Inspector Zhang And The Falling Woman (a short story)

by Stephen Leather

  In the meantime, if you would like to meet another detective based in Asia, why not try Bangkok Bob and the Missing Mormon?

  Long-term Bangkok resident and former New Orleans cop Bob Turtledove has the knack of getting people out of difficult situations. So when a young man from Utah goes missing in Bangkok, his parents are soon knocking on Bob’s door asking for help.

  But what starts out as a simple missing person case takes a deadly turn as Bangkok Bob’s search for the missing Mormon brings him up against Russian gangsters, hired killers, corrupt cops and kickboxing thugs. And he learns that even in the Land of Smiles, people can have murder on their minds.

  Here are the first few chapters:

  *

  CHAPTER 1

  She was wearing a lurid Versace silk shirt, had a diamond-studded Rolex watch on her wrist, diamante Gucci sunglasses perched on top of her head and a Louis Vuitton handbag on her lap. She pretty much had all brand name bases covered but she still looked like a sixty-year-old woman with more money than taste. She had brought her large Mercedes to a stop next to a fruit stall and she wound down the passenger side window and waved a ring-encrusted hand at the fruit vendor. I was sitting behind her in a taxi that had only just managed to avoid slamming into her trunk.

  The fruit vendor was also in her sixties but had clearly had a much harder life than the woman in the Mercedes. Her face was pockmarked with old acne scars and her stomach bulged against her stained apron as she weighed out mangoes for a young housewife. The fruit vendor pocketed the housewife’s money and waddled over to the car and bent down to listen to the woman, then nodded and hurried back to her stall. The driver tapped out a number on her cell phone and began an animated conversation.

  “Hi-so,” said my taxi driver, pulling a face. He wound down his window, cleared his throat, and spat a stream of greenish phlegm into the street.

  Hi-so.

  High society.

  From a good family. But in Thailand being from a good family didn’t necessarily equate to good manners. The woman in the Mercedes almost certainly wasn’t aware of the dozen or so cars waiting patiently for her to get out of the way. And even if she was aware, she wouldn’t have cared. After all, she had the Mercedes and the diamond-encrusted Rolex and we didn’t, so it really didn’t matter that she was holding us up. It was the natural order of things.

  There was no point in getting upset. She would move when she was ready, and not before and there was nothing that I or the taxi driver could say or do that would change that. Acceptance was the only option.

  The Thais have an expression for it.

  Jai yen.

  Cool heart.

  Don’t worry.

  Be happy.

  Sometimes, for emphasis, they say jai yen yen.

  Real cool heart.

  I settled back in my seat and turned to the letters page of the Bangkok Post. A reader in Chiang Mai was complaining about the air quality. The farmers around the city were carrying out their annual field burnings and the mayor had warned the population to stay indoors with their windows closed. A Manchester City fan was complaining that he could only get a Thai commentary for his team’s last match. A reader in Bangkok was complaining about his erratic cable wi-fi service. For many people Thailand was the Land Of Smiles, but the average Bangkok Post reader seemed to spend most of his time complaining about the state of the country.

  The fruit vendor hurried over to the Mercedes with a bag of mangoes. She handed them through the window. The woman put her cell phone on the dashboard and then took the mangoes out of the bag one by one, sniffing them and squeezing them to check their ripeness. She rejected one, and the fruit vendor went back to her stall to replace it. The woman picked up her cell phone and resumed her conversation.

  I twisted around in my seat. There were now two dozen cars behind us, and a bus. The air was shimmering with exhaust fumes.

  Jai yen.

  I went back to my paper. A tourist from Norway was complaining of the double pricing for foreigners at the Lumpini Boxing Stadium. Tourists paid up to ten times what locals were charged, she said, and that wasn’t fair. I smiled. Fairness wasn’t a concept that necessarily applied to Thailand, especially where foreigners were concerned.

