“Hi. I’m Adam.” He was Australian.
“How do you do? I’m Ping.”
“Wow! You speak really good English. Really good.”
“Thank you, kind sir.”
“Can I buy you a drink?”
“I have one already, thank you.”
“Can I sit down?”
“Yes, please do.”
“Your English really is fantastic!”
“Yes, you said so already.” She smiled at Adam and he smiled back.
“I would like to go with you.”
“Where to?”
“Anywhere.”
“You mean you want to have sex with me?”
“Well yes, of course!”
“That’s okay. I would like that to.”
“How much do you charge?”
“I don’t.”
“You don’t charge?”
“No.”
“What’s the catch?”
“There isn’t one. I like you and you like me and we want to have sex. No problem. I have three conditions.”
“Oh God! Not medical conditions?”
Ping laughed. The Aussie man had a sense of humour.
“No. Just conditions to us having sex.”
“Oh! Here comes the catch.”
“No catches. Just conditions.”
“Go on then.”
“One: you wear a condom. Two: you pay for the hotel. I don’t do rooms or short time places. Three: I don’t do anal or oral.”
“Anal or oral, what else is left?”
“Fucking. Oh and you can lick my pussy as much as you like, but just don’t expect oral from me. Those are my conditions.”
“And there is no charge?”
“No.”
“Okay. Let’s go.”
Ping had three or four mid-range hotels that she liked to use, because they were clean and had nice rooms, a good shower and they didn’t ask for any ID. For 500 baht a night they were a bargain. Adam liked the hotel too. He thought it was better than his own - and it was cheaper! He wasted no time in taking his clothes off and then watched Ping as she undressed. She was perfect. She was shaved and her breasts were smaller then he thought they would be, which made her look quite adolescent, but she looked perfect. They showered together and then went to bed. The sex was good and Adam was an attentive lover. They had sex several times in the night in between watching the TV and drinking from the mini bar. They slept in each other’s arms.
Ping’s ringing phone woke them up. It was an old fashioned proper ringing - not music or bleeps or other ‘funny’ noises. It was 7:30am.
Ping sat up in bed and retrieved the phone from her bag. Adam stroked her back as she spoke on the phone. She spoke in Thai. Adam didn’t know what she was saying, but it sounded serious. The conversation went on for several minutes. When she closed the phone she jumped out of bed.
“I have to go to work. Sorry.”
“Was that your pimp?”
Ping laughed.
“I’m not a prostitute.”
“Oh! Sorry. I thought you were. I thought you were just giving me a freebie because you liked me.”
“I do like you. I like sex and I like it uncomplicated. No emotions, just functional. You were very good. Thank you. I really have to go now.”
She had just finished putting on her dress. She would shower when she got home.
“Can I see you again Ping?”
“No, I don’t think so. Having sex with someone on more than one night is an affair. That’s complications and emotions. Thanks again. Goodbye Adam.” She left the room closing the door behind her before Adam could speak.
“Goodbye,” he said to an empty room. He dropped his head back onto the pillow and ran his fingers through his hair.
“What the fuck was that all about?” he said out loud.
~2~
Ping’s apartment was in one of the new buildings that seemed to be springing up on both sides of the Sukhumvit Road. She lived in one just outside Jomtien, about five minutes from Pattaya. The apartment wasn’t very big, but it was big enough, with one bedroom and a bathroom and the sitting room/kitchen. She had a leather recliner, a flat screen TV and a glass top coffee table. The lighting was subtle in the evenings and the apartment was stylish, just like Ping herself. She showered and changed into a cream coloured jacket, skirt just above the knee and a white blouse. She drove to work in her car.
“Good morning Inspector,” said one of the uniformed sergeants when she walked into Bang Lamung Police Station.
“Good morning Sergeant,” replied Ping, with an elegant nod of her head. She headed straight to the CID (Criminal Investigations Department) office and sat at her desk. Lek, the only other female in the office, placed a fresh cup of coffee on the desk in front of her.
“Thanks Lek. Where was the murder?”
“Under the fly-over on Chaloem Phrakiat. That‘s the road that leads down to Bali Hai Pier, south Pattaya.”
“Thanks Lek. I know where Chaloem Phrakiat is.”
Lek smiled and nodded to hide the embarrassment that flashed fleetingly across her face.
“The rest of the team are on their way here now for the briefing, with what we know so far.”
“Thank you Lek. When they arrive tell them to make themselves coffee and wait for me. I‘m going to go to the murder scene. Is Sgt. Dek here?”
“Not yet Ma’am. He is on his way.”
“Tell him to meet me at the scene when he arrives.”
Ping took a quick sip from her coffee and decided to drive along Beach Road and Walking Street to get to the crime scene. It was probably the quickest way at that time in the morning, but even then it was still a twenty minute drive.
