Chapter 18: The Mehrauli Road

Dev did not need to be told where she had gone.

"The bend by the old tomb," he said, and took his car keys from the hook.

Mira got into the front seat beside him.

He drove with both hands on the wheel, past the dark shuttered shops of Mehrauli, and neither of them spoke.

It was past nine when the road curved hard to the right.

The stone tomb stood in the headlights, black against the sky, with a low wall in front of it.

Rhea was sitting on the wall.

She had the brown folder open on her knees. The streetlamp over her showed the white sleeve of her kurta and a gold bangle on her wrist.

Dev stopped the car well back and turned off the engine.

"Let me go first," he said.

"No," said Mira. "Together. She said Sunday, in front of everyone, that I threw you out. I'll stand where she can see me."

They walked up the road.

Rhea did not look up until they were an arm's length away.

"I knew you'd come," she said. "Bhaiya always comes. I wondered if she'd come too."

"I'm here," said Mira.

"Good. You should see it. This is the place."

She patted the wall.

"Here is where the car stopped. My mother's head was against that tree." She pointed. "I read it in the report. They wrote it down so neatly."

Dev made a small sound.

"Don't," said Rhea. "You don't get to flinch. You were sitting in the front."

"I know."

"What did it sound like?"

He closed his eyes. "A crack, and then a long scraping. And then nothing."

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