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TWO NIGHTS AFTER RECEIVING Prakong Yanphaisarn’s letter of resignation, he sat on the sofa in his living room with a cup of decaffeinated tea. Beside him was a travel book, Hokkaido Highway Blues. It was one o’clock in the morning and he’d just come in from the restaurant. He was still dressed in his work clothes – black trousers and a shirt with a soup-stain on the breast where he’d nearly fallen over carrying a pile of plates.
Outside, the air was still and cold. The stars shone and frost was already crystallising. He’d put the heating on. He was about to start getting ready for bed when there was a tap at his front door.
It came again. It wasn’t a natural occurrence of some kind. Someone was outside. He suddenly felt vulnerable. One o’clock. Who would call now? As usual, he thought of Noonie. He’d learned to ignore that now, but this time he couldn’t help remembering she’d been the last person to call at this time. Could it - ?
He put the chain on the door and opened it partway. A tall figure – too tall for Noonie – stood in a thick windcheater facing away. He turned round. Prakong Yanphaisarn. He wasn’t smiling.
“I said I’d ring. I decided against it. Some things are better dealt with in person. Do you mind if I come in?”
“Of - of course not.” Edward undid the chain and ushered Prakong into his living room. He resumed his place on the sofa.
Prakong sat on the edge of the armchair and put his fingertips together. He looked at the ground, apparently unable to meet Edward’s eyes.
“You, um, said in your letter you’d ring,” Edward said.
“Forget my letter.”
“But that’s what - ”
“The fact is, Edward, almost nothing I said in my letter was true.”
“Sorry, what?”
“It’s true that I’m leaving your employ. But nothing else.”
“You mean ... you’ve found her?”
“That’s right. I’ve found her.”
“And?”
“I’m here because I’ve heard you’re planning on setting up a restaurant in Nagasaki. I’m here to tell you not to. For her sake.”
“Wait a minute. You’ve found her?”
“I found her while you were still in Japan. During that second week, while you were out combing the beaches. She was on the streets, Edward. She was in a dreadful state. Her hair was matted, she was weak. After - ”
“Hang on, why didn’t you say anything?”
“After I explained why I was there, she begged me not to tell you. She - ”
“But why?”
“Let me finish, please. I still don’t have any clear notion of how she got there – she can’t remember much – but it’s clear that, soon after she and Doctor Appleton arrived in Japan, he left her to the mercy of the elements. I’ve no idea where he is now. I established her in a flat in Tsushima and ... I’m afraid we quickly fell in love.”
“You fell in love with her?”
“And she with me. I did mean to tell you but, well, you went home to England. And things just took on a crazy life of their own.”
“So ... so ... you were actually lying to me - from the start?”
“Even before that, I’m ashamed to say.”
Nausea, and a kind of controlled frenzy made it difficult for Edward to speak more than short, loud sentences. “I don’t understand.”
“I fell in love with her when I was commissioned by Valérie Swinter-Jones, about eighteen months ago. I thought, ‘What the hell’s someone like Nongnuch Kitkailart marrying someone like Charles Swinter for?’ I determined, there and then, that she’d be mine. I was prepared to wait. I knew Charles couldn’t have long, you see. I was one of the few people who knew his real age.”
“You bastard,” he said through clenched teeth. “I can’t believe it.”
“If I’d wanted you to find her, I’d have asked you to investigate the possibility that she might be on one of Nagasaki’s five hundred and eighty-eight islands. At that point in the hunt, I thought that’s where she might be. You should have smelt a rat when I asked you to comb the beaches. You were too slow, my friend. And too trusting. In that sense you’ve only got yourself to blame.”
“I need to see her. This is all a big mistake.”
He smiled. “That won’t be possible, I’m afraid. We were married last week. That’s when I decided to write to you. I’m here to repay all the money you’ve given me.” He took an envelope from his windcheater and tossed it onto the sofa. “There’s fifty thousand in there. Count it through, if you like.”
“I don’t want the bloody money.”
He stood up. He wasn’t sure what he was about to do. He could feel his body taking on a will of its own.
“Sit down,” Prakong said. “There’s no way you can win a fight with me, you must know that. Listen, I understand how you must feel. I’m not entirely proud of what I’ve done - I mean, how I’ve handled it. I should have let you know sooner. But she really didn’t want to see you. She still doesn’t. She’s pregnant, by the way. We’re probably going to be moving back to Phuket when the baby’s born. I’m sorry.”
“So that’s ... it!” He could feel himself welling up. All his ridiculous notions about The Nagasaki Golden Wave! It had all been for nothing.
“She wants to put that part of her life behind her for good and she expects you to respect that. Let’s be frank. She was very vulnerable when she arrived in England, and you took advantage of that. There’s nothing to be gained by sentimentalising it. For either of you. It’s over.”
