“This is where the som tam was discovered?” I asked.
“Yes. The manager of the massage shop discovered it in the morning when she went to make an offering. It was a very disrespectful act to commit.”
The little temple had been cleaned of the offense. Incense burned, and two opened bottles of juice with straws inside sat next to an orange and an apple. Yellow floral garlands big enough to fit around my wrist draped the two metal posts on either side of the tiny, wooden structure.
“Any witnesses?” I asked.
Artie nodded and pointed at a bar across the street. “Bar girls congregate there.”
“Bar girls?” Kang inquired.
Artie shifted his gaze to Kang. “Girls that are there to entertain the customers.”
“Oh, like hostesses.”
“Yeah, except a customer can take them back to their hotel room.”
“Ohhh,” Kang nodded.
“I know one of them fairly well. If something goes down on this soi, she usually knows about it. I questioned her last night, and she said a farang—”
Artie noticed our puzzled faces. “—That’s what we call foreigners or white people. Anyway, she saw one shuffling around the shrine the night before. She didn’t pay too much attention because she had a customer, but she did say he walked with a limp.”
“Is that all we have to go on?” I asked.
He nodded.
I took a deep breath and pushed it out. “Well then, if we’re going to make any progress, we need to start playing the game.”
Chapter 15
I knew how important it was to have Artie on our side and as close to us as possible. His expertise in Thai culture would help immensely when we had the task of deciphering the riddles and navigating the city. But more importantly, we needed him and a team of trusted men to watch our backs. I’m not big on group investigations, but in this case, it would be unavoidable; we needed to take precautions to protect ourselves in Bangkok just as we had in San Francisco: surveillance, muscle, the whole nine. We would need backup in case things went south. Even more so since we weren’t operating on American soil.
“I assure you, I can organize an excellent team,” he said. “You will be in capable hands.”
If the bureaucracy that had kept Artie from even getting briefed appropriately was an indication of capability, I had my reservations. But what I didn’t have was a lot of other options.
We returned to the Landmark Plaza and bunkered down in Kang’s room. There I removed my laptop from my shoulder bag and fired up the game. As we waited for the introduction to play out, I summarized how we’d solved the last San Francisco Attraction to bring Artie up to date on how the riddles work.
“Make sense?” I asked.
“So the riddle will most likely tie into some sort of tourist attraction, either a place or an event, and that’s where we’ll get our clue to unlock the task. I get it.”
I clicked on the first Attraction. An animation of a paper scroll unraveling appeared, revealing our first riddle.
Lie alongside the golden one, and you will find your destiny.
Kang and I were busy repeating the phrase in our heads when Artie brushed off the riddle with a dismissive hand gesture and blurted out the answer.
“This is easy. The riddle is talking about Wat Pho. It’s the temple of the Reclining Buddha.”
Kang and I looked at each other with surprise.
“Are you positive?” I asked, turning my gaze back to Artie.
“One hundred percent. Now what?”
“Well, if this is the right answer, which it probably is, our next step would be to visit this temple disguised as Team Carlson. It’s what we’ve done so far.”
“You don’t think the people behind the game suspect anything?”
“Can’t say for sure. Maybe, but we have no alternatives at the moment. All we can do is keep playing until we get shut down. At this point, it doesn’t really matter whether they know or not.”
Artie shifted in his chair. “That’s a dangerous way to proceed.” His tone was serious, and his eyes locked on mine.
“That’s where you come in. We’re hoping you can help alleviate those dangers.”
Artie drew a deep breath as he leaned back on the wooden chair and fondled his chin while his other arm rested across his chest. He stared out the window for a moment, lost in his own thoughts. I wondered for a moment if he thought we were completely nuts. He finally turned his head back to us. “This will also endanger me and my men.”
I nodded my acknowledgement. I wasn’t sure if Artie was up to it. We still didn’t know much about the detective, though he had proven himself useful so far. My concern, however, was whether he had the gumption and the ability to back us up.
“When do you want to visit Wat Pho?” he asked calmly.
I smiled a little. “As soon as possible.”
Chapter 16
Artie surprised us when he suggested we hit the temple immediately. I thought he would need a day or so for logistics. No such thing.
“What’s to figure out? You go to the temple. My men and I follow. You do what you need to do while we keep an eye out.”
Artie needed only an hour to gather his men. We agreed to meet them at the Saphan Taksin dock. Kang and I were already dressed in our disguises when we spotted Artie. He had brought four other men with him and quickly made the introductions once we were together.
“They are good men. You can trust them with your life.”
I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
The men looked the part, with their stern stares and squared-off jaws. That might impress a director casting for an action movie, but I was unmoved. An unusually tall man had a noticeable scar that ran down the side of his left cheek. He face showed no hint of emotion. They were all dressed in street clothes and wore either a light jacket or a sleeveless vest to conceal their weapons.
“This is the Chao Phraya River. It’s a lot easier to get to the temple by water than by land,” Artie said. He led us down wooden planks where we boarded a riverboat with an even mix of tourists and locals.
