The Amber Trail (26 page)

Girish and Raj watched with
bright eyes as she emptied the glass and returned it to the
counter. She nodded, and stood.

Girish returned his hand to her
back and tried to coax her back into the seat, but she flapped a
hand in dismissal and barked at him. Girish cowered, and she headed
back into the hall and out of sight.

Girish watched her leave, then
glanced at Raj. Raj gave a half-hearted shrug.

Dig watched the exchange and felt
a pang of regret. If he was right with his assumptions, the boy was
his half-brother. Was he prepared to destroy the relationship
between Girish and Raj for the sake of his own family unit back
home? If he needed to, then yes, he certainly would. But if he
could get Maxine alone, then maybe it could be avoided.

He needed to talk to her. Could
he sneak into the house, track her down before he was detected, and
convince her to speak to him without raising an alarm? It seemed a
near impossible task.

Girish picked up the empty glass
from the counter and moved it to the sink. Raj returned to writing
in his notepad. Dig made his move.

He pushed through the overhanging
roots of the banyan tree and hoisted himself onto the back deck.
Glass clattered against the sink as he dropped his shoes to the
ground.

Dig peeked around the door jamb,
then dropped to his hands and knees and crawled through the
doorway.

The bare concrete floor was cool,
and the twang of a sitar echoed from speakers on the ceiling. To
his left, a set of couches and a heavy timber coffee table flanked
the corner of the room. As he glanced to the right, he took a sharp
intake of breath.

A doorway led into the small
bathroom of rendered cement where he had showered on his previous
visit to the house. Chook sat slumped in the corner of the room,
his head tilted to his shoulder. His face was smeared with dirt and
blood. One arm was tied to a solid metal towel rack above his head.
Red stains covered his torn shirt. After thinking for a moment, Dig
crawled into the room.

Chook looked up, startled. He
tried to straighten and winced, then slumped back down. His tied
arm was fixed awkwardly above his head, and the other lay across
his chest, protecting the red and swollen stub on his hand. An
odour of rotting meat hung in the air.

Dig put a finger to his lips,
then examined Chook’s restricted arm. It was fixed tight to the
metal bar by a thick cable tie. The plastic had sliced a red ring
into his skin and tinged his hand a shade of purple.

He turned his attention to the
towel rack. It was held in place by four screws, and Dig picked at
them with his fingernail. He blinked before fishing a handful of
change out of his pocket. One of the silver coins was thin, and
marked as one Indian rupee.  

He glanced through the doorway,
then held the coin up to the first screw and twisted. Initially the
screw hung tight, but then it gave up its resistance and twisted
out of the wall. Dig copied this action with the remaining screws,
and the solid towel rack fell into Dig’s hand. He lowered the bar
to the floor and unhooked the cable tie from Chook’s wrist. Chook
grimaced and rubbed his trembling arm against his shirt.

Wait here okay?
Dig
mouthed. Chook nodded weakly and closed his eyes.

Dig crept back to the doorway and
peered around the opening. Raj remained seated with his back to
him, and Girish was rummaging through the fridge. The hallway
opening stood about ten steps away.

He dropped to his haunches and
tiptoed across the concrete. Raj leaned back in his seat and the
frame squealed against the vinyl.  

Dig kept moving, treading slowly
past Raj’s back, almost within arm’s reach, and ducked into the dim
light of the hallway. He stood with his back against one wall,
taking deep breaths.

Pictures hung on the hallway
walls at regular intervals. A photo of a woman in her early
twenties faced him. In it, she wore jeans and her long dark hair
fell loose over her healthy frame. She leaned against a railing
with the backdrop of the Hampi hills behind her. Her eyes were
strong and mischievous, and Dig recognised her as a young,
seemingly innocent version of Maxine. He stared at the picture,
wondering how she had become the bitter relic of a woman that she
was today.

Maybe I’ll find out,
he
considered, because now it was time. Time to face Maxine and put
all the drama to rest, one way or another. He squared himself up,
and turned down the hall.

He took two steps before he
froze. Ahead of him on the floor, sitting in a worn wicker basket,
was Maxine’s dog, Digit.

The dog sat up straight and
studied Dig with pointed ears. A cream plaster cast encased his
front leg; one shoulder was shaved and covered in a brown
paste.

Dig’s heart pounded. He held his
palms out in front of him. “Hey!” he whispered. “Hey
boy!”

A rumble grew from the dog’s
throat
; its
lips curled up to reveal
stained and pointed canines.

“
It’s okay,” Dig
whispered. “Relax!”

The dog growled and gave a bark,
echo
ing
down the hall.

The movement from the main room
ceased and a quiet hung in the air, save for the low tune of the
sitar playing on the stereo.

“
Digit?” Chair legs
scraped against the concrete.

Dig stood poised, his eyes
darting back and forth between the dog and the main
room.

The dog barked again,
loudly.

Dig winced as Raj appeared in the
hallway. His mouth dropped open.

“
Hi Raj,” Dig said in
a strained voice. “Now just let me explain okay?”

Raj’s eyes bulged. “Shiv!” he
exclaimed in a stuttering shout. “Everyone! It’s him!” Dig pursed
his lips and took a step backward.

Girish appeared in the hallway
behind Raj, eyebrows furrowed. He blinked rapidly, then joined in
the chorus. “Shiv!” he shouted. “Get in here!”

A door squealed open and a rumble
of footsteps echoed through the house. “What?”

“
In here!”

Shiv appeared in the doorway with
his shoulders wide, panting. “What the...?” He clenched his hands
into fists as his two companions appeared behind him.

“
Now wait a sec,” Dig
said, holding his palms up. “I’m not here to hurt anyone. Just
talk.”  

