The Benefit Season (33 page)

‘
Like Vishal?’

‘
Exactly. Like Vishal, and
like his svelte wife’, she nearly bowed, and blushed, like the lady
she was- supposed to be. ‘He was their respectable front, and his,
I. So a large amount of money was parked with us always, belonging
to punters, middlemen, and mafia alike. We got nothing out of it
except a measly commission. It hurt Vishal to have so much money
slipping through his fingers and none of it sticking. So he decided
to help himself to some of it’.

‘
He? You just followed
him?’

She shrugged. ‘When times are good and luck
is on your side, no one likes to believe anything bad can happen to
them. You are riding a high horse and it’s hard to get off. And so
far he’d been a good provider; I didn’t mind playing along’.

‘
So? How do I come into
the picture?’

‘
So, the difficulty is how
to make a clean getaway with other’s property? A well-spun tale of
make-believe that lasts over several days and even weeks to be
convincing enough, and enough witnesses to vouch for it is what
seems the need of the hour’.

‘
How do you
mean?’

‘
In our society it is
common for the husband and wife both, to keep paramours outside
marriage. Many also engage in sado-masochism. The plot was to usher
in a handsome stud- like you, sway the victimized wife, and let the
sparks fly. Then when enough money collects, let the wife escape
the torment of brutal domestic violence and sexual abuse with her
knight in shining armor- of course along with the money to kick
start a brand new life at the same or higher scale than she was
used to’.

‘
So it wasn’t me seducing
you- I was being suckered’.

‘
When enough people in the
office and around had had a darn good idea that we two were an item
you suddenly left. It made Vishal desperate- we couldn’t have let
our quarry feel shy of its manifest destiny and bolt. Desperate
times called for desperate measures. He decided to waste no more
time; and what better timing than to have us flying the coop on the
day of your engagement, and my wedding anniversary. The symbolism
of it all… oh the passion; not a day more two turtle doves spending
asunder.’

‘
Then why bother to rescue
me? Why not just finish me off, bury me under that road and walk
away from it all?’

‘
When the mob and the cops
were looking all over for us? Not a great timing! They would have
found us out and as someone said; unseamed us from the nave to the
chops. And we are not killers, you see’, she smiled through her
sweaty arms at him. ‘We hadn’t yet decided what to do with you- you
see we hadn’t bargained on this Haryanvi cop on our tail. She’s
quite the best they have, and incorruptible. She shook the
chessboard.’

‘
Then why rescue me? Why
not leave me there?’

‘
It was a borrowed
property, its services leased at exorbitant costs. Moreover, word
spreads fast in the hood about kidnappings. People begin to ask
questions and there are territories that have to be respected, and
keepers of those territories compensated. It was all getting a bit
out of hand’.

‘
Then why pretend to kill
Vishal?’

‘
To make you keep your
head low and to keep you from reaching out to the cops or your
family. To make you feel you were a murderer on the run. And to
have you all to myself! And by helping you escape from the
farmhouse and by helping you on the run, to earn your faith and
gratitude’, she said bitterly, and spat. ‘And Vishal wanted to buy
time while we lay low- while I lay low rather- all the while he was
planning on ditching me for that wiggly Bedouin- Chand
Mohammed!’

‘
What does your crystal
ball say now?’ Arjun angrily splashed his foot in the water,
sending sprays out of the tub. ‘It might be a good idea to kick the
water out of the tub’, he rued.

‘
What good then? They’ll
probably fill it again. Or they mightn’t, who cares’.

‘
It’ll buy time- they’ll
have to fetch it from the grounds’.