The boat was roughly one hundred ten feet long and fairly narrow and looked to hold about ninety to one hundred passengers. There were forward-facing rows of seating on either side of a middle aisle. Artie had secured a bench in the rear right side of the boat while his men created a buffer that prevented others from sitting where we were. It didn’t take long before the boat propelled us out of the dock.
A cool breeze blew up off the river—a welcome relief for my slick face and neck. The weather app on my phone reported a current temperature of ninety-eight degrees with a heat index of one hundred six. I didn’t doubt it.
I leaned back against the wooden bench, content to watch small fishing boats rock in the wakes created by our vessel as we sped by until Artie tapped me on the shoulder. He unfolded a piece of paper and flattened it on the bench, revealing a hand-drawn map of the temple, I supposed. Kang sat behind us but leaned over for a better look.
“This is Wat Pho. The large structure in the middle is where the Reclining Buddha is housed.” He tapped at the drawing with a pencil. “There are two entrances on either side of the building. My men will position themselves here and here.” He circled two areas. “There are a few blind spots so I’ll enter the building with the two of you and remain nearby. Any questions?”
Artie had just simplified what would have been a fifteen-man, well-thought-out, FBI-driven operation to a sketched-out plan on a torn piece of paper. But it worked.
It took us fifteen minutes to reach our destination: Tha Tien dock. We debarked the boat with the other tourists and snaked our way up the plank to dry land. Straight ahead, I spotted gold spirals jutting up behind an enclosure wall.
Artie said a few words to his men, prompting them to break off from the group and disappear into the crowd. “The entrance to the grounds is just up ahead. I’ll be right behind you,” he said as he fell back.
> “You ready?” Kang asked.
I put on a smile. “Of course, dear. Now let’s go meet the golden one.”
Kang and I paid our entrance fee and took a free map to the grounds. Inside the walls, the temple grounds were a lot larger than I had expected. The large structure that Artie had pointed out on the map made for an easy target to locate. Around it were smaller buildings, but we ignored those and followed the crowd to the main attraction.
Once inside the main temple, I faced a large golden Buddha literally lying on its side. It must have been close to two hundred feet long. As we moved in closer, I couldn’t help but be distracted by the barrage of flashes bouncing off the smiling, bald man. I turned to Kang only to find him with his cell phone out, ripping off photos like a journalist in a war-torn country.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, finally pocketing his phone.
“Well, the riddle said to lie with the golden one, but clearly we can’t get close enough to literally lie next to it.” The statue was roped off, probably to prevent tourists from climbing on it for a photo. “It has to be something else.”
“Do we really need to do this?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, because of the human som tom, I’m guessing the task has to do with food.”
“I hear you, but there are still too many variables. Is the task to do something with som tam or any Thai dish? Was leaving it on the shrine part of the task or part of the killer’s creative expression? Plus, we need the right answer to the riddle to unlock the task.”
Kang bounced his head from side to side. “You’re right. Better to go through the motions and get it right the first time around.” He looked around. “I wonder if we need to look for a contact like last time.”
“Maybe.” I scanned the crowd and spotted one of Artie’s men standing near an entrance and studying a hand map for the grounds. The rest, including Artie, were incognito. I continued to search for an obvious clue to where we should go, but nothing jumped out at me.
Kang flipped open the Bangkok guidebook he had picked up for the trip. “Maybe this will tell us something about the Buddha.”
While he read, I scanned. That was when I spotted the clear, plastic bin against a wall. Inside I could see what looked like numerous Thai bills. Hmmm, I wonder. I walked over to the donation box, looking for a sign. I didn’t readily see any. I deposited a twenty baht bill, about seventy cents USD, thinking maybe that might trigger something. Nothing. I looked back at Kang. He still had his nose buried between the pages. Probably didn’t even realized I had walked away.
I had just started thinking that Artie might have gotten the riddle wrong when a thought entered my head. I hurried back to Kang. “Hey, I think we’re being too literal with the riddle. Follow me.”
We exited the large temple, not knowing if Artie and his men were behind us.
“Where are we headed?” Kang asked.
“There.” I pointed at a gift shop a few yards away.
“Souvenirs?”
“Exactly.”
We entered a small shop overstocked with countless knickknacks. I maneuvered around a family and through a tight aisle to where I saw a small table stacked with small replicas of the reclining Buddha. I picked one up and turned around to Kang. “I think we can lie with this one.”
He smiled, and we proceeded to the cashier.
The young woman behind the counter took the statue and wrapped it in tissue. There were no other people in line, so I whispered the words, “Chasing Chinatown.” She didn’t acknowledge me but continued to wrap the Buddha. She then bagged it before typing a number on a calculator and showing it to me. I pulled out sixty baht, or about two USD, and handed it over. She then casually reached under the counter, removed a postcard, and slipped it into the bag before handing it to me.
I waited until we were out of the shop before removing the card. It had a glossy picture of a street lined with food vendors. “No surprises.”
