The Second Poison

by Pieter Wilhelm

  A private investigation firm has suggested that between 400,000 and 900,000, largely American and European, investors have lost several hundred million US dollars since 2004. Limited resources and jurisdiction combined with a reluctance on the part of the defrauded investors to come forward make it difficult for law enforcers to pursue these criminal operations.

  Tony

  Maura suggested that we meet that afternoon, and just over forty minutes later I was sitting opposite her in her office. The building housing her office had seen better days. The office was on the fourth floor and only half of the other small office units were occupied. Flanking Maura’s office were a translation agency and an accounting firm. Maura wore hippie-style rings on most of her fingers and didn’t immediately strike me as being your typical lawyer. She was curvaceous and full bosomed and, when she turned to fetch me a cup of coffee, I noticed her fantastic big ass. She showed a lot of cleavage and was wearing a knee-high dress and high heels. As is often is with full-figured women, she was an outgoing and pleasant person. I knew she was a smoker as she had an empty cigarette holder on her desk. She turned out to be very professional and had a file ready and open. As she scanned through it, Maura explained that in just the Kentucky area alone there were dozens of similar cases involving pensioners who had been lured into making bogus investments by overseas investment firms. She added that investment firms in the US had to follow strict guidelines, which meant that bogus firms operated in countries beyond US jurisdiction. The Hong Kong bank account number in her file was the same as the one my father had transferred his money to. From the information she’d gathered in the file, she was able to conclude that a total of about two million dollars had been transferred to the account, just from her clients alone. The Hong Kong bank account was a front; through an investigative journalist’s blog she found that the organization had no presence in Hong Kong and was actually operating from Bangkok.

  Maura had also determined that the Miners Union was the contact the criminals had used to find potential investors. She assumed this had been acquired through a hack into the union’s database, as all the victims known to her were retired miners who’d been persuaded to invest their limited savings by smooth-talking salespeople, only to discover later that their life savings were gone. It was depressing to hear how such unscrupulous people had preyed on hard-working people like my father. Maura told me how she’d tried everything she could but had had no success in finding justice for her clients. I’d been in her office for almost two hours at this point so I asked how much it would be to cover her time. She paused for a moment and suggested that I could buy her dinner and a good bottle of wine. It hadn’t crossed my mind to make advances on Maura, but I immediately warmed to the idea. I promised to find a decent bottle of red and we agreed to meet that evening in my hotel lobby.

  When I returned to the hotel I upgraded to an executive suite. The suite was about four times larger than my previous room, with a sofa in the living area and a large balcony with a dining table. I arranged for room service to take a dinner order once Maura arrived and chose an expensive bottle of wine from the hotel wine list and hoped it would do the trick. I’m not fond of wine so I got a small bottle of cognac for myself. It was great that she was a smoker as I’d only just discovered that the US had become a lot less friendly to smokers during my years of absence. I always carried a small box of cigars for when an opportunity presented itself to smoke one. After living in war zones for years, and having endured a lot of misery since returning home, I was looking forward to spending a pleasant evening with some charming company.

  Maura arrived right on time and we had an aperitif in the lobby before ordering dinner to be brought to the suite. I had expected a healthy woman like Maura to eat a decent portion but she only ordered a small potato salad and a light dessert, which I considered a good sign. I find that women who anticipate sex tend not to eat too much for obvious reasons. The table was already set on the balcony overlooking the hotel garden. These types of hotel chains are very good at preparing and serving uncomplicated food. Maura was pleasant company and she knew how to hold a conversation. She clearly enjoyed drinking and chatting. It felt entirely natural when she said she was going to change into something more comfortable. I waited in anticipation on the balcony with my cigar. When she called me over, she was standing by the bed wearing only high heels, with her long hair loose and covering the top of her ass. It was the most erotic sight I’d laid eyes on for a long time. I felt myself grow hard and reached out to her.

  It was a night to remember. We had a smaller session the following morning before it was time for Maura to leave for the office and for me to check out. We said our goodbyes with the usual promises. Before driving back to Louisville, I popped into the police station to say goodbye to Harry and to thank him for his help.

  I reached Louisville in the late afternoon and checked into the Sheraton Hotel before searching online for a flight to Bangkok. After a few clicks I’d booked a flight with Etihad from Lexington to Bangkok, via Dallas and Abu Dhabi.

  2

  Chapter 2

  Yuth

  My name is Yuth. It’s short for Yuthakon, meaning warrior. I was born in a village not far from Udon Thani, or Udon as we Thais call it. Udon is a small city in Isaan, the north-eastern region of Thailand, not far from the border with Laos. My skin is much lighter than others in my hometown; in part because my mum is a luk kreung, the name we Thais give to those resulting from interracial relationships between a Caucasian and a Thai. Mum is the result of one of the many encounters her own mother had with American servicemen based at the Udon airbase during the Vietnam War.

