Sea of Innocence

by Desai, Kishwar

  And that fear, this time, was completely justified.

  Walking in now was the duo who had probably stalked Marian to her death. The two tall mystery men who had a habit of appearing at awkward moments. The gremlins. Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

  Raman and Joseph.

  Their look of annoyance was probably matched only by my look of utter contempt. Theirs could not be a friendly visit, as now I was quite sure it was they who had been here before and left in such a rush. While I wasn’t completely sure if they were the killers, I realized that, even if they were willing to let us go, Dennis and I could not leave them alone with Stanley. Having arranged the vanishing of his daughters, they might now want to attack this harmless man.

  How would he react when he found out what they had done? Would there be an altercation? I was sure the two men must be carrying guns, as they had the annoying swagger of self-righteousness. What gave them the authority to break into a woman’s home, possibly murder her, and still look smug?

  But I decided to keep my tone as light-hearted as that of Stanley.

  We had to pretend that we knew nothing, that ours was an innocent visit – and then we had to exit fast, hopefully along with Stanley.

  ‘We dropped in to see her, actually,’ I told Stanley. ‘But the bad news is that she’s not here.’ I injected a carefree tone into my voice, and waved a hand towards the two men, who, after being taken aback by our presence, had dismissed us with a glance and were now rather rapidly looking around the room.

  ‘I don’t think we’ve met,’ I said to them. I couldn’t help adding, ‘But I think I saw you at the hotel yesterday’ Then I glanced hopefully at Stanley, who understood the cue.

  ‘This young lady says she doesn’t know who you are. Simran, please meet Mr Raman and Mr Joseph, Mr Vinay Gupta’s right-hand men. And left-hand men,’ Stanley said smoothly, as though he were having a laugh. I shot him a quick look, wondering if he were quite as naive as he appeared to be. I also noticed that he no longer looked like he was flying without wings.

  ‘Great to meet you.’ I shook their hands, trying to appear enthusiastic. I hoped they did not remember my triumphant expression as I had passed them by in the hotel lobby after Marian had escaped to the beach. Again, it could have all happened a century ago, and I regretted feeling so exultant. It was always a mistake to taunt men who closely resembled the bouncers in the casino.

  Their faces were expressionless once more. Perhaps they could even kill someone while maintaining that aloof demeanour. I thought of Liza’s cold-blooded rape on the beach by two men whose faces were obscured. Was it them?

  It could certainly be part of their job description.

  I now had to give them a reason for our presence here. But I knew I couldn’t mention Liza. That would be like showing a red rag to a pair of bulls.

  ‘Have you seen Marian?’ I asked them, as innocently as I could, thinking rapidly of an important enough reason for our wanting to meet her. ‘Dennis and I plan to get married, so I thought we could get an auspicious date from her.’

  I hoped it sounded plausible, and I tried not to look at Dennis as I said it.

  I could feel him shooting me a very quizzical look, but he fell into line with the practised ease of a seasoned actor.

  ‘And also,’ he added, ‘to find out whether we should do both – a Hindu wedding and a Christian one. She told us to come today. We must know if the stars agree with us, since we have fallen madly in love.’

  He sounded crazy about me alright, as he gave me a besotted look and reached out to press my hand.

  If I hadn’t been so tense, and upset both about Marian and Liza, I would have burst out laughing.

  Stanley shrugged. ‘I already told Simran this morning that I haven’t seen her since last night.’

  Raman and Joseph shook their heads.

  ‘The boss received a message which was a little worrying; he wants to meet her, too, so we came here,’ said Raman, looking anything but worried.

  Did the message Vinay Gupta received include the last video? Were they trying to cover their tracks, hinting that someone else had killed Marian?

  Stanley put up his hands. ‘I wish I could help you, but without Internet or a phone, you know I have no idea about messages or anything like that. Usually we meet every morning. I wanted to know why she didn’t show up today—’

  But he wasn’t allowed to complete his sentence. It seemed that the two men did not want Stanley to speak freely in front of us. Though he had indicated to me earlier in the day that he found them ridiculous, the reality was that no one could mess with Vinay Gupta or his men.

