“He’s not anything anymore,” said Siri. “He’s dead. All I have there in the morgue is his slowly decaying flesh. But that meat can speak to me. People are dying in the order predicted and I want to know how he’s killing them and how to stop him.”

He didn’t mention the box of pills he’d recovered from the bedside cabinet, nor the words “sooner than the universe had in mind” that had stuck with him since his conversation with Civilai’s spirit.

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Reunion at the Morgue

The reunion at the morgue was not a joyful one. The welcome mat at the entrance made nobody smile. Mr. Geung was too busy sweeping and scrubbing to respond to Dtui’s half-hearted jokes. And Dr. Siri had spent the last two hours with Civilai’s widow convincing her there was something to be gained by cutting open her husband. It was only because of Civilai’s respect for Siri that she finally agreed. That and the promise that the doctor would only go ahead with the autopsy if he found evidence of suspicious circumstances during his postmortem examination of Lah, the bread woman. Of course, Siri knew there was suspicion. He just had to be clever enough to find the explanations. He held only contempt for coincidence. Four deaths, six days apart, all predicted by the letter writer.

He pulled up three chairs beside the corpse of the bread woman and he, Dtui and Mr. Geung sat there like hospital visitors.

“Before we start,” said Siri. “Let’s plan our tactics. Let’s begin with the hypothesis that our nemesis was responsible for the deaths of the two journalists. In his letter he made it sound random, that he’d just kill someone as a show of his intentions. But what if it wasn’t random?”

“You mean he had a reason to kill them?” said Dtui.

“One of them had met someone he knew,” said Siri. “Perhaps our friend hadn’t planned to kill them, but they recognized him from the old days. His cover, whatever that was, was blown. He had no choice but to do away with them.”

“You don’t think it was an accident?” said Dtui.

“Before I went to see Madam Nong, I stopped off at the police car lot,” said Siri. “I took my boy wonder, Geung here, with me.”

Mr. Geung snorted through his nose and laughed.

“As you know, Mr. Geung’s senses are more active than my archaic system,” said Siri. “We took a look at the Ferrari. Geung’s nose led him straight to the mat under the driver’s seat. He pulled it out and there were three puncture holes in the floor. The petrol had been drained but he could still smell that the holes went right through to the tank. Someone had deliberately made those holes so the fumes would fill the car.”