She was on her knees, panting.
The man on the beach walked slowly toward her. He was young and dark-skinned with long hair and a scrappy beard. He wore a torn and faded Bob Marley T-shirt.
The other two men waded out of the water, hanging back.
The young man stood over her.
He smelled of fish and weed.
She looked up at him through her hair.
He said something to her in Thai.
When she shook her head he unzipped the bag at his belt and produced a knife.
The long blade gleamed silver.
He reached for her and she cringed, folding in on herself.
He hunkered down and took her hands very gently and cut the zip tie.
A second man, older, with a face as furrowed as eroded earth, reached them.
He broke the seal on a plastic bottle of water and held it out to her.
She drank and coughed and drank more.
The sun floated free of a cliff and hit the beach like a blowtorch.
The older man said something and they lifted Caroline and carried her toward the trees.
The third man spoke on a cell phone.
Caroline could hear the word farang repeated over and over.
They laid her on her back in the shade and she tried to hold on but the world slid away from her.
94
Caroline lay in a bed in a private room at the Bangkok Hospital Phuket. She had a view of a massive white Buddha atop a distant hill washed with warm afternoon sun.
She was on a drip and her head was bandaged. She had been bathed and was dressed in a clean smock and new cotton underwear. She’d managed to eat a little and her hand shook only slightly when she lifted a glass of water to her mouth.
Earlier she’d been taken downstairs for a CT scan. After a few minutes in the tube, she’d been helped back into the wheelchair and returned to her room.
She’d used the phone in the room to call Michael’s cell and had reached his voicemail.
A nurse and a doctor came in. The nurse was middle-aged, in a lilac tunic, wearing sensible white shoes The doctor was young, with a fashionable haircut. She tottered around on a pair of improbably high heels.
The doctor read Caroline’s chart and looked in her eyes and ears and listened to her heart.
“How you feel, Mrs. Tate?”
“Much better, thank you.”
“Headache?”
“Only a little.”
“I get result CT scan. You have small concussion. Not bad. Just stay one night to observe. And you were dehydrated. Better already.” She touched Caroline’s swollen eye. “Eye be normal in maybe two day. No injury. Only superficial.”
“Thank you,” Caroline said. “I haven’t been able to reach my husband. Has he been notified that I’m here?”
The doctor shook her head. “Maybe to ask police. They are here. You are fine to see?”
“Yes. I need to speak to them.”
The two women left the room and a minute later there was a tap at the door.
“Come in,” Caroline said.
Captain Vee entered, dressed in jeans and a blue T-shirt. She was followed by Tin, looking like he’d just removed a staple from his middle and stepped out of GQ.
“Caroline,” Tin said.
“Do I need a lawyer, Tin?”
He waved a hand. “No, no. Not at all. I’m just here to help with translating, if you’re okay with that?”
“Yes, of course. I appreciate you being here.”
“I hope you’re up to this?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“You remember Captain Vee?”
“Of course.”
The cop waid and when Caroline tried to return the greeting the drip got in the way. She pointed to seats beside the bed.
“Sit, please.”
They sat.
Caroline said, “I’ve haven’t heard from Michael. Have you been in touch with him?”
Tin cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable. He shot a glance at Captain Vee who was intently studying her high-fashion running shoes.
“Caroline.”
“Tin.”
“I have some very bad news. About Michael.”
She widened her eyes. “What?”
Tin blinked. “He’s dead, Caroline. I’m so sorry.”
She stared at him. “What?”
“He’s dead. Mike’s dead.”
“How?”
He looked at the cop and said something in Thai. She nodded.
“Captain Vee believes that last night he was handing over ransom money to the people who kidnapped you. They shot him.”
“Oh my God.” Caroline fought back tears. “I was angry with Michael. So angry that I doubt I would ever have been able to forgive him. But this...” She closed her eyes and put a hand to her mouth like she was going to throw up.
Tin stood. “Do you need the doctor?”
Caroline shook her head. “No, just some water please.”
Tin opened the fridge and took out a bottle of Evian. He poured some into a glass and gave it to Caroline, who drank and then set it down on the cabinet beside the bed.
“Where did this happen?” she said.
“He was in his car, not far from the Phuket Aquarium.”
“Why did they shoot him?”
“We don’t know.”
“Where is he?” she asked.
“In the morgue at the regional hospital.”
“I want to see him.”
“Of course. But they won’t let you out of here until tomorrow. Don’t worry, I’ll arrange everything.”
“Thank you, Tin.”
He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Look, Caroline, there’s a hell of a lot of confusion around exactly what happened to you. It would be really useful if you could help us establish a timeline.”
She nodded. “Yes. Yes, of course.”
Captain Vee spoke to Tin and handed him her iPad. Tin rolled up the bed table and opened the tablet.
“We’d like you to watch this, please.”
She was looking at a video of a blonde woman wearing her clothes getting out of a taxi at night and crossing a road. And then going to beach, stripping and swimming out into the dark.
