Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge (25 page)

Josephine snorted, perhaps at Brian's perfidy in talking to Cherril, but Cherril was not finished yet. “You poisoned Brian and pretended to be poisoned yourself. But why did you kill Samantha Kang? She would never have tried to blackmail you like you wrote in that e-mail. Sam Kang would have given you money if she thought you needed it!”

Josephine did not answer.

Aunty Lee thumped the table in her excitement. “That day of the fire at the clinic. I think the vet, Samantha Kang, saw Allison there. She may not have recognized her and only remembered who she was later. I suspect Dr. Kang texted you saying she had seen someone suspicious and needed to talk to you . . . She was talking about Allison, but your guilty conscience made you think Dr. Kang saw you at the hotel and wanted to blackmail you. You told her to meet you at Holland Village—near your shop and near her clinic. You went to the toilet together, and you had the cable ties and gloves you use for your floral arrangements—the same cable ties and gloves you used to kill the woman you thought was Allison Love. You pulled the cable ties tight around Samantha Kang's throat and pushed her back into the stall to die.”

Josephine rolled her eyes. “You're making up crazy stories. At your age it's probably dementia. Anyway, you can't prove anything. Or do you have a medium that can talk to ghosts?”

“Technology is better than mediums,” Aunty Lee said firmly. “Holland Village shops all got surveillance cameras inside and outside. Now they know who they are looking for—should not be too hard for the police to prove you were there at that time!”

Commissioner Raja's eyes moved to Salim, who nodded. “We've already got the film. Thank goodness for shoplifters.” He left the room, texting on his phone.

“The poor woman was no real threat to you. Even if she had seen you, you could have given her some excuse—you're good at lying—and she would have believed you. But you also killed her to draw suspicion away from Mike. That's why you
killed her the same way you killed Vallerie, at a time when you knew Mike had an alibi. Because there was always the risk that the police might look into the people who had the most reason to want Allison Love dead—her ex-husband and his pregnant girlfriend.”

“Pregnant?” Mike Fitzgerald looked between his ex-wife and pregnant lover with an expression that was a blend of horror and incredulity.

“Look, Mikey, I did it for you, for us. Because I wanted our life together to be free from all Allison's craziness.”

“You're just like Allison—you're worse! Allison killed animals but not people.”

“I wouldn't have had to if you hadn't kept dragging your feet about getting married! This is all your fault!”

“I think Mike was changing his mind about marrying you, Josephine,” Aunty Lee said quietly. She turned to Mike Fitzgerald. “As you got to know her better she started to remind you of Allison, didn't she?”

Mike hesitated, and then nodded. “I thought it was me. Imagining things. But yes. I'm sorry.”

“Of course he's going to marry her!” Constance DelaVega's thin voice shrilled. “Our Josie is not the kind of girl you can pick up and throw away! He must join the church and marry her.”

Distracted eyes turned to her till Commissioner Raja suddenly shouted, “Watch out!”

Josephine had grabbed the carving knife off the sideboard, and now she lunged at Mike, leaving a bloody streak
on the arm he threw up to protect his face. The table wedged Commissioner Raja in, and Mycroft was entangled by Selina clinging to both him and Mark, screaming. SS Panchal appeared at the kitchen door on Commissioner Raja's shout, but was on the other side of the room, with Salim even farther away outside as Josephine raised the bloody knife again.

“The samples! The samples!” Aunty Lee shouted, flailing at Josephine with her walking stick, giving Mike a chance to retreat against the wall. Nina rolled the open containers across the floor toward Aunty Lee, who whacked and spun them around with her stick as Josephine, knife raised, moved in on Mike for the kill—but skidded and fell. She got back on her feet, charged at him again, but her feet twisted and shot out from under her and she fell again. This time she stayed down.

“Be careful, ah,” Aunty Lee warned. “There's oil on the floor.”

“Oil?” Salim stopped SS Panchal abruptly, thinking of biological attack. “What kind of oil?”

“Soybean oil, canola oil, sustainable palm oil,” SS Panchal said, sniffing, “And some sesame oil.”

