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Telepathy and Llife in the Spirit
Category:
Crime
Alex and Li are a young married couple. Alex had trained as a doctor and obtained his degree but when looking for his medical internship, he decided that was just too boring and talked his young wife into putting together a private detective business. Their first important case will take your breath away!
Their first major case will leave the reader baffled with its myriad of tantalising clues that only slowly come together. This case also involves a sleazy culture of homosexuality and sado-machonism, the latter something Li has little taste for and often feels sick during their investigation. But why is the novel titled a Nirvana Marriage? Because in Buddhist Life in the Spirit a man and a woman who accept one another as an "enlightened couple" or "married" in their "holy sense", invent a scenario of how they had met, fell in love, and set about their life. This is actually a very clever concept because it builds considerable affinity between the two people and their Nirvana group. In this regard, there are some similarities in how Jews in the spirit in a Truth Marriage go about their marriage in the spirit. The actual Nirvana group (pure telepathy, can be strong virtual reality type interactions) develop the story and act within the story. Hence, while Li and Alex investigate their first case - only the group knows the final outcome - hence the whole experience is a simulation as close to ordinary life as you can imagine. Interestingly, the "private eye" theme is a reasonably common technique and the actual case, so the group claims, is based on a real life case (possibly a Hong Kong criminal case from years back but we adapted it to an Australian climate. The actual clues are provided by possibly a retired Buddhist detective familiar with the case, and he throws these in as he himself had stumbled upon them during his investigation - which means neither Li or Darth or the group know in advance how the theme will develop). What is not recorded in the novel, but the reader is asked in the foreword to use their imagination, are some of the situations - for example when one young woman from their group in a virtual reality is asked to imitate someone being whipped on the stage. The young woman comments, "as long as it does not hurt." A touch amusing a remark given the situation and the whole concept, and the group has to separate and find a way to explain to the young actress that this is what sado-machonism is, pain by mutual consent and she is supposed to act "in pain" during that stage show. She finally understands and does this well - but in the beginning, being a true Buddhist, this notion is completely foreign to her and even when she is prepared and standing on stage with a man in leather holding a whip, she fails to make a connection as to how she is supposed to act. Also worth mentioning is the technique used. Alex and Li are compelled to also project themselves into an ordinary life situation and how they would naturally react given a particular scenario - so the result is a tale which is close to how in ordinay life such a marriage might have worked. What Alex loves about his wife is that she is an easy going person, prepared to accept his "fantasy" of being a private eye instead of a doctor as exactly that, a fantasy that will in time pass and Alex will come to his senses, but until then she is committed to helping her husband in this project.
Excerpt
Chapter 1 – An Important Client
“Come on. We need to hurry.” Alex lifted his young wife a touch off the ground when she rushed to him, spun with her, then took her hand and moved off as fast as he could.
“Hold on! My luggage.” Li managed to break free and turned to the turntables on which the luggage from Flight 911 from Hong Kong was ready for collection.
“Oh.” Alex turned and quickly walked closer to the turntable and spotted the dark brown suitcase and walked, or rather rushed to it, and grabbed it.
“Come on. This is urgent. Need to go.” He said and moved off.
“What is the urgency?” Li was walking quickly with her husband, he holding her suitcase in one hand and dragging her along by the other. She was wearing semi-high heel shoes and such a fast walk was difficult, now and then the shoe slipping to the side and she had to stabilise herself. Alex and Li were a couple under thirty and Li had a fantastic figure and legs women envied. Many a male gave her a glance as they hurried into the open car park at Sydney International airport.
Li stopped by their white car. Across the sides the name and logo of a well known bank.
“Shit! You are going to get us arrested!” She lamented.
“Come on, I will explain.” Alex put the luggage in the boot and they drove off. His focus turned onto his wife’s legs. Li had worn a brief and light floral dress that was, in Alex’s view, “barely legal”.
