by Vish Dhamija
'It has a listed price of fifty million pesetas, so less than a million of the new Euro currency coming from next year.'
'And what do you think should we offer?' Nikos repeated his question, as Alfredo's chatter had given no real answer.
'Properties like these don't come to the market often, so there is no comparison that I can draw, but if you are interested I can ask the owner and come back to you. Do you have a figure in mind?'
'No.' Nikos knew the negotiation game; never quote your price first.
'I will check and let you know.'
'Thanks.'
Alfredo showed them the nearby village on the map, in case they needed to buy some groceries or essentials. Nikos was definite neither of them had any inclination to cook on a holiday, so he only briefly looked at the map, but let Alfredo go on with his speech, uninterrupted, without any questions.
'And if you need anything, please do not hesitate to give me a call anytime.' Alfredo finally decided to leave.
'When do we see you again?'
'I shall see you tomorrow evening. Till then, I leave you two alone to enjoy doing what madam wanted…' He mentioned with a mischievous smile on his face. 'And I wish you all the best for viewing other properties.'
'He's quite a character,' Serena uttered, as he drove off.
'Just be careful… he might hide himself in the bushes to watch you skinny dipping.'
'Would you like that?' She, like a tease, unbuttoned her shirt.
'Like what — him watching you?'
'I meant… would you like to go skinny dipping?' She pulled off her shirt.
'You mean now?'
'Yes, honey. Let's do it now.'
'Its daylight… what if someone is around?' Nikos sounded stunned.
'I don't care. Are you coming with me, or would you rather watch me naked from the deck?' She was unfastening her belt now.
'Hold on sweetheart. What is the rush… we can do it in the evening after dusk.'
'We can do it again after dusk, my love. We've got to make up for five years.' She was out of her jeans and standing in her lingerie now.
'You are turning me on…'
'So, why don't you get started?' She unashamedly walked out on the deck stark naked.
Serena was very happy with the villa, and as it was well within their budget, even if the owner was not willing to negotiate, Nikos called and cancelled all other viewings. The other places they had seen on the websites were not even half as beautiful. They went out only in the evening for some Tapas, using the map Alfredo had left behind to find the nearby village, and they brought back bread, eggs and milk for breakfast and some wine for the rest of the evening.
'What will we do with six bottles of wine in one night?' Nikos asked when he saw Serena picking them up.
'Get drunk.'
Alfredo called to check if everything was okay and how the other viewings went during the day.
'We liked another one,' Nikos lied.
'Where exactly is that?'
'I will tell you when we meet. Did you speak to the owner about the price?'
'I wanted to check with you on that. Would you make all the payment by cheque, or is it possible to pay some part in cash?'
'We can do part-cash too.'
'Then we can do this deal for forty five.'
'Forty five million pesetas, you mean?
'Yes.'
'Let's talk tomorrow.' Nikos wanted to tell Serena that the deal for this property would go through for sure now.
'How is madam?'
She's waiting for me, naked in bed, Nikos wanted to respond.
'She's fine. Thank you and good night, Alfredo.'
'Good night, Mr Nikos.'
'What did he say?' Serena jumped on Nikos when he finished the call, though his expression had given away the suspense.
'I think we've got it.'
'Wow… let's celebrate…' She came into his arms and they kissed.
'Let me open a bottle of wine.'
'Let me take off my clothes.'
'Red or white?'
'White with lace, actually,' she said looking down at her lingerie and pulling off her powder blue T-shirt over her head.
'I meant the wine.'
'I thought you were referring to…' she murmured coquettishly.
They looked much more contented on the flight back. The offer for the villa had been accepted, and they were promised possession of the property in eight to ten weeks, which meant October. If they planned to fake a marriage in November — or December — Serena could quit her job by the end of the year, and they would finally live the life they had dreamt about on their honeymoon.
31
New Delhi
August 31, 2001
The meeting introducing D'Cunha to Mr Gill went well. D'Cunha's record and Kabir's recommendation gave Mr Gill all the confidence he needed to appoint him as Kabir's deputy on the case.
Kabir and D'Cunha had read the files a few times by now, going through the details; it was a chaotic investigation, expensive and ostentatious, but ultimately leading nowhere.
'Where do we begin, Kabir?' D'Cunha asked, later when they sat in Kabir's small and sparse office in the Parliament House annexe.
'I quite like not being called sir.'
'Really?'
'There is only one thing clear from this research.' Kabir was careful not to describe the previous work as an investigation. 'There were only five companies whose share certificates were counterfeited and hence we start by visiting their offices and checking the counterfeit certificates. The companies should have stacks of them. That should give us some clue to, perhaps, where — or what — we investigate next. So, the answer to your question is Mumbai. We begin in Mumbai.'
'Should I get the tickets organised?'
'Get two tickets for tomorrow morning please. And keep the return tickets open. Do you know of a good hotel in south Mumbai?'
'The Taj…'
'Book it for a week at least. We'll see if we have to extend our stay.'
