Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials Read Online Free Page A

if the goal was big enough. In this case, her goal was definitely
     big enough.

3
    Good-Class People
    Number 8 King Albert Rise was a GCB or “Good-Class Bungalow.” What this meant to someone
     familiar with Singapore real estate guidelines laid down by the Urban Redevelopment
     Authority was that the gently sloping land the two-and-a-half-story bungalow perched
     on had a plot width of at least 18.5 meters, a plot depth of at least 30 meters, and
     a plot size of at least 1,400 square meters in a desirable residential neighborhood
     (this being Singapore, rules clearly defined not only what constituted a luxury bungalow
     but where such bungalows were permitted to be built). And of course it also meant
     those able to afford it were good-class people
    Henry Sung liked the idea of the King Albert Rise house. It was the right size and
     in the right location to send all the right signals to the right people. It was expensive
     enough to show everyone that his family had made it, that they had enough money to
     be a force to be reckoned with in Singapore. At least that was what his wife, Mabel,
     said and he believed her. Mabel was right about most things. It was her financial
     investments that had paid for most of what they had. And even when Mabel wasn’t right,
     life was more comfortable when he agreed with her. So he did. Henry liked things to
     be comfortable. Who didn’t? And that was the problem Henry Sung had with the house.
     It had been designed by an award-winning architect and furnished by a world-renowned
     interior designer. It had also been featured in two lifestyle magazines in articles
     about Mabel Sung, first female dean of the law faculty at the National University
     of Singapore and founder of Sung Law, a top-tier firm in Singapore.
    But 8 King Albert Rise was not a very comfortable house.
    On the camera monitor he watched the caterer outside the back gate talking and laughing
     with her assistants. Rosie Lee had been a second wife. Maybe one day . . . he smiled
     as he thought of someone. Someone other than the woman who shared the house with him.
     Even thinking of her felt slightly clandestine, though they had been doing nothing
     wrong. Anyway his wife was in their son’s room, and once in there she could stay there
     for hours, oblivious to everything going on outside.
    “Not long now.”
    But he knows they are bound to live for eternity in this beautiful prison. No escape
     unless he acts. Finally there is a person who is both his reason for wanting to break
     away from Mabel and the one who has been urging him to stay and be patient, telling
     him things will work out for them if he just waits a little longer. No one who has
     seen Mabel Sung crushing all opposition in court or at home (and Henry has witnessed
     both) can believe there is any hope. But he is willing to dream a little longer because
     he knows that once Mabel feels challenged, it will be a battle to the death.
    “Where’s Sharon?” Mabel demanded accusingly from the doorway.
    “Maybe she went to the office,” Henry said without turning to look at her.
    “Don’t be ridiculous. Why would she go to the office today? Guests will be coming
     soon. Find her and tell her to get ready! I think somebody is here already!”
    A buzzer sounded, but not from the gate. Since their son, Leonard, became too weak
     to get around on his own, Mabel had installed a buzzer call system as well as a camera
     monitor in his bedroom. And Henry knew she had planned many more things that would
     involve wiring and foreign workers walking all over his house, and he winced at the
     prospect. The buzzer sounded twice more, followed by their son’s voice: “Mum! Nobody
     came to change my sheets!”
    “Maybe Lennie would be more comfortable in the hospital—or in a nursing home,” Henry
     said, not for the first time. He did not like being around bad smells and soiled sheets.
     It had been bad enough when the children were babies, even though