  Our grandparents welcomed the Americans back then because Thai people were scared of communism reaching the kingdom and many Americans were based at Udon Royal Thai Air-Force Base during the war. Prostitution really took off then as girls from Udon were only too happy to relieve the US servicemen of their dollars. Bars, massage parlours and brothels flourished, with some parts of the small city completely transformed into red-light districts. Nowadays, apart from the bars, there are few reminders of that time in Udon, as many of those adult entertainment venues have been replaced by coffee shops and hotels. Such cities of sin do continue to prosper in other parts of Thailand though, such as Pattaya, which still caters to thousands of sex tourists.

  With such a history, prostitution is more or less accepted in my village; it’s the best way for a good-looking girl to make some serious money. Why would anyone want to work on a farm or in a factory for just a fraction of the money a girl could make in one of the many bars in Bangkok or Pattaya? A smart girl in Pattaya can easily make a few thousand baht a day by entertaining farangs. That is exactly what Mum did when she got fed up with her two hundred baht a day job at the Udon market. This is another reason my skin is so light coloured; it’s history repeating itself because my father is a farang, like my grandfather. Having both a Caucasian father and grandfather, I of course have lighter skin than the average Thai, as well as having green eyes and the same nose as a farang. My Caucasian ancestors must have been quite short because I’m only slightly taller than the average Thai, but I know one or both of them must have had green eyes. For as long as I can remember, my grandma has taken care of me and my younger sister, Nok.

  Nok is the sweetest girl in the world. I love her more than anyone else, even more than Mum and Grandma. She’s mentally retarded, perhaps because during the pregnancy my mum slept with farangs, drank, smoked and took drugs. When she isn’t watching cartoons, Nok hangs around the swamp not far from our home, saving turtles from being flattened by cars. She carries them from one side of the road to the other but, of course, she cannot rescue them all; there are just too many and she cannot be there all the time. When she finds a turtle that’s been run over she’s miserable and can cry for hours while she holds the dead creature. What she loves most is kicking a rattan ball with me and the kids in the village. She gets bullied a lot because of her condition,
so I’m very protective of her. I’m a feminine-looking boy; something I must have inherited from my mum and grandma because they are two of the sweetest women in the world. At primary school the headmaster always had me go to his office during the lunch breaks. At first this was only to suck him off, which was how I got my lunch money as he gave me twenty baht each time. In fourth grade he started fucking me as well. Did it hurt? Yes, sure it did, but not more than when he beat me with a bamboo stick like all the schoolteachers in Udon did. Being raped somehow seemed to be in the same category to me. I was a little disappointed though that the headmaster continued giving me only twenty baht. I thought I deserved more.

  When I was at primary school I thought Mum worked in a hotel. I had no idea she was working in bars in Pattaya. Later I found out about her real job. She used to send money home every month so Grandma could take care of me and Nok. Thanks to Mum, life for me and my sister was good and we never had to suffer the hardships that some of my school friends experienced. Grandma raised us because Mum was always away, either in bars in Pattaya or staying with farangs somewhere. In our village there’s no education after primary school, and my classmates went to work on family farms or in nearby Udon. I wanted to be the one earning for our family. Grandma was getting older and I wanted my mum to stay at home and take care of Nok.

  Grandma talked with my Uncle Muk, the police chief in Udon. He arranged a job for me as a kitchen boy at the Emerald Hotel in downtown Udon. I washed dishes, pots and pans, mopped floors and polished cutlery. After a year I was promoted and started working as a bellboy, helping guests with their luggage and delivering room-service requests for food and drinks. This job got me small tips varying from twenty to one hundred baht, and soon the tips exceeded my monthly two thousand-baht salary. If guests asked, I would arrange for girls to entertain them. I knew most of the freelance girls in Udon and they always gave me a hundred baht or more if I hooked them up with a farang. One day a guest asked me to stay with him in his room, and that’s how I started prostituting myself. After that, if I suspected a hotel guest was gay, I would smile and flirt with him a bit. Sometimes they offered me a thousand baht or more to stay with them overnight.

  After being beaten up and raped by my school headmaster for just twenty baht, I was getting half a month’s salary in just one night at the hotel. Soon my night-time activities overtook my day job. For the first time in my life I could afford to go out for a drink with my friends. There has never been much amusement in Udon besides drinking, smoking ganja and chasing girls, as well as gambling on illegal Muay Thai fights. Groups have always gathered in parking garages and under bridges to watch and gamble on these fights.

  Participating in illegal Muay Thai fights contravenes Thailand’s Boxing Act and can be punished with a hefty fine or jail. Of course, this is no problem in Udon as all the fights are organized by Uncle Muk, Udon’s police chief.

  The old shopping mall in Udon has deteriorated quite a bit since the new Central shopping mall opened. Now the old mall mainly houses second-hand computer shops, repair shops and second-hand smartphone sellers. The upper floors are deserted as no one wants to rent them. There are regular illegal Muay Thai fights in the car park on the roof. It’s a perfect location. Car headlights are used to light up the five three-minute rounds. The fights are held after the mall closes and the guards get paid to turn a blind eye.

  They can also make some extra money from charging the onlookers parked in the garage below. I love to see a good fight and watch whenever I can. When there are no fights my friends and I gather there to play cards, drink Lao Kao and smoke ganja.

