Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials (22 page)

They were certainly interesting but Commissioner Raja thought innovative
laddus
should not look like the sweet, safe
chana dal laddus
his grandmother had made . . . and an inexperienced, untrained, self-appointed detective
should not look like a sweet, friendly widow.

“So what are you going to do now?” Aunty Lee asked.

He knew she was not asking about his plans for the afternoon.

“We will investigate, following the proper channels. As you say, there may be a connection
with illegal organ trafficking. We will follow up all leads, get information from
our overseas contacts about organ traffickers, and leave the case open until it is
solved. And it will be solved eventually. Either the perpetrators will be caught or
they will find that it is not worth the risk to operate in Singapore, and take their
business elsewhere.”

It was always that way, Aunty Lee thought. As long as criminals stayed out of Singapore,
they were not Singapore’s problem. The United States was criticized for minding the
world’s business. But was ignoring everything outside your borders that much better?
Given how interconnected everything was, was that even possible?

“I don’t think Mabel Sung and her son were killed by illegal organ traffickers,” Aunty
Lee said.

“I thought you said illegal organ traffickers were involved?”

“Oh yes, definitely involved. But you remember I was there when Mabel and her son
were poisoned. I saw Sharon scooping out the chicken
buah keluak
and the rest of the food. She thought she’d bring it up to the house. GraceFaith
Ang and Edmond Yong were going up to Leonard’s room and she gave them the food to
bring. They left it in Leonard’s room. He did not eat until Mabel came up to feed
him.”

“So any of them could have put the poison in the food. Granted. But most likely the
perpetrator is still Mabel Sung. No one else had a reason.”

“It could have been someone at the party who went up to the house to use the toilet
like I did. And we just don’t know the reason yet.”

“We already checked out all the people at the party. Friends of the family or members
of Mabel Sung’s law firm. No illegal organ traffickers. And just for argument’s sake,
if these illegal organ traffickers really exist, what reason would they have to kill
Mabel Sung and her son? These people are here to make money from selling harvested
organs. They want to keep a low profile, do their business, get their money, and get
out as fast as possible without anybody noticing them.”

“Exactly. That’s why I believe they are around but I don’t think they killed Mabel
and her son!”

“Mabel Sung knew that Leonard Sung was not going to recover. He was a drug addict
who destroyed his health. The woman killed her son rather than watch him suffer.”

There was a note in his voice that indicated the discussion had ended. Indeed Commissioner
Raja started (not without difficulty) to raise himself off the cushions.

Commissioner Raja waved the problem away. “She must have added the poison to the food
before serving it up to herself and her son.”

It didn’t feel right to Aunty Lee. But enforcers of Singapore law—even one as nice
to her as Commissioner Raja—generally did not operate on what didn’t feel right to
regular citizens. He would have pointed out that she had no proof. He would have thought
her not wanting to believe that another old lady could have chosen to kill herself
and her son was old-lady squeamishness. So she said nothing. She would think about
all the separate parts of the puzzle, and when she managed to put a complete picture
together, she would present it to Commissioner Raja

“It’s always harder to get up than sit down,” Aunty Lee observed. She had somehow
got to her feet without trouble and was smoothing down her flared batik pants as she
watched her friend struggle to his feet.

“Your men didn’t find anything else at all at the Sung house? Even after checking
everything? Did they check the house, the grounds, the swimming pool for anything
suspicious?”

Finally back on his feet, Commissioner Raja wondered whether genuine police work would
ever recover from the effects of television procedurals. “There wasn’t much point
searching for clues when it was obvious how the poison was administered,” he said.
“But actually our men did search the whole place thoroughly and they documented the
process very meticulously.”

“Even the pool filters?”

“Probably. I can go look if it will make you feel better, but I tell you there is
nothing to find. Anyway the pool had just been cleaned, so I doubt there was anything.”

“Whoever added the poison to my
buah keluak
must have got it from somewhere. If they just cleaned the pool, some kinds of water
cleaner can be very poisonous . . .”

