‘What happened to that airline?’
‘It’s been shut down,’ she said cheerfully. ‘I think we sent more passengers by road than air, because there was too much competition from the established airlines. We only had two aircraft. Both were quite rundown and Vinayji was far too busy all the time with his government responsibilities to expand the company. But he made sure no one lost their jobs. Even though he can barely come here twice a month, he decided to consolidate this business at least. He already had this casino and he transferred all three hundred of us here.’
‘You obviously have an important post for someone so young!’
‘I look after the operations,’ she said. ‘Vinayji trusts only a handful of people. I’m one of them.’
None of this was said with any hint of pride or modesty. It was a matter-of-fact statement. It reminded me of what she had said yesterday – and how difficult it would be for her to leave her job.
‘You don’t mind staying here all night?’
‘I have to look after everyone. And especially when Vinayji is here, just in case he needs me.’
As though reminded of her duty, she began to get up. ‘It was so nice to see you, Simran and Dennis. Enjoy your evening and let me know if you need anything. I must see if Vinayji and his guests are alright.’
Vinay Gupta, who seemed old enough to be her father, had managed to create a very loyal employee. Paradoxically, while she had indicated her discomfort over her boss on the beach when we had met, it was obvious that there was something more between them. What surprised me once again was that Vicky didn’t even try to hide it. She must have seen photographs of Gupta with his wife and children. And why would she, such a young and lovely girl, throw away her life like this?
I knew I might not get this chance again, so I asked, And Curtis? You know him, don’t you, the DJ and singer here? Supposed to be very good.’
A nervous look crossed her face, and the cordial smile faltered a bit.
Could she and Curtis have a relationship as well? I had seen them exchanging a fairly chaste kiss at the market, but that might not tell the whole story. They had looked like they were discussing something confidential. Something that Vinayji might not be aware of? That was an interesting twist.
‘Of course, everyone knows Curtis. He’s very popular around here and does a wonderful imitation of Elvis Presley, too. You must hear him. But if you’ll excuse me . . .’
Perhaps mentioning Curtis had been a mistake. She turned to walk away rapidly, as I sprang to my feet. There was little time to waste, as I could see that when we next met she might not be as friendly as she had been today. No doubt when she next spoke to him, Curtis would tell her about my visit to Cozee Home, looking for Liza. And possibly also what he or his accomplices had done to me subsequently.
‘I must meet Mr Gupta. Why don’t you introduce us?’ I began to gather my handbag to follow her.
Dennis got up as well, looking a bit confused as he tried to figure out what was going on.
‘I . . . I think I’ll introduce him to you a little later. Let me just catch up with some other guests? I promise I’ll come back.’ There was less warmth now in Vicky’s voice.
Not sure if I would see her again, I took out my phone and scanned down to Liza’s photograph, where she was smiling into the camera. I decided to take a chance, and bluff my way through.
‘Just one last thing. I was also looking for this girl. I believe she’s been on this ship recently and might even work here. I have a message for her from her mother.’
I added the last sentence so that I could pretend that I was only a messenger for Liza’s family and not investigating the case in any way. It might help not to set alarm bells ringing, especially since we were confined on a ship and more or less at the mercy of the Tempest team.
I already knew how ruthless Vinayji could be.
Vicky turned pale when she saw Liza’s photograph. But she still shook her head.
‘I have no idea who she is,’ she whispered. ‘Please, Simranji. Let me go. I would request you to just try your luck at some of these tables and then leave. Perhaps we can meet on the beach tomorrow and we’ll talk.’
She was no longer smiling, and in fact her expression was a bit steely. The friendliness on her face had been replaced by a distinct frostiness. Behind the cold look, I glimpsed a touch of very real fear.
‘What are you scared of?’ I asked gently. ‘Why don’t you tell me?’
I could have sworn that her eyes glinted with unshed tears.