  ‘Stanley, as you know, we must check the apartment. Orders from the boss,’ Joseph interjected – pointing firmly towards the bedroom.

  They were like Siamese twins – all their actions were synchronized, as though they had been programmed beforehand.

  Looking at them carefully, I said, ‘We found Marian’s cat locked outside. The poor thing was hot and hungry. We just gave her some milk. Please don’t shut her out.’ I almost added ‘again’.

  But there was no change in their expression – they nodded and gazed impassively back at us. One of them started walking towards the bedroom. There was no thought of waiting for permission from Marian’s father. In fact they gestured that he should follow them.

  I realized that we couldn’t really help Stanley as he would have to stay here till they found out all they needed. I wondered if they would show him the video and what would happen if they did so.

  Reluctantly I decied to leave. I needed to find out more about Marian’s death and I had a few ideas who might have been involved in it. But it would be best to execute my plan while the two men were still busy in Marian’s home. I didn’t want them to find out about whom I planned to meet, as it could get very dangerous for all of us.

  ‘Oh well,’ I said. ‘We better go. I’d be grateful if you could tell Marian we are looking for her desperately. We really need to see her to sort out our wedding plans.’

  There was safety in seeming blissfully ignorant.

  Getting into a taxi and speeding back to my hotel, I couldn’t help worrying about Stanley. Knowing of my concern for his safety, Dennis had another brilliant idea. He seemed to be on good form today.

  ‘I’m going to call up some of those flower children you saw the other day at Stanley’s celebration and tell them the Afghan stash has been found in Marian’s apartment,’ said Dennis, giving me a wicked wink. ‘Believe me, it will start a riot and those two guys will have to leave really fast, unless they want to get stoned. Literally. These former hippies are very dedicated to the finding of a good stash, and if we say Stanley wants everyone to share it, they will go berserk. Not even guns will deter them. So the – what did you call them? – gremlins will have to parachute out and their boss will hate them for it.’

  Dennis almost chortled as he said that. Gradually I began to feel better.

  He made a quick phone call to two of the best known ‘Goa Freaks’, Jimmy and Diane, now running a respectable restaurant in a village close by, and told them about the ‘exciting’ discovery, finally, of Stanley’s legendary stash comprising large quantities of opium and marijuana. He said Stanley was eagerly waiting to share it with all his wonderful friends.

  As Stanley expected, they were thrilled and said they would immediately spread the word and head to Marian’s flat. Their excitement at recreating the old times when they used to be together for days, shooting heroin and sharing bongs, was palpable.

  I watched Dennis with amazement, smiling at the sheer impudence of his plan. Marian’s flat overrun with ageing white flower children scouring the apartment as they hunted for the stash would scare the gremlins out of their complacency.

  ‘Fantastic news! The golden stash has been found! Pure Afghan! Bring out the bongs!’ I could hear them sound the war cry. I finally allowed myself to laugh over what would happen to those two men in their perfectly creased trousers when a bunc
h of ancient hairy hippies and their dreamy women arrived at the apartment. At least Stanley would be safe in all that confusion.

  And then I focused on getting in touch with that one person who could help me find out more about Liza’s recent reappearance and those videos.

  Finally, after a lot of introspection, and very hesitantly, I sent Vicky a message. It was a huge risk: after her behaviour at the casino, she might well betray my confidence. But I had little choice.

  ‘Please help. Marian has been in a serious accident, has disappeared. We really need to talk about Liza. Thanks, Simran.’

  I kept my fingers crossed that she would respond quickly, banking on her still being somewhere in the area.

  And luckily she got back to me almost straight away: ‘Will meet in half an hour, but I’ll come to your hotel. Send me the details. Meet in the room, we must not be seen together. Please delete this message.’

