by Ovidia Yu
Also interestingly, as Panchal told her (after all, hadn’t she handed the phone over to them), there was a sound recording on the phone of what appeared to be Jonny romancing Beth.
‘What you mean “romancing”? You mean like saying, “oh you are so pretty” romancing or “I want to have sex with you” romancing?’
‘I think more the second,’ Panchal admitted.
Aunty Lee remembered Jonny Ho smiling at her, placing an arm around her shoulders while walking, and his hand over hers at the table. It had never occurred to her that he might be flirting with her, but a policewoman might think so. ‘Sometimes that is a misunderstanding,’ she said. ‘After all, he is not from here. You know how French people auto-maniacally kiss everybody and American people auto-maniacally grab everybody? Maybe Jonny Ho auto-maniacally flirts with everybody.’
‘Automatically,’ Panchal said faintly, after a moment. ‘And not all Americans do that.’
But Aunty Lee was already on to the next thought: ‘And the fact that the phone was behind the drawer in her room shows that she was around the house when she was killed. Because if she was sneaking out somewhere she would have taken it with her. And she used the phone to contact Seetoh – that means she didn’t sneak out to meet him, right?’
‘Seetoh is the chief suspect now.’
‘No, lah! How can? Have you talked to him?’
‘We haven’t been able to find him. His Dispatch Office has no idea; he’s not responding. The other drivers say they don’t know who he is. Looks like they all covering up for him.’
‘Alamak. Have you talked to Jonny Ho again?’ Aunty Lee felt a twinge of guilt remembering Selina’s warning not to make trouble for KidStarters. Still, getting the police to investigate one of the KidStarters’ partners before he got the school into trouble might be seen as positive.
‘He’s another one that’s dropped out of sight. Beth Kwuan says she hasn’t seen him for days. Apparently, he told her he was going to Hong Kong for a business meeting, but the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority has no record of him leaving the island.’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Why should anything be wrong?’ SS Panchal looked taken aback. But something in the young police officer’s voice alerted Aunty Lee, and she wasn’t going to let go so easily.
Producing dishes was all about getting the balance right. Of course, having a finely honed sense of taste and smell helped, but all Aunty Lee’s senses were finely honed and she could tell there was something wrong here. She had watched SS Panchal mellow from an officious, self-righteous go-getter and relax into a reliable, committed police officer who wasn’t above accepting the occasional snack and sharing an occasional titbit, and she could tell something was wrong.
A terrible thought struck her: ‘That man, that Jonny Ho, did he come back and kachiau you? Since that time you all interviewed him here?’ As far as Aunty Lee could see, Jonny Ho flirted with all the women he came into contact with, and a police uniform would be no barrier.
Panchal’s snort of disbelief reassured her. ‘That racist? No way.’
Aunty Lee believed her, but there was still something wrong. ‘So, what is it?’
‘Nothing to do with any of this. I’ve been thinking about getting married, that’s all. But you look at the kind of men available … this Jonny Ho comes along and charms so many women because there are no alternatives. My parents tell me I should think about it but they don’t do anything to help me. They say they are too modern to arrange anything for me. They are the ex-hippie generation.’
‘What would you want your father and mother to do?’
‘I don’t want an arranged marriage; I suppose I just want them to take an interest.’
‘Then do it yourself. You are in the police; you should know how to check up on a man’s background better than your father, and you have seen so many couples fighting so should know how to tell what makes a good husband better than your mother. And then once you decide on somebody, if you end up marrying him, the most important thing is to forget everything you learned about him before. Because this is a new start.’
‘Thanks,’ Panchal said. ‘I don’t think I will … but thanks anyway. And, by the way, I don’t believe Inspector Salim did anything wrong. Nobody here believes it. People always come and make complaints.’
There had been times … were still times … when SS Panchal did not see eye to eye with her station Inspector. And all too often it was Inspector Salim’s easy-going relationship and bending of rules with the residents that Panchal objected to. But since his suspension the number of people who had written letters, posts, and started petitions in Salim’s defence had taken the force aback. Never were the police so popular as when one of their number came under attack.
