I shoved the door open, hoping I had timed it right and it would slam into whoever had entered. My timing seemed okay, because I heard a grunt and the sound of someone falling to the floor. I exited the closet and backed away while switching the flashlight on. Sitting on his butt and propped up by one arm was Kang, and he had a bloody nose.
Chapter 35
“What the hell?” Kang cried out after I had switched on one of the lamps in the room.
“I’m sorry. I had to take precautions. I’m unarmed,” I said as I moved his hand away from his nose. “It doesn’t look broken.” I grabbed a towel from the bathroom and handed it to him. “Do you want me to get some ice? I’m sure there’s a machine, or room service can—”
“I’m fine.” He got up and took a seat on the bed. He pulled the towel away from his nose and looked at it.
I felt a little bad for the guy, but I didn’t regret looking out for myself. I grabbed two bottles of water from the mini-bar and handed one to Kang. “Use it as an ice pack.”
Kang removed the towel and placed the bottle against his nose for few seconds before deciding it wasn’t really helping.
“The bleeding seems to have stopped,” I said as I took a seat in a chair.
“Bleeding nose aside, I’m really glad to see that you’re okay, Abby, but didn’t you see my note?” He walked over to the desk. “Hmm, well, I left a message here for you. I guess the maid thought it was trash.”
“I glad you’re okay, too. Sorry about the nose.”
Kang cracked a smile while waving a dismissive hand. We updated each other while he dabbed at his bloody nostrils.
“We’re an actual task for this Creeper guy?” His response came muffled through the towel.
“His goal is to deliver us dead in a creative way.”
“Good luck,” Kang said with an eye roll. “I’ll kick that guy’s ass from here to Timbuktu.”
“My thoughts exactly, but I think this masked man, mastermind or not, realizes this. I think they believe we’ll be the ones to prevail. They want this guy either locked up or dead. I’m sure dead is their preference.”
“He must have pissed off someone big time to get ratted on like this,” Kang said as he pulled the towel away from his nose once again before cracking the seal on his bottle of water and taking a sip.
“You know what keeps getting stuck in my mind?” I asked while leaning forward. “Why us? If he broke a rule or isn’t playing the game right or whatever, why not just ban him or freeze his account?”
“Good question.”
“We’re not bounty hunters. Our goal is to catch him and lock him up, not kill him.”
“Maybe they’re hoping it goes down that way. This is a sick individual we’re dealing with. He could be one of those maniacs that chooses to go out fighting rather than give up.”
I nodded and scratched at the side of my head.
“You think this masked man you had a conversation with is the mastermind behind the game?” Kang asked.
I pursed my lips while I thought about his question. “I don’t think he’s the main guy. But he could be a person who manages the players in the city. I mean, one person can’t keep track of what’s happening in every city, at least not on a hands-on level. Someone has to manage the players when they come to town. My thought is they have men in place in each city. Jing Woo in San Francisco. This guy in Bangkok.”
“Makes sense to have people running the game on a local level.”
“Makes a lot of sense,” I agreed. “Maybe something went wrong on this guy’s watch, and he’s trying to fix it? Maybe he heard what happened to Jing. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the mastermind that had Jing taken out and not an enemy.”
“That could be their safety catch. Something goes wrong, they eliminate their guys on the ground and shut down the game in the city.”
“It creates a dead end.”
Kang dabbed the towel at his nose a few more times before setting it aside. “If this masked man is the guy in charge of managing the game here, surely he’s capable of doing it himself. No need to involve us.”
“He might be doing that.”
“So what? We’re the backup plan?”
“Either that, or he needs us to keep playing the game. Maybe he doesn’t want to take the chance that the Creeper gets to us.”
Kang leaned back in his chair and ran his hand across his mouth and chin. “There’s something definitely wrong if he needs us to keep playing. We’re the law.”
I thought for a moment about what Kang had said. The men behind the game knew who we were, yet they still engaged us. I really didn’t know what to make of the situation at the time. They were trying to use us as a pawn in their twisted game. That wasn’t something I was keen on letting happen unless it proved to be useful to our investigation.
We sat quietly rehashing our conversation. It was then that I realized that Kang had never finished telling me about his conversation with Artie.
“You’re right. I called Artie as soon as I could and told him about the attack. By the time we met up at Terminal 21, he had already sent some of his men to the area to question the street vendors. After we spoke, he said he was heading over there to help.”
“Anything else?”
“Yeah,” Kang said with a surprised laugh. “They found the body that was used to make the human som tam.”
“Anything interesting about the victim?”
“He said she was a dancer at two bars. He talked to the mama-sans at both locations, and one remembered seeing this Creeper guy but couldn’t provide anything more than a matching description.”
“It seems as though everyone who sees him remembers him. That’s got to give us an edge on finding him. I wonder if he’s targeting working women.”
“Bar girls are easy targets. They’re willing to come with you which eliminates the need for any abduction,” Kang said.
