Meddling and Murder

by Ovidia Yu

  ‘Grago’, a Singlish term to describe Eurasians, came from the name of the shrimps mixed into belacan, or shrimp paste, to give it its flavour. Given Aunty Lee’s passion for sambal belacan, she could never see why some people objected to it. She wouldn’t have minded being named after something that was so necessary and tasted so good.

  ‘Sheridan, that’s it. The big guy that talked to me while Inspector Big Shot Salim was on the phone. Sheridan is the one that took down my complaint for me. He told me he will make sure it goes through. Things like that you got to submit directly to the top, and you got to submit multiple copies at the same time. Otherwise they will close one eye here, pretend didn’t see; you scratch my back, I fill your pocket. I explained to him very clearly what to do. That’s the way these things work, I told him. Most policemen are not very bright. That’s why they are policeman, right? But if you are good to the smarter ones, they will remember you. It is important to remember that. It can be very useful.’

  There were many things in Jonny’s statement that Aunty Lee would have liked to discuss in greater detail. Mark Sheridan was a large young man with a broad face, carrying a bit more weight than you would expect to see on an active officer. What made Jonny think him smarter than someone like Inspector Salim? But first things first.

  ‘What did Inspector Salim do to you?’

  ‘I didn’t specify. Didn’t have time to specify. But I will come up with something, don’t worry.’ Jonny grinned. ‘I said that my old aunty has got a weak heart, and I got to drive you home before you get a heart attack at the police station because the family is sure to sue the police.’

  ‘I’m sure they know that I’m not your aunt. And I have got nothing wrong with my heart.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it. Once you are over a certain age everybody has got something wrong somewhere. You just got to know the right doctors to go to. They are always testifying in court, very experienced at it. The problem with policemen is they need to be told exactly what to do. You got to keep a strict eye on them. Once they get a little power it goes to their heads and they think they are emperors like that. That’s why here you don’t allow Malays and Indians in senior positions in the army, right? They should not be allowed them in the police also. Think about it. The police cover more areas than the army; they have access to so many more places. Far more dangerous, right?’

  Aunty Lee thought that might be the reason Cherril seemed to hate Jonny Ho so much. He made disparaging remarks about other races without being aware how offensive he was.

  ‘Beth is also going to report that Malay cop. Such things are always more effective if you get more than one person to complain. Otherwise they don’t take you seriously, try to cover it up. But once you get more than one complaint they will think “no smoke without fire”. You know what, you should really make a complaint too. People like that, if you don’t keep them in their place they start thinking they are big shots. How about it? Beth can write the letter for you; all you have to do is sign it. Then the next time the police turn down your licence application or try to fine you for some rubbish you can accuse them of harassing you because your previous complaint is on record. Best to set up such things in advance. Chances are, they will close one eye and let you off. They are scared you will go and post online and make them look bad. So how about it? And now you’ve had time to think things over, are you going to let me take your business to the next level?’

  Aunty Lee barely heard his questions. She was still processing what he had said earlier, ‘Why would Beth complain? Salim didn’t even interview Beth, what. I saw Sergeant Panchal talking to her.’

  Of course Aunty Lee complained as much as and usually more loudly than everyone else; it was one of her greatest social pleasures. But her complaints were delivered as feedback, not meant to get anyone into trouble and certainly not gain an advantage.

  ‘Is Beth complaining about Salim because you asked her to? I thought you two didn’t get along. And why didn’t you wait to drive back with her?’

  ‘She’s going back to the house. I have work to do. We have a business relationship. We’re partners in the childcare-school business so we work together to do what’s best for the business. If they know we are not scared to complain about them they won’t give us so much trouble. Beth’s complaint is reporting that Malay cop for stalking and harassing a foreign domestic worker.’

  ‘Julietta?’ Aunty Lee asked blankly. ‘Inspector Salim was harassing Julietta? The woman who got killed? I cannot believe that. Where would he have the time? He has barely got time to see Nina. And Nina treats him so badly. Why would he go and stalk this Julietta?’ She thought of Ying, lurking in his taxi. Could Seetoh have been mistaken for a policeman?

