Free Spirit Tiger by Barbara Ismail Page A

who owned the gambling place in his parents’ old house.’
    â€˜My wife is quite a detective,’ Mamat agreed, still cheerful. ‘She’s working on it, but she’ll be there at the competition to cheer for Borek. She wouldn’t miss it, you know. She loves the birds also.’
    â€˜Good. But that isn’t what I wanted to talk to you about. You see,’ he took a deep breath, ‘I’ve had problems with Yusuf before. For myself and for Kit Siang. He’s a wild boy, but a good one. He was gambling a little, you know,’ Ah Pak now looked supremely uncomfortable, but plowed ahead with determination nevertheless.
    â€˜I spoke to Yusuf about letting the boy run up large debts. He’s just a kid, I told him, throw him out when he starts losing serious money. Don’t encourage him to keep going and then come to me to pay up.’ Mamat listened quietly, hearing the hurt in his friend’s voice. ‘He knew I’d pay. I’d never let him hurt Kit Siang. That’s what he depended on, you see, that whenever he came to me with the debt, no matter how much I’d complain, I wouldn’t tell him to collect from my son. He knew that, and he kept coming back to me.
    â€˜I had to get Kit Siang away from all this. He’s got to grow up. I don’t say he’s not to blame here; after all, Yusuf didn’t drag him in to gamble, and it was Kit Siang who kept going back. I know that. But Yusuf was like a spider, waiting for him to be weak, and then jumping on him. And me, too.’
    Ah Pak looked morose, as all joy over the bird evaporated. ‘I sent him to my sister’s in Gua Musang. That should be far enough away for him to stay out of trouble. And she’s looking for a wife for him: all my sisters are down there and they’re all looking.’ He began to cheer up. ‘Believe me, if all my sisters are looking for a wife, they’ll find one! And when he’s married, you know, he’ll settle down. He wants to, it isn’t that. He hated what happened with Yusuf, and he blamed himself, I didn’t have to say a word to him.’
    â€˜How many times did Yusuf come to you?’ Mamat asked gently.
    â€˜Three times he came to see me. He has a way about him, it’s scary but not obvious. He doesn’t say anything directly to you, but you know what he means and what will happen if you don’t pay. Kit Siang’s mother would never forgive me if I let anything happen. I’d never forgive myself, either. But I tell you as a friend, I’m not sorry Yusuf’s dead. He deserved it.’
    â€˜Why are you telling me this?’
    Ah Pak seemed to wrestle with the words to explain himself. ‘I want you … that is, I would ask you … to tell your wife and explain it to her … so she doesn’t hear it from someone else and then think that either of us killed him.’ He finished baldly. ‘Because I didn’t kill him, even though I’m not sad he’s dead. Anyway, his wife will run it, and she’ll be just as bad, you’ll see.’
    Mamat was momentarily speechless. ‘I can tell her about it, but I can’t force her to think a certain way. She’ll come to her own conclusions. But I’ll tell her you told me right away and didn’t want to hide it. That’s really good.’
    Ah Pak nodded, content if not ecstatic. At least he had gotten it off his chest.

Chapter XII
    Suleiman started this whole thing,’ Maryam announced, ‘and since he’s gone home to Puteh, we’ve got to speak to both of them.’
    Rubiah nodded absently. ‘Why did Suleiman start it?’
    â€˜Because he got married. That’s when everything started to happen.’
    â€˜I think it all started with Ruslan, when he lost all his money. That’s where Yusuf was going when he was killed. Not to see Suleiman’
    â€˜Suleiman set him off,’ Maryam