Chapter 81

Anita heard the whispered comments and felt the curious looks directed at her as she passed through the forest of cubicles that comprised the Mumbai Times office. The short, balding assistant leading her stopped before a frosted glass door, knocked briefly in a one-two one-two rhythm that suggested a code, and turned to her.

"PG will see you now," he said in a distinct South Indian accent. "You will take coffee, tea or a soft drink?"

"Coffee will be fine," Anita replied. Then added in Malayalam: "In this place, do you have good filter coffee?"

The assistant blinked, clearly pleased at hearing his native tongue. "Instant filter coffee, will that be okay?" he replied, also in Malayalam.

Instant filter coffee? Anita grimaced.

"Okay," she said. The assistant nodded and trotted back in the direction they had just come from. She took a moment to collect herself, running her hands through her hair which she always kept short enough to avoid the bother of combing, then opened the cabin door and went in.

Padukone Gupte was on the phone. Speaking so softly, she couldn't hear a word. He put the phone down and indicated the couch across his desk. He didn't get up to shake hands or greet her, but she was used to that.

She was here to do a job for him, he was too important to waste time being polite.

"You have a mixed record," he said, coming straight to the point. "The police department has a very high estimation of your abilities, but you have some very bitter enemies there also. And your corporate clients, some say you're brilliant, others say you shouldn't be touched with a barge pole. But everyone agrees you're very efficient and that you don't give up till you crack the problem. I'm a result-oriented man, myself, that's why you're here."

Anita nodded. She was used to this kind of introduction too. She aroused the same mixture of skepticism and hostility from most new corporate clients.

"You understand the need for keeping things completely private here?" he said. "In our business, we can't afford adverse publicity."

Which was ironic, she thought, because that's precisely the business Mumbai Times was in: adverse publicity. Or was it advert publicity?

"Alan Mendes had a lot of enemies," he went on. "That's very common for a columnist. The police will follow all formalities, but I don't expect them to pursue the investigation very rigorously."

Which probably meant that he had used his considerable "pull" to get the police to back off quietly. The reason was obvious. "It's difficult to keep a police case out of the media. That's also why I chose not to hire the services of a large detective agency. Too many people, too many mouths."