By the time he started for home, the evening was half over. Once more he was careful to keep an eye on the other people who were out. In one street, he saw a shadow by the wall and tensed, ready to defend himself, but it was only a cat crouched in the gutter. It hissed, and he realised it was guarding a fish skeleton. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said as it dragged off its prize. ‘I’m not interested in your dinner.’
He was about to carry on walking when a man came out of the next side street. He hesitated for a moment, and in the light of a nearby oil lamp, Prasanna caught a glimpse of him before he walked briskly away in the other direction. Something about him was familiar. He had already put a good distance between them, but curiosity made Prasanna want to find out what he was up to.
Fifty yards ahead, the man turned into another side street, but Prasanna decided not to follow. He knew the area well enough to remember there was a shortcut that would bring him out close to the other end of it. Quickly, he made his way there and waited. A moment later, the man came into sight. As he passed the place where Prasanna hid in the shadows, Prasanna saw the man’s face. It was Kumar, the snake charmer. What was he doing in town late at night? Prasanna waited for him to get well ahead before he tailed him.
The part of town they came to was one that Prasanna rarely visited. It was certainly not an area where he would want Kuveni or his mother to go. Even he was doubtful of the wisdom of being there alone at night, but he was determined to see where Kumar was heading. Two men were coming towards him now, obviously the worse for drink. When they came level with Kumar, one of them grabbed him by the arm and pushed his face close to Kumar’s own. Prasanna tensed. If the men tried to beat Kumar up, as a policeman he ought to intervene, but that would give the game away.
The man who held Kumar by the sleeve seemed to be demanding money. His companion, who had hung back at first, started pawing at his shoulder. Prasanna was on the point of going to help him and taking the consequences when, with lightning speed, the snake charmer broke free of the man holding his sleeve; jabbing his elbow into the second man’s ribs, he seized both men by their collars, and cracked their foreheads together.
The second man doubled over, howling with pain, but the one who had made the first move recovered, raising his fists ready to fight. Swiftly, Kumar landed a punch to his chest and another to his stomach. The man reeled backwards into his friend before regaining his balance. Grabbing him by the collar, he dragged him away.
Coolly, Kumar watched them go, smoothing down his clothing and slicking a hand through his dark hair. Prasanna heard him laugh quietly as if the encounter had amused, rather than alarmed, him. Even though he was not a big man, thought Prasanna, he had certainly needed no help to defend himself.
Even more cautiously than before the incident, for he had no desire to receive the same treatment as the would-be thieves, Prasanna shadowed Kumar until they reached a part of town that even in daylight he would be wary of entering alone. Kumar seemed to be looking for a particular house. Eventually, he stopped at a door and knocked.
A few moments passed before a head poked out of an upstairs window. There was a muffled exchange of conversation and then the head disappeared. A few more moments passed before the door opened and Kumar stepped inside. A man came out and looked up and down the street then, apparently satisfied that Kumar had not been followed, went back inside and closed the door.
Prasanna wondered whether he should wait until Kumar came out, but after ten minutes, he decided not to. There was no name to identify the street, as was the case in many areas away from the centre of Nuala, but some of the frontages of the buildings, crumbling as they were, had distinctive decoration in the form of tiled panels on the walls. He would remember the way. The boss would be interested to hear about this. Hopefully, they would be able to find out why Kumar had chosen to visit such a seedy part of town.
Chapter 9
‘Hello!’
De Silva walked into the hall at Sunnybank and listened for Jane’s voice, but there was silence. She was not in the drawing room, but the door to the verandah was open. Expecting to see her there, he stepped outside, but it too was deserted.
‘Jane!’
Still no answer. Perhaps she had gone for a walk around the garden taking the kittens with her. He headed across the lawn, yet by the time he reached the far boundary, there was still no sign of them. The only occupant of the vegetable garden was a mynah bird. It cocked its head, showing off its distinctive yellow bill and the splash of yellow around its eyes, before going back to tugging at a worm that it had found in a patch of recently dug-over soil.
Puzzled, and becoming somewhat anxious, de Silva returned to the house. The only place he had not looked was the area at the back of the bungalow where the servants lived, and the cooking and laundry was done. Perhaps they would know where Jane had got to.
He had nearly reached the back yard when Jane came around the corner, almost colliding with him.
‘Shanti! Thank goodness you’re home. Perhaps Bella will come down for you. Billy found his own way, but I think she’s too frightened to move.’
‘Come down from where?’ asked de Silva apprehensively. Hopefully, nothing too high; he was not fond of heights.
‘The roof of the washhouse. Delisha went out to fetch in the laundry and found them playing hide and seek around the sheets. They made her jump, so she screamed and that alarmed them. They ran up the tree that one end of the line’s tied to and jumped from there onto the roof.’
‘I’ll come and see.’
In the yard outside the washhouse, Billy was sitting in the sun, calmly grooming a paw. De Silva looked up at the roof and saw Bella close to the edge, precariously balanced with her back arched and her paws wedged against the edge of a broken tile. Delisha and the cook stood below, the cook holding out a bowl of scraps to try to entice her down. Anif, their gardener, hovered nearby holding a ladder.
