The Benefit Season Read online

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then off you go, before I change my mind’, she winked. ‘Since you two have been through so much, the department has arranged a jeep to take you till Delhi. There you can decide what you wish to do with your lives. And don’t you worry for your husband, Monal, leave him to us’.

  Krishnamala, her husband and the baby whose tiny hand he held waved after them as the police vehicle drove off. Then she went in and turned on a handheld monitor. Its screen came on and it made a small sputtering sound, which gradually settled into a steady beep. A small green dot on the screen’s map began to blink, going farther away from them, towards Delhi. Arjun had activated his transmitter and it was giving back a strong signal passed down to the cops from an unseen satellite orbiting above them.

  ϖ

  Monal seemed pensive on the ride home. She wrapped the blanket close and looked out the window the entire way, without once turning towards Arjun. But she’d snuck a cold hand out and gripped Arjun’s tightly, never letting go of it.

  Arjun had spoken to a delirious mom and Aarti that morning. Aarti had taken a transfer to Delhi and was living with her dad now. They all got together nearly every evening, huddled in worry and in wait for some news of their lost boy. They were beyond themselves with delight and couldn’t wait to smother him with hugs and kisses! Aarti was relieved that he hadn’t run away with a woman from his office while his mom was thankful that her son hadn’t besmirched the family name! Of course Aarti would have him back, but she sounded like she wanted to ask him some questions first! Krishnamala was right, the only way he could win her back, with the painful past completely erased, was to hand Monal over on a platter to the law, provided the former’s hunch was tight and Monal really had more fingers dipped in the gravy train than lawfully permitted. Her guilt was his proof of innocence. Exposing her would be the only true and solid way of showing that he’d been set up, that he’d been made a pawn in the larger dirty game he had no clue about. Well, he would expose her if it took ripping her clothes off! Meanwhile, he would woo her like no other. Coming as a soundless shadow and so departing, he meant to cause greater grief than a thousand soldiers armed with proof.

  ‘Where would you like to be dropped off?’ the driver spoke to them in the mirror.

  ‘The Taj…’ she said, ‘…please’. At the hotel she rose and pulled Arjun after her. She never asked him if he wanted to come along or not. She booked a suite for them but had no money to pay the advance. So she called up someone on the phone who spoke to the manager after which the hotel people let the guests into their rooms. It was a palatial accommodation with many bedrooms. Monal walked into the largest one and shut the door on Arjun. He stood awhile in the living room and then shrugged and went into the other room for a hot bath. Afterwards he walked into the dining room in his bathrobe and waited for Monal to join him. He knocked on her door but her shower was running and she didn’t answer. So he went ahead and ordered pancakes and eggs and orange juice and had his fill. He read the papers and switched on the TV and waited. It was nearly two hours later when she came out, all aglow and pink, wearing nothing but a carelessly draped satin gown, leading by the hand another woman, equally striking and radiant and casually robed.

  It was none other than Ruby! The woman Vishal had so hastily wed and more quickly divorced! For whom Vishal had forsaken his foreskin and faith. The belly shaking, husband stealing, harem-mate Monal so deeply and jealously had despised just a few hours ago. Right now their lips were locked and they held each other in tight embrace, caressing and thrusting against each other ravenously. When they’d supped and drunk of each other Monal turned to Arjun and introduced her.

  ‘I know her- saw her on the boat’, he said, referring to the incident of her probing Monal with a finger on Vishal’s crazed orders.

  ‘Oh that!’ Monal laughed and whispered to Ruby who also burst out giggling.

  ‘What’s going on here’, he asked, stupefied. Things, just when he felt he had grasped, had again wrapped themselves into a tangled ball and rolled under the sofa, out of his reach.

  ‘She had always been my girlfriend. He tried to steal her from me. You see; I prefer women to men. Vishal, and I, we rarely made love. I admired him for his ambition and style. Our marriage was a sham, for social acceptance, while we went our separate ways and gave each other the space to do as one liked’.

  ‘If you like women, then what about the love we made on the beach?’

  ‘You call that love? You’re so naïve. If it was so, it was made to me, and not otherwise’.

