Читать книгу Meddling and Murder: An Aunty Lee Mystery - Ovidia Yu - Страница 10

‘Come on,’ Aunty Lee said to Nina, ‘let’s go and look!’ She was glad she had brought pineapple tarts with her. No one had ever been accused of breaking and entering when carrying pineapple tarts.

‘Selina said to wait in the car!’ Mark protested.

‘Then you better wait in the car,’ Aunty Lee said sweetly.

There was no sign of Selina as Aunty Lee and Nina picked their way between the stacks of tiles and piles of foam sheeting that occupied the driveway. She must have gone inside. Then the door swung open and a man came out. Despite the heat he was wearing a dark blue shirt shot through with lighter blue lines over dark trousers and pointed toe shoes that always made Aunty Lee think of the elves in the picture books of her childhood. She knew, thanks to Cherril who was always trying to get her husband to dress more like a successful lawyer, that such high-gloss leather shoes were probably from a designer line. And she knew from Mycroft that they were hot and uncomfortable. They did look sleek and beautiful, though.

But it was not the shoes that made Aunty Lee stop and stare. The man was even more beautiful than his shoes. He stood there, just outside the shelter of the porch, squinting slightly in the sun which showed up the straight line of his nose, the high cheekbones, clean jaw and smooth skin and perfect slightly slanting eyes and mouth. Despite her age and slightly aching knees, something deep inside Aunty Lee gave a shiver of delight. It was a purely animal response to the symmetry of the man’s perfectly balanced features; the sensation of coming upon the first ripe durian of the season at the moment when the tough thorny fruit ripped willingly to expose its smooth virgin creaminess.

‘Can I help you ladies?’ the man said.

‘Are you Jonny Ho?’ Aunty Lee asked at the same time as Nina said: ‘We are waiting for Madam Selina.’

‘Ah, Selina Lee.’ Jonny Ho smiled, and Aunty Lee heard Selina give a gurgling little giggle, coming out of the house behind him. She seemed to be having some trouble with the strap of her purse.

‘Do you need a cough drop?’ Mark asked, following his wife out of the house.

Selina walked around the man to stand next to Nina without answering Mark. ‘This is Nina, Jonny. I told Beth all about Nina. She’s worked for our family for years, and she’s completely reliable. I told Selina that Nina could stay here and clean up and watch the house while we take care of all the other things.’

Selina was like a little dog, Aunty Lee thought, wagging its tail and trying to impress its master with a dead rat. Jonny nodded to her before turning back to Aunty Lee and Nina.

‘Yes, I am Mr. Jonny Ho.’ His English was so proper that it must have been studied as a second language. ‘But you ladies can call me Jonny.’

As the man ran his eyes over them Aunty Lee was suddenly very aware that her Curry Up! tee shirt was curry stained, and her pink and green floral pants (such a bright, happy batik, she remembered thinking when putting them on that morning) were old, worn and a little faded. Most women would have been embarrassed, spending the rest of their visit awkward with embarrassment. But Aunty Lee chose to be intrigued instead. It was unusual for her to concern herself with anything beyond comfort when it came to clothes. Looking around for the cause, she realized it was the way Jonny Ho was looking at her. Now she studied him, she saw Jonny wore as much tinted face cream as a Korean movie star and was probably good-looking enough to be mistaken for one, but that wasn’t it. Aunty Lee was more susceptible to a handsome plantain than a handsome man. No, it was because Jonny Ho eyed her like a man wanting to get his money’s worth out of an eat-all-you-can buffet. He was trying to estimate the value of the prawns concealed in their fried batter casings. And that made the prawns feel the need to validate themselves.

Aunty Lee watched Jonny Ho run his eyes over Nina. Without saying or doing anything improper, he made it clear he was interested in her as a property worth acquiring. Aunty Lee felt worried. She hoped Nina would not try to forget Salim by falling for someone else. But Nina was looking bored and stupid. It was the look she wore when Selina was lecturing her. That was all right then, Aunty Lee thought in relief. She turned her attention back to Jonny Ho. He really had a very nice face, Aunty Lee thought, though she would have liked it better with less make-up. His skin was as smooth and white as a steamed rice flour bun and didn’t seem to have any pores.

‘I remember this house,’ Aunty Lee said. ‘I haven’t been here for so long. Wah, you are doing big renovations here, hor? All this dust must be very bad for children, right? In the old days there was a fountain here, right?’

‘We had to get rid of the fountain. Mosquitoes,’ a woman said briskly, coming out of the house.

