Lizard's Tale

by Weng Wai Chan

  ‘Just…some soldiers walking around.’ Lizard helped himself to some seaweed snacks.

  Mr Nakajima raised his eyebrows and looked eagerly at Lizard, nodding.

  ‘And Mr Arathoon, looking not very happy,’ said Lizard, munching. Mr Arathoon was the manager of the hotel.

  Mr Nakajima nodded again at Lizard, not saying anything.

  ‘And a Sikh guard outside the door.’

  ‘Oh? You could see all that from the back of the hotel?’ Mr Nakajima’s tone was mild, but his eyes were shrewd.

  Lizard gulped. ‘It wasn’t dark yet,’ he stammered. ‘And I saw a Sikh soldier walking with another soldier—you know how it’s often the Sikhs who are guards and that—so I just guessed that’s what he would be doing.’ He jumped up. ‘I have to go now. Thank you so much for the tea, Mr Nakajima.’ Lizard snatched up his satchel, ducked a quick bow and ran out the door.

  ‘Goodbye, Lizard-san,’ said Mr Nakajima to Lizard’s departing back. He stood up and walked to the door. He remained there, staring after Lizard as he ran into the night.

  Lizard mentally kicked himself as he ran round the back way to the staff area. Stupid! Why did he stop to speak to the man? Never mind, he told himself. Mr Nakajima was harmless, just very chatty.

  As Lizard opened the door into the staffroom he felt his shoulders relax. This was where the staff came during their breaks or before their shifts started. Here he didn’t need to be on guard. He found Roshan, who was sprawled on a couch, making rich, bubbling snores.

  Lizard grinned as he looked down at his sleeping friend. He thought about waking him with water or some other similarly amusing method but he didn’t have the time for that.

  ‘Hey, Roshan, wake up.’ Lizard shook Roshan’s shoulder, firmly enough to wake him but not hard enough to put him into a bad mood.

  ‘What? Hey?’ said Roshan sitting bolt upright. ‘Am I late?’

  ‘No, I don’t think so,’ said Lizard.

  ‘Oh, Lizard, it’s just you.’ Roshan rubbed his eyes and yawned. ‘What you doing here?’

  ‘I need to talk to you. It’s important,’ said Lizard.

  ‘Lucky for you I’m doing room-boy duty tonight or I’d be in the dining room now,’ said Roshan, stretching.

  ‘What? The maitre’d fire you, ah? Make too many mistakes, ah?’ said Lizard with a grin.

  ‘No, they arrested one of the Palm Court room boys so I have to fill in. Ah Hong—you know Ah Hong? Been here fifteen years already, and now they suddenly accuse him of stealing. Big hullabaloo here last night, you know.’ Roshan finally looked wide awake. ‘I’m supposed to be in suite seventy now except the guests wanted a few hours alone, no hotel staff.’

  ‘What happened?’ asked Lizard, his heart thudding heavily as he stared at his friend.

  ‘The big shot English boss, New East India Company guy, said somebody stole something from his suite. Said maybe Ah Hong did it.’ Roshan shook his head. ‘Not possible. That fellow never even took used soap home! He was crying when the police came—police and soldiers. So many British officers. You never seen anything like it. Police say they in charge, soldiers say they in charge. Man, they wouldn’t even say what was stolen. I think must be all the crown jewels.’

  ‘Did they say anything about me?’ said Lizard, worried that Georgina Whitford Jones might have told them about his visit last night.

  ‘You? No, why would they?’ said Roshan.

  ‘Never mind. Then what happened?’ Lizard said.

  ‘Then I think the soldiers won. Took Ah Hong away. They tell Mr Arathoon he must get the whole staff ready to be questioned. So we were all questioned the whole day,’ said Roshan. He noticed Lizard staring at him in terror. ‘Wah, what happened to your mouth? Fight again, ah? And why you look at me so like that?’ He goggled his eyes at Lizard in demonstration.

  Lizard took a deep breath. He had to pull himself together or he was sunk. ‘Roshan. We been friends a long time, right?’

  ‘Yeah, man, I guess.’

  ‘I saved your life the first time we met, right?’

  ‘Well, I don’t know. I don’t think that old aunty would really have killed me for tripping over her banana fritters basket.’ Roshan guffawed. ‘And I would have climbed the drainpipe all right even if you hadn’t pulled me up.’