‘Go away. Please. You don’t know anything about my life or this world. I’m not scared of anything.’ But her voice quivered, giving her away, and she glanced around. No doubt we were being watched closely. I wondered if our conversation was being listened to – I knew that some casinos even hid microphones strategically in various places, as well as hidden cameras to track customers. That could partly explain her nervousness.
I still had to force her to tell me something. She was my one solid lead.
‘But just tell me, have you ever seen this girl? Does Curtis know where she is?’
I put my hand out to stop her from leaving.
As I spoke she pushed my hand away roughly, and suddenly her expression changed to something quite nasty.
‘Please don’t ask me any more questions, and it would be best if you left immediately,’ she hissed, signalling to one of the managers.
‘Perhaps I should ask Mr Gupta for some information then,’ I said, and started moving towards the screen before she could react. I had barely taken a few steps when I found the way blocked by the same bouncers who had almost snatched Dennis’s phone away. I stepped back, wondering what to do, as Dennis quickly stood between me and them, and put his arm around me protectively.
‘I don’t quite know what this is about,’ he whispered into my ear, ‘but I think these people don’t like us very much.’
I looked around, and for a minute, everything around us seemed to have come to a halt. I hadn’t realized that other people had noticed the altercation. A few of the less-involved gamblers had actually abandoned their careful calculations about winning and losing, and were staring at us curiously.
Vicky, far from being the friendly person she had been before, was now at Vinay Gupta’s side, saying something into his ear, something that annoyed him, and I could see his expression change as he looked towards us.
Perhaps, as Vicky had suggested, it was time to leave. But I was relieved that at least I had found out that Liza was almost certainly connected to this Vinay Gupta. And that Vicky had known her. There could be no other reason for her rather severe reaction.
So Liza was the common factor. Something had definitely happened to her, and even mentioning her name had made Vicky change from a friendly hostess to an ice maiden. Something so terrible perhaps that none of these people wanted to admit that they knew her well at all.
And the one person who had the most to lose from any revelation was probably Vinay Gupta himself.
I was beginning to understand why I had been drugged on that first day and my mobile phone wiped clean. This was a very powerful man. No one could afford to mess with him.
What, then, could be Vicky’s stake in this, I wondered, as I whispered to Dennis, ‘Sorry. I’ll explain when we get thrown out of here.’
Fortunately he still managed to look amused.
‘I thought we were going to have a quiet evening gambling away our family fortunes. And perhaps our families as well, like the Pandavas. I don’t have a wife to give away – but I do have a former brother-in-law whom I was hoping someone might want . . .’ Dennis said softly, trying to make me laugh. I could see that he didn’t want our first evening together to be entirely ruined, even though he was unable to fathom the dynamics between Vicky and me.
We still stood where Vicky had left us. I was undecided if I should at least try to go upstairs. With Dennis by my side I felt a little more brave than I would have otherwise. The only
problem was we seemed to have attracted far too much attention.
‘I suggest we try to make a quiet exit before we’re made to walk the plank,’ said Dennis, keeping his arm around me.
‘I wouldn’t have minded a guided tour of the ship, but something tells me that these guys have other ideas,’ I said ruefully, as one of the bouncers approached. I wondered why it was so essential that we be thrown off the ship. Was Liza still here, possibly in one of the rooms?
I was quite sure that there would be a few areas where only Vinay Gupta and his cronies would be allowed. There were several doors around the casino area which were marked ‘Private’ and ‘No Entry’. It was a large ship and it didn’t make sense to use only two areas. Perhaps some of the staff lived on board.
Mr Moustache and Vicky were now herding the other MPs out of our view, no doubt so they wouldn’t see us being led away. I thought it might be best to act as though there had been a genuine misunderstanding and that, once we spoke to Vicky or Vinayji, all would be sorted out.
I picked up my handbag and waved to Vicky cheerily. But she pointedly turned her back towards us and strode off after Vinay Gupta. Despite her tears yesterday, and the fear in her eyes today, she obviously knew who her future lay with. It was certainly not with me.