***
September 2001
D'Cunha was at the IG International airport before his boss. Knowing well that Kabir would be travelling light, he checked-in for both of them with the bag of papers he was carrying. Then, picking up a coffee and the morning newspaper, he found himself a seat to savour both. He was halfway through the front-page news when he heard a hello from someone near him. It was Kabir.
'Good morning, Michael.' Kabir, pulling his stroller baggage and holding a coffee in his other hand, approached D'Cunha. He was casually, but sharply dressed in jeans and a white button-down cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up. D'Cunha noticed that he had matching shoes, belt and watch strap in tan leather.
'Good morning.' D'Cunha removed some of his things from the next seat without getting up. Kabir had been clear that for this case they would work together as friends rather than two investigative police officers. 'I've checked you in, Kabir. Here's your boarding card.'
'Thanks.' Kabir took the boarding card from D'Cunha.
'You look better in casuals.'
'Thanks again. You look great too.' Kabir returned the compliment looking at D'Cunha who had discarded his frumpy image to wear a blue Polo T-shirt over jeans and trainers.
They finished their coffee and went through security.
'I like Jet Airways. They have pretty airhostesses, not like the ones they have in Indian Airlines,' Kabir said, all of a sudden, as he took breakfast from one of them.
'You're right, they are pretty.' D'Cunha echoed Kabir's opinion. 'I have been meaning to ask you for some time, but never got the chance. Now that we're friends, at least for this case, I think I can ask, but feel free to tell me to shut up…'
'Go ahead and ask.' Kabir did not want to put on a bureaucratic façade when D'Cunha was trying to break the ice. He understood that if they had to travel and stay together for extended periods of time, on this case, it would be better to know each other's interests and deve
lop a personal relationship rather than to discuss work all the time.
'Why haven't you got married… yet?' D'Cunha carefully added the yet at the end to highlight that he wasn't confirming Kabir as a bachelor for life.
'I am married to my job.' Kabir replied without hesitation. D'Cunha smiled; he understood such humour, which was common in the police service. 'No one liked me enough to tie the knot, or let's just say I didn't find anyone… yet.' He made sure that the yet remained in the conversation.
'The latter is more like it.'
'Are you not seeing your family in Mumbai?' Kabir asked, realising that D'Cunha's family was still in Mumbai. 'Why aren't you staying with them?'
'My house is far from south Mumbai and it would be a problem commuting every day. Plus, I don't know how late we might have to work, so I thought it would be better to focus on this. If we stay the weekend, I will go over there.'
'You are a very committed man, Michael.'
'Duty always comes before self.' D'Cunha couldn't resist vocalising his clichéd motto.
'I couldn't agree more.'
***
Mumbai
September 2001
The two men checked into the Taj in South Mumbai, left their bags in the rooms and were back at the reception within ten minutes. D'Cunha hailed a cab once they were out of the hotel as Kabir gazed at the beauty of the monumental Gateway of India overlooking the Arabian Sea.
'Maker Towers please,' D'Cunha told the cabbie getting into the cab. As the car drove through the old streets of south Mumbai, Kabir noticed how different the business capital was from the political one that they had flown out from in the morning. This part of Mumbai still had the buildings of Victorian Bombay, though many had not been well maintained.
If someone put money into conserving the place, it would be one of the greatest cities in the world. But money was the one thing that was scarce in the country, which explained why some people did unscrupulous things like counterfeiting. He smiled, inwardly, at the thought.
Cuffe Parade in South Mumbai housed the five companies they had set out to meet. D'Cunha paid the cabbie and the two men walked into Maker Towers and asked for their key contact there. The two officers had already informed the company directors about the enquiry and their visit. Victoria, the PR director of the company, was down in a moment instead of sending a secretary or assistant.
'Good afternoon, gentleman. I am Victoria.'
The two men found it extremely hard to concentrate while shaking hands with Victoria, as she was nothing short of a Vogue model; tall, slender with light eyes, her hair tidy in a bun and dressed in a pinstriped suit with a white shirt neatly tucked, into her trousers, over her flat stomach.
'Good afternoon, Victoria.' Both of them said this as if reciting a nursery rhyme for their teacher.
'I hope you had a good flight this morning.' She pointed towards the lift and the two men followed her like puppies on a leash.
'Yes. Thanks,' Kabir said. D'Cunha walked quietly, making sure they didn't repeat the recitation.
As they came out on the seventeenth floor office, she took them into a conference room stacked with papers already sorted out for their task. The building might have looked three decades old from the outside, but the conference room was plush, with state of the art communications and display equipment. Kabir, for a brief moment, got lost in his thoughts. If he had pursued a career in private enterprise, after his management degree from FMS, he would have been a company director of a medium or large corporation by now. But he had chosen to join the civil service and most of the government offices, he had worked for, were nowhere close to all these lavish rooms and facilities.
'Could I ask someone to get you tea or coffee?' Victoria asked.
'Coffee would be fine. Thanks, Victoria.' Kabir said.
'Make that two, please,' D'Cunha said.
'You think she will date me?' Kabir asked as soon as Victoria left the two guys alone in the room.
