Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials (30 page)

This got a smile from Anne. “She’s Catholic?”

“I believe so.”

Anne nodded, as though this helped her decide which folder to file the observation
under. Poor woman, Aunty Lee thought. She was still trying to find meaning in her
daughter’s death.

“Have you seen Henry since?”

“He seems a bit lost without her. I suspect Mabel made all the decisions for them.”

“Some men are like that.” Anne Peters smiled. “As long as everybody knows they own
the car, they don’t mind being driven around by a chauffeur.”

“But in his case it was true, wasn’t it? Mabel was the one running the successful
law firm. Henry was semiretired. Because of his Parkinson’s, he couldn’t operate anymore.”

They had reached the gate of the Peters house by now. Anne unlatched it.

“I don’t know about that. There were rumors of trouble in paradise for a while. Apparently
Henry was angry about how much money Mabel had spent on Leonard. Many men just aren’t
very good around sickness.”

“You’re not saying Henry would have done something—”

“I’m not saying anything,” Anne said firmly. “Except I would advise you to stay away
from Mabel’s schemes. I know she’s dead but you don’t know what tangled webs she’s
left behind. And there’s Sharon, you said she’s taking over the law firm?”

“She’s trying to save it, I think.”

“The problem with Sharon is she’s too much like Mabel. No matter what, she would always
have been either a shadow or a competitor. She never had a chance while Mabel was
alive.”

“And now?”

“Now I suppose she’ll carry on where her mother left off and do whatever Mabel would
have.”

Back home, Aunty Lee could not decide whether she had learned a lot or nothing at
all. There was the shape of something vitally important in the mass of details that
Anne Peters had shared with her but she could not figure out what it was.

She sat down on her bed. She could hear Nina operating the vacuum cleaner in one of
the other rooms. She was glad both that Nina was in the house with her and that she
was not in the same room. She wanted to process the teeming thoughts in her head in
private. But since her loss of ML, her fear of being alone had grown. How had this
happened? Rosie Lee had always thought of herself as the strong, independent one.
Now she felt she would rather be dead than alone. What was going to happen to her
when Nina left to go home?

Aunty Lee shook her head. This was still part of the grieving process, she told herself.
It could go on for years. She was lucky because having time to grieve was a luxury.
Some women who lost their husbands had to worry about feeding themselves and their
children. How would she have coped with feeding five, six, seven little Rosies and
MLs? Aunty Lee had to laugh at herself and the image this conjured up. Now Mark and
Mathilda were independent and she only had to look after herself. The least she could
do was stay healthy and happy. She knew the best way to do that was by staying active.
But now Aunty Lee’s Delights, which was supposed to take care of that, had also been
taken away from her.

The photographs in the bedroom were some of Aunty Lee’s favorite portraits of ML.
Their wedding portrait held pride of place over the bed. They had not gone through
all the traditional marriage ceremonies but Aunty Lee was wearing the phoenix collar
and
kebaya
that had been worn by ML’s mother as well as by his first wife. It had made her feel
accepted by them as well as by ML (who was looking at her instead of at the camera).
Well, one good thing about being alone was that ML was not around to worry about her.

Aunty Lee could finally understand offering food to the dead. In households with family
altars, samples of all the best foods were ceremonially offered to dead ancestors.
As a Western-educated child whose parents and grandparents were all alive, it had
seemed a waste to the young Rosie. Now that loss was a permanent part of her life,
she saw that the custom was less a matter of superstition than of wanting those you
loved most to share your experiences. Doing this doubled your pleasure because you
got to see things through their eyes. Aunty Lee preferred feeding the living. Still,
she shared all she had learned that morning with ML and felt better.

ML Lee had been so fond of his little wife. Where any other man would probably have
been irritated, ML Lee had been entertained. But then Aunty Lee, with her knack for
understanding people (through the way they ate, she said) had probably known him better
than anyone else. She realized the vacuum cleaner had been silent for a while. When
she looked around Nina was peering through the half-open door.

“Madam, you want hot tea?”

“No thank you, Nina.”