  ‘What? No! He’s been stalking your maid, Nina! Since she went to work for Beth, this policeman has been stalking and harassing her. We have her mobile phone with all Inspector Big Shot’s luring messages and texts for evidence.’

  ‘No!’ Aunty Lee protested. ‘They are friends!’ She wanted to say that they were more than friends, that she ought to be more than friends and that was what had driven the wedge between them, even before her own clumsy efforts had driven Nina out of her house.

  ‘You will get into trouble too, Rosie, if it comes out that you knew your maid is carrying on with a policeman and didn’t stop her. All kinds of things might come out.’

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Fabian

  Nina sat on the mattress in the storage room. It felt like she had been there for hours, but Nina could not tell how much time had passed because there was no clock in the storeroom and Beth still had her mobile phone.

  Nina had stretched and tried to massage her own feet but now she was just sitting. Nina had taken a reflexology course, but most of the reflexology centres in Singapore malls hired only Chinese speakers from China or Malaysia. M. L. Lee had said Nina was better at massaging his feet than any of the old men charging sixty dollars an hour and had insisted on paying her that on top of her monthly salary. He said it was a discount for him, since he didn’t have to pay parking charges as he would have had to at a mall. Nina missed the old man, who had been kind to her. And Nina knew that it was because Aunty Lee missed her husband that she tried to matchmake Nina and Salim, as though she was vicariously trying to regain that love and companionship.

  Nina put Aunty Lee firmly out of her mind. She was here to take care of Beth’s house in Julietta’s absence. And if, as she suspected, Julietta had just been found, it would only be a matter of time before Nina was back with Aunty Lee in Binjai Park. Nina remembered the look on Beth’s face before she locked her into her room in the middle of the day without explanation. Perhaps it was not Julietta they had found, but Julietta’s body.

  Nina decided to look through Julietta’s things. She had always been too tired by the time Beth locked her in at night. If something had happened to Julietta, her things would have to be sorted through. It was wrong to go through someone’s things without permission but it was also wrong that Nina had been locked up with those things. The small cabinet had two drawers that looked as though someone had rummaged roughly through then pushed them shut. She pulled one of them out so that she could look through it without having to bend sideways over the stack of chairs. That was when she saw the small cloth bag hanging by a loop off a nail on the back of the drawer. There was a phone inside it … but the battery was flat, and there was no sign of a charger.

  By sticking strictly to vague, fluttery platitudes and pleading a desperate need for the toilet, Aunty Lee got Jonny Ho to drop her back at the café without committing herself to either a business partnership, signing a letter of complaint, or getting dumped by the roadside. He was not in top badgering form and clearly had other things on his mind. Aunty Lee was more certain than ever that his motive had been to get her away from the police post. She only wished she knew why!

  Her phone had buzzed along the way. Aunty Lee let it ring. If, as Aunty Lee hoped, Nina had got over he
r stubbornness and was ready to return home she did not want to talk to her in front of Jonny Ho.

  But the call was not from Nina.

  ‘This is Fabian Loo.’

  ‘Fabian? Where are you now? Did they arrest you?’

  ‘They let me go. But they made it very clear that I’m under suspicion and told me not to leave Singapore. They’re probably watching my every step.’ Fabian sounded peevish and whiney.

  ‘That’s good, right? Then nobody can rob you. And if you get lost you can ask the police following you where you are. It is like having your own bodyguards, except you don’t have to pay them.’

  ‘They’re not going to protect me from being arrested for something I didn’t do. Anyway it’s obvious they think that I killed that stupid maid. Why would I want to do something like that? Even Aunt Beth thinks so. Just now at the police station I asked her what I was going to do. I was upset, in a panic. I mean, I’ve been away for so long and I don’t know anybody here anymore. All I wanted to know was whether she had a lawyer who could help me. But Aunt Beth just brushed me off. She said we shouldn’t talk because it would look like we were trying to match our statements, and make them suspicious. That’s when I knew for sure that Aunt Beth thinks I killed Julietta. She wouldn’t even look at me. I suppose she thinks I’m a killer and a criminal.’

