Cocktails & Dreams

by Lilburne, Guy

  Suzie and Nok wai’d to each other.

  “OK, I shower, then we talk” said Suzie, whipping off her towel and walking naked towards the shower. Nok was shocked and looked at Danny without saying a word.

  Danny just shrugged his shoulder.

  “She likes flashing her boobs. She is very proud of them. They cost a lot” he said.

  An hour after Suzie had agreed to work, as required, for the Great British Detective Agency, Danny and Nok were sitting in Colonel Wattana’s office at Kathu police district HQ. The Police Chief went over the cases telling them what he knew.

  “Who is running the case at the moment?” asked Danny.

  “Two of my best detectives, Bee and Pon. I’ll take you down to meet them.”

  “Yes I need to talk to them, get their feelings on what went on, make sure they don’t think I’m trampling all over their case and hopefully, between us, we can make some headway.”

  “Everybody is very happy that Danny O’Brien is on the case. Nobody have problem.”

  Chapter 14 Meeting the Detectives.

  The Chief walked them to the detectives’ office on the floor below his own office. There were six detectives in the office. Most were either talking on a phone or typing on a computer. They all acknowledged Danny and Nok with wais or a nod or a wave. All except one female, who sat with her back to them as they walked in the door and she didn’t bother to turn around to see who had entered to office to cause such a reaction. The handsome younger man who sat on her desk talking to her had nudged her, but she carried on looking at something on the computer screen on her desk. Pon got off Bee’s desk and gave a high respectful wai to Danny, Nok and the Chief as they approached the desk.

  “These are detectives Bee and Pon” said the Chief. “They are running the serial killer case. I’ll leave you all to have a chat and you can let me know if there is anything else you need Danny.”

  “Thanks, that’s grand” said Danny, as the Chief turned and walked out of the office.

  “My name is Pon. I’m very happy to meet you Khun Danny. I never meet a famous detective before.” Pon thrust out his hand to shake and Danny shook it with sincere friendship. Pon had a friendly smile and was a handsome man. Danny and Nok liked him immediately.

  “Jesus! I’m not famous” said Danny. “But I’m delighted to meet you both.”

  Pon put his hand on Bee’s shoulder and used it to swing her around to face their guests.

  “And this is Bee. She is the senior investigating detective.”

  Bee didn’t pretend to like either Danny or Nok and she didn’t want to acknowledge them, but Thai culture meant she had too. She held her hands down in the lowest wai that she thought she could get away with. With a thin hollow smile and a dip of her head she said,

  “Sawasdee kha.” (Hello)

  Danny went to return the wai, but Nok put her hand over Danny’s to stop him. Both she and Pon thought that Bee had been extremely rude.

  “I am Nok and this is Danny O’Brien. We are private detectives and we have been hired as consultants to help you catch the serial killer. We’d like to know what you’ve got so far.” Nok didn’t like Bee and she wasn’t going to take any nonsense from her, but most of all she didn’t like anyone being rude to Danny.

  Danny didn’t quite grasp all the Thai cultural undertones that had just unfolded, and he hadn’t made his mind up about Bee yet. She was an attractive woman and smart, almost glamorous. He could tell that she wasn’t delighted to have Nok and himself interfering with her case, but he could understand that. He had always preferred to work alone and he had sympathy for her professional pride.

  “We are here to see if we can help, that’s all. I’m sure you have already thought of everything” said Danny.

  “I’m sure we have” said Bee standing up from her desk. “Pon can show you whatever you need to see. If I need any help from you, then I’ll call you.”

  Bee grabbed her cream jacket from the back of her chair; it matched her cream skirt. She threw it over her shoulder and walked out.

  Pon shrugged his shoulders.

  “I’m sorry, she is not usually like this, but the case is very stressful and there is a lot of pressure on everyone at the moment. We are all very happy to have you working with us Khun Danny.”

