by J C Ryan
Marissa made a derisive noise, and Brandt raised his eyebrows.
She said, “As if they weren’t all…”
“Irrelevant,” Brandt said firmly. “My point is that the household staff must know something. If nothing else, they know what the missing women looked like, and probably something about where they came from, maybe. I want you to go over there and talk to the staff, see if you can pick up a lead on the women, and then find and question them.”
Brandt observed that both Josh and Marissa were looking uncertain. He went on. “I’ll arrange matters so you won’t be stopped. Trust me on that. See if you can find out who these women were, where they came from, maybe get pictures of them or use ID software to make sketches. Find out about that dog, and most important of all, show them Rex’s picture and see if anyone recognizes him.
“You may as well be prepared to stay on this mission indefinitely, because you’re looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“And that’s worth it to you, John?” Marissa made her voice tender as she asked.
Brandt ignored Josh as he captured Marissa’s eyes with his. “You know it is. If he’s dead, I can accept that. But if he’s alive, I want to know why he hasn’t reported in. Maybe he thinks we were involved in that ambush. I don’t know the reason, but we don’t leave our people behind, ever. I’d do the same for you, or Josh, or any of us. I need closure, Marissa.”
Chapter Fifteen
WHEN THE SUN rose in Phuket, Rex could see some of the devastation in the streets, but the news was of greater destruction to the west. Piecing it together, he realized his experience during the night was of the second or third wave. He couldn’t account for why he’d been told that the tsunami was still on the way, when clearly it had hit the west coast before he’d even awakened.
Most of the beach communities due west of Phuket, including Sunstra’s parents’, were demolished. News reports were speaking in terms of survivors, not number of dead. The former number was much smaller, and the latter was so great that authorities weren’t done counting. Speculation was that more bodies would be found far inland.
When he heard that, Rex knew he and Digger could help. Digger’s nose and Rex’s guidance could find some of them, and it would take all the trained search and rescue resources that could get there to avoid the worst of the consequences—disease from putrefying bodies of people and carcasses of animals.
It was going to be a massive effort.
He also felt he needed to stay in town to try to discover Sunstra’s fate. He had to accept she was most likely dead, but if there were any chance she was alive, he wanted to know it.
Therefore, as soon as he’d fed Digger, Rex went to the nearest policeman and asked where he could volunteer his and his dog’s services. He was directed to the central area where search and rescue efforts were being coordinated. There, he told the coordinators he was concerned about a friend, and he named the village where Sunstra’s family had their home. From the look on their faces, he surmised there was very little hope Sunstra had survived. Nevertheless, he insisted to be assigned to that area.
“You must be prepared to find no survivors,” they told him as diplomatically as they could. He smiled weakly and said he understood. He’d still like to search, and if it was okay, he’d return to the city when he or Digger needed a break, and search the survivor lists for his friend.
They gave him an orange vest for himself and one for Digger, indicating they were official searchers, and told him good luck.
Rex found a station where food was being issued to searchers and took enough for him and Digger for a day. He suspected Digger would need a break before he did. He’d heard snatches of conversation among the other searchers that their dogs were stressed when they found only dead bodies, as if they’d failed their mission to find their targets in time. The dogs needed lots of care and praise to avoid becoming depressed.
Anxious as he was to get started, he joined a queue to fill the gas tank of his rental car. Rather than sit in his car and wait for the line to move, he secured Digger’s leash and let him out. Digger knew when he was on leash that he was working, or if not working, he wasn’t free to explore unless Rex commanded him. He paced a bit, and then he sat down, looking around at the crowds and then up at Rex, as if to ask, “What’s going on, mate?”
Rex, in turn, was searching the faces of the crowd. He’d be looking at faces until he found Sunstra, or word of her. If she’d gotten out in time, maybe she would’ve come here, knowing he’d be here looking for her? It was a long shot, not comforting at all.
The line crept forward slowly, and each time it moved a car length, Rex got in moved the car forward, then got out again and looked at the new people who joined the queue. It took nearly half an hour to get his turn at the pump. He didn’t allow himself to get discouraged that he hadn’t seen the face he was looking for. It would have been an almost impossible coincidence if he had.
When he’d filled the tank, he ordered Digger back into the car and resolutely headed for the beach. They’d search until Digger needed a break and repeat the process until the Thai authorities declared the search over, or until he found Sunstra or word of her. Worst case would be if her body was never found. He’d carry her image in his mind forever if that happened, wondering. If he’d been ready for a romance to blossom, would she have gone to visit her parents, or would she be safe in Bangkok right now?
Logically, he knew it wasn’t his fault. Just like it wasn’t his fault that his family had died at the hands of terrorists in that bombing in Spain. Emotionally, it was harder to process. The butterfly effect. If he’d been more serious about Sunstra, or if she’d never met him, would she be safe right now? Dodging the carcass of a goat near the place where the policeman had stopped him in the wee hours of the morning, Rex gave himself a mental shake.
Stop it! Torturing yourself with what ifs will do no one any good.
