The Tea Planter’s Secret

The last superintendent of Strathellie Estate walked out of his bungalow on the twelfth of January, leaving the fire lit and his breakfast half eaten, and was never seen again. Ishan was offered his job three weeks later. The company did not put it like that, of course. The letter from Colombo spoke of an unexpected vacancy and an exciting opportunity at one of our finest high-grown properties. It mentioned the salary, which was generous, and the bungalow, which was furnished, and the car, which was a Land Rover older than Ishan. It did not mention Mr Ratnayake at all. Ishan had found that out for himself, from a two-paragraph story on page seven of a Sunday paper: Planter Missing in Nuwara Eliya. Police Appeal. He drove up from Kandy on a Tuesday in early February. Past Ramboda, where the falls came down out of the cloud in long white ropes, the road began its slow hairpins up into the…