The Mountain Shadow

‘I moved the stock prices in selected arm’s-length companies, where I’d already bought preferential stock.’

‘What?’

‘I rigged the market a couple of times. No big deal. I made my cut, and got the hell out.’

‘How much did you make?’

‘Three million.’

‘Rupees?’

‘Dollars.’

‘You made three million dollars on the market?’

‘I skimmed it off the market, to be precise. It’s actually not that hard, if you’re stinking rich to begin with, which I was, with Ranjit’s proxy shares. So, there’s no problem for money. I have it in four different accounts. I don’t need Ranjit’s money, or yours, Lin. I need your help.’

‘Three million? And I was talking to you about –’

‘Being a London Bombay wife,’ she ended for me. ‘I loved it. Really. And –’

‘Wait. You said you need my help?’

‘An old enemy of mine is back in town,’ she said. ‘Madame Zhou.’

‘I detest that woman, and I’ve only met her once.’

‘Detest is the doormat,’ Karla said. ‘What I feel for that woman is a whole mansion of malice.’

Madame Zhou was an influence peddler who’d sweated secrets from influential patrons of her brothel, the Palace of Happy, for more than a decade. When she drew Lisa into her maze of stained sheets, Karla got Lisa out, poured gasoline on the Palace of Happy, and burned it to the ground.

‘She put it around that she’s looking for me. And this time, it’s not just the twins.’

I knew the twins, Madame Zhou’s bodyguards and constant companions. The last time I’d seen them, they were bleeding, because I was losing a very untidy fight with them, and because Didier shot them.

‘I detest those twins, and I’ve only met them once, as a pair.’

‘This time,’ Karla said, looking out at the night, ‘she’s got personal cosmeticians with her. Two acid throwers.’

One of the retribution services offered in those years was acid-throwing. Although usually limited to so-called honour burnings, acid throwers hired themselves out for other matters, when the price was right.

‘When did she get back to Bombay?’

‘Two days ago. She found out about Lisa’s death, somehow. She knows I burned down her palace for Lisa. She wants to look me in the eyes, and laugh, before she burns me.’

Stars wandered their dark pastures. Early dawn pressed all the shadows flat. Faint light began to wake waves in brilliant peaks: seals of candescence, playing.

I turned my head slowly, so that I could look at Karla’s profile as her heart talked to the sea.

She’d been afraid, for days. She’d discovered our sweet, dead friend, and she’d been beaten by the cops, and she’d broken up with Ranjit, permanently, for whatever reason, and she had Madame Zhou’s acid throwers looking for her, and then she’d discovered that Ranjit was the one who was with Lisa, at the end.

She was the bravest girl I ever met, and I’d been so much in my own guilt and loss that I hadn’t been beside her, where I belonged, when she needed me.

‘Karla, I –’

‘Shall we do this now?’ Didier asked, from beside the small fire. ‘We are ready.’

Didier and Naveen had tended the fire well. The residue of fine ashes, cooled by fanning them out on the ground, was enough for each of us to have a handful.

We went to a corner facing the open sea, and scattered those little ashes we had of her, in the place she would’ve chosen to scatter mine.

‘Goodbye, and hello, beautiful soul,’ Karla said, as the ashes drifted from our fingers. ‘May you return, in a longer and happier life.’

We followed the wind and ashes with thoughts of her. I was so angry at Fate that I couldn’t cry.

‘Well, we’d better get out of here,’ Naveen said, cleaning up the impromptu fireplace. ‘The cleaning staff will arrive soon.’

‘Wait, guys,’ I said. ‘Madame Zhou’s back in town, with acid throwers, and she’s asking around about Karla.’

‘Acid throwers,’ Didier said, spitting the words in a shiver of dread.

‘Who’s Madame Zhou?’ Naveen asked.

‘A loathsome woman,’ Didier said, drinking the last sip from his flask. ‘Imagine a spider, the size of a small woman, and you will be very close.’

‘We’ll keep a watch on Karla round the clock,’ I suggested, ‘until we throw Madame Zhou and her acid throwers in the sea. We –’

‘I thank you, and accept your help, Didier and Naveen,’ Karla cut me off. ‘Much appreciated. But you can’t, Lin.’

‘I can’t?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because you won’t be here. You’re going away.’

‘I am?’

‘Yes.’

‘When?’

‘This morning.’

‘Goodbye, Lin,’ Didier said, rushing to hug me. ‘I never wake before the afternoon, so I fear that I will miss your departure.’

‘My departure?’

‘To the mountain,’ Karla said. ‘To stay with Idriss, for two weeks.’

‘Goodbye, Lin,’ Naveen said, hugging me. ‘See you when you get back.’

‘Wait a minute.’

They were already walking to the door. We joined them, and as the elevator doors closed, Karla sighed.

‘Every time an elevator door closes on me –’ she began.

Didier handed her a flask.

‘I thought you were out,’ she said, taking a swig.

‘It is my reserve.’

‘Will you marry me, Didier, if I can divorce Ranjit, or kill him?’