There was no barrier across the road now. Rex wondered if the officer had made it to safety. He shook his head and firmly turned his mind to the present. He and Digger had a grid to search, printed on a map the search coordinator had given him. They were to start at the edge of the water, search the beach and inland to where houses had been, walking back and forth for a quarter mile, every two feet until they reached the buildings. Then they must search any houses that remained standing, the rubble of those that had been destroyed, and in between. When that was done, if Digger wasn’t too stressed, he’d take another section.
Digger would be the most valuable part of the team. If there was a body buried in shallow sand, or under the rubble of a house, Digger would alert to it. Rex’s part was to flag anything he couldn’t see without digging, and another crew, trained to clear the area, would take over. Naturally, if he found someone alive, he would alert the rescue crews and stay with the person until rescuers arrived.
Four hours after arriving at the coordinates he’d been given, Rex called a break. Digger had adjusted to the rhythms of the search. At first, he wanted to dig for everything they found, but after Rex shook his head at him for digging up a dead rooster, he seemed to understand he was just to alert, wait for Rex to plant the flags, and then keep moving.
From what Rex had seen so far, he hadn’t expected to find any human remains. When he’d reached his area, there were no houses to be seen, and not much in the way of rubble. The tsunami had swept the beach as clean as if there’d never been a village there. In the first grid, he’d been correct, though there were a few animal carcasses. He suspected they’d been washed out as the first or second wave drew back, or maybe had been trapped in the collapsed houses that had also been swept out to sea.
After clearing his first grid, they were assigned to one further inland that had more buildings and trees. It was heartbreaking to find the bodies of entire families entangled in the remains of their homes. Impossible to tell what they might have been doing when the wave took their lives, but Rex suspected most had been asleep. They’d never
had a chance. When he realized the extent of the damage, he couldn’t escape the conclusion that Sunstra and her family had also perished. But he put it out of his mind and grimly searched on.
I have to see her just one more time, even if she is dead.
Digger was distressed after an hour of searching the second grid, so Rex had decided on a break, but he wouldn’t leave the area until his entire assignment had been done. He led Digger back to their car and gave him a drink of water, then held and petted him until he stopped shaking. He reckoned it was a little too early to eat, and in fact he didn’t feel like eating anything, himself. But Digger took a little kibble and some of the food Rex brought along. Rex hadn’t thought to stuff the kong, but he got it out and tossed it to Digger anyway. The dog perked up and played for a while.
Rex had no idea how long a break he should give Digger before they started again, but when the dog picked up the kong in his mouth and brought it to him, he figured that was enough time. He took the toy, expecting a bit of resistance, but Digger let it go without protest and favored him with a happy smile. That convinced Rex they could finish the search.
“Hey buddy, I wish I could get a toy to play with that would unwind me like that kong unwinds you.”
After another couple of hours, they were done with the second grid, the sun was setting, and Rex figured they were due a longer break. He urged Digger into the car and headed for Phuket. By the time they got there, it was late afternoon, and Rex hoped there’d be lists at the search coordinator’s station with positive identification of at least some of the victims and survivors. He reckoned survivors would have made their way to Phuket, the nearest large city, in hopes of disaster relief. If Sunstra were among them, her name should be on a list. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or… but he had already decided he’d stay until he got closure, one way or another.
As soon as he got within sight of the coordination site, he realized it wasn’t going to be easy to see any such list. Hordes of people milled around the doorway, and he soon saw they were being ushered in just a few at a time.
“What do you think, boy? Should we join the crowd?”
Digger sat down and let out a long sigh, a sign he was content with whatever Rex decided.
Rex decided the sooner they got in line, the sooner they could get dinner somewhere, he could take a shower, and they could rest up for the next day. It was already too late in the day to continue the search, so he was confident every other searcher would be doing the same thing.
Dark was falling when he finally got into the building. The walls of the lobby were covered with paper, but when he got close enough to see, his heart sank. Every name was written in Thai script. His shoulders slumped. Speaking the language was one thing, he had no problem with that, but reading it was a totally different matter.
A soft voice interrupted his thoughts, and he recognized the accented English of a Thai speaker.
“Can I help you?”
Turning, he saw a diminutive woman with gray hair captured neatly in a bun at the nape of her neck. Her face was full of sympathy.
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.” Rex answered in English, then switched to Thai. “I seek the name of my friend. Sunstra Chevapravatgumrong.”
“Come with me,” she answered. She led him to a section a few feet away and began sweeping her hand down the list of names, repeating Sunstra’s family name as she read. “Ah, here. Kraisee Chevapravatgumrong. He must be a relative.”
“Crazy?” Rex repeated.
“Kraisee.” She half smiled as she corrected his pronunciation, “It means lion, or brave as a lion.”
Rex remembered Sunstra’s explanation that family names were literally that.
No one can have a surname that isn’t unique to their family. Is this her father? A brother?
Urgently, he asked, “Is this a list of survivors, or…”
“Yes,” she answered. “Survivors. And here is where he can be reached.” She gave an address, which Rex committed to memory.
“Thank you!” he exclaimed. It was the first time in eighteen hours when he thought there could be a glimmer of hope that she might be alive and with her family.