The bald-headed thug burst
forward and yanked Dig’s arm behind his back. Shiv backhanded Dig
across the face, clouding his vision and knocking him to the
floor.

He was hauled across the concrete
by one arm; the floor felt like sandpaper on his knees. He tasted
blood in his mouth. Someone lifted him by the armpits and dumped
him onto the stool by the kitchen counter.

Before he could reach for the
water bottle in his pocket, a cable tie zipped tight around his
wrist, fixing him to the frame of the seat. This action was copied
on his other extremities until he was tied to the seat by both
wrists and ankles. Blood pumped in his temples, and he tipped his
head back to take a few breaths while he waited for the ringing in
his ears to subside.  

Clicking heels echoed from the
hallway, and everyone in the room straightened. Maxine emerged
through the doorway with the dog under one arm. Her eyes were
underscored by dark rings, but still gleamed with a fevered
intensity. A double chin bulged at her neckline.

She placed the dog on the ground,
then produced a packet of cigarettes from a hip pocket. She lifted
a cigarette to her mouth and fired it up—the end glowing bright as
she drew in the smoke. She exhaled a cloud in front of her, then
glanced at Shiv. “He broke into the house?”

Shiv nodded.

Maxine grabbed Shiv’s earlobe
between two fingers and yanked it sideways. He grimaced and his
hands hovered at his head, then dropped back down. A flush ran
across his cheeks.

Maxine breathed smoke into his
face. “Not good enough,” she said, and released him.

Maxine walked across to Dig and
stood over him, smirking. Dig glanced up through a lowered
brow.

“
You again,” Maxine
said.

“
Thanks for the
invite.”

She took another drag on her
cigarette. “Where’s your girlfriend?”

Dig felt Shiv’s eyes on him, and
he blinked. “She wasn’t my girlfriend,” he said. “But she won’t be
coming. She had an accident.”

Shiv tilted up his chin. “What
kind of accident?”

“
She fell off the
motorbike in the tunnel. She didn’t make it back out.”

“
You’re lying,”
Maxine said.

“
I’m not.”

She narrowed her eyes. “That’s
easily checked.” She looked to Shiv. He was staring blankly out the
window, his lips thin. She rolled her eyes and turned to the
bald-headed thug—he nodded and walked out of the room.

Maxine turned back to Dig. “And
you’ve come here to give yourself up?”  

“
No,” Dig said, and
kept her gaze. “I came here to offer you a deal.”

She raised her eyebrows and
scoffed.

“
I think we both want
the same thing,” Dig continued. “To keep our family safe
and...together.”

She stared at him. “You think you
can threaten me? While tied up like a pig?”

Dig blinked and glanced around
the room. “I’m not talking about physical harm,” he said. “I’m
talking about keeping
secrets
safe.
Family
secrets.”

Maxine stiffened and her eyes cut
toward Girish. She lifted her cigarette to her lips and took a long
drag. She looked out the glass doors to the river, then turned to
the other people in the room. “Leave us for a moment.”

Girish and Raj frowned at each
other. “But—”

“
Leave!” Maxine
shouted with a hand on her hip. “Now.”

Girish shook his head and
gestured toward Raj. “Come on.” They walked out to stand on the
deck. Shiv and the bald-headed thug followed behind.

When the room was empty, Maxine
placed her cigarette into an ashtray on the bench, then walked to
the kitchen and pulled a beer from the fridge door. She popped off
the top and took
a mouthful
.

“
Listen,” Dig
whispered. “If you hurt me today, your family finds out the truth.
My brother
’
s ready to make a phone call
if he doesn’t hear from me by
nightfall
.”

She watched him for a moment.
“And what truth is that?”

He glanced toward the deck. “I’ll
make sure that Raj finds out we shared a father.”

Maxine’s eyes flared.

“
But, if you leave me
and Chook alone, we’ll forget we ever came here, and you’ll never
see us again. You have my word.”

She lifted the cigarette to her
lips and squinted into the smoke.

“
Do we have an
understanding?”

Maxine nodded slowly. “Yes. I
think I understand.”

Dig let out a breath.
“Good.”

An unbalanced smile broke out
across her lips. “I understand you’re even more dense than I
thought!” She smirked, then turned toward the balcony. “Girish! Get
back in here.”

Girish hesitated, then walked
back into the room to stand beside them.

“
Hold out your
hands.”

Girish frowned and folded his
arms. “Would you mind telling me—”

“
Just hold them
out!”

Girish flinched, then slowly
lifted his hands out for inspection.

Max turned to Dig and pointed.
“Look.”

Girish gave a pinched expression
and stared at the ceiling. Dig looked at his arms. While Girish’s
natural skin colour was dark, the back of his hands and fingers
were covered in blotchy patches of white.

“
Do you know what
Vitiligo is?” Maxine said.

Dig shook his head.

“
Well, now you do.
It’s a skin condition that causes an ugly white
depigmentation.”

Girish pursed his lips and
dropped his hands back into his pockets.

“
You now,” she
shouted across the room to where Raj was standing. “Come
here.”

Raj shuffled over and stood
beside Girish. They exchanged a look.

Max took another mouthful from
her beer. “Now look at these two unfortunate specimens. And tell me
they’re not father and son.”

Dig looked from Girish to Raj and
back again, and butterflies churned in his stomach. The two had
thin frames, bushy eyebrows and protruding Adam’s Apples. They also
shared the same shade of skin. It was near impossible they were not
related.

“
Now you,” she said
to Raj. “Hands.”

Raj scowled, and slowly lifted
his hands.

Dig knew what he was going to
see, but he looked anyway. Raj’s hands were dark and calloused, but
the fingers and back of his palms were covered in the same patches
of blotchy white.