pp.40-41: He allowed himself to
think just once of his wife, Protima, and what she would be feeling about the
fact that at the end of his spell of night duty he had not returned home. And
then he set to work on the desperately delicate task of (* WEIGHING THE DEMANDS
OF THE ATTACK ON MR. PERFECT AGAINST THOSE OF THE THEFT OF ONE RUPEE *) from
under the very nose of the Minister of Police Affairs and the Arts.
p.41: He had done no more than miserably (* STARE AT THE
PROBLEM *) before they arrived at the Ministry.
p.41: And there he found that he had only one desire in
all the world: to rush to a telephone and find out whether there had been any
change in Mr. Perfect. (* FIRMLY HE PUSHED THE IMPULSE TO THE BACK OF HIS
MIND*) . He was at the Ministry; he was on the missing rupee case; the only
logical and proper thing was to proceed with his duty as it lay before him.
p.48: He stared at Inspector Ghote with sudden arrogance.
(* THE INSPECTOR'S THOUGHTS JUMPED AND LEAPT ABOUT. *) It seemed to him a long
time before he was able (* TO PIN ONE OF THEM DOWN *) .
p.61: Lala Varde gave a monstrous, unconcerned yawn.
Inspector Ghote (* SEIZED HIS RUNAWAY TEMPER AND TETHERED IT SHARPLY BACK *) .
He took a deep, long, measured breath.
p.61: "I tell you Inspector, if I ran my business by
keeping notes of every little time that I stood up or sat down, no money would I have, not one anna." (* THE INSPECTOR TOOK THE VEILED POINT. *) "Exactly,
sahib," he said.
p.66: "Sir," said Inspector Ghote, "officers of the Bombay
police naturally have command of English. It is necessary to their work. Also
I have not come about the servants." (* HE FELT HIS ANGER RISING STEP BY STEP,
*) and had just enough power over himself to keep it in check. (* HE CAST HIS
MIND ROUND. *) There ought to be some way of dealing with a person like this.
Doctor Gross would not have been at a loss.
p.90:
Inspector Ghote listened to the tirade (* WITH LITTLE GUSHES OF HOT ANGER SHOOTING OUT INSIDE HIM TILL HE FELT ON THE POINT OF BURSTING. *) Threatening a police officer. Who did he think he was? He needed to be shown pretty quick that that sort of thing didn't work in Ind-(* AND THE TRICKLE OF COLD DOUBT *) . Hadn't he heard gossip at the station?
p.90:
(* THE THOUGHT *) of his wife, of his boy Ved, of their neat new house in Government Quarters (* CAME INTO HIS MIND WITH THE SUDDENESS OF A CLANGING BELL. METHODICALLY HE PUSHED THE THOUGHT DOWN AGAIN. *) He was a police officer. All his life he had wanted this, and now he had achieved it.
p.96: "But no-" began the big Swede. Inspector Ghote
interrupted him before (* HIS WRATH FULLY EXPLODED. *)
p.96: "No, thank you." (* INSPECTOR GHOTE STILL RETAINED
SOME POLITENESS. BUT BEFORE LONG THE LAST OF IT HAD EVAPORATED IN THE...AIR. *)
They questioned almost a hundred people. They pursued a dozen false trails.
And they were nowhere nearer finding their quarry.
p.96: Occasionally a vision of Mr. Perfect lying on the old
string bed in Arun Varde's house troubled him for a little. But even this had
to take second place to the ceaseless (* PLODDING TO AND FRO OF THEIR
INQUIRIES. *) In spite of frequent visits to sellers of mysterious bottles of
highly-coloured, faintly-sweet mineral waters his mouth felt as dry as cinders.
p.109: She put out her hand and rested it on his chest.