Aunty Lee recognized her at once as Beth, Patty’s sister. In school they had all called Elizabeth Kwuan ‘Bossy Betty’. Beth was wearing a smart dress and lipstick, but still looked like a strict, rule-bound schoolteacher. She would be the teacher schoolgirls made fun of while in school and remembered fondly as part of their girlhood – like acne. Now, though Beth smiled and nodded to Selina and her visitors, there were frown lines between her brows, and the sides of her mouth immediately returned to their usual down position. She looked like she was looking out for faults just to show she was paying attention. Working for this woman would not be easy. Beth looked like the kind of boss who had already driven one helper into running away and would soon make Nina realize that Aunty Lee, however meddling, was easier to work for.

She was the perfect temporary boss for Nina, Aunty Lee thought.

‘Selina told me your helper ran away,’ Aunty Lee said.

‘Did she?’ Beth looked surprised and disapproving. Selina, who had meant to surprise her but differently, glared at Aunty Lee and started to explain: ‘You said you needed someone to clear away the dust and rubble before painting—’ but Aunty Lee continued over her.

‘I remember you from school. I was in the same class as Patty. Don’t you remember me? I’m Rosie! Here—’ Aunty Lee pushed the pineapple tarts at Beth, ‘from my shop. My condolences about Patty. Poor thing. She was still so young.’

‘At least she was still beautiful when she died. Oh Rosie, of course I remember you. Thank you. Jonny can take … I’m sorry, I’m in quite a hurry right now. I have to go for a meeting with the ECDA. Planning permissions and regulations and all that. I’ve been phoning and phoning but there aren’t any taxis … ’

‘There’s a taxi waiting at the end of the road,’ Aunty Lee said. ‘Maybe you gave him the wrong address.’

‘No. I didn’t even manage to get through. They kept putting me on hold. If there’s a taxi there the driver is probably having a smoke and waiting for peak hour. I have to go now.’

‘We’ll drive you in,’ Selina said quickly. ‘Or Mark can drive you in. I’ll stay here and help Jonny with the cleaning up.’

Aunty Lee saw Beth’s eyes go from Selina to Jonny and back to Selina. She thought Beth probably understood Selina better than Selina herself did. But then she had probably watched Patty go through more than her share of adolescent crushes and passions.

‘If you and your husband stay here and start on the cleaning up, Jonny can drive me.’

‘If you’re going to see the ECDA people, I should come with you,’ Selina said. ‘I’m part of this, after all. Aunty Lee and Nina can start on the cleaning.’

‘I have to get back to my shop!’ Aunty Lee said firmly. ‘Nina will come back with me until you get time to talk about who pays Nina’s salary while she is working here. She can still come back and sleep in my house at night.’

Beth looked surprised. She turned to Selina and started to say: ‘Aren’t you the one who pays—?’

‘We can discuss this later!’ Selina seized Aunty Lee by the elbow and hissed: ‘You mustn’t spoil this for us! You know that it is actually illegal for Nina to be working at your shop, right? If we report you, you’ll be fined and your café closed down and Nina sent home and never allowed to come back! But if she helps us get through this then she can go back to you after.’

Aunty Lee was taken aback to hear Selina put it that way, but not as taken aback as Mark was … though Selina was only repeating what he had told her. Mark looked shocked. Beth looked interested. Jonny Ho looked beautiful. He was also watching Selina with more interest than he had shown before.

‘Dear … ’ Mark said in alarm but nobody paid any attention.

‘Well?’ Selina’s attention was fixed on Aunty Lee.

A combination of Peranakan pride and mission school upbringing meant Aunty Lee did not scratch herself in public whether the pain in her pants was due to bugs or blackmail. Instead she turned to Beth and said conversationally: ‘What is Fabian doing now, by the way? The last I heard he was still in America.’

‘Oh, Fabian is back in Singapore,’ Beth said quietly, matching Aunty Lee’s tone and turning away from Selina. ‘Last time he was here, he barely talked to me. He spent most of his time talking to Julietta outside.’

‘He knew her?’

‘Of course. She was working for his parents for years, since before he left Singapore.’

A helper who had been working for one family for years didn’t sound like one who would run away without warning. ‘You think he told her something that made her run away?’ Aunty Lee asked with interest.

‘Poor Fabian has always been excitable, high strung. He was upset about us setting up the school here. But Patty knew that I’d always dreamt of having a little school of my own. When we were children, Patty would always play at getting married. She was always the bride. I would play at being a schoolteacher. Setting up a school is a big dream for me. I know it’s what Patty would want.’

Selina was furious. The woman she had tried to manipulate and the woman she wanted to impress were talking together like old friends and ignoring her.

