‘Their breakfast is pretty good,’ she added.
‘Just a cold Coke, thank you,’ he told the boy.
Arjun studied the laminated menu again. They had Naga dishes for lunch and dinner. He could smell something being stewed in the kitchen. He looked up and smiled at her.
‘I hope I didn’t cause any inconvenience by turning up.’
‘Oh no, it’s just that our place is a bit . . . messy.’
‘It looked fine to me. So, where did you and Chon know Amenla from? Shillong?’
‘No, the three of us met here in Delhi. We spent, what, four years together?’
‘That’s a long time. Why did she leave this place?’
‘Wanted some peace and quiet, I guess.’
She spoke with something like an American accent. And there was something else too. A sort of resentment at his questions about her dead ex-roommate?
‘But you and Chon were okay with this place?’
She shrugged, and then tucked her loose hair behind her ears with both hands.
‘It might look . . . shitty, but we’re used to the place. It’s not that bad. And from this side the main road is nearby, Deer Park on the other side. Amenla just wanted some space for herself, I guess. She was a bit, what do I say, sensitive?’
The cold coffee and the Coke arrived together. Arjun watched her take a long sip with the straw. She was of stout build, but on her face and arms Arjun saw the beginnings of extra weight. So far, the hill genes would have protected her from the junk food and late nights.
‘And her timings must have been a problem?’ he asked.
‘Yes, it was, but not like a big issue, you know? We adjusted.’ Abeni looked down at the coffee in the glass jar, then blurted out, ‘I called her that night.’
‘Amenla?’
She nodded. ‘The night she was killed. The cops kept asking me about it later. I told them I had called her just like that, to talk to her.’
‘Do you remember what you talked about?’
‘Oh, this and that. I asked her if she wanted to go for a movie.’
‘So you visited each other’s places after she had moved out?’
‘Yes, we did. We would go over sometimes on the weekends and she would cook home food.’ She took a deep breath and shook her head. ‘Poor Amenla.’
‘Would Rohit Chaudhry be there?’
‘He was there. A few times.’
‘What did you think of him?’
‘I used to feel sorry for him, you know, hanging around even after she told him their relationship was over. Must have been really desperate,’ she said, and smiled at him.
‘So why did it end?’
‘It just did. He told her once he didn’t like her going to church. Can you imagine?’
‘What about Cooper Grant? Did you meet him?’
‘The American? Just once or twice.’ She looked out of the open windows, a faraway look in her eyes. ‘He was a strange fellow.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘He had visited Nagaland twice. And he knew all these small, small things, you know, about the old groups like the NNC, about the tribes. I think he knew more than us actually.’
‘How did Amenla meet him?’
‘I don’t know, some party perhaps.’
‘Was Amenla a party girl? Smoking? Drinking?’
‘She didn’t smoke. She was a social drinker. Wine. Breezer. Chon and I would tease her about that cos we liked having vodka.’
‘Anything apart from alcohol?’
‘No, she wasn’t into all that.’ Abeni checked her phone. ‘Well, I have to get ready for work.’
‘One thing I was curious about.’
‘What?’ she said, a wary look coming over her face.
‘Just that, you’re all from different tribes, right? Amenla was an Ao, you’re a Lotha, and Chon is a Tangkhul from Manipur.’
Abeni nodded. She seemed to know where Arjun was going with this.
‘Isn’t it odd you were together? Don’t people from one tribe usually stick together?’
‘You’re right, but what happened was, we were all together in one call centre, okay? We were looking for new roommates and accommodation, and when we met in office, we thought, let’s try staying together. Then we got this place here.’
‘I didn’t know all of you worked together.’
‘Oh, Chon and I quit soon after, we couldn’t take the timings. Amenla stuck on.’
Arjun finished his Coke, and motioned to the boy for the bill.
‘Where do you work now?’ he asked her.
‘It’s a travel and leisure company. In South Extension II.’
‘And where does Chon work?’
