He hesitatingly scanned the room. His eyes stopped at Jeet Singh and Cherat for a moment, then he shook his head.
‘Idiot! Don’t you recognize Gable who brought you here last night?’ roared Firangi.
‘I… I do … recog- … nize him …’
‘Bloody idiot,’ he moved his gaze to Cherat, ‘do you recognize this fellow?’
An intimidated Cherat shook his head hesitatingly.
‘What about you?’ Firangi asked Jeet Singh.
‘Boss,’ Jeet Singh said in a low voice, ‘I want to say this in your ear.’
‘What?’
‘Please, boss, I want to say this in your ear.’
‘Say it in Gable’s ear. Gable!’
Gable nodded, and came close to Jeet Singh.
‘He is the biggest lockman after me,’ said Jeet Singh in a hushed up voice. ‘I don’t do these things now, so anybody who needs a lockman to bust vaults or safes, goes to him. He is in high demand these days.’
‘And?’
‘He has a whole gang behind him. He will get me killed if I say these things before him.’
‘He won’t be able to do that after this.’
‘Still, boss, I don’t want to take chances. He is a dangerous man … I want to stay away from him.’
‘And?’
‘He is an expert in disguises. Always puts on a new disguise before doing a job—like this time he did it in a sardar’s disguise.’
‘Anything else?’
‘No.’
Gable left him there, walked close to Big Boss and whispered in his ear.
Firangi’s expressions changed. He looked at Ghumre with a more enquiring look.
Ghumre shrank before Firangi’s gaze.
‘Take this stuff,’ Firangi said indicating towards the turban, beard, etc., ‘and turn him into a sardar.’
Gable lifted all of it, and approached Ghumre. Mirchu brought a chair on his indication, and pushed Ghumre into it. Gable took the beard and handed over the rest to Mirchu.
‘Raise your head,’ ordered Gable.
‘But,’ pleaded Ghumre, ‘why me …’
Gable gave him a tight slap. Jeet Singh saw tears in his eyes, and the impression of Gable’s fingers on his cheek once he turned back his head, which had jerked to a side by the force of the blow.
Ghumre dared not raise any objection after that.
The beard and the moustache had self-adhesive tape, which made it easier for Gable to stick them on Ghumre’s face. He then tied the fifty around his forehead and placed the turban on his head. Gable gave his face a last look, confirmed that everything was in place, and then made him stand up.
Mirchu immediately pulled the chair back.
Gable stepped away from him.
‘Turn your head to the right,’ ordered Firangi, ‘towards the window.’
A flabbergasted Ghumre turned his face towards the window with great effort .
‘Look at him, now,’ Firangi ordered Cherat.
Cherat started nodding in approval in a hurried manner.
Jeet Singh gave a sigh of relief. He was apprehensive Cherat may not do it, as promised last night. He had to work hard to convince him that both his and Jeet Singh’s lives were not completely out of danger till the people who conned them were exposed, held responsible for the whole heist episode, and punished, after recovery of Firangi’s stuff from their possession.
‘Don’t just move your head,’ Firangi said, ‘move your tongue, too.’
‘He is the one,’ said Cherat.
‘Which one?’
‘The one who opened locker 243 of the vault.’
‘No!’ Ghumre shouted, ‘No, it’s a lie …’
‘Gable, take off the turban and shove it in his mouth. And take his head off if he does not shut up even after that.’
Gable moved towards him.
Ghumre shut up immediately.
Gable still took off the turban, beard and fifty, and stood there with the turban in hand as if ready to really shove it down Ghumre’s throat, once ordered.
‘How do you know he was the one? You said the camera was not working and you could not see anything on the monitor. You are not there when somebody opens his vault. How the hell could you be so sure then?’
‘I am the one who receives the customers, boss. I accompany them up to the vault, and leave them there.’
‘Fine, but there were two fellows. How do you know he was the vault-buster?’
‘He was the one who had the toolkit in hand.’