‘About your helper,’ Aunty Lee said to Beth, ‘you didn’t report Julietta missing because you think she ran off with her boyfriend and you don’t want to get her into trouble. What are you going to do with her if she comes back?’

Beth looked taken aback then hugely relieved. ‘That depends what she says. I spent so long as a teacher I know how stupid young girls can be. You are so brave to go into the café business on your own, Rosie. I wouldn’t dare to if I didn’t have a partner who understands how these things work.’ Aunty Lee sensed some gentle criticism there, as though it wasn’t quite ladylike of her to be running a business, far less making a success of it. But having come from the same mission school as Beth she understood where she was coming from. And though Beth would have thought it presumptuous, Aunty Lee felt a little sorry for her. Starting a new business was terrifying as well as exciting, all the more so when you were using your own money but putting your confidence in someone else.

So somehow she agreed that Nina would start immediately on a trial month, helping Beth with the cleaning and supervising renovations.

‘Mark can drive Jonny and me to town in his car for the meeting. And Selina and Nina can get started on the clean up here and wait for the workers to get back,’ Beth decided in her flat, decisive schoolteacher voice, conveniently not hearing Selina object that it would make more sense for her to drive Beth, and Jonny and attend the meeting with them.

‘And I will take taxi back to the house and pack up some clothes for you,’ Aunty Lee told Nina.

Aunty Lee tried to hail the apparently free taxi at the end of the road, but was ignored by the driver. She could see him there, behind the wheel. She was thinking of photographing the taxi’s licence plate with her phone so she could report the driver for ignoring an old lady when Beth said that Jonny Ho would drive Aunty Lee home to collect Nina’s things.

‘I will go with Jonny and get Nina’s things,’ Selina said quickly. ‘Aunty Lee is better at cleaning.’

But Beth was even more used to getting her own way than Selina. Beth had also seen at once that the threat Selina used against Aunty Lee could easily be turned against her and her school. Besides, Beth did not like the way Selina was looking at Jonny Ho.

‘Don’t forget you are pregnant, Selina. You shouldn’t be driving around in sports cars in your condition. I’m sure your husband wouldn’t like it.’ Beth smiled at Mark. ‘Shall we go?’

Jonny Ho had a bright blue low, flat Subaru. It was a shiny, flashy car and Aunty Lee saw he was as proud of it as a woman with her first pair of Jimmy Choos. When it came to plump elderly ladies, designer cars were as uncomfortable as designer shoes. But when Jonny carefully helped her into the low front seat and leaned across her to lock in her seatbelt Aunty Lee couldn’t help being flattered. Like dried lotus leaf soaked in warm water she felt herself relaxing. No wonder rich old men liked to go to massage parlours to be pampered by pretty young women. There ought to be spas specially for rich old women to be pampered by pretty young boys.

‘So, where is this shop house of yours? You live above it, right? Selina told us you run a little cake shop. You will never get rich by making cakes. You should learn to cook real Chinese food. It is impossible to get good Chinese food in Singapore. You should let me take a look at your business. I am very good at turning businesses around. Give me six months and I can give you a profit!’

‘No, not to the shop.’ Aunty Lee decided, remembering Cherril and the curry potato crisis. ‘Take me back to my house.’ She directed him deeper into Binjai Park and told him he could leave his car on the grass verge outside.

‘You want to come in and wait while I pack some things for you to take back for Nina?’

Jonny Ho was impressed by Aunty Lee’s Binjai Park house, especially by its size and location. He had studied the wealthier housing districts in Singapore and could sum up its market value pretty accurately. Aunty Lee might look and sound like a low class, uneducated peasant, but she had obviously married into money. Jonny looked at the photo portraits of her dead husband while waiting for her to pack some things for Nina.

‘You have a lot of pictures of your dead husband,’ he said when she reappeared wheeling a cabin bag with a large plastic bag balanced on top. ‘He has been dead for some time, right? Don’t you think it is time to be moving on?’

People expect beautiful people to be sensitive, just like they expect beautiful cakes to be delicious, Aunty Lee thought. It was not true. ‘I have moved on,’ she said evenly. ‘I have my shop and my business.’

‘I don’t understand why you need to work in a shop when you have a house this size. If you need the money, you can rent out rooms. Even better, you can convert this place into several apartments. I see you got all that land behind, nothing but grass and trees. So wasted.’

‘Those are fruit trees! You should see them during mango season and rambutan season.’

‘Women are no good at seeing business opportunities,’ Jonny said complacently. ‘That’s why they need men.’

‘I should introduce you to my partner,’ Aunty Lee said. ‘You two can go and talk business opportunities together!’