We were asked politely to leave by the four bouncers, who now stood in front of us. It was difficult to persuade them to change their minds. I insisted that we had paid the full amount for dinner and the entertainment upstairs, neither of which we’d had the opportunity to enjoy. But my argument fell on deaf ears. It had been a foolish move to reveal my cards so early, in front of Vicky. I wished I had waited before I showed her the photograph. It was highly unlikely that I would ever see Vinay Gupta or Vicky ever again. Nor would I be allowed on board the Tempest.
I felt angry at myself for having wasted a wonderful opportunity.
It was in dismal silence that we walked out onto the platform below to await the speedboat back to shore. The four bouncers stood on guard.
Dennis tried to look nonchalant, but I was aware I had put him in a dangerous and embarrassing situation.
Not a good start to what I had hoped would be a lifelong relationship!
I apologized to him once again, when we had been unceremoniously put back on the speedboat and sent back to shore. Trying to sound as remorseful as possible, I buried my own anger and irritation over my mishandling of the situation.
‘It wasn’t fair. I really should have warned you about my search for Liza. And the possible implications when I started talking to Vicky about it. Sorry. Evenings with me can get out of control.’
‘Out of control can be fantastic,’ Dennis laughed, apparently unperturbed by the disruption to what should have been an elegant evening in a casino.
‘Perhaps, as you said, you can use this in your next script.’
‘Tell me, do you do this very often? Get into scrapes, find yourself surrounded by bouncers? Man, those guys looked like they could really crush us with just two fingers.’
‘With me, life will never be boring, though you might have a few broken bones,’ I told him, attempting to match his light-hearted tone. Obviously he wasn’t going to allow anything to wreck our evening, or what was left of it.
By now we had been hustled off the ferrying speedboat, rushed through the waiting area, and deposited rather rudely onto the streets of Panjim. I wondered what anyone observing me would have thought: I had been walking around, stoned out of my mind, the other day, and now I had been thrown out of a casino. Vinay Gupta probably looked like a saint compared to me.
It was close to 10 o’clock, and the streets of Goa’s capital city were already deserted. Most of the action would be taking place, as we knew, along the beachside restaurants. But I didn’t want to return there so quickly.
‘Now, ma’am,’ said Dennis, ‘why don’t you tell me why we had to lose out on our ticket money? I didn’t even get to play a single game! All I got was one mojito and a couple of chicken tikkas! And I still don’t even know who Liza is.’
‘Why don’t we find a quiet bar?’ I said, thinking that it might be good to confide in someone so unflappable. ‘And I’ll tell you the whole story.’
Chapter 11
Waking up next to Dennis was surprisingly nice. It felt even better than I had imagined. He was still sleeping, lost in a happy dream, perhaps, as I saw the sides of his mouth quiver in a smile. So, wrapping a bed-sheet around me, I slipped away and tiptoed to the bathroom. Fortunately we were at his hotel, so I would be spared more curious looks from Maggie the receptionist at Hotel Delite. She already had a dubious impression of me. If I had arrived with a strange man in tow last night, I would have been surely damned for life.
I didn’t quite remember our journey back to his hotel as I had dozed off in the cab. But the rest of the night (or early morning, to be more precise) had passed by in a sensuous embrace, and deserved an encore. It had been a long time since I had felt so relaxed and euphoric.
As I looked around for my clothes, and picked up my handbag, I saw the familiar flashing red light on my phone. We had been so busy that I wouldn’t have noticed it earlier. That part of me which was still floating on air hoped that it would be a friend greeting me, because the next day was Christmas Eve.
I was suddenly filled with dread. I picked up the phone and sat down on a chair next to the bed again, suddenly unable to move.
What if . . .?
