The Singapore School of Villainy (26 page)

Reggie said feebly, ‘We shouldn't kill anyone…there's no need.'

Contempt dripped from his colleague's voice. ‘Look at you, you pathetic creature! You make me sick.'

‘What are you going to do?' whispered Maria, staring at the weapon with a fascinated gaze, like a creature mesmerised on a highway by the bright glare of headlights.

‘Kill you, of course. And I don't suppose Reggie here will be that keen on his assignations at the Fullerton after I do that!' Ai Leen was pleased that her voice had remained steady throughout. From the expression on the faces of the others, she had been completely convincing. She had no intention of telling them that she had stolen the gun from her husband's gun cupboard and that leaving a bullet in Maria would be the equivalent of writing her name in blood on the large gilt-edged mirror above the mantelpiece.

As she pointed the gun squarely at Maria's chest, Reggie stepped forward. He put a hand up pleadingly. He said, ‘Please don't do this!'

Ai Leen swivelled around quickly until the weapon was pointing at her erstwhile partner in crime. She didn't need him to interfere with her plan. Maria had to believe that she would gun her down in cold blood rather than pay a penny of the blackmail sum. And she wanted, needed, Reggie to fear her as well – to be so terrified that he would never come near her again. Then, and only then, was she prepared to lower her weapon, agree to give them both one last chance to leave her alone.

Maria, seizing her opportunity when the gun was trained on Reggie, leapt forward. Ai Leen didn't see her coming, didn't know quite how convincing she had been. Maria reached for the gun hand, her fingers claw-like in desperation. The weapon shook in Ai Leen's grip, her finger tightened spasmodically and the gun went off. Reggie fell to his knees and then keeled over clutching his chest. Neither woman spared him a glance.

The battle for survival was in earnest now. Maria knocked the weapon out of Ai Leen's hand. The gun slithered under the couch and Ai Leen made a dive to retrieve it. Maria saw the danger and launched herself at Ai Leen, knocking her away from her target. But Ai Leen was now fighting like a madwoman. She lashed out with her foot, catching Maria sharply on the elbow. Maria clutched her arm and screeched in pain, the high sound of an animal caught in a sharp-toothed trap. Ai Leen tore into her, scratching and screaming. No one noticed a pounding on the front door. Maria, on the ground now, crawled painfully towards the gun. Ai Leen flung herself at her but a well-timed kick by the prone woman knocked her back. Maria grabbed the gun and scrambled to her feet.

Suddenly, a shot rang through the air and both women froze. Heavy footsteps pounded down the corridor and Inspector Singh burst into the room.

‘Drop your weapon!' shouted Singh, his breath coming in loud painful pants.

Maria kept the gun trained on Ai Leen. Her hand was shaking and Singh was terrified that she would pull the trigger. Even from where he was standing it was obvious that a key suspect, Reggie, was dead. His eyes were open and staring, watching unfolding events with unseeing eyes. His careful comb-over had fallen away from his scalp, leaving it shiny and bare. The front of his shirt was a bloody mess. He had taken a bullet to the chest. It must have severed an artery to judge from the volume of blood pooling around his corpse.

Singh's own chest hurt. He could feel his pulse pounding in his ears. He felt like holstering his Taurus standard issue revolver and rubbing the spot directly over his heart. He wasn't some sort of gallant figure, able to stumble upon a scene like this and save the day with panache. He had no idea what was going on. He had just wanted to question Maria Thompson again while waiting for one of his team to pick Reggie Peters up. He'd heard screams and then a shotgun fired. As he had shot out the front door lock and raced through the apartment, he had not been sure what to expect: a robbery in progress; a lovers' tiff that had got out of hand; a suicide attempt…He certainly had not anticipated coming upon one key suspect holding a gun over the corpse of another. Singh felt a trickle of cold sweat escape the brim of his turban. It traced a course down his forehead via the grooves above his nose and trickled into his eyes. They began to smart and he blinked a few times to clear his vision.

He spoke calmly, trying to keep from breathing so hard. He didn't want Maria to think that the only other person in the room with a gun was about to keel over from a heart attack. There were quite enough bodies associated with this case already. He didn't want to personally add to their number.

The policeman was first and foremost a practical man. He might rue the circumstances, but he had to deal with the situation as he found it, not long for alternatives in a universe of infinite outcomes. He barked, injecting a note of belated authority into his voice, ‘Put down your gun.'

