“Can do tee rak, no problem. How we split up?”
“I’m going to go and get Suzie to come with me and we’ll concentrate on the first two victims, the ladyboys. I want you and Meiwa to see what you can turn up from the third victim” said Danny. “Oh and see what you can find out about Detective Bee. She has got a big chip on her shoulder and she hates me with a passion. I’d like to know why.”
“She not good person” agreed Nok.
Danny looked at the copy Tag Heuer watch that he had bought from a stall outside his hotel.
“It’s 5:30pm. It will be dark in another hour and the bars and restaurants will be open. I’d better get going. Ring me if you find out anything that I need to know. If not we’ll meet here again in the morning. I’ve got a feeling this is going to be a long day.”
Danny used Nok’s motorbike to drive to Suzie’s room. He had to bang on the door for a while before a sleepy Suzie, wrapped in a pink towel, opened it.
“What happen?” she asked.
“I need you to come and help me talk to some ladyboys.”
“When?”
“Now, and probably for the rest of the night.”
“Cannot, I have to dance tonight and I can’t afford to lose the money. And anyway, if I not go to work I get sacked.”
“What if the police Chief rings them and tells them that tonight you are working for him on police business and pays you four times the amount you would earn tonight at the theatre?”
“If the police Chief rings them, then no problem. Can do.”
She watched Danny call Colonel Wattana on his mobile and listened as he explained the problem. Then he handed the phone to her. She spoke in Thai with the Chief and a huge smile spread across her face. She closed the phone and kissed Danny on the cheek.
“No problem. Tonight I work with you” she said and turned back inside the room. “I take shower now. You want beer help yourself.”
“No thanks, I’m grand.” Danny watched her skip off to the shower.
The room was just as he remembered it from the night he had spent there with Ling, when she was roommates with Suzie. The only change was the addition of a fridge in the corner. Danny opened it and helped himself to a bottle of water while he waited for Suzie.
Suzie sat side saddle on the back of the motorbike wearing skin tight jeans and a white blouse with big red buttons undone low enough to show a red bra. She had red high heeled shoes and her long black hair was held up high on her head with a red bow, and cascaded down at the back. False eye lashes and some less then subtle makeup completed her looks, and she looked amazing.
The Cocktails & Dreams ladyboy bar was open, but it was too early to be busy. There were just a few of the girls sitting at the mirror putting the finishing touches to their makeup. Fred, the Burmese barman, nodded to them when they walked in. Daa’s roommate, Tong, was one of the girls at the mirror. Danny and Suzie showed her the photo of ‘Mr. P’, but she was sure that she had not seen him before. Suzie was talking quickly in Thai and all the girls gathered around. A couple of the girls thought that they may have seen him in the bar with Daa, but they couldn’t be sure. One of the girls suggested that they show the photo to Fred. Suzie took it over to the bar followed by Danny. As Suzie was talking to the barman Danny found himself looking at the drunk sitting at the bar opposite on the other side of the narrow soi. It was still early and Danny could see that he was already drunk, hunched on a bar stool, watching the world through drooping drunken eyes. Heavy blue tattoos filled his arms; ‘Mum & Dad’, ‘Jenny’, ‘Milly’, the Union Jack flag, a naked lady, four aces, a skull and crossbones. Danny guessed that he was ex-navy. He felt a certain sadness about the man. Maybe it was because he could see himself in the old drunk sitting at the bar. Suzie was shaking him by the arm.
“Danny, he remembers this man” she said.
“Is he sure?”
“Yes, I am sure” said Fred with a friendly smile.
“Was he with Daa when you saw him?”
“Yes, twice I have seen him in here with Daa.”
“Can you remember when?”
“About a week before she died. Maybe a few days longer than a week.”
“Can you remember anything else about him, anything at all?”
“Yes, I remember he was American.”
“How do you know?”
“He tell me. He say they not have ladyboy same same in the States.”
Chapter 22 You handsome man.
