Salman Rushdie Midnight's children Salman Rushdie Midnight's ...

lice were summoned; and Inspector Vakeel returned to Methwold's Estate, acc
ompanied by a special squad of crack officers 'all deadeye shots. Begum Sah
iba; just you leave it all to us!' who, disguised as sweepers, with guns co
ncealed under their rags, kept the clocktower under surveillance while swee
ping up the dust in the circus ring.
Night fell. Behind curtains and chick blinds, the inhabitants of Methwold's
Estate peered fearfully in the direction of the clocktower. Sweepers, absu
rdly, went about their duties in the dark. Johnny Vakeel took up a position
on our verandah, rifle just out of sight… and, at midnight, a shadow came
over the side wall of the Breach Candy school and made its way towards the
tower, with a sack slung over one shoulder… 'He must enter,' Vakeel had tol
d Amina; 'Must be sure we get the proper johnny.' The johnny, padding acros
s flat tarred roof, arrived at the tower; entered.
'Inspector Sahib, what are you waiting for?'
'Shhh, Begum, this is police business; please go inside some way. We shall t
ake him when he comes out; you mark my words. Caught,' Vakeel said with sati
sfaction, 'like a rat in a trap.'
'But who is he?'
'Who knows?' Vakeel shrugged. 'Some badmaash for sure. There are bad egg
s everywhere these days.'
… And then the silence of the night is split like milk by a single, sawn of
f shriek; somebody lurches against the inside of the clocktower door; it is
wrenched open; there is a crash; and something streaks out on to black tar
mac. Inspector Vakeel leaps into action, swinging up his rifle, shooting fr
om the hip like John Wayne; sweepers extract marksmen's weapons from their
brushes and blaze away… shrieks of excited women, yells of servants… silenc
e.
What lies, brown and black, banded and serpentine on the black tarmac? Wha
t, leaking black blood, provokes Dr Schaapsteker to screech from his top f
loor vantage point: 'You complete fools! Brothers of cockroaches! Sons of
transvestites!'… what, flick tongued, dies while Vakeel races on to tarred
roof?
And inside the clocktower door? What weight, falling, created such an almig
hty crash? Whose hand wrenched a door open; in whose heel are visible the t
wo red, flowing holes, filled with a venom for which there is no known anti
venene, a poison which has killed stablefuls of worn out horses? Whose body
is carried out of the tower by plain clothes men, in a dead march, coffinl
ess, with imitation sweepers for pallbearers? Why, when the moonlight falls
upon the dead face, does Mary Pereira fall like a sack of potatoes to the
floor, eyes rolling upwards in their sockets, in a sudden and dramatic faint?
And lining the interior walls of the clocktower: what are these strange mech
anisms, attached to cheap time pieces why are there so many bottles with rag