Read Online Up in Flames by Geraldine Evans - Free Book Online Page B

revelations he was about to hear. ‘Was there something else you wished to tell me, sir?’
                  Now that he had Casey’s uninterrupted attention, Dan Khan didn’t seem sure what he wanted to say. After hugging his daughter and smoothing her hair, finally, with what must be unnatural diffidence, he said, ‘it was more something I wanted to ask.’ He paused, then rushed on as if he had to force the words out. ‘I wondered whether there was any possibility that my sister might have killed herself.’
                  Casey shot a warning glance at Catt, who looked as if he might venture an opinion, before he asked, ‘Do you have any reason to think that she might have?’
                  Dan Khan shrugged his elegantly-clad shoulders. ‘I don’t know. Maybe. You heard my little sister in there. She said Chandra was lonely. She wasn’t suited to living alone. She had just lost her husband and no matter what Kamala said, there was affection between Chandra and Magan. She was depressed about the future. And then, of course, with Leela crying so much she didn’t get much rest. All in all a recipe for desperation.’
                  Casey wondered why, if this was the case, her mother or grandmother hadn’t babysat occasionally and given her a break. Why she had been left in such isolation with just a couple of visits from her parents. Apart from being at a difficult time of life, Mrs Khan Senior appeared healthy and fit enough to be able to look after one small child as did Mrs Rathi Khan and Devdan’s wife. He waited. He sensed there was more to come. He was right.
                  Dan Khan, like his sister, had large, lustrous, thickly-lashed  eyes. They gained a sheen of moisture as he told them, ‘My sister was a widow, Inspector. A widow with a baby daughter. I don’t expect you to understand what that means in our society, but we’re Hindus. It is not usual for Hindu widows to remarry. Maybe it’s better she’s dead. No-one else would want her now. My parents and grandparents like to believe she’s in Paradise. Perhaps they’re right. God knows, as a widow with a small daughter, Chandra was unlikely to find much Paradise down here. Think of the dowry my father would have to find, even if he could find a man willing to take them both on. He was trying to persuade my sister into an arranged marriage in India. With a much older man. It would have been much the best solution.’
                  For Rathi Khan certainly, if not for Chandra, was Casey’s immediate thought.
                  Dan Khan’s soulful gaze rested on his sweet-faced little daughter for a moment, as if seeing for the first time what might be her future. His cheek clenched and unclenched as if he didn’t much like what he saw. ‘My mother was very keen, too. It would have been much cheaper, you see, for her to marry someone in India. Much cheaper than here in England where the dowry is so high. They were worried that if my father didn’t arrange something that she might dishonour the family in some way with an unsuitable man.’
                  Had she? Casey wondered. Was that partly what her mother-in-law’s accusations had been about? Had Dan Khan found out about this anonymous unsuitable man? Had the rest of her family? Her in-laws? He questioned Dan Khan some more.
                  Bitterly, he denied it.
                  Casey wasn’t sure he believed him. Dan Khan seemed strangely resentful of his sister, even though it was clear he had loved her. Had he been jealous of Chandra? Jealous of her sudden freedom and the opportunity it presented to find herself a lover more to her taste? In spite of her agreeing to an arranged marriage, from her photo and from what he had learned about her Casey was sure that Chandra Bansi had not been the usual meek and biddable Asian stereotype, so it struck him as