Somsak was probably right. The traditional retribution for wronged Thai wives was to wait until the errant husband was asleep and to cut off his member. What happened then depended on how angry the woman was.
She might wrap it in ice and phone for an ambulance.
She might throw it to the ducks.
She might put it in the kitchen blender.
She might tie it to a helium-filled balloon and wave goodbye to it as it headed for the clouds.
I figured the general’s daughter would be pretty angry.
‘So the great Bangkok Bob couldn’t solve the mystery of the hired killer,’ said Somsak. ‘You didn’t even know who wanted you dead.’
‘I think I’m a pretty good judge of character, generally,’ I said.
‘Are you sure about that?’ said the policeman.
‘I’m not usually wrong.’
Somsak chuckled. ‘Let me tell you something, Khun Bob. But first you must promise never to tell anyone else.’
‘Cross my heart and hope to die.’
‘When we play poker…’
‘Yes?’
‘Sometimes when I have a pair of jacks or better, I blink.’
I smiled. ‘I know that.’
‘And sometimes, when I don’t have anything, I also blink.’
Right then.
You live and learn.
CHAPTER 43
She was walking with two other girls, laughing animatedly and waving around her BlackBerry. All three were in school uniform but carrying brand-name bags and wearing expensive high heels. She’d never seen me in the Hummer so she jumped when I wound down the window and said hello. ‘It’s all right, Kai,’ I said. ‘I just need to talk.’
‘I’ve already talked to the police,’ she said. Her two friends were looking at her, tugging nervously at the straps of their designer bags.
‘I just need to clear some things up,’ I said. ‘I promise you, you’re not in trouble.’ I got out of the car and locked the door. ‘Let me buy you some noodles,’ I said, nodding at the noodle stalls on the pavement. ‘Or a Coke. Your friends, too. I won’t be long, I promise.’ She looked reluctant and I couldn’t be too forceful because at the end of the day she was a schoolgirl and I was three times her age and some. ‘Please, Kai,’ I said. I put my hand up to the wound on my temple. ‘You see this? A man tried to kill me, you owe me a few minutes of your time, at least.’
‘Who shot you?’
‘Didn’t the police tell you? Big Red paid someone to kill me.’ I smiled. ‘He wasn’t a very good shot.’
‘Am I in trouble?’
I shook my head. ‘Of course not,’ I said. ‘But I just want to ask you a few things. Please.’ I waved at the nearest noodle stall and she walked towards it.
One of the girls asked what she was doing and Kai told them to wait.
I sat down opposite her on a wooden stall and ordered two Cokes.
‘So the police came to talk to you? At school?’
She shook her head. ‘At home. My parents are really mad at me. The police told them everything. Big Red’s driver told the police about me, and about his other girls.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘It’s okay. The police say we’re not going to be in trouble. Not with them, anyway. My parents have grounded me for three months.’
‘Did you tell Big Red about me?’
She nodded. ‘He wanted to know who you were and why you were talking to me.’
An old man shuffled over with two bottles of Coke and two glasses filled with shaved ice. ‘And you gave him my number?’ She bit down on her lower lip and nodded. She was scared. ‘Kai, it’s okay. I’m not upset.’ It didn’t take much to get the name and address of the owner of a mobile phone in Thailand, a few thousand baht at most.
‘I’m sorry you were hurt,’ she said.
I smiled. ‘It’s a scratch,’ I said. ‘I’m fine now. And you didn’t do anything. It was Big Red.’
‘He gave me money. He helped me.’
‘He’s a grown man and you’re a kid, Kai. You’re fifteen years old.’
‘I know, but he didn’t force me to do anything.’ She held up her Gucci bag. ‘He bought me this. And my phone. He buys me anything I want.’
‘That doesn’t make it right, Kai.’
She bit down on her lower lip again. She was close to tears. I couldn’t work out if she was upset because of what Big Red had done or because I had been shot at or because she knew she had lost her sugar daddy.
I figured it was probably the latter.
‘The first time you went with him, where was that?’ I asked.
She frowned, not understanding the question.
‘How did you meet him?’ I asked. ‘The first time?’
Her face brightened. ‘The internet.’
‘The internet?’
‘There’s a website you can go to meet people.’
‘Like Facebook?’
She shook her head. ‘It’s a chat room,’ she said. ‘You can talk to people and if you like them you give them your phone number.’
‘A chat room for men to meet girls?’
She nodded.
‘Young girls, Kai?’
‘Mainly young girls,’ she said. ‘The men usually want to know how old you are and what school you go to.’
‘And the girls have sex?’
She shook her head. ‘No, not always. Sometimes the men just want to talk while they touch themselves. Or sometimes they just want to touch.’ She giggled. ‘There’s one Japanese man who just wants to buy the underwear you’re wearing. He pays five thousand baht, just for your panties.’
‘He’s welcome to my boxer shorts,’ I said, and she laughed. ‘How did you find out about the website?’ I asked.
‘Everyone was talking about it at school. One of my friends had a new BlackBerry and I asked her how she’d paid for it and she said that she’d met a man in the chat room and he’d given it to her. She showed me what to do and I tried it.’
‘And you weren’t shy? Or scared?’
She shrugged carelessly. ‘I didn’t care. I just wanted a BlackBerry.’
‘And where did you go with him?’
‘The first time we met at the Penthouse Hotel in Soi 3. It’s one of those hotels where they pull a curtain around the car and you go straight into the room. The first time we just talked. But the second time he wanted me to…’ She shrugged.
‘He wanted sex with you?’
She nodded.
‘And you were okay with that?’
