The Next Best Thing

by Wiley Brooks

  Jess nodded her head in quiet agreement.

  “Is it a long drive?”

  “It’ll take the better part of a day to get to Kota Bharu. It’s only about two-hundred miles, but a lot of it is on a narrow road through the mountains. That’s why it will take so long. It’s a pretty easy drive from there down to Kuala Besut where we catch the ferry.”

  “So we’re staying in Kuala Besut tomorrow night?”

  “No. Kota Bharu. Hotels with hot water,” he said with a grin. “It’s pretty close to Kuala Besut, though. We’ll drive down the next morning.”

  They read some more then Jessica told Joey she needed to go downstairs to use the house phone to call her parents. It would be a little after eight in the evening in Seattle.

  “They expect me to check in with them every week or so,” she said. “I’m past due.”

  “You going to tell them about me?”

  “If they ask. My dad won’t but my mom might.”

  “You could tell her I’m a good lay,” Joey joked.

  “Yeah, right. ‘Mom, I met this guy. He really knows how to pleasure me.’”

  “That’s definitely what your mom would want to hear.”

  She grinned, punched him lightly on the arm and headed downstairs.

  Her dad answered the phone on the third ring. He was happy to hear her voice, he said, but it had been too long since her last call.

  “Your mother and I worry about you, Jess. It’s not safe for a young woman to travel by herself. I still don’t understand why you’re doing it. You should have taken Patty with you. You can afford it.”

  “It’s not about affording it, dad. It’s about having some time to sort things out.”

  They chatted some more, then he handed the phone to her mother.

  “Hi sweetie. You having fun?”

  “I really am mom. I’m in the Cameron Highlands right now. It’s beautiful. A mile above sea level.”

  Jessica gave her a rundown on the tea plantations and the strawberry farms and let slip that “we” took a hike to a waterfall and how incredible the jungle was. Her mom, being a mom, picked up on the plural.

  “So, you’re making friends?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s good. I feel better knowing there’s someone around to keep an eye on you.”

  Here we go again, Jessica thought.

  “Mom, I’m thirty-three, not nineteen. What’s that even supposed to mean?”

  “You know, sweetie. Girls look out for one another.”

  “How about guys, mom? Would you like it if a guy was looking out for me?”

  “Is a guy looking out for you?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes, a guy is looking out for me. He’s giving me a private tour of Malaysia.”

  Her mom was silent.

  “You know, mom, I’m past being deflowered. I’ve been married, for Christ’s sake!”

  “I know, honey. It’s just that it hasn’t even been a year since Wallace died. You’re still grieving. That kind of thing can affect your judgment.”

  “My judgment is fine. Can we drop it?”

  “Okay. . . Wait. What’s his name?”

  “Joey.”

  “An American?”

  “North Carolina.”

  “That’s good, honey. I’m sure he’s a nice boy.”

  Jessica said she needed to get off the phone. They said their “I love yous” and “goodbyes.” Jessica hung up and let out an exasperated sigh.

  Her mom had mentioned that she should have brought Patty with her. She had thought about it. She and Patty had been best friends since nursing school. Patty was even maid of honor at her wedding to Wallace. When Jessica found out that Wallace was cheating on her, Patty was the only one she told.

  While Patty didn’t make the trip with her, Jessica, now being rich, had convinced her friend to let her pay for a first-class roundtrip ticket to Singapore. The two were supposed to meet there at the end of the month. Those plans were made long before Jessica met Joey. She hadn’t told Joey that she was supposed to meet up with Patty.

  Things were heating up, though, between her and Joey. As much as she wanted to see Patty, the timing sucked. She decided to call her friend and ask her to delay the trip.

  Patty was thrilled to hear Jessica’s voice.

  “I’m so excited about my trip” were the first words out of her mouth.

  “Well, that’s one reason I’m calling.”

  “Oh. What’s up?”

  Jessica could hear the disappointment in Patty’s voice. It made her feel awful.

  “I met a guy. I wrote you about him. I think I’ll need more time before I want to take a break from him.”

