‘What good will this do?’ Angelita asked. ‘I didn’t see anything. I couldn’t see anything. I had this hood thing on. I don’t know where they are.’
‘Let me tell both you ladies about vaastu. The Shilpa Ratnam, a Sanskrit book, says “Vaastu is the unmanifest. Vaastu is the matter of all matter. Vaastu Purusha is the spark of the soul within.” Vaastu, like feng shui, is really not a thing you can see. It is about awareness—awareness of what you can see and what you can’t see.’
‘Meaning…?’ Linyao’s head was spinning and she was in no mood to concentrate on anything—particularly not a lecture on arcane Indian beliefs.
The old man thought for a moment before continuing: ‘For example, the pupils of your eyes focus on various objects and then move on to other objects. But the peripheries of your vision detect much more—information which you see, but don’t see that you see, if you get my meaning.’
Angelita whined: ‘But, sir, I could not see anything at all, from the edges of my eyes or anywhere else. I had a blindfold and a hood, which I had on almost the whole time.’
‘But there’s more to awareness than seeing. Perceiving is not just seeing. There’s so much information that you detect without your eyes. What were you aware of? Where did you feel you were? What did you sense, with your five senses, and your sixth sense? What did you hear? What did you smell, what did you touch, what did you intuit?’
‘Sir, I don’t know what that means.’
‘Never mind, never mind. One detects things in many ways. That’s all I’m saying. That’s the spirit of vaastu. One detects bits of things without realising. We need to put it all together. Some people believe that all these underappreciated ways of detecting things add up to something called intuition, which is something that enables us to know things without being told them. Other people think intuition is an entirely different thing; an additional source of information which women in particular have in generous quantities.’
‘But I couldn’t see anything and I didn’t hear anything— any address or anything.’
It was hard to remain patient, but Sinha was aware that an infinite amount of tolerance was necessary. ‘Ms Balangatan— or may I call you Angelita?—you are perhaps not hearing me properly. Which is understandable, since you are very tired, and very worried. What I am trying to say is that it doesn’t matter if you couldn’t see anything clearly, or see anything at all.’ He stopped the car and turned in his seat to look her in the eye, trying to appear serious but kindly, like a family doctor from a television drama.
‘Now, let’s stop here for a minute and gather all the information that is available to us. First, location. In vaastu, we always start off with the sun and its relation to us. Because we and the sun change our positions relative to each other, directions and times of the day are where we always begin. Now, Angelita, when you were taken from the school to the place where they kept you overnight, how long was the journey?’
‘Quite far, sir.’
‘Quite far. Can you be more precise? Did you feel yourself travelling a long distance? Or was it just a long time? How long did the journey take?’
‘I don’t know. I couldn’t see my watch or anything. I had my head all covered up.’
‘But how long did it take? There’s a clock in your head, you know, which is good for estimating things. In everyone’s head. Was it half an hour? An hour? Two hours?’
‘It was about an hour. Maybe more.’
‘A lot more, or a little more?’
‘Just an hour, I think, or an hour and ten minutes.’
‘Good. That is nice and precise. Were you moving the whole time, or were you in a traffic jam? Remember, you were close to the middle of town and rush hour was about to start.’
Angelita thought about this for a while. ‘It was stop and start and stop at the beginning, but then we began to go faster, and then it was stop and start and stop again.’
‘Are you aware of turning left or right at any point?’
‘There were lots of turnings, some left, some right. I can’t remember them.’
‘Can you remember the first one? That’s all I am asking for. Was the first turning to the right or left?’
‘It was left.’
‘Okay. Given the location of the school and the direction you were going, that probably puts you on Sichuan Nan Lu heading north. That narrows it down to a place on this part of the map. Possibly Hongkou or Yangpu or somewhere around there. It narrows it down to an area where—just a few million people live.’
Linyao said: ‘If she was driving for an hour and ten minutes, they could be anywhere. You can go a long distance in a good car.’
Sinha shook his head. ‘Yes, but not at rush hour. They snatched them off the street just after five. For at least half that journey, they were moving through rush hour traffic. It would be quite possible to drive for seventy minutes and only travel a few miles, perhaps five. I’ve spent a lot of time in this city on business, and I’ve suffered the rush hour often enough. It seemed to be much worse than usual last night, when I came from the airport.’
‘It’s going to be worse this evening,’ Linyao said. ‘There’s the American President visiting, and the demo. Nothing’s going to be moving.’
The vaastu master turned to Angelita again and took both her hands in his. She giggled with embarrassment. Sinha ignored this and spoke with gravitas: ‘Listen to me carefully. Now I want you to think about this morning. Short journeys have more potential to be of help to us than long ones. There are two locations which are relevant to us. The train station where you were released—let’s call that location B. And the location where you and Jia Lin were held. Let’s call that location A.’
‘How do we know she’s still there?’ Linyao asked.
