Suvarnabhumi airport had only been open a few years. It was a huge modernistic structure with sweeping roofs and fed millions of tourists into the country so they could spend time on the beaches and in the bars.
William and Madam Tang met at the Cathay Pacific check-in counter at row M. Her mood had not improved much and she gave him a foul look as she instructed a porter to unload her three large Remora suitcases.
“How is your arm?” she said.
“The doctor said it would be fine if I changed the bandages regularly and took antibiotics.”
“Then you are lucky. Not dead like my old husband.” She slammed her passport and ticket on the Business Class counter.
“I am sorry about what happened, Tang tai.”
“Are you sure he was killed by that Scrimple? It wasn’t you?” she glared at him with an uncanny insight.
William shook his head calmly, willing himself to meet her gaze with his. “You told me not to kill him. I am not the kind of person who disobeys my boss’ instruction.”
“You’ve become a fool and you hated him for what he was.”
“I always hated him. That is true.”
Madam Tang said to the check-in girl, “I don’t want to sit next to him. Put him on the other side of the cabin.”
William smiled politely and reminded himself of the astonished look on Bottle’s face as he’d gunned him down the night before. They got their boarding passes and began walking towards the Immigration area. It was full, with long lines, but Madam Tang moved towards the Fast Track counter. There were only three people ahead of them here.
“I don’t know why they can’t organize this better. If they have a lot of people going on the planes they should have more Immigration Officers,” she complained. “We don’t have this problem in Hong Kong.”
“Thailand is like that,” William said in a conciliatory tone. His arm hurt like hell despite the pills he’d swallowed an hour earlier. He was cradling it with his left hand and cursing the bastard who’d shot him. If he knew who the man was and where Bottle had found him he could dream of getting revenge. But he had no idea. Not now. Perhaps in Hong Kong he could offer some money and make some enquiries. It was time to go home.
Madam Tang proffered her passport to the Immigration Officer who took it with a sullen look as if he’d understood her bitching in Cantonese. He riffled through the pages, then stood up from his stool and said, “You wait there on the side.”
“What’s the matter?” she demanded.
“No matter.”
William didn’t like it. He looked around and as expected there were two men coming towards him from around the corner where they would have been sitting in a room with video screens. Neither of the men was in uniform but they showed ID badges and the older of the two simply said, “Immigration Police. Come with us now.” Madam Tang’s face clouded over but she kept quiet and followed William as the older man led them away.
They were put into a bare room and told to wait. There was a table and four wooden chairs with a camera pointing down at them from a corner. The room smelt of stale sweat which made William think of Africa or the Middle East. He began to worry that somehow they’d fallen foul of the law and their situation was a bad one.
“This is your fault,” Madam Tang said in Cantonese and gave him more of the looks he’d been getting all morning. For a second he entertained the idea of leaning across the table and, in front of the mounted camera, strangling the old bitch to death. He resisted the urge. There would be enough time for that when they got to Hong Kong. If they got out of this.
It was Thailand so he was positive. Money talked and they had plenty available if it came down to that.
Half an hour later somebody finally came. It was a tall, distinguished-looking man who apologized for making them wait and introduced himself as Police Colonel Somchai. He had a friendly face but William recognized a hard glint in the eyes.
“I had to drive across town,” Colonel Somchai said in fluent English tinged with the rounded tone of the natural Thai speaker. “You know how bad our traffic can be, even in an police car.”
Madam Tang regarded Somchai as if he were a cat that had vomited on her carpet. A life of power and privilege had left her little patience for dealing with officials who thought they were more important than her.
“The problem we have here,” Somchai said with a crooked smile, “is that you have committed some crimes in Thailand.”
There were a few seconds of silence and Tang said, “I am a Hong Kong business woman. We have investments here. What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about an illegal property investment in Pattaya. Your involvement with a politician called Kornsak who says you have been paying him illegal money.”
“He is lying. We tried to do some business and he demanded corruption money from us and we refused. Perhaps he wants to punish us by talking lies behind our back.”