  ‘Then why did Ruby agree to marry him? Why cut up the poor guy for nothing?

  ‘He was an incorrigible liar. He spun his web of deceit and lured her. He told her what he told everyone else; that I’d run away with you and the money. He wanted her for a safe passage- luckily or unluckily they caught up with him. God bless his soul’.

  ‘How do you mean? Is he…dead?’

  ‘He should be. Unless he can fight off two hungry tigers with his barefoot kicks!’ she laughed again, ominously.

  What must have happened in that cell when she’d gone back for a few minutes suddenly dawned upon Arjun. ‘You wouldn’t set the animals upon your own husband, you…!’

  ‘He was her husband, the last I heard’, she said, nodding towards Ruby, and the two of them clapped their hands and broke into loud hilarity again.

  ‘Now, are you with us or aren’t you? Ruby here has a taste for both men and women. It will be a merry party. We’ll make it worth your while’.

  ‘Why me? You don’t need me- you two look crazy enough to me to get by without any manly escort.’

  ‘Sadly, not always so in this country. Abroad, where we are going, the three of us, it is different. So if you haven’t got anything better than the company of two very desirable women here, tag along. It’ll be fun. And I’ve grown rather fond of you, you handsome rascal, I love that rustic charm- you even pull chairs for a lady, that old-world integrity, and your foolish sense of honor- o it’s so quaint, it’s a classic! These qualities are hard to come by these days my dear, and I value them but cheaply. So come along, trust me, you’ll never have to work again.’

  Arjun hesitated a little, and then replied. ‘What do you have in mind?’

  ‘We have a joint locker where he used to stash the cash always. You will wear an overcoat with upturned collars and Vishal’s mask- I’ll have one arranged for you. You two have nearly the same build. You can stand at a distance and just come over to initial in the little book. Don’t worry, I’ll show you how. The girl at the bank has no time to look up at you. I will sit at her desk and engage her. First I will sign, and then I’ll motion to you. You look down while signing and then you follow us into the basement. Never face her. We’ll collect the cash and take the first flight out to France where my parents are. As simple as that.’

  He looked from one misguided, pretty girl to another and felt sad. They had probably had a huge head start over 99% of girls on this planet and yet they wanted to put themselves into danger and steal from others. What was wrong with this world, he rued. ‘It’s the gang’s money. Don’t you think they’ll come after you? Do you think for a minute that you will live to spend the money? Hey Monal, let’s go back to the company; it’s not bad. It’s a good life’.

  ‘Good isn’t enough, we want more. And if you know anything about the reputation of that baby-slinging cop back there, she isn’t letting those goons come out of that fort alive. She’ll never let them reach the courts or make that one call to their influential lawyers. So you need to stop worrying that cute head of yours’.

  ‘What if you get rid of me like your husband- how do I trust you?’

  ‘You don’t! Take life as it comes honey; I make no promises and I break none. I said I liked you, didn’t I, now that meant something. And you look at what Vishal did to me! Had things gone as per plan we would have flown with the money, and Ruby would have joined us when she would have. Are you going to be bad to me
like Vishal’ she asked, ‘…bad boy’, sitting next to him and holding his hands to her bosom, pouting like a little scared girl.

  ‘Alright, I’ll come along, for a while, just to see how it works out’.

  ‘Okay’, she said and patted his cheeks and rose from the sofa. ‘I am hungry. We start tomorrow, and who knows, the day after we are at the Champs-Élysées!’

  ϖ

  Chapter 14

  What a Good Shot!

  Ruby drove them to the bank rather early the next chilly morning. Arjun wore an ill-fitting mask that made him look like a rubbery version of Vishal. He derived cold comfort from the collars of the trench coat that he’d raised high, enough to cover much of the borrowed face, and the fur felt bowler hat that he’d tipped low, enough to cover the eyes.