“That’s not me,” she said. “I don’t understand.”
“Do you know who it is?” Tin asked.
Caroline knew exactly who it was but she shook her head. “I have no idea.”
Tin returned the tablet to the cop.
“Okay, I speak for Captain Vee here. She suspects that somebody faked this thing as a kind of a smokescreen. Got Michael to report you missing. The police then saw this and showed it to Mike who believed it was you. Suicide. Open and shut. The police divers were already out looking for your body.”
“Meanwhile I was kidnapped?”
“Exactly. And Mike was in a real bind, now wasn't he? How could he go to the cops saying you’d been kidnapped if you were dead?”
She blinked at him. “It’s clever in a really sick kind of way.”
“Very sick,” Captain Vee said. “So sick.”
“Okay, the question that really needs to be asked is if you have any idea of who kidnapped you?” Tin said.
She shrugged. “None. I only ever saw one man. He wore a ski mask.”
Vee spoke to Tin and he nodded.
“Okay, can we take this from the top. I’m sorry if this is uncomfortable, but we know that you and Mike had some kind of a falling out.”
“Michael cheated on me with our neighbor. Somebody sent me a video of them...” She waved a hand and grimaced. “It was very upsetting.”
“Naturally. Of course. Did you forward this video to Mike and send him a message saying pretty much that you could no longer carry on?”
She stared at him. “God no. I got the video and I was still in shock when my doorbell rang. I went downstairs and the guy in the mask was there. He tasered me and threw me into a van and took me away.”<
br />
“So he took your phone and sent Michael the message?”
“He must have.”
Tin and Vee spoke.
“This van, can you describe it?” Tin asked.
“White. Not new. The kind of thing you see all the time and never notice.”
“Where did he take you?”
“Well, I saw nothing, of course. We drove for while. I don’t know how long. Maybe an hour. And then we came to a house. I never really saw it. It seemed remote. Like a farm or a plantation. Very run down. He took me inside and locked me in a tiny windowless room. He brought me food and water and a bucket for... you know. That was it.”
“You saw and heard nobody else?”
“No.”
A quick consultation between the lawyer and the cop and then Tin said, “This man? Was he Thai?”
“No. He spoke with an accent that I couldn’t place. Maybe Eastern European.”
“Russian?”
“Not as strong. I’m sorry. I’m not being very helpful.”
“You’re doing fine, Caroline. Really,” Tin said.
“And last night what happen?” Vee said.
“I heard the van drive away. I knew I had to escape. I looked for a weapon in the room but there was nothing. He returned after quite a long while and then came in to give me water. I attacked him. It was stupid of course. He smashed my skull against the floor and gagged and bound me.”
Tin shook his head. “My God, Caroline. This is just so bloody horrible.”
“Yes. But it could’ve been worse.” She raised her palms to the ceiling. “I’m here aren’t I?”
“How did that happen? Your release?”
“A while after I tried to escape he came back into the room and carried me out and threw me into the back of the van again. We drove and then he stopped somewhere really remote. It was starting to get light. I thought he was going to kill me, but he pushed me into some trees and drove away. I found my way onto a beach and came across the fishermen who helped me. That’s all I can remember.”
Tin and Vee spoke.
Tin nodded and said, “Your neighbor, Mrs. Keller?”
“Yes?”
“Any idea of her whereabouts?”
Caroline shook her head. “No, none.” She stared at Tin. “You don’t think she’s somehow tied into this?”
“We don’t know. But she’s disappeared. Let’s just say she’s a person of interest.”
Caroline said, “How do you know Michael was delivering ransom money?”
“Well, the police don’t know for sure, but they contacted his bank and he withdrew a very large sum of money two days ago. The equivalent of around eleven million dollars.”
“My God, this is all such a nightmare.” She put her head in her hands.
Tin stood and approached the bed. “Is there anything I can do for you, Caroline? Any family or friends you’d like me to reach out to?”
“No,” she said. “That’s very kind, but I think I just need some time by myself.”
“Of course.”
Tin spoke to Vee who shook her head and stood.
“Okay, we’ll leave you to get some rest,” Tin said. “I’ll be in touch in the morning. If you need anything at all before then please just give me a shout.”
“Thank you.” Caroline said and they left.
It was getting dark but she didn't switch on the lights. She lay in the deepening gloom and tried to think about nothing at all.
95
Caroline traveled the few blocks from the private hospital to the regional hospital in Tin’s Porsche.
Earlier Tin had contacted the agency that managed their rental property and arranged for somebody to meet him at the house so he could get some clothes for Caroline.
He’d arrived at her room with a wheelie suitcase containing a choice of three outfits, the garments immaculately folded.
She couldn’t suppress a smile when she saw how carefully he’d coordinated pants, tops, underwear and shoes. Michael would not have been as competent.
“You’d make somebody a very good husband, Tin,” she said.
He grinned and scratched his head. “Wouldn’t wish me on my worst enemy, Caroline. I’ll leave you to change.”
