The Dust Will Never Settle (14 page)

‘We cannot talk here,’ he said to Ruby when he had finished. ‘There will always be something or the other interrupting us.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Tell me, where are you staying?’

‘At the Hyatt Regency.’

‘Not any longer.’ Ravinder had made up his mind. ‘You’re coming home to stay with me – with us.’

‘Are you sure?’ Ruby asked, looking at the family photograph on his table.

He nodded. ‘That is my wife Simran and my daughter Jasmine.’ He paused. ‘I remarried a few years after Rehana sent me the divorce documents and… that was the last I heard from your mother.’ The pause this time was longer and more awkward. ‘It will be okay with them.’

‘Okay.’ Ruby felt a flash of triumph run through her – she was in.

‘Okay, then.’ Ravinder scribbled his address and handed it to her. ‘When should I expect you?’

Ruby looked at her watch. ‘Would it be okay if I get there by about five?’

‘That will be perfect.’

He followed Ruby to the door. She was almost out when his voice stopped her.

‘Ruby, there is a lot unsaid between us,’ he began hesitantly. ‘I do not know what Rehana told you about what happened between us. No matter what you believe, I want you to know this – I loved you then, Ruby, more than you can imagine, and I love you now. I am grateful God has given us this chance to be together again. And I will do my best to make things right. I do not want this opportunity to pass… not without giving it my best shot.’ He broke eye contact, feeling wetness creep into his eyes. ‘But I don’t know where to start, Ruby… will you help me? Please?’

Ruby could not speak, her throat was choked with emotion. A part of her knew that this man standing before her, the father she had once loved and doted on, meant every word he was saying. ‘I don’t know either, father… I am not sure if I am big enough to forget… or forgive.’ She drew a deep breath. ‘But I will try.’ The double agent had no idea when the girl within slipped those words past her.

Then Ruby was gone, leaving Ravinder in a whirlpool of emotions – happy, but also uncertain. He took a couple of minutes to gather himself before heading for his car.

He was opening the door to get in when Gyan came running out. ‘Sir, there’s an urgent call for you. Minister sahib wants to talk to you immediately.’

‘What is this I am hearing, Gill?’ Thakur sounded in a foul mood. ‘The American and British agents are complaining that they are not getting enough cooperation from your people.’

‘I am afraid I have heard nothing about this, sir, but I will look into it right away.’

‘How come you don’t know what’s going on in your department? Mohite knows. He was just telling me about it.’

Damn that son of a bitch.
‘Don’t worry, sir. I will take care of the problem.’

‘How can I not worry? You don’t seem to understand how important this Peace Summit is for me… for India. The whole world will be watching. This is our chance to…’ Ravinder tuned out as Thakur took off. He was waiting patiently for the call to end when something Thakur was saying caught his attention.

‘… it is very important that we capture these terrorists alive. Mohite was telling me they could be the key to a much larger operation. Have we found out anything else about them?’

Realizing that Mohite had blabbed about the tip Nanda had given him, despite having been told to keep it under wraps, Ravinder decided it was time to put Mohite on the firing line. He’d keep him so busy that the idiot would have no time for squealing to the minister behind his back. ‘Not yet, sir, but we are working on it. In fact, since we all know how critical it is, I am putting Mohite in charge of this operation.’

‘Good idea, Gill. We should allow Govind to live up to his potential.’ Thakur sounded pleased. ‘That man has promise. He will go places.’

Yeah, sure! Ravinder grimaced. Especially with you watching out for him.

Ravinder headed back to his car. He needed to talk to Simran before Ruby reached home. It was not a conversation he was looking forward to, but it had to be done. He wished all this was not happening right now. Not when he needed to focus on the Summit and the Games.
But…
he shrugged fatalistically…
things happen when they are meant to.

There was a loud thunderclap and it began to rain. Soon a thick curtain of rain enveloped the car, making it even harder to see things clearly.

When Ravinder walked in, the house was in an uproar. The maids, the gardener and the driver were running around with buckets and mops. Standing in the centre of the living room, Simran was busy supervising.

‘What happened?’

‘What else?’ Simran replied with an exasperated cluck. ‘These damn government houses! Some new problem every day.’ She paused to instruct a maid before turning to him. ‘Now the upstairs bathroom drain has choked. We have water seeping into the kitchen from every corner.’

Ravinder opened his mouth to suggest something when he realized he was out of his depth with this one. ‘Should I have someone from my office look into it?’ he finally asked.

‘What for? They’ll take forever to respond and by then my kitchen will be a total mess.’ Simran was miffed. Ravinder sensed that there was something else bothering her too. ‘And by the time they fix it, something else will break down. Why can’t we stay in our own house instead of this dump?’ She was referring to the luxurious farmhouse in Chhattarpur that Ravinder had inherited. ‘It is lying empty as it is… such a waste.’

‘Simran, we have had this discussion.’ Of course they had. Many times. But despite his best efforts, he had been unable to make her understand that it would not sit well with the powers-that-be, for him to be living in such an ostentatious place. Not to mention that the remote farmhouse would be much harder to secure… something he needed to worry about with those two Jaish-e-Mohammed lunatics still on the loose.

‘The Sharmas have no problem,’ Simran sniffed, referring to his colleague who headed Delhi Traffic. ‘
They
are happily staying in his wife’s grand family home.’

