‘No! I would not have told you had I planned to actually do it.’
Benevolence returned to his face.
‘You are a good lad,’ he said.
‘Tell me if there is a place where they buy goodness. I will go there and sell my goodness for twenty-five petis.’
‘Why do you need twenty-five lakhs so urgently?’
‘It’s a long story. You won’t enjoy hearing it, I won’t enjoy telling it.’ Jeet Singh finished his drink. ‘Now shall I say good night and scram?’
‘Stay for a while. Deal or no deal, at least have another drink on my insistence.’ He paused and then said, ‘On my order.’
‘Fine.’
Rajaram ordered a fresh round of drinks and paid the bill when the waiter came to serve them.
‘This is a very big project,’ he said in a low but sincere and steady voice, ‘and a lot of money needs to be spent on it beforehand. I have laid everything I have on this. I can’t tell you what will happen to me if I fail. The expenses in handling all of it are so high that even I am not sure exactly how much will be spent. Things would be clearer by day after tomorrow. Only then will I be able to tell you how much would be left with me after meeting all the expenses. And only then can I give a final answer whether I can meet your demand for the advance or not. I pledge in the name of Lord Ganpati, I wouldn’t lie to you and would fulfil your demand if I could. I am older than you and for the sake of my old age I urge you, please don’t change your mind if I fail to fulfil your demand. Nobody walks around with twenty-five peti in hand. I can’t arrange the money for you before tomorrow evening even if I agree to pay the advance. You would have your complete fee by Monday morning if everything goes as per plan. So, it’s just a matter of two days. Badri, you wait for my response regarding the advance till day after tomorrow evening. If I give a positive response, you’ll get twenty-five lakhs in advance and the rest after the work. If you don’t get a positive response, if I fail to give you the advance, then I will give you one crore as your fee after the success of the project. Now say yes as a favour to me or I’ll drop the project here and now. The expenses I have made till now, like the fee for the informer, the fake camera crew, stuntmen, etc., would be written off as a loss but I can’t do anything about it as I am certain only you could open that vault. I won’t succeed in it if you are not with me. Now tell me, what do you say?’
Jeet Singh remained silent.
‘I had a gut feeling that I could trust you, that’s why I did not hide anything, and told you everything as it is. Otherwise I could have omitted important names and facts. I could have told you the story without taking Behramji Contractor’s name, without talking about the Mumbai-Goa highway and without naming the amount that was at stake. You said you could go to Behramji Contractor and collect some kind of reward in lieu of the info extended and you think I’m so dumb that the possibility wouldn’t occur to me! Still I did not hide these details from you because I had a firm belief that you would never use this information for some petty, selfish ends. Tell me if I’ve made a mistake in laying my faith in you, have I?’
Jeet Singh shook his head.
‘So, what do you say now?’
‘I will wait for your call regarding the advance, and I will work with you even if you fail to pay the advance.’
‘Thank you. Thank you, Badri.’
Rajaram got up and warmly shook hands with him, nearly embracing him in that act.
‘Now you leave,’ he said, ‘I will call Ghumre to pick me up.’
‘Who’s Ghumre?’
‘Anil Ghumre, my bodyguard.’
‘How long has he been with you?’
‘Why do you ask?’
‘For no particular reason. You can refuse to answer. I just asked because we have to do things together in the coming days. Probably with him also.’
‘Oh! This is his first day with me.’
‘So you felt the need for a bodyguard only today?’
‘Oh no, there was one with me earlier, but I had some issues with him. Like he was not as alert, attentive and watchful as I expected him to be. I fired him and engaged Ghumre.’
‘What was he doing before you engaged him?’
‘I don’t know. He didn’t tell me, nor did I ask.’
‘ok, fine. Good night then.’
Rajaram nodded.
Jeet Singh emptied his glass and stepped out of the cabin.
‘Bloody emotional idiot,’ Rajaram mumbled to himself, ‘convinced by a cock-and-bull sob story. Forget the advance, fool, you won’t get anything even after the show.’
Jeet Singh approached the bar.
And confronted the barman, Kirpekar.
‘What did you see?’ he asked in a low voice, bending a bit towards him over the counter.
‘I recognized that man,’ Kirpekar said in a similar voice.
‘Good! Who is he?’
‘Anil Ghumre. A tapori, always ready to take up any type of assignment.’
‘How do you know him?’
‘He frequently visits this place. When laid off, he always asks me to spread the word around that he is looking for work.’
‘He is a friend of yours then?’
‘Well, he is, more or less; an acquaintance, if not a friend.’
‘He never settles at one job?’
‘He never gets his hands on a steady job. Nobody gives him one. He’s like a casual worker.’
‘The guy he was with just hired him today. Do you know who he was with earlier?’
‘No.’
‘Can you find out?’
‘I will have to ask him.’
‘Will he tell?’
‘He may.’
‘Then try asking him. Try to think of some other way also.’
‘ok.’
‘Where does he live?’
‘Chuna Bhatti, Mangaldas Lodge on the Swadeshi Mill Road. He lives on the second floor there. He has the last room on the far corner of the stairs.’
‘How do you know all this?’
