Ira took a sip of water from her cup. She seemed a little on edge.
“Are you alright, Ira? You look nervous,” asked Tian Yi in Malay. Tian Yi spoke next to no Tamil and Ira wasn’t the best at Mandarin either.
“I’m fine,” she said, lowering her voice as she continued speaking, “It’s just that some of the muftis can get a little pushy, and this case…with a Chinese perpetrator and a Malay funeral house being burned down…”
“It’ll be fine. You’ve figured out who he is, haven’t you?”
“Lok Sam Kwan, 37, father of two children and factory worker at South Ironworks. No prior criminal history. Lives at Kampung Air Emas. Not exactly the kind of person to commit a hate crime. Both his neighbors are Malay; they described him as friendly and helpful.”
“You just have to explain that to them,” said Tian Yi.
“Well, it’s going to be hard to convince them without providing them with an alternative motive for why he committed the arson,” the forty-something woman Indian woman said as she shrugged with her firm shoulders.
“That’s what we’re here to find out.”
“Are you sure this case is linked to the mysterious organ failure deaths you’re working on?”
Tian Yi scratched her arm as she thought for a moment. The enforcer uniforms were a lot scratchier than she expected.
“Not completely sure, but it’s somewhere to start, I think. You’ve read the background brief for the victims, right? All of them are Chinese laborers, miners or workers, just like your suspect. It’s not very likely, but it's possible the cases are connected. I also want to see if there are any cases of death by organ failures that involved a Malay person. It might give me an idea of what direction to go in.”
Unfortunately for Tian Yi, searching through the autopsy records at the Chinese morgue had been a fruitless endeavor. Other than identifying two additional individuals who might have died of the same cause, she did not find anything else she didn’t already know. There were no abnormalities in their autopsy records that could explain away the mystery of their deaths.
On the other hand, the records for the funeral house in Batu Langit had been lost in the fire, which greatly complicated matters. Fortunately, the director of the funeral house managed to escape the fire. Ira and Tian Yi were here to question him to get more information on the identities of the bodies that had been in the funeral house when it burned down.
The two of them were sitting in Imam Arif’s living room, waiting for him to return with the director of the funeral house. Tian Yi had wanted to pay the director a visit personally, but Ira advised otherwise, explaining that the Malay Union preferred if any enforcer activities within their district to be under supervision.
After what seemed like an hour of waiting, the wooden door creaked. Imam Arif was the first to step through the door, holding it open for two other men to enter. The first man had a bushy white beard and old, kindly eyes that seemed to smile no matter what expression he had on his face, while the other, younger man had his eyebrows knit together tightly.
Tian Yi noticed that Ira let out a breath of relief when she saw the old man enter.
The old man walked over to where the two enforcers were and shook their hands warmly in turn.
“Tian Yi, this is Mufti Asri. Mufti, this is Qing Tian Yi, our newest recruit,” Ira introduced them to each other.
“Pleasure to meet you,” said Mufti Asri to Tian Yi.
When everyone had taken their seats and had a cup of water to drink from, it was Mufti Asri who spoke first. The other two men seemed content to be quiet and let the mufti speak for them. Imam Arif was stoic but wary, while the other man glared at the two women suspiciously.
“Have the two of you had lunch yet?” he asked casually, unconcerned with the main topic at hand and seemingly oblivious to the tension in the air.
Tian Yi and Ira shook their heads.
“Ah…it’s a busy time for you enforcers, I suppose. We appreciate your service as always and I am so sorry we have to set up a whole meeting this way. I know how stuffy it is. Unfortunately, my colleagues prefer if we went about this through the proper channels, especially considering the nature of this case. I hope you don’t mind,” the mufti paused here to take a long and deep drink from his cup, “Now, I heard you are here because you have some questions for Faizal?”
The mufti nodded at the director of the funeral house, who nodded back awkwardly.
“Yes, we need to ask some questions regarding the funeral house and the bodies that were inside during the fire, as well as a few personal questions” replied Ira.
“Very well. Faizal has agreed to talk to you, but the Union was hoping— considering the nature of the incident and how it’s sparked some unrest among our community— that the enforcers fill us in on the progress of their investigation. I hope that’s not too much to ask?” Mufti Asri said calmly.
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Ira was quiet for a moment. Tian Yi said nothing. This was Ira’s case, after all.
“There are certain details that we can’t share with you at the moment, but I would be happy to keep you up to date on our investigation.”
“Excellent, please, go on,” said the mufti as he clapped his hands together. It was clear that the interview would not proceed until Ira had explained her side of things.
Ira cleared her throat and gave a brief overview of everything the enforcers had discovered so far, including how the fire was started, the background on the perpetrator and other witness statements they had collected. Tian Yi glanced at her while she was speaking and she immediately understood. Ira made sure to omit the fact that Tian Yi was pursuing the case of the mysterious deaths, as well as the fact that these two cases could be related.
“Based on your description, this man doesn’t seem like someone who hates Malays, much less someone who would burn down a building and then kill himself. You think this is the work of someone else manipulating him?” asked the mufti.