  “Wow! Really? Spill the beans, girl.”

  Jessica told her all about Joey and how totally fucking great he was in bed. That he was only twenty-six. She explained how they met, their weekend getaway to Langkawi and how it led to Joey showing her around Malaysia. She brought Patty up to speed on Joey being born in Malaysia, half British and half Malaysian, but that when he was little, he was adopted by a preacher and his wife from North Carolina.

  “Wait! He’s a preacher’s son?”

  “Yeah. Praise the lord and all.”

  “Seriously, you know what they say about preachers’ sons?”

  “No, but I think you’re going to tell me, right?”

  “Of course!”

  “So, what do they,” she placed emphasis on the word they, “say about preachers’ sons.”

  “Hellions! They’re never what they appear to be.”

  “Well, Joey is a sweet, gentle guy.”

  “There you go! Danger, Will Robinson,” Patty said, repeating the line from the Sixties’ TV show.

  “Patty, I’m not lost in space.”

  “And I’m only kidding. . .Kind of. . .Be careful.”

  They agreed to push her trip back a month. Jessica was sure she’d be ready to move on from Joey by then.

  Jessica returned to the room and found Joey sitting in one of the wingback chairs reading. He looked up and smiled.

  “I take it you told your mom that you’re getting laid every night,” he said.

  “Yeah. I said you had a little dick but that it still felt okay.”

  “Touché!”

  Mason stopped at the Shell station. One of the workers remembered the woman with the red hair, but nothing that shed light on where they might be going. He didn’t really expect that anyone would have heard anything useful, but you have to ask. Mason filled his tank, crossed the street to a KFC for lunch, then headed on to a town at the heart of the Cameron Highlands called Tanah Rata. The driving kept him occupied enough that he never once went to his flask.

  He got there about two-thirty in the afternoon. It was bigger than he had hoped. And more spread out. He wasn’t even sure that they had come here.

  He considered what he should do first. On one hand, he could start visiting hotels. He figured there were at least a dozen that were nice enough to appeal to Jessica if she was going to stay with a Holiday Inn-level place. Scores more if they would settle with a lower-cost, fewer amenities option. Given what he now knew about her finances, he couldn’t see her going with a budget hotel unless Joey insisted. He didn’t think that would happen. Still, a dozen properties spread all over the local map were a lot to cover.

  Maybe, instead of checking the hotels, he should check some of the bigger tourist attractions. A handful that were close in. Tea plantations, a couple big strawberry farms, a temple, an outdoor market and a few other landmarks. He figured that no one would come here without visiting at least one tea plantation and probably a strawberry farm. He decided to check into those first. He’d re-evaluate after that.

  The biggest and best known of the plantations was BOH. It was farther out from the main part of town, but its reputation attracted more visitors. Mason went in with his photos, but no one recognized either Joey or Jessica.

  Next stop was the Big Red Strawberry Fa
rm. Again, no luck, though he did grab some big, ripe juicy strawberries to snack on. The next stop, KHM Strawberries, bore fruit.

  “Yes, yes. Girl with red hair. Very pretty. I remember her,” said a young woman whose nametag identified her as Sophia.

  “When might that have been, darlin’?”

  “Two days ago.”

  “Was she by herself?” Mason asked.

  “No. With a young man. Very much in love,” Sophia softly giggled. “They kissed a lot and stared into each other’s eyes. Very romantic.”

  “Did they happen to say where they were stayin’?”

  “No.”

  He thanked her. His hunch had been right. But were they still there?

  His next stop was another big tea plantation. Bharat Tea Plantation was a little farther out of the main part of town to the south, but closer than BOH was to the north.

  He showed the photos to several workers before one of the fellows remembered them. Again, it was Jessica’s red hair that Ifran recalled. He remembered that she was with someone but didn’t recall whom. When did he see them? Yesterday, Ifran said. He, too, had no idea where the red-haired woman might be staying.

