The next day, Cavalier met again with Gregory and Polly at the Lindrum to discuss the Labasta murder. On the rare occasions they wanted a meeting, there was, as with his intelligence contacts, a good reason. As always, Gregory started, and would end, the meeting by saying, ‘Remember you never met us.’ They sat a discreet distance from the other patrons in the dining area.
‘You’re looking better, Vic,’ Gregory said.
‘I’m okay,’ Cavalier said, ‘but thanks.’
‘Off the grog?’
‘Nearly.’
‘Gym?’
‘And running.’
‘Your Achilles . . .?’
‘Under control.’
‘Has Jacinta been useful?’ Polly asked.
‘The verdict’s not in on that one.’
‘We believe she’s a more powerful figure in the Thai set-up than she lets on,’ Polly said with a smile. ‘You may have to get closer to her.’
‘She won’t be with us much longer,’ Gregory said. ‘She’s being called back to Bangkok. We’re guessing, but we think it’s connected to information we have concerning the Mendez cartel. He appears to be setting himself up in Chiang Mai. It’s only a few hours’ drive from the Burma border, where the main drug factory is.’
‘Why would the Thais let him in, apart from doing some sort of deal?’
‘Our American friends believe some sort of “arrangement” is being cooked up, but they seem as clueless as we are. We’re involved because it’s drifting into our bailiwick.’
‘Mendez has booked out the luxury top floors at the Grand Millennium Hotel off Sukhumvit in about a month’s time.’ Polly was referring to a main road in Bangkok’s south-east. ‘His entourage will probably include about twenty-five bodyguards.’
‘What’ll Mendez do in Bangkok? Buy off the right people?’
‘Maybe just do “proper” business deals, for a start,’ Gregory said. ‘But who knows?’
‘I’ve decided to go there for a tournament—the Eighth Annual International Cricket Sixes.’
‘Will you see your ex-wife?’ Gregory asked.
‘No,’ Cavalier said, registering a flicker of disappointment. ‘She lives in Chiang Rai. Besides, she has a new partner.’
The others waited. Cavalier was reluctant to talk of his private life. His former wife Pin had never been comfortable in Australia where she had not practised medicine. When their daughter disappeared, she decided to return to Chiang Rai to work at a hospital. Cavalier’s assignments saw him on the move often and in the end, without the ‘glue’ of the daughter, a gradual schism, rather than a split, occurred between them. Then Pin met another medico, with whom she wished to have a relationship. Faced with basing himself in northern Thailand, as opposed to Australia, Cavalier gave the new tryst his blessing, albeit reluctantly.
‘C’mon, Vic. What’s your main aim apart from cricket?’ Gregory prompted. Before he could answer, Polly said, ‘Among Mendez’s phalanx of bodyguards—all cut-throat murderers, we presume—is one we know about.’
‘Yeah,’ Gregory said. ‘Jose Manuel Cortez.’
‘He’s an oddball,’ Cavalier remarked. ‘Plays the violin and is an amateur military historian who loves his Chinese-emperor history. He was shot in a police raid in Miami. Lost an eye.’
‘He’s the Mendez cartel’s number one hit man,’ Polly added.
‘That’s how we know about Mendez’s little visit,’ Gregory continued. ‘The Americans have been tracking Cortez. He’s wanted for about eighty murders in the States alone.’
‘The cartel’s enforcer,’ Cavalier said softly.
‘The Americans alerted us that he was booking a flight to Bangkok. We then discovered that Mendez was setting up in Chiang Mai, with plans to visit Bangkok.’
‘Don’t rely on Jacinta in Thailand,’ Polly warned, ‘she’ll be different on home turf. She may even regard you as an enemy if you go snooping about, trying to dig up stuff on Mendez or any of his entourage.’
‘I’m aware of that.’
‘If I may give you some advice,’ she said, ‘elicit as much as you can from Jacinta while she’s here and we can perhaps help fill in the dots.’
‘We don’t think it’s wise to go to Thailand now,’ Gregory added. ‘You’d be an easy target if there was upheaval, especially if you investigate Mendez.’
The next day, Gregory phoned and asked Cavalier to meet him again at the Lindrum, but this time in his hotel suite.
‘I know you’re hell-bent on going,’ Gregory said as he poured him a mineral water, ‘so I’ve brought you some information to digest and then destroy. But this is strictly between us. Polly doesn’t even know I’m giving you something, all right?’ He opened a folder. It contained aerial shots of a factory. ‘That’s what you’re looking for. It’s about ten kilometres along the border, east from Three Pagodas Pass, inside Burma.
‘Be extra careful on the border,’ he continued. ‘Burmese guards are apt to shoot first and ask questions later. That’s why the Thai border guard posts are quite a distance short of the Burma border posts.’ He pulled out three more photographs. ‘These are of the compound we believe Mendez has either bought or is creating in Chiang Mai.’
Cavalier examined the photos. Most of a compound’s four walls had been constructed. Piles of stones indicated that one wall was still being built.
‘When were these taken?’
‘About a month ago.’
Cavalier put on magnifying glasses to look more closely at the Chiang Mai building’s structure. It was two levels. Armed guards could be seen lounging around the steps of the front and entrance. Two tank-like Mercedes and another two big four-wheel drives were in the open, near a garage under construction.
‘Can I . . .?’ Cavalier asked, pulling out his phone to take shots of the photographs.
‘Better not,’ Gregory said, ‘but there’s an app that may be useful.’ He scribbled a number on a piece of paper and handed it to Cavalier. ‘Ring and ask for Barry. He’s one of our tech guys and he’ll download it for you. It’s an upgraded version of Snapchat and Wickr—you can send text that’ll disappear after a few seconds or however quickly you need it to.’
After the meeting, Cavalier rang Driscoll and told her that, in addition to his colour piece on Jacinta, he would write an article on the seventieth anniversary of Australian POWs’ release from Changi prison after their incarceration by the Japanese in World War Two. He would follow the remnants of the railway into Burma, which would be his cover for some snooping on the Thai–Burma border.
*
Later that night, Cavalier rang Jacinta and asked her to a dinner to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of his school cricket team having won a premiership.
‘Each decade, the team comes together to celebrate and the team’s coach gives the speech,’ he said, forging on through Jacinta’s silence. ‘It’s a pretty boring speech. He rambles on for hours.’
‘You want me to go with you to a cricket dinner,’ she intervened incredulously, ‘where the coach will make a boring speech?’
‘Yes, but you see, he died a year ago,’ Cavalier said.
‘No thanks.’ She hung up without saying goodbye.
The next morning, Cavalier was in Leroy Espresso when he received a call from Jacinta.
‘I leave for Bangkok next Monday,’ she said. ‘When was that dinner again?’