‘But proper procedure must be followed,’ Aunty Lee said in her best wise voice.
It was so peaceful in the café with the voices of Cherril and a subdued Nina occasionally coming through from where they worked in the kitchen. The doorbell jangled and Aunty Lee called out ‘Welcome! Come in!’ as she usually did to customers, before she saw that it was Beth Kwuan.
‘I’ve been hearing so much about your place here. I thought, since I wasn’t doing anything special for lunch, I would come and see it for myself.’
Panchal excused herself and left, collecting her chicken wings from Cherril. Nina had started to come out with them, but disappeared on seeing Beth.
‘Nina told you about my café? She always says I try to do too much. But running a place like this, there is always something to do!’ Aunty Lee felt guilty that she had been caught sitting and chatting with a friend rather than hard at work next to the helper she had taken back by force. ‘Have you applied for another maid yet?’
Beth brushed off the question. It seemed she wasn’t there to talk about her maid problems.
‘About Jonny Ho … ’
I was right! Aunty Lee thought with glee. Beth has finally seen through Jonny Ho after watching him being mean to Fabian!
‘He’s got good ideas and he’s got a lot of organizational and managerial skills, but he isn’t very easy to live with, if you know what I mean. He’s from the “little emperors” generation, an only son of two only children, so even though his family was not very well off they gave him everything they could. He’s used to getting his own way, and when he doesn’t he gets these temper tantrums. He can’t understand how Fabian can sit around all day staring at his phone,’
‘Are you trying to get him to move out of Patty’s house?’ Aunty Lee asked. ‘Or buy him out of KidStarters?’
‘What are you talking about?’ Beth raised her voice involuntarily.
‘You were telling me how difficult Jonny Ho is, what.’
‘I was telling you why Jonny and Fabian don’t get along. It’s men like Jonny that have what it takes to succeed. They have a drive and a commitment to work and take risks. Our parents’ generation, the pioneer generation in Singapore, had it, but after that, with the easy life, everybody here grew soft. Someone like Fabian is a prime example. That’s why we need people like Jonny Ho in Singapore.’
There was a fervour in Beth’s voice that reminded Aunty Lee of a woman who had once gone from table to table in the café trying to sell CDs for her church.
Beth Kwuan had come on a mission. Was she trying to palm off her poor nephew or was this another attempt to exonerate Jonny Ho? Aunty Lee was on the alert.
‘Jonny Ho got a girl at the bank to impersonate her boss and lie to me,’ Aunty Lee said. ‘I felt sorry for the girl. She thinks that she loves him and he is going to marry her. But he has so many women in love with him, and she has only one job. Now she’s lost it.’
Aunty Lee did not tell Beth Eve had later told the police that Jonny had nude photos of her that he threatened to send to her boss if she did not do what he wanted. And the girl still thought herself in love with him? Aunty Lee did not understand young women. ‘The police are going to talk to Jonny Ho about it.’
Aunty Lee poured them cups of tea from the glazed porcelain tea pot that had appeared on the table.
‘That’s not very nice of you,’ Beth said. ‘You should have asked Jonny for an explanation before going to the police.’
Beth’s fingers unfolded a table napkin then re-folded it with precise attention to the folds, running a fingernail along the crease to sharpen the mark. Aunty Lee was momentarily distracted by Beth’s manicure … shiny nails in graduated shades from dark red thumbs to pale pink pinkies. If Beth had got them in different colours rather than different shades she could have used her nails to teach colours to her pre-schoolers, Aunty Lee thought. It was a strange contrast … the nails straight, cut short, and the fancy manicure colours over them. Like a little girl playing dress up. And was the woman wearing lipstick? It was hard to tell.
Beth raised her voice slightly, pulling Aunty Lee’s attention back. ‘He’s treating the house like a hotel. Whenever I see him he’s hunching over his phone whispering. I don’t know whether he has a girlfriend or boyfriend or what!’