  “Just call me Danny. Now, can we sit somewhere and go through what we know so far Pon?”

  “Yes, of course. It won’t take long, I’m afraid. We haven’t got much.”

  “Not much is better than nothing, and it’s a start Pon” quipped Nok, smiling at her own wisdom.

  Pon pulled a couple of chairs around and the other detectives gathered around. He was suddenly slightly nervous and didn’t quite know what to say next. Danny could feel his nerves.

  “OK Pon, just relax and say it as it comes into your mind. We’ll pick through it as we go along.”

  Pon smiled, grateful for Danny’s understanding.

  “OK. Well we have a serial killer. Two victims, both ladyboys, both night-time murders in the area of Rat-u-Thit Road, both working in the sex tourist industry, both killed with the same weapon, a Smith & Wesson 38 special using hollow tipped bullets and killed at close range………….”

  “What are their names?” asked Nok.

  “The first one was called Daa. The second victim was called Toy. Daa worked in the Cocktails & Dreams bar and Toy worked in the Pranee Seafood restaurant in Karon Beach.”

  “Have we got any leads?” asked Danny.

  “Not much, but yes we have. The work around the victims’ phones didn’t turn anything up. All the numbers have been traced to either family or friends. On each phone there are a few untraceable numbers belonging to unregistered pay as you go mobiles, but there are no cross matches on numbers between the two victims’ phones. So, if the killer was known to them and they had his mobile number in their phones, then he used different numbers to call each victim. It is more likely that the killer wasn’t known to them until the night they were murdered. We think they just pulled a customer and he was a killer.”

  “So you have no suspects?” asked Danny.

  Li, the only other female detective in the office, had been sitting and listening. She wai’d to Danny and then to Nok.

  “We have a suspect. We think he may be from Holland” she said, leaning over and pulling a photo fit from the first victim’s folder. “A witness and best friend of the first victim, Daa, says that this is a good likeness of a man she left the Cocktails & Dreams bar with on the night she was murdered. She also heard him talk and says that he had a Dutch accent. The same man was seen watching the second victim from across the road by the Jungceylon shopping centre, but the description is no good.”

  “No good!” said Nok.

  “Less than no good. There isn’t one.”

  “Well, how do you know this is the same man?” asked Danny.

  “A bit of guess work really, but we showed some of the tuk-tuk drivers the photo fit and they couldn’t rule it out. A couple actually think it is the same man” said Li.

  “What have we done to trace the suspect?”

  “We have been in contact with the Royal Dutch Embassy in Bangkok, and of course Immigration, to see what people we have had in from Holland, but so far we haven’t found our suspect or come up with a name” offered Li.

  “How she know he Dutch?” asked Nok.

  “I don’t know” said Pon. “She just said that she thought he spoke English with a Dutch accent.”

  “I wouldn’t know a Dutch accent. It could be German or Danish, Austrian, Norwegian. How sure is the witness?” said Danny.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Ok, well I suggest you widen the net.”

  “Yes of course. I’ll get right on it. There is one more thing. We think we
have the suspects fingerprints, lifted from his bar bills in Cocktails & Dreams, but they haven‘t come back with a match yet.”

  “Can we see the exhibits please?” asked Nok.

  Danny smiled at Nok’s confidence. She was a natural detective and a very good one. Danny had pride in his protégé.

  The exhibits were placed on the desk in front of Danny and Nok. Together they started to look through Daa’s cream coloured bag. They looked at the photograph of Daa with a balding, middle aged, overweight farang. He was wearing a huge white short sleeved shirt that did little to hide his enormous size and brown shorts that came to just above his chubby knees. White socks came up to half way up his shins and he was wearing red Nike training shoes. On the back was written ‘I love you tee rak. Mr. P. XX’

  Danny looked at Nok and she nodded.

  “Pon, can you take a colour copy of this photo, back and front please, that we can keep?” said Nok.

  “Yes of course.”