“I... I ...”
“And I did tell you, right at the start that I had a personal stake in the matter. Anyway, you were from two very different cultures. It was never going to work. Not really.”
He could feel his life voiding of all meaning. Everything he’d ever believed in withered and fell over like so many paper houses in a gale, beginning with the stupidest conceit of all, The Nagasaki Golden Wave. Where his life no longer looked pitiable, it looked laughable. In every sense, he had nothing left.
There was a knock at the door, very like the first one. Edward barely heard it at first, but it was getting louder.
“Would you like me to get that?” Prakong said.
Edward wiped his eyes and stood up. He went to the front door and flung it open, no longer bothering with the chain. As before, the caller had his back to him. When he turned round, it was Thanongsak Chongdee.
“Hello, Edward,” he said.
“Thanongsak.” Edward wondered whether tonight could get any stranger.
“Can I come in?”
When Edward walked through into his living room, Prakong had gone. He had no idea where, but he guessed he must have slipped by when the door was open. It didn’t matter, anyway. Nothing mattered now.
Thanongsak sat down on the edge of the armchair, just as Prakong had thirty minutes earlier. He put his fingertips together and looked at the ground.
“You probably thought my leaving the country was pretty abrupt,” he said.
“I don’t – I can’t remember it right now. It - ”
“I’m afraid I didn’t leave to enter a monastery. I left because I discovered where Noonie was.”
“So – so where is she?”
“Right now, she’s in Phuket. She asked me to tell you not to follow her. It took me a while to find her but once I did, there was only one course available to me. I love her, you see.”
“But – hang on: she’s married to Prakong ...”
“She wasn’t happy at first, she took a lot of persuading, but then ... well, I’m sorry, Edward, but you should have known better. That’s why I gave you the restaurant, of course. Fair exchange is no robbery. I hear it’s doing very well. I should think ... ”
Edward awoke to a knock at the front door. He was still sitting on the sofa. His face was wet with tears and he was twitching with grief. His neck had fallen to one side and when he tried to raise his head, he experienced a stab of pain that pierced his entire body. He had one thought now. To get out of the house.
He grabbed his shoes and a coat and rived open the front door. The person standing with his back to him was Prakong Yanphaisarn. He pushed past him.
“It’s me! Prakong Yanphaisarn!”
“I received your letter.”
He set off at a pace fast enough to work off the morbid agitation and excess adrenalin he’d accumulated. At every step, however, he was aware that Prakong Yanphaisarn was at his heels. Their four footsteps crunched on the loose gravel at the edge of the road. He had no idea whether what was about to happen would match his dream, but he couldn’t shake the stomach-churning presentiment that they were more than coincidentally connected. If he just kept walking, if he declined to converse, perhaps he could sustain the fantasy that he was in charge.
The moon was full. He walked to the end of his road then turned left to the shops. He passed the Church and turned onto the Green where his brother had proposed to Susan nearly a year ago. Thoughts of George began to calm him, and with the main road in front of him, he’d run out of options. He had to stop and face Prakong Yanphaisarn.
“You – you said in your letter you’d phone!” he said.
Prakong wore a trench-coat and a long stripy scarf. He looked askance at Edward. “Some things are better dealt with in person.”
“You mean, like the fact that you’ve found Noonie and you’ve fallen in love with her?”
“Actually, er , no. Why would I do that? I’m married with two grown up children and I love my wife.”
“What?”
“My wife knows Mrs Shawcross. They met recently at a charity bazaar. Ring and ask her if you don’t believe me.” He chuckled and thrust his hands deep into the pockets of his coat. “I see now, yes.”
“See what?”
“Listen Edward, this is why I don’t take this sort of case very often. A man wants me to find his wife or girlfriend, it’s nearly always the same. At some point, he begins to suspect me of having designs on her. Well done for bottling it up for so long, which you probably have, but - ”
“I’m really sorry. I know this is going to sound exceptionally feeble ... but I’ve just had a very bad dream.”
“Don’t mention it. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, at some stage.”
They stood in silence for a few moments.
“Are you all right?” Prakong said.
Edward nodded. “I’m sorry you’ve decided to throw in the towel but I do have another plan. It involves opening another restaurant, in Nagasaki. Hopefully - ”
“I think I’ve found her, Edward.”
“Pardon?”
“I said, I think I’ve found her.”
“What? Where? Have you spoken to her? She’s still alive, she must be, yes?”
“Please, one question at a time. No, I haven’t spoken to her. As for whether she’s alive, I don’t know, but I feel she must be. It’s - ”
“Where is she?”
Prakong turned to face the hills. In the moonlight every little feature of the landscape stood out in black and silver contrasts. He paused as if some of his earlier confidence had deserted him then removed his right hand from his pocket.
“I think she’s in there,” he said.
He was pointing to Black Gables.
