Cocktails & Dreams

by Lilburne, Guy

  “Peter Lawford. You can call me Mr. P, darlin.”

  Mr. P smashed the white ball into the pack with force and it made a loud crack. The balls scattered all over the table but nothing went down. Mr. P picked up one of the fresh tissues off the tray, wiped his head and face and puffed his cheeks out with the exertion from bending over.

  “Do you think you can clear the table from the break?” he smiled.

  Yupaporn shrugged her shoulders and Mr. P watched the movement make her breasts swell.

  “I’ll give you 1000 baht (£20) if you can.”

  “Yes, I can do” she said with a beaming smile on her face.

  Mr. P plopped himself down in a chair and wiped his face again. Yupaporn slowly chalked the cue as she walked around the table plotting her shots. She blew the excess chalk off the cue tip and smiled at Mr. P.

  Pool was her game and this was going to be an easy 1000 baht. She only earned 100 baht a night plus tips. She decided that Mr. P was a nice man and she could tell that he liked her. She leaned over and pouted as she took her first shot. She flashed him a look and he was looking down her denim top. The ball dropped into the pocket. She sauntered around the table and bent over the table in front of him. He looked at her long brown legs. Another ball banged into the pocket. She looked over her shoulder at him, her long black hair cascading over her shoulder. He was rubbing both his hands on his thighs. Yupaporn had never been with a customer for sex, but she had seduced hundreds and it always meant a big tip. She smiled at him again as she moved around the table, leaning over it, pressing against it, hiking up her denim skirt to panty level and putting a knee on it. Mr. P was nearly moaning out loud, when he caught sight of the giveaway tiny bulge in her white panties. Yupaporn was putting on a show and he was enjoying watching it. As she moved around the table the pool balls kept clattering into the pockets. Then the black went down. She walked over to Mr. P, picked up another clean tissue from the tray and wiped his sweating head. He put his hands around her thighs as she wiped.

  “I win” she said.

  “You’re good.” He struggled to wriggle forward in the chair enough to squeeze his hand into his back pocket and pull out his wallet. It was stuffed with 1000, 500 and 100 baht notes. He pulled out 1000 baht and handed it to Yupaporn. She held it between her fingers and wai’d to him.

  “Khob khun kha.”

  Mr. P swigged back his Chang beer, finishing it in one go.

  “Do you want to come out with me honey?”

  “No sorry, cannot” she smiled.

  “I’ll pay your bar fine.”

  “No, not have bar fine here. I not same bar girl. Here nobody go with customer.”

  “I was hoping to be more than a customer. I really like you. Maybe we can go out together somewhere. Can I have your phone number?”

  “I not real lady. I ladyboy.”

  “Yes I know. I really like you honey, I don’t want to be a customer, I believe in love at first sight” he smiled and stood up.

  Yupaporn went to set up another game.

  “No, don’t bother with another game. I’m going now. I’ve got things to do and places to go, but I’ll be back” he smiled and winked at Yupaporn. She picked up the coins from under the table lip and went to hand them to Mr. P.

  “It still only early” she said.

  “Keep them.” He pulled the bill from the bamboo cup; 300 baht for the beer and the lady drink. He slipped a 1000 baht note and the bill back into the cup. He pulled another 1000 baht note and folded it in half and then in half again and held it between his index and forefinger. He slid his fingers inside her waist coat top, brushing her nipple with his fingers as he placed the note on her breast. She was too shocked to say anything, but he had a gentle touch for a big man and her nipple erected.

  “We can be more than friends and I can take real good care of the people I love” he whispered. She could feel his warm breath on her ear. “I’ll see you again.” He gave her bottom a squeeze with his other hand and then walked slowly out of the pool hall without looking back. Yupaporn’s head was spinning. Usually she was in total control and could flirt with customers and always remain in charge. Men were usually shy with her, but Mr. P had power. There was something about him that intrigued her. He had a nice smile and a nice face. Even though it was a fat face he looked OK, and he really seemed to like her. He had given her a lot of money, more then she would expect to make in a week, but as the night went on, she found herself not thinking about the money. She was thinking about Mr. P.

