“I just need a quick word. Excuse me mate, she’ll be right back.” Danny tugged at Nok’s arm to ease her off the stool, but her customer grabbed Danny’s arm.
“Hey! Twat! Fuck off and get your own girl. Or do as she says and come back tomorrow if you want this one. I already paid for her.”
Danny leaned in towards the man and pushed his face into the man’s and talked in a low tone.
“Take yer fecking hand off me or I promise you, I will rip your fecking arm clean off. I’m going to talk to this girl for a few moments and then you can have her back. Don’t cause me a problem or you will spend the rest of the night picking up yer fecking teeth.”
The man removed his hand and Danny pulled Nok away.
“Danny, what you do no good for me. Make customer angry. He not pay good now.”
“Nok, I just need to speak to you.”
“Where have you been? I miss you very much. I think about you.”
“Well, for the last two weeks I’ve been drunk in my apartment.”
“Where is your ladyboy friend?”
“She’s died two weeks ago. That’s why I’ve been drunk. Listen I need to tell you something. I’m going back to London in the morning, but I wanted to give you something first.”
“You give present for me?”
“Yes, it’s in here.” He handed her the big envelope.
“What is this Danny?”
“It’s a present for you. I remembered that you wanted to save 60,000 baht over the next three years to buy a shop with your Grandpa. Nok, inside that envelope is 120,000 baht (£2,000). It’s for you. It is double what you said you needed for the shop. I don’t want you to do this anymore, so keep it safe and go home and start a new life.”
“You joking me?”
“No. It’s no joke.”
Nok opened the envelope and peeked inside. She shrieked out loud and then put her hand over her mouth as everyone looked around at her.
“Why you do this Danny? I cannot take this money. Too much. Why you try and give me this?”
“I told you, I don’t want you to do this work anymore. You are too nice. Go home and look after Grandpa. Open up your shop.”
Nok threw her arms around Danny and kissed his face.
“I don’t know what to say. I can never thank you for this. This is better than dream for me.”
“Don’t worry. Yer grand.”
Nok shouted over to the older lady behind the bar and shouted out in Thai. The lady nodded and the other girls started clapping Nok.
“That lady is Moon, she own bar. I say her that I retire now, you give me money to go home and buy shop. She give customer his money back now. I no work here anymore. I very happy for me.”
Danny watched Moon take some money out of the till and place it inside one of the red bill wallets. She also opened a bottle of beer and took both items over to the man in the corner. She had a word with him and he shook his head. He took the money out of the wallet and swept the beer off the table. The bottle smashed on the floor and the customer stormed out snarling,
“Fucking whore” he said at Nok as he went past.
Danny went to go after the man, but Nok grabbed his arm.
“Danny, it’s okay. No problem. I no whore anymore. Whore is like the
sea…….”
Danny laughed.
“Yes I know. Some deep, some shallow.”
“Yes, you learn good. You want to sleep with me tonight please?”
“No Nok. You don’t have to do that anymore.”
“Yes I know. But I want. Really, I miss you real. I think about you a lot. I want sleep with you, long time.”
“No. Really, I have a lot to do tonight. I still have to pack and take some things back to the police station. I only came out to see you and give you this.”
“You go home tomorrow real?”
“Yes, I do.”
“I think you come back.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Yes. I sure for real. You come back. I wait for you one year, no have boyfriend and just wait only you. You have no life in England. I sure you come back, so I wait for one year for you.” Nok scribbled down her email, phone number and her home address on a beer mat and handed it to Danny. He slipped it into his pocket.
“Nok, maybe it’s best if you don’t wait for me. I don’t know if I will be coming back.”
“Okay, no problem. I know. The Thai Dragon already breath on you, remember?”
“Yes, I remember” laughed Danny.
“Where you go now?”
“I’m going back to the apartment to pack up my stuff.”
“Can I walk up to the taxi rank with you? I’ll get my bag.”
“Are you coming now?”
“Yes, I retire now. Start new life right now.”
Nok grabbed her bag from behind the bar and wai’d to the Buddha statue above the bar. Moon and the other girls kissed and hugged her and started clapping again as she walked out of the bar linking arms with Danny. They walked to the end of Bangla Road. It was still raining but not as heavy as when he had walked down. They kissed goodbye and Danny watched her waving to him from the back of the tuk-tuk as it disappeared in the traffic.
Chapter 41 Let’s go Home.
The Taxi pulled up below his apartment. Danny flicked the half smoked cigarette up into the air and out over the balcony. He knocked back the last of the brandy from the glass. The sky was as bright blue as he had ever seen it and the sun was hot and bright in the sky.
He only had one suitcase to drag down to the taxi and one last package to drop off at Kathu Police HQ, before the taxi could take him to Phuket airport to catch the flight to Singapore and then onto London.
The taxi driver recognised the ‘Famous Scotland Yard Detective’ as soon as he saw him. There had been a lot on the news and in the papers over the months. The driver beamed a huge smile at Danny and greeted him with a ‘high’ wai. Danny nodded in acknowledgement and the driver took the suitcase from him. Danny kept hold of the package of case papers.
