Ellis Peters - George Felse 11 - Death To The Landlords (7 page)

‘Even we,’ Larry remarked, ‘should have been feeling pretty queasy, if all five of us hadn’t spent the entire day together – barring the odd private moment, of course. An example of safety in numbers.’

Sudha Mani fluttered into the dining-room at last looking the worse for a restless night, her pretty face rather puffy and pale, her husband treading heavily after her, as though unusually deflated and tired. If he had not had good news to relay, Sushil Dastur would probably have been suffering for their discomforts. As it was, the watchers could see from across the room the sudden glow of relaxation and ease as Mr and Mrs Mani heard that they were free to leave; and in a very few moments the old assurance and self-esteem began visibly to re-inflate their sagging curves. Sudha reached for the tea-pot, and with recovered appetite they attacked the eggs that were set before them. To judge from their distant exchanges, seen but not overheard, they even had heart to reproach Sushil Dastur for the cook’s shortcomings before they dispatched him, fairly obviously, to see their luggage portered back to the hired car, their bill paid, and the Tamil driver aroused from his semi-permanent repose in the back seat. They meant to lose no time in getting away from this place which had promised so radiantly and performed so viciously. No doubt they regretted ever hearing the name of the distinguished Mahendralal Bakhle, let alone bringing a letter of introduction to him.

‘I suppose we’d better pack up and get out of here, too,’ Larry said.

‘I’ll go and settle the bills,’ said Lakshman, rising.

The girls, in slightly embarrassed haste, began a duet of insistence on paying their share, but Larry quashed that at once, or at least postponed all consideration of it. ‘Later – don’t bother now. Lakshman will pay everything, and we can think about it later. After all, there’s no hurry, you’re coming down with us as far as the railway. Go ahead, Lakshman, and we’ll go and check out with the inspector.’

They had to pass close by the Manis’ table on their way across the dining-room, and Sudha, just recovering her volubility in full, halted them with an appealing hand.

‘Can you imagine what people are saying! – Think how terrible for us! It was that boatman! – Yes, right in the boat with us all that time, and looking like any other boat-boy, so quiet and willing. And we could have been blamed – such a dreadful position we were in.’

‘I’m sure the inspector didn’t suspect you,’ Dominic said soothingly. ‘Naturally he had to question all of us.’

‘Yes, but even now we must tell him where we are going, where we can be found… Why should that be, if it was that boat-boy?’

‘That is mere routine,’ said Gopal Krishna comfortably. ‘Even if there is no arrest and no trial, because the man is dead, still they must file the records of the case. And suppose they should want to confirm some detail of the time with us? Or with Mr Preisinger here? It is the same for all.’

‘That’s it exactly,’ Larry confirmed soothingly.

‘You are going on towards the coast?’ asked Mani.

‘No, back towards Madurai.’

‘We, too, of course, the car we have hired there, we must return it Then we think of going out by train to Rameshwaram for one or two nights, before going on south.’

‘I am so thankful,’ Sudha said fervently, ‘that they found out so quickly it was that boat-boy. Imagine, he had Naxalite propaganda hidden away in his belongings. I ask you, did that man look like a terrorist? You cannot any longer trust anyone or anything,’

‘Hush, my dear, don’t distress yourself,’ murmured Gopal Krishna, patting her plump amber hand. ‘It is all over now. You must forget about it.’

‘That is so easy to say,’ she protested fretfully, ‘but it is not so easy to forget one has sat in the same boat with a murderer.’

‘Two murderers,’ Larry corrected cynically, but only in a whisper, and not until they had moved on from the table and could not possibly be overheard. ‘One with money, one with none. One who hired thugs to do the job for him, the other who did it himself, and felt so strongly about it that he made sure by killing himself as well. But you know which of the two
she’d
retain some respect for, don’t you?’

‘Ah, so you’re off already,’ said Inspector Raju, looking up at them over a table strewn with papers, the debris of a hasty breakfast, and the cigarette-butts of a sleepless night overflowing from two glass ashtrays. He had discarded his tie and his jacket, and his lank, greying hair stood on end in all directions from the activities of his long, thin fingers. Even Sergeant Gokhale looked less immaculate than on the previous evening. ‘No doubt you have heard by now how this affair has come out? Now it only remains for me to wish you a good journey wherever you are going, and happier arrivals than this one has been.’ He did not look at Dominic with any more pointed significance than at the rest of them; the conversation of yesterday might as well never have taken place.