‘I used to live there once, in the adjoining room.’
‘What about the other fellow?’
‘What about him?’
‘You saw his face?’
‘Yes, just now. You have your back that way but I can see behind your back. He is leaving. Ghumre is with him.’
‘Know him?’
‘No.’
‘He was the one who chose this place for a meeting. He must be already familiar with this place.’
‘Maybe so, I might not have noticed him. Or he might have come during my off-duty hours.’
‘Hmm. Mangaldas Lodge, Swadeshi Mill Road, Chuna Bhatti, Dharavi?’
‘Yes.’
‘Thank you.’
He reached Chuna Bhatti.
He faced no difficulty in finding Swadeshi Mill Road, and then Mangaldas Lodge there.
There it was confirmed that the information he got at the bar was correct.
He came out of the lodge and made a call to Gailo’s mobile.
‘Where are you?’ he asked when Gailo answered.
‘Lower Parel, in front of Chetna Restaurant.’
‘You are tailing him?’
‘Yes.’
‘I wondered whether you’ll be able to reach Paramount Bar in time or not.’
‘I reached in time.’
‘He’s in?’
‘Yes.’
‘And the bodyguard, too?’
‘Yes.’
‘Since when?’
‘They reached just five minutes back.’
‘What was he doing before that?’
‘He went to somebody’s house at Worli. Now he is in a meeting with some other fellow.’
‘If he reached there just five minutes back and is in a meeting then maybe he’ll stay for some time!’
‘He’ll stay for quite a long time if you ask me.’
‘Is the bodyguard sitting with him in the meeting?’
‘No, he is at a s
eparate table.’
‘Fine! Now listen carefully.’
‘I am all ears.’
‘Summon a friendly cabbie’s taxi for Pardesi. Tell him that from now onwards he has to operate alone and focus on the employer of the bodyguard—the name is Rajaram Lokhande. He should not follow the bodyguard when he is free from his duty but he then must give me a call immediately.’
‘I don’t understand this. You don’t want the bodyguard to be tailed! But earlier you said the bodyguard was the one that counted!’
‘He is, he is. But it so happens that the purpose for which we were planning to tail him is already served.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Gailo, I now know his name and address.’
‘You don’t say! You know all that already?’
‘I had a chance to.’
‘But how …’
‘I will tell you when we meet. You meet me in your taxi at the local train station of Lower Parel. I need your taxi.’
‘Especially?’
‘The taxi has some special stuff in it for which I need the taxi.’
‘I am coming.’
Jeet Singh needed Gailo’s taxi because last night he had deposited his sardar disguise—fake beard and moustache, fifty, turban—in the glove compartment of the taxi. He checked the glove compartment when Gailo came and was relieved to find it all there.
From Crawford Market, he picked up his fancy, costly and rare, German toolkit.
‘What’s the pitch?’ Gailo asked in a worried tone.
Jeet Singh explained it.
Gailo’s eyes popped out of their sockets.
‘You … you,’ he said, ‘you’re going to get your goose cooked.’
‘I don’t care. What I care about is that I’ve got to have my revenge from the fellows who conned us last night and I will do this come hell or high water.’
‘But we won’t get the money back like this.’
‘So what? At least I’ll have the consolation that I took my revenge. I didn’t withdraw in poor grace like a dog with his tail between his legs.’
‘You are right, but this is a big thing now. This is a Mehboob Firangi thing now. What if it backfires?’
‘We will see. We will face the consequences.’
‘All right.’
The rest of the journey to Chuna Bhatti was covered in silence.
Jeet Singh opened the lock of Ghumre’s room in Mangaldas Lodge in a jiffy. Both of them entered the room. Gailo closed the door behind them while Jeet Singh located the switchboard and switched on the light.
It was a small room with nothing except a single box bed, a ramshackle wooden almirah, one table, one stool and two chairs. In the rear of the room, there was a 5'×4' doorless kitchen, and an even smaller bathroom.
‘We need to hide this toolkit,’ Jeet Singh said in a low voice, ‘and the plastic bag with the sardar disguise stuff at such a place here that these items are recovered only after a thorough search. It must not happen that Ghumre returns and he’s the one who easily locates them.’
Both of them looked around for a proper place. Jeet Singh went into the bathroom. The flush in the bathroom was old fashioned, comprising a cast iron overhead cistern that operated on pulling a chain attached to it. Jeet Singh pulled the chain, but nothing happened. He fetched a stool from the room, stepped on it and removed the lid to look inside.
‘This is out of order, God knows since how long,’ he said. ‘The inside of the cistern is totally dry. He must be managing things with a mug and bucket. We can use this place to hide the stuff.’
‘But Jeete, your toolkit is expensive … say, how much is it worth?’
‘Fifty thousand bucks.’
‘You will lose it.’
‘I don’t care. You lose some to gain some. All I want is to fix these bastards, who robbed us of the fruits of our labour, fooled us and humiliated us.’
‘The first one will be fixed by virtue of what we are doing. What about the second one?’
‘The second one will get his due, courtesy this guy. But we can talk about these things later. Let’s finish the task in hand and leave.’