‘Jonny Ho?’
‘Fabian!’ Beth said impatiently. ‘My own sister’s boy in prison. Maybe even worse. Singapore, they still hang people, right? Aiyoh, imagine my own sister’s son getting executed for murdering her husband!’
‘Why are the police questioning Fabian?’ Aunty Lee felt cross with Panchal for not telling her that.
‘It’s obvious, isn’t it? Everybody knows how much Fabian hated poor Jonny. Even when my sister was still alive he would phone and tell me how much he hated him. He was already making threats. And since coming back this time he told me that he was not going to stand for it anymore. He was going to make sure that Jonny Ho got what was coming to him. And now Jonny has disappeared!’
‘You told the police all this?’
‘I had to. They are the police. I can’t keep it to myself and get arrested for withholding evidence. They got so angry with me for not reporting Julietta’s disappearance, so I called them as soon as Jonny went missing. But they are not taking it seriously.’
‘I’m sure they will find him,’
Had Beth just come to vent? Aunty Lee could not tell. It could not be easy for her: losing her sister then her maid, and now her shady business partner was on the run.
Of course, Beth’s Julietta might not have been as close to her as Nina was to Aunty Lee … Aunty Lee felt a pang at the thought of losing Nina. She did not grudge her helping out at Beth’s, not at all, now that she was safely back at Binjai Park. But Aunty Lee had missed her sorely … even though she had proved her independence by surviving. And perhaps it was time to shine light on the other plan lurking in the dark reaches of her mind, while her compos was still relatively mentis.
‘So you see,’ Beth’s words pulled Aunty Lee’s attention back to her. ‘So you see, I can’t possibly tell the police that without making it look as though I suspect my own nephew!’
‘Tell the police what?’
‘That after Fabian left the house that day, I saw him talking to Julietta outside. That was the last time I saw Julietta. And he tried to phone Julietta. He must have got her to meet him.’
‘Did you see her leave with him?’
‘I don’t know. I thought I heard two taxis so maybe not.’ Unfortunately, the presence of a second taxi suggested Seetoh might not be in the clear either. Given his possessive, suspicious nature he may have followed them …
Aunty Lee blinked at the woman. Beth’s smile was fixed expectantly on her but without giving any clue as to what was expected. Aunty Lee fell back on the Psychiatrist’s Solution: ‘What do you feel you should do?’
Beth’s smile tightened slightly. ‘I told you. I think the police have to be told the truth. I just cannot bear to be the one telling them.’
Ah, there was the request. Unfortunately, Aunty Lee still had no idea what she was supposed to tell the police.
‘Look … ’ Beth opened her handbag, ‘I made some notes for you, just to help you keep it straight.’ Still the schoolteacher, Aunty Lee thought.
‘Let me find my spectacles.’
‘No need. I’ll read it to you.’ Beth’s suppressed impatience broke through. ‘Fabian told the police that he was at my place all afternoon yesterday. He’s staying at my place, yes. But he was ranting and rambling on and on, and he gave me such a headache that I had to go and lie down just to get away from him for a while … ’
‘Why didn’t you just tell him to leave? Or keep quiet?’
‘Rosie, he’s my poor dead sister’s only son. How can I ask him to leave my house? Anyway as I was saying … ’
‘Even if he was your own son you can ask him to leave your house if he’s giving you a headache, what. I’m sure Patty wouldn’t expect you to … ’
Beth raised her voice. ‘Anyway, as I was saying, I went to lie down in my room. When I came out later Fabian wasn’t there anymore so I didn’t think anything of it. Only, later I found out that he had gone and told the police that I could swear he was with me; I got worried. Look, all you have to tell your policeman is that I told you I wasn’t feeling well and slept all afternoon. Make sure you tell them I have no idea what time Fabian left. That’s all you have to say. Let them figure out what they want to from that.’
Aunty Lee looked at Beth. Of course, it was entirely possible the woman did not realize she was as good as handing up her nephew as a prime suspect in her partner’s disappearance.