  They breezed through the bank without a problem. The clerk barely had time to lift her head from the sheaves of papers on her desk and give a curt nod to Arjun; she didn’t even look his way. Arjun scribbled Vishal’s initials; they were quite easy to match. They followed her down the narrow staircase to the tiny basement with the lockers. The housekeeping man with a large vacuum cleaner greeted the clerk and squeezed himself against the wall to make way for them. The clerk inserted her key into the locker’s keyhole, Monal inserted hers and together they turned them. The locker door clicked ajar, just slightly so, not enough to show its musky innards. The clerk mumbled a “good day” and clopped hastily up the stairs back to her crowded desk.

  Monal pulled a short stool close to the locker with her foot and squatted on it, for the locker was at ground level. She bent low and put her arm into the locker and probed about, looking puzzled. She took the arm out and straightened up. She stared at her empty hand, turning it up and down as if she expected something to have stuck to it. Putting the other arm in also brought out nothing, except a tiny scrap of paper that clung to her lapel and floated silently to the floor, unnoticed by either her or Arjun, who stood at a distance, away from the viewing angle of the camera and was looking on with a growing sense of unease. Monal kicked the stool away and went on all fours, and putting her cheek on the cold floor peered into the locker- still nothing- empty, zilch, nada! She slid back and sat on her haunches, trembling slightly and staring at the empty metal box. Then without a word she left.

  Arjun walked to the locker, shut it and withdrew Monal’s key. As he was rising he noticed the scrap of paper that had slid into a tear in the carpet. It looked like a piece of newspaper that someone may have used to wrap stuff in the lockers. But the locker room was spotless; it had just been vacuum cleaned! It meant the paper had fallen out of Monal’s locker. He pulled it out and looked at it closely. It was a torn 1-Rupee note, neatly torn in one half to be exact. These days, one rarely came across this currency. He snuck it into his pocket, meaning to discard it in the next dustbin he found, and came out of the bank.

  He slid into the backseat next to Monal.

  ‘What now’, Ruby, who was at the wheel, asked. Monal had told her of the empty locker. Monal did not reply; she was bent forward, her face covered in her hands. There was complete silence in the car.

  ‘What now’, a little later Monal said, with a sigh. ‘I have no clue what he’s done with the money’. She sank back in the seat and dug her hands into her pockets. ‘The locker was squeaky clean - purged with hyssop4 as if.’

  ‘Not really’, Arjun declared, wryly digging the torn note out of his pocket and showing it her. ‘This fell out of the locker… just a scrap’. Monal snatched the note from his hands before he could crumple it into the ashtray. She stared at it and a gleam slowly began to light across her face. ‘We’ve got it!’ she burst out.

  Ruby turned and saw the torn note in her hands. ‘That’s what you call money?’ she said in scorn.

  ‘This- is our key to the money!’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘Do you even know what this is? It’s not what it looks’, Monal said before Ruby could show her sarcasm again. ‘This is a Hawala5 ticket! A note divided clean into two halves’.

  ‘Pray, explain?’

  ‘It means the money is lying somewhere. The other half of the note is with some Hawala agent. All we have to do is take our half of the note to him and he will match it with his half and hand over the money. It doesn’t matter who carries the note- the transaction will have to be honored!’

  ‘Sure. But where is this agent? There must be so many of them.’

  ‘It’s either a Hawala agent, or maybe even a bookie with whom Vishal may have placed a bet’.

  ‘How do we know it’s which?’

  ‘I think I know the which, and the who, both’, Monal smirked. ‘He was my husband after all’, she said, poking Ruby in the nape. ‘There were no secrets between us’. They giggled. ‘He would never keep his money idle- “make it work for you”, was his motto. So I figure it would be a bookie- the biggest in the game, no less; and we will pay him the visit’.

  ‘What, now?’

  ‘Today, for sure. Let me call him and fix an appointment’, Monal replied, and began to dial on her cell. She spoke in a whisper and then quickly concluded the call. ‘This evening’, she announced.

  ‘Where?’

  ‘It’s a warehouse close to Azadpur Mandi. He stocks veggies and stuff as a front for his operations. I’ve been there before. Let’s catch a nice meal at Le Cirque first, and wait out’.

  ‘Are we bringing him along’, Ruby said, jabbing the luxury car’s engine into life.

