Betrayals And Paybacks Page 4

  Later that evening, sitting at the dinner table, Vedant covertly watched the woman, his sister-in-law, Divya. She was beautiful with smooth peachy skin and dark black hair. She was dressed like a gypsy, in simple but out-dated clothes. The cotton blouse and the long, colourful skirt looked like they belonged to the old paintings, hanging on the walls of the Palace Hotel. And she made a lot of tinkling sound as she moved, thanks to the vast amount of bracelets and the anklet she wore on her body. Even her skirt was full of bells, he thought with amusement. She proudly displayed the red vermillion on her forehead and the mangalsutra around her neck.

  He found it hard to believe that Tarun could have chosen her to be his wife. But then on the other hand, Tarun loved simple things and simple people. Maybe, it was that simplicity that had attracted him to her. Still, she looked too unreal. She was nervously arranging and then rearranging the food on the table, trying to make it easy for him to access it. But he was finding it very irritating and wished she would stop. On the other hand, he sympathised with her. Even though she was married to his brother, she was as much a stranger to him as he was to her. His brother hadn’t even bothered informing him that he was getting married.

  He made a mental note to kill him for it, whenever he saw him. But the thought was sobering. He wasn’t even sure Tarun was safe. And frankly, he did not know where to begin looking for him, either. Since he had arrived here this morning, he had tried to get a clear picture of what had happened that day. But everyone was vague.

  On the other end of the dining room, Dinkar, his parent’s loyal servant was watching Divya too, a disapproving look on his face. Dinkar had been with his parents forever. He was old and wrinkly now but he still helped around the hotel and the estates. Dinkar had been like his father’s man Friday and later Tarun’s. He wondered if the disapproval on his face was of the girl or the fact that he had been side-lined in his duties.

  “Would you like more of the rice?” Divya’s timid voice cut through his thoughts.

  “No thanks, I’m…good,” he tried to smile at her.

  She returned his smile, with a timid half smile and then sighed, “I know we are complete strangers to each other. And I wish, truly wish Tarun was here. He would have….” She trailed off, swallowing loudly.

  “It’s okay. We will find him. I promise,” Vedant said quickly. She looked to be on the verge of tears and for the life of him, he couldn’t imagine what he would do, if she started to bawl her eyes out.

  “Can you tell me again the sequence of events that day?” he asked, more to divert her mind. He had already heard the story. Also he hoped, she would remember something new that could perhaps give him some clue about where to start looking for his brother.

  She sighed and said, “As I already told you, there was nothing different that day. Like any other normal day, he went out to the hotel in the morning after breakfast, promising to be home for lunch. Though later, he sent word that he wouldn’t be able to make it as something had happened in the village and he was going there,” she paused.

  This, Vedant knew was not anything unusual. The Birajdar family had been one of the founding members of the village, Tamara. Since time immemorial, the Patriarch of the family was automatically chosen as the head man and they worked for the well-being of the people. Vikrant Birajdar, Vedant’s father had been elected into the Panchayat numerous times and whenever there was any dispute, a public or a personal problem, he was always called to sort out matters. People respected and listened to his advice.

  Tarun, who was seven years older than Vedant, had taken over the responsibilities of his father when their parents passed away. He had cut short his education in the city and come back but had made sure Vedant wouldn’t have to suffer. Vedant had been somewhat of a wild child. Many a times, he and Jay had gotten into numerous sticky situations and it was always Tarun and Dinkar, who would save their necks. Finally, it had been that bar fight that had been the turning point. Tarun had put his foot down then. After extracting a promise from him to stay away from trouble and Jay, he had sent Vedant away to Mumbai for further studies and encouraged him to make a life for himself there.

  “And nobody knew what had happened in the village. Did he meet anyone on the way or in the village?” he asked, almost automatically.

  “Like we told you before, we don’t know. When he did not return for a very long time, I went to the village to find him. But according to the villagers, no one had called him and according to the police, he never went there.” Dinkar added softly.

