Inspector Singh Investigates Read Online Free PDF

year. And public opinion in Singapore was incensed by what it saw as the victimisation of someone they felt they knew personally, so intense and detailed was the media coverage of the divorce and custody battles.
    The policeman could see just enough of Chelsea Liew's face to understand her success as a supermodel, although her recent experiences had left their mark. Her cheekbones were high, almost protruding through translucent skin. She had large almond eyes but they were red–rimmed, with deep blue shadows underneath. Her hair was scraped back firmly and tied in a ponytail. Grey hairs were visible all along the line of her forehead. Her lips, so luscious in those cosmetic adverts of the late eighties, were bloodless, dry and chapped. Her neck, thin and long, protruded from an oversized T–shirt. The inspector could see that she was at least six inches taller than him. Even seated and slumped, it was evident that the long legs in baggy prison pyjamas, feet slipped into flip–flops, were of a length to have stridden down catwalks – before marriage and murder had reduced her to silence.
    He said, 'If you do not help me, I cannot help you.'
    She looked up for the first time. For a second, as she had glanced up at him with those famous almond–shaped eyes, he had felt a remarkable sense of deja vu. It was like looking at an old magazine cover, to once again be at the receiving end of that celebrated gaze. But now the brown eyes were filled with pain.
    She spoke, the words wrenched reluctantly out of her. 'Nobody can help me now.'
    'Why do you say that?' he asked, more gently than was his wont. The case–hardened policeman felt an unusual sympathy for the accused.
    She gestured, a small sharp movement with one hand which encompassed the prison walls around her.
    'I will only leave this place to walk to my death.'
    'Did you kill your husband?'
    'You would use that word for twenty years of brutality?'
    'What about the children?'
    'What can I do for them now?'
    'Not much while you're in here.'
    Quiet descended on the room again.
    The inspector said, 'At least let me talk to people. Find out what happened. Please! It will cost you nothing if I fail. But if I succeed, we might get you out of here and back with your kids.'
    She nodded once, a terse gesture, as if she was conferring a favour on him rather than dependent on him to find her an escape route.
    Chelsea Liew rose to her feet. Inspector Singh got up too and watched her shuffle to the door. Sergeant Shukor opened it for her and she walked out. Inspector Singh had almost forgotten the sergeant was there. The waiting policewoman handcuffed her briskly and led her away.
    The two men left in the room were a study in physical contrasts. One fit, strong, clean–shaven, well groomed. The other dishevelled, overweight and bearded.
    Inspector Singh asked, 'What do you think? Did she do it?'
    Shukor shrugged. 'She had the best motive.'
    The senior policeman nodded. 'She certainly did. What does your boss think?'
    'Inspector Mohammad?'
    Singh nodded curtly.
    'That she's one hundred per cent guilty, sir.'
    The policeman was not surprised. Police work was rarely complicated. Locked–door mysteries and multiple suspects were the stuff of fiction. Usually, the person last heard threatening to kill someone who was later found dead was the murderer. He could not even blame Inspector Mohammad. He was not leaping to conclusions, just following the facts.
    'What now, sir?' asked Shukor, interrupting his reverie.
    'I go to my sister's house for the evening and then back to my hotel.'
    'I will get the car, sir – and wait for you in the front.'
     
    Alan Lee's brother, Jasper, sat in a small office on the second floor of an old shophouse near Chinatown. From his shuttered windows, he could see the red, pagoda–roofed entrance to Petaling Street, bustling and crowded as always. Rows and rows of stalls sold knock–off Gucci handbags, Tag Heuer watches and Mont Blanc pens. The quality was