  The fruit vendor returned with a replacement mango. The woman smelled it, squeezed it, then put it into the carrier bag. She opened her Louis Vuitton handbag and took out a Prada purse and handed the vendor a red hundred baht note. The vendor zipped open the bag around her waist, slipped in the banknote and took out the woman’s change. The woman took the change, checked it, put the money into the Prada purse, put the purse into her handbag, placed it on the passenger seat and closed the window. I didn’t see her thank the fruit vendor, but that was par for the course for Thailand. Women who drove expensive imported cars did not generally say “please” or “thank you”, at least not to fruit vendors. The window wound up, the woman checked her make-up in her driving mirror, then put the Mercedes into gear.

  We were off.

  Finally.

  Jai yen.

  The taxi moved forward. The Mercedes lady was talking on her cell phone again. She indicated a right turn but then turned left on to Sukhumvit Road, oblivious to the motorcycle that narrowly missed slamming into her offside wing.

  The traffic light turned red and the taxi jerked to a halt. There were two policemen sitting in the booth across the road from us. It was getting close to the end of the month which meant that the police were looking for any excuse to pull over motorists and either issue a ticket to meet their quota or collect some tea money to pay their minor wife’s rent. Bangkok’s traffic light system was perfectly capable of being co-ordinated by a multi-million-pound computer system but more often than not the police would override it and do the changes manually, using walkie-talkies to liaise with their colleagues down the road. That meant that when a light turned red, you had no idea how long it would stay that way. Your fate lay in the hands of a man in a tight-fitting brown uniform with a gun on his hip.

  Jai yen.

  I went back to my paper. My taxi driver wound down his window and spat throatily into the street again.

  Just another day in Paradise.

  Not.

  *

  CHAPTER 2

  Ying is a stunner. A little over five feet tall with waist-length glossy black hair and cheekbones you could cut steel plate with, a trim waist and breasts that are, frankly, spectacular.

  Whoa, hoss.

  Stop right there.

  I’m married and old enough to be her father.

  And I’m her boss, hoss.

  She looked over her shoulder and flashed her perfect white teeth at me as I walked into the shop.

  My shop.

  Dao-Nok Antiques. It’s sort of a pun on my name. Dao-Nok is Thai for turtle-bird and my name’s Turtledove. I’m not sure if anyone else gets it but it makes me smile.

  Ying was carefully rolling bubble-wrap around a wooden Chinese screen that we were shipping to Belgium. “Good morning Khun Bob,” she said.

  Khun. It means mister, but it’s also a sign of respect. She respects me because I’m older than her and because I’m her boss.

  “You are late,” she added, still smiling.

  Not much respect there. But she wasn’t being critical, she was just stating a fact. I was normally in the shop by nine and it was now nine-thirty.

  “There was a mango queue,” I said.

  “I see,” she said, even though she didn’t.

  “All the way down Soi Thonglor.”

  “I told them you wouldn’t be long.”

  “I see,” I said, even though I didn’t.

  “They’re waiting, in your office.”

  I frowned. “And they would be…?”

  “An American couple. They need your help.”

  There was a coffee maker by the cash register and I poured myself a cup and took it upstairs. The door to my office was open and my two visitors looked up, smiling hes
itantly. He was a big man run to fat, in his mid to late forties. His wife was half his size, with wispy blonde hair, and probably five years younger. He pushed himself up out of his chair and offered me his hand. It was a big hand, almost square with the fingernails neatly-clipped, but it had no strength in it when we shook. “Jonathon Clare,” he said in a Midwestern accent. “This is my wife Isabelle.”

  “Nice to meet you, Mr. Clare,” I said. Mrs. Clare smiled and offered me her hand. It was a child’s hand, milk-white skin with delicate fingers as brittle as porcelain. “Mrs. Clare,” I said, shaking her hand as carefully as possible. I went and sat behind my desk and flashed them a reassuring smile. “So how can I help you?” I asked.

  “Matt Richards at the embassy said that you might be able to find our son,” said Mr. Clare, dropping back into his chair. It creaked under his weight.

