The Burma Effect (32 page)

When Delaney did check, he found that Rawson had left a number of voicemail messages, all essentially saying the same thing. Delaney was a fool to drop out of sight like that and forego close protection. Delaney should come back to the Oriental at once. Delaney should finish up his business with the Thai authorities and get himself and Kate back to Montreal as soon as possible. Delaney should write no stories about this whole affair. Delaney should call Rawson immediately.

They reluctantly checked out of the hotel and took a slow city train from the airport to downtown. Delaney could see no sign of anyone following them and no one would expect them to use the local train, which took about an hour for the run from Don Muang, across the highway from Terminal 1, to Hualamphong Station in the city centre. From the train station to Kellner's apartment, Mai's apartment, was a short taxi ride. It was at the apartment that Delaney knew they would have to begin to be very careful.

He had the taxi driver let them off on Thanon Sathon Boulevard at the U.S. Information Agency, far up the long adjacent soi from Kellner's building. They walked cautiously down the soi, Delaney looking ahead and behind for any cars, for anyone following on foot. He saw nothing. No one was parked outside the courtyard of Kellner's building either, when they eventually came up on foot.

The watchman was in his usual place, reclining on the wooden bed frame, reading a Thai newspaper. He jumped up when he saw Delaney and the Western woman approach. He looked nervous. He offered no wai.

“We've come to see Khun Nathan's lady,” Delaney said.

“She is inside,” the watchman said.

“Is she alone?” Delaney asked.

“Yes.”

“Has she had many visitors?”

“Yes, many.”

“Western or Thai?”

“Both. Farang and Thai.”

“When? The latest ones.”

“This morning.”

“Who? Farangs.”

“Yes. In a big car.”

“A tall man, very short grey hair, nice dress-up clothes? Canadian?” “Yes, this morning.”

Delaney knew they were taking a chance coming to Mai. Rawson had already been by, but the real problem would be the others. He began to wish they had arranged for Mai to meet them somewhere else. He looked over at Kate. She did not seem frightened.

“Anyone in a white Land Cruiser with dark windows?” Delaney asked.

The watchman shook his head. Kate looked back at the entrance to the courtyard. Policewoman now. “Do you have a cell phone?” Delaney asked.

“Yes,” the watchman said.

Delaney wrote down the number of the telephone Rawson had given him.

“Here, take this. If someone comes, please call me fast on this number, OK? We will be inside Mai's house. Let us know who is coming, all right?” He gave the man a U.S. 20-dollar bill along with the piece of paper with the number. “Very important.”

The watchman looked at the paper with the number on it and looked at the money.

“Khun Nathan is dead, correct?” the watchman said. “Mai has been very sad.”

“Yes, he's dead,” Delaney said.

“You know who did this?”

“I think so.”

“I know that you tried to find him first.”

“I did nothing. It was too late,” Delaney said.

The watchman shook Delaney's hand. “I will call you if someone comes,” he said.

“Even if it's police,” Delaney said.

“Even police.”

Mai was where she always was, on the big lounge with her cats, watching satellite TV in the dim light. She cried great streams of tears while Delaney held her, the two of them standing together in the middle of the living room, cats darting to and fro at their feet. She wet the shoulder of his shirt with her tears.

Kate and Mai were instantly close, as women can be in such situations. Kate had probably also had her share of such encounters with grieving loved ones, post-criminal acts. She watched quietly as Mai cried and hugged Delaney and then she went over to hug Mai herself. Kate's shoulder was wet then too.

Kate also watched quietly later as Delaney told Mai most of what he knew. He did not tell her about the morgue.

Eventually, the three of them sat on the balcony with glasses of iced tea.

Mai said: “He went to Burma only because of the lady, didn't he, Frank.”

“To make some money first, then because of the lady,” Delaney said.

“He was going to be a hero,” Mai said.

“I'm not sure about that, Mai,” Delaney said.

“He wanted to be a hero for her,” she said again. Kate said: “I think he probably wanted to be a hero for you too, Mai.”

“It wasn't my story. It was her story he wanted to be a part of.”

“You were in his story too,” Delaney said. “For a long time.”

“Now you have to write this story, Frank,” she said.

“I intend to.” He looked over at Kate.

“You have to make sure people understand why he wanted to do this thing, Frank,” Mai said. “He was, what have you said, obsessed by her but only because he wanted to do something good, to help her and to help Burma. And then he got killed because of that. That's what you will say in the story, isn't it Frank?”

“Something quite like that, I think, Mai. It is a very unusual story and hard to tell right. Not the usual hero story.”

“If someone dies trying to do something for someone else, that is a hero, isn't it, Frank?”

“Yes.”

“That's a story, isn't it? People should know about that, shouldn't they?”

“Yes.”

They stayed with Mai that night. She made them a small meal and then they drank some icy Thai beer on the darkened balcony in a humid breeze.

Like Mrs. Yong, Kate wanted to know when the body would be returned from afar.

“I don't know if they will ever return it to Thailand, Mai. I'm sorry.They haven't even said officially that he's dead.”

She looked stricken. Her attitude was not quite like Mrs. Yong's on these matters.

“I want to see him one last time, Frank,” she said.

“You may not be given the chance to do that, Mai,” Delaney said. He looked over at Kate. Ever so slightly, she shook her head. Enough.

