“That’s Yolanda’s personal documentarian. It’s not for the public,” Wandi quickly explained. “Oh look, here come the footmen—this means we are adjourning to the dining room!”
A set of grand double doors were opened, and as Kitty walked through the arched doors, her eyes widened in wonder. She felt as if she had been transported back to a royal banquet in eighteenth-century France. The room was a mirrored chamber decorated with baroque gold boiseries, gilt bronze mirrors stretching from floor to ceiling, and dozens of candlelit crystal chandeliers. An immense dining table that seated thirty stretched along the middle of the room, heaving with Meissen china, gilt silverware, and towering gold birdcage centerpieces filled with white doves. The room sparkled under the light of thousands of candles, and footmen with powdered white wigs and dressed in black-and-gold livery stood behind every Amiens tapestry-covered chair.
“Hashtag madamedefuckingpompadour!” Oliver muttered under his breath.
“Yolanda had this dining room rescued from an old crumbling palace in Hungary and transported here piece by piece. It took three years to restore it to its former glory,” Wandi proudly announced.
“Can we do this at my house? Find an old palace and transport the dining room over?” Kitty whispered to Oliver.
Oliver cast Kitty a disapproving look. “Absolutely not! Alexis de Redé would be projectile vomiting in his grave if he saw this travesty.”
Kitty didn’t have a clue what he meant, but she was only too thrilled to be shown to her seat by a handsome footman, where her place card was a small antique gilt mirror with her name etched in glass. As she was about to sit down, the man beside her grabbed her arm. “Madame, not yet. We don’t sit until the First Lady has been seated. Yolanda follows the official court protocols here,” he said in a Scandinavian accent.
“Oh, sorry, I had no idea,” Kitty said. She stood by her seat, watching everyone stand at their places. Finally, the butler standing by the double doors announced, “The Honorable First Lady of the Republic of Singapore!”
The First Lady entered and was shown to her seat. Kitty’s five-inch Gianvito Rossi heels were beginning to kill her and she couldn’t wait to sit down, but the First Lady perplexingly remained standing by her seat near the head of the table. Why the fuck was everyone still standing?
The butler entered the room again and called out in a booming voice, “The Earl and Countess of Palliser!”
Kitty’s eyes widened in shock as a tall blond man entered the room, dressed casually in a button-down shirt, khaki chinos, and a rumpled navy blazer. By his side was Colette, dressed in a long white cotton eyelet dress with her hair pulled into a casual ponytail. She didn’t appear to be wearing any makeup, and her only jewelry was a pair of pearl-and-coral drop earrings.
After reacting to the shock of seeing her nemesis in Singapore, Kitty wanted to laugh out loud at how inappropriately Colette was dressed. This stepdaughter of hers was a complete disgrace. Did Colette even know where she was?
And then, to Kitty’s horror, the First Lady of Singapore performed a deep curtsy. Yolanda Amanjiwo and all the other guests in the room quickly followed suit—the men bowing low and the women dropping curtsies as the Earl and Countess of Palliser were led to the place of honor.
* * *
* Don’t quote me on this, but I believe a goondu is the Malay cousin of a goondusamy (India), which is in turn distantly related to a goombah (Jersey Shore and certain suburbs of Long Island).
CHAPTER TWELVE
BOTANIC GARDENS, SINGAPORE
It was still dark when Colin and Nick entered the grounds of the Botanic Gardens.*1 They followed to a tee the instructions in the mysterious letter that Nick had received—parking in the Gleneagles Hospital parking lot and crossing Cluny Road to enter the gardens through a little-known side gate. Just as the letter had said, the gate had been left unlocked.
As they walked down the tree-lined pathway, monkeys could be heard chattering and leaping through the bushes, no doubt alarmed by the sudden presence of humans in this secluded part of the garden. “God, it’s been years since I’ve been here,” Nick commented.
“Why would you come here? You had your own private botanic gardens right next door!” Colin said.
“Sometimes my dad and I would go on walks here, just for a change, and I only wanted to go to the lake with the two islands in the middle. I called it my ‘secret island.’ Wait a minute, let’s check the instructions again,” Nick said, unfolding the map that had been placed inside the envelope. Colin held his iPhone up to provide some lighting, while Nick peered at the map intently.
“Okay, the animal topiaries are over on the right, so I think we’re supposed to cut through this grove of trees right here.”
“There isn’t any path,” Colin said.
“I know, but the arrow points down this way.”
Lit only by the light of their phones, they ventured into the thick of the forest, Colin feeling a little creeped out. “It’s pitch-black in here. Why do I feel like I’m suddenly in The Blair Witch Project?”
“Maybe we’ll run in to a pontianak,”*2 Nick joked.
“Don’t joke—a lot of people say that parts of the Botanic Gardens are haunted, you know. I mean, the Japanese tortured and killed people all over the island.”
“Good thing we’re not Japanese,” Nick said.
Soon the trees gave way to a trail, and after following it for a few minutes, they came upon a small concrete hut under an enormous casuarina tree.
“I think this is it. It’s some sort of pump room,” Nick said, trying to peer in through the darkened windows.
Suddenly a dark figure darted out from behind the tree.
“Pontianak!” Colin yelled, dropping his iPhone in panic.
“Sorry, it’s just me,” a female voice said.
Nick flashed his iPhone in the direction of the figure and suddenly before them, illuminated in the white blue light, appeared Astrid in an audaciously large Vetements hoodie with super-long sleeves and tight camouflage pants.
“Jesus, Astrid! I almost shit myself!” Colin exclaimed.
“Sorry! I was scared for a moment when you first walked up, and then I realized it was you guys,” Astrid said.
Nick smiled in relief. “I’m assuming you got the same note I did about seeing Ah Ma?”
“Yes! It was all rather mysterious. I was at my parents’ watching Cassian swim in the pool. I must have dozed off in my deck chair for a moment, because when I got up, there was a tray of iced tea and pandan cake by my side, and the envelope was under the cake. Cassian swears he didn’t see who put it there.”
“How curious. Are you okay?” Nick asked.
“I’m fine. It didn’t really spook me.” Just as Astrid said this, a light came on inside the pump room and the three of them jumped a little in shock. The steel door could be heard being unlocked from the inside, and as it opened with a loud rusty creak, a turbaned silhouette could be seen peeking out.
“Vikram!” Nick said excitedly.