Commissioner Raja stretched contentedly and felt a satisfying little burp rise. It
had been a good lunch and it couldn’t hurt to tell his old friend how close her guess
had come. “We found a possible source of the poison. There were containers of Algae
Bomb under the food tables, against the wall.”

“And just one more thing,” Aunty Lee said. “Your officers must have talked to all
the people working for the Sungs. There was a PRC woman there. I didn’t see her again
after Mabel was found. Can you tell me who she is? I just want to make sure that she’s
all right.”

Commissioner Raja gave Aunty Lee a sharp look, almost as though he distrusted her
seemingly altruistic motives. “PRC domestic helpers are not allowed in Singapore.
The Sungs’ two domestic workers are both nurses from the Philippines and they both
quit already. The gardener is from Sri Lanka and doesn’t speak English. There was
no PRC woman there.”

“Oh, maybe I was mistaken and she was a guest? I saw her talking to the Sungs’ doctor,
Edmond Yong, so she may have been a nurse. Yes, she could have been an off-duty nurse.
You know nurses and child-care workers always have that bossy exhausted air even when
they are not working. If she was a nurse she would know all about poisoning people,
right? Did the Sungs have a full-time or part-time nurse to look after their son?
He was in quite bad shape, right? So unless they were changing his diaper and bathing
him themselves, they would have needed professional help. Anyway, you should find
out who she was, shouldn’t you?”

Commissioner Raja, however reluctantly, registered her point. She waited while he
typed a quick message into his phone. But he put the subject away along with his phone.

“Look, Rosie. I know this must be very difficult for you. But please leave it to us
this time. We’ll try to get the inspections done as quickly as possible and your restaurant
can open again. I know there is nothing wrong with your kitchens but we have to follow
the rules nonetheless, this is Singapore. It is not enough to just do the right thing,
we have to let people see we are doing the right thing. Just think of this as a short
holiday. In fact, why not go and take a trip somewhere? When was the last time you
traveled out of Singapore? Go to England to visit Mathilda. Go and cook all her favorite
dishes for her.”

Mathilda was always happy to see Aunty Lee. But leaving Singapore now felt like leaving
the house with a pot of curry bubbling on the stove. It was not just the curry that
might be spoiled. If it burned dry in the pot and caught fire, a whole lot more damage
might be done.

“Aren’t you people supposed to tell me not to leave the country?”

“Rosie, don’t talk nonsense. I told you, you are not a suspect.”

“Everybody who was there that day is a suspect. Henry Sung just told me that even
he is a suspect.”

“When did you talk to Henry Sung?” Commissioner Raja asked sharply.

“We ran into each other at a friend’s place. I get the feeling he believes Mabel killed
herself but he’s too Christian to let himself think it consciously.” Aunty Lee broke
off with a laugh at the expression on Commissioner Raja’s face. “What’s wrong? I can
have lunch with you but I can’t talk to Henry Sung? I’m going to think you’re jealous!”

“Rosie, this is all confidential but I think it’s better you know than go blundering
in deeper. It was Henry Sung who got your restaurant to be closed down. In his words,
‘Even if it was an accident you don’t want her to poison anybody else.’ The man has
friends in high places. All retired. But around here the retired judges, retired ministers,
are all still connected. There’s nothing on paper but they all still have a lot of
influence. Their friend has just lost his wife and son. If they can make him feel
better by closing you down, they won’t think twice. And they are all connected to
the people in power now. All it takes is a word. And the second complaint was from
his lady friend Doreen Choo. She could not say exactly what she was complaining about,
and when we asked her to be more specific, Henry Sung put it all down for her.”

Now Aunty Lee understood Doreen Choo’s initial discomfort when they had talked. She
must have thought Aunty Lee would learn she had agreed to play along with Henry’s
plan.

“Are you all right, Rosie?”

“I think I need to go to a prayer and healing session.”

Prayer and Healing

Aunty Lee had always prided herself on staying happy by keeping busy. But back at
the (sadly closed) café after lunch with the commissioner, it was not easy to find
something to be busy with. Nina had already taken care of everything that could be
cleaned, sorted, or recycled and was starting to look aimless herself.