‘She’s in this boutique in HKV.’ Seeing the blank look on his face Abeni explained, ‘Hauz Khas Village.’
‘Right. What’s it called?’
She hesitated a moment before answering, ‘Party Animal.’
‘Chon—is that a nickname?’
‘It’s short for Leiyachon.’
Arjun nodded. ‘What are her timings like? I’ll need to have a chat with her as well.’
’11 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. She left early today. Had some work at the bank.’
He tucked in the bill amount and a twenty-rupee tip in the bill folder. The boy smiled at him, and a thought struck Arjun.
‘How did Amenla find out about the barsati in Safdarjung? Her landlord said someone who ran a cafe in Humayunpur had told her.’
Abeni pointed at the boy. ‘Aso did. We’re quite a . . . close-knit community here.’
As they were walking back towards her place he asked, ‘Where are you from, Abeni?’
‘Wokha. In Nagaland. It’s . . .’
‘On the way from Kohima to Mokokchung, isn’t it?’ Arjun said, and she turned to look at him. ‘How is the road from Kohima? Still terrible?’
She laughed, a genuine laugh that creased up her face. ‘Yeah, still terrible.’
‘Well, thanks for your time, Abeni.’
He watched her strong, curvy legs go up the staircase, and then remembered something. He called out to her, and she came back down.
‘Did you girls ever go to a restaurant called the Hungry Rabbit? In Splendour City Mall?’
She shook her head. ‘I haven’t heard of it.’
Walking back to the park in Safdarjung B Block, Arjun saw Mrs Sodhi outside the house, talking on her phone. The shopkeeper at the general store opposite the gate was yelling at his helpers again. Humayunpur and Safdarjung, he thought, two different worlds. A picture was starting to build up in his mind, of the three girls in their flat. He needed to meet Chon to complete it. He got into the car, rolled down the window and lit a cigarette. Why had Abeni taken him to the cafe though? Nervousness at his presence, or was it something else? Something which might have made Chon leave the flat early as well?
As he took the Scorpio out he saw the chhole–kulche-wallah standing by his cycle, looking down at a large-screen mobile phone. He realized there was something he had forgotten to ask Nancy Jamir about her cousin.
12
WAITING IN A LINE OF cars at a red light Arjun checked his phone, and saw that Liza had messaged him the two numbers he had asked her to find.
‘Well done,’ he said, and called Rohit Chaudhry’s number first.
A girl answered, and said that Rohit was at a swimming pool in Andrews Ganj not far from Lady Shri Ram College, and that she was with him. Arjun decided to go have a look, as it would fall on his route back to the office through Yusuf Sarai and Siri Fort. Amenla’s one-time boyfriend might be easier to handle on neutral ground, he thought.
The sports complex wasn’t far from the Lajpat Rai flyover, and he took a right under the flyover, before the petrol pump and the Defence Colony police station. He turned left through the gate into the parking area, parked and walked into the building. The swimming pool was beyond it, a lengthy Olympic-sized affair. There was just one person in the water, doing a slow freestyle across
the length of the pool, while another young man was clambering out of the water. Arjun walked by the side of the pool and redialled the last number.
Beneath the first-floor gym at the other end, and beside the changing rooms, was what seemed like a cafe, and through the glass front, Arjun saw a girl raising a phone to her ear. She saw him then, and he raised a hand.
‘You’re inside, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘I called a while ago for Rohit.’
He entered the small cafe. She was a young, petite girl in a yellow T-shirt and jeans, a college student probably. There was a cold drink and two phones on the table before her.
‘Hi,’ she said shyly, and stood up. ‘Rohit is out there swimming.’
‘Please, sit down,’ Arjun said. ‘How much longer will he take?’
‘Nearly done, I think,’ she said, and sat down.
‘Let me go and say hi to him.’
Arjun went out into the sun, and waited for the lone figure to swim up close before squatting down and calling out, ‘Rohit Chaudhry?’
The swimmer caught hold of the metal steps that entered the pool and drew himself out, breathing hard. He was lean and tanned, with tattoos on his arms and chest.
