“To some degree,” Veena admitted. “I regretted what I did to your grandmother. I even tried to commit suicide, but Cal Morgan saved me.”
“A real attempt, or a gesture?” Jennifer asked with little sympathy and some skepticism.
“Very real,” Veena said. “But since I was saved, I thought the gods were satisfied. But I felt badly and continued to feel badly and tried to get them to stop. Then, when I was confronted with you and realized they were probably going to get rid of you, it was too much. These people have no morality. They don’t kill people themselves but think nothing of having others do it for them. All they think about is achieving their success.”
“Since you have told me your secret, I’m going to tell you mine,” Jennifer said suddenly. “I, too, was abused by my father. It started at age six. I found it very confusing.”
“I was the same,” Veena said. “It’s always made me feel guilty. Sometimes I used to think I’d brought it on myself.”
“Me too,” Jennifer agreed. “But then around the time I was nine I suddenly knew it was all wrong, and I cut my father out of my life. I guess I was lucky. I didn’t have any cultural pressures telling me I had to respect him no matter what. Of course, I didn’t have any sisters to worry about, either. I can’t imagine your situation. It must have been awful. Worse than awful. I cannot even conceive of it.”
“It was terrible,” Veena agreed. “And as a teenager I tried suicide, but it was definitely more a gesture then. I was trying to get attention, but it didn’t work.”
“You poor thing,” Jennifer said sincerely. “I used to feel sorry for myself because I thought my father had ruined me and no one would want me, but I never even thought about suicide.”
A bit more than an hour later it began to get light in the eastern sky, but Jennifer and Veena were unaware until the sun actually rose. All of a sudden they realized they could clearly see each other. They had been talking nonstop for two hours.
Emerging from the lean-to, they looked at each other’s faces and, despite the continued threat from Cal et al., they laughed. They were both a mess, with their hair in tangles and actual dirt smeared on their faces, as though they were commandos. “You look like you’ve been through a battle,” Jennifer commented, especially since Veena’s garments were as dirty as her face. Jennifer reached back into the lean-to and pulled out the bathrobe. When she shook it out, it looked every bit as bad as Veena’s clothing.
As they walked back through the colony, other people were just emerging from the rickety, impermanent shelters. There were mothers with infants, fathers with toddlers, children, and old people.
“When you see this, doesn’t it make you sad?” Jennifer questioned.
“No,” Veena said. “It’s their karma.”
Jennifer nodded as if she understood, but she didn’t.
As the women approached the road, which was already busy with morning traffic, they became progressively leery. Although at that point in time both thought it unlikely that the Nurses International people would still be out patrolling for them, there was always a chance. To be safe rather than sorry, they kept themselves behind trees while looking up and down the road, which was choked not only with vehicles but also with people. The pedestrians were either walking toward the city or lounging in the morning sun.
“What do you think?” Jennifer asked.
“I think we’re free and clear.”
“What are you going to do?” Jennifer asked. “Where are you going to go?”
“I don’t know,” Veena admitted.
“Then I’ll tell you where you are going. You’re coming back with me and staying in my room until we figure it out. Do we have a deal?”
“We have a deal,” Veena said.
It took a while to catch a taxi, but they finally got a driver en route into town to start his day. When they got to the Amal Palace Hotel, Jennifer asked him if he could wait while she got some cash, but Veena paid.
As they walked in, Sumit, the head concierge, caught sight of her and was beside himself. He called out to her with great eagerness: “Welcome, Miss Hernandez! Your friends just came in.” He rushed out from behind his desk and with tails flapping ran down to the elevators. A moment later he reappeared with a triumphant look on his face and with Laurie and Jack in tow. He’d nabbed them before they’d managed to catch an elevator.
When Laurie caught sight of Jennifer, she broke into a run. Her smile was from ear to ear. “Jennifer, my goodness!” she shouted, giving Jennifer a sustained hug. Jack did the same.
Jennifer introduced Veena as her savior. “We’re going to have showers and then come down for a big breakfast,” she added. “You guys want to join us?”
“We’d love to,” Laurie said, still shocked but utterly pleased at Jennifer’s unexpected arrival. “I’m sure Neil would like to as well.”
The foursome proceeded on to the elevators.
“I have a feeling you have quite a story to tell,” Laurie said.
“Thanks to Veena, I do,” Jennifer said.
They boarded, and the operator pressed seven for Jack and Laurie and nine for Jennifer. He had an impressive memory.
“I learned a new Indian legal term this morning on the way here in the taxi,” Jennifer said. “To turn approver.”
“That sounds curious,” Laurie said. “What does it mean?”
“It means to turn state’s evidence, and Veena is going to do just that.”
Epilogue
October 20, 2007
Saturday, 11:30 p.m.
Raxaul, India
The atmosphere inside the Toyota Land Cruiser had varied throughout the duration of the drive. When they’d first started out early that morning in New Delhi, there’d been near panic to get under way. Santana in particular had been remarkably agitated, exhorting in a tense voice for the others to hurry. Her big concern was not to wake any of the nurses other than Samira who’d been sleeping with Durell.
After they’d been in the car for three hours, everyone had significantly mellowed, including Santana. Cal even began to question if they had overreacted, saying there was no way Veena would implicate herself.
“I’d rather be sitting in Kathmandu and be told we overreacted than be sitting in New Delhi and learn we underreacted,” Petra had said.
They had had lunch in Lucknow and had tried to hear if there had been any news involving Nurses International that morning. But there had been nothing: no news whatsoever, stimulating a discussion of where Veena had gone, and whether she had gone with the Hernandez woman after freeing her or by herself. There was even talk about what the Hernandez woman knew to tell the authorities. She certainly had limited knowledge of where she’d been held, having escaped in the dead of night, unless Veena specifically told her. Samira doubted she would have, emphasizing that Veena was a team player.
Ultimately, they all had agreed they’d made the best decision to get out of town and out of India until the dust settled, and until they could rationally evaluate the damage they could expect from Veena’s flight and Hernandez’s escape.
“I’d always had a nagging concern about her,” Cal admitted from the third-row seat. “I suppose in retrospect we should have dropped her when we found out about her history. Man, living like that for sixteen years has to knock a few marbles loose.”
“If Nurses International is out of business, what do you think SuperiorCare Hospital Corporation and CEO Raymond Housman are going to say?” Petra called from the driver’s seat.
“I think they are going to be very disappointed,” Cal said. “The program has had a terrific impact on medical tourism this week. It’s going to be a tragedy of sorts for them not to get more bang for their buck. Unfortunately, we’ve burned through a fair amount of cash to get where we are right now.”