  Dennis and I took a cab back to the hotel, and suddenly realized that we were both terrifically hungry. We had forgotten about lunch completely, and ordered a quick fish and chips, along with a large bottle of chilled beer.

  I lit a cigarette as I sat down to absorb the events of the day. So much had happened so quickly since my morning meeting with Stanley. In just a few hours everything was topsy-turvy. Now that the adrenalin was no longer pumping through me, I felt seriously depressed over the fact that Marian was dead, and we were no closer to finding Liza, even though we had a lot of information on the possible criminal activity behind the disappearance of the two girls.

  ‘I still don’t understand why Amarjit dragged you into this,’ said Dennis. ‘They had all the evidence, all the videos, so why didn’t they take any action? By now Vinay Gupta and those gremlins would be behind bars.’

  ‘Don’t you see, there is nothing anyone can actually accuse Vinay Gupta of. He is seen only in one video with Liza, and even though that is quite incriminating, he could claim that it was faked. Or that Liza had told him she was eighteen years old. Or that she was a prostitute. That happens often enough, and usually the men get away with it. This story needs to be pieced together and only an eyewitness can do that. These videos have shown us the way, and are crucial, but Liza is seen to have been raped for certain, only by those unidentified men. We must be very careful to get some real results.’

  I took another drag of the cigarette, and got up to pace about.

  ‘Besides, I have dealt with enough cases to know that, even when it is easy to join the dots, the moment there is a powerful politician involved, no one will lift a finger. This guy is well-connected and that’s why Amarjit wanted to bypass the local police and call me in. These two men, Raman and Joseph, had been keeping an eye on Marian and she was on the run from them. I think they have also been stalking me, right from the moment Amarjit met me in Goa. They knew something was up, and their job probably is to prevent any dirt surfacing about their boss. They have to wipe out all traces of his connection with Liza, and when Marian seemed to getting out of hand – she escaped from the hotel yesterday, while they were waiting in the lobby – they most likely got nervous and eliminated her too. This morning was just an act, pretending that they had come in, just as we had, and that they merely wanted to look around. They might have wanted to wipe out any evidence of the murder, as well as checking if there was anything more to link their boss with the girls. It was just their bad luck that we were there, and so was Stanley. And by now of course, the apartment will be swarming with happy hippies.’

  ‘Or not-so-happy ones,’ interjected Dennis with a smile. ‘Once they find out that there was no stash after all. But at least the gremlins won’t be able to do anything to Stanley while those guys are there.’

  I tried to smile too, and then went back to contemplating the case.

  ‘Basically, it’s quite clear that Gupta panicked once the videos were sent out. And then I turned up and started asking questions about Liza, everyone had forgotten about her. Gupta had probably stopped the local police from investigating Liza’s disappearance for a whole year. Amarjit inadvertently started the ball rolling once these videos surfaced by asking me to step in.’

  ‘So where do you think these videos came from? And why?’ Dennis asked thoughtfully.

  ‘I still don’t know who shot them and actually sent them out. But obviously someone wants us to know, or at least think, that Liza is alive because the videos were sent from her account. If you keep putting out rumours that someone has been sighted, no one will really believe that person is dead. Most would believe that she’s run away. So let’s imagine the following scenario: these guys molest and intimidate Liza. She vanishes, or runs away. Then one day, she decides to come back and take revenge. And so she sends out the videos. Some of them contain incriminating or lewd shots of a senior minister. Someone in the government then gets worried and asks Amarjit to find out quietly if the girl is still alive and what has happened to her. Equally quickly, Vinay Gupta arrives in Goa to squash any inquiries. So they threaten Marian, but she doesn’t give up. Then they tell her that her passport will be returned to her only if she calls off the inquiry. She falls for it, but then for some reason they panic and kill her too.

  ‘So these are the things we still don’t know: Firstly where is Liza? Her email is being used but we still don’t know if someone is just using her identity to send out those videos, or if she is really alive. Secondly, why did Marian have to die, and did the murderers take away her body? Or was it simply washed out to sea? And who killed her? Thirdly, who made these videos and why are they surfacing after a year? Except for Marian’s video, which was obviously made just yesterday.’

