A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree by Shamini Flint

Author:Shamini Flint
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789085241522
Publisher: For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Published: 2010-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Eleven

“What did you just say? Huon killed your father?” Singh’s tone was incredulous.

All of them remembered the witness statement. Sovann Armstrong’s father had been bludgeoned to death by a Khmer Rouge cadre when she was eleven years old. But to suggest that it was Huon? Singh shook his head regretfully. The pathologist had been right with his far-fetched theories about individuals being pushed to breaking point by the dredging up of old memories. To believe that Huon had killed her father – that was madness, surely.

Sovann spoke in a perfectly reasonable tone. “But you must know all this already. I filed a police report when I recognised him as a murderer and not the victim he pretended to be.”

“You made a police report?” demanded Menhay angrily.

She nodded briefly. “The policeman who took my statement didn’t look very convinced. I’m not sure I blame him. I could hardly believe it myself.”

The colonel stormed out of the room, his face the colour of a thundercloud. They could all hear him screaming at his underlings although no one gave any overt sign of it.

“He’s asking for the report,” whispered Chhean.

Sovann gazed down at the hands folded in her lap and then looked up at all of them, finally fixing her gaze on Inspector Singh. Did she suspect, had she guessed, that he was the soft touch? The policeman blinked rapidly a few times; his eyes felt grainy and tired. Didn’t Sovann Armstrong realise that by revealing that she believed Huon had killed her father, she was providing them with a motive? She was damning herself out of her own mouth.

“Listen,” he whispered urgently to the woman accused of murder, one eye on the door to watch for Menhay’s return, “I’m not convinced you killed Huon. So just try and be calm until we figure this out.”

Chhean, who had been rifling through her papers like an angry accountant, found what she was looking for. She waved it in the air like a lion tamer with a whip and a collection of frisky lions. “Autopsy report – Huon did have a birthmark as described by Mrs Armstrong.”

“Yes,” said Singh impatiently. “Unfortunately we only have the word of Mrs Armstrong that such a birthmark was also on the neck of the cadre who killed her father. That’s evidence of nothing except her keen eyesight.”

Chhean looked miffed but did not deny Singh’s point.

Menhay walked back into the room. He held out a handwritten report to Chhean who ran through it quickly for Singh. It was the police report that Sovann had made fingering Huon as the killer of her father. Only the deep indentations of pen on paper revealed the internal turmoil of the writer. The information itself was succinct and clearly expressed. No wonder Sovann had been surprised that her interrogators knew nothing of her motive.

“Apparently we’re getting a lot of reports of this nature – my boys didn’t realise the importance of this one.” The policeman was apologetic, hinting at the many Cambodians who were imagining Khmer Rouge cadres behind every bush now that the war crimes tribunals had commenced.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.