She shut her eyes. She felt exhausted, but
relieved also, for telling Arjun the truth. But would he ever trust
her again? Would he help her escape? She doubted it. But it made
her feel good to tell him that at least it hadn’t been her idea to
ensnare him. But who cared? She’d been an active, willing and
collaborative partner all along, hadn’t she? She was too exhausted
to judge anybody, including herself. Vishal had let them both down.
He’d even unpardonably gone ahead and married that squiggly-bellied
nymphet and was in the process of leaving her and Arjun at the
mercy of these dogs- dogs with the tigers. He deserved divine
reckoning. He’d always been like this; rash, impractical, selfish,
cruel and dreamy, in the same or in some other order. The pain was
wracking her body and numbing her mind. There was just this much,
and no more a woman could bear. She looked sideways at Arjun in
hope- he seemed to be dozing off. She returned to her waking
dreams. When things had been good, it was paradise. The same things
had taken a turn that she had never imagined. She felt overwhelmed
in the face of overbearing destiny and the odds. She was crushed
and felt resigned to her fate.

Though through the fog of despondency and
excruciating suffering the faint notion of prayer visited her
befuddled senses, she was so out of the practice of god or
religion, or wise counsel, that even now, prayer did not touch her
lips, nor did supplication move her heart.

ϖ

The laughter of birds calling to their own
to return nest wards woke Arjun from his painful slumber. The sun
must have begun to set outside for the shadows that fell through
the broken wooden door at the ground level had become long and
dark. There was no further time to be wasted. The men would be here
anytime after downing a peg or two, to doubly enjoy the
incarceration. Arjun keenly waited for any sound in the dungeons
then began to swing, after shaking his arms and legs out of
numbness. He managed to topple the box of scalpels close to him.
Pushing the heavy tub aside with his feet, he grabbed the longest
knife with his toes. Then he swung his legs up and began to chafe
at the rope binding his hands. The knife must have fallen many
times, and it was nearly a half hour later that he managed to fray
one of the ropes and free a hand. Then he untied the knot around
the other hand too and set himself free. Both Vishal and Monal had
begun to urgently whisper to him to let them loose too. But he
ignored them and went to the door to their cell. It was heavy, made
of iron grills and mesh. And locked. He peered through the bars to
see if any keys were hung on the walls outside, but no such luck.
He was locked inside!

‘
You can’t cut through the
wall with your knife can you?’ Monal said.

Arjun ignored her and continued looking for
any screws or cracks that he could manipulate- there were none. He
could hide and take on the men with the knife. There wasn’t much
hope in taking a knife to a gunfight, he rued.

‘
I can pick the lock’, she
said, triumphantly.

Arjun gave up picking at the stones. There
was little choice he had. He went over to Monal and freed her hands
with the sharp blade. She nearly fell, but Arjun caught her and
gently propped her on her feet again. He helped her step out of the
tub. She slapped her arms and thighs in relief. It’d been painful
just being strapped up like that; any more devices would have
killed her for sure. She rummaged through the instruments on the
table and found thin wire gauze. She took it and went to work at
the lock. A nerve shattering few minutes later the lock clicked and
she swung the door open. Arjun and she stepped out into the dark
passage gingerly. Vishal, on seeing that he was about to be left
behind, began to scream for the guards, to prevent the others from
escaping.

Monal asked Arjun to move ahead while she
took care of her husband. ‘Are you bringing him with us’, he asked.
She shook her head and prodded him on. Arjun continued up the
stairs to the ground level above. He reached the rickety wooden
gate leading to the grounds and peered out for any men. The door
was broken, and unlocked. He waited for Monal to come up. Two
people against the guards had better chance of making it out alive.
He’d decided to let her come with him. She was his proof of
innocence of any crime. And she’d basically followed her husband’s
orders- Arjun was ready to spare her a shot at redemption and let
the law take its course. Vishal; he had to stay behind and work out
the math with the crooks; otherwise they would forever be on Arjun
and Monal’s tail.

Monal returned to the cell and walked over
to her husband. ‘Please baby, free me, take me with you. I can’t
take it any more’, he begged and cried.

‘
You were just yelling for
them?’ she said.

‘
Because you wouldn’t take
me’!

‘
You told them I had the
money! And you were going to leave for the sunny seashores with
your new wife after setting these guys after me!’

