THE GIRL IN THE WINDOW (The Inspector Samuel Tay Novels Book 4) (6 page)

The ruins were still smoking when Abu Suparman issued a statement through Jemaah Islamiah taking credit for the attack. There was, of course, no way to tell for certain if Suparman was involved or not. Tay had heard whispers the explosions were strictly a domestic matter, an attack on the rigid establishment that had governed Singapore from its very beginnings as an independent country, but no one wanted to say that right out loud so putting the blame on Suparman at least made conversation easier. When the security establishment laid the bombings at Abu Suparman’s extremely convenient doorstep, everyone nodded and that was that.

Terrorist attacks in Singapore? Had to be foreigners, didn’t it? No Singaporean could possibly be responsible. Singaporeans all loved their country and their government, didn’t they?

Ever since the day the savagery had finally come to Singapore, regardless of who was really responsible for bringing it, the police and the Internal Security Department had been on high alert. Lunatics tried to blow up Singapore once and everyone knew they would try again, and then again, until they were hunted down and killed. Abu Suparman was number one on everyone’s list of most wanted men, but as far as Tay knew no one even had any idea where he was.

Not until now.

“Most of these Asian whack jobs used to claim an affiliation with al Qaida, but al Qaida has gone out of style.” The SAC looked at Tay as if he wanted to make sure Tay was paying attention, and Tay went back to nodding. “These days Abu Suparman says he’s connected to the Islamic State, ISIS. Maybe he thinks ISIS sounds more sinister, more threatening, more violent. Maybe it really is. We’re not sure, but we do know ISIS has rekindled terrorism in Southeast Asia after years of decline. There have been at least two thousand Southeast Asians in Iraq and Syria fighting for ISIS and some of these people are back now. They are well trained, battle hardened, and ready to fight.”

“But, sir, what does this—”

“The threat of ISIS in Southeast Asia is real, and the threat to Singapore is real,” the SAC said. “We’ve got to cut the head off this snake before it bites us again, and Abu Suparman is the head of the snake.”

The SAC tossed back the rest of the whiskey and put the glass down.

“I’d just tell you to get out there, find the bastard, and arrest him, but it’s not going to be as easy as that. The Internal Security Department got the same intelligence I did, but they got it a week or two ago. That’s why my friend called me. He knew ISD wasn’t going to tell us a damn thing about all this and he thought I should know.”

Tay doubted that was the real story, but he nodded anyway. Perhaps the SAC’s source in Indonesian intelligence really
was
a friend doing him a favor. In Tay’s experience, however, few things about relationships between international law enforcement agencies were that simple. Could Indonesia have another motive for leaking information that would push Singapore’s police force into a tug of war against its Internal Security Department? Of course it could.

“Here’s what I know, Sam. Suparman has a sister who has been diagnosed with cancer. She is coming to Singapore for an operation this week and there is intelligence that Suparman will try to meet her somewhere here in Singapore before her operation since there is a risk she will not come through it. ISD is putting her under surveillance while she is in the country in the hope she will lead them to Suparman. I spoke to the Minister of Home Affairs this morning. I told him I know about what ISD is planning and I demanded CID be included in it. He agreed.”

The SAC looked at Tay. Tay wasn’t certain how he was supposed to react to that so he just nodded again. That must have satisfied the SAC because he started talking again.

“The Minister made it clear ISD is in charge of this operation. I think that’s a mistake. If ISD gets their hands on Suparman, they’ll tuck him away somewhere under the Internal Security Act and we’ll never see him again. This bastard is a criminal, Sam. I want him hanged.”

All at once Tay understood exactly why the SAC was sitting in his garden drinking his whiskey instead of talking to him on the telephone. There were some things you didn’t talk about on the telephone in Singapore. There were a great many such things if you knew what was good for you, but without a doubt the first topic on nearly anyone’s list of things not to talk about on the telephone in Singapore would be exactly the same.

The Internal Security Department.

THE SECURITY ESTABLISHMENT in Singapore is ferociously efficient. The police are the visible part of that establishment, but the Internal Security Department is the part of it that really scares the crap out of most Singaporeans.