“There is a large file on Khun Kornsak in my office. I can believe he wanted corruption money. Lots of people have told me that.” Somchai smiled and shook out a cigarette from his red and gold packet. He didn’t bother asking for permission as he flicked his lighter and blew smoke at a space above Madam Tang’s head. She coughed a little bit and William felt bad that the old woman was having to put up with an interrogation. He spoke up: “This is not right. We came here to look at a business deal one month ago and it did not work out. We are now going back to discuss with our partners in Hong Kong. You have no right to detain us here.”
Somchai shrugged and took another drag on his cigarette. “Right? This is the Kingdom of Thailand. I am a policeman and suspect you of a crime. I have all the power I need to send you to prison for a few weeks while we investigate this matter.”
“What matter?” Madam Tang said harshly. “Give us more information. Whatever Kornsak told you are lies. We can prove it.”
“Prove it? How can you prove he is lying?”
“He is lying,” Madam Tang said adamantly.
“I have checked your passport numbers and names with our connections at the Hong Kong Police and they told us that there are files on both of you with the Criminal Records Bureau.”
“What does that mean?” Madam Tang said.
“You are the sister of a former reputed Triad leader Tang Siu Ling. And you Mr. William, have been arrested a number of times for Triad-related offences.”
William stared back at Somchai and gave a small lift of his shoulders. He could not deny the records in Hong Kong but that was not proof of any crimes in Thailand. They had to find out what Colonel Somchai really had on them. If he had evidence of the previous night’s shoot-out that would be as bad as it could get. But there was no record of their names related to the renting of the house. It had all been done through proxies.
“Have you hurt your arm?” Somchai asked. “It looks as if you are having a problem moving it?”
“I fell from a ladder, Colonel.”
“I hope you went to a good hospital.” Somchai looked at him coldly.
“I will have it checked out once I am back in Hong Kong.”
“I am not sure you will be going back to Hong Kong,” Somchai said with the right amount of menace.
“I have to go to Hong Kong today. I have an important business meeting with some investors,” Madam Tang said, banging her hand on the wooden table with a loud angry noise
“You cannot go anywhere until we have resolved this matter,” Somchai said with a reluctant shake of his head.
William picked up on the wording. He leant forward and asked in a low voice, “How can we resolve this matter to your satisfaction, Colonel?”
Somchai took another leisurely drag from his Dunhill then replied, “You must give me all the information you have on Kornsak. How much money did he ask from you for changing the zoning regulations of the land? How much money did you pay him?”
“And if we give you this information we will be free to go?” William wanted to know. Madam Tang glared stonily at both of them.
“Perhaps,” Somchai said, “you will be free to go. That decision will be up to my superior.”
“You have to give us more assurance, Colonel. We come to Thailand to do legitimate business but we don’t know the local customs,” William said. “We don’t think we have done anything wrong when a local important person like Kornsak tells us that we must pay him money. We think this should be correct and legal.”
“Did you pay him money?”
William moved his head from side to side not clearly indicating an answer.
“If you don’t tell me the truth and all the details, you are the one to suffer. Perhaps you can be on a plane tonight or perhaps you will be in one of our very nice Bangkok prisons.” Somchai lit another cigarette. “Did you pay Kornsak money?”
William nodded. “Yes, we did. We had no other choice.”
“You can choose not to do business in Thailand,” Somchai said with a shrug.
William nodded because it was a cheap comment. He gave Somchai a dollar amount of what they had paid Kornsak that was neither true nor unlikely. He spoke for a while as Somchai made a few notes in a black leather book. Madam Tang said nothing but stared sullenly at the wall.
Finally Colonel Somchai said: “I am not interested in you. You have given me enough evidence to arrest Kornsak. I will make a phone call to my superior and discuss what arrangements we can make for you.” He gave a tight smile and stood up from the table.
William was encouraged by the word “arrangements.” It sounded as if this Police Colonel might be a reasonable man.
“You should not have talked so much,” Madam Tang said, pointing a finger at William.
“I am trying to get us on a plane to Hong Kong.”
