Different Senses (47 page)

“
Javen, it’s
never
normal in here. Where’s Sri Tushar?”

“
Back at the hostel,
resting. Writing music, probably. He’s under guard. The police have
got nothing.
Nothing
. The shooters used
ceramic bullets, so no way of tracing them from that, and no one
saw a thing until the window shattered. We think it was fired from
the roof of an unoccupied house a little way up the
street.”

“Not a very accurate place to
pick someone off.”

“If that’s what they’re doing.
I get the feeling it’s all about warning Tushar off, but there’s
been no messages, which you’d expect. Shardul says there’s been no
increase in chatter from the whackos either.”

Madan tugged his ear as he
considered this. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say it sound more
like a jealous lover than a racist.”

Could it really be that simple?
“Tushar’s ex! He said he’d broken up with him rather messily,
but...beloved reason, don’t tell me they missed something that
obvious.” I reached for my phone. “But of course, until two days
ago, they thought they had the perp.” I spoke into the phone.
“Yeah, Lieutenant Mahre or Lieutenant Dawil? Thanks.” I looked at
Madan as I waited to be connected. “Still, no note, and Tushar
doesn’t connect it with him. But he said his boyfriend...hello,
lieutenant. My partner’s just brought up something and I wanted to
know if you’d followed it up. Tushar’s ex-lover apparently didn’t
want him to come to Hegal to perform. They broke up pretty hard.
Anyone checked out where he is? No, don’t know his name. He lives
in Tushar’s hometown. I’m not with him right now. Sure.
Anytime.”

I closed the call and tossed
the phone onto my desk. “They didn’t even know about the guy. Mahre
says he’ll chase it right up. Cursed insanity, is this the
answer?”

“Makes as much sense as any
other theory. Um, we do have some actual paying work to look at, if
you’re up to it.”

“I’d better. The kids are back
next week. Please, let this all be over by then.”

“And which deity is to answer
your prayer, Javen?”

I made an extremely rude
gesture, to which he responded by grinning and sending a stack of
messages over to my account.

I did my work like a good
little business owner and employer, and even managed to carry out
some moderately responsible conversations, but my mind was on
Tushar and the possibly vengeful ex-boyfriend. When I had done
enough to satisfy conscience and my hard-working partner, I called
Tushar at the hostel. “Hey, sweetheart. How are you?”

“I’m bored. Come play with
me.”

I laughed. “I wish. Did
Lieutenant Mahre call you?”

“
About Mitul? Yes. But it
can’t be him, Javen. He’d never fire a
gun
.”

“Jilted lovers do all kinds of
things they wouldn’t normally. And it might be someone he’s asked
to scare you off. So if you see him or anyone from back home you
recognise, you call me, or call the police.”

“None of my people would do
such a thing.”

It wasn’t worth upsetting him
about, at least not until we had some idea if this Mitul was in
Hegal or not. “What are you doing for lunch? I can’t get away until
supper.”

“Someone from an entertainment
channel is coming to take me out. Nice of them, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, altruistic as hell. So
you’ll be on the media feeds again.”

“Looks like. Have you seen the
footage from this morning? You look so handsome. And your
family...um....”

“Yeah, um. Let’s just say my
looks won’t do much for my reputation in their eyes. My brother’s
family will be excited.”

“I want to meet them. How
wonderful to have a twin brother. That’s a great blessing, you
know.”

“I sure do. Once this stuff is
behind us, I’ll introduce you.”

“Yes, let’s not drag them into
it now. Do you miss me too, Javen?”

“Jealous brat, yes, I do. But I
have a very boring job I have to do so I can pay my two
hard-working assistants, so don’t even think of tempting me
away.”

“Me? I’d never.” But the gale
of laughter that followed called him a dirty liar. “Will you see
Shardul-ji soon? I didn’t have a chance to thank him last
night.”

“I might, and I’ll pass the
message on. I have to go. Be careful when you leave, okay?”

“For you, I will. ‘Bye, Sri
Sexy Voice.”

Madan caught my grin. “The lad
certainly makes you happy.”