“What is it?” Kang asked.
I showed him the picture on the postcard. “I’m guessing the answer to the riddle is street food.”
Chapter 17
Artie and his men appeared before us shortly after we had discovered the answer to the riddle. Neither Kang nor I saw their approach; knowing that made me feel much more comfortable with their abilities. The Thai detective was slowly proving his worth and earning my trust.
“What was in the gift shop?” he asked right away.
“The riddle asked us to lie with the golden one. It’s impossible to lie next to the actual statue, but not this one,” I said, showing him the little replica I had purchased. “We mentioned the name of the game to the cashier to trigger the gameplay, and in exchange, she gave us this postcard.” I handed it to Artie.
“Street food?”
“That’s what we’re thinking. We’ll have to key it in to be sure. If we’re right, it’ll unlock the task associated with this Attraction.”
“Could also be soi thirty-eight. That’s the actual street in the picture.”
“We’ll try both.”
Artie looked over the top of my head, toward the gift shop. “Should we apprehend the cashier?”
“No, let her be. We’re playing the game and need things to play out as they should.”
Artie considered that for a moment before nodding his head in agreement. “All right. I know the owner of a nearby restaurant. We’ll have privacy there and some good food. Follow me.”
Artie led us out of the temple grounds and back to the dock, except this time we took a cross river ferry to the other side. From there, he led us through a maze of shops and food stalls in a nearby market until we reached a narrow lane with very little foot traffic. Toward the back of the lane, we entered a small restaurant with only a handful of diners. He pointed to a large table at the rear. “Go and sit. I’ll order food for all of us.”
When he returned, I had already unloaded my laptop and booted up the game. I motioned for Artie to sit beside me. “I want you to see how this works.”
I clicked on the first Attraction, and the animated paper scroll appeared, revealing the riddle. Below that, in the answer field, I typed the words “Street food.” A beat later the scroll unraveled further, revealing our task.
Serve up your favorite Thai delicacy on the streets of Bangkok.
Artie reacted first. “So that’s the reason for the som tam.”
“Basically the goal here is to envision the task creatively with a kill. Sickening, but that’s the game.”
“You mentioned earlier that you faked your last one. We’ll do the same, right?”
“Yeah. After, we’ll take some pictures and upload it to the game. That should get us access to the next Attraction.”
Just then, a server arrived and placed plates of food on the table. Suddenly, nobody appeared to be hungry for the som tam, except Kang.
<><><>
The young shop girl left the store shortly after providing the riddle to the couple. With her job completed, there was no need to remain there any longer. She was a deliverer, the one chosen to meet with the teams and give them their answer. When a team unlocked an Attraction in Bangkok, she received notification of who they were and prepared for their arrival.
Team Carlson was the second team to unlock Bangkok’s first Attraction, which surprised her, because earlier in the week she had been notified of their disqualification from the game. After a quick call to the man who gave her orders, she was told to go ahead and provide them with the answer should they show up.
She hurried to a street corner where the motorbike taxis queued and hopped on the back of a bike. A few minutes of wind blowing in her hair and sitting sidesaddle, she arrived at her destination. After watching the motorbike drive off, she turned and headed into a nearby alley and then through a narrow doorway. She climbed five flights of wooden stairs, each one delivering its own unique creak. The stairwell was dimly lit, and the air smelled wet.
W
hen she reached the top floor, slightly out of breath, she knocked on the first door to her left. Footsteps approached inside. A second later, the door opened enough for the slim woman to enter the one bedroom apartment.
Heavy curtains were drawn across the windows, but three lamps provided enough warm light for her to see the plump man sitting behind a desk and eating noodles from a bowl. She quickly brought her hands together in front of her chest and gave Somchai Neelapaijit a slight bow.
He didn’t return the wai, but instead motioned with his fork for her to take a seat in a chair.
The woman spoke first. “Team Carlson was successful with their pickup.”
Somchai slurped the last of his noodles into his mouth, chewed and swallowed. He wiped his mouth before speaking. “Same two people?”
“Yes, the FBI agent and the detective. They didn’t suspect that anything was wrong.”
“Good. And the other team?”
“He has yet to seek me out for the answer to the second riddle.”
He thanked her for the information and dismissed her. When the door to the apartment closed behind her, Somchai turned to another man who sat quietly in the corner. “Find out why Team Creeper is stalling.”
Chapter 18
Artie cut his men loose after our less-than-enthusiastic meal. The food, mostly Southern Thai cuisine, consisted of a variety of veggie and seafood curry dishes, which Kang continued to rave about long after our plates were cleared from the table. I was close to telling him to shut it but refrained.
Business in the small eatery had picked up, slowly eliminating our privacy, so the three of us headed back to the Landmark where we could formulate a plan for our next steps. Once there, we hunkered down in Kang’s room again. He took the liberty of ordering a pot of coffee and hot water from room service.
Lumpini Park (Abby Kane FBI Thriller - Chasing Chinatown Trilogy Book 2) Page 5