You're Invited(40)

“Here, Aunty,” I said, offering my arm.

She had just wrapped her talons around me again when I bumped my hip on the end table, causing the small knickknacks on it to slip off onto the floor. I jumped back, pulling Aunty Josephina off-kilter and causing her to drop her handbag.

The small Louis Vuitton tote slid onto the ground, right next to the envelope I had left out there.

“Oh no, Aunty, I’m so sorry,” I huffed. “Are you okay?”

Aunty Josephina clutched her chest, closed her eyes, and took a few deep breaths.

“It’s quite all right, darling. I just had a bit of a fright,” she said finally.

“Aney, Aunty. I’m so clumsy. I didn’t see that table at all. Haiyyo, I’ve knocked everything off as well. Let me get your handbag.”

I got onto my knees and started picking up the fallen ornaments. Luckily, nothing had broken.

“Here! You! Is there no one here to help this lady?” Aunty Josephina called out haughtily for the help, making no effort to assist me herself. But we were alone. All the waitstaff were outside where the party was, of course.

I picked up her handbag and passed it up to her. Then I handed her the envelope.

“Is this yours, Aunty?” I asked, my heart feeling like it would explode.

Aunty Josephina took the envelope and eyed it genially. There was a large Private and Confidential stamped on the front, with a boldly printed Dryland and Deck Investigative Services branded in the corner.

“Maybe it fell off the table instead?” I offered, reaching for the bundle of papers, but she snatched it back out of my reach.

“No, no, darling. It must have fallen from my bag,” she said, hastily stuffing it away.

I was afraid she would hear me release the breath I had been holding.

Now, I wait.





HUSNA FALEEL


Interview Transcript: Husna Faleel (abbrev. HF)

Date: January 25, 2020

Location: The Mount Lavinia Hotel

EP: Thank you for coming in, Miss Faleel. My name is Eshanya Padmaraj. Can I offer you a glass of water?

HF: No, thank you, Miss Padmaraj. I’m just quite confused. We’ve been locked in our hotel rooms from morning. I’m told that the wedding has been canceled, yet we aren’t allowed to leave. Someone sent me a text saying Kaavi was murdered. Is this true? I’d really like to know what’s going on.

EP: I understand, Miss Faleel, and I thank you for your patience. Unfortunately, yes, it does appear that the wedding has been canceled, and we are concerned for the well-being of the bride. While I do have sympathy for your frustrations, I’m afraid that time is of the essence here, and we are doing our best to gather as much information as possible and investigate what has happened to Miss Fonseka. Your cooperation would be much appreciated, and we were hoping you could answer a few questions about Miss Fonseka and her family.

HF: Y-yes. Of course. Whatever to help. Of course.

EP: Could you please state your name and address for the record?

HF: My name is Husna Faleel and I reside at 678 Ferdinand Place, off Hill Street, Dehiwala.

EP: How do you know Miss Fonseka?

HF: Kaavi and I went to school together.

EP: And you’ll remained friends from your school days?

HF: Not exactly. We weren’t very close in school. Kaavi was very shy and we were in different circles.

EP: And what circles were those?

HF: Well, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I was head girl and athletics captain, so you could say that I was quite involved in school activities. Kaavi was more studious and quiet. She mostly hung out with her best friend, Amaya.

EP: And you were not close with Miss Bloom either?

HF: No. Not that I had anything against the girl, of course, but she was a bit . . . much. She had this, well, loud personality. Very different family life from mine, too, from what I gathered. She came and went as she pleased. Never had to ask anyone for permission to do anything. It just wasn’t, well, proper, you know.

And there was that incident with Mr. Dole, our physics teacher.

EP: Would you care to elaborate on that?

HF: Well, it was a long time ago, you know, and now thinking about it, I don’t even know how much of it was real and how much were rumors. But the talk was that Amaya developed a bit of a crush on Mr. Dole. I mean, he was very handsome, and young for a teacher. He was only here to get some teaching experience, I think. He’d just graduated from Imperial College London, so he had this faint British accent. Many of the girls, not me, of course, but many of the girls were quite taken by him.

But Amaya is the only one who, you know, did something about it. She’d hang back after school to ask him questions. She was seen leaving an empty classroom with him a few times. Private tuition, she’d say, but, well, you tell me if it’s appropriate for a fifteen-year-old to be left unsupervised with a good-looking twenty-three-year-old physics graduate. There were times she would ask Kaavi to cover for her, I’m sure, because Kaavi was sneaking around after school as well.

But then I think Mr. Dole got transferred or something. He just disappeared. It was quite strange actually, because it was right in the middle of term and we didn’t have a replacement for an entire month and our O Levels were just around the corner. As you can imagine, the rumor mill really got going. They said she had something to do with him going missing. They said he couldn’t handle her so he ran off back to England. They said, well, they said quite a number of things, but as always, people gossiped for a while and then someone got caught making out behind the canteen and things went back to normal. Well, kind of. Amaya had gained a bit of a reputation, you know, and many of the girls didn’t want to be friends with her anymore.