‘
That was the only way! I
would’ve sent for you from Dubai!’

‘
What stopped you from
sending for me when I was at Neemrana? You set up your old wife as
bait?’

‘
No no no! I was going to
call you!’

‘
I’ll free you. Tell me
where the money is.’

‘
Free me first. I’ll take
you to it. I swear’.

She could hear Arjun call out to her in
hushed tones from the passage. ‘Tell me Chand, where is the money,
and I’ll free them hands’.

‘
It’s safe- all of it. I
promise you! Free me!’

She looked at him with pity and shook her
head and backed away. He realized she wasn’t going to free him. He
began to scream out again,’ help! Help! They’re escaping! Stop
them!’ Monal blew him one last wistful kiss before pressing the
plunger and bolting the door from outside. She stayed for a moment,
savoring the last glimpse of the man who’d shown her the good
times, and the bad, before the cage clanged up, and the tigers
strayed to where he was tied up, and began to paw him, hesitatingly
at first, then with increasing aggression. She turned without
looking back and ran up the stairs to where Arjun was waiting for
her, her husband’s bloodcurdling screams following at her heels as
the tigers made a meal of him.

‘
What’s happening’, Arjun
asked with concern.

‘
Nothing, he’s yelling for
the guards’, she said, urging him into the vast grounds, where even
the hazy dusk dazed their eyes after the darkness of the
underground cells. No one seemed to be attending the grounds. It
was a clear dash for the fort’s entrance. The fort gates were
closed but while entering they’d noticed the staff quarters had a
wicket gate for men in ones and twos entering or leaving the fort
with supplies. They crouched low and peered through the grilled
windows into the run-down quarters. A couple of men, probably
off-duty, slept, while another two played cards and smoked, their
rifles lying carelessly on the floor by them. Monal, after handing
Arjun the rifles, balanced the two knives in her hands expertly and
motioned him to follow her.

She pushed the door open softly. The men
didn’t look up from their cards till she had trodden in and was
just a few feet away. They’d probably never seen her in their lives
up until then. They stared at her foggily, it never occurring to
them to reach for their weapons because it was just some scruffy
looking woman standing before them, till they saw the knives in her
hand. ‘Oye’, they said and started. But the knives found their
marks first, sending the men sprawling back with their throats
squirting blood. The other two men also woke and just sat up in bed
looking on in horror at their colleagues. They didn’t see Arjun
crawl up behind them, and one by one he gripped their chins and
spun their necks, sending them unconscious. The keys to the wicket
gate were stringed in a large iron ring hanging from the wall. They
grabbed two rifles and the key chain and let themselves out of the
fort. It was dark already, and the air smelled of smoke from
firewood lit up by the men guarding the tower above them probably.
They saw no one on the ramparts and quietly sneaked into the moat
and across. They stayed low and kept to the thicket just off the
winding road till they had taken the bend and the fort was no
longer in sight. Then they rose and stretched themselves and began
to walk down the mountain, keeping a lookout for animals and
snakes.

Suddenly, just before a bend, they heard
sounds. ‘Shush’, said Arjun and he dragged Monal behind the
overhanging rocks. The strange sound, strange because it sounded
like a baby, came from somewhere down the road, not very far away!
They crouched low and peered round the bend. A police jeep, parked
well off the road in the cover of the bush, they could perceive.
There were some occupants inside, including a baby, which was
crying! And they’d heard that cry before! It was Krishnamala, the
cop, and her baby! She’d followed them to the fort, that cheeky
woman, and had brought her baby along! What nerve! And how happy
were they to hear that baby cry- it was music! Arjun had never been
so thankful for the company of a cop as he was now! He grabbed
Monal’s hand and together they ran towards the jeep. Krishnamala
didn’t hear them approach because of the baby crying. Arjun knocked
at the window, startling Krishnamala, who began fumbling through
folds of her garments for her weapon. She stopped when she
recognized him and sighed with relief. She wound the glass down and
said, ‘ hey!’