He noted that her weapon was a small-calibre revolver. He might even survive a bullet, assuming that – unlike Reggie Peters – he was lucky enough not to be hit in a vital spot. Still, he certainly hoped that he wouldn't have to play the hero and try and take the gun off Maria forcibly. When Maria did not respond, he spoke again, louder and more aggressive this time, ‘It's over!' The steadiness of his gun hand was in marked contrast to the wavering weapon Maria had trained on Ai Leen.

Singh's words seemed to penetrate Maria's stupor because her eyes swivelled around to stare at him. The whites of her eyes were predominant. It was the same look he had seen in stray dogs cornered by dog catchers.

Singh said more gently, speaking directly to the Filipina woman, looking into her taut, panicky face, ‘It's over.' He realised he was working from the standard hostage rescue texts – establish authority and then seek a relationship with the hostage taker. He needed Maria to trust him if more bloodshed was to be avoided. She stared at him and then turned to look at the body on the floor. He said, ‘Maria, don't do anything foolish. Remember, your children need you.'

He had found the magic words. He might have guessed that the only way to get through to this woman was to use her children as the chisel to chip away at her hard exterior. She dropped her gun hand and let the weapon fall. It hit the ground with a muffled thud.

There was an audible sigh of relief in the room. Singh realised belatedly that it had emanated from him. He felt much better now that he was the only person in the room holding a gun. He intoned formally, ‘Maria Thompson, you are under arrest for the murder of…err, Reggie Peters.' And then he added in a puzzled tone, ‘Why in the world did you kill Reggie?'

Maria's pupils dilated with shock. ‘What are you talking about?' she whispered.

He snapped, ‘What do you mean?'

‘She want to kill me!' Maria's tone grew stronger as she gesticulated angrily at Ai Leen. ‘When he – Reggie – tried to stop her, she shoot him.'

Singh shifted the point of his gun carefully so that it pointed at Ai Leen, not Maria. He wrinkled his nose. The strangely sweet cloying smell of fresh blood was overwhelming. He decided, looking at Ai Leen, that he had never previously been subjected to such a venomous stare.

He said, ‘Ms Lim Ai Leen, I arrest you for the murder of,' he paused for a moment, ‘Reggie Peters.'

Ai Leen spat on the ground, an angry, defiant gesture. ‘You have
nothing
on me! I tried to protect myself from a blackmailer, that's all. Reggie Peters—' her voice was like the slow progress of a glacier ‘—Reggie Peters was just unlucky.'

‘Blackmail?' Singh raised an eyebrow at Maria Thompson.

She pursed her lips tightly shut. He noticed that there were cuts and scratches on her forearms where she had tried to fend off the enraged attack of the other woman. ‘I don't know what she's talking about.'

Inspector Singh looked at the carnage around him. ‘You're going to have to do better than that.'

 

Singh sat on the end of a hospital bed. The mattress sagged under his weight and the white cotton starched covers creased around his posterior. His feet, in spotless white sneakers, hung over the side just above the ground. The policeman bounced up and down as if testing the springs.

Maria Thompson was lying on the other single bed in the twin room. She wore a pair of faded blue drawstring hospital pyjamas. Her cuts and bruises had been treated despite her protests that she was fine and only wanted to go home.

‘You must be feeling terrible,' remarked Singh. Her face was scrubbed clean of make-up and an older-looking, careworn woman glared at him. Despite this, thought Singh, she was more attractive now. In the absence of her customary paint job, the delicacy of her features and the character in her face were more clearly visible. She reminded him of Chelsea Liew, the ageing supermodel in his last major case.

Maria propped herself up on an elbow and said angrily, ‘I just want to go home to my children.'

‘That would be nice, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, you're going to be sent to prison for a long time. Blackmail just isn't very popular with sentencing judges.'

Maria collapsed back down onto her pillow. Singh remembered that Jagdesh Singh's life had been snuffed out no more than a hundred yards down the corridor in this same hospital. He knew he was being cruel to threaten this woman with separation from her children. But he had to find out what had happened in that apartment. Besides, if he didn't get to the root of things pretty soon, Superintendent Chen would kick him off the case and this woman would have a far less sympathetic audience.

He continued, watching her face carefully, ‘In fact, I believe the prosecution services are looking at charging you with Reggie's killing too.'

‘Ai Leen shot him!'

‘
Only
because you were trying to blackmail them. A charge of “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” might stick.'

Her eyes were closed and he noticed that her lids were bluish with fatigue.

‘I guess you're used to being away from the children.'

There was still no response from the woman in the bed.

Singh's tone was almost pleading. ‘Look, Maria. I need to find out what happened. If you tell me, I'll do my best to protect you. I can't promise you anything. There's nothing my superiors would like better than to pin the murder of Mark Thompson on you or put you on the first plane out of the country. I don't believe you killed him. I don't think you'd have taken the risk of being put away for murder – you love your kids too much. But I need to know the truth.'

