The Thai Dragon

by Lilburne, Guy

  “This knife is different from the rest” said Danny.

  “I don’t think so. I think it might just be the lighting in here.”

  “No. This handle is green. The rest are more of a blue colour. This is a boning knife, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t really know. I leave all that to the chefs.”

  “I would like to talk to the chefs” said Danny.

  “What about?”

  “I want to know why this knife is different and I want to know where the original one is.”

  “Oh! I remember now. The original knife was lost, probably thrown away with the rubbish. It happens a lot. Things get knocked into bins and then they get emptied into the waste.”

  “Who reported the knife lost?”

  “Nobody reported it. It was just noticed over a period of time and then I think I just replaced it one day.”

  “In April. Right?”

  “No. Before then.”

  “When?”

  “I can’t remember, but it was sometime before April.”

  “Just out of interest, where were you at 2:10 am on Wednesday 8th April? That’s the time Sarah Appleby was murdered.”

  “Well, in that case, I can relax Detective. I have an alibi for that night.”

  “I’d be delighted to hear it then.”

  “I attended a function at the Holiday Inn. It’s an annual event. A party for bar and restaurant owners and their staff. It’s usually held the week before Songkran. A lot of restaurants and bars close especially to attend the function.”

  “Songkran?”

  “The Thai New Year.”

  “So you were at a function?”

  “Yes. In the Taksina Room at the Holiday Inn, with about 200 other people and the function goes on until 3:00am. So I think I have a good alibi. Anyway, you already have your killer.”

  “Yes, of course. Give me some names.”

  “What?”

  “Give me some names. Give me just one name if you like. Name a person who will tell me that they were with you at this function at 2:10am.”

  “I am surprised that you don’t trust me Detective.”

  “Are you now?”

  “Actually, as I remember, I was with a couple of girls that night at that time. We had left the function at 2:00am and I took them to their apartment. We had been dancing all night and decided to have a threesome, but I think they were too drunk. I did not want to take advantage, so I just dropped them off at their apartment in Karon Beach, about 10 minutes’ drive from the Holiday Inn. By the time I dropped them off and got back into Patong it was already about 2:30am, because we had a kiss and a cuddle in the car.”

  “All three of you?”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “All three of you were having a kiss and a cuddle in the car? You and the two girls?”

  “Yes.”

  “Both of them were kissing you?”

  “Yes.”

  “At the same time?”

  “Yes” Sakda stuttered and hesitated. “Well, we were planning on having a threesome, so, as you can imagine, it was getting pretty hot and steamy in the car.”

  “But after kissing you they both changed their minds?”

  “I told you Detective, they were too tired.”

  “Who are these girls?”

  “They work at the Tiger Bar. They are twins. Noy and Wan. You can’t miss them. They were very drunk, but I’m sure they will remember me taking them home.”

  “That’s grand. We’ll go and have a chat to Noy and Wan.”

  Sakda had walked them back to the front of the bar.

  “Is there anything else that I can help you with Detective?”

  “Yes, I take it that you were wearing a suit on the night of this ‘Function’?”

  Sakda thought for a moment before he answered.

  “No. It was a casual dress function, as I remember. Now, if that is all Detective, I have a business to run. I have an estranged wife, a Mercedes and a Rolex and they all need paying for.”

  Danny glanced at the heavy gold Rolex on his wrist.

  “Jesus! I thought it was a copy.”

  “No. This was the first luxury item I ever bought for myself, five years ago. It cost me £80,000.”

  “Good for you.”

  Danny and Ying thanked him for his time and walked out into the hot sunshine.

  “What do you think Danny?” asked Ying.

  “He’s lying through his fecking teeth.”

  Chapter 31 The Alibi.

  The Holiday Inn was a big five star hotel complex that took up a huge patch of real estate between Rat-U-Thit Road and the Beach Road. The Danish born general manager delighted in showing the officers around the place, before he took them to show them the Taksina Function Room. He confirmed that there was a function booked on the night of Tuesday 7th April and also confirmed that it went on until 3:00am on the morning of Wednesday 8th. The manager told them that it was a formal black tie event.

  “So they were all wearing suits, were they?”

  “Yes. And the ladies would have been wearing evening gowns.”

  “Would you still have any of the CCTV from the security cameras now?”

  “No. Not now. But we have the photo album, if that is any good?”

  “What photo album?”

  “We had the hotel photographer take portrait photos of the guests as they entered. He also roamed around during the evening taking group photos and photos of couples. You know the sort of thing? Guests can order copies if they want to. Would you like to see the album?”

  Danny and Ying looked at each other and smiled.

  “Yes please” said Ying

  All the portrait photos were taken as people entered the Function and were taken under a silk banner which read, ‘The 6th Annual Patong Business Dinner and Dance’. A few pages into the album, there was a photo of Sakda in a Dinner Jacket and tie. His name was printed on a gold coloured card underneath the photo.

  “Even in a suit, he’s still an ugly fecker” said Danny.

  Ying kept looking through the album and found a photo of the twins, Noy and Wan. Sakda was not on any of the group of couple photos taken during the evening.

