Stephen Leather - Bangkok Bob and the missing Mormon

‘Why did she run away, Kai?’

She tensed and I could tell that she was about to lie to me.

‘I know she ran away, Kai. I know she left her family. Why, Kai? Why did she run away?’

Kai shook her head.

‘You told her what you did, didn’t you? You told her that you went with men for money?’

She nodded. ‘I showed her the chat room but she said I was crazy.’

‘Did you ask her to do it?’

She nodded enthusiastically. ‘I told her it was an easy way to get money but she said she couldn’t do it.’

‘So why did she run away?’

A look of guilt flashed across her face and I knew that there was something she wasn’t telling me.

‘I need to know that she’s all right,’ I said.

‘She’s fine,’ said Kai.

‘How do you know? Did she tell you that she was running away?’

She looked down, avoiding my gaze. ‘Yes,’ she said.

‘With Khun Jon?’

‘I think so, yes. She didn’t say his name but she said she was going with a friend.’

I sighed.

Finally, I was getting to the truth.

‘Where did she go, Kai?’

‘I don’t know.’ She looked at her watch again.

‘What was she running away from? From Big Red?’

She shook her head. ‘No. Not him.’

‘Who then? Who was she afraid of? Who was she running from?’

And then I knew.

Before she opened her mouth to speak, I knew.

‘Her father,’ I said, and it was a statement, not a question.

She jerked as if she’d been stung, and then looked at me quizzically. ‘How did you know?’

‘What happened, Kai? You can tell me.’

‘I have to go,’ she said.

‘Tell me what happened.’

She closed her eyes as if she was wishing that I would disappear. ‘I didn’t know it was him, not at first,’ she said.

‘You met him in the chat room?’

She nodded, then slowly opened her eyes. ‘We chatted online and then he called me and we talked. He seemed really nice and he said he’d give me five thousand baht for just one hour so I said that I’d meet him. He booked a room in the Landmark Hotel and told me to meet him there. He wanted me to wear my school uniform. Most of the men do. The lights were off and it was quite dark and he wanted to make love quickly and it was only afterwards when he was showering that I realised who he was. I’d seen him at the school sports day with his wife and Tukkata. And I’d seen him at the English school sometimes, dropping her off.’

‘Did he know that you knew his daughter?’

She shook her head. ‘He asked me what year I was in, that’s all.’

‘So he knew you were fifteen?’

‘He liked it. He said he liked me because I was young. He asked me to call him Daddy while he was making love to me.’

I felt my stomach lurch.

She got up to go but I put my hand on her shoulder and she looked at me, suddenly scared, and I pulled my hand away and apologised.

‘You told Tukkata?’ I asked. ‘You told her that you’d seen her father?’

She nodded. ‘At first she didn’t believe me but her father had asked for my phone number and he kept sending me text messages. I showed her and then she knew that I was telling the truth.’

‘Do you still have the messages on your phone?’

She nodded cautiously.

‘Can I see them?’

She took out her phone and called up her messages, then handed it to me. I read them and my stomach lurched again. Messages from a middle-aged man to an underage schoolgirl. Telling her what he wanted to do with her.

‘Did she talk to her father about this?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘And how soon after she saw the messages did she leave?’

‘A couple of days.’ She held out her hand. ‘Can I have my phone back, please?’

I scrolled back through the text messages. I stopped when I saw one from Tukkata. I opened the message.

‘I’m okay,’ it said. ‘Don’t worry.’

The message had been sent three days ago. I looked at the number. It was the number that Jon Junior had called.

‘Please, can I have my phone back,’ she said.

I gave it to her.

‘I have to go,’ she said. She stood up and hurried away.

I watched her walk away with her friends.

Now I understood everything.

But I was still no closer to finding Jon Junior.

As I walked over to the Hummer my phone rang. It was John Muller, apologising for not calling me back sooner.

‘Where are you, Bob?’ asked Muller. ‘Word on the grapevine is that you were shot by a jealous husband.’

‘I’m hanging around outside a school,’ I said. ‘Which is what got me shot in the first place.’

‘Are you serious?’

I climbed into the Hummer and closed the door. It was already swelteringly hot even though the air-con had only been off for ten minutes or so. I switched on the engine. ‘Fairly serious, but I’m okay.’

‘You need anything, let me know,’ he said, and he sounded like he meant it. ‘I’m calling about the two numbers you wanted checking. It took my contact longer than usual.’

‘Better late than never,’ I said.

‘One of them was a DTAC number so that was a non-starter. The other was an AIS number but it’s been switched off for almost two weeks now and no calls have been made from it. But three days ago it was on long enough to send an SMS.’

‘Did the message by any chance say “I’m okay, don’t worry” and please don’t ask me if I’m psychic.’

‘That’s it exactly. The phone was on for less than two minutes.’

‘And please tell me that you have the phone’s location?’

‘Koh Samui,’ said Muller.

Interesting.

Koh Samui used to be one of my favourite islands, and when Noy and I were first married we used to go down several times a year, just to watch the waves crash on the sand and eat seafood and breathe in the fresh air. It’s got what Bangkok hasn’t – white sandy beaches, coral reefs and coconut palms. But it’s become much more commercialised recently, with faceless hotels spoiling the coastline and foreign firms building overpriced villas with no infrastructure to support them. The fact that foreigners can’t own land in Thailand hasn’t stopped the villas selling, and now there are parts of the island where the only Thais you see are the maids and poolboys. It’s now the second-most popular tourist destination in the country, following Phuket, but it has become a violent place too, with foreigners getting raped and robbed on a regular basis and estate agents hiring hitmen to sort out contractual problems. The full moon parties have become world famous for drug-fuelled raves that go on for days at a time, with many a bemused foreigner being busted by undercover cops. It’s been at least five years since Noy and I visited and when I told her that I was going there to look for Jon Junior she told me to be careful and didn’t offer to come with me.

The easiest way to get to Koh Samui is by plane with a flight time of an hour, give or take. The island’s airport is cute, with thatched buildings and palm trees, and the customs check for those arriving on international flights is minimal to say the least. It’s the third-biggest island in Thailand, fifteen miles long and thirteen miles wide, and most of the hotels and huts are clustered around the beaches. John Muller had been able to identify the cellphone transmitter that Tukkata’s phone had logged on to when she’d switched it on, so I had a pretty good idea where to start looking. Mae nam, on the north side of the island.

Mae means mother and nam means water and together mae nam means river. There’s a seven kilometre beach with pure white sand, shielded by a line of coconut palms. Lots of small resorts and restaurants and bars catering for tourists. I caught the first flight from Bangkok and had a taxi drop me at the east end of the beach and figured that I could walk the full length in three hours, and if I had to I’d walk back. If I didn’t find them during the day then my plan was to book into one of the resorts for the night and to try again the following day.