“Likely so. What we are after now is some sort of motive, which might help us zone in on the actual mastermind behind all this, which is why we need to talk with the director.”
The mufti frowned and muttered, “Dark magic. I see the problem. Faizal, cooperate with the enforcers and tell them everything you know, please.”
Faizal frowned and stayed silent for a moment.
Mufti Arif looked at the two enforcers apologetically as he explained, “Forgive him. Everyone has been on edge ever since the mayor announced rationing. There have been a few fights here and there in the district, sometimes involving enforcers. Add to that the fire and there’s been rather nasty rumors circulating lately, of the racial sort. We’ve been doing our best to cull these rumors, but there’s a lot of uncertainty in the air lately. Faizal barely escaped with his life during the fire, so you will have to excuse him if he seems a little nervous.”
Finally, after some prodding and some silence, the director of the funeral house sighed and said, “What do you want to know?”
“Did you know the suspect personally in any capacity?” asked Ira.
Faizal shook his head and said, “Not at all.”
“Can you think of any enemies that might want you dead?”
Faizal shook his head again, looking a little offended at the question.
Ira and Tian Yi shared a glance, before the older woman spoke, “Very well. We suspect the perpetrator wanted the funeral house burned down because of something or someone that was being kept inside. Would you know if there was anything valuable being kept inside the premises?”
“The most expensive thing I had was my copy of the Quran. Other than that, it’s mostly files and papers. We also keep the possessions of the deceased there, until their families come to claim them. I’m not quite sure, but I remember there being a few pieces of expensive jewelry there,” said Faizal.
“Jewelry?” Ira and Tian Yi both leaned in closer out of curiosity. Jewelry was rather rare in this underground world, largely because most people were just barely scraping by. Very few people had the means to afford luxury items, and even fewer people knew how to make jewelry.
“Yes. They belonged to Wan Ariffin, you know, the famous merchant?”
Ira and Tian Yi nodded. Wan Ariffin was known throughout the Undercity for his prodigious trading skills. He owned many of the shops across the city, from restaurants to tailors and pawnshops, his company practically made up half of the city’s economy. No one quite knew how he managed to build such a large empire in a time of such scarcity, but there were rumors that he was simply very well-connected.
Ira quickly took out her notepad and wrote this bit of information down. Neither she nor Tian Yi knew that Wan Ariffin had died recently. If it was true, it could be a very promising lead. A famous merchant dies and a few days later, his body is burned to ashes before it could be buried. And the jewels…
Ira made a mental note to check the evidence taken from the scene to see if any jewelry had been among the items recovered.
“How long had he been dead for, at that point?”
“Two days, maybe? I was going to go ahead and prepare him for burial that very day until the fire started out of nowhere. His family has been harassing me non-stop since and I can’t even defend myself.”
Ira ignored the comment and continued asking only the relevant questions, “And what was the cause of death?”
“Old age. His heart just gave out.”
Ira raised an eyebrow at Tian Yi when she heard this. His heart just gave out? Or was it a case of acute organ failure?
“How old was he?”
“He was 83 years old when he died.”
Ira asked a few more questions and wrote everything down.
“What about the other bodies? Who else was in the funeral house when it burned down?” Tian Yi finally asked, interrupting the conversation between the two people.
Faizal scrunched his nose at her impolitely but slowly told Tian Yi what she wanted to know. Three more bodies, one belonging to a widow who died of pneumonia, one belonging to a city guard who died of an Abyss creature attack, and a miner who died of acute liver failure.
Tian Yi’s ears perked up when she heard the last one mentioned. She wrote down the name of the miner, Zainal Shaffi, but said nothing.
“One last question,” Tian Yi chimed in again as the interview came to an end, “Have you had any dead people in the past few months who died of mysterious causes, or some sort of acute organ failure?”
Faizal thought for a moment and shook his head, “Nothing I would really call mysterious. The only cases of acute organ failures were Wan Ariffin and Zainal Shaffi. What happened to Wan Ariffin wasn't surprising, but I suppose liver failure for someone of Zainal’s age is quite strange, especially since it’s haram to drink.”
Tian Yi nodded and said thanks. The interview quickly came to an end after that. The two enforcers had gotten what they need. Two promising leads. Wan Ariffin and Zainal Shaffi. A merchant and a miner.
The two of them said their thanks to the three men for their cooperation before leaving the house. Ira and Tian Yi looked at each other.
“So which one should we look into first?” asked Ira.
Tian Yi scratched her chin and looked down as she pondered the question. She felt oddly impatient, as if she had missed something important. It had taken three whole days for them to arrange this meeting with the funeral house director. If the mastermind behind these deaths was ruthless enough to burn down a funeral house for their own personal gain, why wouldn’t they go further to fully cover their tracks?
Something told Tian Yi that she was on the right track. That same feeling told her that time was running short. She turned around and looked Ira in the eyes.
“We should split up. You take Wan Ariffin’s case. I’ll track down Zainal Shaffi’s family.”
Having said that, Tian Yi turned and hurried to her next destination.