CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Pankaj sat on the wet silt on the bank of the Mandovi River. The damp seeped into his trousers and wet his skin, but he didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore. There was a clap of thunder, and then the skies opened. It started to rain. He looked up to the stormy sky and back to the river. A river cruiser passed him, blaring loud music, lights flashing in greens and blues. He felt sick. It had all happened so quickly, and now here he was, sitting alone and wondering how he got here. The phone in his pocket began to ring and vibrate. He looked at the caller ID and silenced the call. The display told him he had ten missed calls – all from Shwetika.
How had this happened, he asked himself, but he had no answer. He wasn’t good enough for her; she wanted better. There was nothing left to say. He closed his eyes, but all he could see was her face the last time he had seen her.
Just twenty-four hours ago he had been dreaming of being a famous detective with Shwetika by his side. How foolish he had been. He hadn’t planned to see her earlier when he visited their favourite restaurant, but there she was, sitting in the corner booth with another man. He walked over, wondering if it was a cousin she was innocently having dinner with, but when she introduced him as her fiancé, he had been dumbstruck. Had she really just introduced this new creature to Pankaj as the man she was going to marry? He felt bile rising up in his throat, and it took all his strength to stay standing, to smile at this hideous man sitting opposite her and to look at her. He saw a sadness in her eyes as she spoke to him, but now he wasn’t sure if he had just imagined it. His subconscious trying to soften the blow.
His phone rang once more, and he closed his eyes, quickly snapping them open again. Each time his lids shut, he could see her with that man, the memory of his hands going numb, his mouth drying, his inability to comprehend what was happening as the butter chicken began to congeal on the table in front of them. He could see the scene as if he were watching from above, like an out of body experience. He wanted to hate her, but he knew it was not possible. He still loved her, and that’s why it hurt so much.
Pankaj swallowed hard. He wanted to throw the device into the murky depths of the Mandovi, but instead he pressed the green button and held it to his ear. She spoke quickly and with urgency. He wished then that he had never answered the call, because listening to her voice, he felt his heart break all over again. Without a word, he disconnected the call and flung it as far as he could. He heard a splash before he stood up and made his way back home.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
‘Beautiful day for a wedding,’ Christabel said with a laugh as they took shelter from the rain under a banyan tree. ‘We were lucky to get an invite. It’s just a shame you had to go and spoil it by getting the groom arrested.’ Christabel laughed. ‘Arthur Chupplejeep, I have to say, there’s never a dull moment with you. Even a holiday destination turns into a crime scene when you’re around.’ Her humour faded with this last statement, and Chupplejeep felt his heart sink. This is it, he thought. She had told him that by the end of her time at Toem Place she would decide what she was going to do about their relationship. He thought that she had been softening towards him, but now he could sense her manner had changed. She was going to tell him it was over. What woman would stay with a man who had jilted her at the altar?
‘I’ve something to say,’ he blurted out. He gave the crystal in his pocket one last squeeze before taking her hands in his.
‘Let me finish,’ Christabel said.
‘But…’ He stopped himself.
‘I’ve been doing a lot of thinking while we’ve been here.’
Chupplejeep nodded.
‘All that yoga and meditation has helped me see what it is that I want. When you cancelled our wedding with such short notice, I was angry. My mother was furious.’
‘She was,’ Chupplejeep agreed. He was surprised she hadn’t hunted him down with a meat cleaver.
‘She always thought I could do better. Now she hates you.’
Chupplejeep swallowed. It was all coming out now.
‘I can see why she hates you. But the sad thing is…’
Chupplejeep leaned in.
‘The sad thing is that I still love you. You don’t get jealous because you trust me and you respect me. That, in my book, counts for a lot.
‘I’ve decided…’ Christabel stopped speaking. She put her hand on Arthur’s face. ‘I’ve decided that there does not have to be a wedding. We can just live together, if that’s what you want.’
‘In sin?’ Chupplejeep asked. Repeating the words he had heard her mother say so many times, words that meant nothing to him.
Christabel put her hand to her mouth. ‘In sin,’ she repeated, looking at the floor.
‘You’d be willing to forgo a wedding for me?’ Chupplejeep asked.
She looked up and nodded. She had made her decision.
Chupplejeep took her hand. ‘No,’ he said. ‘No more.’
