Ang Tak by helen yeomans

Author:helen yeomans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Guards Publishing
Published: 2012-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Kathmandu

Vineeta looked up from the transcript as Jay, another reporter from Dharmedia, came down the stairs to the basement, nodded to the policeman and sat down at the long table across from her.

“Did you find them all?” she asked.

He nodded. “One died. I talked to the others. They confirmed they were away that night.”

“Let me finish this interview.” She bent over the document once more.

He had a newspaper cone full of aloo chaat—deep-fried potatoes with a savory chutney sauce—and he poured some out on to a piece of paper and shoved it across the table to Vineeta. He ate his portion using a business card as a spoon.

They were in the basement of the Home Ministry. The table was positioned in the center of the room with a long fluorescent light suspended above it. All round the walls were boxes, large plastic boxes, translucent with blue lids and labels on their sides, stacked ceiling high in metal racks. When Vineeta had first seen them, late yesterday, her heart sank. But then the Assistant to the Undersecretary showed her the section at the far end, where all the boxes were labeled June 1, 2001 followed by a description of the contents. He had instructed her severely not to touch any other boxes but these. She had assured him she had no interest in any subject but the massacre, but he left nothing to chance, and ten minutes later a policeman took up his station at the foot of the stairs.

She began to investigate the boxes using the table as a center of operations. An hour later, following a phone call to the group manager, she was joined by Jay.

“Ke ho ke ho,” he said when he saw all the boxes. What to do?

“Get a box,” said Vineeta curtly. She disliked that expression: in her opinion, it was tantamount to giving up. So they put their heads down, sorted through the boxes and formulated a plan of attack. They disregarded the boxes of hospital records, likewise those from the morgue. There was another containing observations from the CIA, MI6 and the BBC, all of whom had evidently put in their two bits’ worth. One gruesome box contained a diagram showing where parts of the heads of two victims, machine-gunned at close range, had been found, as well as a large scene-of-the-crime diagram showing the positions of all the victims. This they opened up on the table. They found a box of ADC-related information, including shifts, holiday schedules, and a roster of the ten aides-de-camp who served at the palace.

They decided their first task was to look for anyone who shouldn’t have been there, or who was mentioned in a deposition but not listed as having been there. So, from the boxes containing all the depositions, they made a list of the survivors, ADCs and servants known to have been at the Friday night gathering. They made a list of all the victims. They stared at the list and at the diagram, and then at each other, shocked at the devastation wrought by one troubled individual.

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