Such a Perfect Family by Nalini Singh

Author:Nalini Singh [Singh, Nalini]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2026-01-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 36

Private notes: Detective Callum Baxter (LAPD)

Date: Jan 8

Time: 20:11

What interests me about Susanne Winthorpe is that, according to an off-the-record chat with her oncologist, her cancer wasn’t terminal, but she went from diagnosis to death in under a year. She did refuse treatment, but even without treatment, she should’ve had a good couple of years at least.

The Singaporean authorities ruled her death a suicide, and if there was an autopsy, I haven’t yet been able to get hold of the report. Whatever they found in an autopsy—if there was one—it didn’t change their conclusions. And I can’t run any further tests. Her body’s gone, cremated as per her wishes.

How hard would it be to find a way to poison an already dying woman? Weak immune system, probably not preparing her own food. And Advani was staying with her for the last months of her life. On the flip side, why take the risk if you knew she was a dying woman anyway?

Impatience might be the answer. He was barely twenty-two when she died. Could be he got sick of being stuck at an invalid’s side, got sick of pretending to care. He’d already missed his final year of university—though apparently he managed to do enough courses remotely that he did get his degree only six months after he should have. Not the same as partying it up with your class, though, is it?

So maybe there was resentment there, too.

I asked her doctor if he had any of her blood or tissues left, anything on which we could run further tests, but no luck. He barely saw her after her diagnosis—just for a bit of pain medication and that was about it.

End result is that I still have nothing except some disturbing circumstantial evidence.

Susanne Winthorpe (Advani aged 19.5–22): Died by suicide. Would’ve otherwise died of natural causes (untreated lung cancer) per the official record.

Jocelyn Wai (22.5–23.6): Dead of a fall ruled accidental due to drug intoxication (a mix of ecstasy and alcohol), her case closed with nothing in it to force a reopening.

Virna Musgrave (25.7–26.2): Dead. Vehicle tampered with; likely homicide.

That gap of over two years between Jocelyn and Virna worries me. Who haven’t we found? Who else is dead?

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