Stardust in nuala, p.1
Stardust in Nuala, page 1
An Inspector de Silva Mystery
Stardust in Nuala
Harriet Steel
Kindle edition published 2022
Copyright © Harriet Steel
The author or authors assert their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author or authors of this work. All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the copyright holder, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Contents
Author’s Note and Acknowledgments
Characters featuring in this book who appear regularly in the Inspector de Silva Mysteries
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Author’s Note and Acknowledgments
Welcome to the twelfth book in the Inspector de Silva mystery series. Like the previous ones, this is a self-contained story but wearing my reader’s hat, I usually find that my enjoyment of a series is deepened by reading the books in order and getting to know major characters well. With that in mind, I have included thumbnail sketches of those taking part in this story who have featured regularly in the series.
Several years ago, I had the great good fortune to visit the island of Sri Lanka, the former Ceylon. I fell in love with the country straight away, awed by its tremendous natural beauty and the charm and friendliness of its people. I had been planning to write a detective series for some time and when I came home, I decided to set it in Ceylon in the 1930s, a time when British Colonial rule created interesting contrasts, and sometimes conflicts, with traditional culture. Thus Inspector Shanti de Silva and his friends were born.
I owe many thanks to everyone who helped with this book. John Hudspith was as usual an invaluable editor. Julia Gibbs did a marvellous job of proofreading the manuscript, and Jane Dixon Smith designed another excellent cover and layout for me. My thanks also go to all those readers who have told me they enjoyed the previous books in the series and would like to know what Inspector de Silva and his friends did next. Their enthusiasm has encouraged me to keep writing. Above all, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my husband Roger for his unfailing encouragement and support, to say nothing of his patience when Inspector de Silva’s world distracts me from this one.
Apart from well-known historical figures, all characters in this book are fictitious. Nuala is also fictitious although loosely based on the hill town of Nuwara Eliya. Any mistakes are my own.
Characters featuring in this book who appear regularly in the Inspector de Silva Mysteries
Inspector Shanti de Silva. He began his police career in Ceylon’s capital city, Colombo, but in middle age he married and accepted a promotion to inspector in charge of the small force in the hill town of Nuala. Likes: a quiet life with his beloved wife, his car, good food, his garden. Dislikes: interference in his work by his British masters, formal occasions.
Sergeant Prasanna. Nearly thirty and married with a daughter. He’s doing well in his job and starting to take more responsibility. Likes: cricket and is exceptionally good at it.
Constable Nadar. A few years younger than Prasanna. Diffident at first, he’s gaining in confidence. Married with two boys. Likes: his food, making toys for his sons. Dislikes: sleepless nights.
Jane de Silva. She came to Ceylon as a governess to a wealthy colonial family and met and married de Silva a few years later. A no-nonsense lady with a dry sense of humour. Likes: detective novels, cinema, and dancing. Dislikes: snobbishness.
Archie Clutterbuck. Assistant government agent in Nuala and as such responsible for administration and keeping law and order in the area. Likes: his Labrador, Darcy; fishing, hunting big game. Dislikes: being argued with, the heat.
Florence Clutterbuck. Archie’s wife, a stout, forthright lady. Likes: being queen bee, organising other people. Dislikes: people who don’t defer to her at all times.
Doctor David Hebden. Doctor for the Nuala area. Under his professional shell, he’s rather shy. Likes: cricket. Dislikes: formality.
Emerald Hebden (née Watson). She arrived in Nuala with a touring British theatre company, decided to stay and subsequently married David Hebden. She’s a popular addition to local society and a good friend to Jane. Her full story is told in Offstage in Nuala.
Sanjeewa Gunesekera. The manager of the Crown hotel and an old friend of Shanti de Silva.
William Petrie. Government agent for the Central Province and therefore Archie Clutterbuck’s boss. A charming exterior hides a steely character. Likes: getting things done. Dislikes: inefficiency.
Chapter 1
April 1941
The sun was slipping below the hills to the west of Nuala. Crimson and gold suffused the sky, slowly fading with the onset of night. The insistent beat of drums and the rhythmic chant of voices drew nearer. In the crowd of onlookers gathered by the area of sand-strewn grass to the east of the Royal Nuala Cricket Club, the buzz of anticipation swelled. People stood twenty deep, many of them with children hoisted on their shoulders for a better view. The faces of those nearest the front were washed a lurid red by the light of the flaming torches that illuminated the scene.
From his position at the southern end of the film set, Inspector Shanti de Silva surveyed the crowd and the line of policemen tasked with holding it back. Thanks to the number of reinforcements he had called in from Hatton and other police stations further afield, everything was going well, but it would be a relief when the evening was over and everyone went home. Crowds, especially ones as large as this, were unpredictable things.