  Chapter 17 Patong nights.

  The night rolled on. Patong after dark takes on a life of its own; secrets are shared and secret things are done. The music got louder and the lights got brighter, drinks flowed and inhibitions were lost amongst slim bodies and smiling faces. Everybody was looking for something and it could be found in a Patong night.

  Although the nightly party still went on, there was a nervousness hanging over the town, maybe not noticed by the tourists except for the increased visibility of the police patrols. Even the tourist police, consisting of old ex-pat farangs, were out in force walking up and down Bangla Road. But the locals were very aware of the fear that was gripping Patong. The Thai smiles hid the fear from the farangs, but it was the talk of every bar, every bargirl and ladyboy, every restaurant, hotel, shop and business.

  Nok had given Meiwa a lift home on the back of her motor bike after they had finished the meal. Suzie had gone to dance in Simons Cabaret. Danny had started to walk along the Beach Road to go back to the Holiday Inn Hotel for an early night, but stopped further along the road at another open air restaurant to watch a five piece Thai band playing Jazz on the restaurant stage to entertain the diners. At first he stopped on the pavement to watch and had to thank, but refuse, the two girls in traditional Thai dress and holding menus from the restaurant, who approached him one after the other trying to coax him to a table. Then he had to refuse the street sellers, who suddenly buzzed around him like mosquitos holding out everything from flashing toys to full size hammocks. One of the pretty restaurant girls holding the menus watched and each time she caught Danny’s eye she gave him a broad smile, her bright red lipstick lips breaking into a beautiful smile revealing perfect white teeth. Danny couldn’t help but smile back. The girl swept an elegant arm from in front of her to the restaurant. Danny looked her in the eye. She smiled a knowing smile, and she looked cute. The Jazz was good, it wasn’t too late, and Danny hadn’t eaten much of the Thai food with Nok and the others.

  “Jesus!” He nodded to the girl, who wai’d to him in return and beamed him a huge smile. He followed her to a table, but asked for another one nearer the stage. He had a sirloin steak cooked rare with salad. He told them that he didn’t want the over sweet mayonnaise dressing on the salad, but the salad came covered in it anyway. Danny had been in Thailand long enough now, so he just shrugged his shoulders and ate it. He drank fresh orange juice with ice and watched the band.

  Tuk was only 22 years old. She was beautiful, but had no smile and staring eyes that had witnessed a lifetime of sadness. She had run away from a drunken, abusive father, when she was just 13 years old, after her mother died from cancer. She knew the day her mother was cremated at the local temple that her life in the tiny northern village was over. The only thing that she took with her from the shabby wooden shack that had been her home was a gold Buddha amulet that her mother had given to her when she was 10 years old. Tuk ran away to Bangkok and travelled overnight on an old bus. Nobody asked who she was or where she was going; nobody cared, it didn’t matter. It rained for most of the journey and she was cold - cold and scared. It was only on the bus that she realised she should have packed a bag with clothes and toiletries, but she had never run away before. Before, she had just cried silent tears as her father abused her, his breath stale with cigarettes and whisky. When she arrived in Bangkok, with
the tell-tale signs of insect bites all up both legs from working the rice fields, the city was bigger than she had imagined. She was hopeful of getting a job cleaning in a hotel or waiting on tables at a restaurant, but she didn’t. She begged on the street, but was soon taken in by a Mamasan, who put her to work in her bar; on the face of it just collecting glasses, but, for a price, she was made available to customers wanting a younger girl. Tuk never got control of her life and when one of the older girls introduced her to heroin and amphetamine, to help her get through the days, any chance of a lucky break evaporated like the rain in the hot Bangkok sun. Hope had withered and died like a tropical fruit left on the vine.