“Madam Cherril telephoned just now. Said when you come back please phone her.”

Much as she liked Cherril, Aunty Lee was reluctant to break away from her contemplative
mood.

“In a moment. Thank you, Nina.”

An unexpected parcel from GraceFaith arrived by courier. There was also a note from
GraceFaith saying Henry Sung could not have poisoned his wife because GraceFaith herself
had been with him from the time the first tray was dropped till she went into Leonard’s
room and found Leonard and Mabel dead. Aunty Lee put aside that little nugget to chew
on later. It was the papers GraceFaith had sent that caught her attention now. For
once Aunty Lee felt out of her depth. And she was going to ask a big favor. She picked
up the phone.

“Raja? Can you trust me?”

“Rosie, what are you up to?”

“I want to pass Salim something to investigate privately. No, never mind where I got
it from. Let him decide what he wants to do with it. If it works out there will be
plenty of other evidence and no one will bother where the information came from. If
nothing comes of it, no one need know.”

“Rosie, you are as bad as Mabel Sung.”

“I couldn’t wait, I wanted to tell you right away.” Cherril dashed in through the
French doors from the lawn. “People on TV who keep secrets always end up dead. I managed
to talk to Wen Ling. Or someone else like her. Same difference. Online on a Chinese
health forum site promising people genuine Chinese organs and blood transfusions.
I said I wanted to know if the body parts my aunt was getting are Chinese body parts
and I wouldn’t pay unless I knew for sure. This person wrote they only deal with organs
from healthy Chinese people. She’s very big on health and she is vegetarian. We talked
for some time and now I’m feeling a bit bad for lying to her. But not too bad. I told
her I had a vegetarian friend—Carla—in Shanghai. In a different world we might all
have been friends and business partners. Isn’t it crazy?”

Aunty Lee looked at ML’s picture. If all the information she had been looking for
was coming through, why did she feel so strongly that she was missing something? But
the first thing to do was to pass on the information GraceFaith had given her.

“Nina, ask Salim to come by and collect something. And I think he should hear what
Cherril said too. In fact call him now. I want to talk to him, fast-fast! Or no—wait.
Phone him quick and pass me the phone!”

“Yes, Aunty Lee?” Salim did not sound surprised. “The commissioner said I should—”

“Yes, all that later. Now quickly tell me, your people didn’t check the pool house
at the Sungs’ place right?”

“It’s a sterile space, they couldn’t go in. But they checked the camera monitors.
There’s nothing inside except equipment.”

“Oh my goodness, you people so
goondu
. Don’t you watch TV? I got inside information, just get inside there somehow. Send
the mosquito-check people in. Those guys can get inside everywhere, not like you policemen.”

“At least tell me what you expect us to find.”

“Just go look, Salim. Quick, quick, quick!”

Useful Information?

Sergeant Panchal was at the Binjai Park bungalow by noon.

“Mrs. Rosie Lee, you were at the Sung Law offices early this morning before the office
opened. Why?”

“I was only trying to get my money. Mabel Sung never paid me for catering the party
at her house. I went there to look for Sharon Sung because she wasn’t returning my
calls. I needed her help about an urgent matter. The security guard let me in because
he knew that Miss Ang was still in the office and I said I might as well talk to her.
Why are you asking? Did somebody complain about me being there? Was it Sharon Sung?
GraceFaith can tell you that I just went and talked to her for a little while and
left.”

“Miss GraceFaith Ang is missing. Her employer, Miss Sung, says some confidential company
documents are also missing and suspects that she took them. She believes Miss Ang
may have passed them to you when you were in the office.”

“Why would she do that? What company papers is she talking about?”

“If you don’t mind I need you to come down to the station to answer some questions.
And I will need to search your premises for Miss Sung’s company documents.”

“Nina, call Salim.”

“Inspector Salim is away on a case,” Staff Sergeant Panchal said. She had been looking
forward to this meeting since Sharon Sung reported the theft of her company documents
and named Mrs. Rosie Lee as the prime suspect. “It is a very important case and he
cannot be contacted. I am in charge of this investigation.”