  ‘I need your help, Roshan. I know Ah Hong didn’t steal the thing.’ Lizard looked around the room. It was otherwise empty as everyone else was on duty. He dropped his voice to a whisper. ‘Because I did.’

  ‘What? Ha ha!’ Roshan laughed uneasily. ‘I thought you said you stole the…whatever the thing is.’

  ‘I did! And I wish I’d never seen it!’ Lizard dropped his face into his cupped hands.

  ‘Why you take it, then? You crazy?’ said Roshan, waving his hands at his friend.

  ‘I didn’t know it would cause so much trouble!’ said Lizard. ‘I thought it was just another job Boss Man Beng wanted me to do. He’s dead, you know—they killed him! With a big knife!’

  ‘What? Who killed him? For the—what did you steal?’ Roshan’s face was ablaze with shock and fear and curiosity.

  ‘I don’t know who killed him. And the thing is—’ Lizard stopped short. He didn’t want to tell Roshan that he felt that the thing had something to do with his Uncle Archie and that he needed to know if the box was connected with his uncle’s disappearance.

  Roshan’s gaze dropped to Lizard’s satchel. He raised his eyebrows at Lizard. Lizard nodded grimly.

  ‘Trust me, it’s better if you don’t know. It’s bad luck, that’s what it is. Really bad luck. Ask Boss Man Beng—oh, wait, you can’t, because he’s dead.’

  ‘Why you don’t throw it away, then?’ Roshan made no move towards the box, though his horrified eyes were riveted to it.

  ‘They won’t stop looking until they find it. They’ll search until they find me. And if I don’t have it, then they’ll think I’ve hidden it.’ He looked at Roshan. ‘You’ve got to help me put it back or I’ll be dead too! And if I die I’ll come back every night and haunt you!’ He jabbed his finger into Roshan’s chest.

  Roshan furrowed his brow.

  ‘Every single night. Whooo.’ Lizard leaned forward and draped his hands in the air. ‘Like that.’

  ‘If I help you and you die anyway, will you still haunt me?’ asked Roshan.

  ‘No, because then it’s my own stupid fault.’

  ‘All right, I’ll help you.’ Roshan rummaged around in his pocket. ‘Here, I’ll give you something to help with your bad luck.’ He dropped a handful of bright red, roundish seeds into Lizard’s hand. They were shiny and hard and about the size of small blueberries.

  ‘Saga seeds?’ Lizard said, puzzled.

  ‘Not just ordinary saga seeds—lucky red seeds. My brother got them from Travancore, when he went to India last time to see the great man Gandhi speak. He gave me a big jar of them. He says the seeds are especially lucky when they are from Travancore. I always carry some with me, and I’ve been promoted twice this year already.’

  Lizard shrugged and pocketed the seeds. He needed all the luck he could get.

  ‘Now what you need me to do?’ Roshan asked.

  ‘I need you to get me into suite seventy,’ said Lizard.

  An hour later, Lizard was hiding in the bottom of the dinner trolley as Roshan pushed it into the Palm Court wing of the Raffles Hotel. The trolley was covered with a large, white table cloth. As Roshan pushed it into suite seventy, he positioned it between the Indian maid who answered the door and the bedroom.

  ‘Good evening, madam, here is the dinner,’ Roshan said cheerfully.

  Lizard scurried into the bedroom. He crouched beside the bed and waited until he heard the maid showing Roshan out. Then he slipped into the wardrobe and closed the door. Time for more waiting.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The Bag, the Box and the Boy

  The clothes in the wardrobe were mostly dresses, small dresses. Lizard folded himself into the furthe
st corner and sat with the satchel in his lap. Outside, people came and went. Once, heart-stoppingly, the wardrobe door opened and the maid took out a dress. Luckily, she hadn’t wanted shoes or she might have found herself bending to reach them and looking into Lizard’s terrified eyes.

  Eventually, the household noises settled down, and Lizard heard Georgina come into the room and get into bed.

  ‘Here is your night-time milk, Missy Georgina,’ said her maid. There was a soft clink as she put the glass down on the bedside table. ‘You sure you be all right by yourself? You want I sleep in here with you?’

  ‘Don’t fuss so, Ruksana. You’re like a fussy hen, always clucking about,’ Georgina said. ‘I don’t want you here tonight. I’m very tired so I don’t want you to disturb me at all. You understand? If you come in and wake me up, I shall be very cross and I’ll tell Father.’