‘Who wants to know?’ he finally asked.
‘Arjun Arora. I’m a detective. Amenla’s father has hired me.’
That got his attention. Rohit climbed out and wiped his face with a towel that had been draped over a chair. Shorter than Arjun, there was a definite cockiness to his behaviour.
‘Detective, yeah? So you’re going to find her murderer?’
‘Yes. And I needed to ask you a few questions in that regard.’
He looked at Arjun, then looked in the direction of the cafe.
‘Give me five minutes,’ he said, and raised a finger in warning. ‘Don’t mention a word of this to her, okay?’
‘If you say so.’
With a wave at the girl behind the glass pane, Rohit trotted off towards the men’s changing rooms. Arjun looked around and sat down on the chair and put on his sunglasses. There was something peaceful about the glittering, shifting waters of the pool. He should come here sometimes, he thought, try and wash away the dregs of this city that had settled within him.
He was about to doze off when a hand tapped his shoulder. It was Rohit.
‘Come on,’ he said, moving towards the cafe.
Arjun got up, yawned and followed Rohit. He had changed into a pair of linen pants and a white T-shirt, and was carrying a gym bag. When Arjun entered the girl stood up.
‘I’m getting late for class,’ she complained.
‘I’ll drop you now, baby,’ Rohit said, and gave her a kiss.
‘I need to drop Payal to college,’ he said to Arjun. ‘You want to come along?’
He followed them out to the parking lot where the doors of a red Audi SUV he had noticed earlier beeped open. Arjun got into the back for the short ride to Lady Shri Ram College, then came up to the front seat after Payal had got down.
‘You’ll call me later?’ she asked Rohit, who nodded and blew her a kiss.
‘She didn’t want to know who I was?’ Arjun asked.
Rohit took a quick U-turn under the elevated metro track before the college.
‘Nah. Probably thought you were a business associate or something.’
‘What do you do, Rohit?’
‘Me? I’m into the family business. Transportation. But I like keeping fit, you know.’
‘That’s good.’
‘Thanks for not mentioning Amenla’s name. So how can I help you?’
They had reached the Lajpat Rai flyover. Rohit drove fast, and he took another quick U-turn before the flyover, back towards the sports complex.
‘What do you think happened to Amenla?’ Arjun asked.
Rohit suddenly braked near the sports complex gate, looking straight ahead for a while, his hands on the wheel. Then he turned to Arjun.
‘Do you want to have stuffed parathas?’ he asked.
Arjun had forgotten when he had last been to the paratha-wallah outside the nearby Vikram Hotel. Rohit drove there and found an empty slot in a line of cars.
‘Let’s eat first, I’m damn hungry. I prefer this to that cafe, you know.’
Rohit got down and strode towards the crowd around the makeshift paratha stand. Two or three men inside were frying all manner of stuffed parathas on tawas, the thick smoke from the ghee drifting across to Arjun inside the car. He opened the dashboard to have a look: car documents, a pen drive, a pair of Ray Bans, wipes, a nearly empty packet of Rizla rolling papers and a blunt Skipper lighter. He closed it when he saw Rohit sauntering back.
‘I’ve asked for tea as well, okay?’
He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and put on the FM radio.
‘What model is this?’ Arjun asked him. ‘The Q3?’
‘Yes, Q3. Old, but still solid. I love this car!’ He grinned at Arjun. ‘You like cars?’
‘I have an interest, yes,’ Arjun said, wondering when they could get on to talking about what he had come to discuss.
A boy in a dirty white shirt came towards them holding two plates, a plastic cup of tea on each. Rohit appeared to know the boy, and tipped him twenty rupees. There was an anda paratha and an aloo paratha, along with a mixed pickle, and Arjun gobbled it up. He had forgotten how delicious the heavy, oily parathas could be. The sweet, milky tea at the end was just as good.
They had eaten without talking, and now Rohit looked at him.
‘Sahi hai, na? Best fucking street food in Delhi!’