  Muk

  I’m Muk and I run the police force here in Udon, at least as far as you can call it a police force. Our station only has two pickup trucks and ten officers that patrol on motorbikes. Whenever I’m sitting in the station, about five of my ten officers will be patrolling the streets on motorbikes at any given time. Here in Udon we don’t require much when recruiting new officers; you just need to have a motorbike and be able to buy your own gun. Besides that, the only thing we expect is that you’re not a complete idiot and you know how to handle yourself in a difficult situation.

  As police chief I earn twenty-five thousand baht a month, which isn’t a bad salary in Udon where the baht goes much further than in Bangkok. But things aren’t so easy for a street cop. How is an honest cop supposed to keep his family going on just six thousand baht a month? After paying for school and the groceries, there’s not much left, and kids these days have a lot of demands. They all expect to have fancy clothing and the latest Samsung or iPhone. Luckily, the cops can scrape a little extra money together by fining motorcyclists for things like speeding or not wearing a helmet.

  Even so, life is not a bed of roses for a street cop in Udon. I know that very well because I patrolled the streets here myself for about fifteen years. My luck changed when my predecessor got caught with his pants down – in bed with an underage girl. He had to do a runner after the girl’s father set fire to his car and threatened to do the same to his house. Daddies here don’t give a fuck who you are if you fuck up the sinsot (dowry) they expect to receive for their daughter. Also, I can tell you there isn’t much sinsot offered for non-virgin daughters. Anyway, I borrowed some money from a loan shark as well as from my sister, who works in Pattaya, to make him sign the job over to me, leaving him with enough cash to get away. The rest is history. Now I’m the operator running the Muay Thai fights here in Udon. That means I handle all the bets, pay the fighters and, of course, keep a decent chunk of the money for myself. It’s a great venture. Thais always receive their salary on the last working day of the month, which we call sinduan. It doesn’t matter if you work in a bank or a factory or wherever else, everyone gets paid on the same day. The fights are always on sinduan when people have money to burn. They enjoy betting a little on a fight. I invite some fighters down every month. They’re mostly from Udon province or neighbouring provinces, but we occasionally get some in from nearby Laos. Business has been good ever since I took over from my predecessor. Not long ago an old schoolmate who works as a guard at Klong Prem prison invited me to see a prison fight match. I happily accepted the invitation.

  Bangkok is a great place for enjoyment and relaxation. It’s far enough away from home for me to enjoy the sins I must refrain from in Udon; we are all bad boys! You know what I’m talking about. Klong Prem prison fights are part of a state-sponsored rehab programme, in which inmates who win five rounds in a row can get their sentences knocked down by six years or so. That might sound unbelievable, but I’m not bullshitting. For the inmates it’s like a free get-out-of-jail card. It apparently originates from a time when, after capture by the Burmese army, soldiers could win their freedom by fighting. It’s a great opportunity for me to meet other Muay Thai operators and it’s essential for us to exchange fighters for our own fights. This time a Thai beat the shit out of a British guy. The Thai was doing time for murder. His name was Ma, which means dog. But in the ring he was more like a tiger and managed to earn his release six years early. Soon he would be out and on his way back home to Nong Khai, a thirty-minute drive from Udon. I immediately decided that I wanted this guy to fight in Udon so I sent my friend to find out if Ma would be interested in making some extra money. I was glad to hear that he was keen to come for a few fights in Udon after his release.

  Nok’s rape hit the community hard. It took us a while to piece together my niece’s movements that fateful day. It all began with a game of Takraw. Takraw is a very popular sport in Udon and throughout Thailand. This game, similar to volleyball, is played with a rattan ball, but players can only use their feet, knees, chest and head to hit the ball.

  On the day of Ma’s fight, Nok left our house in the afternoon and walked to the park behind the temple as she often did, to watch a takraw game. A lot of boys were already in the park, either watching or participating in an informal takraw practice. One of the older boys came over to Nok and asked her to go with him t
o his house, which was close to our village. After initially refusing, she agreed when she was told that the boy’s brother had some ganja and Lao Kao, a homemade spirit. He put his arm around Nok and escorted her to his motorbike. When they reached the house his brother was already there, drunk and high on ganja. Nok was given some Lao Kao to drink and made to swallow some yabaa tablets (a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine). Once the alcohol and drugs had kicked in, the boys removed her shirt and panties. Nok was orally raped first and then forced to bend over, with the boys taking turns to vaginally penetrate her. Nok cried and begged them to stop, but they just laughed and continued and then beat her with wooden sticks. They gave her more liquor and yabaa after it was over and left her unconscious.

  3

  Chapter 3

  Yuth

  When Nok failed to return home, Grandma went out to look for her. Then a search party was called after dark with most of the villagers joining in. First they searched the village itself, but finding no trace of her the search party moved to the fields surrounding the village. There was a breakthrough when a Buddhist monk told them he remembered seeing Nok watching the takraw game before leaving on the back of a motorbike. When the takraw players were questioned, one recalled seeing Nok take off with an older boy. He knew that the older boy lived in a wooden house on stilts on the outskirts of the village, so the search party went there to look for her. As soon as they arrived they heard sobbing sounds coming from some bushes near the house. There they found Nok covered in bruises and bleeding from her vagina. The rapists were nowhere to be seen.