Aunty Lee looked at the policewoman with new respect, “There's some more around the back door. I thought she would try to run away. I didn't think she would attack, I'm sorry, she's going to make your police car all oily. I give you some newspapers for her to sit on. The
Straits Times
is very good for covering up messy business.”

Josephine's eyes were fixed on Mike. “You bastard. I'm going to kill your baby.”

Mike stared. He looked as though he was having trouble following all that had just happened, Aunty Lee thought. The greatest victim here was the unborn child who seemed no more than a bargaining chip to its mother.

Wrap-Up

Allison Love was charged with cruelty to animals for poisoning Tammy and would be subject to a fine of up to S$10,000, a jail term of up to a year, or both. She should also have been charged for firebombing the vet clinic but the case was dropped for lack of evidence.

Josephine DelaVega was arrested in connection with the murders of Vallerie Love, Samantha Kang, and Brian Wong. Her parents claimed first that she was being framed, then that she had been manipulated into it by Mike Fitzgerald and Allison Love as part of a complex revenge for the online bullying and harassment they held her responsible for. They had already applied to be made legal guardians of their unborn grandchild.

Mike Fitzgerald went home to be with his children in
London, but would return to Singapore for the trials of his ex-wife and ex-lover.

Nina posted a “Closed for Private Party” announcement on the website and put a sign on the front door, and Aunty Lee threw a
pohpiah
party to celebrate everything getting sorted out and getting her ankle out of its cast.

“We will all wrap up our own food to celebrate Salim wrapping up the case and me unwrapping my foot,” she said.

Nina rolled her eyes but said nothing. Aunty Lee's hot
pohpiah
filling was delicious and needed no excuse. There were fresh prawns, crabmeat, shredded omelet, spring onions, and garlic to go with it. It was the ideal spread for a hostess who wanted to enjoy her own party because all the work could be done in advance and during the meal everyone rolled their own dinners according to their taste.

And there were even little dog
pohpiahs
(filled with bacon and pork hash) for Tammy, who was fully recovered and had been smuggled in for the celebration.

“
Pohpiah
and my super new invention: Chilled Revenge. Because Mark said revenge tastes better cold.”

“Where is Mark?” Mycroft asked. “Not coming tonight? I hope Selina's not still feeling bad. For a while I was afraid someone poisoned her and my Cherry might be next!” He grinned at Cherril, who smiled back wanly.

“Mark is not coming,” Aunty Lee said with a huge, beaming smile. “So many things to cook, I almost forgot. Selina went to see the doctor but she is not poisoned, she is going to
have a baby! My first grandbaby! Tonight they are at Selina's parents' house.”

This led to a round of toasts to the absent couple and laughter that they were spending the evening interviewing various pregnancy fitness coaches and pregnancy diet counselors, but talk soon returned to Josephine and Allison, whether it was worse to kill humans than dogs, and how two apparently nice, normal young women could have turned to violence.

“It all started with the puppy killer case,” Aunty Lee said. “Like Raja said, Allison—who we knew as ‘Vallerie'—was traumatized by the online mob rage directed against her after the incident with the puppy. Allison had always thought of herself as a super organizer and controller, and it was a shock for her to discover she couldn't control what people thought of her. Like many insecure people she was a big bully in small ways—taking it out on the people and animals around her.

“Josephine was also changed by what happened. With the Internet community cheering her on, Josephine felt famous and powerful. More dangerously, she enjoyed the self-righteousness of having unleashed well-deserved vengeance. The problem is that feeling is addictive, as you can see from witch hunters and Anti Pink Dot gay bashers. When the excitement was over and Allison left Singapore, Josephine was forgotten. Her flower-arranging service was not very successful, but it explains her familiarity with the cable ties and latex gloves she used as the murder weapons. She saw herself
more as a vigilante than a murderer. I don't think she would have put it so plainly even to herself, but that is what it was.

“In fact, Josephine and Allison were very alike. It struck me that they made very similar comments about a gay man working in the hotel—”

“I know you showed Jacky that photo of Josie and Brian,” Cherril pointed out. “He only recognized Brian.”