‘Anif tried to get to her with that,’ said Jane. ‘But she only ran further up the roof to where she is now. He offered to climb up after her, but I told him not to. The tiles are old and brittle and sure to break under his weight. Perhaps if you go up the ladder and call her, she’ll come to you.’
De Silva looked at the distance from the ground to the edge of the roof. Even though it was only one storey up, it was further than he was comfortable with.
But then he looked again at Bella; she gave a piteous meow.
‘Set up the ladder,’ he said to Anif.
When the ladder was in place, Anif held it steady, and de Silva put his foot on the bottom rung. ‘I wouldn’t do this for anyone else,’ he muttered under his breath as he began to climb. At the top, his fingers met the rough, warm surface of the clay tiles. His eyes met Bella’s jade ones; they seemed larger than usual in her little black face. He swallowed hard, trying to rid his throat of the dryness that had invaded it. Cautiously letting go of the ladder with one hand, he stretched it out towards Bella.
‘Come on, little one. It’s not far; I’ll catch you.’
Concentrating on Bella and forgetting where he was, he shifted his weight. The ladder lurched, and his foot almost slipped off the rung it was on. His stomach somersaulted. Bella continued to watch him, her tail waving slowly from side to side. She let out another plaintive meow.
Suddenly, there was a raucous cry and something flapped close to his cheek. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the slate-blue plumage of a house crow. Its beady eyes glinted menacingly. Opening its sharp, powerful beak, it cawed again, and despite his attempts to shoo it away, started to hop in Bella’s direction. His heart thudded. The crow was larger than Bella. He tried to remember what crows ate. Bella hissed as it came closer, then a paw darted out, swiping at the bird. Unprepared, it let out a squawk, took off from the roof and flew into the tree where the washing line was tied.
De Silva chuckled. His little girl was not so timid after all. Calmly, she started to pick her way down the tiles until she reached him. Nuzzling his
cheek, she meowed again, but this time, the tone of the meow was contented. Risking letting go with one hand again, de Silva tucked her under his arm and began his descent. If nothing else, he reflected, the escapade had provided a distraction from any doubts about his decision over Izabella.
**
‘I knew she’d come down for you,’ said Jane with a smile. He leant back in his chair on the verandah and took a sip of his whisky. He felt he had earned it this evening.
‘Did you have to take her back to the circus?’ she asked when he explained about Izabella’s release and the events leading up to it.
‘Boris came to the police station and fetched her. Unless he makes a complaint to Archie, which I doubt Archie would take much notice of anyway, I expect I’ll hear no more about it.’
‘I’m sure you made the right decision.’
‘I hope so.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Boris intends to move the circus on as soon as possible, so I haven’t much time to change my mind. All he wants to do before they go is hold the funerals for Tatiana and Alexei. I spoke to Reverend Peters’ wife earlier this afternoon and left a message for him. I hope he’ll telephone me this evening. It may be complicated by the fact that their religion was Russian Orthodox. There may also be a religious problem if Alexei’s death was a suicide.’
‘I had forgotten that might be the case,’ said Jane with a sigh. ‘But I expect Reverend Peters will try to find a way of holding a funeral service of some kind, even if it can’t be the full one. At least it might comfort Boris and the other circus people who were fond of them.’
‘Let’s hope so. By the way, do you remember I told you that I heard Boris and Nadia having an argument?’
‘Yes.’
‘Something the clown mentioned to Prasanna might be the clue to what that was about.’
He explained about Boris’s drinking problem in the past and the empty vodka bottles outside his sleeping quarters.
‘So, Nadia may have found out he was drinking again, and that was why they were arguing,’ said Jane with a sigh. ‘I do hope not. If only there was something one could do to help.’
He shrugged. ‘That’s a point on which I have to agree with Archie. The circus will be gone soon, and no doubt they’ll be keen to put the memory of their time in Nuala behind them. We should do the same.’
‘Did you find anything else of interest in Boris’s quarters?’
‘Comparing them with Alexei’s, it’s clear that he was the one in charge of the business side of the circus, but that was all.’ As he’d decided that the pomade was not relevant, he didn’t mention it.
They fell silent. De Silva gazed at the evening sky as its vivid colours dimmed with the onset of dusk. In the distance a line of birds, storks from the size of them, flew across it, their black silhouettes eventually fading from view.
‘I suppose I had better report to Archie in the morning. Not that he has shown much interest in the matter.’
‘You mustn’t be too hard on him, dear. I’m sure he’s preoccupied with the news from home and these jewel thefts. He and Florence still have friends and family back in Britain, and the outbreak of war must have been particularly alarming for anyone who remembers the last one.’
‘True. I’m sorry.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘I’m sure it worries you too.’
‘Yes. Even though I don’t have ties to England now, it was my home for so long. But the situation is strange at present. People say millions of sandbags are being collected up and barrage balloons launched to force the German bomber planes to fly higher, but aside from that, nothing much has happened since war was declared. People are calling it the phoney war.’