“Any man who sat next to you on the way back would be happy.” Alex smiled and pressed the accelerator to beat the amber traffic light about to change to red. “How is your father?”
“Good, keeping well,” Li relaxed, “and bloody slow down! His heart bypass surgery went well, he was well on his way to recovery at home. I cooked meals for the two weeks, had to, he was not feeling up to it. Now tell me what is the urgency? And why has our car that sign across it? I am sure that is against the law.”
“Got a case this morning, and it’s a beauty.” Alex explained. “To do with a judge in a senior court. The client paid a huge deposit.”
“Eh?” Li turned to her husband. “We have so little experience in this private detective business why would someone hire us for a complex operation? It was your idiotic idea, love. How many people in their right mind spend five years of medical school, get their degree, then decide they want to be a private eye? I was too ashamed to tell my father what business we are into so I told him you are trying to find a clinic to take you on as a doctor.”
“I can’t be a doctor in that sense until I have at least 12 months on the job experience.” Alex said.
“You have the degree! And that would be paid experience too - the time would pass quickly.” Li said.
“You know, that works both ways.” Alex again accelerated to beat an amber light. “You knew this is what I wanted to do and you still married me.”
“Did I have a choice?” Li protested. “Did I really have a choice? For three years were have been going together. Hard enough to acclimatise by mother, and my father - and I wish my parents never divorced and one came to Australia and one remained in Hong Kong - what was I saying?…oh yes..for three years my mother, your mother, my father, my sisters, all knew I would be marrying a man who would be a doctor. The fact that you are Caucasian and I am an Asian took a long time to overcome. So, with effort, they accepted you, and me, and our plans…and three months before our wedding you pull this on me! I said to myself that I will make sure he comes to his senses but for now, to keep the peace, I will marry.”
Alex drove into a spot near a kerb outside a row of two storey modern townhouses. They stepped out and glanced about. A security guard came closer. There was a sign on the path saying only residents and vehicles on official business were allowed to park in this section. The guard, as he approached, took his time studying Li. A striking looking woman not only because of that perfect 10 out of 10 body, but also because her great grandmother was Caucasian and Li inherited that recessive gene and while she looked distinctively “oriental” she was also a touch of a mix which made a person stop to consider why exactly did she not look “oriental enough”?
“Bank wants to check on one of our investment properties.” Alex explained to the man who could not fail to see the name of the bank across the side of the car. The guard nodded and moved off. Alex grabbed Li’s hand.
“I hope that washes off.” Li was being dragged to the entrance of the townhouse complex but she was looking behind at the very large sign and logo on the car.
“It’s plastic, stick on, paid $250 for it.” Alex said as they were entering a door and then up the steps. They stopped in front of a door. From his suit pocket he took out white thin rubber gloves and put these on his hands and made Li put such on. He took out a special key and inserted it into the door. “This better work. I paid $1500 for this at a locksmith I heard a rumour about. The guy who sold it said it could open any typical lock. He did prove it before I bought it, told me to try different locks in his shop and I did. Not the easiest thing to do.” Alex was juggling the key back and forth until he felt the lock unlock.
The door opened and made a creaky noise. They stepped into the apartment. Alex closed the door. From his suit he took out two plastic caps and put one on his hair, and made Li do the same. Her hair long and Li had some difficulty. When she was ready he took out two surgical face masks and each tied such across their mouth and nose.
“Okay, help me look.” Alex walked around the large room, looking at images and at papers on a desk.
“What am I looking for?” Li was walking in the other direction glancing at paintings on the wall and magazines in a bookshelf.
“We won’t know until we find it.” Alex searched through papers on a large study desk. “This townhouse was purchased by a senior judge. The judge has a wife and a young family. He does not rent this place - it is used by him and his lover.”
“Who hired us?” Li was examining the great many photographs on a wall.
“A John Smith. Doubt that was his true name. Paid $20,000 no-refundable deposit.” Alex said.
