August just looked at Tay and said nothing.
“When Cally was shot, her heart was pumping hard from the adrenaline, which is exactly what you would expect,” Tay said. “She bled out quickly.”
August said nothing.
“Dadi’s heart couldn’t have been pumping at all when he was shot or there would have been blood all over the place. He was already dead when DeSouza used that shotgun on him.”
“You think it was a setup,” August said. He did not make a question of it.
“I know it was.”
August folded his arms and consulted a spot on the wall just over Tay’s right shoulder.
“So do you,” Tay added.
But August said nothing at all.
THIRTY-EIGHT
“DeSouza killed Cally,” Tay said. “Didn’t he?”
August’s eyes remained fixed on the wall.
“I don’t know,” he said after a moment.
“Yes, you do.”
“Let it go, Sam.”
“Maybe he killed Munson and Rooney, too.”
“Why would he have done that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well there you go.”
“If he didn’t, he’s protecting whoever did kill them.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Cally must have known that. She was getting too close and that’s why DeSouza set her up and killed her.”
“Slow down, Sam. You’re getting way ahead of yourself. You don’t know any of that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Look…” August hesitated. “That road won’t take you anywhere you want to go.”
“It might take me to the truth.”
“What truth?” August exhaled heavily and rubbed his face with an open hand. He sounded like a man running out of resources and surprised to discover how quickly that could happen. “This is Bangkok. You never know what’s true here.”
“Oh, Christ,” Tay shook his head in disgust. “What a load of crap.”
“You’re in over your head, Sam. Let it go.”
“Goddamn it, August,” Tay exploded, “look at the fucking photographs and tell me that I’m wrong. Can you do that? Can you?”
August took a breath and shifted his eyes to the window. He didn’t say anything.
“DeSouza either killed Cally himself or he stood there while somebody else killed her,” Tay said. “And you fucking know it’s true.”
August suddenly looked exhausted. He seemed to Tay somehow smaller than when he first walked into the room. Tay wondered if he looked the same way to August.
“I’m going to need your help,” Tay said. “Can I reach you on the number that you used to call me today?”
“Yes, but don’t bother. I’m not going to help you.”
“You can bullshit me, August, but you can’t bullshit yourself. This all stinks. What is it? Some kind of half- assed intelligence operation gone bad?”
The surprise on August’s face was only a flicker and then it was gone, but Tay caught it.
“That’s right,” Tay said. “I know that Elizabeth Munson was a spook. A NOC. That’s what you call it, isn’t it? Wondering what else I know?”
“How’d you find out about Liz?”
“Cally told me.”
“She shouldn’t have done that.”
Tay slammed his open hand down on the photographs on the bed.
“She shouldn’t have walked into that setup either and gotten herself killed, but damn it all she did, and she was. Maybe if I’d been with her…”
Tay trailed off into silence and cleared his throat.
“Whatever you’re trying to cover up here, August, just answer me this. Was it worth it? Was it worth Cally dying for? Was it worth three dead women?”
August looked as if he was about to say something, but he didn’t. The room slipped into an uneasy stillness. Tay heard the refrigerator in the mini-bar click on, hum softly for a minute or two, and then click off again.
“So what do we do now?” Tay eventually asked into the silence.
“I don’t know about you, Tay, but I know exactly what I’m going to do. I’m going to go straight back to Pattaya and get blind drunk. There’s no better place on God’s green earth to get blind drunk than Pattaya and no better time to do it than today.”
“You can do what you want. I’m going to find out what in Christ’s name is going on here and I’m going to hang somebody for it. And understand this, pal. If you had anything to do with it, that includes your worthless ass, too.”
“Fuck you, Tay. I would have done anything in the world to protect that woman.”
“But you didn’t protect her. You let her walk right into it.”
“I didn’t fucking
“You could have warned her.”
“Warned her about
“That’s what I intend to find out.”
The two men glared at each other for a while, but neither of them had the energy to keep it up for very long and soon enough they just stopped.
“What are you really after here, Tay?” August asked.
Tay didn’t know exactly what to say to that, so he said nothing.
“Is it justice you want,” August went on, “or would revenge do?”
“I’m a police officer. I’m going to find out who killed Cally and why, and I will see to it that he is punished according to the law.”
“That’s what I thought. Well then, let me tell you this, my friend. You’re going to end up with nothing at all. There is no justice down that road and you don’t have the balls to be serious about revenge. I could give you DeSouza on his knees, holding a signed confession in his teeth, and you still couldn’t pull the trigger. Leave this to people who can.”
“I’m a police officer,” Tay repeated doggedly.
“No, you’re not. Not here in Thailand. You’re just passing through, one more piece of foreign shit in the dirty great toilet of Bangkok. You haven’t got a hope in hell of accomplishing anything here. Go back to Singapore.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Sure you are. What the hell are you going to do here in Bangkok? Investigate Cally’s death and prove that DeSouza murdered her with the help of some Thai cops?”
“If that’s what happened.”
“Don’t be naive, Sam. This is the Wild West. It’s nothing like Singapore. Go around asking questions of the wrong people in a place like this and somebody rides up next to you on a motorcycle and punches your ticket with a.45.”
