by Guy Lilburne
“Can we make it legal, or at least hide the evidence? You must be able to do something?”
“No, you have to get Tika back and make things right with her again.”
“Then what am I paying you for? You are supposed to be a good lawyer.
What if Tika never returns? What if nobody ever hears from her again?
What happens then?”
“If she never returns and nobody ever hears from her again, and she never contacts a lawyer to start divorce proceeding……” Jaya pondered his thoughts for a moment. “Then nothing would happen.”
“Well let’s make sure that that is exactly what happens.”
“How do we do that Yuda?”
“Nobody knows where she is. We have to find her before anyone else does and make sure that nobody else will ever find her. Make sure that she never speaks to a lawyer. Make sure that she will never return.”
“And how do we get her to agree to that?”
Yuda laughed out loud before he answered.
“Don’t be stupid Jaya! Dead people never agree to anything. We kill her.”
The words stunned Jaya and it took a few moments for the enormity of it to sink in.
“You are not serious Yuda. You are talking about murder.”
“I am serious and you had better be too. We have too much to lose, not just me Jaya, you too. We will both rot in prison and I can’t do that.
Don’t worry my friend, I’m not going to ask you to kill her. I want to do that myself. But you are in as deep as I am Jaya, so pull your finger out and find that bitch before she ruins both our lives. I will expect your phone call very soon, Don’t make an enemy out of me Jaya. Do we understand each other?”
“Yes Yuda, I understand.”
Jaya was stunned and he was still stunned as Yuda walked out of his office. He knew that Yuda was right and he was in as deep as Yuda. He couldn’t stand the thought of going to prison, but murder was more than he had ever thought Yuda capable of. He took out his prayer mat and prayed for forgiveness, but afterwards he still made some more phone calls to trace Tika. He decided that, once he knew where Tika was, then he could make the decision as to whether or not to tell Yuda. Until then he would just live with his guilty secret.
Chapter 7
Simon opened the patio doors out onto the balcony and went back to lie next to Tika on the bed. Suddenly there was nothing but the sound of the insects, frogs and Gecko lizards all making the noises that they did to fill the night with tropical sound. In the distance a dog barked.
Tika felt very comfortable with Simon. She sensed that he had a good heart and she snuggled up to him under the sheet. He was happy to wrap his arm around her and they lay and watched a Gecko lizard on the ceiling as they talked.
“Tell me about your life Simon,” she whispered.
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything, from when you were a little boy to how you came to search for something in Thailand.”
“Okay……Well I was born an only child to wealthy parents, I guess. My mother inherited a lot of land, which is rented out for people to farm. My father was a doctor, but he died when I was four years old.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry Simon. Do you not remember your papa?”
“Actually I do remember him. He was tall and had a nice looking face. I remember his smile and I remember him picking me up a lot and kissing and cuddling me. He had a nice voice and I remember he loved me. I remember him kissing me and crying, but I can’t remember anything else after that. That’s when he died.”
“What did he die of?”
“Well, he committed suicide by taking an overdose. I didn’t know at the time and it was kept from me for years, but he and my mother were not happy together. I have found out that he was a brilliant doctor. He wasn’t happy at home and he was at work a lot. He had affairs and the marriage was coming to an end. I don’t know what the final straw was that made him take an overdose, but I think that the time I remember him kissing me and crying must have been around the time he did it. Anyway, after that, it was just my mother and me and I had a pretty insular sort of upbringing. I didn’t see much of my mum after that because I was sent away to boarding schools. My mum always wanted me to grow up and be a classical pianist, so I was trained until I was 17 years old. But then I discovered the guitar and Rock & Roll, so I became a rebel and gave up the piano. Actually, I wasn’t so much of a rebel. I stayed on at
University and then medical school and qualified as a doctor.”
“You play the piano now?”
“No, not very much, and never classical. Sometimes I play a little jazz or boogie, but I prefer playing the guitar.”
Simon went on to repeat the story to Tika about how his life fell apart and he started drinking, how his wife left him and the patients in his care died, how he was struck off for being drunk and how he came to Thailand to try and escape from his previous life. When he had finished Tika gently kissed him on the cheek and he felt her tear wet on his face.
“Oh Simon, that’s very sad. I’m very sorry for your sad life.”
“It’s not that sad, but thanks anyway.”
Chapter 8
When Jaya saw the number flashing on his mobile, he dismissed his secretary from his office before answering it. It was his contact in the Police and Jaya knew that it was going to be news about Tika.
“Hello,” he said, picking up a pen to make notes.
