The Singapore School of Villainy (19 page)

The sun was streaming in the large windows behind him so the lawyer sitting at his desk was a dark featureless silhouette. David could not see the expression on Stephen's face nor deduce why he had been summoned by the senior partner.

Stephen got to the point quickly. ‘I just got a call from the police station. Jagdesh has been arrested!'

‘Jagdesh has been arrested? What for? You don't mean for the
murder
? What about Quentin?'

‘No,
not
for the murder.'

Stephen's voice was calm, but David sensed that the calmness was a thin veneer. The older man stood up and walked around the desk, his eyes stormy and bloodshot. His voice was wheezy, as if he was physically winded by the news he had just received.

‘Just tell me!' David hurled his angry request at Stephen. He needed to know. He couldn't understand Stephen's unwillingness to reveal the details after having announced the raw fact of Jagdesh's arrest.

‘Buggery!'

David stared at him, genuinely mystified.

‘Superintendent Chen called – you know he agreed to keep the firm in the loop – to inform me that Jagdesh Singh was picked up last night. Or in the early hours of this morning, I should say. He was in bed with a young man.'

David was bemused. He ran a thin hand through his short hair so that it stood up like the fur on an angry cat. ‘Jagdesh is
gay
? I never knew that.'

‘I didn't either. No one did, it would seem!'

‘But I don't understand why he's been arrested.'

‘As the good policeman reminded me, homosexuality is still illegal in this country,' stated Stephen.

‘You must be joking!' exclaimed the lawyer from London.

Stephen shrugged. ‘Well, it's not called “unlawful carnal intercourse against the order of nature” in the statutes any more – merely “gross indecency” – but yes, homosexuality is still illegal in Singapore. The law isn't much enforced, which is probably why you weren't aware of it.'

‘What's their proof anyway?' demanded David.

‘The police tailed him to his flat from a well-known gay bar in Chinatown. And he was caught in bed with a young man by Inspector Singh.'

David shook his head as if he was trying to clear his mind of wayward thoughts. ‘I thought you said the law wasn't enforced. So why have they arrested Jagdesh?'

‘Superintendent Chen intimated that it might be a motive for murder…'

‘What?'

‘You heard me!'

‘But I don't understand.'

‘Apparently, the thinking is that Mark might have found out about the homosexuality and Jagdesh killed him to keep his secret safe.'

‘That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.' David was speaking through gritted teeth, a white ring of tension around his mouth. ‘Aside from the obvious point that there is no evidence that Mark knew, why in the world would Jagdesh kill him over something like that?'

‘You're thinking like a lawyer from London,' said Stephen gruffly. ‘But Singapore is one of the last bastions of the conservative society. It has an extremely vocal religious crowd – that's why homosexuality is still illegal in the first place. It's sort of like the “red” states in the United States, but without the liberals on the coasts.'

David was snide. ‘God, gays and greed?'

Stephen ignored the sarcasm. ‘Exactly,' he said heavily.

 

Annie stopped by the ladies' room on the way to her office. She needed to splash some cold water on her face, try and clear her head of the events of the last couple of days. She had found the courage to tell Inspector Singh about the Tan Sri's call but she was still aghast at what she had done. Quentin thought of her as a friend, a good friend, and she had told the Singapore police that he was insider dealing. She knew it had been the necessary and prudent thing to do. Insider dealing was difficult to prove if the criminal was careful and covered his tracks. But the Tan Sri's allegation would have been sufficient to raise the possibility that she or Quentin might have a motive for murder. Quentin was already in deep trouble over the drugs. There was just no point keeping the Tan Sri's suspicions a secret any more. Not when he was almost certain to call back sooner rather than later and speak to someone other than herself – he might even have gone directly to the police. It was only a matter of time, now that he was back in Kuala Lumpur, before he heard that Mark had come to a violent end. Annie squeezed her eyes shut. She knew she had done the sensible thing in telling Singh. But it didn't make her feel any better about it.