  At 17 years old a Thai pimp stole her heart when he promised her a future as his girlfriend and took her to Pattaya. She was bought and sold to several ‘boyfriends’ before she ended up alone, but at least working for herself, in a bar in Patong at the age of 20 years old. Like all working girls she had a national registration card to work, but to keep it she had to have regular health checks. If girls failed to show for checks or picked up sexually transmitted diseases, their cards were suspended and no bar would employ them. Tuk lost her card when she became HIV positive. For the last 12 months she had been working the streets as a freelance. She worked the far south end of Beach Road. It was dark there and nobody else worked that patch. Her short red dress was like an advert for her services. She walked along the open air restaurants on Beach Road. She stopped briefly on the pavement to watch the five piece Thai band playing Jazz to entertain the diners at one of the restaurant, but the pretty girls with the menus didn’t try to invite her in to eat and the street sellers didn’t try to sell her anything.

  An old 74 year old skinny English man shuffled up next to her and pretended to look at the picture menu held on an old music stand. His blue shorts showed skinny legs streaked with deep red and blue veins like a road map. His white long sleeved shirt, unbuttoned to the navel, showed a bony chest with a splattering of long grey hairs. One of his sleeves rolled up to the elbow showed off an old blue tattoo from over 50 years ago, now smudged by ageing skin and withered arms. An un-tipped cigarette hung smoking from his thin lips.

  “Hello darling, where are you going?” he said turning his head towards Tuk.

  She looked him up and down without thinking anything.

  “Where you want to go?”

  “I want to go with you darling, just short time. I don’t want to pay much.”

  “500 baht. (£10)”

  “200 baht.”

  “Ok, can do.” Tuk held the old man’s hand and they walked off towards the far south end of the beach. He was the first of six customers she was to get that night and she serviced them all either in or against an old rotting long tailed fishing boat, which had been drawn up onto the sand a long time ago and left to decay like a dead beast left in the sun.

  Tuk didn’t know that this was going to be the last night that she had to service sex tourists. She didn’t know that this was the last night that she had to suffer her life. She had seen the gun in the killer’s hand only a moment before she felt the bullet smash into her chest. She saw the killer’s eyes and wanted to ask ‘Why?’ But she was too scared and too shocked. The shock wave of pain shot through her body and she lost control of everything; she felt nothing, then she couldn’t see much at all. She was trying to get control, trying to bring back some feeling. She knew she was hurt and in trouble. She even realised that she had been shot, but her mind couldn’t connect with her body. She didn’t want to die, but she felt her life ebbing away. Then she couldn’t see, she couldn’t open her eyes and she didn’t know how to.

  She heard her mother’s voice and she listened. She felt a soft touch on her cheek and her eyes opened. Her mother’s face was so beautiful, even more beautiful than when she had been alive and she was smiling. She was gathered up in her mother’s arms and could only feel love, a euphoric joy.

  Chapter 18 Love lies bleeding.

  The sun had been up only half an hour, but already it was a hot day. The phone on the bedside cabinet rang loudly and awoke Danny. He wasn’t expecting a call. He squinted at the green digital time display on the TV. It was 6:50am. He especially wasn’t expecting a call at this time.

  “Jesus!” he said, twisting around to pick up the phone.

  “Hello?”

  “Mr. O’Bline?” said a gentle female voice.

  “O’Brien” corrected Danny.

  “Mr. O’Bline, this is reception. We have a call for you.” The phone clicked and then there was a male voice.

  “Good morning Khun Danny. This is Pon. I am sorry to disturb you.”

  “You’re grand, what’s the problem?”

  “We have just had another victim found on the south end of the beach; close up gunshot wound. We are just about to go to the scene. Do you want to meet us there?”

  “OK. How will I find it?”

  “Go out of your hotel onto Beach Road and turn left. Just walk along and you will find us. The body is on the remains of an old fishing boat.”

  “I’ll see you there.”

  Danny rang Nok and told her to meet him at the scene. Then he showered, dressed and grabbed a bottle of orange juice from the mini bar on his way out. He drank it as he walked along Beach Road.

  Bee and Pon were already at the scene, with four uniformed officers and the CSI team, who were busy taking photographs and samples. One of the officers was taking notes from the taxi driver who had found the body. One of the CSI team was placing a small tape measure next to footprints in the sand around the old boat and photographing them.

