His eyes narrowed. ‘Why do you care?’
I shrugged. He was right. It was none of my business. But a lot of people had died so yes, I cared. ‘Marsh said it was the owners. I assumed that he meant you.’
‘I wanted the doors guarded. But I was overruled.’
‘By who?’
‘The sons of one of the big investors. They used the VIP rooms three or four times a week. They’d bring in their girlfriends and order the best champagne and not pay for a thing. They liked to throw their weight around.’
‘Marsh said it was your idea to lock the doors.’ Thongchai’s face tightened and I put up my hands. ‘I’m just telling you what he said.’
‘I told him to lock the doors, yes. But I was only telling him what they had told me.’
‘And he said you left the building as soon as the fire started.’
Thongchai pursed his lips. ‘He said a lot, didn’t he?’
‘He was scared. And now he’s dead.’
‘That was nothing to do with me.’
‘He said a lawyer had been around to see him. Was that your idea?’
Thongchai shook his head.
‘Marsh reckoned that the lawyer wanted him to take the blame for the fire. Or for the locked door and the overcrowding, at least.’
‘It wasn’t his fault,’ said Thongchai. ‘It wasn’t mine either. It was the boys. But they’re dead now so there’s no one to back me up.’ He sneered. ‘Not that they would, even if they were alive.’
‘They died in the fire?’
‘Everyone in the VIP room died. There was just one narrow stairway up to it.’
‘Why did you run, Thongchai? And why are you hiding now?’
Thongchai sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers under his chin. ‘How long have you been in Thailand, Khun Bob?’
‘A long time.’
‘So you understand Thai people.’
I smiled. ‘The longer I am here, the less I understand,’ I said.
‘But you know about Thais and revenge?’
I nodded. I knew what he meant. The boys had died and the parents would want retribution. It wasn’t just the police who were looking for him.
‘So someone will have to pay the price for what happened, and it won’t be a farang.’
‘Do you think they killed Marsh?’
Thongchai shrugged. ‘I don’t know. But I am sure they’ll kill me if they find me.’
‘So go to the police. The guy I went to see at the Kube, he’s a police colonel investigating the case and he’s as straight as they come. He’ll give you a fair hearing.’
‘It doesn’t matter whether he’s corrupt or not,’ said Thongchai. ‘Do you think he can protect me?’
It was a good question.
And the answer was probably no. Somsak might want to help but I doubt that he would be any more effective than the amulets hanging around Thongchai’s neck.
‘My men will take you wherever you need to go, Khun Bob,’ said Thongchai. ‘Good luck with your hunt for the missing boy.’
‘Good luck yourself, Khun Thongchai,’ I said.
Of the two of us, I suspected that he would need it more than me.
CHAPTER 27
Dr Ma-lee was in her mid-thirties and seemed happy in her work. She was slightly plump and wore round spectacles and there were framed photographs of her husband and three equally plump daughters either side of her computer. She was wearing a white coat and had a stethoscope hanging around her neck and she inhaled the steam from the cup of Chinese tea that she was holding as I sat down in her office. She’d called me in for a chat about what she would be doing to me in a few days. There were framed certificates on the wall behind her showing that she’d studied in Chicago and Seattle, which was reassuring.
‘Dr Wanlop explained what it is we’ll be doing?’ she asked, putting her cup down on its saucer.
‘A colonoscopy, just to check that my colon is okay,’ I said, trying to be as optimistic as possible.
‘Exactly,’ she said. ‘Basically there are two systems we can use. The latest device is in the form of a capsule containing a camera which the patient simply swallows. It works its way through the system and we then plug it into our computer and obtain a view of the entire alimentary canal.’
‘Sounds great,’ I said.
Well, maybe not great, but it sure sounded better than pushing a camera up the other way.
‘So, is that what you want to use?’
Her smile widened. Her teeth were slightly grey but perfectly even. ‘Actually, Khun Bob, I am more old school,’ she said. ‘I prefer the old-fashioned method.’
That didn’t sound so great, because old-fashioned basically involved shoving a camera up where the sun doesn’t shine.
I smiled. ‘Why’s that, Dr Ma-lee?’ I asked.
‘Two reasons, really,’ she said. ‘First, the capsule method really only allows us one pass. We see what we see and that’s the end of it. But with the camera I can spend as long as I need in there. I can view any problem from different angles which helps better to assess what needs to be done.’
‘Right,’ I said. ‘I see.’
I didn’t like the way she was talking about problems before she’d even started. I wanted her tell me that everything was going to be just fine, that there was nothing to worry about.
I didn’t want to hear about problems.
Or red flags.
Or cancer.
‘But the big advantage is that the equipment I use allows me to deal with any polyps that we find there and then. All the capsule does is tell us where there is a problem, we would then have to go back in and deal with it. So on balance, we’re better off doing it the old-fashioned away.’
I smiled but really I didn’t feel like smiling.
Before the colonoscopy had been an abstract procedure, but now it was a looming reality, and it wasn’t something that I was looking forward to. Not one bit.
‘And you understand there are preparations before we can do anything?’ she said, smiling and nodding.
Preparations?
That didn’t sound good.
CHAPTER 28
It wasn’t hard finding out where Somchit Santhanavit – alias Tukkata – lived. Thai surnames are usually very distinctive. In fact, a hundred years or so ago there weren’t any surnames. The entire population had just first names. It was King Vajiravudh who realised that knowing his subjects on a first name basis wasn’t conducive to good governorship. If nothing else it made taxation difficult. He issued an edict that henceforth every family should have a family name and even came up with several hundred surnames himself.
Vajiravudh was one of the great kings of Thailand. He was educated at Sandhurst, studied law and history at Oxford, and was a real Anglophile. He replaced the traditional flag of Siam – a white elephant on a red background –