  Nok and Danny looked through the other paper work; reports and statements, and witness lists. Nok made notes in English.

  Bee walked back into the office.

  “Pon, can I speak to you in private please?”

  Pon looked at Danny.

  “Will you excuse me please?”

  “No problem. We are just about done here anyway and it’s getting late. We’ll go away and have a think about everything you’ve told us.”

  As Danny and Nok started to clear away their notes and copies, Pon walked out of the office with Bee. She stopped in the corridor and looked at Pon.

  “Do you want to make love to me tonight?”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Yes or no. Make your mind up, I’m going now.”

  “Yes, yes of course I do, but why tonight? Why now? Why like this?”

  “Follow me to my apartment.”

  Bee walked off at a pace and Pon followed her. His head was spinning as he followed behind her motor bike in his car. His heart was racing as he followed her into her apartment. He tried to kiss her, but she pushed him away.

  “We don’t need to kiss. It’s just about sex. That’s all men want. Nothing to do with love. Just sex.”

  “No Bee, you are wrong. It’s not like that………”

  “Shhhhhh.” She put her finger up to her lips.

  She went down onto her knees and unzipped him. He wanted to protest. He wanted to talk and seduce her. He wanted her to know that he loved her. He wanted her to know that it wasn’t just about sex, but suddenly he felt her mouth wet and warm and sucking and it was just too late to say anything. He heard himself gasping for breath and then she pushed him back onto a black leather swivel chair. Pon hadn’t had a chance to take in her apartment, but it was modern and designed, expensive. He watched as Bee pulled her knee length skirt up and pulled her thong down and stepped out of it with one leg leaving it wrapped around one knee. She pushed him back and sat astride him, she slid onto him and moved until he climaxed, but she didn’t kiss him and she was almost detached from the act. She got off him.

  “I can’t believe that you just came inside me” she said.

  “But I thought that…..” Pon tried to think about what he had been thinking.

  “You didn’t think. Why should you. You’re a man. Please go now.”

  “Bee, can we talk? I care about you.”

  “No, I want you to leave now.” She turned and walked to the front door of the apartment, her thong now around one of her ankles. This wasn’t the way Pon had wanted it to be, but he said nothing and left. The door closed behind him like a slap in the face.

  Chapter 15 Thai lady and mosquitos like farang.

  It was already dark by the time Nok and Danny had left the police station. Nok watched Pon follow Bee out of the car park and muttered something under her breath in Thai.

  “Come on, I’ll buy you something to eat. It’s been a long day. Ring Meiwa and Suzie and tell them to meet us at the restaurant. We’ll have an office meeting over food.”

  “Good idea tee rak. Where we go?”

  “Your choice.”

  Nok rang Meiwa and Suzie and then took Danny to the Seafood Restaurant on Beach Road. Nok had a brandy and coke and Danny drank orange juice while they waited for the others, Nok had already ordered a big selection of dishes for everyone before the others arrived, joined them at the table and the food was placed out in front of them. Suzie told them that she couldn’t stay very long because she had to shower and get changed ready to dance at Simons Cabaret. They ate as they talked. Nok brought them all up to speed on the day’s events and the meeting with the detectives. She passed around a copy of the photo fit of the suspect with the dark eyes and hair and the birthmark on his cheek.

  “He is handsome” said Meiwa. “Is he the killer?”

  “He’s a suspect” said Danny.

  Meiwa handed the photo fit to Suzie. Suzie’s reaction was immediate and she started to shake as the recognition hit her.

  “Oh my Buddha! I have seen this man” she said.

  “Are you sure?” asked Nok.

  “Yes, I am very sure. He was at Simons Cabaret theatre last night.”

  “How could you spot him in the theatre? I’m assuming the audience is in the dark and you are up on the stage in the spotlights” said Danny.

  “At the end of the show all the artists line up outside the side of the theatre and then the audience is let out through the side exit. It gives them the chance to have their photos taken with the dancing girls for 200 baht.”