  Then Lizard knew that Georgina hadn’t forgotten that she had told him—no, blackmailed him—into coming back tonight. Surely she must have worked out that he had taken the thing that everyone was looking for. He didn’t understand how she could have held back from telling her parents, the army or the police.

  ‘Yes, Missy Georgina.’ Ruksana sounded put out. ‘No need to be grumpish. All right, I see you in the morning.’ And she muttered under her breath, ‘More and more like the memsahib every day…’

  ‘Close the door,’ Georgina called.

  Lizard heard the door shut, very firmly.

  He waited until all was quiet. Georgina’s light was still on. He knocked softly on the wardrobe door.

  Georgina rustled, then stopped. ‘Hello?’ she called in a quiet voice.

  He knocked again, not wanting to startle her. The bed creaked, and quiet footsteps padded to the wardrobe.

  Georgina pulled open the door. ‘Is that you, boy?’

  Lizard blinked. ‘Yes, here.’

  ‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ she said, crouching down. A lock of clean, red hair fell forward and brushed Lizard’s nose. ‘You took it, didn’t you, Dinesh? I mean…what’s your name, again?’

  ‘Dinesh,’ said Lizard. ‘I mean, Lizard.’

  ‘Oh, I shall just call you Dinesh. It’s much easier to remember.’

  He looked into her eyes, which were wide open and sparkling with excitement. They were just as blue as he remembered.

  ‘The commotion there’s been around here! I haven’t seen so much fuss since a cobra was found in the dining room. Anyway, you must show me this thing. No one will tell me what it is,’ said Georgina.

  Lizard started to crawl out, glad for the chance to stretch his cramped legs.

  ‘No, stay in the wardrobe. Just in case Ruksana decides to check on me even though I forbade her to. Servants can be contrary like that.’

  Lizard sat back reluctantly.

  ‘I didn’t tell them about you breaking in last night.’ She sounded pleased with herself. ‘I knew if I did, you would be arrested and I wouldn’t ever find out what this so very mysterious thing is.’

  ‘Oh, thank you,’ said Lizard. His heart gave an extra thump at the mention of being arrested.

  ‘Wait, I’d better check that Ruksana’s not still here,’ said Georgina, opening the door and glancing around the room. ‘Good, she’s not. Now show me the thing.’

  ‘Do you know anything about it?’ Lizard asked. ‘Perhaps where your father got it from?’ Lizard’s desperation to find out anything about the book gave him the courage to ask.

  ‘No, of course I don’t. That’s why I want you to show it to me.’

  ‘I thought you might have heard your father talking about it?’

  ‘I’ve no idea who he got it from. Probably from someone at the company.’

  ‘Which company?’ asked Lizard.

  ‘The company—surely even you’ve heard of it. The New British East India Company. But I don’t really know,’ said Georgina. She gestured impatiently at Lizard sitting in the bottom of her wardrobe. ‘Given the circumstances, it’s not as if I can just ask him, is it? Come along, hand it over.’

  Lizard was disappointed that Georgina had no information about the box. He held his satchel out.

  Georgina snatched it. She took out the teak box and let the satchel fall to the floor. ‘At last,’ she said, holding the box.

  Meanwhile Lili, who was still on the roof, was getting worried. She couldn’t hear or see what was happening inside, and nobody had come out into the garden since Mr Whitford Jones and Commander Baxter went back inside. Her previous position behind the bush had been much better for observation. Surely it would be safe there now that it was fully dark. She sneaked to the corner of the building, out of sight of the Sikh soldier, and climbed down.

  She scampered to the bushes. The watering can and hat were no longer there; she was impressed by the efficiency of the gardeners.

  As she moved behind the bush, her attention was caught by a dim light. She carefully manoeuvred herself so that she could see into the bedroom and took out the miniature spyglass.

  Georgina Whitford Jones was sitting in front of the open wardrobe, talking as if to someone in the wardrobe. Who could it be? The open wardrobe door obscured her view.

  Then two hands emerged, holding out a familiar-looking satchel to Georgina, who took a box out and dropped the satchel on the floor. Was that the teak box—the object of Lili’s extremely important mission? Lili moved as close to the action as she could, but the white balustrade of the walkway in front of the suite prevented her from getting right up to the window.

