The Golden Triangle

By Inayat Kaur

When Eleanor and William first board the Little Noah, they do not expect to run into each other after years of not having met. Time seems to stand still when they encounter each other, but all is not as well as it seems. They have a history of love, violence, and betrayal. The other passengers include the rich businessman, Mr Farhan Khanna, and the innocent journalist, Mia. Also traveling on the ship are Martin, Oliver and Mary.
Eleanor had been hoping for a quiet vacation but only a couple of days after the ship starts sailing, events take a sinister turn when one of the passengers is found murdered. And not only does the passenger seem to have been murdered quite skilfully, but the stabs on his body are also mysteriously shaped like a triangle. All the passengers appear to have a motive and everyone is a suspect! Eleanor is asked to take on the case and find the murderer’s identity, but she must race against time and find the murderer before the ship reaches the shore. Martha’s haunting presence further complicates matters. Who is Martha? Does she have anything to do with the events that take place aboard the ship? Will Eleanor be able to solve the mystery? Will she succeed in her mission?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zorba Books
• Release date: Jul 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9789390640799

Inayat Kaur

Inayat Kaur Bajaj is a twelve-year-old author from Delhi, India. She studies in the eighth standard in D.P.S. R.K. Puram, New Delhi. This book marks her debut. She has already written two more books which are currently being edited. Inayat is an artist by heart. She has been training in Indian classical vocal music for the last 9 years and continues with this passion. She is also learning western vocal music, Rock and Pop and classical from Trinity College London. She has a keen interest in songwriting and music composition.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

The Golden Triangle was a nation, west to the Scandinavian countries, consisting of four provinces; one in the North, two in the South, and a small island in the middle giving it the shape of a triangle, hence the name. The North province was called Zambitrama. The Southeast province-Alibimana, south west – Marilaxa and the middle province was Matryaas.

Unfortunately, the provinces of the Golden Triangle did not live in harmony. Usually, Marilaxa and Alibimana would join forces against Zambitrama. Matryaas was always the peaceful one and never fought against any of the other provinces.

The reason for the wars and riots between these provinces was because of money and gold. The mayors of both sides were very greedy. They always wanted more. They wished that the Golden Triangle would combine into one nation with them as the head. Since this led to a lot of wars, espionage was an important part of their military tactics, and detectives were of essence for the government.

Each of the provinces had great detectives who were skilled in their own way.

Zambitrama had the best detective system among all the four. Since Marilaxa and Alibmana were not able to fight against Zambitrama by themselves, they always pleaded with Matryaas to join them.

Once, the war was so fierce that hundreds and thousands of lives were lost. Many of the detectives were threatened and tortured, and the pain they suffered was searing and unfathomable. People lost their family, homes, jobs and even love. Love was lost in humanity. Finally, the war ended but the Golden Triangle was shattered. Despite the magnitude of losses, the mayors continued to send their spies to the other provinces and it was recognized how greedy and unruly humans could be.

Even though people wanted revenge since the Great War had occurred, they were trying to live out their days in peace. But nobody had suffered as much as the detectives during this period. Although none of the detectives had died, most of their families had been killed during the war because the mayors sent their army troops to attack the detective’s weakest point—their loved ones.

The mayor of one state would target the detective of another, to counterattack the other’s strategy to attack them and why do you think the mayors would care about their detectives? They didn’t. But the detectives continued working for them because they were mercenaries; puppets in the hands of anyone who paid them.

In all this chaos and distorted living, Matryaas had given a helping hand to the North and South. They were friendly with everybody. Many refugees had escaped to Matryaas where they were welcomed with open arms. The mayor of Matryaas was not a greedy, cruel, arrogant, self-centered, or impatient man. He cared about the people in his province.

CHAPTER 1

SETTLING IN

Eleanor Melsis Adams, she replied.

You may proceed, said the ticket collector as he carefully scrutinized her passport and other documents.

Eleanor breathed a sigh of relief. She walked onto the swaying bridge. Underneath, the water gleamed like sapphires. As she approached the passenger ship, she took a deep breath again and looked at it carefully.

It wasn’t very big compared to the other majestic beauties beside it, but it had a big deck. Once painted in gleaming white, it had now lost its luster. There was a large porthole on the port of the ship through which the interiors could be clearly seen. There were also small portholes in each cabin.

It definitely looks like a lucky ship, she thought.

Finally, Eleanor pushed the door and felt a whoosh of fragrant air as she entered the ship. She was hit by the redness of the carpets and walls. It wasn’t really decorated, except for the mirror adjacent to the door. There was a long passage ahead and many adjacent cabins were on the sides of it. But before the cabins, there was the large porthole that Eleanor had previously spotted.