  They decided not to go to the Tiger Bar until after dark, because there would be more chance of the twins being there. They went to one of the restaurants along the Beach Road and had some food. Ying got a phone call. It was the forensic department confirming that the DNA samples that they had taken from Sir Anthony Armstrong, Brad and Prawat were all a positive match for sperm found in the anus and vagina of Sarah Appleby. They had all had sex with her in the 24 hours before she died.

  The Tiger Bar was a popular restaurant and pool hall. It was already busy when Danny and Ying walked in, a little after eight o’clock. They recognised the twins as they walked to the bar and asked permission from the ‘Boss’ to speak to them. They were taken into a little staff room and the twins were brought into them. They looked very concerned, but Ying chatted to them in Thai, explaining the reason for the visit and the twins burst out laughing as one.

  “He say we want threesome?” They laughed again.

  “He very ugly man. We don’t like, but he give us lift home, no problem. We not very drunk, just pretend to get lift to Karon Beach. When he try to kiss us in car we run away laughing.”

  “Did he take you home at 2:00am?” asked Ying.

  “No. He take us at 1:30am.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes positive. We were in our apartment at 1:45am.”

  “What did he say to you. Anything?”

  “Yes. No Nose very angry, say we trick him, pretending to be drunk. We say even with drunk lady he have no chance and we
run away to apartment. He drive off very fast, make big skid.”

  They took statements off the twins and headed back to the apartment. They stopped to buy some barbequed chicken and rice from one of the street vendors on the way back, and ate it out on the balcony back at the apartment.

  “What do you think now, Danny?”

  “I know he did it Ying. He went out to the function in his suit. He tried to get into the girls pants, because he thought that they were drunk and he’d be able to. When they tell him to feck off he goes back to his own restaurant, picks up the Boning knife from the kitchen and then goes to the apartment. Prawat sees him, because he knows that he was wearing a suit. But there is no forced entry so maybe they let him in. But how did he know Sarah? Jesus! Don’t tell me he was another of her lovers? I just can’t see it, somehow.”

  “Prawat panics or is scared of No Nose and runs off, leaving Sarah alone with No Nose. They start to argue about something, maybe that she was with another man, and he loses his temper and kills her in a frenzied attack” continued Ying.

  “Yes. But why take the knife in the first place? Unless he had already decided to do it before he even got there? We need to talk to Prawat again, tell him we know that he didn’t do it and see if he will speak to us this time and tell us what the feck went on that night.”

  “I don’t think that No Nose was one of Sarah’s lovers Danny. If he was his photo would be on her computer and it’s not. Maybe he wanted to be one of her lovers and went with the knife to frighten her into it?”

  “Ying, you are brilliant” laughed Danny.

  Ying smiled and flashed her eyes at him.

  “Are we going to have a shower?” she asked.

  “Go ahead. I want to finish this cigarette.”

  Chapter 32 Phuket Provincial Prison.

  Ying drove to the prison in Phuket and it rained all the way there. The huge white building was easily recognizable as the prison. Ying had spent the morning explaining all the new evidence to Colonel Wattana before he would authorize the prison visit. At first he was reluctant to have Danny and Ying investigate the case any further, but Ying massaged his ego. He started to dream up his own news headlines, making him into a ‘Far Sighted Hero’ leaving ‘no stone unturned’ and he sanctioned the visit and insisted on an early update.

  The detectives waited in a tidy, but tiny, interview room and Prawat was brought into them. Prawat immediately wai’d to the officers and a quick nervous smile flashed across his face.

  “Sit down Prawat. How are you? Alright?”

  “Yes, thank you, Sir.”

  “Do you want to tell me anything else about the Sarah Appleby murder, now that you have been charged?”

  “I have no comment to make.”

  “Are you fucking mad?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Prawat, I know that you did not do it. Why on earth are you not talking to me about it?”

  “How do you know I did not do it?”

  “Because I found the man in the fecking suit.”

  Prawat started to cry and wai’d to Danny again.

  “Oh! Thank you. Thank you.”

  “Why won’t you tell me about it?”

  “Because I didn’t think you would ever find such a man and I was already found guilty by everyone. Even my own wife thinks that I am a murderer. What was the point of speaking about it?”

  “Because you would have made my job a lot easier. That’s why.”

  “Only guilty men go ‘No Comment’” said Ying, wagging a finger in pretend annoyance.

  “Really, you have found the man in the suit?”

  “Yes Prawat. We have found him.”

  “Has he confessed the truth now?”

  “No. Not yet. That’s why we are here to see you. You need to tell us everything you can about that night.”

  “You already know everything. You told me what had happened. You know everything, except that you are wrong when you said that I had killed her.”

  “Well, you tell me what happened, then.”