And then with a single sigh she was asleep. For a few moments he was able to
contemplate the complications of his waking existence without (* THE REMOTEST
TRACE OF WORRY. *) The Minister's rupee and who had stolen it: the long,
emaciated form of Mr.Perfect lying unconscious in Lala Varde's house, carrying
obscurely his own fate in each faint puff of breath. (* THE TWO FACTS FLOATED
IN FRONT OF HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE, *) and then he too was asleep. To be woken
after a very few hours by the shrilling of the telephone. And at once (* ALL
HIS PRECONCEPTIONS STOOD UP IN HIS MIND LIKE SOLDIERS ROUSED FROM BRIEF SLUMBER
ON THE BATTLEFIELD, IN AN INSTANT ALERT, PROBING, RESTLESS. *) How had that
rupee note disappeared from the drawer in the Minister's desk when no one had
been into the room? What was it that young Prem Varde had been about to say
when his father had come bursting in?
p.115: The voice was chastened, subdued. In a sudden
flush of sweat Inspector Ghote let the receiver fall back into place. (* WITH
ANXIETY FLICKING AND GNAWING AT HIM AT EVERY OTHER INSTANT *) he got dressed as
quickly as he could and tried to eat something.
p.148: "Exactly," said Gautam Athayle. "So it will come
as no surprise to you to learn that I was pressed to stay on in a fashion which
frankly left me no alternative but to comply after I would have wished to leave.
It is my habit to retire moderately early." The inspector nodded in sympathetic
agreement, and (* GAVE A FLEETING THOUGHT TO *) his long nights on duty and the
sleepless days that so often followed them.
pp.152-153: From what he had
been able to gather this was the present verdict. For how many days, or weeks
even, would it be the same? No change. Still teetering on the edge of death.
Still able in one moment to make all the difference to his own life and
prospects. (* THE THOUGHT DRUMMED DARKLY IN HIS HEAD. *) With Mr. Perfect still
alive, however tenuously, the possibility was still open of patiently working a
way through the complexities and intricacies of the whole business till at last
an answer emerged, till the facts yielded up, as they must, to logical and calm
examination.
p.153: There could not be any real logical connection
between the facts of the case and the old Parsi's physical state. Yet for all
his efforts (* THE SOMBRE BLACK THOUGHTS ROLLED OUT. *) Back in his office he
could see only one refuge.
p.157: "She wishes to rule her husband with an iron rod.
She fears he is getting too ambitious, too unlike her friend Gautam Athalye.
And so, like a goddess she crushes this Mr. Perfect who is encouraging the
wildnesses". (* BENEATH THE CRASHING AND ROARING OF THE SWEDE'S ANALYSIS A TINY
NOTION CREPT INTO THE INSPECTOR'S HEAD. *) That is utter nonsense, he thought.
If Lakshmi Varde was that sort of woman she would have forced her husband to
part with his secretary long ago. (* HE LET THE THOUGHT LIE LIKE A COOL GEM IN
HIS MIND *) and said nothing.
p.159: ...in the huge heaving crowd Ghote was totally
unable to get near the next two buses that came along. The third he did catch,
by now (* FUMING WITH BAD TEMPER. *) And it turned out that his barely supressed
spite against the whole world was shared by most of the other passengers as well
as the bus crew.
p.159: When at last Ghote passed the familiar board
saying "Government of India Staff Quarters. Class 2. No tresspassers", (* HE
WAS CHOKING WITH BLACK RAGE, *) sweat-stained and thirsty, grimly tired and
implacably conscious of the fact that, although he was in the wrong, he would be
unable to keep calm if his wife even so much as hinted at reproach.
p.160: There was something unexplained too about the
garden itself. (* HE GROPED ROUND IN THE HEAVY STICKINESS OF HIS MIND FOR A
CLUE. *) And then he realised what was the matter.
p.161: "Time," she said. "How should I know what time it
is? Other women can tell the time easily enough: they have husbands who come
home when they have finished at the office and go out to get there again next
morning. But I have to wait at home all day, all evening and all night. How
should I know what time it is?" (* A LITTLE FLAME OF RAGE BURNED UP THROUGH THE
THICK FUZZ IN GHOTE'S HEAD. *) "I have to know the time," he said.
