Lumpini Park (Abby Kane FBI Thriller - Chasing Chinatown Trilogy Book 2)

by Ty Hutchinson

  “I redial the last number, but I only get a Thai recording, and I don’t understand.”

  “Rotten timing. My phone ran out of time right about then.”

  “When I ask Ryan what happened, he only able to tell me bits and pieces but enough to know something bad happen on phone.”

  Listening to Po Po fill in the blanks devastated me. Every word from her mouth was a slug to my gut. I doubled over with guilt and struggled for breaths. At that moment, I felt like a complete failure. I didn’t deserve the three of them.

  Both children were asleep, and I asked Po Po not to wake them. I told her I would talk to them later, but she ignored me and had already made her way to Ryan’s room.

  Before I could get another word out, I heard his voice.

  “Abby, you’re okay,” he said, sniffling.

  “Yes, sweetie. I’m fine. I’m all right.”

  “I was so worried. I heard a fight, and I heard you screaming, and you needed help, and—”

  “Shhhh. Everything is fine. Your mom is okay. You hear me? I’m okay.”

  “I thought you had… you were—”

  “What? What did you think? You know better. I’m your tough mom.”

  He sniffed and coughed. “Yeah, I do. You’re my tough mom.”

  “That’s right. I’m your tough mom, and nothing is ever going to happen to me. I want you to understand that.”

  “Okay,” He sniffed. I heard rustling on the phone and then the sweet sound of my youngest.

  “Mommmyyy!” Lucy shouted in the phone. “I was so worried about you. You sounded like you were in trouble.”

  “Mommy is okay. I’m not hurt. Mommy had a little problem, but it’s all over now. Everything is fine, and I’ll be home soon.”

  Lucy continued to cry and tell me that she missed me. After a few seconds, Po Po came back on the line.

  “Ryan take Lucy back to her room. Better for her to rest.”

  I didn’t know what to say. My son had just left to console his sister, my daughter. That was my job—another blatant sign that I had, once again, failed as a parent. Wait. Forget that. I had failed at being a good person, period. What the hell is wrong with me?

  After a few seconds of silence, Po Po asked when I was coming home. I didn’t have an answer and said what I always said. “Soon.”

  There was a knock on the door followed by Kang’s voice. “Abby, is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be out soon. Just give me a minute.” I plucked a few pieces of tissue from a plastic container on the sink counter and dabbed my eyes dry. My left cheek had swelled from a punch I had taken earlier.

  “Kyle,” I called out.

  “Yeah, what is it?”

  “Could you get me some ice?”

  “I’m on it.”

  To tide me over, I ran the corner of a hand towel under the faucet and pressed it against my face. It felt cool against the warm throbbing that had become much more noticeable now that my adrenaline rush had dissipated.

  I looked myself over in the mirror, cleared my throat, shook off my emotions, and put on my best face. A beat later, I exited the bathroom, ready for business.

  Chapter 51

  A paramedic approached me and handed me an ice pack. Kang and Artie were right behind him. I wrapped the cold compress in the towel and pressed it against my face.

  The hotel room was teeming with Thai law enforcement. The body hadn’t been moved, and the CSI team was in the early stages of their investigation.

  “Abby,” Artie said in a low voice, “let us step outside and talk.”

  Kang and I followed him into the hallway. I knew both of them had the same burning question on their mind. As soon as we were a few feet from the door, I told them what had happened from the moment I had parted ways with Kang outside the hotel.

  “You sure this is the same guy from the bar?” Artie asked.

  “Positive.”

  “Abby’s right. I remember that guy,” Kang added. “He must have been waiting for us outside, because I also remember looking over to where he had been sitting before we left, and I didn’t see him.”

  “His wallet contained a card key belonging to the Westin hotel,” Artie said. “My guys are on their way over there to track down his room. Hopefully they find something that can shed some light on your theory that the body inside that room belongs to the Creeper.”

  “This is what my gut is telling me,” I said. “I don’t have any definitive proof except the look in his eyes when he attacked me. It was like he knew who I was. And I don’t mean in an I-just-met-you sort of way. It all felt very premeditated. Did you find anything else on his person?”

  “A cell phone,” Artie responded.

  “Did you check to see if the game app is loaded on it?”

  The look on Artie’s face told me his answer. “Wait here,” he said before turning around and heading back into the room. A few seconds later, he reappeared with a smartphone in a baggie. He snapped a glove onto his hand and removed the phone. “We’re in luck; no passcode.” He continued tapping at the screen until a smile formed on his face. That’s when he turned the phone around and showed us the Chasing Chinatown game.

  This was the second account within the game that we had access to. From what we could tell, the game play was exactly the same as what we experienced while playing as the Carlsons, except for one detail: The Creeper’s second task in Bangkok revealed a picture of Kang and me with the blunt instructions to eliminate us.

  “So your masked man told the truth,” Kang said as he rested his hands on his hips.

  “Yep, and they got what they wanted: a dead creep,” I said, folding my arms across my chest.

  “So now what?” Artie asked. “We won the battle. Does that mean we can keep playing the game?”

