by Guy Lilburne
Yuda held the semi-automatic Browning in both hands, caressing it like a small pet. His breathing was deep but even; he felt calm, just like he had planned to be.
“How do you want to do it?” asked Watana.
“I want them both dead. I will kill him in the room, but I want to take her with us. I want her to suffer before she dies. I want her to beg for my mercy and I want to feed her to wild dogs. She deserves no burial, no body, no remains; she has to suffer,” Yuda snarled in a whisper, the hatred stirring up inside him with every passing moment.
“I will need some money; we have to find what room they are in.”
“How much do you need?”
“10,000 baht.”
“That’s a lot of money, isn’t it?”
“That’s the amount I need for you to get what you want.”
Yuda handed over the cash and Watana went and spoke to the receptionist while Yuda waited in the car, watching from under the shadows of the palm trees swaying in the light breeze. Watana came back to him showing no emotion, it was just business to him.
“They have a ground floor room. This is good for you. There is access from the side of the hotel. You don’t have to go through reception, You can go through the garden. There is just a small wall to get over, but each room is cut off from the garden by water from the swimming pool, like a moat, so you are going to get wet if you want to get inside the room. If I were you, I would kill them both in the room and get away. If you only shoot the boyfriend then your wife will slow you down and people will be running everywhere. If you kill both in the room you can get away the same way you went in and we can drive away…… is better!”
“No, we do it my way. You wait for me and I’ll bring her with me. Then we drive away. Understand?”
“No problem, but after you start shooting you have to be quick.”
Chapter 22
Simon knocked on Tika’s door and she opened it immediately. She was waiting for him and she looked sensational. She had gone to a lot of trouble. She smelled fantastic and was dressed to seduce. Her negligee was lacy and see-through. Simon could see that she was wearing nothing underneath it, except stockings. Tika threw her arms around Simon’s neck.
“I didn’t think I was ever going to see you again,” she whispered and kissed him.
Simon pulled his clothes off in an instant, ripped Tikas negligee open and they held each other. Naked! Their passions were rising with each moment. There was no long, slow, foreplay this time. Simon pushed her back onto the bed. He pushed her legs open from the knees and slid himself deep inside her.
“You have made me fall in love with you,” whispered Tika.
Simon didn’t answer and just continued to make love to her. She was wet and warm and he was throbbing.
Yuda was crouching in the hotel garden. The hotel was lit up and he could see into all the rooms. It didn’t take him long to locate Tika and Simon. He watched them holding on to each other, naked on the bed. Suddenly he felt like the betrayed husband. He had been wronged, he had been cheated; he could almost taste his revenge and it was tasting sweeter and sweeter.
“You fucking whore!” he snarled over and over again under his breath.
The adrenalin was rushing through his body and making him shake, but he felt excited and he felt invincible. He moved slowly forward towards Tika’s room. Hidden in the shadows of the bushes and palm trees he crept unseen. He took the gun out of his waistband, cocked it and released the safety catch. Tika and Simon were on the edge of the bed gripped in passion. They had no way of seeing Yuda slide almost silently into the slipway from the swimming pool that ran in front of the ground floor rooms. He held the Browning up above the water and used the stainless steel steps to climb up onto Tika’s balcony. The water dripped off his wet trousers onto the yellow tiled balcony floor, too quietly for Tika or Simon to hear it. Yuda slipped the tips of his fingers between the sliding balcony doors. They weren’t locked and he pulled them open and stepped into the room. Tika tilted her head back and saw him standing between the bed and the patio doors. She screamed.
“YUDA!”
Simon jumped up and back and turned around to face Yuda. Before Simon could move, or even say anything, Yuda had raised the gun to take aim at Simon.
“Your dick is dripping with my wife,” he snarled.
In a moment of sheer horror Simon saw the weapon and, in the split second it took for his brain to register the danger, he raised a useless hand in pathetic self defence as Yuda pulled the trigger. The bullet slammed into Simon, throwing him backwards against the bedroom wall. He fell instantly in a heap on the floor. Yuda walked around the bed, his heart pounding like a drum inside him, enough to make his entire body shake. By the time he got to the other side of the bed Simon’s blood was splattered and already oozing bright red on the floor tiles, spreading further and running along the gaps between the tiles. Yuda fired another two shots into Simon’s motionless body and the force made his body jolt.
Tika was screaming and Yuda swung around and smashed the gun into her face. It split her lip and smashed her nose and silenced her screams.
He grabbed her hair and dragged her naked, except for her stockings, out of the room and along the corridor towards the front of the hotel. Yuda cursed her and swore at her constantly as he pulled her along, without any resistance from Tika. The shots were loud and had been heard throughout the hotel, but nobody knew what it was and there wasn’t any reaction to them.
Nobody saw Yuda dragging Tika until they reached the reception. Yuda was shouting and snarling like a mad man, waving the gun around with one hand and dragging Tika by the hair with the other, Tika’s screams were stifled and lost in the commotion. The few people in the reception area dropped to the floor. Some women screamed and a child shouted for her mummy. The girl behind reception ducked under the counter. Watana watched Yuda dragging Tika through the reception and out the front of the hotel towards his car. He started up the engine and revved the car.
