Colin Cotterill - The Woman Who Wouldn't die

But Sanyaburi was a province as far from the Vietnamese border as it was possible to get. There were no security issues that might trouble Hanoi. The Vietnamese military experts had supposedly been training Lao troops for ten years. Lao engineers were every bit as competent as their trainers. Why would a Lao minister order in a Vietnamese unit in what was basically a personal matter?

Siri walked on, dragging Civilai as he went.

‘Aren’t you going to smaggle his face into a billion billion little pieces?’ Civilai slurred.

‘No, brother. I have to think this out.’

Civilai slept like a man full of conflicting stimulants, oblivious to the fact that his bedroom was crowded with party-goers. Not even hearing the cheers from the river below. Siri dumped him on the penthouse suite bed and went off in search of his bride. He found her on a swinging wooden seat in the garden behind the governor’s house. She didn’t seem to be enjoying her beer. Her husband was five metres from her when he dropped to the ground and walked up to her on his knees. Ugly, the dog, followed the cue and dragged his bottom across the short grass one metre behind. When Siri was close enough he gave Daeng a nop fit for a queen.

‘My love,’ he said, his head bowed in shame. ‘You were right.’

She laughed.

‘You were right too,’ she said.

‘I was?’

‘I was. I am … jealous,’ she told him.

‘You are?’

‘It’s irrational and unwarranted and a product of my own imagination, and I should be old enough to know better. But … yes. I hated seeing you with that beautiful woman. I wanted to drown her in the river.’

‘Then … why didn’t you?’ he smiled.

‘She weighs more than I can comfortably drag. I’m not as young as I was. And … perhaps that’s my problem. Perhaps it isn’t her who is the used-to-be woman, but me. Because of this annoying biography you’ve had me put together, I’ve been remembering me. I mean, what I consider to be the real me. Doing a lot of probing into my soul. Asking, was that me or is this me? Was I immoral? Did I actually achieve anything? What have I become as a result of it all? And there she is, this successful businesswoman who has conquered the material world, and now is in control of the afterlife … and you. What was I compared to that?’

This time, Daeng’s hand was more than pleased to be in his.

‘The answer isn’t nearly as complicated as the question,’ Siri told her. ‘You were great. You always have been great. And you always will be great. There is no woman who can compare to you because you are unique. And that makes me great too because I ended up with you.’

He watched the tears race one another down her face. He rarely saw her cry. He never cried himself so he put the dampness on his cheeks down to an early dew.

‘And what am I right about?’ she asked.

‘What?’

‘When you grovelled over to me a few minutes ago you said I was right.’

‘Ah, yes. There’s something going on.’

‘I told you.’

‘I never doubted you. Did you witness the arrival of the engineers just now?’

‘No.’

‘They’re Vietnamese.’

‘No? All of them?’

‘I swear.’

‘What the hell are they doing here?’

‘It might have been the minister’s doing. Trying to keep this secret, so he brings in foreigners. Word’s less likely to get around.’

‘That’s a lot of trouble to go to just to keep a secret, Siri. What if there’s a completely different motive? Something totally unrelated to the brother and the sunken boat.’

‘Like what?’

‘I don’t know. Perhaps it’s the only way they could get Vietnamese troops into Sanyaburi.’

‘There’s hardly enough of them for an invasion.’

‘But if they’re engineers they might be here to do some surveying? A bit of spying on the Thai border?’

‘Then that would mean the whole performance with Madame Peung was just to win the minister over and get him to make the call to bring in soldiers.’

‘Siri, how certain are you that she’s legitimate?’

Siri got off his knees and sat on the swing beside his wife. He looked off towards the river, mentally thumbing through his conversations with the witch.

‘She talks about things as if … as if she’s seen what I’ve seen. She’s shown me how she makes contact, or rather how she opens herself to be contacted. She’s been teaching me how to relax and accept whatever comes my way. There’s just so much evidence. All that display in the governor’s meeting room on Saturday. It was too natural. Too spontaneous. I mean, how could she know all those things? She hadn’t been told who would be there in the room.’

‘All right. So she’s really a medium. Then we’d have to assume someone harnessed her skills to meet outside objectives. Blackmail? Threats?’

‘The brother. What if he’s not her brother? What if he’s a minder? By her side all the time to make her say what someone wants her to say.’

‘All right. We might be getting somewhere.’

‘And we might be going there for no reason.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Just that this could all be exactly what it seems. The Vietnamese unit was the only one available. We’ll all go and dig up the boat and we’ll find the remains of the minister’s brother. No mystery at all.’

‘And do you honestly think that’s all there is to it?’

‘No. But I do think this whole thing can be explained if we can discover what happened in 1910.’

‘Where are we going to find an historian in Pak Lai?’

‘You know? I think there might be one sleeping in our bed this very minute.’

‘I told him. I told him where they were,’ she said.

Dtui and Phosy lay side by side and wide awake on their thin mattress on the floor. Malee was sound asleep. She was apparently not nearly as traumatized by the morning’s events as her mother.

‘Stop it,’ said Phosy. ‘You couldn’t know.’

‘I’m sure he’ll go there.’

‘You can’t be certain. You know how hard it is for a foreigner to travel around the country unaccompanied by some Lao official. Even if he tried there are checkpoints all the way. Without a travel document he won’t get past any of them.’

‘He’ll find a way. I looked into his eyes, Phosy. He’s crazy but he’s calculating. I think he was talking about his cancer and how little time it had given him. I’m sure Dr Siri did something to him in the past and this insane man wants revenge.’

‘Look, first thing tomorrow I’ll go to the German embassy. They handle French visas now the French embassy is shut. I’ll see if they have copies of visa applications. They should have a photo attached. I’ll bring what they have and show you. We’ll find him.’

‘That’s no help at all to Siri and Daeng. I know what this man is capable of, Phosy. I was this close to the metal bar that beat the hell out of the fire victim. He burned down Daeng’s shop. He was going to kill your wife and daughter for no other reason than that I knew Siri. If it weren’t for the glass breaking …’

‘Stop thinking about it. You’re safe. Malee’s safe.’

‘But who could it have been? The voice?’

‘I imagine someone overheard the conversation and decided to help.’

‘Phosy. How many people do you know who speak English? I mean, those that haven’t already swum across the river. This man was fluent. And he had a gun. He saved our lives.’

‘And if we ever find him I’ll pin a medal on him. But, in the mean time, how about trying to get some sleep?’

‘I won’t sleep until I know they’re safe.’