“Hello famous Scottish Detective. My name is Sam. I’m very happy to meet you.”
Danny laughed.
“I’m not Scottish, I’m Irish. I work from Scotland Yard, but I know what you mean. I’m Danny O’Brien. Delighted to meet you.”
Danny offered a hand and Sam was honoured to shake it.
“I take you airport?”
“That’s grand, but I need to drop this off at Kathu Police HQ first. Do you know where it is?”
“Yes, no problem. Can do.”
On the way to the Police HQ Sam stopped the car outside a Seven Eleven shop.
“One moment please.” He dashed out of the car and returned with a newspaper, which he handed to Danny as he got back into the car. Danny saw a photograph of himself looking out from the front page. The headline was ‘Top Detective Back to London’.
“Jesus! How did they know that I was going home today?”
“You sign for me please. My wife no believe I have famous person in taxi.”
“Sure I’ll sign it. What’s your name again?”
“Sam. Everyone say me.”
Danny signed it across the photo ‘To Sam, yer good man yerself, Danny O’Brien’.
Sam spent the rest of the ride to the Police HQ telling Danny all about his wife and baby daughter. Danny wasn’t listening, but watched some places that he recognised flashing past the window as they drove along.
The taxi pulled up outside the front of the HQ and Danny told Sam that he would only be a few minutes. Phong was expecting Danny and was waiting for him to drop off the last of the case papers. Danny went up to the reception desk and a door to the side of it opened. Phon
g came out, followed by a large number of other Police Officers, both uniformed and plain clothed. They clapped Danny as he handed over the package to Phong and the two men shook hands.
A big, bald headed Sergeant pushed forward through the crowd to shake Danny’s hand. Danny saw his name badge ‘Sgt. Wattana’. Danny eyeballed the huge smiling sarge as he offered his hand.
“Jesus! Are you Colonel Wattana’s nephew?”
“Yes, same same. I nephew, he uncle. Goodbye to you.”
Danny breathed a deep sigh and looked up to the ceiling while the sergeant waited to shake hands with him. Danny thrust his head forward with a speed that nobody saw coming and head butted the big man in the face, shattering his nose. The sergeant dropped to the floor like a dead weight.
“That’s for Prawat. You beat up an innocent man half your fecking size. You’re not so fecking brave now, are yer?”
Two or three of the uniformed officers had instinctively drawn their side arms and held them on Danny. He looked at the armed officers. They looked both frightened and excited at the same time.
“Jesus! Yer going to feckng shoot me now, are yer?”
“GO ON THEN, I FECKING DARE YER” he snarled.
Phong had started flapping his arms in a ‘calm down’ motion. Danny turned back towards the entrance and started to walk away. He could hear many excited Thai voices shouting, either at him or at each other.
A single shot cracked in the air. The sound was loud inside the reception. As Danny walked towards the automatic glass doors they slid open and he felt the blast of the hot sun rush in through the open doors. He smiled to himself. He was even getting used to the oppressive tropical heat.
He felt the bullet whiz over his head and saw the plaster above the automatic doors splinter and fly as the bullet smashed into the wall.
“Fecking eejits.” Danny didn’t bother to look back and walked out into the sunshine and got in the taxi. Sam took him to Phuket International Airport.
Epilogue
At the time of writing this, Danny O’Brien has been sober for nearly 48 hours, not including the time difference for travelling back to the UK.
Sakda (No Nose) was executed two weeks later for the murder of Sarah Appleby, and Nok is back in the Surat Thani district of Thailand, running a successful shop business with her Grandpa. Sir Anthony Armstrong committed suicide, but it was announced in the press that he had died of a heart attack. Ying has never left Danny’s side.
About the author
Guy Lilburne has been a Policeman for 30 years and a Detective for the last 27 years. He has worked in CID, Murder Squads, Drugs Squad, Vice Squad, Special Enquiries, and various Crime Squads. He has also worked in a specialist Covert Unit and more recently in a Cold Case Review Squad. He has been writing for over twenty years.
Author of the Best Selling books ‘My Thai Story’ (2010) and the Detective novels ‘The Thai Dragon’ (2010) ‘The Kiss of the Dragon’(July 2011)
Guy Lilburne lives in Thailand. His last blockbuster novel was ‘Cocktails & Dreams’(Oct 2011) another Murder/Detective story set in Thailand. It’s another outing for Ex D/Sgt Danny O’Brien. Guy Lilburne really captures a taste of Thailand and whisks you along at a breath taking pace in the land of smiles.
The author’s latest offering is another Crime thriller with a twist. ‘The Flower Girl’ is the story a murder story but it is also a story about love and hope and finding what it is that makes us happy.
Guy is currently working on three future books;
Graham, Just one shade!. One man’s trials and tribulations in his attempt to find Miss Right.
My Thai story II, is the true story about the authors journey to find a new life in Thailand.
*(Untitled) The 4th Danny O’Brien Detective Story.
The Thai Dragon Page 19