‘Is it quite certain that this man Ghose was responsible?’ Larry asked curiously.

‘Miss Madhavan did not confide in you all?’ The inspector looked at Priya with a small, glimmering smile. ‘What admirable discretion! But yes, it is generally known by this time. Why not? We have found ample evidence in the dead man’s possessions that he was deeply involved with the Naxalite terrorists, and the head boatman confirms that it was at Ghose’s request that he changed round the duties for yesterday. There is not much room for doubt.’

All very decisive and satisfactory, Dominic thought, meeting the placid grey eyes. A case quickly and tidily solved, and a nice clear field ahead for that other person, the one who supplied the bullets but did not fire them, to lower his guard and emerge from cover, like the animals crossing that treeless belt of scrub grass to reach the water. Where, if he happens to be anyone present here, someone who has appeared only as an innocent bystander in this lake atrocity, he will not only afford the police a good view of him, but will also be on a long lead and ready to be hauled in at will. Because they’re going to know where every one of us is – or says he’s going to be – for the next few days, longer if they feel like continuing the supervision; and they’re going to be checking that we really are where we say we are.

‘I think,’ said Priya, looking hesitantly at Patti, ‘that Miss Galloway wanted to speak with you. Inspector.’

‘At your service, Miss Galloway. I hope you are feeling better this morning?’

For once Patti looked disconcerted, even stammered a little. ‘Thank you, I’m quite all right It was only that I rather thought
you
would want to talk to
me
, since I made such a fool of myself keeling over like that last night. I don’t suppose I can add much to what the others told you, but I thought you’d probably want to see me, anyhow.’

‘That was very correct of you. But I think there is no need to trouble you any more. Now if you will give us particulars of your future movements, Sergeant Gokhale will note them down.’ He pushed back his chair from the table, and stretched out his long legs with a tired but well-satisfied sigh. ‘You are all going on together for the time being?’

‘From here, yes,’ Priya said, after a pause to allow Patti to take the initiative if she chose, and a quick, shy glance at Larry. ‘Mr Preisinger has been kind enough to offer us a lift down to the railway line at Tirumangalam, and from there we are going to take the train to Tenkasi Junction. By this evening we shall be in Kuttalam – Patti wanted to see the resort there, and the Chittar Falls. But we don’t yet know where we shall be staying. If there is room at the travellers’ bungalow we shall stay there overnight, perhaps tomorrow night, too. We could report there to the police, if that will do, and say where we are living. Then the next day we shall go by train to Tirunelveli, and by the bus to Nagarcoil, and there we shall be staying with my parents. I will give you the address.’ She recited it gravely, and Sergeant Gokhale wrote it down.

‘Thank you, that is quite sufficient. And Mr Preisinger and Mr Felse?’

‘After we drop the girls,’ Larry said, ‘We’re going on by the Tirunelveli road to a spot near Koilpatti. It’s a village you reach by a minor road, slightly higher up in the foothills. What’s the name of it, Dom?’

‘Malaikuppam. It’s on my account that we’re making this detour. I have to visit somebody there, and we’re invited to stay a couple of nights. We ought to reach the place early this evening, with any luck, so we shall be there tonight and tomorrow night. I don’t know what he calls his house, but it’s the main house of the village. Our host’s name is Purushottam Narayanan.’

‘I see. And you will be there two nights. And then?’

‘Then,’ said Larry, ‘we go on to Nagarcoil and the Cape. Probably in one day, it’s no distance, not more than a hundred and twenty miles. We shall stay at the Cape hotel at least one night, maybe two. If you could give us a telephone number, we can report any changes direct, or go to the local police as you wish.’

‘No need to do either until you leave the Cape, but in any case I will give you the telephone number of my own office, in case
you
need
me.
’ He smiled as he quoted it for them to take down; a slightly oblique and unamused smile. ‘Thank you, that is all. I wish you all good travelling and safe arrival.’