  I nodded. Matt Richards was an attaché at the US Embassy. He was an acquaintance rather than a friend, someone I bumped into from time to time on the cocktail party circuit. He was an affable enough guy but hard to get close to. I kind of figured he was a spook, CIA or maybe DEA. Whatever, he was cagey enough never to let his guard down with me and I never really cared enough to do any serious probing. It wasn’t the first time he’d sent along people who needed help that the embassy couldn’t – or wouldn’t - provide.

  I picked up a pen and reached for a yellow legal pad. There were a whole host of questions that I’d need answering, but from experience I’d found that it was often better just to let them get it off their chests as quickly as possible. “I’m listening,” I said.

  Mr. Clare looked across at his wife and she nodded at him with raised eyebrows. He was twice her size but I got the feeling that she was the one who ruled the roost in the Clare household. “We’re Mormons,” he said, slowly. “From Salt Lake City. Utah. I’m telling you that because I want you to know that Jon Junior is a God-fearing boy who has honored his mother and father since the day he was born. He’s not a boy to go wandering off without telling us where He’s going and what He’s doing.”

  Mr. Clare reached inside his suit jacket and slid a colour photograph across the desk. I picked it up. It was a graduation photograph, Jon Junior grinning at the camera with an all-American smile, his wheat-coloured hair sticking out from under a mortarboard, his blue eyes gleaming with triumph, a diploma in his hand.

  “Second in his class,” said Mr. Clare proudly. “Scholarships all the way. A man couldn’t ask for a better son.”

  “The apple of our eye,” said Mrs. Clare, nodding in agreement.

  “How old is he?” I asked.

  “Twenty-one,” said Mr Clare.

  “Twenty-two next month,” added his wife.

  Mr. Clare handed me a sheet of paper. “We have a photocopy of Jon Junior’s passport. We also told him to photocopy all his important documents. You can never be too careful.”

  “Indeed,” I said.

  “We’ve already got his birthday present,” said Mr. Clare. “A digital camera. State of the art.”

  Mrs. Clare reached over and held her husband’s hand. He smiled at her with tight lips.

  “And He’s in Thailand?” I asked.

  “He came two months ago,” said Mr. Clare. “He wanted to take some time off before joining me in the family business. Janitorial supplies. Cleaning equipment. We’re one of the biggest in the state. There’s barely a hospital or school in Utah that doesn’t have our soap in its dispensers.”

  I decided it was time to cut to the chase before I got the complete Clare family history. “And when was the last time you heard from Jon Junior?” I asked.

  “Three weeks ago,” said Mr. Clare. “He phoned us every week. And wrote. Letters. Postcards.”

  “Do you remember when exactly he phoned?”

  Mr. Clare looked over at his wife. “March the seventh,” she said. “It was a Sunday. He always phoned on a Sunday.”

  “And when did he fly in?”

  Mr. Clare looked over at his wife again. “January the sixteenth,” she said.

  “Did he apply for a visa in the States?” I asked.

  “Why does that matter?” asked Mr. Clare.

  “If you apply for a tourist visa overseas then you get sixty days, which can be extended for a further thirty days,” I explained. “If you arrive without a visa, immigration will give you thirty days in which case Jon Junior will have overstayed.”

  “Is that bad?” asked Mrs Clare.

  “It’s not too serious,” I said.

  And in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t.

  Mr. Clare was nodding. “He applied to the Thai Consulate in Chicago. He had a visa.”

  I made a note. “And which airline did he use?”

  “Delta,” said Mr. Clare. “He flew through Seattle.”

  I made another note, then looked up, smiling reassuringly. They seemed less worried now that I was asking for specific information. “The letters that Jon Junior sent, do you have them?”

  Mr. Clare nodded and looked across at his wife. She clicked open a small black handbag and handed me half a dozen airmail envelopes. I put them down next to the photograph.

  “And since the phone call, you haven’t heard from him?”

  The Clares shook their heads. “Not a word,” said the father. “And we’ve spoken to our bank in Salt Lake City and he hasn’t used his credit card since he spoke to us.”

  “What sort of phone did he have? Did he use a local Sim card? With a Thai number?”