“$20,000! Who do we have to murder?” Li came to the desk and started to look through the papers. It was a large desk and she had to lean to reach items not near the front.
“No, nothing like that. That would be against the law. Our client has an interested party who is interested in finding a way for the judge to stop meeting for dirty weekends with his lover.”
“Against the law?” Li gave her husband a glance and reached, leaning considerably, for an object on the other side of the desk, “and breaking and entering isn’t? Or sticking a sign on our car isn’t? Don’t say anything. I don’t want to discuss this particular issue.”
“In this case this may be illegal but it is not unethical.” Alex walked to the side of the large desk and studied pictures hanging from a wall on that side, most pictures of sport scenes. “The judge’s lover is a man who is now missing.”
“Man?” Li turned to her husband.
“The judge is a cupboard homosexual.” Alex explained. “Now, our client also suspects this judge of having killed a young homosexual lover a few years ago.”
“Homosexual? This stinks already.” Li turned to the desk again, and leant quite far to reach another object on the desk that looked like a toy.
The way she was poised, and the brief dress that revealed all her sensual legs, made Alex move to stand behind her and pressed into her. “Some men can not control their urges you know.”
“Get off me!” Li was being pressed in a most inappropriate way.
“For example,” Alex walked around this studio apartment again, “take the Yorkshire ripper. A man called Peter Sutcliffe. Killed twelve women, mostly prostitutes, before he was arrested. During his confession he told everything even that he masturbated over some of his victims.”
“You studied medicine, dear, not psychiatry.” Li came closer to her husband.
“Did do a unit in psychiatry too.” Alex took a deep breath. “So far I have not found anything that might be useful.”
“Maybe that’s because you are not a proper detective or private eye? You are a doctor not a spook.” Li smiled and put her arms around her husband’s neck, giving him a soft kiss. “If this was not this place, and you did that, I would have expected you to finish.”
“Did what?” Alex was holding his wife close, his arm across her back.
“You know - when you rammed me in that desk.” Li gave him a kiss.
“Your looked so positively sexy the way you did that!” Alex explained, “and that extra shapely behind of yours can drive male hormones wild!”
A noise outside. Perhaps someone walking up the stairs? Alex and Li stood quietly. The noise passed - someone had walked upstairs and to another townhouse.
“This complex is called townhouses – except they are more like low-density apartments.” Alex took his wife’s smooth hand and they found the large bedroom which was neat and tidy. A stale odour hung in the air - perhaps because the windows had not been opened recently to let fresh air in.
From the bedroom a door led to the bathroom, which could be accessed by another door also. Usual items – toothpaste, toothbrush, towels. The letters in Gold “AM” on one of the white towels. Sitting in the middle of the bathtub was an unusual item. A large black container. Alex sat down on the edge of the bathtub and studied the container label. “Hydrochloric acid.”
“Is it?” Li sat on the edge of the bathtub.
“Yes, I can smell it, that acid has a distinct olfactory fingerprint.” Alex explained.
“Eh?” Li puzzled.
“It has a particular smell to it.” Alex clarified.
“So this judge had killed a former homosexual lover and dissolved his body in acid?” Li conjectured.
“I don’t think so.” Alex replied. “Would be hard to get enough acid to dissolve a body. This one will not do it – I don’t think it would – it will sting and cause a mark but does not dissolve tissue well. Used more for cleaning bricks and pavers of cement and mortar. You can get a container like this at any hardware shop.”
“Can we go home now? Please? I am tired and,” she slid across the edge to be closer to her husband, “I haven’t seen you for two weeks!” She gave him a kiss.
They walked downstairs and took a good look around the area. Near the townhouse complex was a medical surgery.
“See that!” Li was holding her husband’s hand and pointing to the surgery, “fine men and women work there, in air conditioned comfort, respected people, patients come to see them, they make them happy and the medicos are paid lots of money for doing so.”
“Boooriiiiinnng.” Alex replied and they headed for their car.
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