Chapter 5 — What the Neighbours Knew

She went to the building society meeting on the twenty-second.It was a quarterly meeting, held in the courtyard, attended by one representative from each of the twelve flats. The agenda was the usual building administration: the water pump, the external painting, the parking allocation. Tanvi was not expected to have opinions on any of these things — she was new, and new people listened — but she was expected to be present and she was.She watched the neighbours.She had been watching them since Mrs. Rane's conversation — not with suspicion, exactly, but with the calibrated attention of someone who has been told that the people around her know more than they've said. She watched how they greeted each other, who talked to whom, where the casual avoidances were.The flat directly below hers was 13/C, occupied by a young couple named Vikram and Sana with an eighteen-month-old. Vikram was a software engineer, Sana worked from home in accounts. They had been friendly to Tanvi in the first week — Sana had brought a banana bread and stayed for twenty minutes and asked careful new-neighbour questions.At the building society meeting, Tanvi watched Sana watch the discussion of the first-floor staircase lighting. Normal, normal. Then the discussion moved to building security, and someone said something about the incidents in March, and Sana's hand, holding her chai, went to Vikram's arm.A brief touch. And Vikram, without looking at his wife, put his hand over hers.The incidents in March.The meeting moved on. Nobody elaborated. Nobody asked for elaboration. The phrase hung in the courtyard air and was allowed to disperse.After the meeting, Tanvi caught up with Vikram at the staircase."Vikram-bhai," she said. "The incidents in March that were mentioned—"He looked at her. A long look."You're in 14/C," he said."Yes."He nodded slowly. Not as confirmation of information — as confirmation of something he had already processed."Come for dinner on Friday," he said. "Sana will cook. We can talk."