘Your silly disguise didn’t fool me. My men have had their eyes on you from the moment you set foot on campus.’

I suppose it was possible. If someone was specifically looking for me, that is. I had been working on the assumption that no one except Neel and Omar knew I was alive.

Neel screamed, ‘What the fuck have you done with Omar, Karan?’

The two gunmen took a step forward and swung their Glocks towards Neel, but Karan waved them back. He replied calmly, ‘Omar unfortunately forgot the tenth commandment. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife. He should have stuck to his regular whores but he chose to fuck my wife. Not once, not twice, but three times. Tell me, can a man remain silent if his woman is being taken by another?’

Karan claiming any kind of moral high ground was so ridiculous that I felt like laughing. But my heart sank at his words. If he had squeezed the truth out of Delnaz, then we were finished. He continued, ‘I decided to take care of Omar first but I’ll get to her soon.’

That was some relief, though he could well have gotten everything from Omar as well. I asked quietly, ‘Is he dead?’

‘Ah, so I was wrong. You haven’t lost your voice.’ There was a faint smile on Karan’s face.

‘You’ve killed him, haven’t you?’ Neel interjected. ‘You unspeakable swine!’

‘You always did have a foul mouth, Neel.’ Karan ran a hand over his head. ‘It’s really a pity about Omar. He was the only one of you I ever liked.’

I put a restraining hand on Neel’s shoulder. I didn’t want him to do anything silly. Also, I did want Karan to keep talking.

‘I had been hoping to have a little chat with him but he died on us before I arrived.’ He sighed. ‘My men had warned him not to try anything funny. Sadly, he didn’t listen.’

‘You killed Omar here in the academic block?’ My voice was incredulous.

‘Here? Not at all.’ He looked amused. ‘But I figured you guys might have thought so when we saw you enter and search the whole building. Anyway, it just made our job easier.’

There was a knot in the pit of my stomach. Karan was a step ahead of us all the time. And the body count only kept increasing. I glanced at Neel. His shoulders had slumped. The fight seemed to have gone out of him.

I looked Karan in the eye. ‘What are you waiting for? Just kill us too and get it over with!’

He shook his head. ‘Not so fast. I need you alive right now.’

‘Why?’ I was now genuinely curious.

‘Well, I suppose there’s no harm in telling you.’ Karan paused. ‘You’re my permanent ticket to innocence, Roy.’

‘What do you mean?’

Before replying, he perched himself on one of the ancient wooden desks, and crossed his arms. His body language totally belied the tension that hung heavy in the room. For a crazy moment, I thought of taking out the Walther and just shooting him. Damn everything else. But I knew I would never get to it in time. His men looked pretty competent.

When Karan spoke, his tone was conversational. ‘That little newspaper ad mentioning you gave me the idea. Once I traced it back to Sara, I realised two things immediately. One, that you were alive, Roy. And two, these idiots had somehow decided that you were behind all the killings.

‘I thought to myself—here we have a man who has been missing for twelve years, presumed dead, and then reappears mysteriously. Could it just be possible that he was leading the secret life of a serial killer all this while? After all, there is no better alibi than being dead.’

I interrupted. ‘You’re crazy if you think you can make me take the blame for all your crimes!’

‘It’s not that far-fetched. Think about it. Back then, you were the primary suspect in Jo’s murder. In Rachel’s case, the police have now concluded that the killer was someone she knew well, and you fit the bill perfectly.’ For the first time, I noticed tiny red spots in the blackness of his eyes. It was like a glimpse into the furnace of evil inside. ‘The beginning and end of the chain are ready. I just need to provide the links in the middle. It’s rather my specialty, you know.’