Meddling and Murder by Ovidia Yu

Author:Ovidia Yu
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008222413
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2017-02-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Kopitiam

Aunty Lee did not get to see the Takashimaya food basement after all. Once the meeting was over, Jonny Ho seemed as eager to get out of Ngee Ann City as he had been to get into it earlier. They ended up in a kopitiam off Sunset Drive.

‘We have to talk,’ Jonny Ho said. ‘But not in your café. Neutral territory, okay?’

On leaving the Ngee Ann City car park, Jonny had suggested any number of well-reviewed restaurants, or restaurants where he had contacts who could get them a good table without a reservation, but Aunty Lee, sulky over how close she had come to the secrets of ginseng chicken, not to mention checking out how long the queues were for Korean beef, kimchi soup, Bakerzin and Japanese cuisine at the Ngee Ann City food court, kept saying ‘no, no, drive on,’ till they left Orchard Road and its good restaurants behind them.

Holland Road was less fraught but Aunty Lee vetoed Holland Village as well, eventually telling Jonny to turn in at Sunset Drive.

‘Ah, I know there is a live seafood restaurant here,’ Jonny said, ‘but I don’t know about the quality … ’

‘I don’t want to go to the seafood restaurant,’ Aunty Lee said firmly. ‘If you want to talk, I need to think. For me to think properly I need more people around, more people eating and minding their own business.’

They ended up in the kopitiam. It was a large space with a high ceiling and open on all sides to the car park and industrial buildings in the area. Despite three rows of ceiling fans it was hot and humid, the sound of rain drumming on the metal roof competing with the buzz of conversation, people shouting orders to stall holders, who, on their part, were calling out invitations. There were also two large television sets suspended from the ceiling: one turned to an English news channel and the other a Chinese soap opera or drama. Though Aunty Lee had not deliberately chosen a place where Jonny would feel uncomfortable, this kopitiam worked very well. She suspected this was not because he was unfamiliar with such places but because he was all too familiar.

But she had chosen this place because the food and the location were just what she needed right then. The good-natured shouts, the ‘stall for rent’ signs, the mélange of stalls selling Indian Muslim food, chilli crabs, roasted chickens, ducks and pork ribs side by side with the Xin De An Medical and Minimart on one side and, beyond it, the back of the Veterinary Clinic (now restored) where the terrible fire had taken place not so long ago … all these things were part of the Singapore that Aunty Lee felt most at home in.

The gold Buddha statue in the small shrine set high into the wall (higher than the television sets) looked down benignly on all. Because of the rain the tables were more crowded than usual. The older folks who normally

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