  Mason thought through what he knew. They would have passed BOH and the Big Red Strawberry Farm on the drive in from Ipoh but didn’t stop. He guessed that meant they got a room first, then headed out for some nearby sightseeing.

  He also figured that they likely found a place farther south, making them closer to the Bharat plantation and KHM Strawberries. That limited the hotels some, but there were still at least eight, according to his guidebook, and probably others.

  It was getting dark, so he decided to find himself a room and then check out some restaurants where they might have dinner, if they were still in town.

  He drove to the biggest hotel in the area, the Victoria. He’d check in and start showing the photos to staff. It was a nice hotel and expensive by Malaysian standards. It was a homage to Queen Victoria, whose portrait as a young woman, all four feet eleven inches of her, hung over the reception desk.

  By all accounts, Queen Victoria was a remarkable woman. She became queen at just eighteen when her uncle William IV died. She would rule Britain for sixty years.

  Her legacy stretched far beyond the United Kingdom. She and her husband, Prince Albert, had nine children in a span of just seventeen years. Quite a feat when one considers that Queen Victoria hated being pregnant and refused to nurse any of her children.

  She allowed herself to be almost constantly pregnant for a simple, but dynastic reason. Of her nine children, eight married into foreign royal families. Her children produced royal heirs throughout Europe.

  Mason settled into his room, dug out his guidebooks and plotted his stops. First, he would focus on the Victoria itself, then visit as many restaurants as he could. He pocketed a roll of twenty-dollar bills and set out to do the Q and A of staff and others.

  At 10 p.m., he returned to his room. No one had recognized the people in his photos or seen anyone with red hair.

  The next morning, he would drive from hotel to hotel. That wasn’t what was on his mind, though. Another night brought the prospect – no, the likelihood – of a nightmare of someone else he had killed in the Sam Neua blast. He faced the fear with a glass of Jack. Sometimes two. He didn’t sip them. He gulped them wanting to quickly flood the whiskey’s effects throughout his body.

  Maybe it was the whiskey. Or it could have been the sleeping pills he’d picked up at the pharmacy before leaving Penang. More likely, it was the combination of the two. But he slept straight through until his alarm buzzed at seven the next morning.

  Jess and Joey decided to keep dinner simple their last night in the Camerons, so they walked to a nearby commercial district. They found a sidewalk table along the main drag and ordered fried mee goreng and a plate of spring rolls.

  Sometimes, it’s just a small world. Joey and Jess were finishing up when he locked eyes with someone from his not-too-distant past. Martin, the German he had met on the bus to Mersing with the girls, was walking straight toward him. Martin was one of the few people who could connect him to Amanda.

  Joey’s heart raced. What did Martin, who Joey didn’t like that night in Mersing and even less now, know? There was a glint of recognition in Martin’s eyes. Not a smile, exactly. More a curiosity.

  “Joey!” he said when he reached the table. There was an empty chair at the adjacent table. Martin pulled it out and sat. “I doubted I’d ever see you again.”

  Martin looked at Jessica. “Hello. I’m Martin.”

  Jess reached her hand across the table to shake Martin’s hand. “I’m Jessica. How do you two know one another.”

  “We took a bus from Melaka to Mersing together a couple weeks ago, then hung out in a bar that night.”

  “Is Crystal with you?” Joey asked.

  “Nah. We split on Tioman.”

  “Have you been here in the Cameron Highlands for long?” Jessica asked.

  “Arrived yesterday. I’d been on Perhentian Kecil diving for the past week. Thought I’d head here for a few days to take in the cool mountain air, then make my way to Penang.”

  “We just came from there and we’re headed to Perhentian Kecil from here,” Jessica offered.

  “Kecil is awesome. You’ll love it. Beautiful coral. Sea Turtles. Blacktip sharks – they’re friendly, by the way.”

  Joey didn’t like bumping into Martin. He could spoil things with Jessica if the conversation turned to Amanda. And Joey’s years of not being caught rested somewhat on his never running into anyone who could link him to a murder. But now here was Martin. Perhaps, though, Martin didn’t know.

