by Jake Needham
“Should I take your silence to mean you do have some kind of arrangement with him?” CW prompted before I had finished my musings.
“No. You should take my silence to mean I’m searching for a polite way to say it’s none of your goddamned business. So far I haven’t come up with one.”
“You’d best tell me the truth right now, Slick. Things will go a lot better for you that way.”
I wanted to tell him to fuck off. I really did. But I didn’t really see what that would accomplish and what I wanted even more than that was to put an end to the whole damned conversation so I could go back to the hotel and Anita.
“I have no relationship at all with Plato Karsarkis. Neither business nor social. I met him by coincidence in a restaurant here.”
“The Boathouse. Yeah, we know. How come Karsarkis recognized you?”
“I have no idea. He said he’d heard of me and seen pictures of me.”
“And you believed him?”
“Why wouldn’t I believe him? Why would the most famous man in the world walk up to me and lie about knowing me?”
“I can’t put my finger on it, Slick, but something just don’t sound right.” CW shrugged slightly and rubbed at his face again. “Okay. Go on. How have you been involved with Karsarkis since then?”
“I haven’t been. Anita and I went to his house for dinner because…well, because he asked us and my wife was curious about him. I didn’t even want to go. That was the only time I’ve ever seen the man, other than at the Boathouse.”
“So you have no commercial relationship with him.”
I threw up my hands and rolled my eyes.
“Lordy, Mr. Marshal, don’t hit me again with your big stick. I’ll confess everything.”
“Stop being such a smart ass, Slick. Just answer the fucking question.”
“I have no commercial relationship whatsoever with Plato Karsarkis. Clear enough for you?”
“If you’re lying to me, I’m gonna use your butt for a broom, boy.”
“Don’t you think you’re laying on all that cornpone bullshit a little thick?”
CW smiled. “Yeah. Maybe I am at that.”
He dug some bills out of his pocket, twisted around, and dropped them on the bar. Then he stood up and started to put on his hat, but perhaps remembering his promise to me he tucked it under his arm instead and jammed his hands into his pockets.
“There’s somebody I want you to meet. You want to go someplace else with me?”
“Where do you have in mind?” I asked.
“There’s a bar a couple of my boys like to hang out in. Up where the action is. I’ve never been there before, but they said it’s called the Blue Lotus and it’s right at the beginning of a street called Soi Crocodile. You know where that is?”
Soi Crocodile, huh? Indeed I did know where that was.
Maybe my evening was about to get interesting after all.
FOURTEEN
IF PATONG IS the rat’s ass of Phuket, which it is, I don’t know what you can call Soi Crocodile.
Objectively speaking, Soi Crocodile is one of a half-dozen tiny streets near the center of Patong, all of which are lined with open-air bars where hordes of foreigners hang out every day and every night drinking an awful lot of beer. Pretty much Patong’s only real attraction is that thousands of young Thai girls, most of them fresh from tiny villages and poor farms far upcountry, constantly throng those same streets and bars.
The girls are prostitutes, of course, but on the whole and in a different context, you might be hard-pressed to tell. Instead of the makeup-caked, crack-addled hustlers most western men can spot easily enough back home, these girls are mostly casually dressed and pleasant looking; they are friendly in a way that seems genuine; they laugh and joke easily among themselves; and they respond to even the stupidest comments from the tourists with smiles that appear unfeigned.
When there are no customers to entertain, the girls eat the food they buy from the street vendors, drink cokes, watch television, listen to music, and gossip among themselves. Occasionally, in a modest effort to improve business one of them might call out, “Hello, handsome man!” or “Come talk me!” to any unattached males who wander into range, but mostly they appear unconcerned with commercial promotion and seem content to let fate shape their prospects.
Soi Crocodile is one of the little lanes right in the heart of it all, and it is every bit as much a part of the action as are the other little streets in the area. But there is one way in which it is just a tiny bit different.
The street is known locally as Soi Katoey, the Thai word for the men turned women for which Thailand is, in some circles at least, justly famous. Thailand has achieved international recognition for precious little in its history, but Thai doctors have become universally celebrated for at least one thing: their ability, with a few judicious snips here and there, to alter biological men into women indistinguishable from real ones, except of course that they frequently look a whole lot better.
Thai katoeys are as distant from the lumpy, clumsy transvestites who lurk in the western sexual shadows as doves are from crows. On the whole, they are tall, slim, tanned, and toned. They generally wear stylish dresses and chic, take-me-tonight slingback heels, and they often sport refined jewelry and expensive handbags. They look, almost to a man, like elegant and sophisticated women.
If CW was going to a bar on Soi Crocodile, I figured he had a huge surprise coming. I really wanted to be around to see him unwrap it, so to speak.
WALKING TOWARD THE center of Patong we jostled through the evening crowds along Beach Road. On the whole, these were mostly people I wouldn’t have wanted to invite back to meet Anita.
“Jesus, Slick,” CW muttered, reading my mind, “is this the parade of the fucking mutant tourists, or what?”