A man stepped out from under a palm tree and stood in front of Yuda and Tika. It was Jaya. He held a gun and pointed it at Yuda
“YUDA,” he shouted. “Let her go.”
“Jaya, get out of my way.”
Yuda raised the gun towards Jaya but Jaya shot twice. Both bullets hit
Yuda, spun him around and he fell to the ground. He was dead, a hole in his chest and a hole in his head. Tika staggered forward and fell to her knees, ripping holes in her stockings and making her knees bleed.
Watana slammed the car into gear and screeched away into the darkness, the smoke from his burning rubber tyres drifting across the car park, heavy in the hot night air.
Tika wailed to the night, the agony of terror and loss unmistakable to all who heard her. Jaya walked towards her and dropped to his knees in front of her. He covered her with his jacket.
“I’m sorry Tika, please forgive me.” He levelled the gun at his head and pressed the barrel into his temple.
“NO JAYA, NO.” She grabbed the gun still in Jaya’s hand.
People from the hotel had started to walk cautiously towards them.
Jaya looked at Tika as he held the gun to his head. Her beautiful eyes were pleading and tearful.
“Jaya, you can’t do this, I need you. I need a friend. Too many people have died tonight.”
“Tika you don’t know what I have done. You can never forgive me.”
“You saved my life. I forgive you. Please put the gun down.”
“Tika you cannot forgive me. I cannot forgive myself. I helped Yuda to find you. I knew he was going to kill you and I still betrayed you. I helped him steal the company from you and helped him steal money from the company. I am not worthy of your forgiveness.”
“Jaya, Allah forgives you and I forgive you. You saved my life. I know what Yuda ca
n do to people. I know how he can control people. Tonight you saved my life. Please put down the gun, let me save you Jaya. I will not forsake you. Please trust in me.” Through her tears Tika managed a smile. It went to Jayas heart and slowly he lowered the gun and laid it on the ground. He put his arms around Tika and started to cry.
“I am sorry. I am so sorry, please forgive me.”
“I forgive you Jaya. I forgive you.”
The hotel security guard kicked the gun away from Jaya and pushed his face to the ground. He handcuffed his hands behind his back with plastic tie cuffs, held him down to the ground with his knee and guarded him with his baton out, raised ready to strike. He felt like a hero but Jaya offered no resistance. The sound of wailing sirens got closer and the red and blue flashing lights could be seen as they illuminated the night sky. A few moments later police cars and an ambulance screeched onto the hotel car park. Tika was being comforted by hotel staff and someone had wrapped a blanked around her. She was in a deep state of shock. She was staring at Yuda lying a few feet away from her. His eyes were open but lifeless, blood still oozing from the hole in his head. She didn’t hate him, she was just numb. She wanted to go and see Simon but she couldn’t make her body move. The police took control of the scene, amongst a lot of voices all shouting about what had happened and what they had seen.
A girl from the hotel came running out and shouted to the police and ambulance staff to go with her. She took them to Tikas room, where
Simon lay in a pool of blood on the floor. The paramedic checked for signs of life. Then he checked again and nodded. He was still alive. Three bullets had passed clean through his body and missed his vital organs.
He had lost a lot of blood and his pulse was almost undetectable, but he was alive. His wounds were packed as they rushed him away to the ambulance and onto Patong Hospital. More police officers arrived and so did journalists and a local TV crew. Tika didn’t know that Simon was still alive and a short time later she was taken away in a second ambulance. Jaya was arrested and taken away by the Police.
Photographs were being taken by police and by journalists. The panic at the time of the shootings was now excitement. The hotel security guard was being interviewed by the TV station and was reliving the dramatic moments when he single handedly tackled the ‘crazed gunman’ with no thought for his own safety. He was smiling as if he had just won a gold medal at the Olympics. He was also interviewed by the newspaper journalists and kept adding bits to his daring arrest of the shooter. Police were taking details of witnesses.
Lightning flashed and the monsoon rain thrashed down on them.
Simon had emergency surgery and a blood transfusion. He was sedated and kept on a drip in the Intensive Care Unit. The bullets had gone through his chest and shoulder. The staff at the hospital didn’t remove the Buddha amulet; there was no doubt amongst any of them that it was Buddha who had saved this man.
Tika had a police escort stay with her at the hospital and, after treatment to her grazed knees and a general checkup, she was allowed to leave. She was told that Simon was alive and in intensive care, but her request to see him was denied. The Thai police lady was very kind and understanding towards Tika so Tika found it easy to talk to her. The police took her to the police station, where she stayed most of the rest of the night, making her statement to the nice police lady.
