FOR THE FIRST couple of days, my detention followed the same unvarying routine. I read the papers. I watched television. And I waited for somebody to come in and tell me what was going to happen to me.
The only breaks in the monotony were my meals in the embassy cafeteria. The evening after my session with Pete, the same FBI agent who had escorted me to Pete’s office came back and took me to the cafeteria for dinner. We sat off to one side by ourselves at a big round table that could have accommodated eight people. I tried engaging the man in conversation, but he ignored me. He didn’t even eat. He just sat there. Eventually I gave up trying to make conversation and finished my meal in silence while watching CNN on one of the television monitors mounted high up on the wall.
For the next two days we repeated the identical procedure for every meal. At breakfast, at lunch, and at dinner my escort took me to the embassy cafeteria. We sat silently at a big table that was empty other than for us, I had my meal while watching CNN, and my escort took me back to the room when I was done. I wasn’t taken to see Pete again, and Pete didn’t come to see me.
The third day, however, was different.
I was at lunch with my escort. I was eating a cheeseburger and paying very little attention to CNN since I was sick to death of it. They were showing film of some buildings burning somewhere in the world that hadn’t even registered with me.
Then all at once it did register with me.
I was looking at Charlie’s compound in Phuket. I was watching Charlie’s house burn on CNN.
I jumped up from the table and walked over and stood under the monitor so I could hear the sound that went with the pictures. I couldn’t hear all of it, but I could hear enough.
“…started from unknown causes around four this morning,” an announcer was saying. “General Kitnarok has owned the house for several years and there had been speculation recently that he might be in seclusion there preparing to lead his followers in an uprising against the present Thai government. There is no direct indication at this time whether General Kitnarok was actually in the house when it caught fire, but sources in the American Embassy in Bangkok tell CNN that at least two badly burned bodies have been recovered from the wreckage. Neither of those bodies has yet been identified, but US government forensic specialists are assisting the Thais in their efforts to do so as quickly as possible.”
With all that helpful assistance from the United States government, I had no doubt at all that the two bodies would indeed be identified very soon. One of the bodies would turn out to be Charlie, of course. That was easy enough to guess. But who would the other one be? Jack Shepherd perhaps? That would tidy everything up rather neatly, wouldn’t it?
It might be neat, but I couldn’t believe an ending like that was actually in the cards. Pete Logan might be a loyal bureaucrat, but he was also a good FBI agent. He wasn’t the kind of man to stand around doing nothing while somebody killed and buried his old friend Jack in order to cover this whole mess up.
At least I didn’t think he was.
***
WHEN I GOT back to the table, my escort had disappeared and Pete sat picking at the French fries I had left on my plate. It looked like I was going to find out soon enough what kind of man Pete Logan was.
“These are terrible, Jack.”
Pete slathered a French fry in catsup and swallowed it.
“How can you eat shit like this? It’ll kill you.”
I just looked at Pete.
“Okay, bad choice of words,” he said. “Sorry about that.”
“You here for any reason other than to eat my French fries?”
“I have a message for you.”
I didn’t much like the sound of that. The last time I had heard that phrase it had been closely followed by two guys I knew pretty well getting shot.
“From who?” I asked anyway.
“The Prime Minister.”
“Which prime minister?”
“The Prime Minister of Thailand, you shit head. You know any others?”
“A few.”
Pete ignored me, as well he might have.
“She wonders if you could do her a little favor.”
“What kind of a favor?”
“I really don’t know. She just said she hopes you might be willing to look into something for her. She asked me to tell you to call her. She said that you have her number. Do you? Have her number, I mean?”
I didn’t take the bait.
“It’s going to be a little hard for me to do much for Kate while I’m enjoying the hospitality of the embassy, Pete. I wasn’t aware you had a work furlough program or I would have already applied.”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” Pete said. “You’re free to go. You can leave anytime you want.”
“I’m not under arrest anymore?”
“Under arrest? Good Lord, Jack, why would anyone want to arrest you?”
“I see.”
Pete said nothing. He even managed to keep his face straight.
“Does my sudden release have anything to do with that?” I pointed to the television monitor on which I had just seen the pictures of Charlie’s house in flames and heard about the two bodies the US was trying so hard to help the Thais identify.
“I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about, man.”
Pete pushed his chair back and stood up.
“Stay in touch,” he said. “Don’t be a stranger.”
Then he just gave me a little wave and walked away.
***
WITH MY ESCORT gone, I was left to find my way back to my room on my own. But then it occurred to me there really wasn’t any reason to go back there so I just walked straight out to the embassy’s front entrance and right up to the marine guard post in the lobby. The young marine on duty collected the visitor’s badge from around my neck, tapped briefly at a computer keyboard, and then tossed off a snappy salute. I walked through the main doors, crossed the lawn between the embassy building and the high concrete wall surrounding the compound, and pushed out through the revolving security gate to the street.
It wasn’t until I was standing at the curb on Wireless Road that it occurred to me that I had no idea where I was going. I was still trying to make up my mind when a taxi pulled to a stop and the driver leaned over and rolled down his window.
“Taxi, boss?”
I looked at the man, but I didn’t say anything.
“Where you want go?” the driver persisted.
Having no better idea, I opened the back door and got into the taxi.
“Where to, boss?”
Animal and man share the same instinct. Hide when you’re hurt. Go to ground. Find a place where you’ll be safe until your wounds heal.
“You know the Grand Hotel?” I asked.
“Sure thing, boss.”
The driver floored the accelerator and shot into traffic.
***
I SLUNK OFF to the Grand to recover from my wounds when Anita left. I had lived there for nearly six months back then and found it to be a pretty good place for mending. I had a different kind of mending to do this time, of course. Maybe it would be harder. But then again, maybe it would be easier.
I was still wearing the clothes the embassy had given me and now that I was out on the street again I wasn’t certain I looked my best in an oversized Hawaiian shirt, jeans, and black Nikes. The last place I had seen the suitcase with my own clothes in it had been at Keur’s apartment on Soi Thonglor.
Fuck it. Just one more lost bag in a lifetime of traveling.
First, I’d find a place to buy some clothes. Then after that, maybe I would try to reach Kate. I wanted to thank her for keeping me out of a Thai jail. And naturally I was curious about the message Pete had given me.
Of course, I had no intention of getting involved in whatever Kate wanted me to do. None at all. I’d had enough of Thailand to last several lifetimes. There was no way in the world I was going to let Kate talk me into having any more to do with this screwed up little country, even if she was the prime minster now.
What I had to do was to get serious about looking after myself for a change. My only client was dead and what kind of a lawyer doesn’t have any clients? Maybe it was time to go home and think about doing something new.
But where was home? I no longer had a wife. And I didn’t have a girlfriend. Or a dog or a goldfish or even a house plant. Come to think of it, I didn’t have a house plant because I didn’t have a house. I was a middle-aged man living in a borrowed apartment with absolutely nowhere to go and nothing to do.
It was time for me to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life. That was what was important now. Not chasing around Thailand after some nonsense for Kate. Even if I did owe her a favor.
Still, I knew I really ought at least to give Kate a call before I left Thailand. That was only simple courtesy to an old friend, wasn’t it? And, to be absolutely honest, I really was a little curious about what it was she wanted me to look into for her. Even if there was no way in hell I was going to get involved. Absolutely no way.
Honestly, I was just curious.
THE END