  Fabian was a moaner, Aunty Lee thought. People like that could drone on about their real or imagined problems forever. At least being suspected of murder probably counted as a real problem.

  ‘Where are you staying while you’re in Singapore?’

  ‘I’ve got a room at the Orchard YMCA. But I don’t know what they will say if they know I’m suspected of murder. I’m sure they already think it’s strange that I’m staying there alone when my family has a house in Singapore. My mother always said she was going to leave the house to me.’

  Aunty Lee very much doubted the staff at the YMCA International House would be concerned about anything other than Fabian’s credit card. Of course that might change if he was really arrested for murdering Julietta. Then again, if he was arrested, that would take care of his accommodations. She tried to remind herself that he might be a killer, but it was difficult.

  ‘Why don’t you go and stay in your parents’ old house then? They haven’t started the school yet. I’m sure your Aunt Beth won’t mind you staying in your old room.’

  If Fabian was staying at the Jalan Kakatua house, he could sign for supplies and keep an eye on the workers and Nina could return to Binjai Park.

  ‘It’s my parents’ house. But I can’t stay there even if I am welcome, and I know that I’m not. Aunty Beth says it’s because of all the renovation work going on there but if there’s room for her and That Man I don’t see why there isn’t any room for me. It isn’t as though I take up so much space. In the old days when my parents were still around, my dad’s relatives would come down from Ipoh to stay with us. My uncle and aunty and three cousins: they would all just pack in somehow. But now there’s no room for me in my own house. When my mum was alive she said I would always be welcome to come back. Not that I would stay there when That Man was there.’

  ‘Come over to my shop,’ Aunty Lee urged again. ‘You came before, what. If you are still at the police station then my shop is very nearby. Tell the police to bring you here.’ She suspected that if the police were not charging Fabian, they would not be sorry to get him off their hands.

  Fabian looked definitely worse for wear when he arrived. If she hadn’t known he had only been brought in that morning, Aunty Lee would have thought the Singapore police tortured people with sleep deprivation.

  ‘Come, come and sit down. Did the police tell you why they kept you for so long?’

  ‘They didn’t have to tell me … obviously they think I killed Julietta. What a joke, right?’ Fabian’s laugh was unconvincing.

  ‘The police are questioning everybody who knew Julietta.’

  ‘Well, they kept me the longest. They didn’t even start talking to me until they finished talking to Aunty Beth and That Man. I was starting to think they had forgotten all about me. Julietta worked for my parents for years, you know. Why would I do anything to her? Of course, I resented her for not trying to talk some sense into Mum and for not warning me about what was going on. And I kept her secrets for her too. Did you know that she has two children back home in the Philippines? Did you know she had a boyfriend here too?’

  Aunty Lee thought it best not to mention she had met Seetoh. ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Mum knew. She always knew everything that was going on, even if she didn’t say. About Julietta. About That Man’s China thug friends. But they don’t believe me. Aunt Beth and That Man told them they saw me talking to Julietta before she disappeared, so, of course, they think I must have killed her!’

  ‘But you did see Julietta the day she disappeared?’

  ‘How was I to know when she disappeared?’ Fabian’s voice rose.

  Aunty Lee remembered the scene he had created on his first visit and moved a water glass slightly further away. Fabian noticed. His shoulders slumped again.

  The door chimes rattled, and Helen Chan hurried in, crying at the sight of the plump balding man: ‘Fabby, you poor boy! How are you? Rosie, why didn’t you call me sooner?’

  Aunty Lee, who had called Helen to talk about something else altogether before hearing from Fabian, left her to talk to their old friend’s son while she went into the kitchen to get drinks. ‘Let me feed him first then we talk,’ she warned Helen.

  ‘Your friend’s car is in front of the fire hydrant.’ Cherril was uncomfortable with Aunty Lee’s old school friends.