“Doesn’t he. He’s so...full of
life, and no malice in him at all. It draws people to him. I wish
my parents weren’t so bigoted. I know he’d charm them.”

“Some people are resistant to
all our charms,” he said. “Tushar’s doing great things for the
indigenous reputation. If he opens doors for more of our
entertainers, we’ll owe him a huge debt.”

“Yeah. Speaking of owing....” I
made another a call. “Shardul? Thought you’d like to know the
police are chasing another possible line of enquiry—Tushar’s ex.
That might explain the lack of chatter.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“And it would mean it’s not
racially motivated. That’d be good news, right?”

“Indeed.”

“Shardul, I’m trying to be nice
here.”

“Oh? Sorry, I’m distracted. I
hope this is the answer.”

“Yeah, me too. Oh, and Tushar
sends his deep gratitude for the accommodation. I owe you.”

“Not on his account.” A slight
frostiness in his voice warned me not to get into that. “Javen, I
need to go. Have you thought more about my cousin’s design
practice?”

“No, but I promise I will. When
this thing with Tushar is over.”

“I can hardly wait. I must
go.”

Only when he hung up did I
realise there were two ways of taking what he’d just said, and I
scowled.

“Ah now, poor Tushar’s good
influence only lasts until Shardul-ji has a go at you.”

“Don’t you have clients to see,
Madan?”

“Certainly. After lunch. Until
then I’m content to watch your changing moods, like the passing of
clouds in the sunset.”

I had no answer to that which
wouldn’t lead to me stomping out of the office in a temper, so I
made another rude gesture and turned my chair around so he couldn’t
watch my ‘clouds’. Damn nosy partners.

Lieutenant Dawil caught up with
us in the little restaurant in old Hegal where we ate supper under
the watchful eye of one of Dawil’s officers. Tushar invited him to
sit, and he did, looking quite cheerful. “Good tip off, sergeant.
Sri Tushar, your ex-lover is here in Hegal. Are you sure you
haven’t seen him?”

“Mitul? No, and neither has
Lalit.” Ursemin nodded to confirm Tushar’s words. “Is he the
one?”

Ursemin spewed tension at my
empathy. I guessed the new, unsuspected threat wasn’t exactly good
news to him. “We haven’t located him yet,” Dawil said. “If he makes
contact, you must get in touch. If he’s behind all this, the
willingness to commit violence worries me a lot.”

“He was never violent. Loud,
yes.”

“He hit you,” Ursemin said. “In
that last fight. You had a black eye for weeks.”

“But I provoked him. He was
angry.”

I touched Tushar’s arm.
“Someone who hits the one they claim to love isn’t to be trusted.
It wasn’t your fault.”

He ducked his head. “I don’t
believe it’s Mitul, that’s all.”

“It’s early days to assume
anything,” Dawil said. “There still could be two separate threats,
and even if this man is behind the attacks, you must remain
cautious. I’ll leave you in peace, for now.”

Tushar poked at his food after
Dawil left. “It would be nice to know who it was. But I don’t want
to think it’s him.”

“Better someone with a
connection than a random attacker. At least that makes sense,
right?”

“I suppose.”

Ursemin grinned at his charge.
“Now, don’t be like that, Tushar. You concentrate on your music,
leave the rest to me and the police, eh?”

I winced at the man’s
tactlessness. “It’s not something anyone can easily ignore,
Lalit.”

“Yes, but what’s the point of
fretting? He’s well protected with you and these gentlemen, and no
one would attack us here, right?”

I didn’t argue because it would
worry Tushar. “The main thing is you’re safe here,” I said to my
lover. “Deal with anything else when it happens.”

He nodded, then pushed his
plate away. “I don’t feel so hungry now. Anyone want it?”

“You should eat,” his manager
said. “But if you really don’t want it, I’ll pinch a little.”

I squeezed Tushar’s thigh under
the table. “Maybe you need cheering up. I know a way to do
that.”

The sweet smile he gave me was
all the reward I needed.

