by Ovidia Yu
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!”
25
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 unde
rstood. 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.”
“He was already dead, wasn’t he?”
“He was technically alive but it is unlikely he could have been revived.”
Aunty Lee felt relieved. “So his body is not worth anything to anybody now?”
“Sentimental value to his family, but apart from that, no.”
Alive, Zhao Liang had been worth a minimum wage but little more. Semi-alive he had been worth millions of dollars of transplant organs. Now dead, he was worth nothing. But perhaps GraceFaith’s act would give his family closure.
“Do you know where GraceFaith Ang is?” Aunty Lee could not help being concerned for the self-possessed, perfectly turned-out young woman.
“I would certainly like to talk to her if she shows up.”
But GraceFaith had her money and was probably too smart to show up on his radar for a good while. Aunty Lee could see her somewhere in the Maldives. Or more likely buying herself a house in Australia. Aunty Lee hoped she would hear from her again.
“Sir? Yes, I’m at Mrs. Lee’s house now,” Inspector Salim said in reply to the call that came in at that moment. “I will be back there in under half an hour. Sir, we are still waiting for the search warrant for Dr. Henry Sung’s house but we checked the outdoor areas for, er”—he coughed—“mosquito breeding sites and we found the body. The body has been transported to NUH for examination. I will get back to you once we get any results. International Affairs has come in to assist. They assigned Timothy Pang because of the PRC links uncovered. No, sir, I did not. I believe he requested the assignment for family reasons.”
Aunty Lee had been listening to the one-sided exchange with fascination till Salim cut the connection.
“How is Commissioner Raja?”
“He said you were talking about illegal organ-transplant syndicates from the start, ever since the body of the dead PRC woman’s fiancé was not found. And he said I should have remembered that in Singapore the Lees are always right, and that means Lee Kuan Yew and Aunty Lee.”
26
Illegal Organ Traders Caught
The Straits Times Online:
International Illegal Organ Traders Nabbed!
Officers of the Singapore Police Force, acting on information from the public, have cracked an international organization dealing in illegal organ trading. Apparently the organization has been transporting live donors from China around the region and especially into Singapore via a network of maid agencies and travel agents. The ring is thought to have been dealing in most cases with transplants of nonessential organs. Large sums of money and at least sixteen individuals are thought to be involved. Unfortunately any surviving donors appear unwilling to come forward for fear of prosecution.
The police and the Health Ministry are looking into cases of supposed “miracle” cures.
Evening Drive Time Buzz:
It looks like things were going well for the illegal organ traders for years—if you look at what people are willing to pay for a Lamborghini or Lexus, it almost makes more sense to pay for a cornea or kidney, doesn’t it? Anyway, apparently things changed when local lawyer Mabel Sung let it be known she was willing to pay anything for a live donor heart for her precious son. Yes, a heart! Have a heart, lady! We can all get along reasonably well minus a few platelets, minus a few liver cells, but without a heart? Did she not realize what she was asking for or did her mother love drive her to murder? It’s almost enough to make me forget the traffic report . . .
Inside Health Weekend Special:
At the time Mabel Sung and her son, Leonard Sung, died, everything was ready for her son’s operation. It appears Mabel Sung had paid her PRC contact half the costs up front and was to pay the remaining amount following a successful transplant. A medical consultant had been preparing Leonard Sung for the procedure, feeding and hydrating him to stabilize his condition.
According to Staff Sergeant Timothy Pang, Head of the Special Task Force on Illegal Organ Trading, a kidney transplant operation in China costs around $70,000, a liver transplant around $160,000, and a heart transplant over a million dollars. For the sake of comparison, he pointed out that in the United States a kidney transplant starts at $100,000, a liver transplant at $250,000, and a heart transplant at $860,000. Given the relatively low cost of Chinese organs, China is currently a major provider of underground organs for transplantation surgery to other countries.
Speaking to our Inside Health reporter, Staff Sergeant Pang said, “The PRC organ traffickers brought ‘donors’ into Singapore as tourists or domestic workers. These were poor, healthy people from China. They were given a deposit on a kidney, say, a sum that seemed immense to them but is minuscule compared to what the body parts bring in. These donors believed that once they were paid for the donated kidney, the money would be enough to start them off on a new life. We believe this is what happened in previous cases but none of the previous donors have been willing to come forward. However, in this case the request was for a donor heart. The donor believed he was donating a kidney and the first payment was made according to the agreement. His trip to Singapore was paid for by the client. But after that the donor, Zhao Liang, aged 23, was kept unconscious on life support until such time as his heart could be transplanted into Leonard Sung. It is believed the rest of his organs were then to be sold to the highest bidder.”
Aunty Lee was, of course, fascinated by all the stories. She had long since discovered that online news sites carried far more juicy details—and put them out sooner—than she could get from the official newspapers, and Nina was kept busy supplying her with all the latest speculations and details.
“These people are saying it’s not so terrible because otherwise those people would be carrying drugs in, they are so desperate for money. And in that case it is a death penalty
anyway, so . . . but it is terrible, right? They say Singapore is stupid to make such a big fuss. After all, the family gets compensation, probably more than they could earn in a lifetime.”
“I don’t think we are making such a big fuss. It is terrible,” Aunty Lee said, “and I think we should make a big fuss about the death penalty here too. That’s what they used to do in China, right? Sentence people to death and then use their organs for transplants? Here we sentence people to death for carrying drugs for other people and don’t even use their organs!”
The death penalty was one of Aunty Lee’s favorite rants, but at the moment there were more interesting wrongs to focus on while slicing mushrooms for drying.
“They say this is the first case in which Singaporeans were involved. Do you think that’s true?”
“Until they find out some more cases, it must be true, lor.”
It was also reported discreetly in the press that one Dr. Edmond Yong was helping the police with investigations. By this time everyone agreed that Mabel Sung had contacted Edmond Yong to get a living heart donor for her son, Leonard. Aunty Lee was certain that she had thought of it first. If only certain authorities had paid more attention to her instead of investigating her kitchens, things would have been resolved far more quickly. It was Edmond Yong who had arranged for the living donor to be kept on life support on the Sung property, in the locked pool house, which the police investigators had so irresponsibly overlooked. Other people on the Never Say Die waiting list had been in need of parts from the same donor, but Mabel Sung refused to let any other transplants take place until after her son was taken care of. Fortunately this made them more disposed to speak out against her and they did. The scheme might have worked, but when the power supply to the Sung property and pool house was cut off so was the life supply system and the living donor turned into a corpse.
Aunty Lee wondered whether GraceFaith had known the consequences of cutting off the power supply to the house. She had no doubt at all that this had been GraceFaith’s doing. And even if the girl had only made the call to spite Sharon and make things difficult for Edmond Yong in the Sung house, she had ended up sabotaging the whole of their grand moneymaking scheme. Something about that made Aunty Lee think of how Mabel and Leonard had been almost casually poisoned. But Aunty Lee could not imagine GraceFaith deliberately doing something to provoke Mabel Sung as Sharon had.