I didn’t want to complete the sentence. The experience at the casino had made me realize once again that Vinay Gupta was a very dangerous man. Whatever Liza had done to annoy him might have been considered intolerable. Was that why Vicky had become so nervous when she had looked at Liza’s photograph? Or was she jealous because Curtis had also been involved with Liza, albeit in a crass and brutal manner?
I stared down at the phone again, and finally, saying a silent prayer, opened the message. As I feared, it said ‘number withheld’. A chill went through me.
I clicked on the accompanying video, dreading what I would find.
It was again a video of Liza. She was with a group of around eight people. It was a rather raucous cocktail party from the sound and look of it.
On closer examination I realized that one of the men was Vinay Gupta. Could this have been shot on the ship, or at the beach shack? It was difficult to tell.
Vinay had an arm around Liza. They weren’t really talking very much to each other, but both had drinks in their hands and were sharing a cigarette. He pulled her towards him and made her sit on his lap and began kissing her, pressing her close to him. A 60-year-old man feeling up a 16-year-old girl. It was not a pretty sight.
They were the only two people I could immediately recognize in the video, as the lens was focused on them. I would have to play it again on a computer, at a larger size, to see the others clearly.
It was a shaky, short clip, only about two minutes long.
But looking at it, all the pleasure I had felt after waking up next to Dennis emptied out of my mind. Who had sent this to me?
Could it have been Vicky? I had spoken to her about Liza last night and then this video of her boss molesting Liza, in full public view, arrives on my phone. It was certainly an odd coincidence.
I lit a cigarette and watched the video once more. This tiny film changed everything. What I had suspected for a while was now clear: I had located the master puppeteer. The shadowy figure I had been searching for. The link between Liza, Curtis, Vicky, Vishnu, Veeramma, Fernando, and countless others on the beach. Even the police.
This man owned the beach, and decided the punishments, doling out his own form of justice, when, for instance, Vishnu had made the mistake of protecting Liza.
This man, who had the power to run the government, now demonstrated enough hubris to molest a young girl, knowing he would get away with it. If anyone had to pay the price, it would be Liza, unless she showed unswerving loyalty towards him, like Vicky did. Had Liza fallen out of favour some
how and had to ‘disappear’? Vicky’s nervousness had alerted me finally to the possibility that Liza might not be alive at all.
She wouldn’t have looked so anxious if Liza was safe and well, and had simply run away. Did Marian know about this? Was this something else about which she had made a bargain to keep from me?
‘What’s happened?’
I snapped out of my thoughts and found that Dennis was looking at me perplexed. ‘Has Mr Moustache been in touch with you?’ he asked, stretching out on the bed, and leaning towards me. I was startled at how close he was to guessing the truth.
‘Not really. In fact, I have no idea who it’s from. I told you about these mysterious messages and videos I keep getting. This is not the kind of thing you want to see before breakfast, but if you want to take a look . . .’
Dennis reached out to take the phone from me. ‘Sure. Now that you’ve told me so much, I’m intrigued. I didn’t know things like this happened here – though it depends on the company you keep, I guess.’
Perhaps I could find some consolation in his statement. Maybe I was even relieved that this kind of occurrence was not routine in Goa.
Dennis knew Goa much better than I did, having spent the first few decades of his life here, before leaving to study and work in Mumbai. But whenever he returned home he enjoyed mingling with the international crowd on the beaches in North Goa, before he caught up with his parents, who lived in the south of the tiny state. The area around Anjuna reminded him of his own slightly wild youth, he said, before he became a card-carrying member of the hard-working middle classes.
He particularly liked being where I had first encountered him, with the ageing flower children and the hippies, but he equally enjoyed the quieter, more culturally rich, family-friendly atmosphere of Benaulim, another small Goan village. His father was an artist and his mother a well-known fashion designer who had brought out a very successful range of Indo-Portuguese fusion clothes. Yes, through him I was definitely learning about another side to Goa, while alas, I was introducing him to a much darker aspect than he had imagined.
Sea of Innocence Page 17