Bangkok Burn (30 page)

I knew what was coming. Could virtually replay every word of the discussion between Pim and I on the drive back to Bangkok. We’d got caught in traffic. I don’t know how long Por’s tapes lasted but we talked solidly for three hours. Most of it was about leaving the business.

“Por was upset with the idea of you leaving the family. Said it was the wrong move for everyone, especially you. He left it at that. Told me he was going to think about it and then he’d decide what to do. A few days later, he called me again. Asked me to come see him. He told me he had a plan but he needed my help.

“Por said it was time for Samuel Harper to go. His plan was to kidnap Pim, take her upcountry and give her a good talking to about family values and have someone try to kill you. I would kill whoever tried to kill you but it would be leaked to the media so you as Samuel Harper would be exposed. Por said he could take care of all the legal stuff. Once we’d 'rescued' Pim, and you were back in the family, Por planned to retire.”

“I asked around, found out about some Cambodians who’d moved into the slum in Lad Krabang. I followed them a bit, got to know their habits, and approached them with a deal. I’d tell them where and when they should hit. If they broke that rule, they wouldn’t get paid and they’d all be killed. They agreed. I went back and told Por what was organized. He said to wait until he was ready. The next thing, the bomb went off in…”

“Chai, I’m perfectly aware that Por was with a girl in Heaven. Please, it is normal,” Mother said.

“You sent the photoshopped photos to the Thai Rath?” I asked him.

“It was Por’s wish. He was in hospital in a coma but he came to me while I was meditating. All this time, he was giving me instructions. When he wakes up you can ask him.”

I’ve known Chai a long time. Up until this morning, I’d have said I could tell when he was lying. If he was lying, I still couldn’t tell. His eyes were open, honest, and unblinking, looking from me to Mother with a small smile on his lips.

“Did Por order you to carry out the plan or did you see that in a dream as well?”

“As I was carrying Por out of Heaven, he asked me about Bank and Red. I told him they were dead and he told me to follow the plan, to do it, said we needed it now. It was his last order to me and with Bank and Red dead, he was relying on me. Then he passed out. I went back and got Chance then I drove you both to the hospital.

“The hospital was a good controlled environment and public. I called the Cambodians, told them to send three and it worked out exactly as I planned.” He looked at me with a grimace. “From then on things got a bit out of hand. When the first group of three was killed and you announced dead. I thought it was good enough. I paid them and told them to stop. That’s when they got the bright idea that they’d still kidnap the girl. It wasn’t you they were after. It was Pim. That wasn’t supposed to happen. That’s why I was so angry, I wasn’t there. But you did a good job. To make sure it didn’t happen again, while you were in Singapore I killed most of the rest of the gang. They were scum, dealing yaa baa to the kids in the slum. They needed to move on to their next life.”

“What about the guy on the pier?”

Chai smiled. “Por showed me in a dream. A crocodile being attacked by a tiger at a watering hole but the crocodile rolled and bit the tiger in the neck. So, two birds, one stone. I implicate Big Tiger and get rid of the last of the Cambodians.”

“He had a double-barreled shotgun pointed at me.”

The smile grew into a grin. “I know. I gave him the shotgun and told him you were coming, while you had a smoke. Then I walked up the pier and called you. Waited till you appeared and he made his move, then I shot him.” Chai leaned forward and put his hands out in front. He turned them over to show he had nothing in them. He reached up by my ear and held two 9mm cartridges in his fingers. He smiled again.

“You ordered Pichit and Somboon to put the guy in cold storage and turn the temperature down.”

“I did and he was the last of them. That evening I sent Thai Rath news desk the photoshopped photos of you and the next day Samuel Harper was dead and Chance alive. That is everything that happened.” He dropped his hands which hand been in a wai all this time, and put them on his thighs facing Mother. He bowed his head, his chin on his chest.

Mother shuffled forward, her hand reaching to Chai’s chin. She lifted his head and leaned forwards, kissing him on the forehead. She turned looking at me.

“Maybe we can talk later, after dinner. I’m going to take the Buddha back to his room. I’ll leave you two to talk things over.” She waied the Buddha and picked it up. Holding it in hands, she rose from her knees. She smiled at Chai. If he had a tail he’d be wagging it.

Chai looked at me.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, I understand. It was Por’s orders.”

“No, I’m not sorry about that. I’m sorry I had to tell Joom your private conversation with Pim.”

“You killed five people to keep me in the family.”

He grinned, his dark brown eyes wide open, innocent as a newborn babe. “It was nine if you include the one’s you didn’t see. I killed nine scum who deserved to die. I’d have killed ninety saints to keep you with us.” He didn’t blink.

There was nothing more to say.

***

I knew now, how the bomb had gone off in Heaven. I still didn’t know if it was an accident or deliberate. The trail ended at the 11th Infantry Regiment Barracks. Sankit had genuinely helped in the Cambodian assassin thing, even though he looked pleased that my own bodyguard had betrayed me. I’d leave him in the dark on that one. I hadn’t told Pim any of this. Saw no value in that. Without concrete evidence of some kind, it was all conjecture. I decided to put the matter on a back burner.

I wasn’t any closer to figuring out who had grabbed Uncle Mike. Immigration had turned up nothing on Leon and all the other paperwork was a false trail that led nowhere. It was possible the name was just one of those coincidences, you know, chance. It was possible but somehow I doubted it. There was something that niggled away in the background, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Just a feeling that there was something I’d missed.

