Second Lives (13 page)

‘Sara, that was a long time ago…’ But I could feel a familiar sensation welling up inside me.

‘Do you know there was a rumour back then that we had made out?’

The sensation was now becoming a raging storm.

‘I heard that one too. Pity it was just a rumour.’

Our eyes locked. I reached out. Pushed back a strand of hair which had fallen on her forehead. She shivered at my touch.

‘You’re beautiful, you know that?’

‘Yeah, I do.’ She smiled. ‘In fact, I think I may have heard it from you before…’

‘Shhh…Don’t talk anymore.’ I put my finger on her lips. She took it in her mouth. Ran her tongue around it.

Our kiss was probing and gentle. Tinged with the awkwardness of two friends about to become lovers. The feel of her mouth was deliciously new yet oddly familiar.

I had waited half my life for this moment.

I broke off for a second and looked at her upturned face. Her eyes were closed. I bent low. Kissed her neck. Ran my fingers down her bare arms. I slowly opened two buttons of her blouse. Slid my hand in. She wasn’t wearing anything inside. Our lips met again. This time with a rough urgency. I don’t remember things clearly after that.

We explored each other’s bodies hungrily. Our clothes came off. We were soon in a sweaty tangle on the bed. Neither of us wanted this to end but it was impossible to wait.

Making love to Sara felt like the most natural thing in the world.

33

Sara

Making love to Neel felt like the most natural thing in the world.

I wondered why we had waited so long.
It was perfect—I couldn’t remember when I last felt so calm and happy. And for the first time since he had started his incessant drumming, the little man in my head was silent.

Neel had fallen asleep. I kissed him lightly on the forehead and put my head on his shoulder. His rough stubble grazed my skin. I placed my hand on his chest and traced the undulations of his ribs. He really needed to put on some weight!

My fingers moved to the taut muscles of his abdomen, and then drifted lower. I felt his gentle breathing quicken. Without opening his eyes, he reached out and found the side of my hip. His hand began to wander. There was something magical about the way he touched me. It was light and teasing, yet firm and passionate. The right pressure at the right spot—No man I knew could ever do that.

The second time was even better.

‘I always knew that if we made love, it would be really special,’ Neel said, when it was over. ‘Of course, I also assumed that the chances of it ever happening were several degrees below zero.’

I stroked his hair and smiled. Despite the moment, I couldn’t bring myself to admit to him that I too had wondered often what it would be like.
It had been way better than everything I had imagined.

His face suddenly clouded over. ‘We shouldn’t have done this. It’s disrespectful to their memory.’

‘You can’t blame yourself for being human, Neel. Besides, nothing you do or don’t can bring them back, can it?’

He didn’t reply.

‘And don’t forget everything we’ve been through these last few days.’

I held his hand. His fingers were stiff, as if he was trying to stop them from trembling. ‘Sara…That day…was my fault.’ He hung his head and closed his eyes tight. ‘We had had a big fight the previous night. I told her she was too possessive. She told me I didn’t love her. You know we had an arranged marriage, right?’

‘I know.’

‘It was a typical marital tiff except that I lost my temper and began to throw things around the house. She kept crying but didn’t say anything or try to stop me. My son was very scared. He had never seen me like that. I felt no different the next morning. In fact, I felt worse. We had another heated argument and I finally said I was leaving for good.

‘That really shook her. She held my arm and begged me to stay. She said she would do whatever I wanted. I pushed her so hard that she fell to the ground. Without saying another word, I stormed out of the house.’

I put my arm around him. He was damp with sweat, wracked by the terrible memories.

‘She took the boy’s hand and rushed out after me. She caught me on the pavement outside our apartment block. Held on to my shirt, pleading with me to come back. I pulled myself free and walked across the road. She ran after me with the boy…without looking…and…’

The tears came out through his clenched eyelids, and his whole body began to shake. He held on to me, sobbing uncontrollably.

‘I…killed them, Sara.’

‘No, you didn’t, Neel,’ I said firmly. ‘It was an act of fate. There was nothing you could have done.’

‘I’ve…never told anyone…. about this.’