  Through the spyglass, she could see Georgina’s lips moving. It was frustrating that she couldn’t hear what she was saying. Lili wished she knew who was in the wardrobe.

  A moment later, her wish was granted. She focused the spyglass on the satchel. No wonder that discarded bag looked familiar: she’d made it for Lizard herself, from her father’s tailoring offcuts.

  ‘What!’ Lili exclaimed under her breath when she realised that it must be Lizard in the wardrobe. Lili couldn’t see him, but she had no doubt it was him. Not just talking to that girl, but showing her the teak box! Her head reeled at this sudden collision of her two worlds, which, until this moment, had been completely separate. How could Lizard be mixed up with her Max Ops mission?

  Blue eyes! Red hair! She fumed. Now she knew exactly who Lizard had been talking about yesterday.

  Inside the room, Georgina was smiling. ‘How exciting!’ she exclaimed.

  ‘Not for me,’ Lizard said.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Georgina said, with a sly glance at him. ‘I won’t give you away—as long as you do what I say.’

  She opened the box, took out the parcel and tore the cord and brown paper off. Then she opened the book. ‘What does it say?’ she asked Lizard, frowning at the pages.

  Lizard shrugged. ‘I’ve no idea. Why don’t you ask your father?’ There was no way now for Lizard to find out any more about the box, and the flame of hope that it could lead him to Uncle Archie fizzled out. ‘I’ll be going now,’ he said. He was relieved that at least he could get away from the bad-luck box.

  ‘You stay in there. Maybe there’s some sort of secret writing on the box or the book that you can only see by moonlight!’ Georgina said. ‘I read about that in my Schoolgirls’ Own Annual.’

  ‘I don’t think that’s likely,’ Lizard said.

  Lili was furious. The little English madam had Lili’s bag, Lili’s box and Lili’s boy. Time to fix that, she thought. Then she frowned. She was distracted again! Focus on the mission, she told herself. Her actual mission brief was the surveillance of Mr Whitford Jones, but the ultimate goal for Max Ops was to get the box containing the codebook, and it was right there in front of her. She shoved the spyglass in her pocket to free up her hands. Now, how was she going to do this?

  She watched as Georgina leaned her head out the window and looked at the turbaned soldier standing near the front door.

  ‘Good evening, Mr Singh,’ said Georgina, with the boldness of undeserved e
ntitlement. ‘I’m opening the window wider to let fresh air into the room. The heat is so tiresome.’

  ‘Yes, Miss Georgina,’ said the soldier, and he turned to look the other way.

  Georgina ducked her head back into the room and held the teak box up, angling it to catch the moonlight.

  Lili was so intent on watching Georgina that she did not notice a man appear over the edge of the roofline above her, close to where she had been only a few moments before. The man lowered himself down onto the first-floor balcony and then dropped lightly into the shrubbery below.

  Both Lili and the Sikh soldier heard the man landing and turned to look in that direction. A black-clad figure popped up and flung something at the soldier.

  The soldier clapped a hand to his neck, stumbled and collapsed.

  Before Lili could move, the black-clad man leapt over the white balustrade. He stretched an arm in through the window and grabbed at the box that Georgina was holding.

  ‘No!’ gasped Georgina, pushing the man’s arm away.

  Lili recovered herself. She flicked the dagger out of her sleeve and threw it at the man. It thudded into the wooden window frame inches from the man’s masked head. The man flinched back.

  Georgina held the box tight, but it flipped open in the ruckus and the book fell out.

  The man reached in through the window, this time with both arms. He seized Georgina, yanked her out and sprinted into the garden with her tucked under his arm and the now-empty box tight in her hands.

  Lili shot out of the bush and chased after him. The man threw Georgina over the wall bordering Beach Road then vanished over the top himself.

  By the time Lili got to the top of the wall, all she could see was a sleek black automobile speeding down Beach Road. She stared helplessly, furious with herself.

  When she got back to suite seventy, she was surprised to find that all was quiet. The guard lay on the ground, motionless. She looked in through the open window. Lizard’s startled eyes peered around the wardrobe door.

  ‘Lizard!’ Lili hissed. ‘Come on! Get out of there!’ She glanced at the guard who was stirring and groaning. He reached up and pulled a dart from his neck.