  “Wow! You had your photo taken with this guy?” asked Meiwa.

  “Yes. Oh my Buddha! Now I scare.”

  “Don’t be scared. It doesn’t mean anything” said Danny. “Is there a copy of the photo?”

  “No, most of the people take their own cameras. There are a couple of photographers that freelance for the theatre, but they take instant photos, no copy.”

  “Well at least we know he is still on the island. I’ll ring Colonel Wattana. He can step up security at the airport and on the main exit road to the mainland.”

  Nok passed around the copy of the photo taken from Daa’s bag and the message written on the back.

  “We need to find out who ‘Mr. P’ is and what he can tell us about Daa. He knows her well enough to call her tee rak (darling) and the photo looks new” said Danny.

  “Yes tee rak. Good idea” said Nok, with a cheeky grin and everyone laughed.

  The waitress came to the table with another round of drinks and smiled because of all the laughter. Danny swatted a mosquito that had just bitten him on his arm.

  “Thai lady and mosquitos like farang” said the waitress and everyone laughed again.

  Chapter 16 Yupaporn.

  As Danny, Nok and the others were finishing their meal Yupaporn was working across the other side of town in the pool hall above the Tiger Inn on Rat-U-Thit Road. Yupaporn means ‘the most beautiful woman’ in English and, as far as Peter Lawford was concerned, she was.

  This was the first time that he had been inside the pool hall and he never imagined he would see such a beautiful ladyboy working there. He only knew her name because that is what was written on her name badge. He knew that most of the people playing pool there wouldn’t even realise that she was a ladyboy, but he knew. He also knew that she wasn’t a ‘working girl’, but, as soon as he saw her, he decided that he just had to have her. He walked over to the four tables that her and the other girl were responsible for. She wai’d to him and smiled as he took his pick from the four tables. It was too early to be busy yet, but there were a few people inside, spread out over the entire pool hall. Peter picked a table and put a hundred baht note on the green baize. Yupaporn picked it up and placed down 10 ten baht coins. She tucked 8 of them under the lip of the
table and squatted down to put 2 of them in the slots. She pushed the lever to release the balls. Peter thought that she looked fantastic in her little denim skirt and waist coat top with just enough cleavage to get him aroused, and he could she her white lacy panties when she squatted down. He looked down her top when she leaned over to arrange the balls in the triangle.

  Yupaporn could feel the farang’s eyes all over her body. She wasn’t attracted to him at all, but she kept smiling. He was old and overweight. He was going bald and sweated a lot in spite of the cool air conditioning. He kept wiping his balding head with paper tissues. The beads of sweat quickly reappeared and, as he repeated the mop up, bits of wet white tissues stuck on his head. He was wearing a huge white short sleeved shirt that did little to hide his enormous size, and brown shorts that came to just above his chubby knees. White socks came up to half way up his shins and he was wearing red Nike training shoes. His shirt was wet with sweat under his arms and down his chest and back. Every time Yupaporn made eye contact he smiled and nodded. She smiled back, hoping she would get a big tip.

  “You want drink?” she asked.

  “Yes honey, I sure do. A Chang beer please, and get yourself one too. Do you wanna play pool with me?”

  “Yes, can do, no problem” smiled Yupaporn. She could tell by the big farang’s accent that he was American. She went to the small bar and came back carrying a small round tray holding two drinks, a bamboo cup with his bar bill tucked inside and a few fresh tissues. The place was starting to fill up and the sounds of chatter, laughter, and the clatter of pool balls started to sound above the hum of the air conditioning units spread throughout the hall.

  “What’s your name?” asked the American.

  “Yupaporn, it mean the most beautiful woman” she smiled.

  “It suits you. I should have guessed.”

  “Khob khun kha (Thank you)” she smiled and put her hands together in a wai. “What’s your name?” she asked.