href="#u9c53de59-7dff-5d5b-bf2d-a5513666bd71">Copyright
Singapore—Saturday, October 10
She had been pretty once.
Now her skin gleamed in the glow of the fluorescent lights. A strand of auburn hair fell across a well-shaped brow and her lips held a glimmering trace of sherbet lip gloss.
“It’s a shame, really,” the coroner said as his sun-bronzed hand held the edge of the stark white sheet. “Life was just getting started. Twenty-five or there about.” He shook his head. “I try to remember that every time I step out of the house. Enjoy the moment. You just never know. And in this job you’re reminded of mortality every day.” A strand of salt-and-pepper hair drifted across his forehead. “I try not to think about it or it would drive me crazy.”
“True,” Josh Sedovich said. “Any idea how she died?”
The coroner nodded. “She was hit by a blunt object to the back of the head. Surprising, I always thought Singapore so civilized until I moved here and took this job. Unfortunately, it’s turned out no better than anywhere else.”
“Why does it always end like this? On a temporary visa to see the world and, just like that, it’s over.” Josh ran his hand along the side of his neck. “It’s damn hot in here.”
“No air-conditioning,” the coroner said. “Is she who you’re looking for?”
“No. Fortunately not.” He fisted his right hand. Not so fortunately for the unknown young woman on the coroner’s slab.
Probable murder, potential arson and an unknown assassin. He’d been on the trail of this case for the past three weeks, and now one person was dead and still, miraculously, the witness lived. Not only lived but thrived over days that had turned into weeks and weeks into months. It wouldn’t have happened had the FBI called him in sooner.
“Interesting that Victor has given you a hall pass. Maybe the fact that she’s American, too. But more than likely not.” The coroner looked at Josh with mild interest. “Private investigator...” He frowned. “I thought you would have to be a little more than that. CIA maybe. Or maybe I just watch too much television.”
Josh slipped his hand into his pocket and looked away before meeting the coroner’s gaze. “American? How do you know that?”
“Assumption on my part, but look at this.” He pulled down the sheet, exposing the cadaver’s torso, and pointed at her belly button. A steel stud pierced her navel; the steel was offset only by the red, white and blue of the American flag.
“Maybe,” Josh said doubtfully. “But she might be a wannabe, too.”
“Yeah, I know. Or her boyfriend was or, or... Still comes down to an unidentified body.”
He straightened, turning to face Josh. “’Course, tattoos, earrings...” He trailed off, looking pointedly at the metal ace of spades in Josh’s left ear. “Are rather a dime a dozen.” He shook his head. “Don’t understand it much. Must be the generation gap.” An overhead fan kicked on. “What’s this girl done? Any ideas on why someone murdered her?”
“Nothing that I know of.” Josh flexed his fingers as he looked at the sad, lifeless figure. He reached over and took the corner of the sheet and pulled it up over her breasts. “Wrong place. Wrong time.”
“Seems a little more than wrong place and time. Someone torched her apartment, but not before killing her.” The coroner coughed into his gloved hand. “Heard that the original lease is in a different name, sublet. Can’t get hold of the girl who signed the lease to tell us who she sublet to. Traveling Europe or some such idiocy.”
“Just a minute.” Josh held up his forefinger before turning his back and taking a few steps away. He pulled out the cell phone he’d bought at a local convenience store and hit Redial. “Yeah, Victor. I’ll be there in a half hour, maybe less.” He slipped the phone back into his pocket.
“Well, I suppose we’ll know who she is soon enough.” The coroner slid the drawer containing the body back into place and out of sight.
Twenty minutes later, Josh stepped over the charred threshold of the ruined apartment building. Outside, the cinder brick exterior was still intact but inside was a gutted mess. Water dripped from the ceiling and the acrid smell of burned plastic mixed with wood smoke and other synthetics.
He covered his mouth with the back of his hand and coughed.
“Josh Sedovich.” Victor Chong held out his hand. It was a quick shake, more a formality than one with any feeling.
“Chong.” He shook the man’s hand for the second time that day. “Still can’t convince you that a private investigator might get you more information than this team of officials you’re set on?”
“No more than you could this morning.”
“Definitely a case of arson,” Victor confirmed with a shake of his head. His safety helmet was tucked under his arm and there were smudges of soot across his cheek. His dark hair was matted to his head and it was obvious that he had spent a great deal of time inside the smoking and charred remains. “Have you seen the body?”
“I did.”
“And?” Victor arched a brow. “Was she the girl you’re looking for? Your lost person?”
“No idea who she might be, but she isn’t who I’m looking for.” He glanced beyond Victor into the small studio apartment where she’d lived.
“Can’t imagine hunting missing persons day in and day out. No variety.”
“It’s a job like any other,” he said shortly.
“Now if that wasn’t a false statement,” Victor replied. “People go missing for all sorts of reasons, and I’ll bet you’ve seen them all. So, best-case scenario that she’s not in the morgue yet. I mean the one you’re looking for. Obviously, the other... Well, we both know where she is.”
“Best-case scenario, it wasn’t her,” Josh agreed, turning to look at the damage the fire had done. “Too bad about the identification bit. You would have made my job easier.”
Victor shrugged. “Although identification isn’t my problem, I still wouldn’t mind having one up on Detective Tay. He’s a prideful bugger, always rubbing my nose in it.”
Josh stepped around Victor, his gaze taking in the cheaply papered walls, the hint of a vine pattern only partially concealed by soot and smoke. The tiny apartment was pretty much ruined. The water had destroyed what the fire hadn’t.
“Interesting that the body wasn’t burned at all. Now it’s just a matter of getting the right people to view her. And then we’ll get that damn ID.”
Josh breathed lightly as he stepped into the room. Victor carried on his one-way conversation as he followed. The smell of smoke was more intense here as it saturated the air and bit harshly into his sinuses. His stomach rolled. He looked with envy at the mask Victor donned as he stepped over a pool