Sgt. Yim Dek was 28 years old. He was athletic and had the good looks of a Thai movie star. He was also a good detective. Like all the detectives in the office, he fell in love with Ping as soon as she became the new boss of the CID but, just like all the other men in the office, he quickly realised that he had absolutely no chance of a romance with her. He became her sidekick and he felt honoured to be so. His initial lust for his boss had long ago turned into something else. He admired her skills in detective work and he respected her as his boss. In his own way he loved her, but probably as a brother would love his little sister, even though Ping was a few years older than he was. He had got into more than a few fights protecting her honour when he heard gossip about her sexual exploits with the farang tourists who visited Pattaya. He was sure his boss never knew this, but he did what he could to protect her reputation. She did know and on a few occasions she thought about thanking him, but then thought better of it. She liked Sgt. Dek because he was trust worthy, hard-working and reliable. He had a delicious smile, but it was just a professional relationship. Ping had never had an affair with a Thai man. In fact she had never had sex with a Thai man. She just didn’t want any complications.
The uniformed police had cordoned off the scene as best they could. The body was lying on the wide central reservation under the fly-over, amongst some large speed boats that seemed to have been left there forever. On the left hand side was a Go-Kart racing track and on the right hand side a long line of parked coaches and mini buses nearly blocked the road, in contravention of the ‘No Parking’ signs. A lot of local Thais and several Chinese tourists were taking video and photographs of the body on their smart phones. The police stood around smoking and generally looking menacing in their tight brown uniforms and reflective aviator glasses. Two policemen stood on either side of the road, waving on the traffic. Each had a whistle in their mouth, which they blew constantly, but it didn’t seem to mean anything and certainly had no effect on the slow moving traffic. Ping pulled up onto the central reservation. The nearest
policeman looked at her very shapely thighs as she got out of the car before he threw up a smart salute. She nodded in acknowledgement and surveyed the long line of parked coaches before she went to look at the body.
“Do you know officer, if you wanted to come into Pattaya and park illegally, you would be very hard pushed to find a space!” she commented, without waiting for a reply.
The body was that of a white male. Ping guessed that he was probably about fifty years of age. He was slightly overweight, but generally in good shape, except for the large gaping wound in his neck. He was smartly dressed in a white short sleeved shirt and cream coloured cargo pants, which were both heavily blood stained. He was lying in a huge pool of his own blood, which had now dried into the pavement. A pair of gold-rimmed glasses lay a few feet away from the body. One of his brown loafers had come off, but it didn’t look as if much of a struggle had taken place. His dark wavy hair was stylishly cut and starting to grey at the sides. He had good cheek bones and a strong looking jaw. Ping couldn’t help but think that twenty-four hours ago he would have been a very handsome man. Ping also noted that the third finger, or wedding ring finger, of his left hand had been cut off. There was no sign of it lying around the body. Rigor mortis, the progressive stiffening of the body that occurs several hours after death as a result of the coagulation of protein in the muscles, was well established. Ping guessed that he had probably been dead for about ten hours, which would put the time of death at around 11:30pm the previous evening. There would have been people around at that time and certainly a lot of traffic passing.
“Any witnesses?” Ping asked of one of the policemen standing near her.
“No ma’am.”
“Who found the body?”
“One of the coach drivers.”
Sgt. Yim Dek arrived at the scene, along with the forensic team and a police photographer. The local press had already arrived. Yim gave Ping a courteous wai and she returned it before they spoke.
“I’m going back to the office. I need you to manage the crime scene please, Sergeant. The only witness we have at the moment is the bus driver who found the body. After forensic have finished I need you to search the body and see if he has any ID on him. Oh, and arrange for a quick post-mortem please. At the moment we have nothing except an unidentified murder victim. I’m going to set up the murder room.”
“Yes ma’am.” Yim nodded and smiled. He was a good man to have on the team. He was always smartly dressed in neatly pressed trousers, white shirt and neck tie. He was professional and thorough and had never once let his boss down. Yim was exceedingly handsome, but both his eyebrows went up in the middle, just above his nose. He also had frown lines in his forehead and this gave him a permanent confused or puzzled expression. An unfortunate look for a police detective! The only time the frown disappeared was when he smiled. Fortunately he did this a lot.
