She opened her mouth but nothing came out.
Alistair was smooth but firm. “Come on, Ranji. We’re old friends. I wouldn’t do anything bad to you. I’ve known your father for years. He even borrows lots of money from me. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
Ranji might have just had a severe shock but she was not stupid. Her visit had changed from a sexy and profitable interlude into a nightmare, but her father still owed money to Alistair. He probably knew about her visits to Alistair’s hotel anyway, and did not object. She tried to resist. “Please, Alistair.”
“No, my dear. We’ll all be much happier if you take your clothes off.”
Tim’s mind reeled. What he was seeing and hearing made no sense at all, and how could Sherry be involved with this woman anyway? And why was Alistair forcing her to strip? He watched numbly as the girl stood and started to unwind her sari. She did not look happy when she finally slipped off her underskirt and stood naked in front of Alistair.
“You get more and more beautiful each time I see you, Ranji. Now get onto the bed and we shall talk.”
Reluctantly, Ranji climbed onto the bed and lay on her side with her head on her hand. In spite of the tension, Tim found himself admiring the deeply feminine curve made by her waist and broad hips. Her secrets were on show, round soft breasts with dark nipples and her fat hairless mound at the top of her thighs. She looked frightened.
“Wonderful,” said Alistair, “Singapore’s Venus. Now talk. Tell us about Sherry. And about Papi Bombar. What do you do at yoga?”
Yoga, thought Tim, that must be the connection, but so what? Yoga is harmless.
“Well, we met at Papi Bombar’s,” she started. “Sherry came to study with us.”
“Yes? Study what? Sex?”
“No! Of course not. She came to study yoga under Papi Bombar. He likes her. He thinks she’s a good student, but not very much of a woman, so he asked me to help her learn to be more woman, more female.”
“More female? She looks definitely female to me.”
“But she’s not very good at it.” She glanced at Tim to catch his reaction. “When she first came she was wearing terrible clothes and her hair was cut so short. She looked like nothing.”
Alistair looked a question at Tim and he nodded his agreement.
“You see, now she’s getting better, more sexy. She’s dressing better and growing her hair. Papi Bombar is pleased with her progress.”
“Has he tried her?” blurted out Tim.
Alistair held up his hand to stop further questions. “Well, Ranji? Has he?”
Ranji chuckled. “You know he hasn’t! Papi doesn’t like girls. He teaches us and blesses us, but he sleeps with his novices.”
“Blesses you? Tell me about that.”
Ranji could not look at them. “He—he gives one of us his essence every week.”
“His essence?”
Alistair’s questioning had unsettled her. “He selects one of us every week to take his essence.”
“Come on, girl, tell us if what I’ve heard is true. One lucky girl sucks him off every week. Is that true?”
She lowered her eyes and nodded.
“Mmmh, how does he do it?” Alistair shook his head. “You should see this man, Tim. He’s fat, soft, with round glasses. Dresses like a monk and looks terribly holy. He collects money every week for teaching girls yoga, and gets a free blowjob thrown in. Must think he’s arrived early in heaven.”
“No,” cried Ranji, “It’s not like that. We do yoga and one of us is blessed afterwards. That’s all. He is very kind.”
“Kind? I’d be that kind to you any time you like, Ranji. So has Sherry been chosen?”
“Yes. Once. She was not very good at it.” She avoided Tim’s eye. “Papi said she must study more and asked me to help her.”
“Why you, Ranji? You some sort of professor on that subject?”
She let herself smile. “Alistair…”
“OK, maybe. So keep talking. What did you do to help her?”
“Well, we talked about it a lot, and we went out together to buy clothes. She looks really nice now when she tries.” That much is true, thought Tim bitterly.
“And? What else did you do?”
“I helped her practice,” she whispered.
“Now we’re getting to it. You helped her practice. More!”
“I found some of my friends to help, to let her practice. Now she’s good. Really good. Men think she’s fantastic, and she looks sexy too.”
“How many friends, Ranji? Ten? Twenty?” Ranji nodded.
Tim was stunned. Sherry had been studying oral sex? And she was good at it? He could not believe it. Ever since they had been together, her attempts on him had not amounted to much, and she had always stopped too soon. He couldn’t remember when she had last done it for him.