Arjun nodded, wiping his hands on the pieces of newspaper under the plate.
‘Do you mind if I smoke?’ he asked.
‘Go ahead.’
‘Do you want one?’
‘No, I don’t smoke.’
‘So tell me, what do you think happened to her?’
‘Amenla.’ Rohit said the name slowly. ‘I loved her, you know, really loved her. After she was gone I felt like . . . taking my own life. I should have been able to stop it.’
He took a deep breath. The boy had come back to collect the plates, and Arjun slipped him a ten-rupee note. Rohit sniffed, and went on.
‘I met her at a friend’s birthday party. Managed to get her number. But it was a while before she went out with me. The first time was a movie with her and her two roommates.’ He gave a small laugh at the memory. ‘She was different, you know.’
‘How?’
‘She wasn’t easy. Some of them are, you know. And I felt so, so . . . peaceful with her. I’m a bit of a joker and a clown. But she saw beyond that, deep into me. I was really in love with her.’
‘So why did you two . . . break up?’
Rohit pursed his lips and shifted in his seat.
‘I told you she was different. There was something she was looking for, something even she didn’t know, if you get what I mean. We agreed to . . . separate for a while.’
Arjun remembered the words of Amenla’s father: It’s not easy for our children. They are caught between trying to be like us, and trying to be like the outside world.
‘Did this happen before she shifted to Safdarjung, or after?’ he asked.
Rohit turned to look at him. ‘It was during that period. When she was shifting.’
‘Do you think she shifted because of that?’
Rohit shook his head. ‘No, no. She needed some space . . . away from her roommates.’
‘What did you think of them?’
He said with sudden spite, ‘Holier than thou, those two. But they would never say no if I took them out somewhere.’
Arjun remembered a comment Abeni had made about Rohit.
‘Did you disapprove of Amenla going to church?’
‘They must have told you that, I’m sure? I wasn’t against her going to the church, just that we had a quarrel one day about her going for a church service when we were already supposed to go out.’ He sighed. ‘Maybe I was a bit pushy sometimes, I realize that. Possess
ive. Maybe she didn’t like that.’
‘But you continued visiting Amenla even after you separated. Isn’t that strange?’
‘I knew she needed some space, some time off. So I said I’d like to remain friends with her, and she was okay with it. I would visit once in a while. Sit and talk.’ He gave a sly smile. ‘I wanted to keep any other guys away from her. Would you blame me for that?’
Arjun chose to ignore the question.
‘So what did you two fight about the day before she was killed?’
The question appeared to startle Rohit. ‘Just, a normal quarrel, you know . . .’
‘A normal quarrel?’
‘It was . . .’ He held up his hands before him and shook them. ‘I was upset. I came to know she was seeing some other guy.’
‘Which other guy?’ Arjun asked sharply.
Rohit glanced at him, and said, ‘That American guy. From the embassy.’
‘I see. And you didn’t like that?’
‘No, I didn’t! That’s what we fought about. If you think I went back there the next day to kill her, then you’re crazy! Are we done? Have you asked me all of your questions?’
‘Nearly,’ Arjun murmured. ‘Just two last questions.’
‘What?’ Rohit snapped.
‘Did you ever go to a restaurant called the Hungry Rabbit with her?’
‘Hungry what? No, I didn’t!’
‘Did she tell you about someone called Tony?’
‘No, she didn’t. You should go and question that American fellow, you know.’
‘Thanks for the meal,’ Arjun said, and opened the door. ‘It’s all right, I’ll take an auto back to the sports complex.’
He stepped out, and waved at a nearby autorickshaw. As the red SUV drove away Arjun noticed the dents and scratches on its bodywork.
Driving back to CR Park in his Scorpio, Arjun ran through the encounter in his mind. Why did he have the feeling that he had missed something? Then it came to him. Something Rohit had said at the beginning: I should have been able to stop it. What did that mean? He should have caught on to it then, instead of being distracted by the parathas.
More Bodies Will Fall Page 7