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Plato Karsarkis isn’t the smartest PI in the world. But he does have a knack for putting his finger on the truth no one else can see. I had called Plato yesterday to arrange this meeting, because he was my last hope at solving the murder of a lawyer, his girlfriend, and a gibbon. Hey! Remember, this is Thailand.

My name is Jake. You don’t need to know my last name.

“Hi, Jake! What’s happening man? Here, have a champagne.” Plato greeted me as I sat down in the bar chair beside him. We swiveled around to view the ocean and saluted each other, clashing our glasses together.

I guess if you have to be an undercover cop, Phuket is not a bad place to be assigned. But I was in trouble. My best informant had just been murdered, and the case I was working on was about to fall to pieces.

The lawyer, Bill Anderson, was a sad case. He’d been a successful lawyer in New York City. Then one day he came to Thailand for a short holiday, met a girl named Su in a bar in Soi Cowboy, and he’d fallen madly in lust. Thai women can do that to a man.

Bill missed his plane home, went up north with his new love, and she had introduced him to Loong Keo, her uncle. Bill started advising Loong Keo on legal matters, and before long he was sucked into the business too.

Turns out Su had been married to a Thai drug cop a few years before. Loong Keo wasn’t happy about it. So, he lured her husband out at 2 am one night and staged a fatal accident. Her uncle gave her a gibbon after the funeral to help get her mind off the death.

From then on, Su helped him run his business. She didn’t figure out who had killed her husband until she and Bill had been together for more than a year. One night she told Bill about the accident. He thought about it and then made the connection. That’s why they had turned and agreed to supply me with information about Loong Keo’s operation. I had passed the information on to the Thai cops.

Loong Keo started out as a small time dealer and quickly built up his business. He became the biggest wholesale distributor working for Ai Dum, a Chinese drug lord based somewhere in the Golden Triangle. Ai Dum had his own army, a bunch of chemists specializing in refining opium into heroin, and a harem of at least 10 young girls no older than 18. Working together, he and Loong Keo had built up a worldwide drug business generating millions of dollars each year.

Loong Keo was not a very big man, but he was extremely tough. He spent at least two hours every day practicing martial arts. He was definitely not a man you wanted to get on the wrong side of.

The partners were in Ai Dum’s mountain lair one day playing cards and drinking Lao Kao, the local white lightning. Loong Keo spotted Ai Dum cheating and in a fit of blind drunken rage he leaped across the table, scattering cards and whores, and grabbed Ai Dum in a headlock. Even though Ai Dum was almost twice Loong Keo’s size, he was soft from years of good living. Loong Keo snapped his neck before the bodyguards could even move. He turned, snapped his fingers, and told them to get the fat piece of offal out of the hut. The guards obeyed. From that day on, Loong Keo ran the entire operation.

I had been given the assignment to infiltrate their organization and get Loong Keo any way I could. Tough assignment.

I had first met Bill and Su at Mom Tri’s Boathouse nearly two years ago. I knew who they were, and I knew Bill wanted out of the drug business.

My boss had summoned me to a meeting in Bangkok just before I met the pair. Somkiat Poomponlert, the chief of the Thai Anti-Narcotics Bureau was there, along with some boys from the US embassy. As is normal in situations like this, no introductions were made. The fact that they were there at all was enough.

Somkiat handed me a file and asked me to recruit Bill and Su and offer them a deal in return for nabbing Loong Keo.

“What can I offer them?” I asked.

“We will relocate them to the US and wipe Bill’s slate clean.”

I shook my head. “Not enough. Su is a high maintenance whore. You will need to throw in some serious money to get them to agree.” I was thinking of my own retirement plan too. After some discussion we agreed that I could offer them five million dollars if we caught Loong Keo. Of course, not all of that would get into their hands.

“Dead or alive?” I asked.

Silence. It was agreed. They didn’t need to know the details.

I recruited the pair and began building up a dossier on Loong Keo’s operation in detail. Then a week ago it had all gone bad. Bill and Su knew too much, and I guess Loong Keo figured out that they had turned. He had them killed. The gibbon was just unlucky. It must have tried to attack the killer. Bad move.

So now I had to get my investigation back on track and bring the killer to justice. Plato and I moved out to the sala next to the beach and sat down to discuss our next move. The sun was setting over an azure sea that lapped onto a white sand beach. Perfect.

As I picked up my drink Plato’s eyes widened and he whispered, “Don’t turn around, but Loong Keo just walked in and sat down at a table in the bar. He’s alone, except for his bodyguards.”

I couldn’t believe it. Here we were discussing how to get him and he just walks right in!

I whispered, “Do you have a gun on you?”

“Sure do.”

I smiled. “Good. This is our big chance, so don’t blow it. Call for the check. After we have paid we will walk towards LK. Act a bit drunk and when we are almost in front of his table I want you to stumble. You get the bodyguards. I’ll get LK. Ok?”

“Got it.” He turned and gestured. “Waitress! Check bin.”

After we paid the bill we got up and followed behind the waitress. As we neared the trio Plato stumbled on cue, knocking the waitress down. I saw Loong Keo and his bodyguards look up as I drew my gun and fired. The first bullet hit Loong Keo in the shoulder, rocking him back in his chair.

His bodyguards reacted fast, but Plato was faster. They were still dragging their guns out when Plato dropped the first one.

Meanwhile, Loong Keo was reaching beneath his jacket as I brought my gun up again. A loud shot assured me that Plato was firing at the other bodyguard. I was too focused on getting Loong Keo to move my eyes away from his face. Loong Keo’s lips stretched in an evil grin as he unholstered his gun. Everything went into slow motion. My breathing slowed and I became icy cold. I had all the time in the world.

Another crash beside me. I felt Plato going down! It was time to finish this. I centered on Loong Keo’s forehead and fired.

The look on Loong Keo’s face didn’t change, except he suddenly had a small hole between his eyebrows. His gun kept rising. His body didn’t know that he was already dead. I ducked just as the gun went off. The bullet zinged over the top of my head.

I searched for my next target and saw the last bodyguard dropping to what he thought was cover behind a table. But I was going down too. I hit the floor, my gun stretched out in front of me, and fired twice through the table. There was a strangled scream and then silence.

Time sped up again. I heard more screaming, but this time it came from behind me. I spun around. One of the waitresses was freaking out. She was unhurt, just scared. Hell, so was I.

I started shaking as I leaned over and pushed Plato onto his back. He had a small flesh wound at the top of his shoulder.

“Hey, amigo. Are you alright?”

Plato groaned, looked at me, and said, “Is he dead?”

“Yep. He’s dead.”

“Then I’m fine. Now, can I have another glass of champagne from Mom Tri’s famous wine cellar? 

Yeah. He was fine and so was I. We got up and I called to the waitress to bring us two more drinks. We went to sit at the bar and wait for the cops to arrive. Just another day in paradise.

 

 

© Marc Holt. All rights reserved by the author.