The area of sand-covered grass had been made to look like a palace courtyard surrounded by stone pillars. The entablature they supported was painted with lurid images of deities and demons, and to the right-hand side there was an entrance punched in a massive arch. De Silva was impressed that the edifice looked so real when it wasn’t made of stone at all but of wood, metal, papier-mâché, and paint. No doubt the torchlight helped with the deception.
The area beyond the entrance into the archway was lost in shadow, but soon figures leapt and gyrated into sight. The drumming and chanting grew so loud that de Silva’s ears throbbed. Finally a beam of light illuminated the archway and the whole procession came into view. Behind an advance guard of dancers with painted faces and wild hair, swayed a gilded palanquin carried on the shoulders of six men, their bare, powerfully muscled torsos gleaming with oil. They headed for the northern side of the courtyard and carefully set the palanquin down.
A hush fell over the crowd as the palanquin’s occupant stepped out. He was a tall man, dressed in a full-length black robe embroidered with gold symbols and stars. He carried a staff tipped with more gold and wore a headdress of feathers dyed scarlet and black. A black mask rendered hideous by a lolling blood-red tongue, white fangs, and bulging bloodshot eyes hid his face. He walked over to the altar where a body covered from head to toe in a magnificent gold cloth lay on a bier, and barked a command. The dancers grew still. All eyes were on him as in a harsh voice that sent a shudder through de Silva’s frame, he began to speak.
***
It had all started a few weeks previously when the film company arrived in Nuala from Bombay. They came to shoot a drama based on the legend of the Maha Kola Sanni, the demon who had wreaked havoc in one of the kingdoms of ancient Ceylon. De Silva knew the legend well. It told of how a king returned from a long journey to find that his wife was expecting a child. Convinced that the baby wasn’t his, he sentenced her to death. But before she died, she gave birth to a baby boy. When he grew to manhood, he wanted revenge for his mother’s death, so he took the form of a demon and killed the king, devouring him and spreading disease and disaster throughout his lands. Afterwards, he gathered lumps of soil and fashioned more demons to do his bidding. Each of them was made responsible for a particular disease.
‘Dashed nuisance,’ his boss Archie had muttered gruffly when he’d called de Silva up to the Residence to tell him that the film company was coming. ‘I don’t know what all the excitement’s about, but William Petrie thinks the project’s a good thing. I suppose these film johnnies are paying a steepish amount of money in return for our cooperation and much of it will be used to benefit the area. Petrie also believes it might encourage other projects to come our way. As for my wife, she’s been full of it. I understand that the chap in charge who owns the company goes by the name of Dev Khan, and he’s pretty well known in the Bombay film world.’
Even though de Silva presumed that a fair amount of the burden of providing t his cooperation that Archie referred to was going to fall on him, he was prepared to believe that if William Petrie, Archie’s own boss and the government agent for the Kandy region, was in favour of the project, then there must be some value in it.
Exactly how the legend was to be used in film’s plot had been something of a mystery at first. Understandably, the filmmakers didn’t want too much revealed until the film received its first showing, but the scene tonight with a devil dance being performed and the tall actor dressed as a demonic high priest indicated that an illness needed to be cast out. Jane had managed to find out more.
‘Jayasena says the story is about a king whose stepson poisons him in an attempt to seize power. He’s helped by his mother, the queen. At the outset everyone believes their story that the king has been made ill by the demon Maha as punishment for a crime he’s committed, but in the end, the truth is revealed. The king is brought back to life, the queen and her son are punished, and the king marries again. Dev Khan plays the role of the king, and his wife Sunita plays the queen.’
De Silva wasn’t sure that the story deserved to be treated as such a big secret. It sounded pretty standard fare to him, but then what did he know? Jane was the cinema expert. Most of the films that came to the cinema in Nuala were British made anyway, so he knew very little about what came out of India. What did surprise him, however, was that Jayasena had taken an interest. He’d never thought of their sensible, longest-serving member of staff, the only one he trusted to drive his beloved Morris, as being interested in films or gossip.
‘How on earth does Jayasena know all this?’
‘He met some of the drivers from the film crew in a bar in town.’
De Silva raised an eyebrow. ‘And I don’t expect their boss would be happy if he heard about their loose tongues.’
‘Don’t worry. I told Jayasena not to talk to anyone else.’
‘I suppose that’ll have to be good enough.’
Most of the scenes that were being filmed in Nuala were conducted on closed sets, but the filmmakers had accepted that would be virtually impossible in the case of the one being filmed tonight as it needed a large amount of space in the open air. Accordingly, in return for Archie Clutterbuck’s official assurance that the crowds would be kept under control, they had agreed to allow spectators. They’d also stressed that they didn’t want any photographs of the scene appearing in the newspapers, so journalists and photographers were expressly banned.
