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To Khar, it didn’t look like Veda had budged any since the last he saw him.
The pleasantness in the weather had all but gone, and the sombre grey of the cold echoed with the gloomy mood that had been frothing within Khar was hardly reflected by his quiet countenance and brooding walk, as he trudged towards the garden where Veda sat under a gazebo, albeit a different one from last time. A sturdy marble table decorated with all the fixings for a late afternoon tea glinted in the cold reflection of a stray sunlight and for a moment this entire postcard-perfect picture of magnificent regalia looked like the fantastic facade of happiness that most people who visited these grounds and met this couple knew to be true in absolution.
Had Nehar been sitting beside him, arranging snacks on small platters as he poured tea into those dainty cups it would have completed the paradisiacal portrait of perfection that the Sinhal’s had been known and revered for, but for the grim reality that served well to disenchant Khar; he synthesize a formal smile that disappeared almost as quickly as it crept about his face, and he formally greeted the well-known politician and important foreign affairs diplomat.
It wasn’t exactly the most suitable of days to be sitting outside for tea, not least because the sun was on a downward path towards setting and the cold was getting colder.
Veda, garbed in white layers of expensive fabric didn’t look much bothered by the cold and proceeded to pour steaming tea into a cup. ‘I’d offer you tea, but you’d only refuse’ he said smilingly.
Veda’s voice had lost its amusing twang and it wasn’t difficult to discern that the last few days had weighed heavily upon him.
Khar wasn’t one for small talk, nor one to sit out in the unseasonably cold. He wanted to make quick this conversation.
‘Mr Wasim had been in the station to see us earlier this day’
Veda looked confused, or if tried to act confused he did it well. ‘Uh..I do not understand.’
Should he just believe that in the last few hours since Jumaid’s tearful exit he didn’t call up his lover once and tell him that he’d cleared his name?
Khar’s face was almost as expressionless as the marble table. ‘He acknowledged that on the afternoon of Sunday, November 13th you had been with him. Your alibi’ Khar said deconstructing the sentence.
Veda’s face didn’t pale nearly as much as Khar would have expected. This knowledge wasn’t entirely new to him. ‘I’d only wished you’d told us of it much earlier, that very day when we’d come in for questioning as a matter of fact. Would have saved us some rather unpleasant moments.’
‘You mean you’d have preferred it had I not been on your list of suspects’ Veda said wryly and it almost stung Khar to think that their suspect list wasn’t nearly as long, to begin with, but nobody need know that.
‘Wouldn’t you have preferred it too?’
‘You wouldn’t believe how much’ Veda said meditatively chewing on a small biscuit ‘but I’d have liked it even lesser to have anyone know about..uh..well, you know.’ he said with a bit of colour rising to his face.
‘About your relationship with a man?’ Khar unforgivingly came to the point. ‘You are aware that had you told us about it, your secret would have still remained a secret and we’d have been saved time and you a world of trouble.’
‘I know, I know, but it wasn’t about my relationship with a man, but with Jumaid.’ Veda whispered, his eyes downcast. How could I tell you his name? What would he have thought of me? I’d have broken his trust and betrayed us.’
Veda’s speech was almost antithetical to his majestic countenance and Khar didn’t wish to push this any further unless Veda wanted to.
‘He’s so much more secretive about it. At least in my case, my spouse is already aware of my transgression, as opposed to his. I couldn’t have let this secret seen the light of the day and forsaken our..our love’
Khar nearly rolled his eyes at this and realized how much his thoughts and words matched Jumaid’s. ‘and what does Mrs Sinhal feel about all this?’
‘She abhors it. Of course. No wife would ever stand for it, and she doesn’t too, for a few more reasons other than just that. For her, it’s the reputation and family name and all that fandangle’ Veda’s smirk failed to amuse Khar.
‘And none of that bothers you?’
‘It does’ Veda was immediate in his reply. ‘But I’d been very clear in my explanation to her about it.’ His face assumed a serious expression as he began counting on his fingers ‘one, that leaving Jumaid was a big ask, an impossible one and that I wouldn’t do it. Two, that we’d be discreet about it and no one would ever find out and three, there would be no more discussions on it’ He looked officious in the withdrawing of his hand back into the recesses of his warm clothes, like a general who’d walked victoriously out of a war.
Khar didn’t like this at all. He didn’t want to think what Nehar must have gone through, perhaps this being the reason why she tried reasoning with Jumaid instead of her husband. Veda seemed less and less like the man he’d initially looked to be. The embellishments were getting grimier.
‘As far as discretion goes, it didn’t work out that well for you.’ Khar brought forth a hint of bitterness in his voice and balanced it with an invisible smile.
Veda looked long at Khar. ‘You’ve not known love, have you, Khar?’
‘Unfortunately, I have’ Khar nodded.
‘Then you would know why it didn’t stay a secret in this case, at this point.’ Veda muttered.
‘Oh, I do. Something of a sacrifice to keep one another safe’ Khar said. ‘I do understand all of that, my only gripe being why you didn’t just tell us that very moment, but you’ve given your reasoning. Now if you could just summarize that day for me so we could move on’
Veda raised an eyebrow. Move on to what?
‘As you already know’ he said stiffly ‘I landed at the airport around two thirty and took a taxi and met Jumaid sometime past three’
‘Where?’
‘At the city centre. There’s an obscure tea stall near the park, from where we left..uh..for another place’
Khar looked at Veda almost reproachfully. ‘Please, Mr Sinhal. It would be better if you could keep this ambiguity to a minimum’
Clearly, Veda had been unaccustomed to such censures. ‘We left for a hotel.’ Khar didn’t stop looking at him and Veda felt the heat rising within him ‘it was called Welcome Inn.’
‘What time did you check out from there’ Khar asked clinically.
‘He checked out sometime around six after which I had some coffee in the same hotel, shortly after that I left for home and reached around eight.’
‘And did you make any calls to Jumaid in the evening after that?’
‘Why would I? I mean..uh..I’d just seen him’ Veda corrected himself.
‘Hmm.’ Khar silently reflected.
‘How well did you know Majid?’
Veda would have almost flinched had he not seen that question coming.
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