‘We don’t. We don’t know anything. We are working only on probabilities, enhanced by our deductive powers. We work on the basis of anything we can get, including guesswork. But the salient fact is this—the kidnappers went to some lengths to keep Angelita unaware of the address of Location A while releasing her. This strongly suggests that location A remains important to them. They don’t want anyone to know where it is. It may have been just a temporary transfer station or holding pen, but given its importance, it is likely to be more than that. It may be the place where the kidnappers are based, and/or the place where Jia Lin is still being held.’
Linyao nodded.
Sinha drove to the corner of Jiaotong Lu and Hengfeng Lu by the North Railway Station, where Angelita had been pushed out of the car.
‘Which side of the car were you pushed out of?’
‘This side, sir,’ she said, indicating the right.
‘And you landed on the kerb? The pavement, here?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Now that tells us that they were on this side of the road, so came along this way. Where exactly did you land? Where were you when you stood up and took off the blindfold and the hood?’
‘Just there, sir.’
He screeched the Renault to a halt.
‘Okay. So that’s where you landed. Let’s work out where you came from.’ He slammed the car into reverse gear and started driving backwards.
The car squealed at a high pitch. There were shouts and honking of horns, which he ignored. They reached the previous junction. ‘Now, Angelita. Did you turn left or right into this road?’
‘I don’t know, sir.’
‘You turned a corner? Which way?’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘But you did turn a corner.’
‘Yes.’
‘How do you know you turned a corner?’
‘Because the way the car moved made me lean over until my head touched the window.’
‘Ah. Can you show me?’
Angelita leaned to the left, pretending to knock her head against the car window.
‘Thank you.’ He revved the car backwards and turned it sharply to the right. Angelita, who was not wearing a seatbelt, le
aned over and hit her head lightly against the window.
‘Just like that,’ said Sinha. ‘Right?’
She nodded.
The vaastu master continued to drive in reverse gear, causing more shrieks and blasts of car horns from shocked motorists behind them.
‘That indicates that you turned sharp right, just here. Then what? Were there any other turns before that?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Did you do any other leaning over?’
‘Yes. I lean over one time before that time.’
‘Did your head touch the window again?’
‘No. It went the other way. There was nothing to lean on. I felt myself leaning against the shoulder of the girl. Leaning to the right, right over, a lot.’
‘The girl?’
‘One of the kidnappers was a young woman.’
‘How do you know the person next to you was a girl?’
‘She smelled like a girl. She was smaller than the others. Her voice came from lower. She was wearing Estée Lauder. White Linen.’
‘And the other one: woman or man?’
‘I think a woman, but I’m not sure. And the driver was a man.’
‘Did the other person guarding you say anything?’
‘No.’
‘Did he or she cough?’
‘Yes, one time.’
‘And from that do you think it was a man or a woman?’
The domestic helper thought for a while. ‘Yes, it was a girl’s cough. A young woman, maybe.’
Sinha nodded. ‘Good detection work, well done. Can you show me exactly how you leaned?’
Angelita listed heavily to the right. ‘The girl’s shoulder was here, and I was pressing on it. For a long time.’
‘Good. That means the car turned sharply left. Any more leaning to the left or right before those two instances?’
‘No. They stopped the car after those two corners.’
‘Now let’s get down to establishing some facts. How long did it take to go from location A, the place where you ate pizza and watched Friends, to location B, the station?’
‘Not very long.’
‘Now that’s not a good answer. I don’t need to tell you why. You are an intelligent adult woman. I will ask again: how long did it take to go from location A to location B?’
‘Just a few minutes. Five or ten minutes.’
‘There’s a big difference between five and ten.’
‘I think maybe seven minutes. Or less. Maybe six.’
‘Good. That’s a nice, clear answer. Was the vehicle moving continuously during the six minutes, or did it start and stop a lot?’
‘Mostly it was moving. But it did start and stop a bit.’
‘Did it stop because the traffic lights were red? Or did it get caught in a traffic jam?’
‘How can I tell? I had the hood and the blindfold on.’
‘Traffic jams and traffic lights—and train crossings, come to that—have a different effect on how cars move. Did you hear any beeping noises? Did the car stop moving completely for two minutes, and then move again? Or was it stop-start-stop driving?’
Angelita thought. ‘Both. The first time it was stop-start-stop for a while. And the driver, or someone, was getting very impatient. He kept saying curse words, and things like: “Come on, come on.” Then, after about three minutes of hardly moving at all, we went fast for a while, but then stopped. I think that stop may have been traffic lights.’
Linyao slumped into silence, fascinated to realise that this man was actually getting some significant information out of the maid.
‘A little while? How long do you mean by that phrase?’ he asked.
‘After the traffic jam, we moved for a minute, maybe two, very fast. And then we stopped at some lights.’
‘Did you hear crossing sounds?’
‘Crossing sounds?’
‘You know, b-b-b-b-b-b-beep. That sort of thing.’
‘Yes. I think so. I don’t know.’
Sinha took the map and studied it carefully. ‘They dropped you at this point here. So if you turned this way and then that way, and before that through a traffic light junction, and before that in a straight line, but in a stop-start fashion, that means you probably came from around here—or around there—or up here somewhere. Or perhaps somewhere around here, if your time estimates are poor.’