  ‘She’s a senior citizen.’ Aunty Lee pulled open the door to the chill room.

  ‘I may have got a bit emotional and aggressive,’ Fabian was saying when Aunty Lee returned with bowls of hot curry-flavoured potato and leek soup, and cool honey lemon water for Helen. ‘But it’s not fair, don’t you agree?’

  ‘It’s not fair at all!’ Helen cooed. ‘Oh, you poor boy! Here, have some of this nice soup.’

  ‘What’s in it? I have a very sensitive stomach. Anything funny makes me throw up.’

  ‘Don’t be scared. Nothing funny in my soup!’

  Fabian obviously enjoyed the babying. Fabian reminded Aunty Lee of Jonny Ho. The two men looked completely different, of course. Fabian was bald, paunchy, and peevishly pouting, while Jonny was beautiful and muscular and always smiling to show his white teeth. But they were both completely self-centred.

  As Aunty Lee had guessed. Fabian had gone to the Jalan Kakatua house to confront Beth.

  ‘I could not believe that she was just going to stand by and let that man cheat me of everything. She just kept saying that married couples leaving everything to each other is automatic. I would accept that if the couple has been married for twenty years and made their fortune together. But in this case, you’re talking about everything that my mum and my dad owned together going to this outsider!’

  ‘Aunty Beth totally let me down. She said I should talk to That Man even though she knows very well what I think of him. Anyway I wasn’t going to hang around and talk to him. Julietta followed me out, and I stopped to talk to her. I suppose Aunty Beth or the neighbours saw us talking, that’s why they kept asking me where I took her. As if we went somewhere together. They seem to think I was the last person to see her alive, but that’s ridiculous.’

  ‘What did Julietta want to talk to you about?’

  ‘Julietta has a son and daughter in the Philippines. My mum had always said that she would leave them something to pay their fees if they made it into university. She asked me if I remembered that. I said, of course. And I would have done the same but now I don’t have the money to do it. She wanted me to text her so we could meet to talk when nobody else was at the house. Can you believe my mother would … ’

  ‘There was nothing for Julietta in your mother’s last will?’

  ‘No. And she wouldn�
�t have forgotten it. And Julietta was still working for her; Mum would have seen her every day. You see why I say there’s grounds to contest the will? If she was of unsound mind or if she was under undue influence when the will was made, it can be declared invalid.’

  ‘Was your mother of unsound mind?’ That would explain Patty’s abrupt withdrawal from the social scene, Aunty Lee thought. ‘Was she doing or saying anything funny?’

  ‘I don’t know. I wasn’t here. That’s why I needed Aunty Beth and Julietta to say something. It’s obvious that something was wrong with her … just look at the will! I thought they would be on my side because this supposed will doesn’t leave anything to them either.’

  ‘Not even to your aunt?’

  ‘No. But then Mum always said she had spent most of her life supporting Aunty Beth so she wouldn’t have left her any money. I thought she would leave her something sentimental like her old CDs or something. Mum said for her birthdays and Christmas Aunty Beth always gave her the CDs she wanted to listen to herself. I should have known something was wrong when Julietta never messaged me.’

  ‘Beth must have taken her phone away. She took Nina’s phone away.’

  ‘Julietta had a phone,’ Fabian said. ‘She gave me her number. Her boyfriend gave her the phone. She said she knew how to get out of the house without Aunty Beth knowing.’

  Xuyie put a platter of seafood fried rice with a side of mutton curry on the table in front of Fabian with a shy smile. Avon, who Aunty Lee remembered had flirted shamelessly when Jonny Ho was there, didn’t bother to appear.

  ‘Thank you,’ Aunty Lee said, but Fabian, turning his attention to the food, did not bother.

  It was possible that Patty had changed her mind, of course. It wasn’t inconceivable that a woman in love with her new husband might decide to leave everything she had to him instead of to the son who spent so little time in the country that he couldn’t even say whether she was of sound mind.