  “I was having an affair with Sarah. You were right about that. I met her in one of the clubs and I used to supply her drugs to her. She thought that I was cute and one night she made me make love to her outside the club in some bushes. She was just amazing. I started going to her apartment every Tuesday, just like you said. I’d deliver drugs and I’d buy her things from the shop and we would party and make love. She would always take lots of photos. It scared me at first, but she was a wild sort of person. She could never be tamed. I think I fell in love with her. I still loved my wife. I still do, but it was a different kind of love with Sarah. That night I went to see her, as usual, and we made love, as usual, and at 2:10am I was leaving. We were standing in her doorway and kissing goodnight. She was only dressed in a little negligee and suddenly I heard someone step into the hallway from the stairs. I looked around and saw this big Thai man. He was wearing a suit. He was such an ugly scary looking man. He had no nose. It looked like his face had been burned, or something very bad had happened to his face. He just stopped and looked at us and then he said ‘Hello’ to Sarah. He hardly noticed me. He stepped forward and I thought that he was going to hit me or something. I thought that he must be her boyfriend, or her pimp or something. I was scared. I ducked passed him and ran down the stairs. I heard the door slam shut and I just kept on running. When I got home I was in a panic. I was feeling guilty, but not because I had killed anyone. It was just because I had been found out by Sarah’s boyfriend, or whoever he was. I decided that night, as I was riding home, that I would never go near Sarah again. I wanted to make things better with my wife. I wanted to start to be a good husband. The next day I saw it in the news and I read it in the papers. I could not believe it. I knew that all the evidence would point to me being there and I just panicked. When you turned up at my house and my wife started to scream at me, I just decided to say nothing, because I knew that nobody would believe me.”

  “Will you be able to identify the man?”

  “Yes, of course. He haunts my nightmares every night. I think he is the devil.”

  “I need you to make a statement Prawat.”

  “Am I going to be able to go home now?”

  “Not today, but soon. Trust me.”

  “Yes, I already do trust you. I know now why you are the great Detective from Scotland Yard.”

  Chapter 33 Plan for Arrest.

  Ying had talked Danny into going along with her for another meeting with Colonel Wattana, because she knew that the Commander would be reluctant to have No Nose arrested.

  Danny sat in the office with Ying and Colonel Wattana as they spoke quickly in Thai. Danny was always suspicious about people who had oversized offices. The Colonel had medals and certificates displayed all around the walls, with lots of photographs of himself. Danny knew that he was just another ‘Boss’ with an ego bigger than his ability. He was good at weighing people up and he was not wrong in respect of Colonel Wattana.

  On the Colonel’s desk were two sets of photos, both showing attractive women with their children and Colonel Wattana. Later, Danny would ask Ying about the two sets of family photos and Ying would explain to him that this was perfectly normal in Thailand. If a man could afford, he would have a Mai Noi (‘Minor’) or second wife, who would also often have a family with him. He would simply run two homes, provide for two wives and families and divide his time. Danny was more impressed by the Colonel once he heard this.

  Ying brought Danny’s attention back into focus.

  “Danny, Colonel Wattana wants to know how sure you are that No Nose is the Killer?”

  Danny looked at the Colonel and nodded slowly.

  “Tell the Colonel that there is no doubt, and I need to arrest this man.”

  Ying spoke again wit
h the Colonel.

  “The Colonel says that he won’t look good in the press, because he has already announced that you have caught the killer.”

  “Tell the Colonel that he should make another announcement that further evidence has come to light and, as a result, he is going to make a further arrest. Tell him to invite the press along. We’ll go in lots of police cars, lots of flashing lights and uniforms. Arrest him at his restaurant tonight. Make a big splash in the papers, maybe even on TV. We arrest No Nose in front of everyone. The Colonel can do a live interview at the scene, announce that Prawat is innocent and the real killer has now been caught.”

  Ying translated again and Danny saw the Colonel nodding enthusiastically.

  “Yes. The Colonel likes that idea. He will arrange everything for 9:30pm tonight when the Golden Orient is very busy with customers. He’ll invite the press and TV along for the arrest, but won’t tell them where and who is being arrested. They can just follow the police cars. He will arrange for twenty officers to be at the police station tonight for the operation. Well done Danny. He is very happy now.”

  “Jesus Christ Mother of God! I was fecking joking Ying.”

  “Danny, it’s okay. We get to arrest our man and the Colonel gets on TV again. Anyway, it might just shake No Nose up a bit.”

  “Yes. Maybe you are right.”

  They walked out of the police station into bright sunlight, but it was still very humid and once again, as they walked to the car, Danny found his clothes sticking to him. He decided that, if he was going to stay in Thailand much longer, that he would stop wearing a ‘bloody suit’.

  Chapter 34 Under Arrest for the Murder of Sarah Appleby.

  Eight police vehicles, both marked and unmarked, drove in convoy with another six press and TV vehicles in the rain and darkness. The police vehicles had their blue and red lights flashing all the way from Kathu Police HQ to The Golden Orient bar and restaurant. As they pulled up outside, everyone in the bar and restaurant stopped and looked, silent and open mouthed. No Nose stood in the bar and cursed. He turned to the girl behind the bar and told her to ring his solicitor. Colonel Wattana walked up to No Nose with officers each side of him. The TV and press men scrambled behind him. A microphone was thrust under his chin as he started to tell No Nose that he was under arrest for the murder of Sarah Appleby. The customers were mostly Thai, but there were a lot of foreigners too. When the Thai customers started clapping after the arrest was made, the rest of the customers followed the lead. Some even stood up and Colonel Wattana took a bow.