Meddling and Murder: An Aunty Lee Mystery. Ovidia Yu

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       CHAPTER ONE

       Aunty Lee’s Life of Crime

      ‘This is a big emergency! There is a human body in the drain next to our house. It is a very big body. Please to come fast.’

      That was as much as Staff Sergeant Neha Panchal could make out from the panicked caller whisper-shouting in a mix of Mandarin and English.

      ‘I’ll be right there.’

      Panchal got the address and set out immediately, calling to notify her boss, Inspector Salim Mawar, on the way.

      The Bukit Tinggi Police Post was mainly responsible for the Binjai Park residential district. Some of Singapore’s wealthiest residents lived in the area and the Bukit Tinggi posting was considered both a career breaker (for its lack of serious crimes) and career maker (from exposure to Singapore’s most influential people). The last few emergency calls from Binjai Park had been triggered by badly parked cars and monkeys stealing fruit.

      SS Panchal’s first thought had been to qualify for a new posting as soon as possible. Now she had to admit she had learned a lot from this posting about how understanding people helped untangle the crimes they got caught up in. But Panchal would never understand why Inspector Mawar, who seemed like an intelligent man, would reject offers of promotion to remain in charge of the Bukit Tinggi NPP.

      There was indeed a body in the big storm drain next to the caller’s house. Fortunately, it was a live body. It was also very familiar and wearing a bright yellow Curry Up! tee shirt over pink and green batik pants. SS Panchal winced just a little before she leaned over the drain barrier’s green metal railings and called: ‘Aunty Lee! What are you doing down there? Are you all right?’

      ‘Panchal!’ Aunty Lee looked up, squinting against the sun. She did not seem hurt and was clutching clumps of weeds. ‘Good, you are here. Come down and help me!’

      Suspicious heads were watching from the windows of the house. That would be Mr and Mrs Guang who had phoned the police, Panchal guessed. They had to be newcomers to Singapore as well as Binjai Park, or they would have recognized Rosie ‘Aunty’ Lee of the famous Binjai Park café, Aunty Lee’s Delights.

      Thanks to her kebaya-clad image beaming from jars of Aunty Lee’s Amazing Achar and Aunty Lee’s Shiok Sambal, Aunty Lee was familiar to food lovers in Singapore and beyond.

      And Aunty Lee was familiar to Panchal and the rest of the police force, thanks to the murders she had been involved in. But Aunty Lee was seldom out without her faithful Filipina helper. For an instant Panchal wondered if something was wrong.

      ‘Aunty Lee, what are you doing in the storm drain? Where is Nina?’ Panchal did not want to be the one to tell her boss that something terrible had happened to the main reason he chose to stay stuck in this backwater posting. ‘Is Nina all right?’

      ‘Hiyah, everybody only interested in Nina,’ Aunty Lee said grumpily. ‘Why should I care where is Nina?’

      Nina Balignasay was Aunty Lee’s domestic helper. Nina, whose nursing degree was not recognized in Singapore, had started as a home caregiver to Aunty Lee’s late husband. Seeing she was smart and hard-working, the Lees had sent her for computer classes and business courses and even driving lessons. This last had required intricate bureaucratic wrangling since foreign domestic workers were forbidden from driving in Singapore. Permission for Nina’s driving licence had only been granted after two doctors and an MP testified she was the sole caregiver for two old people who might need emergency medical treatment.

      The Lees’ intention had been to equip Nina for a profession after she left them. Instead, she had become invaluable to Aunty Lee’s business as well as her closest friend and companion after M. L. Lee’s death.

      Aunty Lee was the ultimate snob when it came to durians and spices, but she was egalitarian when it came to people.

      It was only today that Aunty Lee was cross with Nina.

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