  “So why would he tell you all that he was going to the village? Do you think that perhaps he was fooled into going to the village? And maybe someone waylaid him before he reached the village?” Vedant mused loudly.

  “We checked with everyone who was likely to call him. The police have also claimed to have checked to see if anyone made a call to the hotel but no calls came in that day. Not from the village.” Dinkar answered him.

  “That same evening,” Divya cut in, “when Dinuanna was still in the village, the police came to the hotel. Apparently, somebody had called them about a dead body lying at the foot of the cliff. It turned out to be Jay. I told them Tarun was missing too and they asked me to come and register a complaint the next morning, if he hadn’t returned by then. And I did.”

  “And?”

  “There has been no progress. Everything is a dead end. It looks like he just disappeared into thin air,” she said, sniffing.

  “Maybe I will go to the village in the morning and talk to the station-in-charge myself,” Vedant said, absently pushing the food around on his plate.

  “That would be Raunak Goud, the station-in-charge. You remember him, don’t you?” Dinkar asked.

  “Raunak?! Raunak is the cop in charge here?! That is good and of course I remember him,” Vedant was relieved. He wondered why Dinkar was giving him such a curious look.

  “Yeah, you do that. It will be good to be meeting with old friends again,” Dinkar said, still staring at him. It felt as if Dinkar was trying to tell him something. But before he could ask him anything else, Divya said, “Tarun once told me, you and Jay were really good friends.”

  “Hmm…we were. He was almost like a brother.” Vedant felt the heaviness in his heart and he knew his voice sounded sad too.

  “I am sorry,” Divya said sympathetically. “He was such a nice guy. I was just getting to know him.”

  “Tell me, why does everyone think Jay committed suicide? Did he leave a note?” Vedant asked her.

  “None that we know of. There was certainly no note found here,” she answered.

  “Then why do the police think he jumped off the hotel terrace. It is almost impossible to climb over that thick wall, isn’t it? How do they think he did that?”

  “I don’t know,” Divya answered him as she fidgeted with the cutlery.

  “It is what the police think.” Dinkar said his eye on Divya’s bent head. Maybe Raunak would know more about that.

  ₪ ₪ ₪

  Chapter 5

  Vedant sat on the window sill of his bedroom, staring out into the darkness. When his parents had moved here from the village, they had built this small two storey house at the south end of the property, a little away from the hotel, so that even though they stayed within its premises, they could still get some privacy. The house was made up of a modest four bedrooms, two on the top and two on the ground floor, with servant quarters and a small private garden cut off from the rest of the hotel grounds by a wooden fence. His room situated on the first floor of the house accorded him a direct view of the back of the hotel and its grounds. As a child he used to sit here and watch the back lawns and the open grounds of the hotel late into the night.

  The Palace was a rough L-shaped structure, with one part facing the river and the other part curving away inwards. The curved part of the hotel had been rumoured to have been destroyed by a fire long before his father had bought the property. It had never been restored and was now old and crumbling
. All entrance and exits from that part of the palace had been sealed off and lay in complete darkness. His father had always talked of restoring that part and converting it into a museum of sorts. He would tell them often that when they had made enough money, he would renovate that part of the palace and open it to the public. It had been his dream, which of course, never came true.

  Vedant looked at the shadowy outline of the ruins, wondering why Tarun had never thought of razing it to the ground. In the initial years, when he had taken over, he would talk about razing it and converting it into a mini-golf course, to attract more tourists. Even that did not happen. Vedant believed that it would be cheaper to just raze the whole thing to the ground. They could have more open ground if nothing else. The ruins did not serve any particular purpose except mar the otherwise perfect beauty of the place. He looked at it broodingly, his mind flitting from one thought to another, when he caught a flicker of light in there. He peered into the darkness. Was someone in there? But though he continued to stare into the ruins, he did not see the light again and decided it had either been his imagination or he had caught the flicker of a fire-fly.