I couldn’t even begin to imagine the burden of guilt and remorse he was carrying around.
I wished there was some way I could help but there wasn’t, of course. At that moment, I felt closer to Neel than I had to anyone else in my whole life.

But I knew this feeling couldn’t last.

34

Omar

I said, ‘If we join the dots then as likely as not, Rachel was investigating Sasha’s death as well.’

We were at breakfast. Sara had prepared it herself, in her signature health-conscious style. The scrambled eggs, perfectly fluffy, with mushroom, green peppers and flavoured with herbs, were made from only the whites. The accompanying bacon, lean and smoky, was specially prepared for her by a shop in Margao. Toasted oatmeal bread, low-fat butter and freshly squeezed orange juice completed the menu.

‘A serial killer,’ stated Neel dramatically.

I wasn’t so sure. ‘I think it’s premature to say that. Other than the fact that both cases were high-profile and got a lot of media attention, they don’t have anything in common. Anna and Sasha came from very different backgrounds. If each knew her killer, as the facts seem to suggest, then it’s unlikely to be the same man. Besides, they were killed under very different circumstances.’

‘Anna and Sasha did have something in common.’ Neel paused. ‘Both slept around with a lot of men. And women too, in Anna’s case.’

‘So what? I don’t think that necessarily means anything.’

Neel grinned at Sara. ‘See how defensive he sounds?’

She laughed and leaned towards him. ‘He has to stand up for his own tribe, after all.’

Something seemed to have changed between the two of them. It was subtle but I knew them too well and too long not to notice. They exchanged knowing glances, and I saw Neel whisper in her ear twice, something I had never seen him do before. Sara was physical with all her friends but I thought she seemed especially intimate with him all of a sudden.

I put it down to my imagination, until I could find a better reason. My antennae continued to remain on alert, though.

‘This is a serious discussion, guys,’ I said sternly. ‘And by the way, I didn’t have sex with Sasha.’

‘You didn’t?’ Neel looked up in mock prayer. ‘There is some justice in this world, O Lord!’

Sara said, ‘I agree with Omar. We don’t know if these two murders are related at all.’

‘Then why was Rachel interested in both of them?’

None of us had an answer.

Later that day, I decided to do some digging of my own into Sasha’s death.

I powered up Sara’s MacBook and typed in “Sasha actress” in the Google bar. It threw up several million search results, as pretty much any keywords do nowadays. However, I discovered that I had been directed to a porn actress called Sasha Grey, who is apparently quite a celebrity in the trade and has a comprehensive Wikipedia page devoted to her. I had never heard of her but I bet Neel would have known her filmography quite well. Out of curiosity, I opened up one of the links and discovered that her debut film had the hilarious title of
Homo Erectus
and that she had won several awards in the adult video equivalent of the Oscars.

After that enlightening diversion, I refined my search and managed to find the right Sasha. I had to sift through all the junk links to reach the press articles I was looking for, of which there were a large number. Sasha’s violent death gave her the media attention she had craved throughout her career but never received. Seeing her countless images on the Internet, I felt sad for this simple girl who became a victim of her own beauty.

There was not much I didn’t know already. Many of the articles delved into her past and profiled her journey from humble roots in Surat to the big, bad world of Hindi films. One referred to her as a rising star of Bollywood, which I suppose was intended to be polite homage to the departed Sasha but it was far from the truth. The facts of her murder and the subsequent failure of the police to crack the case were well-documented and fairly consistent across the reports.

Her various link-ups with actors, producers and male models were extensively covered. I knew the list was not only inaccurate but incomplete. However, there was one new piece of information which I hadn’t been aware of.

I read on at least three different sites that at the time of her death, Sasha had been dating a “mystery foreigner”. She had been seen a couple of times with a tall, dark-haired Caucasian man who appeared to be her boyfriend. This has increasingly become a trend in the industry so I wasn’t surprised. However, what was intriguing was that no one seemed to know who this man was, and he never surfaced again after Sasha was gone.