Officially, ISD is an intelligence agency that collects whatever intelligence is required to protect Singapore against threats to its internal security such as espionage, terrorism, and subversion. Unofficially, ISD is a sort of Singaporean secret police.

ISD is officially acknowledged to exist, but that’s all most of the public really knows about it. It doesn’t appear in the Singapore Government Directory and it cultivates an air of mystery Tay always thought downright laughable. Even the name of the Director of ISD is an official secret. Tay was willing to bet he could find out who the current director was easily enough, but he didn’t care enough to try.

Under Singapore’s Internal Security Act, ISD has extraordinary powers to detain people more or less indefinitely without charges, and it is not reluctant to use those powers. In real democracies, people are justifiably horrified when they hear about security agencies that can arrest anyone they like and hold them without charges for however long they want. Singaporeans seemed to accept ISD secret detentions as an everyday part of government. Maybe that meant Singapore wasn’t much of a democracy. Funny, Tay thought, how few people seemed to notice that.

Tay didn’t much like either the Internal Security Department or the people he knew there. He had been forced to work with them a few times in the past and it wasn’t an experience he wanted to repeat. The little pricks just rubbed him the wrong way. They were smug, they were arrogant, and they treated the police like cops were good for nothing but manual labor.

Tay picked up the pack of Marlboros he had left on the table and put it down again.

It was his garden, of course, and even in Singapore he didn’t need to ask anyone’s permission to smoke in his own home—not yet, at least—but the whole idea of lighting a cigarette in front of a senior officer seemed so peculiar he couldn’t quite bring himself to do it.

“If the Minister told you ISD is in charge of this operation,” Tay asked, clasping his hands together in front of him to prevent them from making another grab for the Marlboros, “what part is CID supposed to play?”

“The Minister said he was concerned the operation could touch on domestic issues like people who might be sheltering Suparman, and he thought CID ought to be available in case issues not related to the Internal Security Act come up. He also said the first order of business was locating Suparman, and he thought a better chance of doing that existed if ISD and CID worked together.”

“And what happens if we do find him, sir?”

“That’s a good question. I just don’t know what the answer to it is. I suppose we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Tay didn’t much like the sound of that. A public tug of war between ISD and CID over taking control of Abu Suparman, assuming they could even cooperate enough to find him, would be unseemly at best, humiliating at worst. Especially if it ended badly for CID.

“I’ll keep pushing the Minister, Sam, but he’s not a man who likes to make difficult decisions. You’ll probably be on your own if you do find Suparman. You’ll just have to figure it out then.”

Tay didn’t mind being on his own. The truth was he rather preferred it. Better to ask for forgiveness, as the saying went, than to ask for permission.

On the other hand, he couldn’t exactly see how the SAC imagined this would play out. Say they spotted Suparman in this joint surveillance operation. What then? Did ISD and CID race each other to see who got to him first? Did ISD and CID shoot it out over who would control the prisoner? Tay didn’t see any way this would end well unless the Minister made a firm decision before they found Suparman.

“I could always just shoot the bastard, sir.”

The SAC pursed his lips and looked thoughtful.

“I was only kidding, sir.”

“Were you? Too bad.”

Before Tay could decide what to say to that, the SAC pointed to his empty glass. “Another one would be very welcome, Sam. We have more to talk about.”

Did they? Tay wondered what that could be. The SAC had already deputized him to fight a war against ISD for control of a notorious international terrorist. What came after that? Taking on the Prime Minister, too? But he didn’t say any of that, of course.

What he said was, “Yes, sir. Coming right up.”

When Tay returned with the SAC’s drink, he brought another one for himself as well. They sat in silence for a few moments, each man sipping his drink and sorting through his own thoughts. Tay gave up worrying about what the SAC might think and shook out a Marlboro from the pack on the table. He lit up without apologizing, but the SAC didn’t seem to care. He didn’t even appear to notice.