p.161: "Late. Too late." (* BLIND WAVES OF PANIC SWEPT
OVER AND OVER HIM. *) "The time, the time," he yelled.
p.176: "Mr Varde," he said, "you yourself may not object
to being heard by anybody who passes, but what I have to talk are police matters
and I prefer to deal with them in private." (* AN IDEA HOVERED FOR A MOMENT NEAR
THE EDGE OF HIS MIND, AND WITHOUT HAVING TIME TO WEIGH ITS MERITS HE SEIZED ON
IT. *) Wheeling quickly he walked the few steps to the doorway of the little
room where Mr. Perfect had been found lying in a trickle of his own blood.
p.177: Or was he being ridiculous in insisting on
dragging a respectable citizen into a cluttered up disused lobby to ask his
questions about a crime he himself had reported? And (* THERE WAS SOMETHING
ELSE TEASING AWAY AT THE BACK OF HIS MIND, SOMETHING ELSE WHICH HE HAD TO DEAL
WITH. *) The lack of a quick decision was fatal.
p.177: Lala Varde smiled comfortably, and the inspector
knew that he had to concede the point. Was it more than just a point? (* HE
PUSHED THE WHOLE COMPLEX OF THOUGHTS BRUSQUELY AWAY *) "Very well, Mr. Varde,
"he said, "if that is the way you prefer it, I am perfectly willing to say what
I have got to say just where we are."
pp.214-215: "Yes, exactly," Ram
Kamath spat out at him. "You get yourself a wife. You buy things for her.
Saris, bangles, sweetmeets. And you beget a child, and feed it and clothe it."
Inspector Ghote (* TRIED TO ANAESTHETISE HIS MIND. *) With a shorter pause than
before Ram Kamath went on. "You spend money, Mr. Inspector," he said. "You
spend out good money." For a moment (* THE THOUGHT OF PROTIMA'S IMPORTUNATE
DEMANDS FOR THE REFRIGERATOR CAME INTO GHOTE'S MIND, BUT HE THRUST THE VISION
LOYALLY AWAY. *) "You know I am not married?" Ram Kamath said, walking away now
into a far corner of the big room.
p.216: He took a deep breath and forced himself to
concentrate on the matter of the missing rupee. (* HE WENT OVER IN HIS MIND
EVERYTHING HE HAD LEARNT ABOUT IT, AND AT THE END OF IT HE FOUND HIMSELF BACK
WHERE HE HAD BEGUN. *) The ten one-rupee notes put into the drawer in the empty
office, the door watched and no other means of entry, and at the end of an hour
one of the ten notes missing. Full circles, except for one possible line (* THE
LINE THAT HAD COME INTO HIS MIND *) as he had watched the fat halwa merchant
teasing his boy so cruelly. And here something still felt unaccounted for. (*
HE REACHED INTO THE BACK OF HIS MIND. PRYING FINGERTIPS JUST TOUCHING A TINY
NEGLECTED NUGGET OF INFORMATION. AND SUDDENLY HE HAD IT. IT HAD BEEN GIVEN TO
HIM WHEN HIS ATTENTION HAD BEEN CONCENTRATED ON THE PERFECT CASE AND HE HAD
CONTRIVED FOR THAT REASON TO IGNORE IT. *)
pp.249-250: Ghote groaned. He
knew he ought not to be just sitting like this, but he felt too depressed even
(* TO THINK OF THE POSSIBLE STEPS HE COULD TAKE TO GET A FRESH ANGLE. *) The air
around him seemed thick as a heavy liquid. He lacked the vital force to fight
his way through it.
pp.250-251: How could Mr. Perfect
go on living, unless the rain came? And the inspector knew, (* WITH
IRON-PRESSED CERTAINTY *), that for all the taste of rain on his dry tongue, it
might not come before nightfall.