Annie reached the restroom. She flung the door open, stepped in and then stopped abruptly. The door swung shut behind her, clattering into the heels of her sensible shoes. Ai Leen was standing before the tall wall mirror above the spotless sinks. At the sound of Annie's clumsy entrance, she whirled round, hurriedly trying to wind a pretty silk scarf around her neck – but not before Annie had a glimpse of her throat. The butterfly-shaped bruising on her neck had been made by angry hands.

Annie started forward, exclaiming in horror. ‘Ai Leen! What happened…?'

 

‘Are you all right?'

Jagdesh did not seem all right. He looked as if he had not slept in a while. His usually slick hair was dishevelled. His eyes were bloodshot from exhaustion and worry and he would not meet the inspector's concerned gaze. His jaw, always slightly darker than his skin despite his usual close shave, was covered in a dark layer of overnight growth. He just stood there silently and gazed unseeingly at the floor.

‘I'm sorry – I know this is hard for you. But I need to ask you some questions.'

Singh forced himself to ignore Corporal Fong's puzzled expression. He knew his moderate tone was at odds with his usual attitude to suspects and witnesses. But he could not ignore the young man's ravaged face. It must have been bad enough to be caught, to have his homosexuality finally out in the open. But for the man standing outside the closet to be a policeman, and a relative, that was like rubbing salt into an exposed wound.

‘Why don't you sit down?' he suggested. Jagdesh was swaying on his feet. He looked exhausted, as if he had dressed in a hurry before being bundled into a waiting police car and driven to the station with sirens blaring – which had indeed been the case – the last bit of fanfare courtesy of Sergeant Chung.

Jagdesh's expression suggested befuddlement, as if the simple request to sit down was too complex for his brain to process. Fong stepped forward and, with unexpected gentleness, ushered him into the chair.

‘Are you aware that homosexuality is illegal in this country?'

There was no response from the other man. Singh repeated the question in a more assertive tone. He received a quick nod in reply.

‘Are your colleagues and family aware that you're gay?'

Jagdesh leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and buried his face in his hands.

‘I'll take that as a “no”,' said Singh dryly. He continued, ‘Did Mark Thompson know about your sexual preferences?' He hated the line of questioning that he was being forced to adopt but he needed to be sure in his own mind that the young man would not have committed murder to preserve his secret.

‘I don't think so – why do you ask me that?' was Jagdesh's confused response.

Inspector Singh's dark eyes were fixed on the young man's face. Was this genuine puzzlement or a clever attempt to act the innocent? It was difficult to imagine that the unkempt young man with the tortured eyes was in a position to maintain any sort of deception. On the other hand, Singh reminded himself, this was a man who had managed to maintain his heterosexual persona in public for a long time, and had done so sufficiently effectively that Singh's own wife was still seeking a suitable bride for him. He remembered dinner at his home – had it only been the previous evening? ‘I would like that very much, Aunty,' Jagdesh had said when she suggested introducing him to a few would-be brides. Well, at least he knew now why such an attractive and wealthy young man had seemed peculiarly bereft of female company.

The door opened and Superintendent Chen hurried in, smiling broadly. He stopped when he saw Jagdesh Singh although the young man, lost in his own world, did not appear to notice the interruption.

‘Ah…good! You have the suspect.'

Singh scowled at his superior. This was not the time for the senior man to undermine his carefully laid groundwork. He hoped the boss would leave the questioning of the emotionally fragile young man to him but he was not optimistic. Superintendent Chen was fidgeting like a man who had drunk far too much coffee that morning.

Jagdesh raised his head and looked at Singh, ignoring the other two men in the room. Singh had previously only seen such an expression of desperate pleading on the faces of street children in Jakarta. Then, it had caused him to turn out his pockets. He felt like reaching for loose change now.

Jagdesh asked, ‘Does anyone
else
have to know…you know, about me?'

Singh noticed the superintendent shift uncomfortably but ignored him.

He said gently, ‘Not if you tell me everything
I
need to know.'

Jagdesh sat up a little straighter in his crumpled shirt. The inspector noticed that the buttons were done up wrong. The lawyer said, his voice a little firmer than it had been previously, ‘All right.'