‘What they do is their call,’ he pointed out patiently. ‘In any case, their house is in Model Town, literally a stone’s throw away from his office.’

‘Yeah, yeah! I know!
We
are always the special ones… we can never do anything normal.’ Simran’s anger was simmering. ‘I can never understand why you had to opt for the police when you had the option to join the Foreign Service.’

Ravinder sighed. He had no response that would mollify her. Anything he said would only prolong the argument. Even after twenty-four years of marriage, she had not stopped griping about his career choice.

He understood where she came from. Born into a Punjabi royal family, one not very different from his, she had expected to go on living as she had been used to, even after marriage. In those days it was considered prestigious to marry a civil servant. He remembered her fury when he, despite having topped his course, had chosen to opt for the police rather than the more glamorous foreign service. He knew that Simran would have called off the marriage if not for the ignominy that would have led to. There was, of course, also the fact that there were not too many men from a royal lineage available any more.

Despite all this he
did
love her, but there was always a gap between them they had never been able to bridge.

They were different people with different beliefs and ideas… and somewhere, somehow, Rehana had always managed to stray between them.

They had married when he had returned from London. His parents, especially his mother, had forced him to come back when she heard he had married a Palestinian girl.

He would never have returned if Rehana had not vanished, taking his darling Ruby with him. It had driven him to the edge. He had run around like a madman through the streets of Birmingham and London, chasing down every possible lead, but Rehana had disappeared, as though the earth had swallowed her up. He finally gave up and returned home to India.

Even today, Ravinder was not sure what had hurt more, the fact that Rehana had left him or the fact that she had left without explaining why. Later, he realized that in the weeks before she left, she had been moody and withdrawn.

No
.
Rehana had always withheld a part of herself from me… from our marriage.

‘Even if you had to join the police, why couldn’t you manage your postings the way others do?’ Simran’s voice intruded on his memory. ‘Four years in the faraway hills of Nagaland with not one decent shop for miles around and… and…’ Spluttering, she waved an angry hand. ‘Now finally we get to Delhi and you agree to take over the Anti-Terrorist Task Force. Couldn’t you have tried for an easier job? With a normal life?’

‘I didn’t ask for it, Simran, you know that. When Menon died, they had to move fast with the Games and all happening, there was no time to waste.’

‘And of course you were the only one they could find. No one else was good enough… or silly enough…’

‘Simran.’ Choking off a retort, Ravinder waved his hand placatingly, trying to calm her. ‘Could you please stop? I need to talk to you about something urgent. Will you please listen to me for a moment?’

‘What can be more important than this?’ she said, but gestured to the servants to leave the room. ‘What is it?’

Ravinder did not know where to start. He had tried to think of a way on his drive back, but hadn’t found one. He decided to go it straight.

‘Do you remember me telling you about Ruby? My daughter from…’

‘From
that
woman.’ She hated for this topic to be brought up even after all these years. ‘Yes. What about her?’

‘
That
woman is dead,’ Ravinder said softly. ‘Oh,’ she said, her face inscrutable. ‘Ruby is here in India.’

Simran blanched. ‘Why has she come here?’ She suddenly sat down. But ramrod straight, on the sofa’s edge, as though on guard.

‘To see me, I guess.’

‘To see you or to lay claim to your property?’

‘Simran,’ Ravinder was irritated, but he had to retain his cool or this could all blow out of proportion. ‘The girl has just lost her mother. Is that not reason enough for her to want to meet her only surviving parent? Please… let us give her a break.’

‘How do you know?’ Simran pushed back an errant hair which had come loose and fallen on her face.
A very un-Simran-like gesture
. Ravinder could tell she was nervous. ‘You are so gullible. You believe everything everyone tells you,’ she continued.

‘She has not said anything to me about property. She just came to the office to see me, that is all. I invited her to come and stay with us.’

‘You invited her to come and stay with us?’ Simran enunciated each word clearly. ‘Here? At
our
home?’ Her tone spiralled upwards, almost out of control. ‘
Are you crazy?
Do you know what will happen to our chances of getting a decent match for Jasmine if people come to know?’

Ravinder had to let her vent for a while. When she halted to draw a breath he spoke again, his tone even and non-confrontational, yet firm. ‘You must understand that she is also my daughter. I cannot –
will not
– ignore her.’

Simran could hear the steel in his voice. It emerged rarely. ‘How long will she stay?’ she asked in a resigned tone.

‘For a few days, I think.’ Ravinder saw her collapse into the sofa. He drew a deep breath. The battle was over, but he felt no satisfaction. Her anguish saddened him. ‘I did not get much of a chance to speak to her, but I guess it will be for a few days only.’

‘What will we tell Jasmine?’

‘Jasmine knows I was married earlier, Simran.’

‘Yes, but knowing something and having it shoved in your face like this are two different things.’

Simran was on the edge of tears, as her carefully constructed world began to crumble. But she held herself together.

Ravinder’s heart went out to her. When he spoke again, it was gently. ‘I agree, but I trust Jasmine enough to know that she will handle it maturely.’ He reached out and took Simran’s hand.

‘So you say.’ Simran freed her hand and put it back in her lap. She kept looking down at her hands, as though something precious had trickled out from between her splayed fingers. A moment later, her fingers closed into tightly clenched fists, the knuckles white with tension.