Brett Battles - Little Girl Gone

“Which one of you picked up the group at the airport today.”

“We both at airport today.”

“I’m talking about the people who came in on the small plane. With the girl who was sick.”

The man looked even more nervous now.

“Was that you?” Daeng asked.

“Ye…yes. Was me.”

“Good. I want to know where you took them.”

“I…I…”

“Is there a problem? You had to take them somewhere, didn’t you? Where was it?”

The man’s gaze shot back and forth between Daeng and Logan, then he began speaking rapidly in Thai. At the end he seemed to be repeating himself, pleading.

“What’s he saying?” Logan asked.

“He says the people he gave the ride to made him promise to say nothing about them or where they went. They said if they found out he did, they would kill him and his family.”

“Yes, yes!” the owner said. “Please. Cannot say. Please understand. Have family.”

Logan could see that Daeng was about to start in again, so he quickly said, “Let me.”

He crouched down in front of the owner of the van, lowering himself so that they were eye-to-eye. “No one wants to hurt you or your family. Okay?”

The man just stared at him, his eyes full of terror.

“The sick girl who was with the people you picked up, they kidnapped her.” Logan could instantly see the man didn’t understand. “Took her. Against her will.” There was still incomprehension in the man’s eyes.

Logan looked back at Daeng, who then said something very quickly in Thai.

The man’s eyes widened as he realized what Logan had meant.

“I need to find her. I need to bring her home to her family. You understand?”

The man nodded.

“We need to know where you took them. You have to tell us.”

The man began shaking his head violently. “No. No. My family. Cannot.”

“But the girl has a family, too.”

The man closed his eyes and continued to shake his head.

Logan stood back up. He’d thought for sure he’d been getting through to him. “There’s got to be some way to get him to tell us,” he said to Daeng.

Daeng turned so that his back was to the man. “We could rough up his wife and kid.”

“Absolutely not!” Logan said. That was one road he would never go down.

“I was actually kidding. This guy’s done nothing but get hired by the people you’re looking for. I don’t hurt the innocent.”

Logan relaxed a little. “Sorry.”

“My fault, not yours,” he said. “I may have an idea that might work, though.”

Daeng turned back, then began speaking to the man in Thai. Logan could see some of the tension that had gripped the man fade. The van owner asked a few questions. Daeng answered two of them, then looked at Logan after the third.

“I’ve offered to put them someplace where I can guarantee their safety until this is over. He’s open to that, but…”

“Yes?”

“The vans are his only means of income. If he’s not working, he’s not making any money.”

Logan nodded. Here was a problem he could solve. “I can cover the rental fees.”

“I thought you might be able to.” Daeng turned back to the man and relayed the information.

For the first time the guy smiled and began to look like he was no longer worried he was about to die. He spoke with Daeng for another minute, then got up and went into the back room.

“Come on,” Daeng said, then headed for the front door.

“He told you where they are?”

“He told me where he took them.”

“Great.”

Daeng hesitated, then said, “Maybe.”

27

Logan and Daeng spent another twenty minutes traveling through town before they got out of the car again. They were under what appeared to be a long concrete bridge, in an area populated with more apartment buildings.

“Skytrain,” Daeng said, following Logan gaze up at the bridge. “Public train. Runs above the city.”

There didn’t seem to be any trains operating at the moment.

Logan came around one of its support pillars, and was surprised to see a wide, dark river off to their left.

Daeng started walking toward it. “This way.”

There was a gentle breeze coming off the water, making the warm, humid night almost pleasant. Daeng stopped on a sidewalk near the river’s edge. Beyond it was a wide cement area, with a pair of ramps that sloped down to an empty dock.

“The van owner said this is where he dropped them off,” Daeng said.

“Where, exactly, are we?”

“Sathorn Pier.”

“So from here where would they have gone?” Logan asked.

“Anywhere along the Chao Phraya.”

The Chao Phraya, that was a name Logan remembered from his previous trip. It was the royal river that split the city in two.

“So they could be anywhere.”

“Sure, but the choice is odd. Why even use the river? The van owner said they didn’t take one of the public ferries, or even hire a boat once they got here. He said there was a boat already waiting for them.” Daeng paused, then said, “The only thing I can think of is that they needed to use the river.”

That thought had crossed Logan’s mind, too. It was either that, or they had used the river to cover their tracks in case they were worried about being followed. But it seemed to Logan that moving from car to boat and boat to car again with such a large group that included one incapacitated girl would have created unwanted attention, doing the exact opposite of helping them to disappear.

“Okay, so what would they have needed it for?” he asked.

“Maybe a hotel?” Daeng suggested. “There are a few along the waterfront.”

Logan shook his head. A group like that, checking into a big hotel? Same unwanted attention problem.

“They could have been meeting someone at another pier,” Daeng offered.

“Possibly. But then, why not just drive there?”

Daeng looked down the waterfront. “There are also a lot of private residences along the river, apartment buildings, shacks. Nothing that’s particularly fancy, but some do have docks, and a few are actually built over the river, so, depending on the type of boat they were in, they could have gone right underneath.”

Logan thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “That makes more sense to me.”

“Don’t get too excited,” Daeng told him. “There’s miles of riverfront here, and thousands of places for people to live in. It might take us weeks to figure out which one they’re using, and chances are they’re going to be gone by morning.”

Logan grimaced. Daeng was right, of course. “What would you do in their situation?”

“I wouldn’t be in their situation,” Daeng said. “I don’t kidnap people.”

“Hypothetically. You’d be concerned about security, right?”

“Sure.”

“Would you be concerned enough to have guards posted around the clock?”

Daeng consider it for a second, then nodded. “I would.”

“Yeah,” Logan said. “So would I.”

“Okay, so they’re being careful. How does that help us?”

“If it was the middle of the day right now, or even the evening, I’d say it wouldn’t help us at all. But it’s three a.m. The river’s quiet. The streets are mostly empty. If we were ever going to notice someplace being guarded, wouldn’t this be the best time?”

“You want to go out on the river? Right now?”

“Tell me that I’m wrong.”

Daeng paused, then said, “No. You’re not wrong. It’s a good idea. The noise from a boat motor might stir them up, too. Make them easier to spot. Still there’s a very good chance we won’t find them.”

“I know, but we definitely won’t find them if we just stand here.”