Madam Tang shook her head in sullen aggravation. William wasn’t sure why she was annoyed. He’d been careful not to admit anything while only incriminating Kornsak. They had to give Somchai something—just sitting in silence would make the man angry and William had no doubt then they would end up behind bars. Somchai was playing with them and they were not in a position to negotiate. He touched his arm and felt the bandage. It was time for some more pain killers.
Colonel Somchai came back ten minutes later. He gave them a crooked smile.
“You are lucky,” he said. “We know you have been involved in criminal activity but as long as you are out of Thailand my department does not care. You can leave Thailand but we will stamp your passports to say you can’t return. But…” he turned over a piece of paper he’d been holding in his hand and laid it on the table. “We will make you pay a fine before I can release you. This is the amount. Mrs. Tang will stay here and you, Mr. William can go and make arrangements to get the money. I am sure you have a bank account or friends that can help you.”
Somchai tapped the paper with his index finger. The text “five million Baht” was written in black letters. William looked at it and stifled back a Cantonese oath. The bastard. But at least there was an offer on the table to let them go and get on the plane back home.
The policeman picked up his piece of paper and crumpled it up, then placed it in his jacket pocket.
* * * *
For this job he chose a knife. It was perhaps vanity or simply a desire to try something different. It had been a long time since he’d killed with a knife. If you had a gun there was no need to get messy, no need to get up close. The blood always got over your hand, your clothes and sometimes the blade would get stuck and it took a moment to pull it out and more blood would spurt on you.
But the instruction from the anonymous client had stated to make it look like a robbery. Most drug-crazed robbers or burglars could not afford handguns so a knife would strike the right cord.
Killing with a knife could be elegant too. If you knew how to hold it, how to move and which was the most effective place to strike. He’d done a course once, in America, run by a man who’d spent twenty years in prison. Now he had a small farm in the wilds of Nevada and invited people through the Internet to come and learn how to defend themselves with all variety of weapons.
Jedburgh liked to keep his skills up and no professional should be so confident as to think that he knew everything and that there might not be better ways of getting a job done. So occasionally he went on courses, as long as he could be circumspect and be sure that the schools were discrete and his real identity could be protected by the complex aliases he had at his disposal.
The real question now was whether to use a serious knife or to buy the sort of knife a drug addict might get in a local hardware store. On balance it was hard to determine the make of a knife from a wound, perhaps a good examiner in the West might be able to do that but it was unlikely anyone would take the time in Asia. He wasn’t planning to leave the murder weapon at the scene, it would disappear in a deep watery place, so he might as well use a good tool. There were a few in his secret compartment. Using one of them meant parting with the knife. It was too much hard work to clean them up these days and remove every shred of DNA. One had to steep it in bleach for ten minutes and that would damage the blade and the handle, so it was much easier to toss it and be sure it could never be found. Wiping it down with bleach before tossing it helped of course.
Eventually he decided on the Leatherman Buck. He’d had it for a while and although there was a bit of sentimental attachment—it was the blade he’d used to cut his first throat over fifteen years ago before DNA was much of problem—it was about time the metal was put to the test again.
He got his gear together, reviewed the file one more time and sat on the veranda with a can of beer and eating a Cheddar cheese sandwich. The waves on the beach provided a soothing backdrop to his thoughts.
He’d only done one recce but felt confident that the plan would work. Time was a bit tight. Jedburgh didn’t want to mess around much longer on this case. It was tiring him out, in fact boring him. He would do this one and maybe one more and then take two months off. Leave Asia completely and go live in an Alpine hut that he’d found for rent through one of the agencies on the Internet. He would go hiking and maybe do a few simple climbs. It wasn’t really his sport but he was tired of the water and the sun. Too much of a good thing could make you feel soft. He would never permanently live in the West again but he really felt the need for a change and to vanish and clear his mind for a while.
He’d told the girl he’d be gone for a while and given her enough money to be happy and comfortable. He’d told her that if a better man came along and had something permanent to offer she should consider it.
