by Vas, Mahita;
“Cut the aggression, Sayana.” Uday shook his head slowly. “I thought about that after you left. No. I can’t think of anyone who would be offended by anything I might have said or done in the course of work.” Uday stared at the ceiling, picturing where Lavinia was lying. “What were those furnaces for? And those massive fridges? What was that long table for?”
“It’s a factory for roasting meats, mainly duck and suckling pig. They supply roasted meats to small restaurants. That whole stretch is nothing but food factories. I looked at the signs as we drove in and then back out again. There were factories for bread, cakes, tapioca crisps, dumplings and curry puffs. They’re all closed on Sundays, so Shaun must have picked this date and known he wouldn’t be seen.”
Uday shuddered. “The table … is it for chopping up pigs and ducks?”
Sayana pursed his lips. “Probably. To prepare the meats, too, like marinating them, I think, before they are roasted.”
Sayana shifted in his seat, reached into his pocket and fished out a phone. “I took this from Ah Huat. He said there are text messages with some of the bad people. We’ll soon find out who Shaun is. Meanwhile, I think we need to let Shaun think Lavi is dead.”
“I think I know who might have done this,” said Ashwin. “I suspect Rohit—”
Uday stared at the glass shelves behind the reception counter, stacked with boxes and plastic bottles filled with medicines, and considered the possibility. Shaking his head, he spoke softly. “No. Firstly, Rohit loved Lavinia enough to want to marry her.”
“I’m not sure he did. No one can really love a person and dump her just to spite her father. He was using your position and his father’s relationship with you to advance his career at Fortuna Global. Everyone in Mumbai knows he’s an unscrupulous thug. Some of us believe the rumour that he beat a homeless man to death while he was in college. For sport.”
“There’s such a rumour? Since when? Why didn’t you say something? Why did you allow your beloved sister to be involved with a criminal?”
“I’m Lavi’s closest friend, Dad. You think I didn’t try to talk her out of the engagement? When Rohit came here to study, I warned him that he couldn’t fool me and that I was watching him. Thing is, he behaved well—mostly, not always—during those ten months. It didn’t take much for Lavi to convince me that he had changed. We all wanted her to be happy. We chose to shade our eyes with rose-tinted lenses. And yes, there is such a rumour, but very few people know, and won’t talk about it. There’s no proof and only two witnesses, both as unreliable as Rohit.”
Sayana asked, “Well, he certainly had a motive and I wouldn’t put it past him. How would he have arranged it, though? With criminals who don’t speak English?”
Ashwin replied, “The guy’s a thug. When he wasn’t seeing Lavi, he was known to hang out, and be equally comfortable, at the trendy bars and seedy karaoke joints near Chinatown. He would’ve made some friends where some low-lifes hang-out. For this attack, all he needed was to get one guy, and wire him the money. That one guy then takes care of all the details. It’s not like Singapore has assassins for hire but it’s also not that hard to arrange a kill. Especially if you have lots of money.”
Uday looked at Ashwin with a mixture of bewilderment and daze, “How do you know all this? Singapore is so safe and clean. Wasn’t it you who used to say this place is so sterile you can smell the disinfectant?”
Sayana placed his hand on his father’s arm. “There’s a thriving underbelly here, Dad. Just like in every big city. People blame the sudden influx of new immigrants and while they don’t help, it’s not like there aren’t criminal elements amongst those born and raised here. Back in the old days, there were opium dens, gambling dens, and prostitution around the city. The triads controlled all these trades. It was not safe and certainly not clean. While Singapore is very safe now, I wouldn’t say it’s sterile.”
Uday rubbed his face, as if clarity would suddenly shine through his pores. “I don’t want to believe it’s him but right now Rohit seems like the most likely suspect.”
“Culprit,” said Ashwin.