  Neither Kang nor I had an answer for him. My best guess was that, once word got back to the mastermind that the Creeper had become a stiff, the accounts for Team Carlson and Team Creeper would be shut down.

  “Up until now, any progress we’ve made has come from playing the game, but sadly, I don’t think we’ve gotten closer to the mastermind. We’ve taken down two teams, yet what I see here on the phone is that the remaining teams are still playing in the other cities.”

  “Maybe when it becomes apparent that Bangkok has now been compromised, we might see some sort of effect. That body,” Kang thumbed backward, “is still warm.”

  Kang reminded all of us that patience went a long way. Just then, a talk bubble appeared stating that Team Despicable had completed the fourth task in Shanghai, further reinforcing what I had just said.

  “I count only seventeen teams,” Artie said.

  “Rome caught up with the killer in their city,” I said. “I got word on that when I spoke to my supervisor a few days ago. Sorry, it slipped my mind. But what I’m trying to say is that this game will continue until a team wins.”

  “Or all teams are captured,” Artie suggested.

  “I agree with you there, but taking down the mastermind is the only way to dismantle the game for good.”

  “I agree,” Kang said. “The way I see it, so long as these dipshits allow us access, we have to keep playing. It’s the only card we have.”

  “Don’t forget, Artie: Another team could pass through Bangkok. The only way to take Bangkok off the list of destinations, like we did in San Francisco, is to take out whoever is responsible for managing the game here.”

  Artie looked around to make sure we were alone. “I think I know who that person is.”

  Chapter 52

  “I’m pretty sure Somchai Neelapaijit is our guy.” Artie beamed. His eyebrows arched proudly. He summarized what he had discovered after securing and interrogating the individual who had attacked us.

  “Where is this guy?” Kang asked. “I’d like a crack at him.”

  “Where he is isn’t important,” Artie said quickly. “We obtained the information we needed, and right now, my men are fleshing out the deta
ils of my plan. It’s important that we execute it as quietly and as fast as possible.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “A combination of things. The Triads have a tight grip on the neighborhood, and Chinatown is off limits to Thai police thanks to corrupt politicians.”

  “It’s no different than what we faced back in San Francisco. I suspect every Chinatown, to some degree, is self-governing for the very reasons you just stated,” Kang added.

  “And you think this is the way to go, under the radar?” I asked. “Going rogue, so to speak?”

  “I do. I know it makes the operation ten times more dangerous, but if we try to play by the rules, we’ll be buried in red tape and lose our chance at surprising Somchai. And if for some reason bureaucracy didn’t get in the way, someone would tip him off, and he’d go into hiding. I’m sure of that.”

  I understood what he faced. We were in Thailand. They had a different way of handling things. My thoughts were that it wasn’t much of a hurdle for Artie to overcome, but I had to make sure that, if things did go wrong, Kang and I weren’t caught up in it, or worse, victimized by it. We had already experienced our fair share of close calls on this trip. Even Reilly had thoughts of pulling me out. Another stumble and I knew we would be kissing our time here goodbye.

  “You know,” I said, “if you’re right about this guy, I think we might have a link.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “Well, Jing Woo managed the game in San Francisco, and he oversaw the city’s Chinatown. If the same holds true for this Somchai guy, then the head Triad in each Chinatown may also be in charge of running the game.”

  “Hmmmm.” Kang removed a handkerchief from his pocket and took the cell from Artie. “Son of a… I don’t know why I didn’t see the connection before.” He turned the phone around to show us the list of cities still in play. “Every single one of these cities features a prominent Chinatown.”

  “What are you, some sort of authority on Chinatown?” Artie asked.

  A grin appeared on my face, and Kang chuckled. “Let’s just say it’s a hobby of mine.”

  Artie seemed to be at a loss.

  “Kyle here is kind of a nerd about all things Chinese,” I explained. “If we’re right about this, my supervisor can alert our partners around the world to focus on Chinatowns. If they take out the management, it stops the game play there.”

  “But it doesn’t stop the killer,” Artie said, stretching out his arms, palms up.

  “No, it doesn’t, but it may stop more unnecessary deaths,” I said.

  We had turned a corner on our investigation and gained ourselves another solid foothold. Would it lead us to the mastermind? I was hopeful. I knew if we continued to squeeze, we would close in on him.

  “When do you think your men will be ready?”

  “Soon. Look, I don’t expect you two to tag along. I understand the implications that you might face should things go wrong, not only with our government but with your superiors as well. I’m willing to take this on by myself.”

  I looked at the ice pack in my hand and thought about what I had just put my two children through. I thought about why I had moved my family from Hong Kong to San Francisco. I thought about how I wanted a quieter, safer, and much more normal life for us. I thought about how I wasn’t nearly delivering on that as well as I could be.

  I had already experienced two life-threatening situations and felt extremely lucky with the outcomes. Quite frankly, I wasn’t too excited about rolling the dice yet a third time. Not to mention the fact that we would definitely be overstepping what little authority we had here in Thailand. From the look in Kang’s eyes, I could see that he had similar thoughts.

  This was a quagmire of epic proportions. I didn’t want to leave Artie to handle the case by himself. This was my investigation.

