Club You to Death by Anuja Chauhan (pdf e book reader .TXT) 📗

Kashi grasps both her hands, which are flattened against his chest, into one of his.

‘But I’m …’ His voice falters, his eyes are troubled. ‘You’re my … You used to tell me everything, Bambi!’

‘Used to.’ She nods, breathing hard, her voice bitter. ‘But you’re “very happy with your girlfriend” now, na!’

His jaw sets. ‘That’s not fair, Bam.’

She gulps. ‘I know!’

Breathing as hard as her, he leans in to urgently say, ‘Fuck all that. Tell me what’s going on.’

She shakes him off. ‘No. This whole “friends” idea was silly. We should just let it go.’

The pain in her voice is raw.

Kashi grabs her hands. ‘Tell me,’ he says steadily. ‘Tell me what’s been happening, Bambi, why did your Zumba trainer send you that stupid, threatening song and why have you donated half a crore to the BVC?’

She sits down on the minty green bed with an ungraceful thump.

‘It’s Mammu. She steals things.’

When Kashi just looks at her blankly, feeling absurdly anticlimactic, Bambi explains, ‘It’s kleptomania. She started small, just stuff from the hotels she used to stay in – low risk, easily explained away, not at all a biggie – but then she started getting more ambitious. I don’t understand it too well, but apparently the greater the risk of being caught, the more of a high you get out of doing it. She’s been desperately unhappy for a while—’ She gives a bitter little laugh. ‘Paapu’s some sort of a manwhore apparently.’

‘Bambi!’ Kashi reaches for her, appalled – she used to be such a daddy’s girl, the man could do no wrong according to her.

She backs away, but holds on to his fingertips, pulling him to sit beside her on the bed. ‘Never mind him. Let me tell you about her. Ya, so anyway, she went to some fancy-ass party, and while everybody was singing happy birthday to the birthday girl, she slunk off and picked up two gift boxes from the gifts table and snuck them into her bag, and Leo took a video of her doing so.’

Kashi cocks a quizzical eyebrow.

‘Whatthefuck was he doing lurking around the gifts tables with his camera out? What a dog!’

Bambi gives a rather manic giggle. ‘Yeah, I think he suspected her already – he had this way of knowing things about people.’ She gives a little shiver. ‘It’s bloody scary.’

Kashi gives her a quick side hug. ‘Then what happened?’

She stares down at their inter-laced fingers. ‘Then he sent me that stupid Cheeky Peaches song. That’s what you saw on his phone, na?’

Kashi nods. ‘Yeah.’

‘Naturally, it freaked me out a bit. Had he cottoned on to Mammu’s problem? But I brazened it out, acted like I didn’t know what he was talking about. So then one day after class, he slithered up to me and showed me the video.’

‘And Bambi Todi ki phat gayee,’ says Kashi whimsically.

‘Naturally! Especially as those little boxes had really expensive earrings inside them! Like diamonds and shit. Anyway, he showed me the video, which was bad enough – seeing Mammu with that crazy gleam in her eyes, furtively sweeping loot into her handbag – but the lecture he gave me after that was even more fucked up. He was such a bloody hypocrite! He said this was an opportunity to do penance and give back to the disadvantaged, and how the rich have a responsibility to the poor – and that he’d delete the video right away if I donated some money to this orphanage he was into. As if Todi Corp doesn’t give back at all!! I wanted to tell him ki listen, behenchod, we have a huge-ass CSR wing and we do a lot!’

She pauses, breathing hard.

‘He thought he was Robin Hood,’ Kashi says defensively. ‘He had a pretty shitty life, Bee.’

‘He thought he was God,’ she says vehemently. ‘Bypassing the legal system, handing out “justice”, granting absolution … Like, what the fuck?’

Well, seen from Bambi’s point of view, Leo Matthew does seem to be a bit of a choot, Kashi has to admit.

‘So then …?’ he asks.

She shrugs. ‘I sanctioned a sum of fifty lakh to his stupid orphanage from our CSR funds, what else? I did it in bits, so nobody would question the decision – we’re not some lala family-run business, you know.’

‘You didn’t tell your folks?’

She rubs her eyes tiredly, looking like the child he remembers so well. ‘No ya, Kashi – you’ve no idea, my home life is hell. Mammu’s anyway refused to get treatment for the kleptomania and gone off to her brother’s place in LA. She’s been holed up there these past three months. Paapu’s never home either. We’re all just looking for reasons to stay the fuck out of this house.’

There is silence in the room for a while.

Sensing his disapproval, she adds defensively, ‘Besides, you know, it was for a good cause and all. Like, that orphanage is legit. Maybe it’ll help him get some brownie points in Heaven.’

‘Well, you can’t let it go any more,’ Kashi says decisively.

She grimaces. ‘Why? Leo deleted Mammu’s video once I transferred the money.’

‘I know,’ Kashi replies. ‘There was no such video on his phone. We checked it out thoroughly today.’

She breathes a sigh of relief. ‘So then it’s all cool.’

Kashi grips her hands. ‘No it isn’t.’

She looks confused. ‘Why?’

‘You weren’t the only person Leo was blackmailing, Bambi.’

Bambi’s pretty mouth falls open. ‘What?’

He nods grimly. ‘And his death wasn’t a gym accident. He was murdered. His protein shake was poisoned.’

‘Shut up!’ Her eyes are huge. ‘What are you saying! You mean one of the people he was blackmailing offed him? Oh my God, Kashi, who all did he even send that song to?’

‘All people with secrets, I guess,’ Kashi replies grimly. ‘Seems like he was running a proper blackmailing ring. And one of them got sick of Leo yanking their chain and decided to take him down. We have to find out who.’

7

A Snake in the Garden

‘You left the milk on the gas,’ Bhavani Singh’s