  ‘Unless . . . unless,’ Dennis said slowly, ‘they are all fake. They have been filmed with actors, by someone who wanted to let everyone know what had happened. Someone who had seen everything. And is telling us the whole story, through these videos.’

  ‘But after a whole year? And let’s not forget that some of the videos have real people in them, not actors. I have actually met Curtis D’Silva and Vicky, and we know that Vinay Gupta was in another one. As were the gremlins. No, I don’t buy that. Someone had these videos for a whole year and has brought them out now. That’s the important part. The clue lies in the timing.’

  ‘But I still don’t see why they couldn’t get even the central bureau to investigate.’

  ‘With a minister involved, the investigation has to be personal and discreet, which is why Amarjit was thrilled that I was here at the right time. Someone at central-government level obviously wants to make sure that Vinay Gupta is not seen to be involved in Liza’s disappearance. As Amarjit told me at the start, in Scarlett Keeling’s case the suspicion that politicians were involved made it all much more murky, and it affected the image of Goa. I know they should investigate this more carefully, because of the human tragedy involved, but in a high-profile case like this there are many other factors . . .

  ‘One could be Gupta’s own importance in the government. Gupta is crucial, since his party is one of the coalition partners of the government. If he gets done for rape or murder it could affect the stability of the government; after all, according to the latest reports he is headed to become the Home Minister. It’s a very crucial post. He must know the secrets of every politician, and it will be dangerous if he has some skeletons in his own cupboard. He would then be open to blackmail. It is important to remove all evidence of possible transgressions. That would mean the removal of Liza and now Marian.’

  Just as I lit another cigarette, there was a diffident knock at the door, and I quickly opened it, so Vicky could slip in. She walked in with a perfunctory nod, her body stiff with tension.

  She removed her dark glasses and then stared at Dennis.

  ‘You’re here too?’ She remembered him from our fracas aboard the Tempest.

  ‘Don’t worry. He’s my boyfriend and everything you tell us will be in complete confidence.’ I tried to sound as gentle as I could. I needed her trust.

&nbs
p; Dennis pretended to look a little disappointed at my words. Since I had announced our marriage in the morning, he no doubt wanted to retain his superior status as my fiancé, not just boyfriend. He gave me a rueful look, as Vicky put her handbag on the bed and settled down.

  I couldn’t help feeling a little guilty about what would happen next.

  Vicky didn’t know that my laptop camera had been turned on, and everything she said would be recorded. This could be a crucial meeting, and I would need every bit of evidence to prove what had happened to both Liza and Marian.

  ‘I have bad news.’ I came straight to the point, because I thought it was best to unsettle Vicky first.

  I took out my phone and played the video of Marian lying on the rocks. Her crumpled body and head wound did not make pleasant viewing at all.

  Not surprisingly, Vicky lost her composure and turned visibly pale.

  ‘Is she . . . is she . . . dead?’

  ‘None of us know, because the body hasn’t been found as yet. We went to check and she seems to have disappeared. Just like Liza.’

  Vicky closed her eyes in obvious distress. Perhaps this was what she feared the most.

  ‘Do you think Vinay Gupta or his henchmen might be involved?’ I asked her gently.

  ‘Perhaps in Liza’s case . . . I’ve suspected some involvement, but Marian’s murder – I’m not sure . . .’ She stumbled over her words, obviously wondering how far she should go. There was little doubt that Vinay Gupta would let loose not just the gremlins, but the hounds of hell on her if she stepped out of line.

  I felt really sorry for her. This was a life from which there was no escape. Once she became Vinay Gupta’s mistress and confidante that was what she would remain. All her future promotions – her whole life – revolved around him, while he maintained his image as a family man with a plump wife and three children. As a politician of prime importance. A minister.

  It did not matter that Vicky was the same age as one of his daughters. Or that she went on holidays with him pretending to be his wife. Ultimately none of that mattered.