  On the other hand, we could be jeopardizing the solid foothold we had recently gained by not following Artie’s plan. We were moving fast, cutting corners, and not thinking things through thoroughly. At least that was how I felt.

  “I understand that this is a lot to take in,” Artie said, breaking the silence and gaining our attention again. “As soon as my men and I have everything in place, I’ll brief you two. You can give me your answer then.”

  Artie had just given us a little breathing room, and I intended to take those much-needed breaths.

  Chapter 53

  A quick peek at my watch told me it was three in the morning. I was battered and beat. As soon as we were no longer needed at the crime scene, we left. We agreed to grab a few hours of shut-eye before discussing our options and what our approach to the investigation should be from that point on. The situation had changed, and we needed to reevaluate.

  Neither of us thought we would be endangering ourselves by returning to our original hotel, the Landmark Plaza. If we were still being watched, checking into yet a third hotel would be pointless. In our minds, we weren’t facing a credible threat.

  Artie, on the other hand, whether he realized or not, never questioned how we had ended up with a room at the Sheraton, and I didn’t feel the need to offer up an explanation that wasn’t, at the time, being asked for.

  What little of the night that was left sped by fast. That’s how it felt when a morning wakeup call from Artie interrupted my Zs. He had called to tell me that they had discovered evidence in the room at the Westin that confirmed what we already thought: The man who attacked me was the Creeper.

  “We found a wig and colored contact lenses that match our original description.”

  “What about the limp everyone kept reporting?”

  “We found a metal device in his suitcase that looks like a rudimentary splint. We believe he wore this, and that’s what caused him to limp. He played the game under a disguise, Abby.”

  “If that’s the case, I highly doubt we would have ever caught up with him if he hadn’t made the first move. Even my kidnappers hadn’t known he had changed his appearance.”

  “Luck was on our side.”

  “No kidding.”

  Before I could thank Artie for the update, he surprised me by saying he had a finalized plan in place for capturing Somchai.

  “That was fast.”

  “Time is against us. I’d like to meet with you and Kyle right away to discuss the details and how you two can be involved if need be.”

  If need be? It sounded like Artie had just laid the groundwork for our participation to be hands-off. I decided to reserve judgment and told him we could meet in one hour at the Starbucks. I then rang Kang and relayed my conversation with Artie.

  “Disguise? Sheesh, we got lucky.”

  “I agree.”

  “So this sense that Artie might be trying to spearhead the investigation from here on out, is that a bad thing? I mean we are in Thailand and don’t have any authority. And we’ve already had more than our fair share of hairy moments. It might be smart to let him take the lead on this operation.”

  “There’s certainly merit in that approach. I don’t know how finalized the plan is. Everything we’ve done up to date has been kind of a shoot-from-the-hip approach, and that’s exactly the impression I got when Artie talked about this last night. Plus, he wanted to keep the entire operation hush-hush.”

  “It’s like we’re setting ourselves up for more problems by being involved.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking. My brain is telling me to take a step back, but my ego is bruised.”

  “Hey, we’re only two people. Our own investigation is already under the radar. Why put ourselves farther off the grid?”

  I couldn’t argue with Kang. He was right. We lacked the proper support and equipment we would need to infiltrate Somchai’s hideout and extract him successfully. In the end, we decided to hear Artie out before making any decisions. Maybe he did have a credible plan in place.

  Chapter 54

  When we arrived at the coffee shop, Artie was already inside. He had coffee for Kang and hot water
for me. He stood and shook both our hands and, before we could take our seats, started discussing his plan.

  “We plan on hitting Somchai at three in the morning. Chinatown will be a sleeping giant at that time.”

  So far, I nodded in agreement. I removed my tin of loose-leaf tea and dropped a pinch into my hot water. It felt so good to be reunited with the real deal instead of the tea bags I’d been stuck with. Note to self: Next time, include tea with my emergency change of clothes.

  “Our interrogation revealed that the place is heavily guarded, about fourteen men, and we have to assume they have some degree of tactical training.”

  “What?” Kang choked on his coffee and followed that up with a small coughing fit.

  “What sort of weaponry do they possess?” I said, equally surprised.

  “Most will be armed with handguns, but I wouldn’t put it past Somchai’s men to have a few high-powered rifles in their stock and even be outfitted with flak jackets.”

  I scratched the top of my forehead. Taking a backseat on this mission was becoming an easy decision.

  “There’s more. Somchai’s office is on the top floor of a five-story building. The men are spread out on every floor. Anything but a silent approach will have bullets raining down upon us.”

  “Sheesh. What kind of firepower do you have?” Kang asked.

  “We have body armor, and we can outgun them with weapons, but a firefight is something we want to avoid. It’ll only make the situation worse and our exit out of Chinatown harder. Remember, we have to assume that, if the alarm is sounded, more Somchai supporters will appear.”

  “Okay, so enlighten us. How do you plan on getting past his men and into his office quietly?” I asked.

  “That’s the brilliant part of my plan.” A grin appeared on Artie’s face. “We’re not using the front door. The next building sits only three feet away. We can cross over via the roof and enter the top floor from above. We’ll leave the same way we came. If all goes as planned, his men won’t know a thing.”