~
‘No?’ Christabel repeated back to him. She closed her eyes. She had made it clear that she wanted time to decide what to do with their relationship, but she hadn’t stopped to think that Arthur too would be considering what he wanted. She wasn’t perfect. She had forced him into proposing and then planned a huge wedding, something in her heart of hearts she knew he wouldn’t want. Then to top it all, she had located his presumed dead parents and invited them along for a pre-wedding lunch.
‘No way,’ Chupplejeep said, as if she had not heard the first time.
Christabel held her breath. ‘No way?’
‘You think I was busy investigating the death of Jackpot with no time for anything else, but I’ve been doing some thinking myself, some serious thinking.’
‘It’s why you’ve been so distant these last few days. I thought it was just the case,’ Christabel said, her eyes moist.
‘It was a shock when you brought my parents along to that restaurant, no warning, nothing. I wasn’t expecting that. After all, I thought they had been dead all these years. You should’ve told me you had tracked them down.’
‘I wasn’t thinking straight.’
‘It’s my life, Christu, not one of those dramas you’re always watching.’
‘You called the wedding off because I called them. I know that.’
Chupplejeep shook his head. She placed her hand on his chest, and he looked away.
‘It’s taken me a long time to admit this, but I was looking for a way out. You bringing my parents back from the dead was a perfect excuse to call off the wedding. I was looking for a reason, and you gave it to me.’
‘I shouldn’t have called them. They abandoned you, and I thought you would be happy to see them.’
‘What’s done is done. It cannot be undone, and your heart, as always, was in the right place. Much has happened in the last twenty-four hours. Jackpot was an orphan with two half-brothers he never got to know. What if I have a brother or sister out there? I may not ever forgive my parents for what they did, but I have to know if I have any siblings, any other family in this world, so I have decided to meet them. That, and I want to hear their side of the story – why they left me, why they allowed their son to believe that they were dead. Finally, I will get some answers.
‘This got me thinking about us, and what I want. Yesterday, as the sun was setting over the lake, while you were taking a bath, I sat and thought for a long while until I came to a decision about us, about our relationship.’
Christabel wrung her hands together, a nervous habit of hers. ‘You want to finish it?’ she asked. ‘But, but…’
‘But,’ Chupplejeep started, ‘we’re meant to be together, Christabel Mafalina Saldanha, and I want to marry you.’ Chupplejeep was surprised at how easily the words slipped from his mouth. ‘I’ve been afraid of committing because I was scared I would mess it up. When actually, I was ruining things by not committing to the one thing, the one person, I truly love. But I’ve realised I want what you want,’ he said, and he actually meant
it. ‘I want to marry you.’
Christabel’s eyes widened. ‘You’re serious,’ she said, her hands trembling. ‘You’re not teasing me?’
‘I wouldn’t mess with you, not after seeing you attack Arjun with that chair!’ Chupplejeep pulled her towards him and laughed a hearty laugh. He shook his head. ‘Let’s get married.’
Christabel put her arms around him and squeezed him as hard as she could. ‘It’ll be a small wedding.’
‘Two hundred people.’
‘One hundred,’ she said. ‘And no surprise guests either.’
Chupplejeep kissed her on the cheek. ‘That’s just what I wanted to hear.’
Acknowledgements
I wrote this book whilst on maternity leave with my son Nathan, to whom this book is dedicated. He wasn’t the greatest of sleepers at night, but his long afternoon naps gave me time to write, despite my drooping eyelids. Thank you, Nathan.
A massive thank you to Abingdon Writers’ Fiction Adults Group, who critiqued my words – I couldn’t have done it without their appraisal. A big thank you to the usual suspects: JD&J for their amazing cover design; Urmi Kenia for her keen eye for detail and expansive knowledge of India; my mother Audrey for reviewing the first and countless other drafts; and my editor Emily Nemchick. You have all made Jackpot Jetty a better book.
And finally, thanks go to my husband James, for his patience tolerating the hours I spend writing, and to my supportive family, friends and work colleagues.
About the Author
Marissa de Luna is a passionate author who started writing in her late twenties. After spending her early years growing up in Goa, Marissa returned to England where she now lives. Jackpot Jetty is her sixth novel.
Other novels by Marissa de Luna
Goa Traffic
The Bittersweet Vine
Poison in the Water
Under the Coconut Tree – A Chupplejeep Mystery
The Body in the Bath – A Chupplejeep Mystery
Coming soon
Murder in the Monsoon – A Chupplejeep Mystery
Sweet Murder – A Shilpa Solanki Mystery
www.marissadeluna.com
Jackpot Jetty Page 27