We retrieved Um’s body and sent it to his parents with enough money to give a decent funeral. We are not heartless. We did this on behalf of the red shirts and added his name to the list of those killed in the fighting. In a way, it was the truth. I sent the same amount to Ice’s father, promising I’d come and see him personally when I had a bit more time. I told him in my note that Ice was a victim of the political violence and that the person who got her involved was dead. I hoped it would give him some closure. I lied about the money too; said it was found in Ice’s room and belonged to him. I knew he’d be too proud to take it otherwise.

Loose ends, yes, but I’ll take any end to trouble. I still had to decide what to say to Pim but the choice had narrowed. I couldn’t leave the family. Not now. Not ever. The only choices that remained: let her go or be selfish and ask her to stay with me.

I had been thinking about Joom. About the day I first met her. I was picked up at the apartment building by Uncle Mike and Por. I don’t really remember much about what happened before and my memories of what happened after are like anybody’s. I remember the first day I met Joom like it had happened this morning.

I got out of the car and saw her for the first time. She was sitting under the house, where the garage is now. Back then it was hard-packed earth with a wooden Thai house on stilts standing on it, grass and trees all around. The river flooded here regularly. There were boats turned over under the house and Joom was sitting on one. She was twenty-two then, but to me as a kid, she was just another adult. We don’t figure out age until we’ve got some.

I stayed where I was. I wasn’t scared. My parents had often left me with strangers or alone. Mostly, I preferred being left with strangers. Joom got up off the boat and walked over to us. She squatted down in front me. She was then and still is beautiful. She smiled.

“Can you speak Thai, Dek Farang.” I nodded. I spoke Thai better than I spoke English, as a kid I’d spent more time with Thai people than Farangs.

“You know it isn’t polite to nod when an adult asks you a question?”

I remember looking at her and thinking that over. Her eyes were smiling so I gave her an honest answer. “No. I didn’t know that.”

Her smile got bigger. “Do you know why you’re here?”

I had started to shake my head but replied, “No.”

“Do you know who Buddha is?”

“Yes.” I did. My parents were, ‘really into Buddha you know, man…’

“Buddha has sent you to me. You can call me Mere Joom.”

Tum pulled into the parking lot of the Golden Fortune Chinese Restaurant. Chai and I got out. The car park was dark, hot and crowded. I was standing in for Por at the monthly Godfathers' meeting. Held at a different location each month, this month’s place had been chosen by Loong Virote. Literally translated, his name means ‘Tower of Strength’. He was being helped out of his old black Benz, the kind with the long vertical headlamps. His bodyguard reached in behind him to collect the aluminum cane he used.

Big Tiger pulled up, Daeng and his boys following in their white van. Tiger got out, yelling at the girl in car with him. It was Uni girl. Obviously she’d made it back from Samui. Tiger and his boys saw us and started walking over. Uni girl got out of the car, yelling at Big Tiger, calling him a fat old lizard. He just waved a hand and kept walking, his boys chuckling.

I stopped still. The thing that had been nagging at me – the woman’s voice – “Leon”. It was Uni girl.

Making A Killing

24 May 2010 Pak Nam 12:45 pm

I walked quickly past Big Tiger, heading for the fire exit door that Uni girl had used. I heard Big Tiger call out.

“Hey, Chance, the elevator’s this fucking way,” but I was moving, as fast as I could without running, Chai a few steps behind. I was thinking: Uni girl on Lilly’s phone, how the hell did that happen? I banged through the fire exit door. Yellow painted walls and a staircase leading up. I took the steps three at a time, running, now that I was out of sight of the guys in the garage. The staircase ended with a door I slammed open. It led into the open air lobby of the restaurant. Uni girl nowhere to be seen. Then I spotted her. She was getting into a cab about fifty meters away. I ran, Chai hard on my heels. The taxi pulled away before we’d got halfway there. I turned and shouted at Chai, “Get the car. I’ll follow them.”

Chai sprinted back the way we’d come. I angled off chasing after the pink taxi on foot. More than a hundred meters ahead of me the taxi turned left onto Soi Ngam Duphli. I couldn’t see the street sign yet, but I knew the street. It was usually blocked with traffic. I kept running. No sign of Chai and the car yet. I ran dodging food vendors, their carts, and their annoyed customers at the street side tables. Our sidewalks are considered retail space. I nearly collided with a hawker selling balloons and switched to running on the road. I glanced back and saw Chai bouncing the Maserati out of the restaurant’s car park.

I turned the corner onto Soi Ngam Duphli and spotted the taxi stuck in traffic. About another two hundred meters further up the soi. It wasn’t going anywhere. Hands on knees, getting my breath, I waited for Chai. He cut off a tuk-tuk barely missing it, and then pulled up in front of me. I got in and Chai gave the car a little burst and we were behind the taxi.

“What do you want to do?” Chai asked. “Follow her or take her now?”

It was tricky here. There were a lot of people around. If she kicked up a fuss… then I had an idea. “Take her now. You stay with the car.”

Chai nodded. I got out and walked around to her side of the taxi. She was in the back seat. I tapped on the window and smiled. I couldn’t remember her name. She looked shocked and then she smiled. The window came down.

“I saw you back in the car park having an argument with Tiger. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. No problem. I was kind of bored with him anyway. You followed me here?”

“No, no, I was heading out to get some lunch. The idea of having lunch with Tiger and the crowd just didn’t appeal. Hey do you want to join me lunch? My car and driver are right here. I know a nice hotel nearby.” The last sentence was the clincher. I saw the calculator go off behind her eyes. The taxi door opened.

I opened the rear door of the Maserati for her. She got in and shuffled over. I got in behind her and shut the door.