“Jacky said he didn't remember seeing Josephine,” Aunty Lee corrected. “That threw me off too. Then I realized that was because dear Jacky doesn't pay much attention to women. A big mistake, Jacky! Poor Brian. Of course he went to the hotel with Josephine, but I'm sure he didn't know what she did there.”

“Poor Josie. You know I used to wish I was like her?” Josephine had always been the confident, beautiful one. Cherril had envied Josephine's confidence even more than her beauty. Josephine had never cared whether other people would accept her or what they would think of her.

“Of course. But you grew beyond it and she didn't. That's the problem with hitting your peak too early. You stay at the stage you feel most successful. You don't try out new things. You don't grow anymore. You are like the bean sprouts that are grown in the dark. Your body stays white and you never grow green leaves to survive on your own. And you are only good for crisp eating—you will never become a plant.

“Allison wasn't thinking logically. The lawsuit was a straw she grabbed at and gave her an excuse to come back to Singapore to get revenge on the people who had ruined her here. I wondered why she wasn't rushing to get out of Singa
pore as fast as possible, given she was always saying how much she hated Singapore. I think she came to believe that if her ex-husband, Mike, was imprisoned or hanged for murdering ‘Allison,' then her kids and her London apartment would be hers again. She really didn't know where else to go or what to do with herself. For all that she bossed her husband around, he had always taken care of all the practical details. And that was also why the people she resented most in her life were not just you animal people but her ex-husband and her sister.”

“Why? What did they do to her?”

“They were successful and they were happy—without her. To add insult to injury, Mike Fitzgerald was planning on getting married again. And to the woman she blamed for what had happened in Singapore. While staying with her sister, Vallerie, in America, Allison learned from her children that their father was going to Singapore. She assumed it was to announce his engagement to Josephine. She got Vallerie to come with her—and records show Vallerie paid for their tickets. But when the real Vallerie found the kerosene that Allison bought to set fire to the clinic, she was horrified. Allison drugged Vallerie with her sleeping medication, and it was Vallerie who was asleep in the hotel room when Josephine came up. It was Vallerie who Josephine killed.”

Aunty Lee continued: “Allison was fine until the Internet explosion against her. There may always have been that side to her personality, but if not for the wave of Internet hatred, it might never have surfaced. In a way, Josephine and the web activists had created the monster in Allison. Or awoken it
anyway. Because there is probably some such monster inside each of us.”

When Aunty Lee disappeared with Nina to prepare to present her special dish, Cherril drew Mycroft aside.

“I have to talk to you.”

“You want to talk now?” Mycroft asked. He looked around the room. “We can go back home to talk.”

“No.” Cherril also looked around the room. She did not want to bring this back to the beautifully laid out Peters house. That would always be Mycroft's home more than hers. But they belonged equally in this familiar, cozy café. Most had finished eating by now. Only a few diehard eaters were still going strong. Anne Peters was tempting or perhaps challenging SS Panchal to swallow just one more
pohpiah
that she was folding specially for her . . . one filled with little more than her favorite prawns and crabmeat and lashings of chili, garlic, and sweet sauce. Once immediate hunger was satisfied, people could choose to eat what gave them the most pleasure rather than what would fill them up fastest. And that was when their true tastes were revealed. Cherril felt a stab of jealousy. It was not fair. She had a home and a husband and—

“Well?” said her husband.

“What if we never have children?”

“Then we'll get a dog.”

“Mykie, I'm serious.”

“Two dogs then. So they can keep each other company when we're not around. And if we want to travel they can look after Mother and Tammy. What sort of dogs, do you think?”

Cherril was almost distracted. It was tempting to think
they could just have dogs instead and never have this discussion, but she had just seen firsthand the damage secrets could wreak on a marriage. But how to begin? Aunty Lee always said, when dealing with prickly subjects (crabs in her case), “Just throw it into the pot first. Afterward you can slowly see which parts you can use.”