Ranji was holding back, not telling them something, but Alistair knew her too well. “Well, tell us the rest.”
She bit her lip and then blurted out, “I got paid for it.”
Tim shifted in his chair but Alistair reached across to restrain him. “So, your friends paid you to let Sherry practice on them?”
“Yes,” she said miserably.
“And how much of the money did you give to Sherry?”
“She didn’t know. I was going to tell her after the first one, but then I thought it would make her feel bad. After the others, it was too late to tell her. But we’ve stopped now. She doesn’t need any more practice.”
“Your student has graduated. Well, congratulations, Professor. Now tell us about the Irishman.”
Tim could see he had surprised Ranji. “How did you know?”
“Never mind. Tell me. Why did you go to him? More money?”
“No. Not that time. Papi Bombar asked us to go.”
“Come on, tell us. What made Papi Bombar offer his two most attractive girls to someone like the Irishman, and without charge?”
“I don’t know. Honestly. Something was late, I think. Papi and the others were delivering something for the Irishman but it was late. So he made a lot of trouble and said he would burn Papi’s school down. You know what he’s like, always making trouble. So Papi asked us to help.”
“Now we’re getting to it. What was the delivery? Something illegal, obviously or the Irishman wouldn’t be involved. Children? Drugs?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I just don’t know. Not children. Papi and my father and the others would never do that.” She had started to cry.
“Did Sherry know?”
“She doesn’t understand. Papi just asked us to help, so she did it.” Her sobs made her difficult to hear. “He didn’t have her. I promise. He had me but not Sherry, and it was only to help. No money.”
Alistair thought for a moment and then looked across at Tim with a shrug. He went to Ranji and helped her up off the bed. “Here, come and say sorry to Tim. You shouldn’t have borrowed his wife without permission.” He led her to Tim and pushed her to her knees.
She pressed her hands together and lifted them to him. Tears ran down both cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Tim,” she sobbed. He took her hands between his own but said nothing.
Alistair brought tissues for her. “Do you want to say anything to her, Tim?” He shook his head.
Alistair helped her to her feet. “It’s over, Ranji. You are in Tim’s debt. You must make it up to him in the future. Now take your clothes to the bathroom and get dressed. Wait there until I call for you.”
Alistair sat down and looked across the table at Tim. “Well, a bad shock, my friend, but not too bad, I hope.”
“I can’t think of a worse one.”
“No, I think you’re wrong there. Sherry might be silly and easily led, but at least she’s not running around looking for men while you’re not here.”
“No, she seems to have Ranji to do that for her,” said Tim bitterly.
“Oh, Ranji. Don’t worry about her. She comes from a good family, in spite of her hobbies. You can’t expect a good Indian girl to turn down the chance of making some free money, after all. I think she really wanted to help Sherry. Has it helped, do you think?”
“I don’t know. She has some better clothes, I suppose, but what am I going to say to her when I get back home?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. Listen to me. I don’t know Sherry so I’m guessing, she wasn’t the best wife, am I right?”
“Well—but I like her. Love her. She’s a good person, it’s just that she has these ideas, crazy ideas… Like the yoga. That’s typical.”
“That’s what I thought. You know, Ranji might have been doing some good for her.”
“But I don’t like all these secrets. And what about this Irishman? What was all that about? Do you know about this delivery that was late?”
“That’s why I called you. If it had just been Ranji and her lessons on oral sex, I would have shrugged my shoulders and let you sort your own problems out. However, the Irishman is different. He’s very nasty. Dangerous. When I heard a blonde European girl had met him with Ranji, I started to ask questions. I think the delivery was guns, and you definitely don’t want to be mixed up with the Irishman and guns. That would be an invitation to a short life.”
“Sherry’s mixed up in all that?”
“No. I’m pretty sure she’s not. She was just a little easy amusement that the Irishman forced out of Bombar and his associates when the shipment got delayed. It sounds as if she came out of it intact, lucky for her, but I wouldn’t let her do it again, if I were you.”
“Oh God! What am I going to do now?”
