by Simon Royle
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.
“Chai, can you get us back out to Rama Four?” Chai looked over his shoulder a couple of taxis behind us. A bumpy three point turn later we were headed in the right direction. I took her hand in mine.
“What do you say to a change in plan? We can head straight to my place. Better than a hotel, more private. We can have a drink, relax, and talk?”
“Talk?” she said with a sly smile. Her tongue poked out and gave her upper lip a wipe.
“Yeah, talk.”
She slipped her hand out of mine and ran it up my arm, her fingers softly stroking. Sliding closer to me on the seat, she brought her mouth close to my ear and whispered, “What do you want to talk about?”
I turned to face her, my nose touching hers.
“Leon.”
Confusion clouded her eyes.
“Who? What?”
“Leon. Five days ago, in the morning. You walked into a room and called someone Leon. Where were you and who is Leon?”
She jerked back and tried to open the door. I sat and watched. She turned to me and snarled, “You better fucking let me out of here or I’ll scream and call the cops.”
I sat and watched.
“Did you fucking hear me? I said let me out of here now.”
Enough. “Listen carefully. This can go one of two ways. One; you tell me everything you know, right now. Be honest and leave nothing out. Then I’ll drop you where you want to go. Two; I kill you right now.” Chai handed me a Glock with a suppressor attached. I didn’t point it at her, just held it in my lap.
Her eyes got big. “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you everything. It wasn’t my idea anyway, it was Big Tiger’s.”
For opening lines she wasn’t doing too badly. She had my attention. I eased myself around in the seat, lifted the barrel of the gun slightly and nodded my head at her to keep talking.
“I was in Samui with Leon and Ursula, but it was Big Tiger that forced me to go.”
“Who are Leon and Ursula?”
“You met them, at Big Tiger’s restaurant. Wow that bomb really did affect you.”
Brett and Sheena, Ken and Barbie – shit.
“How do you know I was bombed?”
“Big Tiger was talking about it with Daeng. Daeng is my brother. After you came to the restaurant, the first time I met you, I heard them talking about it.”
“What did they say?”
“Tiger said he was fifty per cent happy that you lived because now he could collect. And fifty percent sad because you, and he thought also, Por, had survived.”
Chai’s visions and Por’s warnings. Not to be ignored. “What else?”
“About that?”
I nodded.
“Nothing else.”
“Tell me about Leon. When did you know that his name was Leon?”
“Only after we were in Samui. Ursula called him Leon by mistake. He got angry with her and later they both told me their real names.”
“Were you in Samui the whole time?”
“Yes, at Big Tiger’s resort. Mostly we just took drugs, had sex, slept and ate. Sometimes we went for a swim. We didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Was Leon with you the whole time?”
“Sometimes he went off alone. One time, one of Big Tiger’s boys came to get him and they went off for a while. But most of the time he was with us.”
Chai left the expressway and headed west up Sukhumvit. She’d figure out pretty soon where we were taking her and then she’d freak out.
“I need you to understand that we need to keep you under our protection for a couple of days. You’ll be looked after, don’t worry.”
“You promised I could leave.” Tears in her eyes, an accusing look on her face.
“I lied. It really is for your own protection. If Big Tiger learns you’ve talked to me. He’ll have you killed. Probably ask your brother to do it. And your brother will do it. He’ll have no choice. So be cool, jai yen and stay in a room for a couple of days. Okay?”
She sniffed and nodded her head. Chai turned off Sukhumvit headed for Prakhon Chai. Another ten minutes, and we’d be on home turf.
“Give me your cell phone, please.” I held my hand out. She pouted and pulled her handbag closer to her.
“Please. Otherwise I’ll stop the car. Put you out there and call Big Tiger myself.”
She took out an iPhone, with a flurry of thumbs switched it off and passed it to me. I took out the SIM and handed it back to her.
“We can leave her Tum’s house.” Chai had been doing a little SMS’ing of his own. “He’s on his way.”
“Okay, sounds like a plan.” I called Mother.
“Yes, Chance?”
“Chai’s vision came true, the one with the crocodile. We’re on our way to Tum’s house. We have someone with us who we need to look after for a couple of days, until we’ve cleared the problem.”
“I’ll send someone.”
“Thanks, Mother.”
“Chance?”