‘Did Mark Thompson know about your homosexuality?'

‘I don't think so – he never suggested he did. Why is that important?'

Superintendent Chen could keep quiet no longer. ‘Why is that important? Don't try and act the innocent with us! You killed Mark Thompson to hide your dirty little secret. Well – your secret is out. I've already told your bosses that you were arrested for
gross
indecency.'

Singh leapt to his feet in shock. ‘Sir, how could you do that?'

Jagdesh looked as if each word had struck him like a cudgel. This was police brutality too, thought Singh, a vicious verbal version of the more common physical abuse.

‘Why not?' demanded Chen. ‘You're not doing
your
job and asking the tough questions. You're acting like everything is normal just because this – what do you call it? – “queer” is a relative of yours!'

‘We have no evidence that Mark knew!'

‘Well – find the evidence then…'

‘I will do whatever this job requires without letting misplaced prejudices determine my investigative methods,
sir
,' said Singh stiffly.

Superintendent Chen's eyebrows formed two persuasive semi-circles. ‘You must see that this fellow has a motive for killing Mark Thompson?'

Singh nodded hastily to Corporal Fong, who escorted Jagdesh out of the room, a firm hand on his upper arm. If he was going to discuss possible motives with Superintendent Chen, he did not intend to do so in front of a suspect.

‘I'm not convinced that Jagdesh would murder someone just because they found out he was gay,' the inspector said adamantly. ‘If Mark knew – and it's a big if – at most he would have indulged in a bit of late-night gossip over a glass of wine. There's no reason to assume that
he
was a homophobe!'

Superintendent Chen's words dripped with derision. ‘There was so little discrimination and prejudice that he was comfortable telling everyone he was gay? Anyway, he may work for an international law firm, but he's an Indian from Delhi. Not exactly the gay capital of the world.'

There was an uncomfortable silence.

‘I understand what you're telling me,' Chen said in a mollifying tone. ‘But in this culture, and in his own culture, his sexual orientation might be a motive for murder!'

Singh nodded reluctantly. Superintendent Chen was right – after all, the senior policeman was a living breathing example of the sort of prejudice Jagdesh might have expected to encounter in India and Singapore if his homosexuality had been public knowledge. He didn't want to admit it, but his job was to find a murderer, not to ignore the available evidence because he objected to society's norms.

‘I'm prepared to release him from custody for now. We'll decide later whether to charge him for this crime – or any other – once you've done your job and found me some evidence!'

Singh nodded, desperate to get his senior officer out of the room before he was provoked into saying something that cost him his badge. Now more than ever he needed to stay on the job if he was to prevent his relative from being prematurely charged with the murder of Mark Thompson.

‘And what about Quentin Holbrooke? Have you released him?'

Singh shot a questioning glance at Fong, who had sidled back into the office. ‘Yes, sir, he was released today.'

‘Excellent – perhaps one of you policemen might consider finding me some evidence of murder now!' On this parting shot, the superintendent marched out of the room.

Fong said quietly, ‘I never suspected Jagdesh was gay.'

‘He's gone to great lengths to keep his secret,' agreed Singh reluctantly.

‘Do you think he might have done it?'

‘Kill Mark? Over this? No, I don't think so. But I must say I'm not sure what to believe.'

The inspector rubbed his eyes tiredly. He had been up all night. He was much too old to be dragged from his comfortable bed for stake-outs and midnight arrests. He snapped. ‘Well, let's not worry too much about whether we
believe
Jagdesh killed Mark. This is a murder investigation, not the Oprah Winfrey show. I want evidence that Mark knew about Jagdesh Singh's secret. Without it, we have nothing!'

The two men walked out of the room together.

Jagdesh was sitting on a plastic stool outside the door, a young uniformed policeman next to him.

‘Mr Jagdesh Singh,' said Inspector Singh formally. ‘I am releasing you for the present. We will decide whether to press charges at a later date. I already have your passport. You are free to go.'