“I want you at New Phoenix Park at nine o’clock tomorrow morning, Sam. There is a briefing at ISD then about the surveillance operation. The Minister has agreed to include you and your officers in that briefing and ISD will be expecting you.”

New Phoenix Park was the heavily secured compound of the Ministry of Home Affairs located on the north side of the city. The compound housed the general headquarters of the Singapore Police as well as the headquarters of ISD and some other law enforcement agencies supervised by the Minister of Home Affairs such as the Immigration and Checkpoint Authority and the Civil Defense Authority. The Cantonment Complex where Tay had his office housed only CID and the Central Narcotics Bureau.

A group of buildings off to itself in the back of the compound was ISD’s operating base. All glass and concrete, the buildings were structures so humorless and overblown Tay always believed they would have embarrassed Albert Speer. It was inside those imperious looking buildings that ISD did whatever it was it did, and Tay wasn’t at all sure he even wanted to know what that really was.

“ISD is expecting me specifically, sir?”

“Yes, you specifically. That’s what I told the Minister.”

“And the Minister was fine with that?”

The SAC hesitated. “He accepted my decision to assign you to the operation.”

Which apparently meant, no, he was not fine with that, but I shoved you down his throat anyway.

This just kept getting better and better.

“You’re in charge of this operation, Sam, or at least in charge of whatever CID’s part in it turns out to be, and you will report only to me. I’m assigning two other CID detectives to work with you. The three of you and myself will be the only people at CID I want involved in this.”

“Two other detectives, sir?”

“Sergeant Kang, of course. And since Inspector Aw is on annual leave, Sergeant Lee has very little to do so she’ll be your third detective.”

Tay hesitated. “Sergeant Linda Lee?”

“Yes. You know her, don’t you, Sam?”

Tay did indeed know her.

A couple of years back he and Linda Lee had gone out a couple of times and the result had been so disastrous neither of them ever mentioned it to anyone. Even now, Tay didn’t really understand exactly what had happened.

Linda was attractive. Tay would be the first to say that. And he would even concede she was intelligent and articulate, too. Tay thought the problem might have been that he and Linda were too much alike. He had never believed opposites attracted and he was certain that cliché had been responsible for more divorces than infidelity, but he didn’t think being too much alike was exactly the road to heaven either. You had to find a balance of some kind; although God only knew he didn’t have the first idea how to do that. And that explained as well as anything why he had never married.

Tay drew on his cigarette and exhaled slowly. Could this get any worse? He really didn’t see how.

“What about the floater, sir? If Kang and I are looking for Suparman, I don’t see how we can work that case the way it needs to be worked. We don’t even have an ID on the corpse yet.”

“I’ll put somebody else on it.”

“It was a gunshot death, sir.”

The SAC’s mouth dropped open. “What?”

“That’s what Dr. Hoi says.”

“Who?”

“The pathologist who examined the body at the scene, sir. She said there was a gunshot wound in the back of the head. Probably nine millimeter.”

For a moment the SAC appeared to Tay to be too astonished to speak, then he sighed and shook his head so slowly he seemed concerned it might fall off.

“That’s all we need,” he said. “I’ll put somebody on getting an ID tomorrow and then we’ll see where we are.”

In other words
, Tay thought,
if it turns out to be somebody important, or God forbid a foreigner, I’ll keep the case regardless of having to battle ISD over Suparman at the same time. If it’s nobody, they’ll give the case to the first guy who walks by
.

That was what he thought, but what he said was nothing at all.

“One other thing, Sam. The Minister didn’t argue nearly as hard as I expected him to when I demanded he force ISD to include us.” The SAC hesitated. “You see what I’m getting at, don’t you?”

“Not really, sir.”

“They made it too easy. So it’s occurred to me that they might be setting us up.”

“Setting us up? For what?”

“To take the fall if everything turns to shit. ISD would like nothing better than to dump all the blame for anything that goes wrong right on CID.”

“You mean like—”

“Like a very public fuck up. The kind that leaves bodies behind.”

Tay didn’t like the sound of that so he said nothing.