“That other thing that we were going to talk about…”
“Yes.”
“Don’t think about that. We can talk whenever. I know your heart is in the right place. Just focus on what we have to do.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“And Chance?”
“Yes, Mother?”
“Don’t forget what I told you in the hospital.”
“Yes, Mother.” She hung up.
“Will you kill my brother?” The reality of what she’d done writ in her scared eyes. She looked younger.
“That depends on your brother not me. Now please sit quietly I want to think.”
We dropped her off at Tum’s place, swapped cars and headed out. Big Tiger was still at the Golden Fortune. I was hot, raring to go, and that’s when we need to slow down. Have a good think with a cool head. Both Por and Uncle Mike had taught me this since I was a kid. Of course Uncle Mike also advocated dropping acid or smoking weed but that was for a different kind of thinking.
This was thinking about killing.
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It was a delicate time. The other families knew now that Por was alive but injured. You can’t keep that kind of secret too long. Word gets around. The troubles with the red-shirts and the recent riots had pushed established boundaries into a state of flux. By their standards I was a ‘young Turk’, perhaps not fit to take Por’s place. For the ‘old men’ of the district, the one who has the right to rule, is the one who takes it.
If Big Tiger had made a move it was possible others knew and were waiting to see which way the wind would blow. He’d played me for a sucker, led me by the nose. Even such an act as that is enough to cause doubt that I was fit to be ‘boss of bosses’. The surprise on his face when he saw me that time at the restaurant wasn’t that I was alive. It was because he thought I’d come to get him.
I had a big advantage. He didn’t know I was coming this time. That would only hold true for a little while. I still wondered why he hadn’t just killed me when he had the chance. I wasn’t going to give him another one. The disadvantage I had was that I needed to take him alive. We had the boys stick GPS trackers on the white van and Tiger’s blue Benz. We didn’t call all our boys in either. We need to keep everything looking normal, play out our advantage to its fullest. People would notice if we suddenly pulled everyone off the street. It could come to that but I hoped we could do this quietly.
Without knowing if he had allies or who they were, I had to take Big Tiger quietly. Snatch him, interrogate him and kill him. There are two ways to catch a tiger. One; put a bunch of beaters in the jungle and advance slowly without any gaps. Two; tether a wounded monkey in the tiger’s home turf. A plan was forming.
To Catch A Tiger
24 May 2010 Pak Nam 11:45 pm
Uni girl’s name was Pheung, Bee in English. Puffy-eyed, sniffling, she wiped the snot from her nose with the back of her hand. Her other hand held her iPhone with the speaker on, the ringing of the unanswered call loud in the back of the van.
We were parked across the street from the exit of Big Tiger’s house. Tiger lived down a small soi about fifty meters from the Ancient Village tourist attraction in Samut Prakarn. Chai had borrowed a standard BMTA (Bangkok Mass Transit Authority) commuter van. Parked in the queue with ten others, it was inconspicuous.
The first two houses in Tiger’s soi were occupied by his boys. Lights still shone in the house we could see from where we were. Tiger had been at home for an hour.
“What the fuck do you want?” Tiger’s voice sounded sleepy and pissed off.
Pheung sniffed loudly, the phone in front of her mouth trembling.
“Tiger, I’m scared please come get me.”
“What the fuck are you on…”
“No, no I’m not on anything, I’m really scared. Today after I left you. This big guy tried to grab me, said he wanted to talk to me about Leon. Where have you been I’ve been trying to call you?”
“This guy, what did he look like?” Big Tiger’s tone had changed. All sounds of sleep disappeared. I held my breath, this was it.
“Dark-skinned, a scar on his cheek near his eye. Very big shoulders.” It was a good enough description of Chai.
“Where the fuck are you now?”
“My apartment but I’m scared to stay here. What if he knows where I live?”
“All right. Stay there. I’ll send that fucking useless brother of yours.”
“I’ve called Daeng. He’s not answering his phone. He’s probably lying drunk in a bar somewhere.”
“Fuck. All right I’ll send some of the boys…”
“No…,” she screamed this loud enough I quickly scanned through the tinted windows of the van to check if any passersby had heard. All okay. My heart thumping, I was worried my breathing could be heard on the phone’s microphone.
“… Please come yourself. I promise I’ll be nice to you later.”
