THE GUN
The bus rolled out of the mountains on the road into Mae Sot, which marked the end of the proposed new ‘Silk Road’ from China through Burma. It was a gateway and the perfect trading point between Thailand and the Burma town of Myawaddy. As such, it was a peak of illegal activity, including people trafficking and drugs. Smugglers, spies, stateless people, runaways and a variety of criminals haunted the No Man’s Land between the two countries. Cavalier noted that a small airfield was only about two hundred metres from the bus terminal on the town’s outskirts. They took a taxi, and ten minutes later were at a Thai border point. Security guards had a cursorily look at their backpacks.
Cavalier was introduced to Pin’s family: a younger brother, half-sister and grandparents on her mother’s side. They had all relocated there to be with her as the major breadwinner. Her salary at the local hospital had been ten times that collectively of the rest of the family, and in the time-honoured Thai way, most of her income supported these dependent relatives. Pin’s father, a successful builder, had died by accidental poisoning when she was twelve. Pin had bought a modest, yet comfortable two-level home cheaply in this zone. When she moved back to Chiang Mai the rest of the family had stayed in Mae Sot, mainly to be close to Far.
Pin’s mother, Farn, emerged after several minutes. She had two black eyes, a cut mouth and one arm in a sling. She and Pin embraced.
‘What happened to you?’ Pin asked. When her mother began crying, her daughter knew the reason.
‘Your ex?’ Cavalier asked softly.
Pin nodded and wiped her eyes. ‘I really want him dead!’ she hissed, with a menacing look. Her mother, even with the injuries, was an elegant, attractive woman in her late forties. She attempted to placate Pin. A meal was prepared and as the day faded, Pin said she was going ‘shopping’.
‘For what?’ Cavalier asked.
She glared at him.
‘What?’ he insisted.
‘A gun,’ she whispered.
Cavalier shook his head. ‘I told you that would be most unwise.’
‘I just want it for self-defence.’
Cavalier considered her. He knew that fierce, even demonic look. ‘I’ll come with you,’ he said.
‘No. I must go to a village in No Man’s Land. It is not good for farang. It’s too dangerous.’
‘I’m coming,’ he said and followed her to a motorcycle sitting with a battered Toyota under a pergola. He climbed on behind. They drove along a dirt track in No Man’s Land and had glimpses through high grass and scrub of shanty towns and lean-tos. Closer to the river, dirt-covered locals collected rubbish that had washed up on the riverbank. The weather was bleak and cold as they entered a village at nightfall. There were no bars, but a few tin hut brothels where Burmese girls, probably underage, sat looking forlorn rather than alluring. Many watched Cavalier and Pin as they walked to a market. Pin motioned for Cavalier, wearing a baseball cap, to push his black leather jacket’s collar up and hood over his head.
‘Better if you are not so recognisable as a farang,’ she told him. ‘Don’t say anything. Let me do the talking.’
Pin spoke to a muscular tattooed man called Char, whose face was festooned with trinkets for ears, nose, forehead and lips. He had one heavily strapped arm and scars on his neck. They chatted rapidly in a dialect that Cavalier had trouble following. He picked up enough to know that Char recognised his former doctor, who had saved his life after a knife attack by her ex-husband, Kun.
‘He tried to kill me again a few weeks ago,’ Char said.
He seemed to be showing Pin respect, albeit begrudgingly. Char’s narrow slit eyes flicked often to Cavalier, whom he asked about.
‘He is my partner, also a doctor,’ she said. Amid shifty looks, Char pulled out several handguns and placed them on a wooden counter.
Pin turned to Cavalier. ‘Which one should I choose?’
‘Why do you ask me?’
‘I recall you told me you once did army training.’
‘Air force.’
‘You must have handled weapons.’
Cavalier hesitated, glanced at her and Char, and began to examine the guns.
‘This one could kill only at close range, but would also frighten anyone,’ he said, fondling what looked like a modified old snub-nosed Beretta pistol. He picked up a bigger, heavier gun. ‘This one could blow a man’s head off at five paces. It would put such a hole in a vital organ, the victim would die.’ He made sure the chamber was empty and then aimed the gun, holding it with two hands. ‘This is too heavy for you. I have strong forearms and I’d always steady it using both hands.’ He put down the second gun. ‘Take the smaller one.’
Cavalier spoke in a friendly fashion to Char, whose manner relaxed as Cavalier plied his rough but passable Thai discussing another of the guns on offer.
‘It’s a very new product,’ Char said, ‘a Glock 17. Made by an Austrian company. It has just been taken up by Austrian military and police.’
‘It’s plastic.’
‘Polymer frame, yes.’
‘I’ve never seen one. Can it be durable, reliable?’
‘The Austrians are happy with it,’ Char said with a shrug, ‘but it did cause the police concern. It is invisible to metal detectors at airports.’
Cavalier nodded, as if disinterested.
Pin bought the smaller gun and a box of twenty bullets for the equivalent of nine dollars.
As they drove away from the village, she said: ‘I didn’t want you to engage with him. I am trusted; you are not. Besides he would think you were a rich farang, and therefore up the price by at least a couple of dollars.’
‘I’m just a friendly guy,’ he said with a shrug. ‘Why did you say I was a doctor?’
‘Not good to admit you’re a journalist around here. Doctors are respected. Even crims like Char know they’ll need one. Gang wars, killings and woundings occur almost daily. Just visit the emergency ward at the hospital.’
‘Can you trust Char?’
She nodded. ‘He hates the police, and hates Kun even more. They are in rival gangs trying to rule Mae Sot’s underworld. Char was badly injured by Kun in a gang fight. Kun shot and knifed him. He told me of a more recent second attack by Kun. Char is lucky to be alive.’
*
Pin placed Cavalier in a guest room at the family home, explaining that she would lose face if she was seen to sleep in the same bed as him.
‘If we were married it would be different,’ she said, not looking at him.
Cavalier ignored the comment. He was not sure if this was a hint or not. The more he was with Pin, the more of a mystery she appeared. He wished to chat more about their relationship before he considered marriage.
The next morning, Pin drove her mother and Cavalier in the family car to the hospital where she once worked. Some staff recognised her and they were fast-tracked to an examination of Farn. One of her eye sockets had swollen and Pin wanted an X-ray done to see if it was broken.
‘I was thinking about your husband,’ Cavalier began.
‘Ex,’ she corrected, ‘perhaps even soon to be extinguished.’
‘Okay, your ex and your daughter. Why shouldn’t we offer him money …?’
‘Never. He would bleed us dry.’
‘I would offer enough to persuade him to hand over your daughter. He doesn’t sound like the type who would be able to cope with a child’s needs. Once you have her safely back in Chiang Mai, you could stop any further payments. He won’t chase Far there. You could probably make a good case to the Chiang Mai police …’
‘No. As I’ve said, the police will not help a woman in such a case.’
‘Okay. What do you propose?’
‘Kidnap her.’
‘What? How?’
‘Go to her preschool and remove her; then take the bus back to Chiang Mai.’
‘What about the teachers? Wouldn’t they stop you?’
‘They are female. It’s one area where the sisters would stick together. They endorse my position. They know what a nasty bit of work Kun is. They have complained to my mother many times about his drunken, druggie behaviour. They see my darling Far being maltreated by him.’
‘You’ll be breaking the law,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure I want to have anything to do with it.’
‘Then go back to Chiang Mai.’
‘If this became public, my paper would fire me.’
‘Damn your paper! This man has already murdered at least five people. He will kill me or my mother. He could murder my daughter.’