“That’s the bad news,” Daeng said. “Either they were already gone by the time my men were in place, or they snuck out this morning and we missed them.”
Disappointed was not nearly a strong enough word for what Logan suddenly felt. “Is that possible?”
“Anything is possible,” Daeng said. “But I chose my men carefully. It would have been very unusual for them to have missed anything. But there
“What?”
“The girl and most of the others, they’re not there anymore. But two
“Did you detain them?”
Daeng shook his head. “Not yet. They’re still there. Apparently, they’re cleaning up.”
“Do you want me to have my men move in?” Daeng asked.
Logan said nothing for a moment, thinking. If Daeng’s people grabbed them now, who knew how long it might take to get them to divulge where Elyse was.
“No,” he said. “We’ll let them finish what they’re doing, then follow them. In the meantime, get me as close as you can. I want to see exactly who was left behind.”
30
Logan and Daeng spent five and a half hours in an empty apartment across an intersection from the building Elyse had been held in.
More than once, Logan asked if it was possible that the men who were supposedly still there might have snuck out some other way. Each time, Daeng had dutifully checked, but the report would always come back that the men were still inside.
“I’m not sure I’ve actually told you thanks, yet,” Logan said after Daeng checked for him one more time. “Without you and your men, I don’t know what I would have done.”
Daeng shrugged. “You would have found her. You would have just done it a different way. You’re more resourceful than you look.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I’m serious, though,” Logan said after a few seconds. “You’ve done a lot more than you needed to.”
“I’ve done exactly what I needed to.”
Logan looked at him. Daeng’s eyes were focused through the window on the other building, but after a moment, he glanced over. “What?”
“That’s just kind of an odd statement.”
“Is it? Aren’t you doing the same?”
The question surprised Logan. He was doing what he felt he had to do, but was it
Daeng seemed to sense Logan’s discomfort. He smiled, then said, “How’s the weather in L.A.?”
Logan looked out the window. “Nice when I left. Seventies.”
“I miss that. Most of the time it doesn’t even get down to seventy during the night here.”
“How long were you in Los Angeles?”
Daeng was silent for a moment. “Almost ten years.”
“You must have been young when you got there.”
“Eight and a half.”
Logan felt like he probably asked more than he should have, so he said nothing. But, apparently he was wrong.
After a brief pause, Daeng said, “My mom had died three months before, and my dad…well, let’s just say he wasn’t cut out for raising a kid on his own. So he sent me off to live with his sister in the States.”
On the street below, Logan watched a pickup truck drive by, mattresses stacked high in the back.
“I was fortunate, though,” Daeng went on. “My aunt had loved my mom, so she made it a point that I learned all I could about my Burmese background. My father would have never done that. My mother’s people,
“I thought I heard somewhere that all Thai men spend a few months being a monk.”
Daeng waved a dismissive hand in the air. “I’m not talking about a temporary monk. I spent three years in that life. The temple I lived in was in a town several hours north of here. It was peaceful. At the time, I thought I would never do anything else. But in 2007, things changed. That fall, there were protests in Burma.”