“Oh fuck. All right. Stay there. Don’t fucking move. I’ll call your brother first but either he or I will come to get you. Don’t fucking move. All right?”
Pheung sniffed again, “All right.”
I indicated with my thumb to shut the call. She did. Chai shifted the barrel of the silenced Uzi pointing it at Daeng’s head. It was cool in the van, engine running, air-conditioning on, but beads of sweat lined up his receding hairline. We waited.
The phone in Daeng’s hand rung. Chai shifted the Uzi a little closer. He answered the call on speakerphone.
“Yes, boss?”
“That fucking sister of yours is causing us grief. It sounded like that goat-fucking Farang’s bodyguard tried to grab her today. She’s at her apartment. You pick the stupid bitch up and bring her here. Take some of the boys with you. She said she tried to call you. Where the fuck have you been?”
“Sorry boss. I was getting laid. It’s been a stressful week. No need for the boys. I’m driving past her place right now.”
“Just get the stupid bitch and bring her here.”
I heard Big Tiger sigh and the connection cut. I looked at the time on cell phone, 11:50pm. Act one complete. I thought they both deserved Oscars. Daeng had been easy to pick up. Pichit, one of our boys, followed him into the men’s room at the restaurant. While he was peeing, Pichit showed him a photo of his sister with a gun to her head and two plane tickets to Los Angeles, California. Cooperate and get a new life, or die. An easy choice for an unappreciated underpaid henchman. Daeng’s car, a low slung, five year old, five series BMW with tinted windows was parked down a soi a hundred meters away.
We left the van and walked down the street, taking a right down the soi to where we’d parked Daeng’s car. Daeng got in the driver’s seat, Pheung in the passenger seat. Chai and I got in the back. No one said anything. It was warm in the car. Daeng turned the engine on and turned the air-conditioning up. I checked the cell phone, another eight minutes to go.
Across the street a pack of soi dogs stood looking at the car. Noses in the air, they could smell, but not see us. One of the pack got too close to the leader. The leader turned, snapping at the encroacher’s neck. The bitten stray took off up the soi, yelping, tail between its legs. The rest of the pack chased it. The leader turned back to us with his nose in the air. A group of teenagers crossed the front of the soi, laughing and pushing each other. The dog’s head turned towards the sound and then he trotted over to our car. He stopped by the front wheel passenger side and cocked his leg. This was his soi. Point made he trotted off into the shadows
Five minutes left. Chai touched a button on his comms pack.
“Get ready. Five minutes. Five minutes,” he repeated. We had Beckham and Tum parked further down the road. If our plan went wrong, back up was a hundred meters away.
“Go. Take the route I showed you and no faster than twenty,” Chai said.
He pressed the button on his arm rest, winding down his window. The black eighty-percent film he had taped in place, looked like a window. Once we reached the main road, we ducked down. Mini cameras taped in the rear window gave us a view of either side of the car.
Daeng turned right on the main road and drove at a steady pace. The car slowed as we approached the entrance to Big Tiger’s soi. Deang opened the window on his side and his sister's. We approached the barrier, a red striped metal pole across the soi, and a guard’s hut with a window, the guard rubbing his eyes, yawning.
“Open the fucking gate. Tiger’s expecting me.” I heard Daeng say. The car moved forward, tires crunching on soft gravel. I checked my weapon again. I’d chosen an HK UMP 5 .45 ACP with a Gemtech suppressor. Twenty-five rounds per magazine. I had it set on full auto, stock folded. I didn’t want a war but if one started I wanted to be dressed properly.
The front gate of Tiger’s house appeared, a huge Tiger face emblem set in its middle of its bars. Daeng drove close to the wall and pressed a button on the intercom, arm out of the window.
“Who is it?” Tiger’s voice.
“Daeng, I’m with Pheung.”
The gates started to open, rolling back. Big Tige
r’s house was set back from the soi by about fifty meters. I could see in the right side monitor a circular driveway enclosing a garden with a large fountain and pond in the middle. We went left. I watched the left monitor as the front door to Tiger’s house slid into view. We drove past a little more and stopped. Safe from being seen, I sat up and clicked my weapon off safety. Daeng had parked at a good angle to the front door. Chai brought his milspec M26 Tazer to bear, aiming through the film.