  ‘Who is going to carry the bags stupid?’ Monal laughed, slapping Arjun’s thigh.

  ‘I’m joking!’ she added, turning towards him. ‘ Of course he’s coming. He’s quite handy around an unruly posse. Aren’t you coming baby? Life is going to be one hell of a ride now. Are you game?’

  ‘You bet I am’, he said, and set his jaw and narrowed the brow. It was time. Time to summon the scourges and set them upon the devil and his agents. At the first opportunity he was going to call up Krishnamala, and ask her to land up tonight- not alone- with backup, at the warehouse, and close this sordid chapter of his life and give him deliverance. He longed for the normal life, the warm embrace of his mother, and the soft bosom of his betrothed to lay his head upon.

  ϖ

  They had an excellent meal sitting out at the terrace of The Hotel Leela, in a far corner meant for the smokers. Arjun enjoyed a bit of the House Red Wine, and most of the Paupiette of Black Cod, the Lobster Risotto and rounded it off with a hearty dessert of the Floating Island. He didn’t mind ordering fancy, unpronounceable stuff as long as somebody else was paying for it- given his present pecuniary, jobless state. Later as the girls smoked and gaily chatted, he leaned back in his chair, and dreamt of freedom.

  He’d stolen into the washrooms and informed Krishnamala of the grand design for the evening. She’d promised to be there with backup. All he had to do was press a red button on his phone when the cards had been dealt and the crooks could be nabbed red-faced and red-handed. And the cops would appear within seconds. Krishna would get the blueprint of the place and surround it from all sides.

  Arjun waited for the comfort of the dark. The girls, in anticipation of a windfall, kept ordering wine after wine and got higher with each passing hour.

  Later, when they’d had enough and it was time to leave they trooped downstairs, the girls lurching and laughing, and waited for the usher to fetch their car at the hotel entrance. Out in the open, the night fog, weighed down with notorious Delhi pollutants and smoke, smothered them like a thick blanket, and filled up and choked their mouths and throats and lungs like tar.

  It was an hour’s ride out to the Mandi. Even though it was chilly, they kept the car AC on and did not roll down the windows for fear of breathing the dirty, sickening air outside. The large gates to the warehouse were open and Ruby swung inside, and parked in the middle of the vast courtyard. A few trucks were randomly parked in the open. There seemed nobody around. Arjun looked around for any signs of cops on the rooftops or the
high walls outside, but found none.

  They walked into the large steel and concrete multi-storied building. The walls, made up of galvanized metal sheets with C girdles supported on concrete pillars were several meters high, having the usual vertical storage racks, lighting panels and ventilators with birdcages at the top. A couple of yellow forklifts were backed against the crates. Freight elevators and pallet hoists lined the neat rows of steel bins that rose towards the roof. They were in a large central corridor that divided the building crossways and was overlooked by concrete floors with iron railings on both sides. A couple of lighted offices seemed located at the end of the corridor. They walked towards them, their footfalls echoing off the high walls and roof. Arjun scanned the floors above and around him again for a fleeting silhouette of a lurking cop, but could discern none. He prayed Krishna wouldn’t land up with just the baby and that pacifier-wielding midget in tow again. Just Monal, barehanded alone, was quite a match for a couple of armed, pudgy cops. And he had no clue how many thugs were hiding behind the numerous crates, ramps and the dock levelers above them.

  One of the doors opened and a dapper man, dressed in a sharp blue suit walked out. He greeted Monal loudly and ushered them into the office. His hand strayed to her domed bottom and never left there. Monal addressed him as “Bhai”- another Bhai, Arjun mused. He’d had enough of them for a lifetime he figured. A couple of men in dark glasses- all Bhais again probably- stood with their backs to the wall, impassively observing them. It was obvious they were armed, as the bulges in their coat pockets showed. They sat around a large white laminate table and a bottle of whisky and glasses were quickly brought to it. The Bhai sloshed drinks in the glasses, plunked ice after it and slid the glasses across the table to his guests. The girls drank thirstily while Arjun didn’t touch his glass.

  ‘Who’s he?’ the Bhai asked.