Yupaporn had been thinking about Mr. P nearly all day. It had been a good day. With the money that Mr. P had given her she took her friends out for dinner in the Jungceylon shopping centre and, after, she went shopping for new clothes and some shoes. She had told her friends about Mr. P; that he was pom puy (fat) but he had a nice face and he had jai dee (a good heart). Yupaporn had never fallen for a customer from the Tiger pool hall before, but Mr. P had had a big impact on her and she hoped that she would see him again. The day kept getting better and, when news spread that the police had arrested the serial killer at the airport, there was relief and even celebration around Patong. People started cheering and clapping as the news spread. Now, maybe Patong could get back to normal and as the darkness fell there was a party atmosphere over the city.
Yupaporn stood by her four pool tables. She had already brushed them. She chatted to some of the other girls who gathered around, because there wasn’t enough customers in yet to keep them busy. Her day became perfect when she saw Mr. P step out of the lift. He waved to her and his grin was wide. She gave him a shy smile and turned away to brush one of the tables again. She felt herself blushing and the other girls teased her as they walked away. They all smiled and wai’d to the huge American farang. Mr. P plopped himself down in one of the chairs; it was a tight squeeze. He was sweating profusely, but the cool air conditioning was a relief from the heat and humidity of the night outside.
“Hello darling. Did you miss me?” he said, slightly labouring for breath until his heart beat slowed a little.
“Sawadee kha (Hello). You handsome man.” She smiled and gave him a very elegant wai.
“You want Chang beer?” she asked.
“Wow, you remembered. Yes, sure, and one for yourself.” He patted her bottom as she walked past. He admired her sexy little white dress as he watched her walk to the bar for the drinks. She carried them back on a little round tray along with a bamboo cup with his bar bill rolled up and tucked inside and a pile of tissues, which she used to wipe his sweating head and face. He held onto her thighs as she did and slid his hands up under her skirt.
“Have you got any cold wet wipes?” he asked.
“No, here no have, only have in bars. Here have air conditioning, better. You want to play game?”
“Yes, I want to play with you.” He stroked the front of her panties with the back of his finger. She pulled away and laughed.
“You shocking! I mean you want to play pool?”
“No, I just want to watch you playing. Get one of the other girls and I’ll pay 1000 baht to the winner. Best of five games. OK?”
Yupaporn called Lek over. She was younger then Yupaporn and she was also the worst pool player out of all the girls. Lek wai’d to Mr. P and she smiled as Yupaporn explained the bet to her.
“If you smile at him and act sexy I think he give you good tip as well” she said in Thai.
Mr. P sat watching them play pool. He was getting aroused and he sat rubbing his own thighs, unaware that he was doing it. He bought them both several ‘lady drinks’ and tipped them both. Yupaporn won the competition and the 1000 baht with straight wins.
“What time you finish here, darlin?” asked Mr. P
“12 O’clock.”
“Do you want to meet me after work for some food and come back to my hotel for some fun?�
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His directness made her feel shy, but she was happy that he had asked her. All night he had been telling her how beautiful she was and how much he liked her, he even said that he could fall in love with her and started calling her tee rak. She flashed another shy smile and nodded.
“Yes, I like this very much” she said.
“OK tee rak. I’ll be waiting in the bar downstairs for you at midnight. Then we can get a tuk-tuk to a nice restaurant. Don’t be late.”
A few minutes after midnight she walked down the stairs from the pool hall into the Tiger Inn bar and restaurant. She had freshened up her hair and makeup and she looked stunning. She was a head turner and Mr. P liked that. She saw him sitting at the end of the bar nearest the street. Her smile was still a shy one, but she knew that was only because she really liked him. She put her hand up and waved with her fingers. He put a heavy arm around her and held her bottom in a vice-like grip as he spoke.
“You want to eat here, darlin?”
“No, not here. Too many people from my work.”