For a long moment, there was absolute silence in the room except for the wheezing of the air conditioning. Singh held his breath, hoping that Maria Thompson would see that he was her last hope to avoid jail, and perhaps even the death sentence, if a jury found the circumstantial evidence against her for the death of her husband compelling.

‘I needed money,' she said quietly. ‘The insurance people – they say they cannot pay me yet.'

Singh nodded his big head but did not interrupt her.

‘Ai Leen is a slut. She sleep with Reggie so that they make her a partner. I call him and ask for money or I tell the whole world what they do.'

‘How did you know about it?' asked Singh.

She looked surprised at his lack of reaction to her incendiary information. ‘Mark told me – I think he hear them talking about it.'

‘Was that what the meeting was about? You know, the partners' meeting just before he was killed?'

Maria was sitting up in bed now, the blankets tucked up to her waist. She shook her head, her brow creased with puzzlement. ‘I don't know, I don't think so. Mark said he was going to ask them both to resign quietly because he did not want to spoil the law firm's reputation.'

Singh scowled – that was actually plausible. Mark might well have preferred to keep a lid on the bedroom shenanigans of two of his partners while quietly turfing them out.

Maria looked sheepish. ‘I also told Reggie I saw him at the office the night of the murder.'

‘Did you?'

She shook her head. ‘I just wanted to frighten him.'

‘Do you think Reggie or Ai Leen – or both of them – killed Mark?'

He watched her eyes. He could see the internal debate raging as she weighed her options, trying to decide where her interests lay.

At last, she said, meeting his eyes, her voice regretful but determined – and, Singh thought, honest, ‘Ai Leen said that she not kill Mark. Reggie also said the same thing.'

‘And you believed them?'

‘She was going to shoot me – what for they lie?'

What for they lie indeed, wondered Singh.

 

‘Reggie Peters was such a close friend of yours – and you put a bullet through him. It must be devastating for you.' There was a heavy thread of sarcasm in Singh's voice.

She turned her head away and stared at the white walls of the interview room at the police station, refusing to look at the Sikh inspector. ‘It was an accident.'

‘A very convenient “accident”!'

‘What's that supposed to mean?' Her tone was wary.

‘We know about you and Reggie,' said Singh cheerfully.

‘You've already made your unwarranted insinuations about our relationship. I've told you that we are – we were – just friends.'

‘Then how do you explain this?' Singh pulled a photocopy of Ai Leen's resignation letter out of his pocket with the flourish of a magician producing a rabbit out of a hat. He grinned at her broadly, as if he expected admiring applause.

She practically snatched the document from his hands. She held it between her thumb and forefinger as if she was handling something unclean – and in a sense she was, thought Singh. It was evidence of such thoroughly reprehensible behaviour that it had shocked even a jaded old policeman like himself.

‘Where did you get this?'

‘What does it matter?'

‘It's a fake…'

Singh had to admire this woman. She was as hard as the nails gripping the handle of her handbag. He would get nothing from her that he did not prise loose.

‘Our technical staff have already found the original on the hard drive of your desktop computer.' Corporal Fong did have his uses, thought Singh. That was the sort of evidence he might have missed.

She decided to brazen it out. ‘So? I made a mistake. I'll probably lose my job over it. What does it have to do with the police?'

‘A man with whom you were having an illicit relationship dies by your hand – I think the police have every right to be interested.'

She sighed. ‘It really was an accident.'

‘You actually intended to kill Maria?'

Her head snapped up – she was not going to be trapped that easily. ‘Of course not, I just wanted to scare her, so that she would abandon the blackmail attempt.'

‘How did Maria know about your plan to sleep your way to the top?'

She grimaced but did not bother to argue with his characterisation of her behaviour. ‘Mark told her, apparently he overheard a conversation between Reggie and me.'

‘That's not really important, is it? The key point is that he knew. And you, or Reggie, killed him to protect your reputations and your jobs.'

She looked at him through hooded eyes. ‘There's no way you're going to pin Mark's murder on me.'

Singh's phone rang. ‘Saved by the bell,' he remarked and stepped out of the room.

The number had the prefix that indicated the call was from Kuala Lumpur.

‘Singh here,' he answered curtly.

‘As good-tempered as ever, I see.'

Singh grinned. ‘Inspector Mohammed, what can I do for you?'

‘Have you been kicked off the Force yet?'

‘Not yet…'

‘Well, I'm not sure it's in the best interests of our two countries but I might be able to keep you in gainful employment for a little while longer!'