'If she doesn't have a boyfriend or a husband, I don't see why not.'
'Why do you always make it conditional?' Kabir quipped. Both of them understood the humour and smiled as the coffees arrived.
Even the coffee was served in bone china cups here, unlike the dirty glass tumblers they would have got in a public sector office.
The room had four piles of certificates arranged in chronological order of their receipt by the company. Each one of them, fortunately, had a copy of the covering letter attached that was sent back to the client it had come from. This gave them contact details of every single person who had been directly affected by the scam, and the broker who had been involved in the last deal. The first thing both the guys looked for was any sign of the printing press, but they realised, promptly, it was like looking for fingerprints on a murder weapon. This was neither an amateur job nor an unplanned one.
'There's got to be something that leads us to the perpetrators,' Kabir uttered scanning through a few of the papers, which obviously gave away nothing about the originator of these counterfeits.
'It's more our trial than theirs…'
'Before theirs Michael, before theirs... Failing the second time on the same case would be an epic embarrassment for the government and our department.'
'You're right.'
They spent quite a while going through the documents and did not realise that it was four till Victoria came into the room. 'Anything we could help you with?'
Give me a hug, honey, Kabir wanted to say.
'Yes please. Could you ask someone to arrange these into the order of the previous transfer dates please? I know that they are counterfeits and therefore, never actually came to your company for the same, but they have the date of last transfer in any case,' Kabir said.
'That will be done before you arrive tomorrow morning.'
'And we might need to use your office for a little longer than we originally planned. I would rather have all the other companies send their papers and files here than us visiting them. I hope that is fine with you…'
'That should be fine too.' She gladly agreed, knowing well that it might not be in the company's best interests to refuse two detectives a simple request like this. Both the requests confused D'Cunha, given that Kabir hadn't discussed any of this before, but he knew that there must be a good reason.
'Could I drop you somewhere, as I'll be leaving soon?' Victoria offered.
'Only, if you have dinner with us.'
Only dinner? No dance? D'Cunha smiled.
'I can't do that today as I have a prior engagement, but we can do that some other time,' Victoria apologised.
'We are at the Taj so if that is not too much of a bother, we'll come with you.'
'Okay. I'll be leaving here around six.' She closed the door on the way out of the conference room.
Kabir turned towards D'Cunha and, finding him still bewildered about the requests, realised he needed to clarify. 'Let me explain, Michael. You would appreciate that such a large and fine-tuned counterfeit operation like this must have been thought out meticulously. It would be churlish not to admire the planning, and childish to believe that someone did not have access to the originals.'
D'Cunha looked blank.
'The counterfeits were not printed at random, Michael. It is fairly evident that the miscreants only faked limited certificates in great quantities and not the whole lot. That is precisely why you have so many repeated serial numbers and names on these.' He pointed towards the pile of papers lying on the desk.
'I get that.' D'Cunha nodded and flipped through some of the certificates again to see what Kabir had just said. Kabir's cogent analysis impressed him, for he had seen the same peculiarity but hadn't considered it.
'The second request was not merely to stay in Victoria's office for some more time, it is to get all these papers into one place rather than doing a piecemeal investigation in offices scattered all around Mumbai. We are more likely to see trends if all the pieces are together. And I thought you would
be more comfortable in Victoria's lovely company rather than in any other place that we haven't yet seen. If that wasn't enough reason, she's also promised to have dinner with you…' Kabir had a sly smile on his face as he palmed off all his flirtatious intentions onto D'Cunha.
'Am I the one interested in Victoria now?'
'Married men like you should ideally not flirt with other women, however good-looking they are. But that's my opinion. You are free to do, and flirt, as you please.'
'Hello, gentlemen.' Victoria peeped into the room at six. 'Are you ready to leave?'
'Yes. Could we leave all this securely in here, please?'
'No problem.'
Victoria's driver had already collected her bag and was waiting with the car outside when they stepped out of the building. 'I have asked the staff to rearrange the papers as you asked,' she mentioned, as Kabir opened the car door for her. D'Cunha was smart enough to get into the front seat with the driver, leaving his boss and Victoria in the back seat.
'Where do you live?' Kabir asked, as they sat in the car.
'Bandra.'
'That would be quite a distance from here?' Kabir chatted on.
'Yes, but with the driver I normally sit in the back and read or make calls, so it's not that tiring. I would be worried if I had to drive the distance in this traffic myself.'
They were at the hotel soon. 'It was really nice to meet you and thank you for all the help.' The men got out of the car.
'You're very welcome. I would have stayed back for dinner, but I had promised to take my daughter for a birthday party tonight, so…' Victoria apologetically explained.
'It's okay. We can do that some other time.'
'She's got a guy,' D'Cunha murmured as they waved to her.
'All she said was that she had a daughter… you're assuming the rest, Michael.' Kabir wasn't giving up the chase, not as yet it seemed. 'On another note, could you give the other four companies a call and ask them to arrange all the papers, in the order we want, and send them over to Maker Towers please?'