Ghumre tried to say something but shut his mouth once he looked at Gable, who was giving him a demon-like look.
‘This is not enough to confirm that he was the vault-buster. He could be carrying it for the other fellow!’
‘Boss, I looked back once, while returning after showing them their locker. At that time I found the second person sitting on my chair, away from the lockers.’
‘Hmm.’
‘And the make-up must have been on the face of the other guy if he was the vault-buster. Or it must have been on the faces of both.’
‘Bloody smartass, was there no make-up on the face of the other fellow?’
‘No, boss, he was clean-shaven.’
‘Can you identify him by looking at his face?’
‘Yes, boss, like a shot.’
In reality, Cherat could not have identified the second person, for he had never seen his face. But Jeet Singh had convinced him that first, it was highly unlikely that he would be asked to identify the second fellow. And if at all he was asked to do it, he needed to simply nod to any second person brought up on the information given by Ghumre. As an additional precaution, Jeet Singh had described to him the features of the second fellow, whom he had seen as fake constable Ganpat Rao Tingre.
‘Great!’ Firangi said, then turned towards Ghumre, ‘Now, say what you were dying to say.’
‘This man is lying,’ Ghumre said as if crying. ‘He is doing this to fix me for some purpose. He is in cohorts with somebody who wants to do me harm. That same fellow planted the toolkit and the make-up stuff in my room and passed on the information to have it searched. This is a conspiracy and he is a part of it. I swear I never stepped inside the vault …’
He immediately shut up, realizing his blunder.
‘So, what did you do?’
‘Nothing, boss.’
‘So why did you say that you never stepped into the vault?’
‘Because this fellow is alleging that I did.’
‘So, you have nothing to do with anything that happened in the vault on the night before last?’
‘No, boss, I have nothing to do with it.’
‘Why did somebody pass the information about you to us? Why is somebody interested in seeing you framed?’
‘I don’t know, boss. I swear by Lord Ganpati I don’t know?’
‘Who is your partner?’
‘No one.’
‘Where is the briefcase?’
‘Which briefcase?’
‘Where is the stuff that was in it?’
‘I don’t know anything about any briefcase, any stuff.’
‘This is your final answer?’
‘This is my only answer.’
‘If you want to rethink, then this is the time.’
‘This is my honest answer. My God will give me justice and …’
‘No, no. I, not your God, will give you justice and that too now. Gable!’
‘Yes, boss!’ Gable said promptly.
‘Hold him, and take him to the next room. Take Ehsaan and Om Raje with you. You know what to do and how to do it, or shall I tell you … give you a lesson?’
‘I know it all, boss.’
‘He is a parrot, a singing parrot. You just heard the song he sang. Now take him with you and bring him back only when he has changed his tune, understand?’
‘Yes, boss. Come on, scumbag, let’s go.’
‘W-Where?’
‘Not too far. There is
a room in the back. We will all sing in chorus there.’
All three of them dragged Ghumre to the room in the back.
Big Boss lit a cheroot.
For the next five to seven minutes, strange sounds were heard from the back room, as if clothes were being washed at a dhobi ghat. Later, the door opened and Gable stepped out, massaging his right fist with his left hand’s fingers. Behind him were the other two crooks, holding Ghumre on either side. Gable returned to his earlier position, and both the thugs too followed suit after leaving Ghumre standing in front of the big boss.
Jeet Singh looked at him. His nose had swollen to twice its size, and there was a bleeding cut below his left eye. His face was a shade of violet now. There were bloodstains on his shirt and he stood there shaking like a tree in a storm.
‘What do you say now?’ asked Big Boss.
‘I am innocent,’ Ghumre said with effort, ‘I am being framed. I have done nothing. I am …’
‘Bloody lazy bastards,’ Firangi shouted at his goons, ‘won’t you ever learn know how to thrash a person? He is singing the same song he was singing before. Whom shall I give lesson to now—to him or to you idiots?’