Ten minutes after wheeling Lavinia into the examination room, Dr Dubash came out to the waiting area. Uday and his sons stood up, relieved; it didn’t take long, so Lavinia’s condition couldn’t be as bad as it appeared. It was only when Uday saw Dr Dubash standing in front of the three of them, his shoulders weighed down with the burden of having to break terrible news, that Uday stiffened and sat down.
Dr Dubash spoke slowly, “She needs to go to a hospital. And you’ll need to make a police report. I’ve called an ambulance.”
Uday shook his head. “Surely there is something you can do?”
Dr Dubash shook his head. “She was raped—”
“No! Please, no …”
“She’s in a coma. The doctor at the hospital will provide more details. I am so sorry.” Dr Dubash slid both hands into his pockets and looked at the floor.
Uday collapsed on to the sofa. Images of Lavinia fighting for her life while having her dignity ripped out of her flashed past him. Ashwin and Sayana sat down on each side of him, putting their arm around him. “We’ll get her the best care, Dad. She is alive. Be glad for that.”
Uday and his sons went outside and waited by their car. By the time the ambulance arrived, the two young men had bagged up and got rid of the bloodied towels in a bin several shop- houses away.
Uday kicked a paper cup that was lying near the car. There was litter all around the half-empty carpark. After decades of fines and campaigns, parts of Singapore still reflected the habits of too many people who lacked social graces. In her teens, Lavinia had joined a few volunteers to clear litter at East Coast Park. “You’re doing Lavi—and our family, for that matter—a grave injustice with your plans. Just tell the police everything!”
“I’m with Dad. You’re going to screw this up, Ashwin.”
“Dad, trust me please. None of you knew Lavi like I did. We were all close to her but not like I was. And you both know that. Let me handle this. Please.”
The brothers called their wives, both of whom were distraught upon hearing of the attack and insisted on meeting them at the hospital. It took some effort for both Ashwin and Sayana to deflect their questions—“we don’t know yet” was their stock answer—and to convince their wives to stay home for the time being.
12
The Next Morning
The emergency department was busy. It was 2am. There seemed to be a disproportionate number of migrant workers, many with bloodied arms or legs, while they waited. A number of parents were trying to comfort crying babies and feverish young children. At the triage, a sign stated that waiting time was two hours.
Ashwin spoke to a woman at the reception counter, a scrawny young woman whose temperament seemed better suited to a back-office job. Without even glancing at Ashwin, and as if speaking to her computer screen, the receptionist rattled away. “Your sister is the ambulance case from Holland Village, correct? Coma, correct? If same one, no need to wait. Your sister already with the doctor. You tell your father go through the red door—that old man is your father, correct?”
Uday glowered at the receptionist as he spoke to Ashwin. “Sort out the paper work, please. Insurance, payment, whatever. Use your credit card. We’ll see you in in there.” Uday dashed to the emergency room, with Sayana following just behind.
In the time it took Ashwin to wait his turn and fill in some forms to admit Lavinia as a patient, the doctor had asked Uday a few questions, called the police and ushered him and Sayana into a quiet, comfortable waiting room, where the police would soon arrive and speak to Uday and his sons.
The two police officers whispered to each other as they entered the room. After confirming that the occupants of the room were Lavinia’s father and brothers, the older policeman introduced himself as Staff Sergeant Haider, before closing the door behind him and taking a seat across from Uday.
Sayana looked at the other policem
an and read out his name tag. “Donald Liu.” Patting his own shoulders with two fingers, referring to the epaulette, Sayana asked, “Corporal?”
The policeman nodded. “National Service.” Glancing at his boss, Staff Sergeant Haider, who seemed keen to begin, he stepped back towards the door and pulled out a notepad and pen.
“Mr Aurora, please tell us exactly what happened, starting from the beginning.”
Ashwin started to speak. “This has already taken a huge toll on my dad. I’ll answer your questions. Is that okay?”
“Were you with your father throughout?”
“Most of the time. Lavinia was supposed to be home by six for dinner with our family.”
“Where is home and where was Miss Lavinia?”