  His eyes shifted to the back entrance of the hotel. Most of the lights in the back of the hotel had been switched off for the night, but there was enough light from the garden around for him to pick up some sort of activity going on there. A group of men huddled together having some sort of a discussion. He guessed it was the hotel staff being briefed about the next day’s activities. He wondered who was managing the affairs of the hotel in his brother’s absence. Usually, it used to be Dinkar who took charge, in the rare case his brother wasn’t around. But he was sure Dinkar was still in the house. So who was it? Divya? Somehow, he doubted it.

  On a sudden impulse, he decided to go find Dinkar. He needed to talk to him without the presence of Divya. He had sensed an odd hostility between them and he needed to know why. Dinkar had always been fiercely loyal to the family and Divya was now family. So why did Dinkar resent her?

  He found Dinkar in his old quarters, preparing for bed. He was not surprised that Vedant had come searching for him. He smiled, his face crinkling with pleasure on seeing him.

  “Come on in. I had a hunch you would be here and I made you your favourite Kokum drink,” he said, sounding pleased.

  Dinkar used to make a delicious drink from the juice of Kokum or Mangosteen and coconut milk, which as children, Jay and he used to love. When Dinkar brought him a tall, cool glass of the drink, he took a long sip. The sour-sweet flavour of the drink brought with it memories and his eyes welled up.

  “Jay used to love this too,” he said softly, running a finger over the cool, condensed droplets of vapours on the outside of the glass.

  “Yes, he did, didn’t he? You two never got tired of drinking it,” Dinkar said a little sadly.

  Vedant did not answer him as he tried to compose himself. He looked around the small room. It was still the same; a small, single cot on one end, an old weather beaten sofa and a bare wooden table next to the window. They were sitting on the sofa next to each other and Vedant turned to look at the old man. He had aged, badly and looked very tired. The face was crinkly with wrinkles; some so deep that it looked like it had been etched with a sharp weapon. The once bushy eyebrows were white and drooped over his eyes. He was stooped over and his hands trembled a little.

  “Dinuanna,” Vedant reached over and took the old man’s hand. “How have you been?”

  “I am well my boy, I am doing well. Your brother looks after me well. It is him I am worried about.”

  “I know. We will find him, I promise.” Vedant said gently. The old man did not answer him, instead he sat lost in thought.

  “Tell me, who looks after the affairs of the hotel in Tarun’s absence?” Vedant asked him.

  “Tarun had employed some hmmm…how do you say…trained guys, some time ago.” Was he being a little evasive?

  “And you? Shouldn’t you be involved too?”

  “I am too old for all this,” Dinkar said a little gruffly.

  “We will always need you Dinuanna.” Vedant said gently.

  Dinkar looked at him then, his eyes tender. “You were always different. Wild yes, but more sensitive. Jay was like that too. I wish he was not though, at least…he would have been alive.”

  “What do you mean, Dinuanna?”

  “Nothing…it is just that …that...boy just couldn’t stop himself from trying to help other people with their problems.”

  “What problems, Dinuanna? Jay had said Tarun was in trouble? Is that why Jay was at the hotel?”

  “No…no… You are getting it wrong,” Dinkar looked uncomfortable.

  “You can talk to me, Dinuanna. Tell me, what was he doing here? I thought he had stopped coming here altogether after…”

  “…after you left? In the beginning, yes. Tarun and he avoided each other, completely. Then about two years ago, Jay came to see him and they had a long conversation. After that they had grown really close. I think Tarun missed you and Jay was a little lonely after Misha went off to Bangalore for studies. So they sort of found solace, a companionship in each other. Tarun loved the boy, you know. Just thought, he was a bad influence on you.”

  “There were many who believed I was the bad influence.” Vedant said wryly.

  “Anyway, during the tourist season, there was always a shortage of hands around here and Jay would land up to help him.”

  “This isn’t the tourist season, is it?