All thoughts of dinner and rest forgotten, he rushed out of the building. Digger kept pace with him, the leash limp, as they raced for the car. Rex impatiently tapped the address into his phone’s GPS and learned the address was a residence.
Does that mean the relative, whoever it is, lives here or have they come here in time to escape the tsunami?
Rex didn’t bother answering his own rhetorical questions as he drove to the address he was given, which turned out to be a few miles southeast of the city, situated on one of the low hills surrounding it.
When he reached the address, he told Digger to stay in the car. It was a modest home, only one story, but surrounded by neat gardens and looked to be a relatively recent construction. He approached the front door and pressed a button he assumed was the doorbell. Inside, a pleasant chime rang faintly. Rex stepped back and waited.
And waited.
A full two minutes passed before he reached to ring again and was startled by the door being snatched away from his hand. He let it fall to his side. He was facing a man a few years younger than him, who looked so much like Sunstra it could have been her, in drag. Except his face was unnaturally pale. Rex’s mouth fell open.
“Yes? Do you bring word of my family?” the young man asked. He’d leaned forward on seeing Rex and was steadying himself with a hand on the door frame. “Please, are they safe?”
Rex found his voice. “I was hoping to ask you the same question. Are you Kraisee?”
To Rex’s surprise, he found his shirt seized in both the young man’s hands.
“Where is she?” he shouted.
“Whoa, hang on. Where is who?” Rex asked.
Behind him, Rex could hear Digger going nuts in the car, barking as if he’d treed a cat or a bad guy. Rex grabbed the man’s wrists and squeezed until he let go of Rex’s shirt. He kept hold of them as he said, “Let’s start over. Are you Kraisee Chevapravatgumrong?”
Digger stopped barking.
“Yes, yes. Who wants to know?” After a slight struggle, Kraisee gave up trying to get out of Rex’s grip, but on confirmation of who he was talking to, Rex let go.
“I’m Ruan Daniel. I have a friend, Sunstra Chevapravatgumrong. Is she your… sister?” Rex guessed.
“Where is she?” Kraisee shouted again.
At his shout, Digger started barking again.
“Look, I think we’d better settle down, before my dog breaks through the car window. Can we go inside and talk rationally? I’m looking for your sister, too. Let’s compare notes. May I come in, and may I bring my dog?”
Kraisee looked beyond Rex toward the car and his expression grew doubtful. Rex assured him the dog wouldn’t attack, so long as he kept his cool. Kraisee nodded.
Rex went to the car and let Digger out but kept him on leash. Something was wrong here, and Rex wanted to get to the bottom of it.
Kraisee waited at the door, and when Rex and Digger approached, he stood aside and swept his hand inward in a gesture of welcome.
“I’m sorry,” he said, in English as good as his sister’s. “I have been mad with worry since we got the demand.”
It was Rex’s turn to be confused. “Demand?”
“The ransom demand.”
Now Rex was doubly confused, thunderstruck. “Wait–you’re not worried about her because of the tsunami?”
“Oh, my God, I hadn’t thought about that! What if they were holding her in the danger zone?” Kraisee, who had gestured for Rex to sit and had taken a seat himself, jumped up again, agitated and tearing at his hair.
Digger growled.
“Kraisee, please calm yourself. You’re making my dog nervous, and trust me, you don’t want to do that. Start at the beginning and tell me what you’re talking about.”
Rex’s composed yet firm tone seemed to calm the young man.
He flopped down into the chair again, and Digger relaxed.
“To answer your questions, yes, Sunstra is my sister. My younger sister,” he clarified. “Two days ago, she disappeared. We thought at first her friend had come early. Wait—are you the friend who was planning to visit on Friday?”
Rex nodded. “Today, yes. But the tsunami…”
“Of course, yes. I’ve been so worried about Sunstra that I barely gave attention to the tsunami.”
Rex thought that was an extraordinary statement, but he let it go. “So Sunstra went missing before the tsunami?” he asked, to make sure he’d heard Kraisee correctly.
“Yes, yes. On Wednesday. She went to Phuket to shop, and she didn’t come home. We were worried only a little, but my mother said she must have met you early.”
Rex opened his mouth to speak, but Kraisee rushed on.
“She didn’t, we know that now. On Thursday, we got the demand. My parents must sign over their land, or Sunstra would be harmed.”
Chapter Sixteen
REX FELT A little less confused, and a lot more hopeful about Sunstra’s survival. Now he had to convince Kraisee to explain what the demand was all about and to let him help search for Sunstra. But first, what had happened to her parents?
“Kraisee, I know you don’t know me, but I’m going to ask you to trust me when I say I can help you. Sunstra has become a dear friend and very important to me in the short time I’ve known her. So believe me, her safety is my highest priority. Is this about some family business? What land are we talking about here, and why do the kidnappers want it?”
Kraisee gasped again. “Kidnappers!”
Rex smiled gently. “Yes, that’s what we call those who capture and hold people illegally and against their will. What do you call them?”
Kraisee nodded, his mouth twisted in fear and revulsion. “I know what a kidnapper is, but in this case, we call them politicians. I’m sorry, let me begin from the beginning, and if you can help, I’ll gladly accept it.”