  Mr. Clare nodded. “He bought it soon after he arrived. We’ve called it several times. The first time it was answered by a Thai man but since then it’s been switched off.”

  I pushed a notepad towards him and asked him to write down the number.

  “What about emails?” I asked. “Did he email you?”

  “We’re not big fans of emails,” said Mrs. Clare. “I also say that if it’s important enough to write, then it’s important enough to put down on paper.”

  “He did have an email account, but that was just for friends,” said Mr. Clare. “With his mother and me, he wrote or phoned.”

  I asked him to write down the email address. “He came here as a tourist, right? He was just here on vacation?”

  “He was a tourist, but he said he was going to get a job teaching English,” said Mr. Clare.

  I sat back in my chair. “I thought you said he was just taking a break before joining you in the family firm.”

  “He changed his mind. He said he’d fallen in love with the place.”

  “With the place? Or with someone?”

  Mr. Clare frowned. “What are getting at?”

  “He might have met a girl. Or a boy.”

  “Our son is not gay, Mr. Turtledove,” said Mrs. Clare, icily.

  “I bet he could have teamed up with a guy he’d met. Maybe gone up country, trekking with the hill tribes. It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re in the jungle. Or maybe he met a girl. Thailand is full of beautiful women.”

  “Our son is a virgin,” Mrs. Clare said. “He is a virgin and will be on his wedding day. He has promised us that.”

  I tried not to smile but I figured that any red blooded twenty-one-year-old male would have a hard time clinging on to his virginity in Thailand.

  “I am serious, Mr. Turtledove,” said Mrs. Clare. “Our son believes in the Bible as the word of our Lord. Besides, if he had met a girl, he would have told us. Our son tells us everything.”

  “How many children do you have?” I asked.

  “Six,” said Mr. Clare. “Three girls. Three boys. Jon Junior is the oldest.”

  “And has he been in touch with any of his siblings?”

  Mr. Clare’s brow furrowed. “I told you, he hasn’t been in touch since the last phone call.”

  “You said you hadn’t heard from him. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been in contact with his brothers and sisters.”

  “They would have told us,” said Mr. Clare. He folded
his arms and sat back in his chair and glared at me as if daring me to contradict him.

  I doodled on the notepad. “How was your last conversation with Jon Junior?” I asked.

  His glare darkened. “Now what are you suggesting?”

  I kept looking at the pad. The doodle was turning into an angel with spreading wings. “Jon Junior came out here on a holiday, then he calls you to say he wants to work here. He’s your eldest boy and you were expecting him to work in the family firm, so it must have come as a shock.”

  “A surprise, yes.”

  “So did you argue with him?”

  “We had an exchange of views.”

  “And you weren’t happy about his career change?”

  Mr. Clare tutted. “He wanted to throw away his education to live in the Third World, in a country which hasn’t even opened itself up to the Lord.”

  “It’s a Buddhist country, but there are Christians here. And churches.”

  “That’s not the point,” said Mr. Clare. “I didn’t want him throwing away the opportunities he had worked for.”

  “So you did argue?”

  “I don’t like what you’re suggesting,” said Mr. Clare. “You’re making it sound as if I chased him away. I didn’t, Mr. Turtledove. We discussed his plans, and we agreed that he should give it a go. If he wanted to be a teacher, that was up to him. But yes, I made my feelings clear on the subject, of course I did.”

  Mrs. Clare patted her husband on the shoulder. “Teaching is a noble occupation, and we told him so,” she said. “We suggested that if he wanted to teach, he should come back to Utah. He said he wanted to teach in Thailand, for a while at least, and we gave him our blessing. We said that he should try teaching in Thailand for a year.”

  “Then he would come back to Utah,” said Mr. Clare. “That’s how we left it.”

  “We have also taught our children to follow their own path, but to use the Lord as their guide,” said Mrs. Clare.

  “When he said goodbye, he said he loved us and that he’d call again in a week,” said Mr. Clare. “That was the last we heard from him.”

  I looked down at the doodle again. I’d drawn horns on the angel and I flipped over the page before the Clares could see what I’d done. “Do you have an address for him?”