Jaya was in the same police station as Tika but they each didn’t know it. Jaya wasn’t interviewed that night. He was booked in and the Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok was informed that one of their nationals had been arrested for murder. Jaya sat in a police cell with two drunken Thai men who were asleep on the floor. Jaya sat with his knees tucked up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. His tears continued to run down his cheeks, but they weren’t tears of sadness for his own predicament, they were tears of joy. He thanked Allah that he had given him the strength and courage to save Tika. He felt like a man again.
Whatever time in prison he would have to serve didn’t matter at this moment. He had done the right thing at last and he knew that Tika was right: Allah would forgive him. He had saved Tika and he had saved his own soul.
Simon was wired up to a monitor and attached to two drips. One was just fluid to keep him hydrated, and the other was Tramadol Hydrochloride, which is a morphine based medicine from the opioid group of medicines, used to control pain.
In Simon’s case it also kept him asleep for most of the time, although he was vaguely aware of someone being there and holding his hand. He was bandaged around the chest and shoulder, but was still wearing the Buddha amulet.
Simon improved during the next 24 hours, spending longer periods awake and becoming more aware of his situation. His breathing was laboured and his chest felt as if every single rib had been broken into a thousand pieces, but he was alive and he appreciated how lucky he had been. He gave his full details to the staff, but didn’t mention his mother back in England because he didn’t want her to be bothered.
Tika came to visit him around midmorning. Her face was now quite bruised from the blow from Yuda.
“How are you Tika?”
“I am okay now. Thank you for everything you have done for me.”
“What happened at the hotel Tika? I remember the man coming in and I remember getting shot. It felt like I’d been hit by a speeding truck and then I woke up here.”
“That was my husband, Yuda. He had come to kill me, but shot you because you were there. I thought that he had killed you. He walked around the bed and shot you again when you were on the floor. There was blood everywhere. He dragged me out of the hotel by my hair and he was screaming that he was going to kill me and feed me to the dogs. Everyone was screaming but nobody helped. Then Jaya stepped out of the shadows and told Yuda to let me go. When Yuda pointed the gun at him, Jaya shot him. Yuda is dead……”
“Who is Jaya?”
“Jaya is an old friend. He is the company lawyer, but he was also working for Yuda. He knew that Yuda was going to try to kill me. He was arrested by the police for Yuda’s murder.”
“But he saved your life!”
“Yes I know. I have already instructed a lawyer from Indonesia to come and represent him, but I don’t know what is going to happen.”
“What are you going to do now then Tika?”
“I have managed to speak to my mother on the phone. I’m going home.
Jaya told me that the company really belongs to me. The lawyers are sorting it out. I have to go back to Jakarta. I fly back tonight.”
“Tika, please forgive me.”
“You have done nothing wrong to be forgiven for. You helped me turn my life around and you came to save me when I needed saving.”
“I think I made you fall in love with me, and I’m so sorry for that.”
“Yes, I fell in love with you. I will always love you, but for that you should not be sorry. Life is made up of happiness and sadness, love and hate, twists and turns, times and places. My life was made better in Thailand and now I have my future. I am happy that we met.”
“My life was also made better in Thailand and I am happy that we met too.”
“No big ‘long goodbyes’?” smiled Tika.
“No.”
Tika leaned over and kissed Simon gently on his mouth.
“Thank you for everything Simon.”
“Thank you Tika.”
She turned and walked out the room, closing the door behind her and leaving Simon with one last smile as she did.
Chapter 23
Tika knew that she was pregnant a week before she confirmed it with a pregnancy testing kit. She sat on the floor in her bathroom and stared at the stick. Two pink lines had appeared. She read and re read the instructions. There was no doubt about it, she was pregnant.
She was still sitting on the bathroom floor with the te
ar stains that streaked her cheeks when she rang her mum, Bethari.
“Mum, it’s me.”
“Is everything okay Tika?”
“I have something to tell you.”
There was a long silence as Tika tried to find the words to break the news, but she couldn’t.
“Tika, are you happy about it?”
“About what, Mama?”
“About your baby?”
Tika burst into tears again.
“How did you know Mama?”
“When you told me about the English doctor with so much love in your heart: I think I knew it then.”
“Yes Mama, I’m more happy then I can ever tell you. I’m having Simon’s baby. It was meant to be. Allah gave a part of Simon to me to keep and to love forever. It is more than I could have dreamed of.”
“Then everything will be okay darling. We will raise a happy child. I love you Tika”
“I love you too Mama.”
The lawyers got Jaya extradited to Indonesia where he faced charges of conspiracy to murder. Tika became a regular visitor to Jaya and during the long prison visits they became good friends and told each other all about their own lives and their hopes and fears. Together with the team of lawyers employed by Tika they worked on mitigation for the upcoming trial. A love started to grow between them. It wasn’t a love that would rock their worlds, but it was a love that was to grow, a love based on understanding and forgiveness.
Tika gave birth to a baby boy. He had dark hair, brown eyes and his skin was lightly tanned, but otherwise he looked a lot like Simon. Tika loved her baby and she loved that he looked like his dad. Her mum was present at the birth and Tika sent news to Jaya, who would love the child as his own.