‘Maybe the Germans will make peace.’
‘I doubt it,’ said Jane with a sigh.
If the war didn’t come to an early end, de Silva wondered how much it would touch their lives in Ceylon. He thought of Charlie Frobisher, training with the Royal Air Force, and felt a stab of apprehension. Should war come to this part of the world, he was bound to be at risk. And even if it did not, he might be sent home to fight in Europe.
He heard a meow and leant down to stroke Bella who was rubbing her head against his leg. ‘Anyway, I hope we have no more climbing incidents with you.’
Jane laughed. ‘Oh, I’m afraid we probably will. I think the pair of them are going to keep us on our toes.’
Chapter 10
The following morning, he was fishing in his pocket for the key to the police station when he heard a familiar voice greet him. Looking up, he saw Prasanna swing a leg over the saddle of his bicycle.
‘You’re early, Sergeant. Didn’t I tell you and Nadar you needn’t hurry?’
‘You did, sir, but there’s something I thought you would like to hear.’
‘Oh? Well, let’s go inside.’
Prasanna wheeled his bicycle to the side passage, chained it up and followed him indoors. Already sat at his desk, de Silva beckoned him into the office.
‘I went to visit my mother yesterday evening, sir,’ Prasanna began.
‘I hope all is well with her.’
‘It is, thank you. It was on the way home later in the evening that I saw what I want to tell you about. It was the snake charmer from the circus, Kumar.’
De Silva frowned. He wondered what business Kumar had in town. ‘Where did you see him?’
‘Near the bazaar. It seemed strange for him to be there at night, so I decided to follow him.’
‘Did he see you?’
‘I don’t think so. I did my best to keep out of sight.’
‘So, where did he go?’
As Prasanna explained about the part of town and the incident with the two men, de Silva picked up a pencil and scribbled a few notes on a pad. The area Prasanna described was one of the most unsavoury ones in Nuala. Why would Kumar want to go there even if, according to Prasanna’s account, he was well able to look after himself?
‘Did anyone else go into the house while you were watching?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Did you see him leave?’
‘I didn’t wait for that; sorry, sir. Perhaps I should have done, but it was getting late and Kuveni worries.’
‘Never mind.’
After all, Prasanna had not been on duty. It would be unfair to reprimand him, although it would have been good to know more. He tapped his pencil against his teeth, debating how to proceed. ‘Could you find your way back to the place?’ he asked after a few moments.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Then I’d like you to take me. Maybe we’ll find out something about the owners and what goes on there. We’d better not draw attention to ourselves though. Go home and change out of your uniform. I’ll wait for you here.’
**
While he waited for Prasanna to return, de Silva took off his own uniform and donned the plain clothes that he kept at the station. Twenty minutes later, Prasanna was back and they set off.
As they walked along, de Silva recognised some of the streets, although it had been a long time since he had visited this part of town.
‘That’s the one, sir.’ Prasanna stopped and pointed to a house with a black front door.
‘Stop waving your arms around, Sergeant. If anyone’s looking, we don’t want them to think we’re interested in the place. Turn to face me, as if we’re just two friends who have met in the street having a talk.’
‘Sorry, sir.’
He glanced past Prasanna’s shoulder. There was nothing exceptional about the house that particularly distinguished it from its neighbours. Like theirs, the paint on its door and windows was shabby; the few plants that grew against the wall straggled wearily from the ground. It was a pity there were no shops in the street. Sometimes a garrulous shopkeeper was a useful source of information. Knocking on the doors of any of the neighbouring houses was unwise. Apart from the fact that he didn’t want to explain his interest, neighbours might tell the owner of the house that someone was making inquiries.
Search
ing for an idea, he noticed an old man trudging along the street. At the first house he came to, the man stopped and knocked, waiting a little while for the door to be answered. When it was not, he repeated the process at the next door. This time the door opened, and he spoke to the occupant for a few moments, but whatever he wanted was presumably not being granted, for he went on to the next house. He was, de Silva observed, respectably dressed in a clean sarong and tunic. Not a beggar then. Maybe he was selling something, but if so, the occupiers of the houses were not interested in examining his wares.
Eventually, after getting no answer at many of the doors, including the one he and Prasanna were interested in, the old man drew level with them and nodded a greeting.
De Silva smiled. ‘Business bad today?’
With a grunt the old man shifted the pack on his back. ‘I work all the streets around here. Usually this one is good, but today no one wants their knives grinding.’
‘How often do you come along here?’
‘Once a month, maybe. It depends how much work there is in other streets.’
‘Do you see that house?’ Surreptitiously, de Silva indicated it with a nod of his head.
‘Yes, what about it?’
‘Does anyone ever answer the door?’
‘The last couple of times I’ve tried they do, but they’ve not given me any business. I wonder why I bother, sometimes.’
‘What sort of people are they?’
‘Tight-fisted people,’ the old man replied. A laugh rumbled in his scrawny throat. ‘Not from around here,’ he added. ‘Chinese.’
[Inspector de Silva 09] - High Wire in Nuala Page 11