“There’s that, but I am wondering if it’s more about the power that comes with hiring someone. Does he like women he can control?” I stood and walked over to the large picture window and stared out at the city for a moment before facing Kang again. “The control, the sex… it can all feed his desires.”
“So this guy would be seeking out these type of women, game or no game.”
“I think so.”
“So what’s the reason to come after us? We won’t fulfill his needs.”
“My thoughts exactly. Whether he’s been tasked to kill us or not, the real question is, would he even bother?” The more I thought about what I had just said, the more I kept nodding my head. I was beginning to think the Creeper wouldn’t come after us.
That’s when I realized I might be asking the wrong question. “Maybe it’s not about us. Maybe it’s about them. What do the gamekeepers have to gain from having the Creeper taken out?”
Kang smiled. “That’s the best question yet.”
“The game is in trouble. It has to be. To what degree, I don’t know but that’s got to be it.”
I tried to give it more thought, but Kang’s yawning had finally caught up to me.
“It’s late,” he said, looking at his watch. “We should try to get some sleep.”
I agreed. A little shut-eye might bring a bit more clarity.
The room we were in had two twin beds, so I didn’t have to tell Kang that we weren’t sharing one. I might have shared it though—strictly for sleeping. I had become comfortable around him. And I thought he was cute in a goofy way. He was nothing like the men I usually dated, which made it even harder to grasp why I had a crush on the guy.
Chapter 36
The shy girl couldn’t believe her good fortune. A handsome man—a handsome farang, at that—had shown interest in her. He had chosen to sit next to her and buy her a drink. Not one, but two. It thrilled her and fed her ego. Some of the dancers from inside the bar had come out to the patio to see whom the farang had chosen. She was quick to sit up proudly and let them take notice.
Through a mutual friend, Ly had met a go-go dancer, Mai, who worked at Soi Cowboy, and she spent an afternoon talking to the girl. Ly thought the dancer’s life was exciting, considering Ly often didn’t have much money to go out after meeting her obligations.
“It’s fun,” Mai said. “I can work whenever I want, and I make good money.”
“You like dancing?” Ly asked.
Mai shrugged her shoulders. “It’s okay. At first I was shy, but now it’s better. I try to sit with a customer and have fun so they will bar fine me right away, then I don’t have to dance.”
“What’s a bar fine?”
“It’s the money a man must pay the bar if they want me. It releases me from having to dance. I can do whatever I want with them after they pay.”
“So if they bar fine you, what? You just talk to them?”
“Sure, and we have drinks.”
“But you go with them?” Ly asked. Her eyes darted away quickly, worried that her question might be too personal.
But the dancer didn’t have a problem discussing the details of her job. “Yeah, if they’re not crazy,” she said with a laugh. “I go with them short-time. I don’t like long-time.”
Ly tilted her head and scrunched her eyebrows. “Why?”
“If I go short-time, I can come back to the club after and bar fine again. I make more money this way.”
“Really? That fast?”
“Sure. Sometimes it only takes twenty minutes at the hotel and I’m on my way back. Some men only thirty seconds,” she said, laughing. “I only go long-time if they take me for a full day, not just overnight.”
Mai went on to tell her about the men that had taken her on trips and shopping sprees and had even given her an allowance. This was all on top of the money she made from the bar from dancing and through lady drinks. Ly couldn’t believe it.
“You’re very pretty,” Mai said as she fingered a strand of Ly’s hair. “You could get a job at the bar, and many customers would want you.”
Ly didn’t believe her, but Mai convinced her to come to the bar and see for herself. She desperately needed the money but was still apprehensive about working at a bar. It meant having sex with men. Though she thought it couldn’t hurt to go see what it was all about and agreed to meet Mai.
The following night, Mai sat Ly down at a table outside the bar. “I’ll start you off with your first drink,” she said. “I promise you will have a customer sitting with you really soon, but you cannot leave with them. You don’t work here yet.” Mai then headed inside.
Ly sat quietly amongst the other reception girls and sipped her drink. It didn’t take long for a nice gentleman to sit with her and buy her another drink. She started to have fun, and before she knew it, she had spent the entire night talking and drinking with different men. All of them were interested in taking her back to their hotel room. The test run had been successful.
Later, she had a short talk with the mama-san and was hired as a reception girl. She would earn fifty baht for every lady drink, and men could bar fine her if they wanted. On top of that, she got a monthly salary of eight thousand baht a month. Her computer job paid only twelve thousand baht. Between the bar salary and drinks alone, Ly felt confident she could easily make the same amount and have fun doing it. And if she did go with men, she figured she could make double, maybe even more.
By the time she had encountered the handsome farang that warm summer night, Ly had already gone with a number of men to their hotels. So when the farang smiled and ran his hand through his blond hair before asking if she would come back to his hotel, the answer was an easy yes.