“Rose Gardens, on Grange Road. Lavinia had spent the afternoon playing Scrabble with her friends from university. They were practising for a national tournament to be held in June. She had promised to be home for dinner. She’s good about keeping her commitments, especially to us … her family.”
“Do you have the names of her friends, where they live?”
Sayana answered, “If we knew, we might have found her earlier, don’t you think?”
Staff Sergeant Haider glared at Sayana. “No need to be rude.”
Uday smacked Sayana’s arm. “Exactly. Just let Ashwin answer the questions.”
“We don’t know much about her Scrabble group, other than that they were all at NUS together. Her closest friends are five girls from secondary school who were with her in junior college and university. She saw them on Saturday. I don’t think they were in her Scrabble group.”
“Do you have names or numbers?”
Ashwin pulled out his phone. “I know two of them—”
Sayana chuckled, “The ones you dated when you were in the army? I remember … sowed your wild oats by preying on our baby sister’s friends.”
“Shut up, Sayana.” Ashwin showed Staff Sergeant Haider the phone screen before reading the contents. “Patricia Teo, 94664320. She lives in Thomson. I no longer have her address but—”
“The cops can find that in five seconds.”
Uday frowned as he spoke to Sayana. “Stop being a smart aleck. It’s annoying and makes you sound petty and childish.”
Sayana rolled his eyes, leant back and twiddled his thumbs.
Ashwin scrolled to the next name. “Song Chun-Yi, 86639756. She used to live at Tanglin Halt, but Lavinia had mentioned the family coming into some money and moving into a terrace house along Sixth Avenue.”
Uday wished he had known all this about Lavinia. He was glad that at least someone in the family knew more about her friends, her interests. If Julie were still alive, she’d know everything a mother could possibly know about her children.
“I called all the hospitals. Nothing. Called Grab Taxi, which is what we believe Lavinia took to her friend’s home. They would not tell us where she went. By eight, when she was two hours late, Dad wanted to call the police, but I believe you won’t do anything until six or twelve hours later. When Lavinia still had not shown up by ten, my father asked us—my brother and our wives—to go back to our homes and wait for some news. We decided we’d wait till midnight before calling the cops.
“We brothers and our wives left just after ten. About an hour later, my father received a call on the landline. The caller told my father that Lavinia was waiting to be picked up at some industrial estate in Ubi. Said he was saving her.”
Staff Sergeant Haider addressed Uday. “Saving her? The caller used those words, Mr Aurora?”
Uday nodded as he stared at the floor and answered in a drained voice. “Yes. He said he was supposed to kill her, but he would save her instead. I suppose he meant he would spare her life.”
“What else did he say?”
“He gave us the address, told us to hurry and hung up. We found Lavinia at the corner of Block 4008.”
“Any unit number?”
Ashwin answered. “We didn’t look for a unit number. The road was Ubi Avenue 2. The building was on a long street of food factories, as I gathered from the signs above the entrance to several units. I can point it out on a map to you.”
Staff Sergeant Haider nodded. “Thanks. You found her on the floor? Lying down? Propped up against the wall? Was she conscious?”
“On the floor, lying down. She didn’t respond when we spoke to her, so no, she was unconscious.”
“Were there people around? Security guards? Anyone who might have seen someone, or a few people, driving in to drop your sister at the building?”
“There wasn’t a security guard there. No guardhouse, either. The whole place was deserted. Even the car park.”
The police officer pointed behind him with his pen, towards the red door. “Was Miss Lavinia in that condition when you found her? Cuts, bruises, swollen eye, slashed face, torn clothes …”
Ashwin nodded.
Sayana rolled his eyes and whispered to Uday. “No, of course not. We did that to her.”
Uday nudged him. “Stop it, Sayana.”
Sayana interrupted, “My brother forgot to mention a critical detail. The caller asked for a hundred thousand dollars. At first, he asked for a million ringgit—three hundred-thousand- something at current rates—but when my father said no one could get so much at that hour, he backed down quickly. Sounds like ransom.”