Behind her was the captain’s and attendant’s compartment. This ship had only one attendant who would serve the pre-packed food and look after the needs of the passengers.

Eleanor smiled when she saw the interior of the ship and commented, Ah, this place is peaceful and quite apt for me.

She cautiously stared into the mirror next to the door. She was a 25 year old elegant lady. Although she was always graceful, she had an essence of starchiness as well. She was wearing a blue dress that was beautifully embroidered with golden butterflies and flowed till just below her knees. Silver earrings and black sandals completed the look. She had daring blue eyes that could stun anybody. Her fair-skinned face was slightly oval shaped.

Eleanor took out her lip gloss and quickly applied it, making her lips look even darker. She was wearing a respectable red hat that partially hid some of her brownish-black hair. The hat had the name Martha engraved on it. When anybody asked, she would reply, It belonged to my sister’s friend. She died in the war and we remember her through the hat.

Eleanor also wore a few rings of different shapes and sizes on her hand. She wore one on her ring finger as well, even though she claimed that she wasn’t engaged or married. Her rings were mostly made of gold. After fixing her lipstick, she walked further along the passageway, wondering where her cabin was. Although she knew she was in Cabin 3, she wanted to look at her fellow passengers since most of the doors were ajar.

She peered into the first cabin. There were two people inside, a lady and her husband. The woman was a little plump but looked kind and jolly and her husband resembled her.

They were going at each other hammer and tongs, arguing loudly, like any husband and wife.

No, Margret, I cannot get you those diamond earrings. They cost more than the vacation, and a vacation is memorable. I don’t even want to see you in those earrings, said the husband.

Please Rook, pleaded Margret Wood.

No, no, no, I will not get it. It’s too expensive. Besides, it’s better to spend the money on a holiday because you’ll only wear the earrings a few times and then put them away. That money is going to be a waste, Rook Wood argued.

Margret replied, You don’t care, Rook, about how I want to see myself and…and…

Their voices drifted away as Eleanor strode forward. She peeked inside the cabin that was opposite the first one. The second cabin was full as well. This was unusually occupied by three people as cabins were only meant for two.

There was a couple and their little son who was about 8 or 10. The mother was very thin and looked quite stressed but her husband looked the exact opposite, identical to his son.

The lady was doing her best to prevent her son from jumping on the bed.

Now, now Tom, this is a ship bed, not like your bouncy bed at home. You can’t just keep on jumping. If the beds get spoilt, we’ll have to pay for it. If we have to pay for it, we might lose a lot of money. If we lose money, you might not be able to go to school and... and...

Calm down Beth dear. Tom, ignore what your mum just said but please stop jumping on the bed, said her husband – George Elliot.

Eleanor didn’t want to listen anymore, so she kept walking ahead.

The ship had seven cabins and each cabin had two beds. The name of the ship was Little Noah. There were 14 passengers travelling, since the Elliots had a kid as well.

As Eleanor went forward, she came across another big porthole. It showed the whole landscape. It was all beautiful like in a fairytale, with the water like magical potion.

She looked towards the window and murmured, Beautiful, indeed, this is.

She started walking ahead, but her head was turned towards the window and her eyes were fixed on it.

Oh, she cried suddenly and all her documents fell down on the floor. She glanced at the man who had bumped into her but did not give him a second look. She quickly started picking up her documents.

I’m so sorry, so sorry. I didn’t mean to. I just wasn’t looking, said the man into whom Eleanor had bumped.

No, that’s okay. I wasn’t looking either, so I’m equally at fault, replied Eleanor.

Here, I’ll help you, he said, picking up her passport and some of her identification documents.

Oh, Head of Police, are you? the man asked, looking at the documents.

Yes, what’s wrong in that? Eleanor retorted, still looking down, as she picked up the rest of her documents.

"No, it’s just I haven’t met- seen- been acquainted with many, you know- policewomen? No offense, I’m just impressed," he replied.

Thanks, she said, finally looking up. I get a lot of that.

As she said these words, she finally saw him up close and gasped softly as if she had seen a ghost.

He was tall and thin. There was a certain kindness to his face. He wore spectacles and was clean shaven and looked around twenty-five or twenty-six years old. His jet-black eyes had quite an artistic look; he was wearing a black tie and suit, and looked very respectable.

Your eyes are full of love, he commented, almost subconsciously.

Love, love, love…

The word echoed in Eleanor’s ears again and again and a memory came into her mind. A flashback of the past.

It was a sunny morning and the sun seemed very happy. There was a little girl of about six or seven and a boy about the same age. The girl was in the garden, though it was more of a jungle. She was running around in circles and crying out, Come and catch me if you can El, come on El, you can do it. You can catch me. Come on.