“I can understand that,” I said.
I still didn’t have the slightest idea what Tommy was talking about, but I figured that if I let him keep talking, eventually he would tell me.
“But you see here’s the thing, Jack. When Barry told me that he had brought you in on the whole deal, I started worrying.”
I stared at Tommy. “You mean Barry Gale?”
Tommy nodded.
“Barry told you
“That he’d brought you in to help with some problems at the ABC.”
“Look, Tommy, I’ve seen Barry Gale exactly once in the last two years, and I promise you that he didn’t bring me into
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, Tommy. That’s so.”
“Well, Jack,” Tommy pulled a face. “I’m having a little trouble there.”
“Why is that?”
“Because Barry also told me something else.”
“Yeah?”
“He told me you were looking into how the ABC had been disbursing its funds recently, that you were looking for some assets of theirs that had gone missing.”
“Well, if you believed that, Tommy, you’re shit out of luck.”
Tommy took another puff and then he turned the cigar around and examined the ash that had built up at its tip as if he was looking for something that might be hidden in it.
I waited, but Tommy didn’t say anything else. The longer the silence went on, the more threatening it felt, so I started talking again.
“Look, Tommy, Barry Gale showed up here in Bangkok right out of the blue last week. He told me-”
“I know what he told you,” Tommy interrupted.
Then Tommy went back to his cigar again, leaving it entirely up to me to carry the conversation. I wouldn’t have minded so much, but not knowing what we were talking about was a considerable handicap.
I decided to give Tommy a little jab, just to see what developed. “So I guess it was your people who swung Howard off the Taksin Bridge, huh? And that would also no doubt be your people following me around town instead of the FBI or the CIA.”
I thought Tommy looked startled for a moment and then tried to cover it by drawing slowly on the cigar and carefully tapping off the ash against the bowl at his feet. It was a technique I had used on a few occasions myself when I wasn’t sure what was happening, so I thought I recognized a slight opening. I pressed him before he could regroup.
“Didn’t know I’d picked up on your flunkies, did you, Tommy? Maybe you’d better find yourself some higher quality guys.”
Now I could see clearly how surprised Tommy was. I figured I was on a roll and kept pushing.
“The real question, of course, is why you have guys tailing me in the first place. It wouldn’t be that you’ve lost Barry Gale, would it? That you think by sticking with me you can find him again? Because if it is, you’re shit out of luck there, too. I have no idea where Barry Gale is.”
Now Tommy was staring at me as if I had gone mad.
“What the fuck you talking about?” he snapped.
“I’m talking about you having me followed.”
Tommy looked disgusted. “What do you take me for, Jack? I’m not some criminal; I’m an official of the Thai government. If I wanted to know where you were, I’d just stick a bug up your ass.”
He snorted and started to turn away, but then he stopped. “What’s this shit about the FBI and the CIA?”
Okay, so maybe I had that part wrong. I tossed out a hapless-looking gesture to buy some time to decide where to go from here. Under the circumstances, it came easily.
“It was just a figure of speech,” I said. “I’ve had a feeling that someone is following me, but I don’t know who it is. I guess I’m still just spooked by Barry Gale showing up the way he did.”
“Yeah,” Tommy nodded, “he’s a spooky kind of guy.”
I could see that my mention of the CIA was still turning in Tommy’s head, so I tried to change the subject before he had any more time to think about it.
“I’m really enjoying your little visit, Tommy, but are you going to tell me anytime soon what it is you want?”
“Yeah, Jack, I’ll tell you right now.”
Tommy bent over and punched out his cigar in the celadon bowl with a half-dozen stabs that looked just as harsh and brutal as he obviously wanted them to. Then he took a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped his hands, and stood up.
“Forget about the ABC, Jack. Back off. Do you understand me?”
“I’m not involved with the ABC, Tommy, and I’m not helping Barry Gale. There’s nothing for me to back off from.”
Tommy turned and walked out of the living room and I followed him into as the entry hall. He opened the front door, but then he stopped and looked back at me over his shoulder.
“That’s not the way I hear it, Jack, and I usually hear things right. I’ve warned you to back off and I’m not going to warn you again. Get as far away from the ABC as you can. Believe me, it’s the only thing you can do now.”
I was in some kind of game that nobody wanted to tell me the rules for and I felt like a fool. I didn’t like being a fool and something in Tommy’s tone made me angry.
“Yeah? And what are you going to do if I don’t back off, Tommy? Kill me?”
“You know better than that, Jack. Thais are gentle people with peaceful hearts. We’re not violent like you Americans are.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“Then, on the other hand, you know Bangkok, too, Jack.”
Tommy let his eyes hang on me through the pale blue haze of cigar smoke drifting in the apartment.
“It’s tough to get much done without occasionally having somebody shot.”
In the dim light and still air the cigar smoke began breaking into long, spiraling wisps, elegant little whorls that floated gracefully away into the darkness at the ceiling.
“Good night, Jack. Thanks for the cigar.”
THIRTY THREE
I went back into the living room and got a Montecristo out of my humidor. After cutting it and lighting it, I dropped down in the same chair where Tommy had made himself at home, crossed my legs, and sat staring out at the city. Sometimes I really did wonder what I was doing in this place.
Bangkok was an enigmatic city at the best of times, a place where the mystery of what you couldn’t see was surpassed only by the ambiguity of what you could. But it was also a place of sensual immediacy and lush, transporting power. Something magical always seemed to be dangling just out of reach.
Living in Bangkok, I sometimes felt like I was playing out a scene from
The Kingdom of Thailand thrived on its contradictions and it was with these contradictions that it contrived to seduce you. Thai people were generally placid and charming. Somehow they had combined Buddhist stoicism and