To SS Panchal’s surprise Aunty Lee seemed oddly pleased to hear this. “Of course I’ll
come with you. Can I change first? And can I finish my lunch? I have low blood pressure.
If I don’t eat, my blood sugar drops and I faint and fall down. Or can I call for
my doctor to come and meet me at the police station?”

Panchal, who had expected defiance and resistance, was disconcerted by her apparent
victory.

“Oh. Of course. I will wait for you.”

“Why don’t you join me for lunch?”

“No. I’m on duty. And I already ate.”

“Then why don’t you come back after two?”

But though Aunty Lee dressed herself up, Panchal did not come back.

“All the cars are out,” Nina reported. “And not just our station. Plus all the ‘on
standby’ got called in. Must be fire or terrorists somewhere. Otherwise unless it
is National Day or Formula One why do they need so many police for?”

Aunty Lee had an idea but did not voice it even to Nina. She would wait and see. There
was nothing on the radio news or in the evening papers and no word from Inspector
Salim on what he had done with Aunty Lee’s documents.

Salim came by the house much later, looking very tired. Nina had been worried about
him and covered up her anxiety by attacking.

“Did you come to check whether we closed the shop or not? If I go to the shop to clean,
will you arrest me?”

“If people complain, we have to investigate,” Salim said. “Can I come in?”

“Even if it is your own people? You say Aunty Lee is like your family. Even if you
know she would never do something like that, you must close her down? If you never
trust anybody like that, then how can anybody ever trust you?” Nina sounded so furious
that Aunty Lee was almost afraid for Salim.

“As long as I am paid to do the job, I must do the job following the rules. If I cannot
do the job anymore, then I quit the job first and then I help my people. Do you want
me to quit?”

“You can help us a lot better by staying where you are,” Aunty Lee said quickly. “Did
you manage to do anything with the papers I passed you?”

Nina understood Salim was only doing his job. She was not angry with him for that.
Indeed she was not angry with him but she was angry and she could not be angry with
Aunty Lee and there was no one else around.

Luckily Salim understood. Or even if he did not understand, he was wise enough and
fond enough of her to not take notice. It made Nina feel bad to know she was taking
advantage of his good nature. But telling him to go away because as long as he was
around she would be nasty to him, would that be better or worse?

“It looks like Dr. Yong was the one responsible for bringing the donor in,” Salim
said. “He was the one liaising between the PRC suppliers and the Singapore customers.”

Customers, thought Aunty Lee. It sounded like they were shopping for human organs
at an online supermarket.

“It looks like Dr. Yong took the live donor on consignment. He may have agreed to
pay them on delivery but there is no sign he did. Payment from Mabel Sung for Leonard
Sung’s operation covered less than half the cost. Dr. Yong is someone who has trouble
coming up with his monthly rent. We think he was planning to raise the rest of the
money and a profit by selling the rest of the live donor’s organs. Then when Mabel
and Leonard died there was no money and no patient.”

“We need to get in touch with Dr. Edmond Yong. I don’t think he realizes what kind
of people he is dealing with. They can be dangerous. Aunty Lee, do you have any idea
at all how to reach him?”

“I wouldn’t worry about him if I were you,” Aunty Lee said grimly. “I suspect Dr.
Yong can take care of himself! What about Henry Sung? And Sharon?”

“Henry Sung says he didn’t know anything about it. That doesn’t seem very likely but
there’s nothing to prove otherwise. And the daughter—Sharon Sung isn’t saying anything.
All the documents in the office are in Mabel Sung’s name, so technically Sharon is
not involved either.”

“And what was GraceFaith Ang’s role in all this?”

“Small time. It looks as though she has been pinching money from the company. But
it’s hard to tell what she took and what Mabel Sung took.” Salim paused. “I believe
you visited Sung Law and spoke to her yesterday?”

“I did.”

“After you left, Miss Ang emptied out what was left of the Sung Law accounts and instructed
that the power and water supply to the Sung house be cut off. And of course to the
pool house. You already knew what we were going to find there, didn’t you? Anyway,
once the power was cut off, the body died.”