Chapter 5 — What the Neighbours Knew

Friday dinner was dal chawal, which Sana cooked with the ease of someone for whom dal chawal was not a recipe but a reflex.They put the baby to bed at eight and then the three of them sat at the kitchen table and Vikram said: "What do you know so far?""Mrs. Rane told me about Reena," Tanvi said. "That she was there in March and something happened and nobody knows what. I found Reena's Instagram. Her last post was March 24th. It was a photo of the mirror."Vikram and Sana exchanged a look."The mirror," Sana said."Yes.""We could hear her," Vikram said. "In March. From our flat — we're directly below you. We could hear her at night. Walking, talking. At first normal. A new person settling in, moving furniture, the usual.""When did it change?" Tanvi said."Second week," Sana said. "The talking changed. The rhythm of it. When you talk on the phone, there's a pattern — you talk, there's a pause, you talk. When she was talking on the phone it sounded normal. But after the second week—" She looked at Vikram."After the second week the talking had a different rhythm," Vikram said. "Both sides of a conversation, but from one direction. From her flat. No phone, no video call. Just — both sides. Like she was having a full conversation with someone in the room." He paused. "And then in the last week—""Two voices," Sana said quietly. "Two women's voices. Both from that flat. One was Reena's. One was—" She picked up her water glass. "One was very different. Lower. Slower.""Different how?" Tanvi said."Not like a person," Sana said. Then she looked at Tanvi. "That's too dramatic. It sounded like a person. It just didn't sound like a person who knew how to sound like a person." She set the glass down. "Does that make sense?""Yes," Tanvi said.It made more sense than she wanted it to."What happened on the 28th?" she said. "When Reena stopped being seen?"Vikram and Sana were quiet."We heard something fall," Vikram said. "A large thing. From your flat, directly above us. At three in the morning. And then nothing. No movement, no voice. Nothing for two days." He paused. "On the third day Babulal came. He went into the flat. He was there for four hours. He came out and said Reena had left, everything was fine." He looked at the table. "He was white when he came out. The kind of white that doesn't come from a four-hour cleaning job." He looked at Tanvi. "He put a new lock on the flat and he didn't open it again until he gave you the key.""And the mirror?" Tanvi said."Still in there," Sana said. "Which is the thing I don't understand. Whatever he was trying to clear out — he left the mirror.""Why?" Tanvi said.Sana looked at Vikram."We think," Vikram said carefully, "that he couldn't move it."The baby made a sound from the back room. They all went still.Then the baby settled, and the sound faded, and the kitchen was quiet again."Move it out?" Tanvi said. "Or just — move it?"Vikram and Sana looked at her.Neither of them answered.