Mr. P slugged back his beer and paid the bill. The tuk-tuk rocked as he climbed in after Yupaporn and they went to a little Vietnamese restaurant that Yupaporn knew. Mr. P paid the tuk-tuk driver a big tip to wait outside the restaurant for them. The happy driver smiled and wai’d.
“Can do. No problem” he said.
Yupaporn liked Mr. P and she knew that he really liked her, but she wished that he would stop touching her so much in public. He kept squeezing her breasts and putting his hand up her skirt, but she was too polite to ask him to stop. So she just smiled and gently removed his hand, again and again.
The tuk-tuk took them back to Mr. P’s hotel, The Royal Paradise hotel at the north end of Rat-U-Thit Road. Yupaporn suddenly felt nervous on the way up to Mr. P’s room. The glass lifts travelled up the outside of the building and gave a good view of the bright lights of Patong. In the room they stripped each other naked and showered before making love on the bed.
“You know Mr. P loves you tee rak, don’t ya?” he whispered.
Chapter 23 Office meeting.
By the time Danny got to the Great British Detective Agency, Nok, Meiwa and Suzie were already there. The office smelt of coffee, perfume, and spicy food. Meiwa, as usual, had brought enough food for everybody and anytime anybody gathered for anything in Thailand, there was always food. Nok handed Danny a hot coffee. He sat on the floor with the others to eat and the office meeting started.
“Tee rak, you find anything good last night?” asked Nok.
Danny could tell by the huge wide smile on Nok’s face that she had ‘found something good’ and couldn’t wait to tell him.
“Yes we found out something, but do you want to go first?”
“OK. Me and Meiwa did good thing last night. We go and see Tuk roommate. Very interested” Nok poised for dramatic effect.
“What did you find?” asked Suzie, in between taking bites from a piece of BBQ chicken.
Nok opened the brown folder that held the case notes and pulled out a photo of Tuk and put it on the floor for everyone to see.
“This photo of Tuk” she said.
“She looks very pretty in this photo. A lot better than she looks now” said Danny.
“Yes, tee rak. She suay mak mak (very beautiful), but notice something else?”
“What are we looking at Nok?”
“OK, I tell you. This photo taken two years ago. See, she wear gold Buddha amulet around her neck. Her roommate say that she never ever take it off, because her mama give to her.”
Nok pulled another photo of Tuk from the brown folder and put it on the floor.
“See this photo of Tuk from crime scene. No gold Buddha amulet” she pulled another photo of Tuk from the post mortem. “Here a close up of her neck, can see chain mark.”
“It looks like the killer pulled it from her neck with some force” added Meiwa.
“It’s different from the others” whispered Danny almost to himself.
“What you think tee rak?”
“I was just wondering why he took a souvenir this time. This time the victim was female and this time he took a souvenir. I was just wondering why?”
“You think different killer?” asked Suzie.
“No, it’s the same weapon, same M.O. (Modus operandi), same killer, but it is just different. Why has he changed?”
“I not know tee rak. What you find good last night?”
“We found that Mr. P is an American” said Suzie.
“How you know?”
“Fred the barman at Cocktails & Dreams remembered him. He is definitely from America.”
“Tee rak, can we find American?” asked Nok.
“We can try. Nok do you remember Mike Hands from the British Embassy?”
“Yes I remember. Handsome man.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s the one. Well I’m going to ring him and see if he has any good contacts in the American Embassy. It’s a long shot, but it’s worth a try.”
Danny O’Brien and Mike Hands spoke on the phone like old friends and Mike told him he had just the person. Her name was Sharron Haines. She was a CIA intelligence officer, and according to Mike Hands, she was the best in her field. Mike said that he would put a call in to her so that she would be expecting his call.
Sharron Haines decided that she was going to keep an open mind about Danny O’Brien, but there were a lot of others within the American Embassy that still blamed Danny O’Brien for the death of one of their special agents in an explosion in Bangkok last year. Sharron was a strong woman with an iron will. When she was an agent out in the field she had built a fierce reputation. She was an expert in self-defence and there wasn’t a firearm on the planet that she couldn’t fire with more accuracy than anyone else she knew. Her mind was sharp and she didn’t suffer fools. At 45 years old she was an attractive blond, but she scared more men then she attracted. The black phone on her desk rang twice before she answered it.