Kate said she wanted to have a look at Nathan's bulletin board and desk and went inside, apparently playing policewoman for a time. Frank and Mai sat quietly for a while. Mai smoked marijuana from a small brass pipe. They watched the smoke curl up into the night air.

Eventually, Mai said dreamily: “Kate loves you, Frank.” She touched him on his leg. “You are lucky.”

For some reason, Mai's words sent an alarm through him. He pondered the implications.

“Nathan loved you too,” Delaney said eventually.

“He would not have stayed with you for so long if he didn't.”

“No, farang men don't do that here, do they?” she said.

“They don't, Mai. Here or anywhere. Farangs or not.”

“Kate will stay with you for a long time,” she said. “If you want her to.”

Delaney pondered the implications.

“Take good care of her,” Mai said. “Don't let her go away.”

In the guest bedroom that night, with their door closed only halfway to catch the breeze from the balcony, they heard Mai moving here and there in the silent apartment as she got ready to sleep. They heard the cats wrestling and tumbling with each other, racing each other across the waxed tiles.

Kate lay with her right ear on Delaney's chest. “Mai loved him very much,” she said.

“Yes,” he said.

“But he was obsessed with someone else.”

“It happens like that sometimes,” he said quietly.

They lay in silence for a moment.

“Do you think you can love me, Frank?” she asked.

“I think I can, yes,” Delaney said.

“Just me?”

“I think I can.”

“I don't need you to be obsessed by me. Just for you not to be obsessed by anyone else. Is that fair?”

“It's fair.”

“Would Natalia have thought that was fair?” He waited for a long time before answering that one. He felt an eyelid blinking on his chest, someone's breath on his skin. It reminded him of something, of a quiet and close and gentle time with another woman a long time ago. He couldn't quite remember anymore exactly when or where that was. That was a good thing.

“If Natalia could see us tonight, I think she would have advised us to fall in love,” Delaney said. Emotions gripped him; some happy, some not.

“A wise woman,” Kate said.

“Yes.”

They all slept very late. It was only the ringing of Delaney's mobile phone that woke them. He lay listening to it ring many times before remembering that it could signal trouble outside, serious trouble. He jumped up and answered, expecting it to be the watchman sounding an alarm. It was Rawson, with a lecture.

“Francis, for Christ's sake, where are you? You can't pull stunts like this on us, OK? We moved heaven and earth to get you out of that scrape in Rangoon and now you're traipsing around Bangkok like nothing at all has happened. This thing is not over yet. I've had the Thai police and the embassy people on my case for two long days. You're not being fair to any of us and not fair to Kate. You don't know who's going to make the next move. None of us do. So you better come back in where we can watch you and get you the hell out of here back to Canada. What are you up to anyway, for Christ's sake?”

“I'm taking a breather, Jon. Thinking things through. Spending time with Kate. Resting.”

“Bullshit,” Rawson said. “That's bullshit. You better come right back in.”

“OK, Jon. OK. We'll come back today.”

“Where are you?”

“Kellner's place. With his girl.”

“For Christ's sake, Frank. Anybody could be watching you over there. Anybody could come in there.”

“I was careful coming in.”

“I'm going to send someone over there right now,” Rawson said.

Delaney looked over at Kate, still lounging happily in the bed. She smiled at him. He knew Rawson had a point.

“OK, Jon, that would be good. Give us an hour or so.”

They had a quick breakfast with Mai and the cats on the balcony. She didn't want them to go.

“Stay with me,” she said. “Let's live here all together for a while.”

“Nice idea,” Kate said.

“Nathan would have said so too,” Mai said.

“It's a nice idea, Mai, but not possible,” Delaney said. “We've got to get going.”

His mobile rang. It was the watchman, agitated, saying a car with two Westerners had pulled up outside. Immediately after Delaney hung up, it rang again. Ted Green this time. Waiting outside with a driver in an embassy car.

They went back into the guest room and threw their few things into bags. Delaney stopped for a moment, looked over to Kate, looked over at the armoire where he had found Kellner's field gear when he first searched the apartment weeks ago. He hesitated and looked back at Kate again.

“What is it, Frank?”

“Rawson's got me worried, with all of his Canadian worrying,” Delaney said. “Should we be worried?”

“I'm not sure I should have brought you over here now,” he said.

“It's perfect,” she said.

“It's not all finished yet,” Delaney said. “I don't think so anymore.”

“So, we'll finish it up together,” Kate said. Delaney went to Kellner's armoire and pushed aside the hanging camouflage pants and vests. Hidden down at the bottom among the combat boots and a flak jacket and a helmet and running shoes was a wooden case. It contained a black Walther .38 pistol and a box of bullets. Delaney had seen the gun last time. He pulled it out and checked that the magazine was empty.

“Frank, what's that for?” Kate said.

“I'm going to bring it with us down south,” he said.

Kate the policewoman was dubious.

“Those things can make a bad situation worse, Frank,” she said. “Do you know how to use it?”

“Yes,” he said. “I've been around these things a fair bit.” A vision of Natalia lying dead of gunshot wounds in a snowy Quebec forest flashed before him. And a memory of him using a gun to deadly effect that day in the snow, and again months later in a Rome back street on the rogue Vatican agent who had killed her.

“We may need this, Kate,” he said, wrapping the weapon in a T-shirt and putting it in his bag. “You just don't know in a situation like this. Rawson's got me anxious.”