Everything had gone as planned that night. After a few drinks, Ly left the bar with her prize. He had a suite at the Westin, only a block away. They had agreed to a short-time arrangement, but later, while she lay in the afterglow of delicious sex, he asked if she would spend the night. Ly happily said yes and fell asleep in his arms.
The next day, she joined him for breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and that was when he inquired about her spending the next seven days with him. Ly’s eyes widened. It was her first, real long-time proposition. “Sure,” she said. “Where do you want to go?”
He told her they had to stay in Bangkok this time. He had to work but wanted company. Sure, the prospect of taking a trip somewhere excited her, and she was a little disappointed with his answer, but she would make five thousand baht a day for seven days, and that easily made up for it.
Though she would regret this decision on the second day.
Chapter 37
Somchai’s men stood silently around his desk as he struggled to contain his anger. He gritted his teeth and gripped his fists tightly as he looked at each and every one of them. They, of course, avoided any eye contact with their boss. None wanted to be the one to set him off. An uncontrolled outburst could cause him to lose face—to be embarrassed to the point of shame. One of them would surely be eliminated should that happened. It would be the only way for Somchai to regain their respect again.
For the time being, the room remained silent. Only the hum of the air conditioning unit attached to the wall seemed brave enough to make its presence known. Eventually, Somchai calmed himself enough to address his men. “Why can’t you find him?”
Nobody spoke. Somchai asked again. This time his tone elevated slightly.
A tall, skinny man finally answered Somchai’s question. “We’ve asked all over. No one has seen the farang with a limp,” he said.
“You are sure you have searched everywhere?”
“We have been everywhere.”
Somchai still didn’t understand. What could possibly be so hard about finding an ugly farang with a limp? He would stick out. Surely a vendor or a motortaxi driver would have seen him around. Somchai still believed that the Creeper was somewhere in the Sukhumvit area and ordered his men to continue looking.
A day and a half had already passed since he had spoken to the mastermind. He knew he had another day or so before he would receive a call asking why Team Creeper had not initiated the second Attraction. What then? What could he say that would buy him time? The truth was not possible. He had already crossed the line and withheld information. To do so would cause the mastermind to lose face. Somchai would pay for it in ways that made him shudder just thinking about it.
Somchai knew his men were speaking the truth when they said they could not find the Creeper, and that troubled him. They knew the area well and all of the shop owners, food vendors, and taxi drivers. It was virtually impossible for anyone to go unnoticed in the area, and yet the Creeper had. Had he forced himself to stay indoors? Even so, the owner of the hotel or condo would know he was there. Had he left Bangkok and traveled to another city, or worse, to another country? Possibly, but someone would have seen him on the street. A taxi driver would have taken him to the airport or the train station.
Somchai’s anger bubbled again. His right leg bounced uncontrollably while he envisioned multiple scenarios of how his situation might play out—none of them ideal. With his men gone leaving him alone with his thoughts, his imagination only fueled the one-sided conversation he had begun. Somchai had suddenly found himself in the most unlikely of predicaments, one he had thought would never happen to him.
Somchai had spent years working for the secret Chinese organization. This was unbelievable to most of its members since Somchai was only half Chinese. His other half was Thai. All of his counterparts who held a position of power within the organization were of pure Chinese descent, but Somchai had proven himself worthy and was rewarded with control
over the Chinatown in Bangkok.
Chinatown was nowhere near the touristy Sukhumvit area. It was located on Yarowat Street in the Samphanthawong district near the Grand Palace. As with every Chinatown, no matter the country, the walls that surrounded it were impenetrable by anyone who wasn’t Chinese. The Thai police had no jurisdiction in the area—not because they didn’t want it. They did, but they couldn’t obtain it. They had been strong-armed out of the area. It didn’t help that the Thai government never bothered to push the issue because the right officials were receiving the right amount of baht every month to keep it that way.
Still, the issue caused Somchai to fume. What did I do wrong? I did nothing, he thought. The Creeper had broken the rules of the game and had forced his hand. He had no choice but to react the way he did. The farang was the one responsible for the mess. And now Somchai feared he would take the blame for it.
Maybe the FBI agent and the detective will catch him. Somchai knew that at that point he was grasping. He had started to regret his decision to involve those two. Or did he? He didn’t know. It seemed he had second-guessed every decision he had made since the Creeper arrived in Bangkok. One minute, he patted himself on the back; the next, he cursed his own actions.
Somchai stood and started pacing, still continuing the conversation with himself.
You fool. You’ve ruined everything.
Me? It was that farang. He did this.
You should have prevented it. You should have watched him closer.
How? Have him live with me?
You’re in charge of the game in Bangkok. You must control the players.
He should never have been invited to the game.
Somchai spent the next half hour arguing with himself. His hands emphasized both sides of the conversation as he stood in front of his desk, staring at the empty chair behind it. He could have continued for another half hour if it had not been for the knocking.
Lumpini Park (Abby Kane FBI Thriller - Chasing Chinatown Trilogy Book 2) Page 11