Reluctantly, because I really
did have work to do and because it made it easier to whisk Tushar
to where he needed to be and back, I stayed away from him during
the day and only caught up with him after his performances. Five
more shows, and then Ursemin had planned a couple of months of
Tushar recording, writing songs, being interviewed, and attending
events like the midyear festival in Arni, a huge indigenous
religious celebration for which he’d be the headline act. Ursemin
had also lined up a number of promotions like visiting prominent
stores at the owner’s request, to keep interest in Tushar high.

Left to me, I’d have
taken him away up to the mountains for a good long rest, but
Ursemin told me bluntly this was a crucial time for Tushar’s career
and an absence now would mean lost momentum which he might never
regain. Since Tushar’s career meant so much to him, I bowed to
Ursemin’s judgement, though I’d damn well override him if I felt
Tushar couldn’t cope. No career was
that
important.

Still Ursemin had grudgingly
allowed me to take away Tushar for a long weekend as soon as the
concerts were finished, and when we returned, Lieutenant Dawil
thought they should be able to move back to Ursemin’s house, though
still under police protection. Things would get back to something
approaching normal, not that anything about being with Tushar was
normal. Or boring. I’d never had a lover so much younger than me. I
envied Tushar his endless energy and optimism, and tried to keep a
lid on my naturally gloomy nature for his sake. The difference in
our ages and temperaments worried me more than the racial divide.
So far, Shardul’s predictions about how bad it would be for Tushar
to have a Kelon lover, had come to nothing.

Staying away until later in the
evening meant I could finally catch up with Yashi and Tara. I felt
bad they’d heard about my new relationship over the news channels,
but Yashi was as pleased as anything for me. “He’s a lovely kid.
You looked terrific together.”

“How did the boys take it?” I
asked Tara.

“
Fine. A little teasing
at school, but they’re used to it because of your father. The other
teachers at school though.” She whistled and shook her hand as if
it was burned. “Jealousy coming out of their
ears
. I tell you, I’ve
never been this popular. Every single staff member asked me for
concert tickets and autographs. I had to tell them that my mean
brother-in-law hadn’t even got
me
an autograph.”

“Hey, I didn’t know you wanted
one. I’ll arrange it. Tell me what you want. No concert tickets
this time around, but next time, sure. He loves giving things
away.”

“Will you bring him over?”
Yashi asked. “We’d like to meet him. As family, I mean.”

“As soon as the concert run is
over and the police deal with the guy behind these attacks. He
wants to meet you. Dad must be spitting blood though.”

“Oh, didn’t you read? Someone
managed to get a statement out of him. He said, ‘I wish them both
happiness.’”

“Really? He said that on the
record?”

“I don’t know. Doesn’t sound
like him at all.”

“No, it doesn’t. Don’t believe
him either.”

“Come on, Javen,” Tara said,
reaching for her water glass. “Your father’s not going to wish you
bad luck, is he?”

“
You’d be surprised. And
don’t tell me he wants a
banis
son-in-law because I’ll
haul you off to the hospital and have them examine you for
insanity.”

She laughed. “I’m not that
crazy. But Tushar has a way of making people forget he’s
indigenous.”

I didn’t think he’d be thrilled
to hear that. “I think—I hope—he’s making a few people reassess
their automatic responses. But I don’t think he’s enough to break
down my parents’ attitudes.”

“I bet Tushar’s performing at
the residence before the end of the year,” Yashi said. “If you ask
me, he’s risking overexposure. Everyone’s talking about him, you
can’t watch a media feed without seeing him, and his music is in
every store you walk into.”

“This is his moment, his
manager says. When it’s over, someone else will take his place.
Can’t blame him for taking what he can now.”

“No. And he does write catchy
little tunes. I found myself humming one during surgery today.
Embarrassing.”

Tara grinned. “So much for
‘it’s girly music’, then. He made me turn off the music in the auto
the other day, saying he didn’t want to be seen listening to it.
Hypocrite.”

Yashi threw up his hands. “I
told you, you can’t get away from it! It’s like a plague.”

“
I am
not
telling him that,”
I said in exasperation. “Honestly, I hope you can be politer than
that when he comes to visit. What a way to talk about my
lover.”

“He better get used to it. This
household is a zoo,” Yashi said, and his wife promptly hit him over
the head with a cushion for being so rude. “See?”

“Maybe we should elope.”