“Special agent Haines” was her standard opening.
“Sharron, my name’s Danny O’Brien. Mike Hands said I should call you.”
“Yes, I was expecting your call. What can I do for you Mr O’Brien?”
Danny could tell from her accent that she was from the southern states of America, but he wasn’t good enough on American accents to tell from what state.
“I’m working on a case in Phuket.”
“I’m guessing it’s the serial killer?”
“Yes.”
“How are you getting on with it Mr O‘Brien?”
“Well, that’s why I’m ringing you. I was hoping that you could help me.”
Sharron Haines decided that she liked O’Brien a little bit more. She liked being asked for help and she liked his Irish accent.
“Oh Jesus! Call me Danny will yer?”
“What can I do for you Danny?”
“One of the suspects that I am trying to trace is an American and he calls himself Mr. P.”
Sharron was already scribbling details on her pad. “Anything else?” she said.
“I have a photo of his, but that is all I have. I was just wondering if you’d have a look and see if you can turn anything up.”
Sharron put the phone onto speaker and got up from her desk and walked over to the long wall mirror. She pouted her lips full and checked her lipstick, glossy and red. She smoothed down her blouse over her full breasts and swivelled to check the lines in her stockings were straight. One wasn’t, so she hiked up her skirt and straightened it.
“Can you fax it to me?” she asked.
“Sure I can, I’ll send it now. I’d be delighted if you can find anything, I’m told you’re the best.”
Danny faxed the photo and Sharron confirmed its receipt.<
br />
“Wow, he’s a big boy” she said.
“Yes, he could do with missing a few meals.”
They swapped mobile phone numbers and Sharron promised to ring him in a few days to let him know how she got on.
Chapter 24 Building bridges.
Captain Gee Wattana was as good as his word and the day after Danny had left for Phuket, architects and planners landed in the village and reported to Ling. Ling and her Mama were both born leaders and they mobilised the village. Work on the new bridge and temple started the very next day, when the heavy machinery arrived.
It was a happy time in the village and everyone worked hard and late into the nights towards the common goal, and everyone was getting paid. Ling missed Danny with all her heart, but she was happy that at least the people of the village would be safe crossing the road soon and the village would have a new temple and school. Her twins were beautiful and she could see their father in their faces. Her life had changed so much since she had met Danny. She knew that he was her destiny and every day she prayed and thanked Buddha and thanked Ying, the dead detective whose spirit she was convinced had brought Danny back to Thailand, just to be with her. Danny rang her every day and told her how much he loved her and the twins, but he never said anything about the serial killer case. He just said that he would be home as soon as he could be.
Chapter 25 Pranee Seafood Restaurant.
By mid-afternoon the monsoon rain was flooding the roads, but nothing stops for the monsoon rains in Thailand. Danny and Nok decided to take a taxi to the Pranee Seafood Restaurant that sat on the beach road between Karon Beach and Kata Beach. The little row of restaurants all had the heavy plastic curtains pulled across to protect the diners from the weather, but just as the taxi pulled up outside the restaurant, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Within half an hour everything would be dry again. As soon as the rain stopped the clear rain curtains were pulled back. Nok asked to speak to the ‘boss’ and they were taken to the counter at the rear of the restaurant and introduced to Lek, a middle aged lady who looked like she had been somebody’s boss all her life. Her cheekbones were high and well defined, but her black hair was pulled back tight over her head and tied in a bun at the back. Danny thought that if it was pulled back any tighter then it would pull clean out of her scalp. Her build was small and slim, but she had an air of authority about her that seemed as severe as her hair style and she ran her restaurant with military precision. She spoke little English so Nok spoke in Thai and Danny was little more than an observer.
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