She’d pouted but not argued with him because one of her qualities was that she was sensible beyond her years. She knew that a man like him didn’t tie himself down and that it wouldn’t last forever. She would eventually find a nice German or American who wanted to make babies with her. For a beautiful girl there were always opportunities. Like migrating birds, single and divorced men still flocked to Thailand for love and all that went with it.
Half an hour later he was outside the house and waited until his target appeared. In a sheath on his waist was the tempered steel blade and for backup, just to be sure, he had a Walther in a shoulder holster. As had been proven again lately, fire power was always the best trump card.
The target, a local politician named Kornsak, came to this house regularly because it was a place he used for gambling with his friends and for inviting women. It was a humble house in a quiet neighborhood with an untended garden and he only took one bodyguard because what went on in the house was best kept discrete for a man in his position.
Jedburgh climbed over the back fence in the dark and pried open the kitchen door. In the living room the Karaoke was going strong and three men and three women were singing and drinking Thai whiskey. It was already late and the party would be breaking up soon. The killer waited in the toilet by the kitchen. He knew that once the guests left, Kornsak would be alone with a woman and the single bodyguard.
It took an hour. By this time it was two in the morning. Jedburgh waited patiently, keeping himself occupied with images of what he planned to do in the next few months. He re-ran the events of the last few weeks and especially the shootout where Bottle had been killed. It could have been cleaner. But then things were always unpredictable when too many people were involved. Much easier to work by yourself, in the stealthy darkness.
Finally Kornsak came into the kitchen and Jedburgh stepped out from his hiding place, put an arm around the chubby Thai man’s neck and cut the jugular from left to right with a deep, continuous motion. Kornsak sagged quietly in Jedburgh arms and the arterial blood sprayed out over the sink and the window. The heart pumped madly, drenching Jedburgh but he’d expected it. He dropped the dying man onto the floor, closed the blade and disappeared out into the garden and the night.
He reached the staging place he’d chosen and quickly stripped off the soiled overalls, pushing them into a black bin liner. He washed his hands in the bucket he’d prepared, dumped the water and walked the five minutes to where he’d parked the car.
By six in the morning he was back home, in bed and the images from earlier didn’t disturb his sleep in the slightest.
* * * *
The meeting with Colonel Somchai had been fixed for after lunch at a Starbucks coffee shop near the police station. Scrimple was still nervous that it would be a setup and he’d be arrested right away. But he had no choice. He had to try and sort things out and the girl had convinced him that it might be possible.
Pim sat opposite him and was talking on her mobile phone in rapid Thai. The strange burn marks on her cheeks were healing and she’d told him that later in the day she would visit the Bumrumgrad Hospital where they had some excellent plastic surgeons. Scrimple felt sorry for her. He assumed that if she was going to see a doctor she would also be seeing a gynecologist. Being raped must have been horrible but she’d said something about getting the morning after pill from a pharmacy so at least that problem had been dealt with.
She’ll have to take an HIV test just to be sure of course, thought Scrimple.
William was a real pig and there was no knowing where he’d been before and if he was the sort of man to take precautions. He shuddered as these thoughts went through his mind and he took another sip from his hot Café Mocca.
Colonel Somchai arrived on time. He was alone and he came over to their table smiling, which made Scrimple more nervous since he’d not expected the policeman to be so friendly or cheerful.
“Khun Scrimple,” Somchai said after shaking his hand and exchanging wais with Pim who had stood up respectfully and bowed very deeply. “You have had a terrible week, I think? I’m sorry we arrested you but it was part of a plan and some of the plan went well.” Somchai sat down and placed a packet of Dunhill on the table.
“Some of the plan didn’t go well?” Scrimple ventured.
“Yes, not all went according to plan. But now things are falling into place again.”
“Am I still a wanted person?” Scrimple got straight to the point.
Somchai nodded. “You are at the moment but when I go back to my office and make a few phone calls that can change.”
“I didn’t kill all those people.”
“I know you didn’t. The Chinese gang did.”
“Have they been arrested?” Scrimple asked.
“Not exactly. I let them go. So they flew back to Hong Kong late last night.”
“You let them go?” Scrimple was aghast. He’d expected William to be rotting in a cockroach-invested cell by now. “But you had William in custody then?”