  That proved wrong with Martin’s next statement.

  “Hey man, did the police talk to you about Amanda?”

  “No. Why would they?”

  “Of fuck, man. You don’t know?”

  “Don’t know what?”

  “Amanda’s dead. Someone murdered her in her bed that very night.”

  “What? Wait. Who’s Amanda?” Jessica asked.

  “A girl we all met on the bus to Mersing a couple weeks ago,” Joey said. “We hung out that night. You’re saying someone killed her?”

  “Slit her neck,” Martin answered. “Pug told me when I stopped back at the hotel after Tioman. Looked like a robbery, except she was naked, so maybe some kinky stuff first. What kind of fuckwad does that? Get’s all romantic, does the nasty with her, then when she’s basking in that afterglow, he slits her goddamn throat so deeply that she bleeds to death. Then and only then, he robs her? I can tell you who does that, a sicko.”

  “Oh my God,” Jessica whispered. “You and she were friends?” she asked Joey.

  “Not really,” he said. “We had just met that day.”

  “True, but you two clearly liked each other.”

  “I don’t know why you’d say that.”

  “Because it was so obvious, man. Amanda was a looker. And Suzy told us on the boat that she had the hots for you. We all kind of laughed when neither of you showed up to cross to Tioman. We figured you stayed at the bar after the rest of us left for a reason.”

  “To watch L.A. Law. We watched the show and I walked her back to the hotel, said goodbye and that was that.” Joey realized he was sounding defensive.

  “Well, you were probably the last person to see her alive. I bet the police want to talk to you.”

  “God, Joey, you could be a suspect.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  “I know,” she said, “but if you were the last person seen with her you can bet the police have their sights on you.”

  “We’ll be in Mersing in a couple weeks. I’ll stop in to the police station then. I’m sure I can clear everything up.”

  Martin, though, wasn’t about to drop it. His eyes became beady as he bore in on Joey.

  “I thought you and Amanda were going to Tioman?”

  “That was the plan, but something came up. I had to leave. I wa
lked her to her hotel after the TV show, said good night and that was the last time I saw her.”

  Before Martin could answer, Jessica turned to Joey.

  “And you didn’t see her the next day to say goodbye? Doesn’t sound like the thoughtful, considerate Joey I know.”

  “Listen Jess. Me and Amanda had just met. It wasn’t like we were a couple or even good friends. When I got back to my room, I had a message. I had to leave. Simple as that.”

  Jess turned back to Martin. “So, what did the police ask you?”

  “Nothing. They never came to Tioman. I guess I could have stopped by the police station when I was back in Mersing, but I didn’t.”

  Martin said Suzy and Crystal might know more. They might have been interviewed.

  “I’m supposed to meet up with Suzy in Penang in a couple weeks,’ he said. “Maybe she and I can compare notes.”

  Joey desperately wanted to change the subject.

  “Where you staying?” Joey asked Martin.

  “At the hostel on the street behind us here. Happy Traveler Hostel. Original name,” Martin said with a smirk.

  “Is it nice?” Jessica asked.

  “Well, it’s a hostel. But it’s fine. I’ve stayed in worse.”

  “Do you have your own room?” she asked.

  “No, but I was the only guy in the room last night. There were a couple girls in the girl’s room.”

  Jess was going to tell Martin that they had a room at the Smokehouse, but it was so much nicer than a dorm room in a hostel that she chose not to.

  “How about you guys? Staying nearby?”

  “Not too close. We have a room in an inn up the street,” Joey offered.

  The conversation lulled. Before long, Martin said his goodbyes but not before staring blankly at Joey. Joey could practically see the German’s mind trying to figure if Joey might have been the one to slash Amanda’s throat. Then, in the same non-committal way he had walked up, Martin stood and left.

  “That was disturbing,” Jess said when Martin was safely away.

  “Yeah,” Joey said, trying to act like he would if he had just found out. “That poor girl. Martin was right. I did like her. She was fun. I can’t believe someone killed her. Why would they do that?”