Nothing Lasts Forever - No Secret Can Stay Buried

by Vish Dhamija

  Still breathing.

  Raaj changed into the linen suit that Rana had worn, on his arrival at Mumbai, and dumped his own worn clothes back into the wardrobe. He took out the matchbox that he had got from Kim's security guard, lit up his final cigarette and threw the burning light on the bed. It flamed up the moment it hit the vodka-laced, cotton bed sheets. He sprinted to his little office and set the files under the computer on fire and opened the top drawer just enough for the flames to reach the passport, but not burn it.

  Did he care if it burnt totally? It would be good if it survived though.

  He waited for five minutes until he was sure that the fire would do its work before he picked up Rana's bag, wallet, passport, tickets and the anti-freeze bottle and walked towards the main door. He waited just a minute to check if he had taken everything before he got out of the apartment, took the elevator to the ground floor and escaped from the building gate into the night.

  He had filled up the anti-freeze bottle with water and closed it tight shut before leaving. He flung it into the sea with the duplicate set of keys, to the apartment, and walked to a parked cab with the cabbie sleeping in it.

  'Sahar Airport departures, please.'

  'Okay, sir.'

  'Could you stop near a letterbox, please? I need to post a letter.' Raaj requested as the car got in motion.

  'There are letterboxes at the airport, sir.' The cabbie passed on his awareness.

  I know that, you idiot, but I don't want to post a blank letter to Serena from the airport he wanted to tell the cabbie.

  'I am afraid that I might forget later.'

  'Okay.' The cabbie stopped at the next letterbox he saw.

  The flight was on time and the boarding was complete by fifteen minutes past two. Raaj was flying business class, courtesy of the Australian company. He had decided that he would call up the company from the Sydney airport itself and decline their offer.

  'Would you like to have something to drink, sir?' As the plane reached the skies the airhostess came around.

  'A glass of Pinot Noir, please.' Raaj reclined his seat and looked at the time.

  Someone must have called Singapore by now, he thought.

  ***