Wednesday, 10 December 2003 

 "It's kind of weird, that situation, isn't it? It's not like there's some landlord or building administrator keeping an eye on things. I mean, who takes charge when flat owners disappear? Who owns the place now? Who's in charge of cleaning it up?

 "I guess when you're talking about dead people, it's easy enough to call on the police."

 "Not that Chee Eng was especially reassured by their problem-solving skills, was how he put it." Elle continues.

 "Watching them break through the door, he had to suggest that they remove the rucked up doormat. That sped progress along nicely, he said.

 "But even before breaking in, they'd had to knock, look through the shutters, go back to the station for a flashlight and crowbar. All of this is sending Rosie into near fits of tears. While Chee Eng thought he was handling everything remarkably well until he noticed his knees were trembling uncontrollably.

 "So the police shone their flashlight through the window, and Chee Eng saw that the place was in total disarray. Drawers had been opened and stuff was spilling out, as if people had tried to leave in a hurry; or the place had been searched. In the end they bust the lock, and went in breathing through their handkerchiefs."

 "And found the bodies." Cam says with a false note of finality. The disk doctor has found some bad blocks, so now he's running a check on them. This could take a while, and he is betting that Elle hasn't finished her story yet.

 "Now not so fast" Elle replies (he knows her too well).

 "Chee Eng said the police checked room by room, but he stayed well away at this point. He and Rosie waited at their flat for any news. You may want to know what happened to the flat next door, but you don't necessarily need to see it."

 At this point Elle wipes her mouse back and forth across its pad to wake up her computer. The screen lights up from black.

 "The police did a room by room, looking for carnage. The whole place was a mess, and there was a dark spot on a shelf that looked as if a TV had once lived there. The odd thing was that the family shrine was still there, in customary place of honour, front and centre in the lounge room. The photos were gone, but all the paraphenalia was still there on the red altar. Which is a family in a big rush, Chee Eng says, if they are traditional enough to keep an altar, then they move out and leave it behind."

 "Yeah, but if they packed up and left, then what about the rotting body?"

 "Bodies Cam, bodies.

 "The room by room search ended in the kitchen...in the fridge. They had been in there for weeks, and what's more the fridge had been turned off. The blood had oozed from the pieces and dripped down the inside walls, congealing around the few odd flys that had managed to get in after the smell. On top of that, there was a whole fish in there, crawling with maggots. And the vegetables in the crisper had liquified with rot. The way Chee Eng described it, I was surprised the whole thing hadn't burst open, or combusted from all the chemistry that was bubbling away by that time. The police cleaned the whole fridge out, which Chee Eng said was good of them, but he'd wished they'd just taken it away with them, as evidence maybe."

 "So who was it, granny? The kids?"

 "No no, just cow, or mutton or something. They just left it all in there. Why would someone have time to do something ordered and vacation-like such as turning off their fridge, when they can't be bothered to throw its contents away?"

 "So that's all then, a rotting fridge?"

 "Or taking the TV but not the altar..."

 "So you mean it was just the food that was making the smell?"

 "But Chee Eng says it still hasn't really gone away. There is still the faint funk of death."

 "But that's because of the fridge probably."

 "Yes, but that's the funny thing" Elle opens her file in Illustrator.

...chapter three