Jeet Singh cautiously placed both the things in the cistern, closed it with the lid like before, and placed the stool at its original position after cleaning it of his shoe marks. They came out after switching off the light.
‘Now, we have to attend to the lock,’ Jeet Singh said while closing the door.
He took out the same twisted wire from his pocket he had used in opening the lock. It took him even lesser time in locking it again. They then left the place silently, and reached Gailo’s taxi parked on the main road at a distance from the building.
Jeet Singh took out his mobile and dialled Mangesh Gable’s number.
The bell rang for a long time before the call was answered.
‘What is it?’ he grumbled. ‘Who is this?’
‘Jeet Singh here.’
‘Jeet Singh who?’
‘The one with whom you exchanged your number in the morning at Byculla on the orders of Big Boss.’
‘Is this a time to call?’
‘I was not given a timetable indicating when to call and when not.’
‘What do you want?’
‘I don’t want anything. It’s Big Boss who wants it.’
‘Stop talking in riddles.’
‘I will when you let me. All you’re doing yet is objecting to my calling. If you have a problem listening to me, I’ll hang up.’
‘Don’t you dare.’
‘Fine, I won’t.’
‘Did you find out the address of any skilled lockbuster like you?’
‘I have accomplished a bigger feat.’
‘What?’
‘I found out the address of one of those two fellows who started this whole trouble.’
‘Be a bit more specific.’
‘I have found out the address of one of the two guys who hit the vault, busted the locker and got away with Big Boss’ stuff.’
‘What?’
‘Yes, I have the address of the ace lockman who opened the vault.’
‘I hope for your sake that you’re not handing me a line.’
‘No, never. Don’t I know that that’d be suicidal?’
‘Who is he? Where’s he to be found?’
‘I will tell Big Boss.’
‘What did you say?’
‘Boss, haven’t I done a remarkable job? It must be rewarded or not? And who else other than the big boss will give the reward?’
‘What reward do you want?’
‘I want nothing special, except the regular fee given for such things all over the world.’
‘Finder’s fee!’
‘I think that’s what it is called.’
‘You bastard, you want ten per cent of the stuff?’
‘Boss, isn’t it customary? Big Boss will happily give it to me. I will talk to him, you’ll see …’
‘He can’t be disturbed in the middle of the night.’
‘So?’
‘Give me the information. I will tell him at the appropriate time.’
‘Fine. Boss, your stuff was robbed, and you only know what it was and how much was it worth. If I become the reason for its recovery, then I don’t think the big boss will have any objection to the ten per cent payment being the finder’s fee.’
‘You know where the stuff is?’
‘No, but I know the person who knows where the stuff is. The person I have information about is an expert vault-buster and his task was to open the locker, which he did perfectly. I don’t know how much he got for this job. Probably you’ll get to know this from the other fellow, who planned the heist and who has the stuff in his possession currently.’
‘But you don’t know about the other fellow?’
‘I have the information about the first one. You can get hold of him, give him a dose of your special treatment and he will sing like a canary.’
‘Hmm. Give m
e his name and address.’
‘But what about my reward?’
‘You’ll get that from Big Boss.’
‘When?’
‘Come tomorrow morning at nine to the same old place in Byculla where you were taken by Ehsaan and Om Raje. Big Boss will be there at that time, and you’ll collect your reward. Now tell me what I asked.’
‘His name is Anil Ghumre. His address is Mangaldas Lodge, Swadeshi Mill Road, Chuna Bhatti, Dharavi.’
‘Ghumre! Is he a Maratha?’
‘Yes.’
‘But that clerk Murli Cherat told us some sardar did it?’
‘Boss, did I not look like a sardar after the make-up yesterday morning?’
‘That you did.’
‘You can have Murli Cherat there tomorrow so that …’
‘Now don’t push it. I also have some brains.’
‘You must have more than that. After all a fellow needs to be smart and responsible to become the lieutenant of a big boss like Mehboob Firangi. You are definitely smart but I have one little doubt.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Boss, there is a chance that the bird might have flown the coop by the time you try to get hold of him in the morning.’
‘Are you out of your mind? I will get hold of him now. Tomorrow morning he will be standing before the big boss.’
‘Sorry, boss, I missed even such an obvious thing. Just one more thing, boss. Have his room searched as well. Who knows the briefcase might be there, or some of the stuff from the briefcase might be there. Or something else might be there confirming his involvement in the heist.’
‘You talk too much. I have had enough of it. Now end the call.’
Jeet Singh ended the call and put the mobile back in his pocket. He then turned towards Gailo, gave him a wicked smile and said, ‘So?’
‘You have made a dangerous move, Jeete,’ Gailo said with concern, ‘that fellow is going to meet a bad end.’
‘I don’t give two hoots. Why should we be worried about bad things happening to those who made much worse things happen to us?’
‘You have a point there,’ Gailo said with a sigh.
Suddenly Gailo’s phone rang. He looked at the screen.
‘David Pardesi is calling,’ he said to Jeet Singh, ‘will you talk to him or should I?’
‘You talk to him.’
‘ok!’
Gailo spent the next couple of minutes talking to Pardesi over the phone.
The Colaba Conspiracy Page 23