Tika was in Phuket: he had the details and date of her flight. She had not taken the return flight. Tika had been careful not to use her credit cards, but phone checks showed that she was making phone calls to her mother from Patong Beach. That was all the information the police officer could get without alerting anyone. Jaya told him that he would leave the cash payment in the usual place at exactly 11:00am, which was in just one hour’s time. Jaya left the money at the appointed place and time and had used the hour to think about what he was going to do, but he had not come to a conclusion. He really did like Tika and her family and he knew that what he had already done to them was unforgivable, but he couldn’t face going to prison. If he told Yuda of Tika’s whereabouts then he wouldn’t have to have any more involvement, and what Yuda did with the information was entirely up to him. Jaya hated Yuda for turning him into the person that he had become, but there was no doubt that Yuda was the man to make all this mess disappear. He walked slowly back to his office, still undecided. The burden of having Tika’s fate in his hands was a heavy one. He knew that he should go to the Police and end all this, but that would certainly mean prison, and for a long time.
He realised that he was sweating, but it wasn’t from the heat of the sun; it was a cold sweat, it was a sweat made from panic.
When he got back to the office he rang Watana, a Thai private detective he knew who lived in Pattaya, but was prepared to travel down to Patong and more importantly would do anything for cash and not ask any questions. He instructed him regarding Tika and they agreed a price for his help. Jaya put the phone down and tried to think what he should do to stop Yuda. It was almost as if he couldn’t stop himself and, even as he was dialling Yuda’s phone number, he hated himself for this gravest betrayal of Tika.
“Yes?” demanded Yuda simply and with his usual aggression.
Jaya sighed, the deepest of sighs, and found it difficult to speak. The words just wouldn’t leave his lips.
“Speak to me.” Yuda’s patience was always on a tight line.
“She’s in Phuket, Thailand, staying somewhere in Patong Beach. I’ve already got someone checking the hotels.”
“Good, very good. Have we still got a contact in Malaysia?”
“Yes.”
“Good work Jaya; get me booked on a flight to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow and get him to collect me at the airport. He can get me
across the border into Thailand. It’s probably better that nobody knows I’m in Thailand. Oh! and Jaya, tell him I will need a gun and transport in Thailand to get me to Phuket. Get it sorted Jaya, and let me know what time you are taking me to the airport tomorrow.”
“Yes, okay Yuda.” He terminated the call and started to make the necessary calls in order to carry out Yuda’s instructions. Even Jaya didn’t realise it, but he was in a state of shock.
Chapter 9
After their night of passion Simon had taken Tika back to her hotel and promised to ring her either later that day or the next day, but he didn’t. Tika waited for his call to come, but it never did. She thought about ringing him, or at least sending him a text, but she thought better of it. She didn’t want to scare him away, but she was missing him and she felt lonely without him.
Tika went to the beach again, but again she was disappointed that Simon was not there. The sky was the deepest blue and the sun was brilliant in the sky, but she couldn’t pretend that she was happy. She was carrying a new sadness in her heart: her heart was aching for Simon. She hadn’t seen Simon since the day they made love at the hotel. She was slightly concerned for Simon. She didn’t think that she had done anything wrong and she couldn’t think of a reason why he should just vanish like this. She didn’t want to leave any messages on his mobile, but she just couldn’t resist. She was missing him.
She tried to relax on the beach and read her book, but she wasn’t reading the words, just staring at the page. She just couldn’t stop thinking about Simon. She couldn’t deny it to herself anymore: she was falling in love with him and, more than anything else in the world, she just needed him to contact her. She wanted to know that he was okay and that she would be seeing him again. The beach just didn’t seem as beautiful anymore without Simon being there with her. She thought about every moment that they had been together. She tried to remember all the things that they had said to each other. She tried to think of anything that she may have said or done to offend him or scare him away. She tried to think of anything that she would change, if she could, that might have made Simon angry or upset with her, but she couldn’t think of anything. She didn’t come to Thailand to fall in love, but that is what had happened to her and now the anxiety of not knowing was tearing her apart. Her short time with Simon had been perfect and the most romantic thing that she had ever experienced and she didn’t want it to be over. She fished out a tissue from her beach bag and wiped away her silent tears.
Chapter 10
Jaya drove Yuda to Jakarta airport in silence and the atmosphere was as black as the limo they were riding in as they made the 30 minute journey along the Soediyatmo Toll Road, 20km northwest of Jakarta, to the airport. Jaya had a lot of trouble trying to get hold of the contact in Malaysia, which had caused a 48 hour delay in arranging the flights and the meeting at Kuala Lumpur Airport. Yuda, of course, blamed Jaya entirely and chose not to speak to him. It suited Jaya not to have to indulge in polite conversation. He was all too aware that he was driving Yuda on the first leg of a journey that was going to lead to the murder of his friend, Tika. Although he knew that he was in too deep to back out now, it still weighed heavily upon him and he was finding it hard to breathe as he slipped deeper into a depression.
