THE KING OF MACAU (The Jack Shepherd International Crime Novels)
Page 31
“He may tell you something you’re better off not hearing,” she said.
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
“Do you want some help?” Nata asked.
“Help? Doing what?”
“If you’re really going to meet this guy, it might be a good idea to have somebody throw a loose net over you. That way you’d pick up on any surveillance that might be on you or any other funny business that might be going on.”
“I don’t like the sound of this very much.”
“You asked for our advice and I’m giving it to you.”
“Look, if there’s really something nasty going on here, the last thing I want is to get you two involved.”
“Oh, not us,” Darcy jumped back in. “You know my policy about avoiding operations. But we could find somebody to cover you without much trouble.”
“How about Mango Manny?” Nata asked, looking at Darcy.
“That’s a good thought,” she answered. “You know him, Jack?”
“I don’t think so. I imagine I’d remember meeting anybody with a name like Mango Manny.”
“His real name is Emmanuel Marcus. He’s a Brit. Used to be a top hitter in London, but he made a couple of silly mistakes and had to relocate on short notice.”
“Mistakes?”
“Oh, you know. Hit the wrong people a couple of times. That sort of thing.”
Darcy made it sound like the fellow had done nothing worse than misdirect a few Federal Express packages.
“Manny’s been in Bangkok… oh, four or five years now, I think. He owns Q Bar, that place on Soi 11 where the hipper-than-thou crowd hangs out. You’ve been there, haven’t you?”
“Nope. Too expensive for me. I’m more a Cheap Charlie’s kind of guy.”
“Manny’s very well connected. Plays golf with all the right generals and government ministers. But the important thing is that he’s got a really first-class organization.”
“You mean at his bar?”
“No, not that. Manny brought the marijuana business here into the twenty-first century. Really made it fly, so to speak.”
“He’s a drug dealer?”
Darcy looked down and kicked her toe at the carpet. “He’s more of a… management consultant. Besides, he won’t touch anything but grass. The man’s not a criminal, Jack.”
I took a deep breath.
“Just let me be sure I understand what you’re telling me here,” I said. “Just because you can’t find a couple of references to Barry Gale in your magic machine, you’re seriously proposing that I get some screw-up cockney hit man turned godfather to the Thai marijuana trade to work security for me when I go to the Foodland tonight to meet a dead guy. Have I pretty much got it?”
“Manny’s not a cockney,” Darcy said. “He went to Cambridge.”
“Oh well, that changes everything.”
“He’s really a pretty good guy,” Nata put in. “I think he just watched too many Bob Hoskins movies when he was young and never got over it.”
There was a little silence then and Darcy and Nata both watched me expressionlessly. In the quiet, I thought I could feel something stirring around me. I didn’t know what it was, but it felt large and unpleasant.
“What do you think I should do, Darcy?” I finally asked.
Darcy placed one hand gently on my back. She had the sort of look on her face I imagined a mother might give a son who was going off to war, a look that said there wasn’t a thing she could do but wish him luck and hope for the best.
“Be careful, Jack. Be very, very careful.”
The book that introduced Jack Shepherd
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The Jake Needham Library
The Jack Shepherd Crime Novels
JACK SHEPHERD #1
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JACK SHEPHERD #2
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JACK SHEPHERD #3
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JACK SHEPHERD #4
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The Inspector Tay Crime Novels
INSPECTOR TAY #1
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INSPECTOR TAY #2
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INSPECTOR TAY #3
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The Other Novels
WELCOME TO BANGKOK!
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Meet Jake Needham
Jake Needham is an American screen and television writer who began writing crime novels when he realized he didn’t really like movies and television very much.
Mr. Needham has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand for over twenty years. He is a lawyer by education and has held a number of significant positions in both the public and private sectors where he took part in a lengthy list of international operations he has no intention of telling you about. He, his wife, and their two sons now divide their time between homes in Thailand and the United States.
Please visit www.JakeNeedham.com to learn more about Jake Needham’s novels and read his ‘Letters from Asia’ in which he tells his readers about some of the real people, places, and things that appear in his novels.
Contents
COVER PAGE
TITLE PAGE
EPIGRAPH
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY ONE
TWENTY TWO
TWENTY THREE
TWENTY FOUR
TWENTY FIVE
TWENTY SIX
TWENTY SEVEN
TWENTY EIGHT
TWENTY NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY ONE
THIRTY TWO
THIRTY THREE
THIRTY FOUR
THIRTY FIVE
THIRTY SIX
THIRTY SEVEN
THIRTY EIGHT
THIRTY NINE
FORTY
FORTY ONE
FORTY TWO
FORTY THREE
AUTHOR’S NOTES
DEDICATION
BONUS PREVIEW: LAUNDRY MAN
THE JAKE NEEDHAM LIBRARY
MEET JAKE NEEDHAM
COPYRIGHT
The King of Macau, copyright © 2014 by Jake Raymond Needham
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it or it was not purchased specifically for your use, please purchase a copy for yourself. Thank you for respecting the work of the author and the publisher.
Excerpt from LAUNDRY MAN, © 2011 by Jake Raymond Needham
Cover Design by Damonza, Johannesburg, South Africa
Cover © 2014 Jake Raymond Needham
Kindle edition ISBN 978-616-335-908-7