The songthaew took them along the winding clifftop road to a gateway dripping with fairy-lights. They continued on foot down a path lined with wax ginger flowers and lit with flaming torches, pausing to allow a peacock to cross in front of them. After a minute or two the tropical garden gave way to a neat lawn lined on three sides with thatched wooden huts, each one a private dining room.
Jayne and Rajiv left their shoes at the foot of a short set of steps and sat down on triangular floor cushions. Their low table was set with blue glazed plates and white linen serviettes folded into the shape of lotus buds, the bronze forks, spoons and chopsticks heavy enough to double as weapons. The air smelled of lemongrass and melancholic look thoong music hummed in the background. They could see white rabbits grazing on the lawn outside their hut.
‘We’ve stumbled into Wonderland,’ Jayne said.
‘It certainly is wonderful,’ Rajiv said. ‘I am liking it very much.’
Jayne took his hand, held it for a moment.
‘I’m glad,’ she said, smiling.
Rajiv returned the smile. It had crossed his mind to seduce her the second she returned from work to undo the night before. But he lacked the nerve. And the mood was wrong. A romantic meal, a few drinks, some conversation— this was better.
Jayne was wearing a black short-sleeved dress that made her skin glow. Rajiv wore a long cream-coloured kurta over white jeans, an ensemble Jayne joked made him look like a Bollywood star. At times they looked mismatched, him with not a hair out of place, clothes ironed and sandals polished, Jayne messy haired and rumpled with dirt under her nails.
At other times, like tonight, they complemented each other.
White on black and black on white, they’d be at home in the pantheon of Hindu gods with dualities like these.
As usual Rajiv let Jayne order the food—green papaya salad, steamed seafood curry and a chicken and bamboo shoot soup so spicy it silenced conversation for several minutes. Jayne didn’t volunteer any more information about the case and Rajiv didn’t ask in unspoken agreement to leave work aside for the night.
They talked about travel. Jayne had backpacked through India on holiday from university, seeing more of his country than Rajiv had.
‘What was your overall impression?’ he asked.
‘Hardly a fair question,’ she said. ‘Every new place was different.’
‘Did you enjoy yourself?’
‘It got a bit overwhelming at times—’ she paused to light a cigarette ‘—but I enjoyed myself. Enormously. I’d go again.’
‘Would you ever live there?’
‘Ah…’ she wavered.
‘You know,’ he added quickly, ‘if you were offered a good job.’
‘I guess I’ve never thought about it before. I could live in India, though it would depend on where.’ She paused to ash her cigarette. ‘What about you? Would you want to live somewhere other than India?’
‘Like where?’
‘Well, Thailand for example.’
‘Not sure.’
‘What about Australia?’
‘I don’t—’
They were interrupted by Jayne’s mobile phone. She looked at the number, a pained expression on her face.
‘Sorry, Rajiv, I need to take this.’
She slid off her cushion, slipped on her shoes and wandered out on to the lawn, scattering rabbits in several directions. Rajiv followed her with his eyes, his stomach sinking.
He helped himself to one of her cigarettes and was halfway through it when she returned. She didn’t remove her shoes. Rajiv knew what was coming.
‘You need to be going, isn’t it.’
‘I’m so sorry about this—’
He held up one hand. ‘Just one question.’
She raised her eyebrows.
‘Do you want me to be staying or going, because if this will be your way of saying that you’re too busy—’
She took his face in her hands. For a moment he thought she was going to kiss him, and wanted her to, despite his upbringing.
‘I would much rather stay here with you,’ she said.
‘But I’m racing against the clock. That was my friend at the Australian Embassy. Mayuree’s baby is headed for the United States the day after Chinese New Year unless I stop it. Chinese New Year starts tomorrow. That gives me three days to find what I need, get back to Bangkok, brief the adoptive parents, and help Mayuree retrieve her son before they issue him with an immigration visa.’
‘Please do not be worrying about me,’ Rajiv said. ‘It’s okay.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Where is it you will be going?’
‘I have to visit a doctor’s surgery to pick up some paperwork.’
Rajiv glanced at his watch. ‘After hours clinic, is it?’
‘More along the lines of self-service.’
‘Is breaking and entering normally something you are doing every day, Jayne?’
She shrugged.
‘Are you needing me to come?’
‘No offence, but it’ll be quicker if I’m on my own.’
Rajiv exhaled. While he supposed there was a parallel between Jayne’s cavalier attitude towards crimes against property and his own interest in hacking, Rajiv preferred to push legal boundaries from the safety of a computer.
‘See you back at the hotel?’
‘Within the hour,’ she said.