Mourning Raga

them, they can be recovered.’

Dominic’s mouth was suddenly so dry that for a minute he could not make any answer. He nodded strenuously at Felder across the room, and the big man slid noiselessly through the door he was holding open, and drew it to after him, releasing the latch slowly so that it made not a sound. In the telephone the voice crackled impatiently: ‘I know you hear me. You want your lost property back. I can provide. Of course at a proper price.’ An old voice, he thought, or at least elderly; its tone cracked when it was raised, it had no body in it, and no juice. On first bearing, either male or female; but he thought, male. He moistened his lips feverishly, and instinctively began to waste time.

‘Who is that? Are you sure you’re on the right number? This is Felse speaking, you wanted me?’

‘It is you who want me, my friend,’ said the voice, and cackled painfully in his eardrum. ‘If you want Miss Kumar, that is.’

‘How do I know you really have any information about Miss Kumar? Where are you speaking from? Who are you? How do you know anything about it?’

‘That is very well put, how do I know! How could I know, except that I have her? Oh, she is safe, quite safe. You want proof? Miss Kumar has American passport…’ Horrifyingly the old voice rattled off its number, the place of its issuing, the personal details of her description, and giggled unnervingly at the blank silence that ensued. ‘You can have this lady back for two hundred thousand rupees – cash.’

‘But that’s impossible… you must allow us time, at least, how can we command cash at short notice…?’ Dominic protested, feeling round the apparently empty recesses of his mind for any prevarication he could find, anything to keep the man talking; while at the same time he struggled to record every word that was said. ‘I don’t believe you have her. You could have found her handbag, or stolen it, and got hold of the passport that way. If she’s there, let her speak to me, and I’ll believe…’

The voice cut him off sharply. ‘Listen, if you want her! You get that two hundred thousand rupees, you get it in mixed notes and put it into a cheap black school bag. And on Sunday afternoon at two o’clock…’

‘Sunday?’ gasped Dominic in utter dismay. ‘But that’s only two days! How can we…’

‘… on Sunday, I say, you go, you and the woman also, to the Birla Temple. You leave your shoes with the lame boy who sits at the foot of the steps, on the right, and with your shoes the case with the money. Then you go into the temple and stay within for half an hour, not one minute less. Do not try to keep watch on your shoes, do not say one word to the police, or anyone else, if you want to see the girl again. Put on your shoes and go back to your hotel. On Sunday evening I call you again and we arrange about the child. If you have done as you are told.’

‘But, listen, we want to co-operate, but it’s a question of time, damn it! – You must give us longer than that…’

‘Sunday. If you want her.’ The line echoed one quavering ring, and was dead. Dominic held the receiver numbly for a moment, and then very gently cradled it. His knees gave under him, and he sat down abruptly. ‘My God, it’s impossible, we can’t! I don’t believe it can be done, not by cable, not even by telephone.’

‘Why?’ Tossa urged, pale and quiet. ‘What did he say? What is it he wants?’

‘Two hundred thousand rupees by Sunday. Sunday! Now we’ve got to call Dorette Lester, we’ve got no choice. But I doubt if we can get the money through by then, whatever we do… whatever she does!’

‘We have to. There has to be a way. I don’t even know,’ she said helplessly, ‘how much two hundred thousand rupees is. It sounds a fortune.’

They were still gazing at each other, stunned into silence, when the door opened, and Felder came into the room. Both tense faces turned upon him, though without much hope. He shook his head glumly.

‘A call box, somewhere central, that’s all we had time to get. Probably on Connaught Circus. One step out of the box, and he’d be a drop in the ocean. Not a chance of getting anything on him. What did he have to say?’

Dominic cleared his dry throat and told them, practically word for word. It wasn’t the sort of message he was in any danger of forgetting.

‘He didn’t give anything away… about himself? What did he sound like? I suppose,’ he added, struck by a sudden doubt, ‘it was a he?’

‘I think so. Yes, I’m sure. But at first I did wonder… a high-pitched, thin voice… old… No, he didn’t give a thing away. And now,’ said Dominic, ‘there’s nothing for it but to tell Miss Lester, and hope she can cable the money in time… But, damn it, Sunday! It won’t be a banking day here. We’ve only got tomorrow.’

‘There’s Vasudev,’ ventured Tossa dubiously. After all, they had harboured doubts about Vasudev’s cousinly solicitude. All that money, old Mrs Kumar newly dead, Satyavan, by his own design or another’s, utterly vanished, and only this little girl between Vasudev, the dutiful manager and nephew, and all those millions of rupees and that commercial empire. Even if he hadn’t got her out of the way himself, what a temptation this might be to want her kept out of the way now, to hinder, not help, any attempt to pay the ransom and recover her alive.

‘And besides,’ said Dominic flatly, as if he had followed her unspoken thoughts thus far, ‘we’ve been warned, not a word to any outsider. Maybe they haven’t realised that we’ve got Mr Felder in on the job already, but I bet they wouldn’t miss it if we went near Vasudev between now and Sunday afternoon. And we daren’t take any risks with Anjli.’

‘It won’t be necessary, anyhow,’ said Felder slowly. He sat down heavily, and his big shoulders in their immaculate tailoring sagged back into the chair as if he had suddenly grown very tired. ‘It won’t be necessary to frighten Dorrie yet, either… if all goes well, it need never be necessary, only in retrospect. We’ll put up the money, and we’ll make sure of being on time with it. As you say, we can’t take any risks with Anjli.’

They were watching him with wonder, and as yet carefully suppressing the hope that he knew how to work miracles, and could make his word good now.

‘No, I haven’t got that sort of money here, don’t look at me like that. I haven’t, but the company has. We’ve got a big credit in the bank here to cover this Buddha film. And it so happens that it will run to two hundred thousand without being sucked dry, and when necessary my signature is enough to draw on it. If I left anything undone that I could do for Anjli, I’d never be able to look Dorrie in the eye again. And she’ll replace the loan as soon as she knows the facts. Tomorrow I must draw the money out of our bank, and you can buy a