A man who looked either Indian or Pakistani abruptly materialized out of the crowd right in front of CW, grabbed his hand before he could pull it away, and began pumping energetically.
“Nice suit for you, sir? Welcome! Welcome! Yes, sir. Yes, sir.”
CW tried to extract his hand, but the little man wouldn’t turn it loose.
“Best price for you, sir. Very best price.”
“No thanks.”
“But, sir, I am waiting for you. Welcome! Here is my card.”
When the tailor held out a business card, CW feinted with his left hand as if suddenly seized with enthusiasm to accept it and then snatched his right hand away as the man loosed his grip in delight at apparently having latched onto a live one. Without another word, the man turned away and scanned the crowd for a better prospect.
“Nice move,” I said.
“Yeah, well, I see the little fellow takes rejection well.”
“I imagine he’s had a lot of practice.”
A small boy held out a black cloth duffle bag with large plastic wheels. An old woman unfurled a piece of cloth with a red and green pattern that might have been the flag of some country I didn’t immediately recognize. A young girl, a plastic tray of cigarettes hanging from a strap around her neck, gripped half a dozen packs in one hand and waved them back and forth as if she were semaphoring. At the edge of the sidewalk a man was selling hammocks woven from thick blue and white cord. Every time he spied a group of likely looking prospects, he would slip out of one of his sandals and use his bare foot to stretch the hammock out by way of demonstrating its size and potential for comfort. When too many tourists walked by at the same time, the guy looked as if he was doing an impression of a pissed-off stork.
The Blue Lotus Pub sits right at the beginning of Soi Katoey. Like the Paradise Bar, it’s open to the street and offers a panoramic view of the exotic delights of the neighborhood. CW nodded at two men sitting on stools that had an unobstructed view of it all and led me to an empty pair of stools right next to them. After ordering us each another Mekong and soda, CW made the introductions.
The one CW introduced as Chuck Parker looked exactly like somebody who oug
ht to have a name like Chuck Parker. He was in his late thirties and had the thick, fleshy neck, light brown crew cut, and slightly heavy frame of a college athlete sliding into middle age.
The other man CW introduced as Marcus York. He was a slim black man of medium height and he wore round, gold-framed glasses that stood out memorably against a thick shock of prematurely gray hair. York looked like a character from a David Mamet play: black jeans, black shirt, and a two-day growth of very black beard. If Chuck Parker had been on the college football team, Marcus York had been in the drama club.
CW said both men were Deputy United States Marshals, but I wasn’t so sure. Parker, yeah. He vibed street cop all the way. But York was another matter altogether. I’d bet my last dollar York was FBI, or maybe even something creepier.
“I wanted the boys to meet you,” CW said as we shook hands all around.
“Why?”
“Well shit, Slick, they might bump into you somewhere out there on a dark night and I wouldn’t want them to shoot your candy ass clean off.”
Parker heehawed at that, wiggling his thick neck up and down, but York didn’t move. He didn’t even smile.
I got the feeling CW and his sidekicks were waiting for me to say something, but I couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to be so we all just sat for a while in silence and watched the comings and goings across the street on Soi Crocodile.
“God damn,” CW gasped a few minutes later. “Look at that.”
The katoey CW was watching had just climbed up onto a round platform at the entrance to the soi and had begun to sway languidly to music blaring from speakers in one of the bars. At least six feet tall with long, glistening black hair tied away from her face in a ponytail, she wore a black silk sheath that ended less than halfway down her smooth brown thighs and she balanced gracefully on red platform slingbacks with six-inch heels. After a few minutes, a second katoey joined her on the platform—this one slightly shorter and heavier, but with a chest on her that would freeze a moose—and they began to dance together.
“Ah, shit,” Parker chimed in. “I’m gonna have me a fuckin’ stroke.”
York, I noticed, said nothing.
As more and more of the katoeys gathered across Soi Bangla, I watched the three men out of the corner of my eye. Parker and CW, at least, couldn’t get enough. Parker moaned and groaned and CW licked nervously at his lips.
Then CW noticed the two katoeys wearing giant rhinestone tiaras and ballgowns who were posing for pictures with tourists. He shot me a quick side-glance, but I kept a straight face and he couldn’t be sure. It wasn’t until he spotted the one in the hoop-skirted Scarlet O’Hara dress bringing a bottle of beer to the one who was dressed like Pocahontas that he got it.
“Fuck,” he moaned, and I admit I had never heard the word used more movingly.
“Gotcha,” I said.
“What?” Parker looked genuinely confused.
“They’re men, you fuckwit,” York finally spoke up.
“You’re shittin’ me,” Parker mumbled, but from the way he climbed back into his drink you knew he saw it now, too.
We sat silently for a bit after that, gazing across the street. The whole scene was almost abnormally good-natured. The katoeys chattered among themselves, ate and drank, waved to passing tourists, posed for pictures, and took turns boogieing on the little round platform in the heavy night air.
“They don’t sweat, man,” CW said to me after watching three of them dance together for a while. “It ain’t natural.”
I gave him a long look.
