She nodded again. ‘He gave me five thousand baht the first time. And he said he’d buy me a BlackBerry. And an electronic dictionary that I needed.’
‘And he did?’
‘He bought me lots of things,’ she said. ‘Clothes. Handbags. A Sony computer.’
‘And didn’t your parents ask where all this stuff was coming from?’
She shook her head.
‘But the money? They must have known that you had money? Didn’t they want to know where it came from?’
‘My dad gave me pocket money.’
I ran a hand through my hair. Sometimes kids confused the hell out of me. ‘If you had pocket money from your father, why did you sell yourself?’
She shook her head. ‘I wasn’t selling myself,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t like that. Men gave me money and I made them happy.’ She looked me in the eyes. ‘What’s wrong with that?’
I didn’t know what to say to her.
‘Better to earn something myself than to take it from my father,’ she said.
‘I suppose so,’ I said. I didn’t agree with her for one second but I doubted that she would listen to anything I had to say.
She looked at her watch. It was a Rolex and I knew without asking how she’d earned it. ‘I have to go,’ she said.
‘Just one more thing,’ I said. ‘Tukkata. Did she do the same thing? Did she visit the same website? Did she go with men for money?’
Kai laughed out loud and then covered her mouth with her hand. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Tukkata would never do that.’
‘Why did she run away, Kai?’
She tensed and I could tell that she was about to lie to me.
‘I know she ran away, Kai. I know she left her family. Why, Kai? Why did she run away?’
Kai shook her head.
‘You told her what you did, didn’t you? You told her that you went with men for money?’
She nodded. ‘I showed her the chat room but she said I was crazy.’
‘Did you ask her to do it?’
She nodded enthusiastically. ‘I told her it was an easy way to get money but she said she couldn’t do it.’
‘So why did she run away?’
A look of guilt flashed across her face and I knew that there was something she wasn’t telling me.
‘I need to know that she’s all right,’ I said.
‘She’s fine,’ said Kai.
‘How do you know? Did she tell you that she was running away?’
She looked down, avoiding my gaze. ‘Yes,’ she said.
‘With Khun Jon?’
‘I think so, yes. She didn’t say his name but she said she was going with a friend.’
I sighed.
Finally, I was getting to the truth.
‘Where did she go, Kai?’
‘I don’t know.’ She looked at her watch again.
‘What was she running away from? From Big Red?’
She shook her head. ‘No. Not him.’
‘Who then? Who was she afraid of? Who was she running from?’
And then I knew.
Before she opened her mouth to speak, I knew.
‘Her father,’ I said, and it was a statement, not a question.
She jerked as if she’d been stung, and then looked at me quizzically. ‘How did you know?’
‘What happened, Kai? You can tell me.’
‘I have to go,’ she said.
‘Tell me what happened.’
She closed her eyes as if she was wishing that I would disappear. ‘I didn’t know it was him, not at first,’ she said.
‘You met him in the chat room?’
She nodded, then slowly opened her eyes. ‘We chatted online and then he called me and we talked. He seemed really nice and he said he’d give me five thousand baht for just one hour so I said that I’d meet him. He booked a room in the Landmark Hotel and told me to meet him there. He wanted me to wear my school uniform. Most of the men do. The lights were off and it was quite dark and he wanted to make love quickly and it was only afterwards when he was showering that I realised who he was. I’d seen him at the school sports day with his wife and Tukkata. And I’d seen him at the English school sometimes, dropping her off.’
‘Did he know that you knew his daughter?’
She shook her head. ‘He asked me what year I was in, that’s all.’
‘So he knew you were fifteen?’
‘He liked it. He said he liked me because I was young. He asked me to call him Daddy while he was making love to me.’
I felt my stomach lurch.
She got up to go but I put my hand on her shoulder and she looked at me, suddenly scared, and I pulled my hand away and apologised.
‘You told Tukkata?’ I asked. ‘You told her that you’d seen her father?’
She nodded. ‘At first she didn’t believe me but her father had asked for my phone number and he kept sending me text messages. I showed her and then she knew that I was telling the truth.’
‘Do you still have the messages on your phone?’
She nodded cautiously.
‘Can I see them?’
She took out her phone and called up her messages, then handed it to me. I read them and my stomach lurched again. Messages from a middle-aged man to an underage schoolgirl. Telling her what he wanted to do with her.
‘Did she talk to her father about this?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘And how soon after she saw the messages did she leave?’
‘A couple of days.’ She held out her hand. ‘Can I have my phone back, please?’
I scrolled back through the text messages. I stopped when I saw one from Tukkata. I opened the message.
‘I’m okay,’ it said. ‘Don’t worry.’
The message had been sent three days ago. I looked at the number. It was the number that Jon Junior had called.
‘Please, can I have my phone back,’ she said.
I gave it to her.
‘I have to go,’ she said. She stood up and hurried away.
I watched her walk away with her friends.
Now I understood everything.
But I was still no closer to finding Jon Junior.
As I walked over to the Hummer my phone rang. It was John Muller, apologising for not calling me back sooner.
‘Where are you, Bob?’ asked Muller. ‘Word on the grapevine is that you were shot by a jealous husband.’
‘I’m hanging around outside a school,’ I said. ‘Which is what got me shot in the first place.’
‘Are you serious?’