The murder squad room was purposely designed as such. It was big enough to brief a team of forty or more detectives if required. It was bright and airy and equipped with computers and an overhead projector. It had its own telephone line so that the detectives working on the murder case wouldn’t be troubled with any other phone calls about other CID business. There were plenty of marker boards, notice boards and wall space to display anything that was relevant to display. It had a special section set aside for the Exhibits Officer, whose job it was to receive and log every exhibit. He, or she, would have to record the details of the detective who seized the exhibit, the time and date and location of where it was seized and the reason it was seized. He would also be responsible for making sure that the exhibit was assigned an exhibit reference number and that the exhibit was marked and labeled. In police circles this was usually called ’bagged and tagged’. The exhibits officer had to make sure that each exhibit label was signed and dated by the officer who found the exhibit and every officer after that who handled the exhibit. Besides signing the exhibit label each officer would also have to write and sign a statement to ensure the continuity and integrity of the exhibit, so that it would be difficult for some hot-shot defence lawyer to get the exhibit evidence kicked out as inadmissible because of some technicality. The exhibit officer’s own evidence statement would have to include the fact that he had that responsibility and kept the log, which itself would become an exhibit. He would also have to include in his statement every single exhibit that he received and all the relevant details and include every time the exhibit was signed in or out to one of the detectives. The exhibit officer’s statement would always be the longest statement of any murder enquiry and would be hundreds of pages long. It was a vital role, but a tedious one, and no detective would ever want to volunteer for the job. It always had to be assigned to whoever was unlucky enough to have their turn this time! The murder room also had a fully equipped admin. section with civilian support staff. The room was always ready to swing into action immediately, but at the start of any murder enquiry it was always clean and tidy and slow, until the ‘actions’ started to get churned out. An ‘action’ was a job, or task, or enquiry that needed to be completed by a detective. It was the job of the OIC (Officer in Charge) to write out what actions needed to be done to solve the murder. In this case that was Ping’s job. The action would be written out in triplicate and another log kept of who the action had been assigned to.
An action could be as simple as ‘Attend the victim’s post-mortem’ or ‘Notify the victim’s next of kin’. The more exciting actions from a detective’s point of view were the TIE actions. TIE was an acronym for Trace, Identify and Eliminate from the enquiry. An action would read something like ‘TIE the white male wearing jeans seen at 8.00pm in Walking Street’. TIE actions weren’t always easy, but they were usually the ones that would lead to the killer. Although it was the OIC’s job to write the actions, they didn’t actually do it themselves. Otherwise they would do nothing else! They would assign some of the civilian staff to write them out at their dictate. Very often the dictate would be assigned to one of the detective sergeants. In this case it was going to be Sgt. Dek.
The team of detectives that had been pulled onto the enquiry from various police stations would make up the murder squad. In this case there were twenty of them, but that number could rise or fall depending on requirements. The murder squad room was starting to fill up with detectives, drinking water or coffee, and waiting for the initial briefing. The efficient air conditioning unit was keeping them cool. There was a buzz about the place, but there always was when a new murder case came in. Ping waited in her office for Yim to return before she addressed the squad. An hour later Yim was back at the station. He went into Ping’s office carrying several exhibit bags, which contained the personal affects that were found on the victim’s body, but she stopped him from updating her by raising an elegant hand just as he was about to speak.
“Save it, Sergeant. You can brief the squad with what you have so far. There is no need for you to tell me separately.”
“Yes ma’am.” Yim followed her along the yellow painted corridor to the murder squad room. The room fell into orderly silence as the detectives and support staff stopped talking and sat down as Ping and Yim walked in. They both wai’d the squad members as they entered and everyone returned the courtesy. They walked to the large desk at the front of the room. This was going to be Ping’s operations desk until the murder was solved. She would be spending many long lonely hours at it over the coming weeks - she had no doubt about that. It was always the case when the case was murder!
“Good morning ladies and gentlemen.” She checked her watch to make sure it was still morning. It was.
“I’m Detective Inspector Ping Deechai and I’m the OIC. This is Detective Sgt. Yim Dek. He is my second in command.”
Yim nodded and smiled as all eyes in the room flashed to him before returning to Ping.
“I think I know most of you. I don’t believe in making a big spee
ch about what I expect from you. You are all good detectives. If you weren’t then you wouldn’t have been pulled onto the squad. From this moment and until the case is solved we are a team. Everyone will have ideas and opinions, so don’t be afraid to speak up today or in the coming weeks. I value your thoughts in what will always be a team effort. If anyone at any stage has any problems, either personally or professionally, then don’t hesitate to come and speak to me. We will be working long hours and I know most of you also have a home life and I don’t want to be blamed for ruining it.”
There was a chuckle that spread around the room. The squad relaxed. Ping had made a good first impression for the detectives who didn’t already know her. Already they had decided that they liked their new boss for at least the next few weeks.
“I’m going to hand you over to Sgt. Dek, who has just come back from the murder scene and he is going to brief us all on what we have so far.”
There was general shuffling and murmurs around the room as everyone in the room opened note pads, recovered pens from pockets, twisted or clicked tops and poised them ready to make notes. Every single one of these note pads would also have to be logged and listed and submitted as ‘unused material’ in the final case file. The room fell silent again and Ping nodded to Yim, who now stood up to address the room full of detectives. He cleared his throat even though he really didn’t have to. The detectives in the room who hadn’t met Yim before thought that he looked a bit puzzled and confused. They weren’t so confident that he would be a very good deputy to the inspector. But they all soon changed their minds after hearing his briefing.
Thai Shorts Page 10