“I almost had a baby. Long ago, right after school. But it died—I don't even know if it was a boy or girl—soon after I found out I was pregnant. I think maybe that's why we're not having children now. Maybe I can't have any more babies.” She expected him to be angry, to accuse her of lying and keeping things from him.

“Sweetheart, what happened?”

“I don't want to talk about it. Not yet.”

“All right. But what happened to the baby?”

“I don't know. The doctor said sometimes it happens and nobody knows why. I don't know whether it was my fault and he didn't want to tell me. I was only seventeen then.”

“Good lord.”

But Mycroft did not seem angry, at least not with her. “Why should that mean you can't have another baby now?”

The answer came out of her mouth automatically: “Because I don't deserve to have one.”

“Do you want us to have a baby?”

“Oh yes, of course. But it's been so long and there's still nothing.”

“Then we'll go and find out what's wrong. But if you got pregnant before then the problem is more likely to be with me. Would you leave me if that's the case?”

“Of course not!”

“We'll figure it out together, okay? Trust me this time.”

“Okay.”

Watching from across the room, Aunty Lee saw Mycroft put an arm around his little wife and give her a big hug. Cherril buried her face in his shoulder and the awful tension that had been growing in her was finally gone. Well, thought Aunty Lee, now Cherril had let go of whatever had been bothering her, and very likely Anne Peters would soon have the grandchildren she was so looking forward to!

Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge was a
tom yam
–flavored spicy seafood jelly made in her largest lotus flower mold and turned out onto a bed of watercress and surrounded by chunks of pineapple. Suspended in the cold blossom's savory pale yellow gel were chunks of crabmeat, prawns, scallops, and red, green, and orange filaments of sweet peppers, baby asparagus, and carrots. It was beautiful, Cherril thought. But then everything looked beautiful to her tonight.

“Because people say revenge is best served cold,” Aunty Lee explained. “Same with jelly. First must be boiled very hot until the gelatin melts, like Allison's hot anger. But having hot anger inside for so long made her go a bit crazy. Josephine covered up her anger at Allison—not for killing the dog but for treating her like a stupid local girl. Josephine was full of things she had never forgiven her parents and friends for. And holding so many nuggets of revenge inside her made her cold and dead inside.”

Aunty Lee gestured at her chilled creation with satisfac
tion. “Sometimes getting successful results isn't a matter of stirring and applying heat all the time. Sometimes you have to step back and sit down and let things get cold enough for their true nature to show.”

The jelly was a success. The
pohpiahs
were a success. And Aunty Lee's ankle was sufficiently healed that she had walked without support all evening without noticing.

“Go to bed first, Nina. I'm just going to sit here awhile.” Aunty Lee settled herself by the open doors to the breakfast patio.

“I just put everything in the fridge first.”

The sweet scent of night jasmine wafted gently in with the night sounds of Singapore. No matter where you were on the island there was the hum of traffic in the background, with occasional vehicles closer at hand. And the lights too—it was never completely dark here. But this was Aunty Lee's kind of peace. A small photo of ML stood on the low coffee table beside her and she picked it up and ran a finger over the worked silver frame. She had done this many times before. The finger was worn and roughened now and the frame was scratched, but the half figure in the frame remained buoyantly unchanged, laughing into the sun shining on him.

“Your son is having a baby,” Aunty Lee whispered. For a moment a miserable loneliness threatened to overwhelm her. How she wished ML could have seen his first grandchild to carry the Lee name.

Nina appeared with a small glass of Yomeishu health tonic. “Nah. To help you sleep. Otherwise too tired, too excited,
you cannot sleep.” She paused. “You may have to order more mangoes.”

“Really? You mean all the mangoes I bought . . .”

“All finished already. People are already ordering more mango
konnyaku
jellies.”

Aunty Lee sipped her tonic wine and allowed herself to be tired. Her twisted ankle had taught her to allow other people to do things for her, and now she was going to allow herself to take things easy when she had to. That was what was really important—along with knowing others needed you, you had to know what you yourself needed. And, of course, she had discovered online bulk shopping.

“We don't have to stop at mangoes,” she told Nina. “Durians are coming into season soon.”