‘Just a minute! Please…!’ Patti broke in quickly and eagerly. ‘Could I… If Priya doesn’t mind, I should like to change our plans. But it depends on Mr Preisinger, really.’ She turned to look appealingly at Larry. ‘Could you bear it if we asked to travel on with you, instead of going by train? I know I did say I wanted to see the Chittar Falls, and this Kuttalam place in the hills, but after what’s happened here, honest to God, I’d be so much happier with a safe escort. And you see, I didn’t realise until now that you were actually going through Nagarcoil. If you can possibly put up with us for a couple of days more, and take us all the way to Priya’s folks, I’d gladly do without the Chittar Falls.’

‘But, Patti, they are going to stay with a friend,’ Priya objected, mildly shocked at this bold asking.

‘I know, but surely there’d be a dak bungalow or a rest house somewhere near, where we could bed down. We wouldn’t be in the way, honestly.’

There was no way of knowing whether Larry objected bitterly or welcomed the suggestion, for his face was never particularly expressive, and at this moment he was caught at a disadvantage. They had, after all, joined forces more or less by chance in the first place, and none of them had expected the alliance to continue. More embarrassing still was the fact that Priya had entered her protest so promptly, and deprived him of the opportunity of appearing genuinely warm about the prospect; he should have spoken up immediately or not at all. Not that it made any real difference, except to his self-assurance, for there was still only one thing he could do, and he did it with the best grace he could achieve.

‘Of course, we’ll be delighted to take you. No difficulty whatever about the transport end of it. And if accommodation is short, we can always camp again. How about it, Dom? Do you think this friend of yours would be very much put out if five of us descended on him instead of three? He never turned a hair at taking on Lakshman and me.’

‘He isn’t exactly a friend of mine,’ Dominic said scrupulously, ‘not yet, anyhow. I’ve never set eyes on him. But his father was a friend of my boss, and the son’s asking for our help and advice with his land, not being in the least prepared for the job. His father was only in the late forties, he didn’t expect to have to give his mind to running the estates for years and years yet. From all I can gather, a dozen people could descend on the place and hardly be noticed, but perhaps I’d better call him up and explain the situation first.’

‘Oh, no,’ protested Priya, colouring to a warm peach-colour which was her version of a blush. ‘Please, you must not ask him for hospitality for us, that is too much.’

‘I won’t ask. Except, perhaps, whether there’s a travellers bungalow or a small Indian hotel anywhere within reach. But you mustn’t grudge him the possibility of offering,’ he said, half teasing her, something he wouldn’t have ventured to do yesterday. And she smiled briefly but brightly, instead of remaining grave and slightly distressed; another thing which would not have happened yesterday. They had travelled a long and by no means obvious way in twenty-four hours.

‘Settle it with Mr Narayanan,’ said Inspector Raju tolerantly, ‘and let me know.’

Dominic was back from the telephone a few minutes later with the answer he had confidently expected.

‘We are all invited most warmly.’ Purushottam’s words, not his own, delivered with both constraint and ceremony in the purest of pure English, straight from Cambridge but rooted deep, deep in the soil and rock of India. He had heard the voice once before, but as yet had never seen the face and form that went with it, and he wondered often and curiously what he was going to find in the flesh. All he knew was that Purushottam Narayanan was a year or so his junior, and had been studying in England until his father died, and tipped him headlong into the vexed affairs of a large, wealthy, but recently somewhat neglected estate. To judge by his telephone manner, classical English was something he lived with intimately, awake and asleep, but colloquial English had made no mark on him so far. ‘Don’t worry about anything, Priya, he means it and he’ll enjoy it. Don’t forget he’s just bereaved, newly home after several years in England and he must feel like a maladjusted alien. A little company will do him good.’

‘It is most kind of him,’ said Priya, not altogether happily, but with a reconciled smile. And her peach-bloom blush deepened to a dark rose-colour. ‘He must have much on his mind. We shall try not to disturb him more than we need.’

‘Good, then that is settled,’ said Inspector Raju briskly, ‘and we can contact you all at Malaikuppam.’ Sergeant Gokhale amended his notes accordingly. ‘A good journey! I hope you may also have an uneventful one from now on. One such experience is more than enough.’

They went out to the freshness and radiance of a fine morning, and the Land-Rover standing waiting with a bonnet starred and sticky with honeyed droppings from the flowering trees.