Linyao leaned over to look at the map. She shook her head and sighed. ‘But those are really big areas you are looking at. How are we going to find one room in one apartment in one building?’
‘We’ve only just begun,’ Sinha said. ‘Awareness of the unseen. That’s the key. Now let’s talk about sounds and smells. Did you hear anything, smell anything, anything at all?’
‘Yes. There was a coffee smell outside, before they took us into the building.’
‘Excellent.’ He pulled open his briefcase and extracted a packet of ground coffee beans. ‘As it happens, I am partial to a good espresso and like to carry my own supply. Was it like this?’ He ripped open the packet and held it under her nose.
‘Yes, a bit like that. Bitter. Strong.’
‘Okay,’ said Sinha. ‘Probably a real coffee shop, as opposed to a local noodle eatery with weak instant muck. We need to locate all the coffee shops in the designated area.’
They studied the map and drove around a network of roads, but there was not a single coffee shop on any of the streets Sinha had marked on his map.
‘Close your eyes, Angelita. Does any of this seem familiar?’
‘No, sir, sorry, sir.’
‘Any smells, sounds, anything at all?’
‘No, sir. Nothing, sir.’
They drove around for another ten minutes, but Angelita continued to recognise nothing. She kept apologising: ‘I don’t know anything, sir. Can’t recognise any place, sorry.’
‘Don’t apologise. It’s helpful that we can eliminate these roads from our search. Besides, it’s not you who has got it wrong. It’s me. There are no coffee shops here. We must be in the wrong place. Let’s try this street.’
They turned into a small road in the Yangpu area, but it contained nothing except nondescript apartment blocks.
‘Damn, damn, damn, damn,’ said Sinha. ‘This is bad news. We have seriously slipped up somewhere, but I can’t think where.’
Linyao said: ‘Maybe there wasn’t a coffee shop. Maybe someone was just making a cup of coffee in their home and she smelt it through a window.’
Sinha shook his head. ‘Unlikely. Sales of coffee-bean grinders for home use are not exactly widespread in this country—not yet, anyway, and certainly not in Yangpu. It’s more likely we’ve made a serious mistake somewhere. Let’s try going a couple of streets to the west. Can we turn left at the end of this road?’
Linyao looked at the street guide. ‘No. I think it’s a one-way road. We have to go right to go left. Turn right, go down for two blocks, and then turn left.’
‘This place is like Alice in Wonderland Land,’ said Sinha. ‘You have to turn right to turn left. You have to go away from your destination to get to it. You have to—hang on.’ He slammed his foot on the brake and the car stopped, throwing its occupants forwards. ‘I’ve got it. Give me that map.’
‘What do you mean?’
Sinha showed her the page. ‘Look here. We believe that the kidnappers turned left from their base to take Angelita to the station. Because she leaned to the right “for a long time”. So we’ve been assuming that the kidnappers came from over here—from here it would take a left turn to get onto the main road heading this way, to the station.’
‘Ye-es?’ Linyao said.
‘But—’ ‘But there are situations where you have to turn left to go right. You have to do that in three places: in the land of Alice in Wonderland, on expressways, and on roundabouts. Remember Angelita said she leaned over to the right for a long time? We assumed that indicated the car was turning left. But what if she ended up leaning over to the right for a l
ong time because the car was going right round, or almost right round a roundabout and turning right?’
‘Could be.’
He stabbed a major junction on the map with his thick, blunt finger. ‘And if my thinking is right, then this may be the junction. Let’s go and see if there’s a roundabout there—and a smelly coffee shop here, on this road.’
Minutes later, his face brightened. There was indeed a roundabout at the junction he had identified. And the road that led off it had two coffee shops on it. Another road, which splintered off the first at a slight angle, also had a café on it.
The brief period of despair had passed and they were once again energised. They got out and walked rapidly up and down the streets, identifying several places where they could detect a specifically coffee-ish smell.
Angelita was becoming excited. ‘Yes, maybe it was here. The smell was like this. This coffee. There was another smell. A cooking smell.’
‘Also from the coffee shop?’
‘No. When I came out of the building, I smelled coffee. And then they walked me along for a little while—maybe two minutes. And then I could smell a strong cooking smell. Chinese food.’
Linyao asked: ‘How can they walk her along the road with a hood over her head? It must have looked weird.’
Sinha shook his head. ‘You’re right. It would have looked too strange to risk. I suspect the walk she made would have been down a back alley, and then perhaps down into an underground car park or something. Somewhere hidden away from the main road.’ He thought for a while. ‘Tell me more about this cooking smell. And let’s walk around as we talk about it.’
They marched along in a grid pattern across a collection of streets while Angelita used her ears and nose to see if she could detect anything familiar. On the third corner, she stopped them. ‘That’s it. That’s the smell.’ She widened her nostrils and took a deep breath. ‘It came from there.’ She pointed to a vendor of fried stinky tofu. Although he was about 200 metres away, the smell was sharp and noxious.
The Shanghai Union of Industrial Mystics Page 12