“Yes,” Somchai smiled again. “I had William and Mrs. Tang in custody. And for our own reasons we decided to let them go. They will never be able to come back to Thailand. They gave me useful evidence about the corruption that has been happening in Pattaya and that helps me close the case for now.”
“But William has committed multiple murders in Thailand.” Scrimple felt a sense of unfairness and was leaning forward on the table.
“That’s true. Hard to prove. And we don’t have enough witnesses. And a case will take a long time. And I don’t have confidence in the honesty of some of our judges so there’s always the risk something will go wrong. It’s easier to let them go.”
Scrimple glanced over at Pim who’d been following the conversation intently.
“William killed my father. He must be punished,” she said.
“He will be punished,” Somchai said and then continued in Thai for a while. At first the girl was angry but then she calmed down as Somchai spoke in unruffled, persuasive tones. Scrimple tried to follow but it was beyond him.
So William and Tang are back in Hong Kong? Which means there’s a chance they’ll appear in my life again.
Of course it meant there was a chance of revenge. For him, if he wanted it, and for the girl. It was a big thought and he put it aside quickly.
“What about my situation then? Can you really fix it? Will you fix it?” he asked.
Somchai turned back to him, toying with the packet of cigarettes now. “Yes, I will arrange for your matter to be cleared up. You are an innocent in this. You were a ball that was kicked around. But every football match, every game needs a ball. Sorry.”
“It’s not the first time I’ve been kicked around,” Scrimple mumbled, allowing a small sense of relief to creep up on him.
“Things are not as they seem sometimes and here in Thailand my work is not always simple,” Somchai said. “What I can tell you is that there was a man called Kornsak who was involved and we had to be sure of the details. From what I’ve heard, Kornsak had an accident last night. He was burgled and the burglars cut his throat. That matter is closed now.”
“Oh,” was the only reply Scrimple could make.
“It is sad so many people did get killed,” Somchai added and took out a cigarette, studied it for a moment, then put it back into the box.
Scrimple looked at the policeman and wondered if he had any idea about the men who tried to arrest Scrimple when he made his run for the Cambodian border. It had been self-defense but there had still been two killings and those were truly on his conscience. He shook his head to clear away the guilt and the demons that came with it.
“What will you do now, Khun Scrimple, if I can clear your name?” Somchai asked.
“Go back to work and try and live a normal life again. I’ll have to go to Hong Kong to speak with my boss there. She still thinks I’m a homicidal killer. They’ve probably fired me several times over and I might not have a job left anyway.”
“Will you leave Thailand?”
“Do I have to?” Scrimple said with sudden alarm. “Do you want me to?”
“No, don’t worry. You are free and can continue to stay here. I will do what I can to clear things up. I will even pull some strings for you with Immigration if you want and get you a permanent visa. It makes things easier if you want to live here for many more years.”
“I’ve got nowhere else I really want to go. I’d like to stay in Thailand. I’m certainly not going back to England or anywhere cold and miserable.”
“You should stay in Thailand then,” Somchai said and smiled. He stood up and held out his hand. “Maybe we can help each other again sometime. From one policeman to another. Thank you for what you did in this case. We can keep in touch.” He turned to Pim and gave her a wai which she returned.
Scrimple watched him leave.
“Well, that’s okay then. That’s fucking brilliant,” he heard himself say to the girl. “Apart from the fact that those fucking bastards are still running around happy as Larry back in Hong Kong.”
“They won’t be happy for very long,” Pim said.
“What? You want me to go over there and kill them or beat them up or whatever?”
She shook her head. “No need, I think.” She smiled. “Something that Somchai said makes me think that he has other plans for them.”
“Him and his fucking plans. If I had the balls to do it, sure I’d go over there and put a few bullets in both of their heads. But I haven’t got what it takes.” He remembered the guard he’d shot the night before and that gave him a sudden jolt of bile that came up in the back of his throat. “It’s the sort of thing Jedburgh and McAlistair would happily do, for the right sort of money. But best stay away from them. Scary people,” he said.