“Maybe you should get a dog, ma’am.”

“You mean a guard dog? Why? Have there been break-ins again?”

“No, ma’am. But so many of the other maids . . .” Their politically correct employers
might call them “domestic helpers” but the women referred to themselves and one another
as “maids.” “Many of the other maids have dogs to walk in the morning and in the evening.
Sometimes they even walk to the playground and have a picnic and listen to music.
If you have a dog then I can take the dog and go with them.”

“I’m sure you can join them without a dog, Nina.”

“If I don’t have a dog then people will see and say I am wasting time. They will report
me to the police and say I am loitering. But if I got a dog with me then I am dog
walking,” Nina explained.

It made sense, Aunty Lee supposed, though it was hard on the dogs who ended up standing
around while their human walkers talked rather than exercised.

“But what will you do with the dog when the café opens again?”

“We can bring the dog, ma’am. If it is a big dog it will be like a guard dog. And
if it is a small dog people will say ‘so cute, so cute’ and then they will come in
to shop and buy things.”

“Maybe I should give a party,” Aunty Lee said.

“Somebody else dies, we sure kenah arrested.”

“Maybe we can’t have guests in here, but we can still do outside catering, right?”
Cherril said as she entered the shop. She was equally in search of occupation, Aunty
Lee suspected. “And we can cook as long as we don’t serve. And we can sell food as
long as we didn’t just make it in the kitchen. We should start making the Christmas
and New Year treats and freeze them,” Cherril said. “In fact we can sell them frozen.
Then people can take home and heat them up and feel that they did their own cooking.”

Aunty Lee felt even more fond of Cherril than she usually did, despite a twinge of
guilt at the thought of Mathilda. She would make it up to Mathilda some other way.
After all, the girl was on the other side of the world. Aunty Lee needed a kitchen
companion in Singapore.

“Sorry you got involved in all this. I will understand if you want to pull out, you
know.”

“Oh, not at all. I’m enjoying it, believe it or not. I like being part of a team.
I know it sounds corny, but when I’m doing something on my own I can’t get as excited
about it. It’s very easy to give up and say okay, not worth it, don’t sweat the small
stuff, just move on to the next job. But like last time when I was part of a cabin
crew, it was hard work and there were times when it was really tough and you can hate
the people you are working with. But once I put on the uniform and put on the face,
then it is like the show is on. I can play the part no matter how tired I am because
I know what they expect me to be, so I can be good. And people expect Aunty Lee’s
Delights to be good also. Don’t you know? Once people get you to cater for them, they
know that their party is going to be a success. Even if the people there got nothing
to talk about, they can always talk about the food. That’s why you can’t give up.”

Unasked, Nina put down a cup of hot lemongrass tea in front of Cherril. And she smiled.

“I got Mykie to look at the injunction again. It only says that you cannot prepare
food until the kitchen here has been given the all clear. It doesn’t mean that you
cannot cook in your house or even in my house, for that matter.”

The earnest young woman was trying to cheer Aunty Lee up and boost her morale, Aunty
Lee realized. Her preoccupation with Mabel’s death must have made Cherril think she
was depressed by the forced closure of the café kitchens. As if a little thing like
that could get Aunty Lee down, given all the setbacks she had struggled through and
triumphed over in more years than Cherril Lim-Peters could imagine! But she was touched
that Cherril had tried. And there was Nina watching, uncharacteristically silent.
It looked like Aunty Lee had made both Nina and Cherril worried.

“We should use this time to try out new recipes. And see how well things freeze and
how to reheat them.”

Nina, who had had been listening, nodded approval. “But the freezer is full already.
Where to keep all the food you make?”

“I’ll bring whatever we make to a prayer meeting I’m going to tonight,” Aunty Lee
said. “If I don’t sell it, it is not counted as business, right? And if the other
people are worried about the food they can pray over it before eating, then everybody
happy.”