Page 51 of Rising Tiger

When his breakfast arrived, he sat facing the room’s arched windows and enjoyed the amazing views of the green Aravalli Hills, which stretched, uninterrupted, all the way to the horizon.

He had no idea if Sølvi had ever been to India, but he knew for certain that she would find this part of it incredibly beautiful and incredibly romantic.

Brushing his teeth with bottled water, he grabbed an additional bottle from the minibar and headed downstairs to meet Vijay.

The ex-cop was already sitting outside in his Jaguar, top down, with his sunglasses on.

“Good morning,” he said as Harvath slid into the passenger seat, puthis own sunglasses on, and leaned back. “How are you feeling? Any intestinal distress?”

Harvath could tell he was ribbing him. “Fuck you,” he replied. “Drive.”

Vijay, the flashy, larger-than-life ex-cop, roared with laughter and put his car into gear.

Driving out of the hotel’s colossal gates, he pointed to the CD player. “I chose something special for you. Maybe it’ll make you feel a bit better.”

“What is it?” Harvath asked.

“You’ll see. Go ahead, pushPLAY.”

Harvath did and heard the beginning strains of one of the best dance songs ever—the Gap Band’s “You Dropped a Bomb on Me.” As it played, he did feel a little better. He even smiled.

“Ah,” said Vijay. “It’s working its magic.”

“The only thing that could spoil it,” Harvath replied, uncapping his water and taking a sip, “is you mentioning the lettersRorB.”

The man smiled back. “We’re going to have a good, productive day today. I’m not going to start it off with an argument.”

Harvath was glad to hear that. “It sounds like someone found a little optimism under their pillow when they got back to their room last night.”

“Actually, I got to thinking about what you said yesterday.”

“Which part?”

“All of it. But especially the part about looking under stones that other people have already overturned.”

Harvath looked at him, intrigued by the change in his mind-set. “Is there a particular stone or set of stones you’ve taken an interest in?”

“I’m not sure yet. Let’s see what the morning brings.”

Vijay didn’t have to explain why it was better to visit the Jaipur city morgue first thing. It was an old building, with equally old air-conditioning. Thankfully, the temperature inside was still cool from overnight.

A medical examiner met them at the front desk and led them down a long hall to an autopsy room that smelled faintly of antiseptic. There, a body lay on a stainless-steel mortuary table.

The ME pulled back the sheet. Harvath stared at the face for a moment, trying to ignore where the top of the skull had been removed in order to withdraw the bullet from the man’s brain, and then positively identified the corpse as Eli Ritter.

After pulling on a pair of latex gloves, Harvath examined the body. As he did, he asked the ME if she had found anything, beyond the gunshot wound, that was unusual.

“Other than the abrasions to the face, which are consistent with the victim having fallen forward after being shot, I didn’t see anything,” she said.

“Did you conduct a toxicology screen?”

“We did, but found nothing unusual. There was a trace amount of alcohol in his system, but that was it. It barely registered.”

Harvath nodded and kept working his way along the body. He, however, didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, either.

The ME gently lifted and tilted Ritter’s head to the side so that Harvath could see where the round had entered. He studied the wound, but again, there was nothing to suggest anything was out of place.

Drawing Harvath’s attention to the top of Ritter’s skull, the ME described the path of the bullet, which parts of the brain it had passed through, and the location of where it was ultimately found and removed.