Alistair reached across the chair to touch his arm. “My friend, when I was drowning, you pulled me out of the water. I owe you. Take my advice. Let me lend you an island to holiday on. Don’t say anything to her now but take her up there for a week, and if you can’t get her back under control I shall be surprised. Keep it a secret from her, and I’ll arrange it. You will be able to see just how successful Ranji has been.”
Tim must have agreed, because Alistair was saying “Good, good. Now, let’s release Ranji from the bathroom and send her on her way, and we’ll get down to organising your holiday.”
He brought Ranji to say farewell. She was properly dressed and her make-up had been repaired. She even looked cheerful as she shook Tim’s hand and left.
“Ah, Ranji. A really delightful girl,” said Alistair. “I like her and her father, but I wouldn’t trust them with money. You’ll have to try her one day. I can promise you’ll enjoy it.”
“Why did you make her undress?”
“Didn’t you like it?” he teased. “It’s hard to argue when you’re without your clothes, so I knew it would help her talk. But also because she looks so tasty.”
Chapter 14
Sherry felt happy to be driving through the Malaysian plantations again. Leaving Singapore behind gave her a feeling of release, of having the cage door flung open. Tim drove quietly beside her, concentrating on the road. The sunlight and shadow of overhanging jungle was flashing over them and the rich smell of tropical vegetation hung in the air. She looked forward to another break on Pulau Kelapa.
Life felt good to her. Tim had come back again, and he was being unusually attentive to her. On his last break he had surprised her with flowers. He had stayed with her all the time, even taken her shopping for clothes. When he had returned last night, he listened with interest to her tales of everything she had done while he had been away. He had even asked if he could meet Ranji sometime, and now he looked as cheerful and excited about Pulau Kelapa as she felt herself. She sat back and enjoyed the humid air rushing past her.
The boat journey to the island seemed to take forever. They could see Pulau Kelapa clearly from the mainland, but the chugging fishing boat did not get there in a hurry. She shaded her eyes to peer for familiar places under the palms. The island appeared deserted. She willed herself to close her eyes and doze.
She awoke with a start and found the island jetty drawing near. The slowing of the boat’s engine must have woken her, and running down the jetty to meet them came Faith and Hope, waving and calling out to her. They helped her off the boat and dragged her off, Tim following behind with the bag over his shoulder.
The twins pulled her off to the side, missing the resort office. They wanted to take her to Alistair first. She found him sitting on the verandah of his cabin, reading the newspaper and drinking through a straw from a tall, red cocktail. A turbaned boatman with a twisted nose and broken smile was relaxing on the steps. He jumped up as they approached and came to take Tim’s bag.
Alistair set his paper aside and spread his arms. “Sherry, Tim, welcome to my kingdom! Come and take a drink. The sun is bad for you without internal support.” He shook her hand and kissed her before calling to the boatman, “Ahmed, drinks for our guests.” He turned to welcome Tim.
Sherry had just got comfortable at the table and set her sun hat under her chair when Ahmed came smiling and nodding to her elbow with an iced drink on a tray. “Memsahib…” was all he could manage.
She took the drink and raised it to Alistair. “What’s this, Alistair? I’m suspicious.”
“Oh, it’s a genuine Pulau Kelapa sling. Like a Singapore sling but better. You’ll like it.” He raised his own glass to her and pulled at his straw.
“Mother warned me about coloured drinks and strange men. Oh well, as long as you don’t have designs on my virtue.” Ahmed had brought Tim’s drink and together they tried it. Fruity, bittersweet. Probably stronger than it seemed, but very easy to drink. “Oh, I like that! You are such a kind host, Alistair.” Faith and Hope were chattering and laughing. They seemed to be drinking cold tea.
Sherry sat in silence, sipping her drink as Alistair asked Tim about their journey up. Ahmed was standing beside her again. Although she had not finished her drink, he had another on his tray and was offering it to her. She looked up at his friendly face. He was smiling and she wondered why he had let his teeth get so stained, and why the gap in his smile had not been bridged. He had come very close and she was staring at his face as if through a goldfish bowl. The chatter around her had changed into an enveloping buzz and she felt as if she was moving through treacle.
She woke abruptly. She looked up at a cabin ceiling, white with simple brown beams. She raised her head in confusion and tried to remember where she was. She lay naked on the bed. The cabin door hung open and she could look out over the beach to the sea, bright with sun flashes.