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get you a list of hotels in a similar price range.”
    â€œOr you can stay with friends if you prefer,” Inspector Salim suggested, “as long as we know how to contact you.”
    â€œI don’t know anybody here!” Vallerie wailed, her hysterics threatening to return. “I only came because Allison wanted me to, and now she’s dead! My knees hurt and I can’t walk any more!”
    As someone also having trouble walking, Aunty Lee felt a bond with Vallerie. Perhaps, despite her bung ankle, she could help her?
    â€œDrink some more tea,” Aunty Lee urged. “You just had a terrible shock. You must keep up your blood sugar.” She signaled to Nina, who disappeared into the back kitchen. Aunty Lee thought Vallerie looked like a stress eater. So many people reacted to stress by abusing their bodies with cigarettes, alcohol, and jogging on treadmills, so why not food? It did good food a great disservice, but right then the poor woman deserved any comfort she could get. Losing a sister was bad enough; losing a sister in an alien country with no friends was much, much worse.
    â€œWe’ll get you something to eat. You must keep up your strength, you know. You just had a terrible shock.”
    â€œI can’t eat local food,” Vallerie said mechanically. “Local restaurant food is so spicy, it makes me sick. There’s a McDonald’s near the hotel but I don’t want to go back there. I never want to go back to that hotel!”
    SS Panchal had left her seat to confer with Inspector Salim. “Nonemergency ambulance?”
    Cherril, looking worried, was whispering to Brian and Josephine, who looked bored and was tapping on her mobile phone. Aunty Lee made up her mind before Nina returned from the kitchen to dissuade her.
    â€œYou must come and stay with me,” Aunty Lee said firmly. “My house is just up the road and I have lots of space. Inspector Salim can tell you I can be trusted, and when you are feeling better he can come to talk to you in my house.”
    Aunty Lee knew Vallerie had no reason to trust her. But she had no one else to trust, and surely a plump middle-aged (or even elderly) widow with a twisted ankle must appear less threatening than a strange police station or the hotel one’s sister had died in. She smiled at Vallerie and did her best to look old and harmless.
    â€œMy house is very comfortable and very safe. The police have my address so they will know where to reach you. Would you like that?”
    Vallerie hesitated, then nodded damply. “Yes.”

5
    88 Binjai Park
    Straits Financial Daily:
    The woman who was found dead in the Victoria Crest Hotel yesterday has been identified as British citizen Allison Love. Formerly known as Allison Fitzgerald, Ms. Love was the focus of controversy in Singapore five years ago when she claimed she was justified in having an adopted puppy put down. The subsequent Web outrage led former Cabinet minister Cheng Yee to caution against extreme overreactions on the Internet and suggest Internet monitoring procedures. Mr. Cheng, who is the first Cabinet minister to lose a group representativeconstituency (GRC), could not comment on whether the two events were connected.
    Seen on the Scene:
    [Shots of a covered body on a stretcher being carried out of the hotel and old photographs of Allison Fitzgerald raising a middle finger to the press camera, Josephine posing with Lola the puppy, and blurred shots of Cherril and Brian covering their faces.]
    Allison the Puppy Killer is back—and dead. Is this karma or overkill? Let us know what you think! We want to hear your comments!
    The next morning found Aunty Lee, as usual, sitting at the antique marble-topped table on the sheltered side porch of 88 Binjai Park. Over the past fortnight, Aunty Lee had been grumpy with frustration at the sight of her garden and the many things an ankle stabilizer and crutch barred her from doing; her ripe mangoes had