The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Crow Man tells Jaki that he is in contact with Maali’s spirit. Maali needs Jaki to hand over the address book so he can gain varam. Crow Man also reports that Maali needs Jaki to find his negatives and gives the hint that the negatives are with the King of Elves and Queen. Jaki refuses to hand over the address book and instead gives Crow Man Maali’s used bandana. Crow Man is feeling sickly and asks Jaki to come again the following week.

Jaki tells DD about the Crow Man and shows him how Maali has marked his address book with cards on specific phone numbers. The Queen of Spades is the phone number for Elsa at CNTR. She suspects that the Ace’s phone number is an Englishman with the Associated Press, Jonny Gilhooley. Jaki calls the number and informs Jonny that Maali has gone missing. He offers her money, but she asks for the box of negatives. They arrange to meet at the British Consulate.

On the way to the British Consulate, DD and Jaki argue. She reveals that she knows that DD and Maali were in a relationship. He wants to hit her, but she assures him that she’s the only one who knows. DD and Maali met when they became roommates, and they only became intimate after six months of living together.

When they meet with Jonny, he points out that Maali often disappears for stretches of time due to his work. DD notices that Jonny has a tattoo of the Ace of Diamonds, which Maali used to label one of his folders of photographs, as well as Jonny’s phone number. Jonny insists that Maali didn’t officially work for him and suggests that Maali was working for Newsweek. This would explain his red bandana, which reporters wear to warn insurgents not to shoot at them. Jonny promises to make some inquiries about Maali. As DD and Jaki leave, Jaki notes a drink voucher from Pegasus Casino on Jonny’s desk.

When Maali knew Jonny, he was the cultural attaché at the British High Commission. Jonny resents those native to Sri Lanka, as he does of the native population at all his posts. He and Maali had a mostly professional relationship but were both secretly gay. Jonny had hired Maali as a fixer, not a photographer; his job was to arrange photo ops and interviews for visiting journalists, not to take the pictures himself.

The narrative flashed back to one such occasion in 1987. Maali brings a Newsweek reporter named Andy around, who is looking for evidence of child soldiers in training. They run into another reporter, Robert Sudworth, who has also been looking for the rumored child soldiers. Maali brings them both to a village in which all citizens are being forced to train for the paramilitary. The Sri Lankan army takes over the town while Maali and the other journalists are there; his red bandana, a sign of neutrality, saves his life in the ensuing battle. Sudworth is taken in for questioning, but Maali and Andrew are let go.

Maali climbs a tree to get a better look into the hut where Sudworth and another prisoner are taken and photographs the documents on the table. The other prisoner, who is at first hooded, is revealed to be Colonel Mahatiya Gopallaswarmy, leader of the Tamil Tigers. Their questioner is a man Maali recognizes from having worked for him: Major Raja Udugampola.

Back in the present, Jonny reflects that he paid Maali an extra-large amount for this assignment. Around 70 people died in that battle, and Maali’s prized photograph was of Colonel Gopallaswarmy leading his mistress away from the battle. Maali raised the topic of his photo proving a meeting between Sudworth, Colonel Gopallaswarmy, and Major Raja, but Jonny warned him against implying he had such a photo because he would certainly be killed for it.

Andrew McGowan sees Maali’s name on a list of the missing. The list identifies Maali as being an activist for the JVP, which is not true. Andrew is with a slew of journalists documenting the discovery of 15 skeletons covered in playing cards. Maali sees his own skull among the skeletons.

A UN forensic team is called in to help Sri Lankan authorities identify the unmarked remains. DD and his father discuss the protocols, or lack thereof, in Sri Lanka for identifying corpses. Stanley admonishes DD for giving Maali his mother’s chain.

Three government pathologists and the ghosts of the deceased watch the coroners examine the skeletons. Sena appears to mock the ghosts’ hopes that their skeletons might be identified.

Later, a news report reveals that the skeletons date back to 1948 and are not skeletons of recently deceased people. Through his father, DD gets ahold of the real report and shows it to Jaki. Two bodies were identified as Sena Pathirana of the JVP and Maali Almeida. It is suspected that Sena and Maali were murdered by government death squads. Jaki reveals this news on the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and is immediately fired. Maali tries to whisper to Jaki that if she finds the King and Queen marked in his address book, she’ll find the negatives.

Maali travels on the wind and overhears several conversations about his death. One of these conversations is held by the Indian High Commission, where Kugarajah quietly avoids denying that he hired Maali.

DD and Jaki tell Maali’s mother about his discovered remains. Amma seems unmoved by the news. She tells Jaki and DD about the time Maali tried to pretend an attempted suicide by taking her sleeping pills, saying that he always wanted attention and blamed her for his father leaving. Maali’s ghost resents this memory; he attempted suicide when he discovered he was gay. When DD and Jaki leave, Amma sobs for her murdered son.

Maali overhears a conversation between Jonny and Sudworth. Jonny warns that someone may have seen his private meeting with the Colonel and the Major. He overhears another conversation in which Elsa again requests Maali’s photographs from the Minister of Justice. Wijeratne holds up a picture of himself watching the violence without doing anything about it. Elsa is fine with him keeping that photograph and giving her the rest, but they both want the negatives. Wijeratne proposes that to get the photographs from him, Elsa can be the negotiator between an arms dealer and the government and find him the negatives.

Major Raja calls in ASP Ranchagoda and Detective Cassim to discuss the disposal of more bodies. Jaki calls one of the numbers in Maali’s address book and gets in touch with Major Raja, but he threatens her and hangs up. Wijeratne calls Major Raja to approve his curfew, and they laugh together as if in on some private joke. They arrange to kidnap Elsa.