Sasha’s foreign connection was interesting. Could it be the missing link with Anna Grishin, who was Russian? It was still far-fetched but here at least was a tenuous thread to work with. I remembered Grigor having told his girlfriend that he had recognised the man who had come to dump Anna’s body on the beach. It was unlikely that a man like Grigor mingled with too many Indians.

Could the man who had killed Anna and Sasha been a foreigner?

An incredible train of thought went through my mind.

35

Neel

I usually read the morning newspaper in great detail. Many people I know have switched to catching the news online. Not me. I have a ritual of reading the headlines and going straight to the sports page. Then I carefully work backwards through the different sections. Glancing through advertisements, obituaries and classifieds along the way.

Still, I almost missed the little item tucked away in a corner of the local news page. It was sandwiched between a big notice of the Income Tax department and a series of photographs of a disputed mining site.

It was titled, Foreign Tourists Dead.

Two foreigners, both women, were found dead last night in separate incidents. Zoe Sharon, 38, died of a massive drug overdose in Panjim. She had been dead for at least two days and the door of her flat was broken open by police after neighbours complained of a foul smell. Jennifer Barlow, 54, was knocked down by a speeding car near Anjuna and died on the spot. Witnesses said the vehicle was a black SUV and it sped away after running over the woman. The police have registered cases of accidental death and are investigating if there was any foul play involved.

I showed the article to Omar and Sara.

‘My God! It must be the same Zoe,’ Sara exclaimed.

I replied, ‘And do you remember the name of Grigor’s girlfriend, the one Writwik told you about?’

Omar thought for a moment and answered, ‘Jennifer!’

‘Exactly. I’m willing to bet that this is the same woman.’ Both of them were quiet. They knew I was right.

I continued. ‘Whoever we’re up against is getting really desperate now. They’ve killed three people in the past one week.’

Sara said, ‘Do you think it has anything to do with us? We seem to be leaving a trail of bodies in our wake, starting with Grigor.’

Omar shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. If that was the case, we would have been the first targets. These people are completely ruthless so they wouldn’t have hesitated to dispose of us. But something is panicking them, that’s obvious.’

‘Well, you were almost killed at the Marriott, weren’t you?’

A shifty look came into Omar’s eyes. He said quietly, ‘I didn’t tell you guys this before but that wasn’t what it seemed like.’

I stared at him. ‘What do you mean? Don’t tell me the whole thing was faked!’

‘No no, it was real. Didn’t you see the bruises and bandages on me? What I’m trying to say is that I think I know the men who assaulted me.’

Sara said impatiently, ‘Who were they?’

‘People I owe a lot of money to.’

Omar told us about his failed business venture. And how he couldn’t repay the loan he had taken from a small-time underworld don. We listened with surprise and dismay.

‘Omar, you poor man!’ I assumed no pun was intended. ‘Why didn’t you tell us earlier? I’m sure we could have helped.’

He raised his hand. ‘No Sara, I don’t want to borrow money from my friends to pay this man back. I have to find another solution.’

I had always been jealous of Omar’s success and prosperity. It turned out to be just a façade. I felt sorry for him.

‘Don’t look so morose, guys. I’ll figure something out.’

I couldn’t detect any note of confidence in his voice.

Sara put her arm around him and said, ‘We’re always there for you, Omar.’ I nodded in agreement.

‘Thanks, I know that. But right now, we have a much bigger problem on our hands.’

I remembered something. ‘What about that car which tried to run you off the road on your way back from Zoe’s place?’

Omar replied, ‘I’ll never forget the face of the man inside that black Xylo. He looked like the Devil himself.’

‘A Xylo is an SUV, right? And a black SUV ran over Grigor’s girlfriend. What are the odds that it’s the same one?’

Sara shrugged. ‘Well, I do have the number of the Xylo.’

‘We should give it to D’Mello to check out. Maybe it’s time to pay him another visit.’

Sara made a face. ‘I don’t want to see that man ever again.’

‘You know, I thought about that incident later,’ said Omar. ‘I’m convinced it was just a warning. They could easily have killed us but they didn’t.’

We didn’t heed the warning anyway. I was beginning to think that we were connected to this whole business in ways none of us understood yet. I felt like a pawn in a game. Being played out by unknown parties.