  “No….it was just….Jay used to spend a lot of time here.”

  “So what happened, Dinuanna? Why did Jay commit suicide?”

  “I don’t know,” the old man was evasive again. He continued after a pause, speaking softly as if reminiscing, “He had been so happy lately. Especially, after his sister came back from the city and they announced her engagement….” Dinkar stopped speaking, as if he just realised what he had said.

  “Misha is engaged?! To whom!?” Vedant heart missed a beat. He tried to hide the shock and the hurt but Dinkar knew him too well to miss the look on his face.

  “I am sorry. I wasn’t going to tell you, but I guess now that you are back you would have found out anyway. She is hmm…she is engaged to Raunak Goud. Some weeks ago, before his death, Jay and Raunak’s mother got them formally engaged.”

  Had he really thought he could just walk back into her life, eight years later, and find her waiting for him? As children Misha, Jay and he had been inseparable. Being neighbours had only added to their closeness. They did everything together. Though, Misha had been almost three years junior to them, she was a total tomboy and preferred to hang out with them. When other girls played house with dolls, Misha would be flying kites and playing marbles. There had been many other kids who they used to play and hang out with them but the three of them were called the “inner circle”. They had shared secrets and joys and sorrows. They were best friends, a single unit that cried together and laughed together. Even after his family had moved away from the village into the hotel, he would spend more time in Jay’s and Misha’s house than in his own. His mother had often joked about how they would give him away legally to the Varma’s for adoption.

  As they grew up, Vedant and Misha had formed a special bond. He started to become aware of feelings that were more than just friendship. She was the first girl that had made his heart flutter. She was the first to make him realise, he could be jealous. The very things they shared had started to bring him pain, when she talked about other guys or looked at another guy, until one day he had told her what he felt. He had been surprised when she had confessed to feeling the same about him. They had been teenagers then, wild, happy and with a rosy picture of the future.

  They had not known that fate had other plans. He had been forced to run. Overnight, his life had gone from being fun and games to that of a fugitive. Tarun had made him promise to stay out of trouble and the village. So Vedant had gone away to the city. Of course, he could never tell Misha about the w
orst night of his life, so he had just walked away. He knew, she had probably assumed the worst of him and he did not blame her for it.

  As far as he was concerned, neither the distance nor the length of time he had been away had changed his feelings for her. He had hoped that one day he could come back and explain what had happened. Maybe beg for forgiveness. Even miles away from here, he had often thought about her and had fantasised about a life with her. He couldn’t help feeling crushed. She had moved on, he thought, as he struggled to overcome the sudden feeling of tightness and pain in his chest. If only he could see her once again, perhaps explain his side of the story. But that wasn’t going to be possible anytime soon. He would be opening old wounds and breaking a promise. He couldn’t do that to Jay. Not when Jay was not around anymore.

  He became aware of Dinkar watching him, sympathetically.

  “I’m sorry,” he was saying. “But you have to move on, too. Some things are not meant to be, you know.” Suddenly, the crinkly face was near his, pleading, as he said in a loud whisper. “Go back, Vedant. Tarun wanted you to have a life of your own, away from this place. There is nothing for you here anymore and your brother will come back, I know. He wanted you to be safe. Do yourself and him a favour and go. This place is a maze. Once you get sucked in, you will never be able to leave.”

  Vedant stared at the old man in shock and surprise. He couldn’t be sure but it looked like there was fear in his eyes.

  “Dinuanna! What is the matter? What is it you are not telling me?” his asked sharply.

  But the old man had already withdrawn. His face was a little hostile and shut. “I think you should go get some rest. I’m tired too,” he said abruptly and moved away. He sat down on his bed, making a big show of arranging the blanket over his legs, ignoring Vedant. Vedant stood staring at him; shocked at the sudden change in the old man. He turned around and started to walk away. At the door, he hesitated, looking back at the old man. But Dinkar was studiously ignoring him as he pulled the blanket over himself, his face still turned away.