“Okay,” he nodded. “I see your point.”
York smiled slightly at that, but he didn’t say anything.
Another silence fell and I started to feel a little sorry for Parker and CW in spite of myself. CW in particular seemed almost embarrassed.
“Everybody here’s been fooled at least once, CW” I finally said. “Don’t let it get you down.”
“That’s not it, Slick,” CW shook his head sadly. “It’s just if I have to spend another week or two on this fuckin’ island, I may have to think about turning queer.”
“Keep it zipped, CW,” I said. “It’s tough to be a stranger in a strange land when your pants are down.”
CW shook his head again and made a noise I couldn’t quite put a name to. He waved for two more drinks, then stood up and beckoned me toward an empty table at the back of the bar.
FIFTEEN
PARKER AND YORK watched as I followed CW to the back of the bar, but neither said anything. A tall girl with bad skin had brought our drinks and then drifted away out of earshot.
“We got to get serious here,” CW said.
“I can hardly wait.”
“It’s my job to see that Plato Karsarkis is returned to the US.”
“That’s got nothing to do with me.”
“Yeah, it does.”
I gave CW a look, but I didn’t say anything.
“Look, Jack, I need your help here.”
“I thought you told me you were just waiting for the Thai government to approve Karsarkis’ extradition.”
“Well…” CW appeared to think for a moment. “It’s a little bit more complicated than that.”
I waited.
“Look, Jack, I’m not really allowed to give you the whole thing—”
“Wait a minute.” I held up my hand like a traffic cop. “Are you telling me the Thais aren’t going to support extradition.”
“Not exactly.”
“Not exactly?”
“Well…not at all, really.”
“I see.”
“I doubt that.”
I recalled Anita’s prediction and shook my head a little at the memory of it.
Damn. How could she always be so dead on about stuff like this?
“So you and your little elves over there are here to kidnap the poor bastard and drag him back to the US no matter what the Thais have to say about it. Is that about the size of it, CW?”
“This is an evil man, Jack. He’s a criminal. He has people killed. He’s a traitor to his country.”
“What movie is that speech from?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. “I forget.”
“Then tell me what you think we should do about Plato Karsarkis, Jack. Just forget about him? Just forget about everything he’s done and leave him alone to live out his life on the beautiful tropical island of Phuket?”
“Look, this isn’t my problem.”
“Well, shit,” CW leaned toward me, “then maybe I’ll just make it your problem.”
I took a pull from my drink, trying to take the edge off my anger before I said anything I might regret. It didn’t work.
“Well, fuck you, too, Marshal Asshole.”
“Look, Jack—”
“Who the hell do you think you are? Do you threaten everybody, or am I something special to you?”
“I’m sorry,” CW said and he did seem genuinely discomfited. “I was way out of line there and I apologize.”
The man sounded so completely contrite I wasn’t sure what to say, so I didn’t say anything.
“Look, Jack. I really am sorry. I had no right to say that. I need your help here. Hell, I’m begging for your help.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I need intelligence on Karsarkis. How he lives, what his house is like inside, how many guards he has, stuff like that. You’ve been in there. You can tell me all those things.”
I raised my glass in a silent toast to Anita.
“What does that mean?” CW asked me.
“Never mind,” I said. “Forget it.”
CW looked puzzled, but he let it go. “So. Can you help me pop Karsarkis or not?”
“I could, probably. But I’m not.”
“Plato Karsarkis is a fugitive from the United States, Jack. You don’t mean to tell me you’re unwilling to help the United States Marshals Service apprehend a dangerous fugitive, do you?” CW tilted his head and widened his eyes in a gestu
re so corny and theatrical I almost laughed out loud. “I thought you lawyers were supposed to be officers of the court, supporters of the law. That’s right, isn’t it, Jack?”
“Let me see if I understand this, CW. You’re planning to kidnap a man who I gather is legally in Thailand and smuggle him out of the country and back to the United States. Do I have that right?”
“We’re going to do what we have to do to—”
“You’re running a kidnapping operation in violation of both local and international law and you’re lecturing me about being an officer of the court?” I just shook my head. “Man, now I’ve heard it all.”
“You’re still an American, Jack. Have you forgotten where your loyalties lie?”
“No, CW, I think I’ve got all my loyalties in pretty good order, and fuck you for asking. By the way, you’re not on my list.”
“Then you’re not going to help?”
“I will not be a party to a kidnapping in Thailand or anywhere else. Not by you, not by the fucking President of the fucking United States. Is that clear enough for you?”
CW tapped on his glass with his forefinger and let the silence run for a while before he spoke again.
“You’re making a big mistake here, Slick.”
“And exactly why is that?”
“Well…” CW sighed and shifted his weight on the barstool. “You saw those photographs. We could—”
“Whoa,” I said, raising both hands, palms out. “Is it time for the part of the program where you threaten me? Because, if it is, you need to understand this: I don’t deal with threats very well. Particularly threats from cops and other government types. I start thinking about testifying to Congressional committees about government corruption. Just can’t help it.”
