“Why?” asked Dtui. “To make an explosion?”

“No,” said Siri. “That was my first guess too. But there wasn’t much chance they’d ignite the fumes unless they lit a bonfire in there.”

“The killer wants them to-to-to breathe it,” said Geung.

“Exactly right,” said Siri. “As the temperature rose, the fumes would have filled the car. They wouldn’t notice because there was a much stronger smell there.”

“Flowers,” said Geung.

“Someone had put together a whole bunch of leis and hung them from the rearview mirror. Jasmine in a confined space tends to overpower other scents. If they’d smoked their weed they might have noticed the subsidiary smell of petrol fumes because grass tends to heighten the sense of smell, but they didn’t. They drank beer. One of the bottles had been re-capped. I had Geung take a sniff.”

“I could s-s-smell rotten egg,” said Geung. “Like, like antibiotic.”

“And why would anyone put antibiotic in a bottle of beer?” Siri asked.

“Beats me,” said Dtui.

“Some antibiotics deaden the sense of smell temporarily,” said Siri. “So, what if the killer gave them the leis and the beer to see them off on their journey. But also to make sure they didn’t notice the petrol fumes?”

“But why?” Dtui asked.

“I couldn’t do an autopsy on Jim, the photojournalist, but I did notice he had sinus problems. I guessed he’d had allergies. If his condition was chronic and he didn’t have access to medication, the fumes could have been enough to kill or at least incapacitate him. He’s drinking, driving too fast on bad roads in a car without seatbelts. He has an attack. It either kills him outright, or he drives into a tree or a house.”

“Or a pond,” said Geung.

“The killer couldn’t have planned for both of them to die,” said Dtui.

“It didn’t matter if only Jim had recognized him,” said Siri. “Perhaps they’d met in the war, stationed at the same press corps. I don’t know. But he got lucky. The two of them ended up in a lake and both drowned. And anything Jim had told Marvin about the reunion drowned with them. Our killer had cleaned up.”

“And he could use the deaths to show he was serious,” said Dtui.

“And capable,” said Siri.

“How did the k-k-killer man know about the ah, ah . . . ?”

“The allergy?” said Siri. “That’s a good question. If they’d worked together it wouldn’t have been much of a secret. If Jim used an inhaler it would have been noticed.”

“Any of the journalists here for the festival could have seen him use it,” said Dtui. “And they didn’t recover an inhaler from the car wreckage.”

“It could have floated away,” said Siri. “We’ll get Phosy to ask around when we’re done here.”

“And what are we looking for with your girlfriend Madam Lah,” Dtui asked.