‘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 cheap school briefcase, just as he said, and we make the payment. You make the payment, rather – and I stay out of sight and keep an eye on your shoes.’
The wild flush of relief came back to Tossa’s face, and the brightness to her eyes. Dominic let out a long, grateful breath.
‘Oh, lord, if we could! Is it really all right for us to borrow it? But you wouldn’t try anything then, would you? I mean, we agreed we had to obey instructions, for Anjli’s sake.’
‘I would not! But I’d have a shot at trailing whoever takes the briefcase, that’s for certain. Once we get Anjli back, I’m all for putting the police on to her kidnappers.’
‘But is it going to be possible to hang around and watch the place, like that? Won’t you be too noticeable?’
‘You haven’t seen the Lakshminarayan temple on a Sunday afternoon! It’s like a fun-fair. Cover galore and thousands of people. Might make it hard for me to keep an eye on him, but it will certainly reduce his chances of spotting me. It’s worth a try, at any rate.’
‘The Birla temple, he said,’ Dominic pointed out.
‘Same thing, laddie. Lakshminarayan is its dedication, and the Birla family built it. They had to do something with some of the money, it was getting to be a bore.’ There was a faint snap of bitterness in this lighter tone; no wonder, when they had need of a comparatively modest sum at this moment for so urgent a reason, and were put to such shifts to acquire it.
‘I can’t tell you,’ Dominic said fervently, ‘how grateful we are for your help.’
‘Not a word, my boy! I’ve known Dorrie for years, and didn’t she ask me to keep a fatherly eye on you over here? But I tell you what, I’d better get out of here by the garden way tonight, hadn’t I, and keep away from you except where we can be strictly private?’
He rose and stretched wearily. There were times when he looked an elderly man, but always withindoors and in presence of few if any observers.
‘Is there nothing I can be doing?’ Dominic asked anxiously, aware of having ceded his responsibilities to a degree he found at once galling and reassuring.
‘Sure there is. You can go out in the morning – maybe alone would be best, if Miss Barber doesn’t mind? – and buy a cheap, black, child’s briefcase. Somewhere round Connaught Place there are sure to be plenty of them. And about half past ten you could oblige me by being inside the State Bank of India, the one in Parliament Street. If you’re seen going in there, that can only be a good sign. And I’ll come separately, they won’t know me. And we’ll take out that two hundred thousand rupees – that’s something over eleven thousand pounds, I’d say offhand. You know, that’s not so exhorbitant, when you come to think about it! – and see it packed up all ready for the pay-off, and packed into that briefcase. And in a couple of days we’ll have Anjli out of bondage.’
VIII
« ^ »
On Saturday morning they drew out the money from the film company’s account in the State Bank of India in Parliament Street. Dominic was there waiting with his plastic school briefcase in his hand before Felder arrived; in good time to admire the imposing appearance his colleague made after a night’s rest and a careful toilet, immaculate in dark grey worsted. The clerk treated the whole transaction as superbly normal, and was deferential to the point of obsequiousness, perhaps because of the size of the withdrawal. Felder was carrying a much more presentable briefcase in pale chrome leather; Dominic had never seen him look the complete city sophisticate before. Even his tone as he asked for the money to be made up in mixed notes was so casual and abstracted that any other course would have seemed eccentric.
So that was that. They were moving at leisure away from the counter, with two hundred thousand rupees in assorted denominations in a large, sealed bank envelope, linen-grained, biscuit-coloured and very official-looking. It seemed like having a hold on Anjli again. Suddenly it seemed an age since Dominic had seen her face or heard her voice, and he remembered the jasmine flowers, with the strange ache of an old association fallen just short of love.
‘Put it in the case now,’ suggested Felder in a low voice, proffering the crisp new parcel before they were in view from the doorway. ‘Or would you rather I locked it in the office safe until the time comes?’
‘Yes, you keep it. Drop it off at the desk for us tomorrow, there’ll be plenty of people in and out. Supposing there is someone watching me now, he may think it a good idea to knock off this lot before I can get it back to the hotel, and then ask for more. How can I be sure?’