‘Boss,’ Gable said earnestly, ‘back there he appeared eager to change his tune. But now … Let me take him back again. This time he will certainly …’
‘No need,’ said Firangi, and stood up, discarding his cheroot, ‘now I will handle him.’
‘But why you, boss?’
‘Why me, you say! Bloody idiots can’t thrash a person properly and ask me why me! Because I want to give you asses a demo. Now watch and learn something.’
‘Yes, boss.’
Firangi went and stood before Ghumre. He was so huge that Ghumre looked like a dwarf in front of him. He placed his hand on Ghumre’s chest and gave him a push. Ghumre collapsed on the floor. Firangi bent down and caught hold of both his legs. He straightened up, lifting Ghumre upside down by his legs. He walked to the nearby window, and dangled him out of it in midair, holding him by the legs. He did all of it without much effort, as if lifting a dead rat and preparing to throw it in the garbage. Ghumre found himself staring down at the road from a height of six storeyes.
‘Now tell me,’ Firangi said, ‘what do you have to say?’
‘Let go,’ Ghumre wailed, ‘let go.’
‘ok!’
Firangi let go of one leg.
‘No! no!’
‘But you just said let go!’
‘Forgive me!’ cried Ghumre, ‘I beg of you! Have mercy, boss!’
‘That your God will have, whom you just said will give you justice.’
‘No, please, I will tell you everything.’
‘Are you sure you will tell me everything?’
‘Yes, yes, yes.’
‘No stories, no lies, nothing to conceal, just the straight truth, no?’
‘Yes, yes.’
Firangi hauled him back inside and made him stand on his feet.
‘Give the fellow a chair, a towel, and some water,’ he ordered while going back to his executive chair.
A little later, Ghumre was sitting on a chair at his previous place, with a towel on his lap and holding a glass of water with both hands. Whenever he lifted the glass and tried to take a sip out of it, his trembling hands spilled more water on himself than he could drink.
‘Now I don’t need any story or dialogues,’ Big Boss ordered in a roaring voice, ‘I need the name and address of the guy who was with you that night, and who has my briefcase, my stuff.’
Ghumre could speak with great effort, but speak he did.
One hour later, Ghumre’s partner was in attendance in Firangi’s court with the briefcase. The man was none else but the fake constable Ganpat Rao Tingre of that night. He saw Ghumre in that shape, and immediately understood why the tables had turned. However, he maintained his cool despite that, which showed he was a man of courage. Even in that situation, he appeared to be calm and collected, no matter what was going on in his head. His facial expressions hinted to Jeet Singh that he was definitely aware of Firangi’s name and stature.
‘Speak your name,’ Firangi said in a stern voice.
‘Jamal Haideri, sir,’ he said with respect, slightly bowing his head.
‘Jamal Haideri! So you are the fellow who dared to mess with me?’
‘By coincidence, sir. In fact by my sheer bad luck, for I was not aware that the set-up belonged to you. Had I known it beforehand, I would not have dared go near it.’
By then Jeet Singh had also identified his Urdu-like dialect and style of speech. He spoke exactly like the man who wanted to engage him as a vault-buster, and who had called him many times for it.
So this was the mastermind who had first conned Gailo with the staged card game and duplicate Mangesh Gable to get access to his skills, and then conned both of them to rob them of the briefcase.
Firangi tried the lock on the briefcase and found it unlocked. He opened it and looked inside.
‘My money has not been disturbed,’ he said after briefly observing the contents, ‘did you count it?’
‘Yes, there are twenty-two wads of hundred dollars each. Two lakh twenty thousand dollars in total.’
‘Or one crore twenty lakh rupees. Did you imagine you would be able to lay your hands on so much money?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Why?’
‘There were two reasons. First, I never imagined the money would be in dollars, and second, I had no idea it belonged to a top don like you.’
‘What would you have done had you known before that it belonged to me?’
‘I would not have even thought about it, sir, not even once.’
Haideri was talking in a completely calm and composed manner, not a trace of fear in his voice, as if he was not Firangi’s accused, but his friend, exchanging notes with him on some finance matters.