For de Silva, the filming had already been the cause of considerable disruption. On several occasions the filmmakers had wanted parts of town closed, and with only Sergeant Prasanna and Constable Nadar to support him, he’d had to call in other forces to help. But there were disadvantages to that. He never minded asking a favour of his old friend Inspector Singh at Hatton, but he wasn’t on such familiar terms with all the other chiefs of police in the region, and some of the men they’d sent had been so starstruck that they’d needed a stiff lecture to keep them focused on the job in hand. Even Prasanna and Nadar hadn’t been immune to being thrown off-beam by the excitement, so the prospect of controlling the large crowds that would be likely to come tonight to watch the big scene, to say nothing of spotting and sending away any journalists and photographers who tried to join them, had caused him a few sleepless nights. Still, the evening had certainly turned out to be exciting. It would be something to remember, and best of all – he surveyed the intact police cordon – so far there had been no trouble.
The high priest’s speech ended and the drumming resumed. As their sticks rained down on leather stretched taut over the tops of their gourd-shaped instruments, the drummers sang an eerily monotonous tune. Dressed in scarlet and blue costumes with short, wide skirts that flared out over tight leggings, the dancers began to whirl and stamp, spreading their legs and bouncing on the soles of their feet to make themselves look even more threatening than before. Their faces were hidden by scarlet masks, and long, pale ribbons dangled from their ornate scarlet and gold headdresses. The ribbons lashed the air as the dancers moved; the silver bells attached to their anklets jingled. A powerful smell of incense invaded de Silva’s nostrils. The assault on his senses was beginning to make him dizzy. He blinked and shook his head then closed his eyes for a few seconds.
When he opened them, the high priest had raised a goblet above his head. Light sparkled on its jewel-encrusted surface as he called for the evil spirits to leave the body of the king on the bier. Involuntarily, de Silva held his breath. If he had been asked at any other time, he would have said that the old beliefs were just stories made up to frighten the gullible and cause a delicious frisson of terror in the rest, but the incense, the drumming, the music, the bells, and the wave of tension rolling over the crowd were so powerful that it was hard to quell the surge of primeval fear that threatened to grip him. He dug his fingernails into his palms and fought it down, wondering if any of his fellow policemen were enduring a similar struggle. In particular, he hoped that Prasanna and Nadar wouldn’t disgrace his little force.
Time seemed to stretch out in an endless stream then the king’s body stirred. Slowly the gold cloth fell away as he rose to a seated position. The murmur of excitement grew louder, and de Silva sensed that the whole crowd, as well as the cast on set, were willing him to recover. As his face was revealed, a shout went up from the cast. ‘The King! The King lives!’
Then a louder voice boomed through a megaphone. ‘Cut!’
Relieved, de Silva felt air fill his lungs once more. Now all he had to do was get the crowds safely away.
Chapter 2
‘What an evening!’
De Silva sank into his favourite armchair in the drawing room at Sunnybank and stroked Bella, who had immediately jumped onto his lap. ‘You certainly wouldn’t have liked it,’ he told the little black cat. ‘There would have been far too much noise.’
‘But you must admit it was exciting to watch,’ said Jane.
‘Oh, I’ll give you that, but policing it was quite a headache.’
‘Well, everything seemed to go well to me. I thought the crowd was very well behaved, and when I left with the Hebdens and the Applebys, people were going on their way without any fuss.’
He had been glad that Jane had watched the filming with their good friends Doctor Hebden and his wife Emerald, and that the Applebys had been there too. George Appleby was an imposing fellow. His six-foot-four frame and broad shoulders made it unlikely that anyone would cause trouble for his party.
‘Do you think you’ll be called on to help again?’ asked Jane.
‘I don’t know. Archie’s asked me up to the Residence tomorrow. I hope I’ll find out then.’ He rolled his shoulders and shifted his weight in his chair. Bella arched her back and gave a small miaow of protest then purred and settled again as he scratched her behind the ears.
‘When this is all over, I expect people will miss the excitement,’ said Jane. ‘Still there’s the film to look forward to. Won’t it be fun to see Nuala on the big screen.’
‘I suppose it will.’
‘I hope it won’t be too long before they show it here, but the cinema is rather small. I expect it will come to Kandy first. We should take a trip to see it there.’
‘Let’s think about it nearer the time,’ said de Silva. Once all the film was on celluloid rather than in the streets of his hometown, he might remember the disruption it had brought in its wake with greater equanimity. At the moment, he was looking forward to the film company being a thing of the past.
Gently, he put Bella down. ‘I don’t think I’ll bother with a nightcap. Best to get straight off to bed. It won’t be long before it’s time to wake up again.’
‘Are you sure? You’ve not even had anything to eat this evening, have you?’