  ‘Nobody looks good in death’ thought Danny to himself, as he took in the sight of the lifeless body in the short red dress hanging backwards out of the skeleton remains of an old wooden fishing boat. Her hands were hanging down over her head, fingers and long black hair touching the sand. Her face was gaunt, only a remnant of a once beautiful girl. Her eyes were open and staring at nothing. Her red blood, now dried, was down the wooden remains of the boat, down her shoulders and arms, and soaked into the sand.

  “Love lies bleeding” said Danny.

  “What?” snapped Bee.

  “There is a plant called ‘love lies bleeding.’ It has long red drooping flowers, beautiful, but I always thought that there was something sad about it. She reminded me of the plant.”

  “It was Pon’s idea to bring you here, but this is a police crime scene, so now that you have seen it, I think it is probably better if you go now and we will keep you informed” said Bee, doing little to disguise her bitterness towards Danny.

  “You hate me, do yer?” said Danny.

  “I don’t know you.”

  “Well I got news for you. I don’t fecking like you either.”

  Danny walked over to Pon, who wai’d him and then the two men shook hands. They swapped mobile numbers before Danny walked back up the beach and onto the road, just as Nok arrived on her motorbike. Danny sat on the back of it.

  “Come on Nok, take me somewhere for breakfast. Somewhere nice and far away from here.”

  Nok carried on heading south along the Beach Road, which hugged the coast line out of Patong, over the steep winding hills towards Rawai Beach. The scenery was spectacular; the bright sun bringing out the dazzling greens of the palms and the blue of the Andaman Sea, which flashed between the trees as they sped by. Nok drove all the way into Rawai, almost to the pier, but then pulled into a pretty wood built restaurant bar called Nikitas. It was built between huge coconut palms that were now a part of the bar and it sat on the sea’s edge. Smart looking waitresses wearing crisp white blouses and black skirts were serving early risers. A handsome man, with a Mediterranean tan and looks to match, sat alone at a table drinking coffee and reading from a Kindle. He looked up and watched Danny and Nok walk to a sea-front table. He nodded and smiled as
they sat down. Danny guessed that he was the owner. As they were eating breakfast Danny got a text from Pon.

  ‘This victim is female. Talk later. Pon.’

  Danny put the mobile on the table and sighed deeply.

  “What happened?” asked Nok.

  “This victim is a real girl.”

  “Maybe this one different killer” said Nok, with a shrug of one shoulder.

  “No, it’s the same killer.”

  “Eat food. Very good” said Nok, stuffing in another mouthful.

  Chapter 19 Colonel Wattana is pleased to announce.

  The taxi left the hotel in Patong at 8:00am with the big handsome young German man. His suitcase was in the boot, but he sat in the back of the taxi with his rucksack on his knees, clutched between his huge hands. The hot Thai sun had tanned his skin and the big red birthmark on his right cheek wasn’t as prominent as when he first arrived. He sat in silence, no intention of even trying to communicate with the driver. He just wanted to get out of Thailand and back to Germany, back to a life and a routine that he was familiar with. He was not happy with what he had become, with what Thailand had turned him into, and he blamed Thailand for everything. He thought that he was a normal person, but somehow he had changed into a monster after dark, just looking for the next one. He shook his head as the night images passed through his mind like a bad dream. Almost as if he wasn’t involved, he shook his head with disgust, as if he was just a witness condemning someone else’s actions, not his own. He just wanted to get back home, back to Hamburg. He had already decided that he was never going to come back to Thailand. It wasn’t his paradise.

  The taxi went along the winding roads that went over the hills towards Phuket town before getting on the main 402 road, which was the main duel carriage way that would take them to the airport. The big German stared out of the window at rubber tree plantations and huge billboards that dotted the roadside, which advertised things that were familiar to him and things in Thai that weren’t. The taxi stopped at the security post at the entrance to the airport and collected an exit pass to get out the other side. Two fixed cameras simultaneously recorded the registration plate and the drivers face. It was never intended to capture images of any passengers. The taxi carried on towards the airport and up the ramp to Departures on the upper level of Phuket International Airport.