‘You make lovely conversation. But the question is, what shall I do with you now?’
‘I am your subject, sir, let me go.’
‘Bravo!’
‘Sir, your money was recovered from us, but, believe me, we never laid our hands on your dough.’
‘Then whose dough did you aim at?’
‘Of the guys who planned the heist.’
‘Be a bit more specific.’
‘The people who busted the vault were different. We just busted them.’
‘He is making it all up,’ Jeet Singh whispered in Mangesh Gable’s ear, who was standing near him.
Gable nodded.
‘Then make him stop it, boss.’
‘I need not interfere, Big Boss understands everything.’
‘I don’t need your stories,’ Firangi said, as if confirming Gable’s train of thought. ‘I don’t need unnecessary details. I don’t need you passing the buck. Your partner pointed at you, and he did right, because my money was recovered from you. You can’t escape punishment …’
Then, for the first time, Haideri’s tone changed, and desperation surfaced.
‘Sir, please listen to me first …’
‘No, I won’t. There is nothing left to listen to. You will present your story to fool me, but I have no intention of being fooled.’
‘Sir, please do listen to me once …’
‘I want to make an example of you, so it is imperative that you be punished. Your punishment will be a deterrent to others. Nobody will dare mess with me again, or try to loot my stuff in the future after hearing what I did to you guys.’
‘But, sir …’
‘Take them away,’ Firangi ordered Gable. ‘He is fond of telling stories. Finish his story and his partner’s too.’
Four persons—Gable, Ehsaan, Om Raje and Mirchu—caught hold of Haideri and Ghumre, and took them out of the room.
There was pin-drop silence behind.
Jeet Singh and Cherat stood respectfully, bowing their heads.
‘Lockmaster,’ Firangi broke the silence, ‘what do you want?’
‘
Sahib,’ Jeet Singh said humbly, ‘Gable would have told you.’
‘Hmm.’
‘Sahib, I gave such a solid tip, which gave such solid results. Now, I must also get some commendation.’
‘Commendation?’
‘Reward, sahib. You told me day before yesterday I would get a big reward if the other vault-buster was caught due to my efforts.’
‘Hmm.’
‘Sahib, I am a useful fellow. I would be of use in future, too.’
‘That you are. You proved it this time too, that you are a useful fellow. You worked very fast on this case I must say.’
‘I could not do it as fast as your men did, Sahib. But I worked hard and tried to find out about the real vault-buster as fast as possible, given my limited resources.’
‘Gable told me about the finder’s fee. So you need a finder’s fee for that?’
‘Sahib, I dare say I do. And it would be your large-heartedness if I get it. It would change the life of this poor fellow.’
‘Ten percent!’
‘Sahib, Gable said you will happily give it.’
‘I am happy, I must accept. Just two days ago, underworld bosses were making fun of me, that some bastards came and looted my stuff without any fear. I have finished everything within two days, got those asses punished and recovered my money. Everybody will know about it by evening without me telling anyone. Then those who were making fun of me will congratulate me. Happy I am, no doubt!’
‘Then, sahib, let me share a drop of your happiness too.’
‘Come here.’
Jeet Singh hesitatingly reached the table.
‘This is one,’ Firangi took out a wad of dollars from the briefcase and tossed it towards Jeet Singh, who caught it with effort. ‘That is ten thousand dollars. And this is two … total, twenty thousand dollars. And these are twenty bills of hundred dollars each, sum total—twenty-two thousand dollars, or twelve lakh and ten thousand rupees. Ten percent of two lakh twenty thousand dollars. Happy now?’
Jeet Singh could not believe his ears, or his eyes. He got his reward, and what a lucrative reward at that!
Cherat was looking at the whole episode with his eyes popping out.
Jeet Singh touched Firangi’s feet from down under the table.
‘What are you doing, idiot?’
‘I’m being thankful, boss.’
‘Fine, fine. Now scram, and take this fellow also with you.’
The Colaba Conspiracy Page 25