She dressed in gray pants, a white shirt and penny loafers without socks, and went down and met him in the lobby. After completing the paperwork he walked her to his car parked at the entrance.
As he drove he said, “There’s something I need to tell you, Caroline. I could just keep my trap shut, but it’s weighing on me something terrible.”
“Then tell me.”
He stopped at a traffic light and tapped on the steering wheel. “Michael came to me and asked how to change a boatload of baht into dollars.”
“Okay.”
“I can only assume the people who kidnapped you insisted on USD.” He looked at her and she nodded. “I grilled Mike. I didn’t know the real story, of course. I still believed you had drowned, but I felt that something was out of whack. I tried to get him to level with me, but he wouldn’t.”
“And?”
“I did something that I can’t forgive myself for.”
“What?”
“I hooked him up with some black market money laundering guys and I stepped away.”
She studied his profile. “But these people weren’t in any way involved in his murder?”
“Nah, not at all. If they were I woulda come clean with Vee. But I feel that I should’ve been more aggressive with Michael. Got him to tell me what was really going on. Insisted he loop in Vee and her crew. The outcome mighta been very different for him.”
“Tin?”
“Yeah?”
“Stop this.”
He looked at her.
“You’ve been caught up in a mess not of your making. You’ve done nothing but act like a friend. I’m assuming that connecting Michael to those people was a risk, professionally?”
“Oh, yeah. I’d be toast if it got out. Disbarred.”
“Then we never had this conversation.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
He sighed. “Thank you, Caroline.”
They arrived at the hospital, a gray brutalist monolith surrounded by a mass of scooters. Tin drove through gates adorned with a life-size portrait of the Thai King in an ornate gold frame.
He sounded his horn and a security guard hurried up, saluted, moved a barrier and waved them into a reserved parking bay.
The guard opened the door for Caroline and Tin came around, gave her his arm, and walked her into the crowded lobby.
People in wheelchairs, people on crutches, people sitting in endless lines under ceiling fans that stirred air thick with heat and suffering.
Captain Vee and a short-haired young foreign man in a dark suit pushed their way through the throng.
The cop waid to Caroline and the man extended his hand.
“Mrs. Tate, I’m Todd MacArthur. I’m with American Citizen Services at the embassy in Bangkok. Please allow me to offer my condolences. I’m here to assist in any way I can.”
“Thank you.”
Tin and Vee were in conversation with a group of uniformed medical personal. A lot of nodding and gesticulating.
“I actually spoke with your husband two days ago,” MacArthur said.
“Did you?”
“Yes. After the Thai police informed us that you had drowned.”
“And yet here I am.”
He swallowed and nodded. “Yes. As you say.”
“And it’s Michael who is no longer with us.”
“Sadly, yes.” He blinked at her. Out of his depth.
She took pity on the man. Little more than a boy, really, with shaving rash on his neck. Sweating in his cheap suit.
“It’s all been a terrible ordeal,” she said. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you being here, Mr. MacArthur. Being assisted by a fellow American is so very reassuring.”
“My pleas
ure.” He smiled, showing a set of fine young teeth.
Tin was at her side. “Okay, Caroline, are you ready for this?”
“Yes.”
“I must warn you that things are done a little differently here than in the States.”
“How so?”
“You won’t be viewing Michael though glass or anything like that. You’ll go into a room at the morgue and he’ll be on a table. It’ll be way more... graphic.”
“Okay, thank you,” she said. “I understand.”
A man in a white coat set off down a corridor and they followed him. He went through swinging doors, and held them open until they’d trooped past. The corridor was narrow and empty, painted bile green. Buzzing strip lights were reflected in black floor tiles so shiny they looked wet.
Caroline felt a sense of dislocation that was not the product of her concussion or the medication she had been plied with.
She had a peculiar feeling that every step she had taken in her life had led her here, to this echoing corridor, ripe with the smell of industrial strength disinfectant and something more sinister that she didn’t care to name.
The man in the white coat opened a scuffed door and waited for them to enter a small, windowless room. It was very cold. The room was empty but for a steel table. A body covered by a sheet lay on the chrome surface.
A young man in an overall stood at the head of the table. He sniffed continually, swiping at his nose with his sleeve.
Tin took Caroline by the arm and walked her forward.
“You’re required to state clearly whether or not this is Michael,” he said.
The white-coated man said something to the morgue attendant who took the sheet and lifted it away from Michael’s face.
Caroline rocked and held onto Tin’s arm. She shut her eyes and heard the buzz of the lights and the man sniffing.
She opened her eyes and forced herself to look at Michael.
There were two bullet wounds in his forehead. His left eye was half open as if he were winking at her. His lips were slightly parted and she could see his teeth.
She nodded. “Yes,” she said. “This is my husband.”
The morgue attendant covered Michael’s face. Tin took Caroline’s arm and they went back out into the corridor.
“They have his personal effects. I’ll take care of collecting them and get them to you later, okay?”
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