Yuda was surprisingly calm, even excited about it. It was the ultimate show of power for him. He had planned it out in his mind many times. He was going to fly to Malaysia, be given a gun and escorted over the border into Thailand and make his way to Phuket. There, he would be met by someone employed by Jaya and be told where Tika was to be located and he was going to kill her. It was only a loose plan, but it had been enough to keep Yuda’s thoughts occupied for the last two days. Yuda wasn’t concerned about fine detail. His favourite part of the plan was the part when he snatches Tika off the street. He didn’t really know how or where yet, but that’s how he imagined it would happen and it became his fantasy. He thought of ways that he could torment her and torture her before he shot her. He wanted her to know that she was going to die at his hands: he wanted her to cry and beg and plead before he finally dispatched her. These thoughts had filled his mind since the moment that he decided he was going to kill her. The power rush had filled him with a feeling of invincibility. He wanted people to fear him; he wanted to be a gangster.
He had taken the company from Tika and her mother and he was going to make sure that nobody would take it away from him.
Outside the airport Jaya retrieved Yuda’s solitary case from the boot of the car and put it on a trolley for him.
“I don’t want any phone calls Jaya. Just send me a text message with the time and place I have to meet your person in Phuket and let’s hope, for both our sakes, that he has managed to find Tika. Has he been paid yet?”
“Everything will be taken care of, don’t worry.”
“I never worry Jaya; you should know that by now.”
Yuda turned and walked into the airport. The flight time between Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur is only an hour and a half and Yuda only had an hour to wait before the flight, so he was expecting to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at around 2:30pm. Even though it was only a short flight he would be crossing a time zone, which meant that it would be 3:30pm in Kuala Lumpur, but he would cross another one going into Thailand and it would revert back an hour to make it the same time as in Jakarta, so he decided that he wasn’t going to bother changing the time on his watch.
He picked up a copy of ‘The Jakarta Post’ and browsed the paper as he waited for his flight.
Yuda didn’t know who the contact in Malaysia was, he just knew that, from time to time, Jaya had paid him to bully and intimidate certain people on behalf of Yuda. This was usually to persuade some of the poorer people in villages in Malaysia to make more payments in respect of the money lending business that Yuda was establishing across parts of Indonesia and Malaysia with the cash that he was skimming off the profits from the publishing company. Yuda didn’t know how the contact was going to make contact: the only thing he knew was that it was going to be at the airport and he was expecting to meet a big man.
When he walked through the airport into arrivals he saw a scruffy looking, skinny little dark haired man holding up a piece of cardboard with his name hand written in black felt tip pen. Yuda assumed that this man was going to take him to the contact. He wasn’t very impressed. He had imagined this scene in his mind many times and he was expecting to be greeted by a big man in a suit. He walked up to him and put his case on the floor in front of the man.
“I am Yuda.”
The man looked him in the eye without emotion and held Yuda’s gaze just long enough to make Yuda uncomfortable.
“I am Farhan.”
“Are you going to take me to meet someone?”
“We talk in the car.”
The man turned and started to walk towards the exit.
“You forgot my case,” said Yuda, trying to exert himself over this skinny man with the cold eyes.
“I didn’t forget it,” he replied and carried on walking towards the glass doors into the bright sunlight.
Yuda picked up the case and followed the man outside, now some ten metres behind him. Yuda would usually have verbally ripped someone apart if they spoke to him the way this man had just done, but there was something scary about this man. He wasn’t skinny, he was lean and toned, his face looked hard and threatening and he looked like he knew no fear. His jet black hair was slightly too long and greased back onto his head and his dark eyes were soulless like a shark. Yuda had already decided that he wasn’t going to shout him down. He followed him through the huge airport parking to a black Nissan pick-up truck. He threw his case into the back and then sat inside next to Farhan. For the first time Yuda was feeling slightly nervous. It wasn’t because of what he was planning to do to Tika: it was this man, Farhan, who was making him nervous. He had an intimidating and menacing presence.
“Are you the contact or are you taking me to someone else now?”
“You ask a lot of questions.”
Farhan started the car and the air conditioning cooled Yuda’s sweating brow. As they drove out of the airport Farhan put an Elvis Presley CD in the player. Yuda found him even scarier when he started to croon along with the ballads. Yuda liked thinking of himself as a gangster and he knew that he could bully people, but this man was wired so differently to anyone he had ever met before. Yuda admired him and was frightened by him all at the same time. They drove for half an hour out of the city before Farhan stopped the truck outside a small shop that seemed to sell everything.
“You wait here,” he told Yuda and Yuda watched him walk into the shop. The old lady sitting on the ground at the front of the shop nodded to him as he went in. A few minutes later he returned to the truck carrying a shoe box. He passed it to Yuda as he got into the vehicle.
“That’s for you.”
Yuda opened the box. Inside was a gun. Yuda felt the rush of excitement race around his body and he could see his own hands shaking as his heart pumped faster. Farhan started the truck and moved off.
“Do you know what it is?” asked Farhan
“It’s a gun”
“You have never shot anyone before have you?”
“No.”
“You have never handled a gun before have you?”
“No.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll show you how it works later. It’s a Browning 9mm high-powered semi-automatic pistol. The magazine carries 13 rounds. It’s fully loaded. There is no spare ammo; nobody needs more than 13 rounds to kill someone.”