Beth was not bad looking, Aunty Lee thought. Even now she could have made something of herself if she wanted to. It was not a question of adding make-up or new clothes (which Aunty Lee herself was hopeless at). Beth would look so much better if only she could drop the superior condescending way she was looking down at Aunty Lee right now … Aunty Lee decided the best thing to do was nothing. Sometimes when you left something to sit for a while the fats and the facts rose to the surface and could be skimmed off.
Her phone rang.
It was Helen Chan’s number, and Aunty Lee answered, ignoring Beth’s resentful sniff.
‘Helen? I’m with somebody right now … ’
‘Rosie! It worked! Our plan worked! Omigod I can’t believe it! We can become detectives! Is Fabian with you? I can’t reach him … if he’s there, tell him he was fantastic! He should become an actor!’
‘I never expected the burglars to make their move in broad daylight, though looking back it makes perfect sense. Neighbours would report anything suspicious at night, but who looks twice at construction workers in the daytime, right?’
To test Aunty Lee’s theory (that Patty had suspected her new husband of passing on information to the housebreakers), Fabian had deliberately told Beth and Jonny that Helen and Kok Peng’s house would be vacant when they were in Bali. Helen had booked herself and her husband a staycation at the Oasia Novena hotel and set the house alarms to alert the police silently. And the housebreakers had taken the bait …
‘They tried to break in about an hour ago, in a construction lorry with planked sides and fake work order. Fabian was there; he posted a phone video. He must have been hanging around outside the house waiting since last night. Everybody’s looking for him to interview him. They interviewed me and I told them it was all Fabian’s idea, like you said. Oh! Fabian’s video is on NewsAsia now! Turn on your TV! 987 Live Online wants to interview him but he’s not answering his phone. It must be Jonny Ho, right? How else would they know! Everybody is looking for him! Do you know where Fabian is? He’s a hero!’
‘Why are you asking me? Why should I know?’ Aunty Lee turned to ask Beth whether Fabian had gone back to her house, but Beth was gone.
Cherril turned on the television on the wall in the kitchen, and they watched a clip of the shaky video. It had obviously been taken through a hedge from the garden next door. Aunty Lee wondered whether Fabian had asked the homeowner’s permission. And she saw why Salim had not been at the Bukit Tinggi Police Post. He was there, dressed in gardener’s outfit and sha
bby cap, confronting the housebreakers as soon as they were inside the house. The housebreakers had not paid any attention to him. Aunty Lee hoped it did something to make up for what Jonny Ho had put him through. But where was Jonny Ho? Squint as she might at the iPad on which they played and replayed the scene, Aunty Lee did not see him.
Nina stared at the screen, watching and re-watching the ‘gardener’ easily disarm two men as his backup team appeared, blocking their vehicle. Her eyes were shining with love and longing.
It was painful, Aunty Lee thought, it was a painful waste. Aunty Lee, who knew all too well the importance of precise timing when it came to eggs and love, was tempted to break her resolution and phone Salim to come over right away. But Aunty Lee had promised herself not to meddle in anyone’s love life anymore.
But where was Fabian? It was strange that he had disappeared in his moment of triumph. Aunty Lee had thought Fabian thrived on attention, and publicity was the very essence of attention.
‘The last I heard, he was going back to the house to change his clothes before being photographed,’ Helen Chan told Aunty Lee. ‘And then nothing. Do you think he dropped his phone in the WC? That keeps happening to me. And apparently “water-resistant” means they can survive in the rain but not in the toilet.’
‘I need to think,’ Aunty Lee said.
Mr and Mrs Guang came in and she got them seated and accepted the bouquet of kesum leaves Mr Guang handed her.
‘What would you like to eat today?’
‘Whatever you would like to cook today, Chef!’
They were rapidly becoming her favourite customers. Aunty Lee went through to the kitchen. She would prepare their lunch herself because she always thought best when she was cooking. The more effort required, the harder she thought. ‘Order some more prawns. Today’s special I will make for them Masak Lemak Nenas & Udang!’