“A hundred thousand is still a lot of money. You gave it to him?”
Ashwin continued, “Yes. Lavinia’s life for payment. Fifty thousand in cash—”
Sayana interrupted, “US dollars!”
“The other fifty thousand in jewellery, which was actually worth far more. We put everything in a bag and left it at the spot where we found Lavinia. As we drove off, we saw the bag with all that cash and jewellery was still lying there, but probably not for long.”
Uday realised that no one in India would admit to having so much cash at home. It would be an invitation to get the premises raided for dirty money, for which India’s elite from the business and political circles are well known.
Staff Sergeant Haider addressed Uday. “Mr Aurora, this seems like a case of kidnapping for ransom. Why didn’t you call the police? Or even an ambulance, when you saw your daughter’s condition?”
Uday spoke. “I called an ambulance, but my son cancelled it. We thought taking her to our family GP would do—”
“In that condition? She would have been barely alive when you found her!”
Ashwin jumped in. “I insisted on taking Lavinia to our family doctor. We had no idea how badly beaten up she was. It was dark along the corridor where we found her. As for calling the police, we know kidnapping is a capital offence, which could make this case high profile. We believed the caller when he said he was actually saving her life. Someone must have asked him to kill her, but he probably backed out when her realised he could … he could … sell her life. I was convinced he spared her, he did not kidnap her.”
There was silence as Staff Sergeant Haider scanned his notes.
Ashwin added, “My father has been featured in the media in recent weeks. He won a prestigious business award last month and was in the news. Dad’s picture was plastered across every newspaper in Singapore, and on the news stations, including Chinese media.
Last year, Lavinia was runner up in a Scrabble tournament sponsored by Singapore Press Holdings. The last thing we wanted was for Lavinia’s plight to be made public. We were all trying to protect her.” Ashwin glanced at his father, who looked at the floor as he wrung his hands. “And my dad. Our whole family, really.”
Ashwin continued, “We took her straight to our family doctor, Dr Dubash. When he told us Lavinia needed an ambulance, we knew we would just have to deal with the publicity, if it came to that.”
Staff Sergeant Haider addressed Uday. “Are you aware of anyone who might want to harm your daughter, Mr Aurora? Or maybe even you through her?”
Uday stared at the policeman and spoke in a measured tone
. “I’ve been thinking a lot about that, trying to make sense of this evil transgression against my precious child. No! I do not have any enemies and if they wanted to cause me harm, it’s not that difficult. Why would they hurt my child?”
“Because it’s the most painful way to get to an enemy. Gangsters have used this tactic for years.”
Uday clasped his hands and leant forward. “I can’t think of anyone who would do this. Nor why.”
Ashwin interrupted, “My father refuses to believe this, but I think Lavinia’s ex-fiancé, a man named Rohit Gupta who lives in Mumbai, planned this. He felt shafted by my dad in the organisation his parents built from scratch, and dumped Lavinia out of spite. He had also threatened my Dad—”
Uday was livid. They had agreed not to mention Rohit. “He didn’t mean it, Ashwin. It was in the heat of the moment.”
Ashwin glared at Uday. “He’s that kind of guy, Dad.” Turning to Staff Sergeant Haider, Ashwin said, “I’m sure Rohit has something to do with it. Here’s his mobile number, and his home number, too.”
“We’ll need Miss Lavina’s phone, please, assuming she still has it. We also need to go through her things, diaries and any journals. The culprit is still at large, so we need to act quickly. We don’t know if he or she meant to kill Miss Lavinia or hurt her, maybe to send a message. Mind if we go over to your home now to retrieve these?”
Uday gave Staff Sergeant Haider his address and assured him that either Wati or Conchita would let them in. “We ourselves would like to stay here until the doctor gives us an update on Lavinia’s condition.”
The doctor met Uday and his sons in the waiting room. “Lavinia has severe brain injury. She may have fallen or been pushed backwards and hit her head against a hard surface. Lavinia was raped, possibly by two, perhaps three men—”
