Charlie opened the glove box to reveal an old Colt revolver.
“Woah!” Selena said.
“Just in case,” said Charlie. “Kunchai will be armed.”
“In that case I think it’s time for that quiet beer,” Riley said. “We can study the place for a while before going in.”
“This shouldn’t take too long,” Riley said, sipping a beer. They’d been in the bar for an hour now, posing as tourists and watching quietly from behind the cover of their sunglasses as they kept an eye on Kunchai’s place over the road. “What d’ya recon, Charlie?”
“I think we need to tread carefully around a man like Kunchai, and remember he’s working for someone else.”
An old friend of Selena and her father, Charlie Valentine was a former soldier with the Royal Military Police and knew more than a few tricks when it came to tracking people down. He’d also worked as a conman after leaving the army and falling on hard times. All of this plus the five years he’d spent living in Bangkok meant he was the best man for the job.
“When do we go in?” Decker said.
“Kunchai’s having a business dinner in there tonight,” Charlie said. “So when they’ve wrapped up, I guess.”
“We’ll need to know the layout of the place before we go in,” Riley said while staring at the menu. “But in the meantime we eat and make merry!”
“Sounds good,” Selena said. “But I don’t want to lose that journal again, whatever happens.” She lifted a menu and began reading. She had never been to the district before and was fascinated by the way wealth and poverty rubbed shoulders wherever she looked. Men with no shoes sold fruit from broken crates under rotting parasols on the side of a road where luxury foreign cars cruised silently past. “This is an amazing place,” she said.
Charlie sniffed and leaned back in his chair. “Most Westerners are happy to come here and spend their money, but what a lot of them don’t realize is how corrupt the place is. Not that long ago a load of Thai police got busted for trafficking heroin. Shit happens.”
“You can say that again,” Riley said.
Decker was less amazed, having spent so much time in the Thai capital on his many jobs shuttling cargo back and forth from other Asian cities. To say he knew the ropes was an understatement, and so he settled back in his chair and enjoyed his beer, keeping one eye on the busy nightclub on the other side of the street. His mind drifted to the twenty-five big ones the Englishwoman had promised him. “So you think this Mr Kunchai guy is working for someone else?” Decker said.
“It’s just Kunchai,” Charlie said. “Not Mr Kunchai. He’s got a Madonna thing going on.”
“Madonna thing?”
“With the name — everyone around these parts knows who Kunchai is… but that’s where the similarity ends, unless she’s started kneecapping people at her concerts. But yeah — Kunchai is a serious villain, but I doubt he’s on the market for an ancient journal. He’s more your middleman level of scumbag.”
“So what’s the plan?” Selena asked.
“I’ll check the place out in a minute,” Riley said. “Just get the general layout and ask some questions and then I’ll be back.”
As dusk slowly fell over Bangkok, they moved inside and ordered drinks. Riley wandered back to their table with another tray full of cold beers. “Eight hundred baht for a cocktail? Geez — that’s a bit steep for a place like this. The Moon Bar maybe but this place had a dead dog outside.”
“I didn’t see that?” Selena said. “Where?”
“Well, on reflection it was probably sleeping, but the point stands.”
He downed his drink and checking the darkness outside one last time, he turned to them and smiled. “All right — wish me luck.”
They watched the Australian wipe his mouth and belch loudly before jogging across the street and paying to get inside the nightclub.
“How long will he be?” Decker asked, looking at his watch.
“A pro would be in and out in five minutes,” Charlie said, frowning. “But by the look of some of the women lining up to get into that club, I’d give Riley an hour.”
“An hour? What the hell are we supposed to do in the meantime?”
“Eat!” Selena said.
They walked over to the restaurant section of the building and were met by a sombre-looking man dressed in black.
“A table for three?” he asked.
“Yes please,” Selena said.
Decker smiled. “We’re on honeymoon.”
The waiter gave the three of them a funny look and turned his back to get a menu. Selena nudged the American in the ribs and scowled at him. “Honeymoon? What the hell?”
“There are three of us, Decker,” Charlie said with a grin. “Just what sort of marriages are you familiar with?”
Decker shrugged. “It just flew into my head.”
“Well it can bloody well flight right out again. Why not just say we’re friends and…”
The waiter turned back to them and was now smiling and handing them some menus. “Perhaps you three newlyweds would like to sit outside?”
“I think my wife would prefer somewhere with air-conditioning,” Decker said, smirking at Selena once again. “She gets very short-tempered in the heat.”
“Ah, of course.”
“Can’t believe I’m in a thrupple,” Charlie said.
Selena rolled her eyes but said nothing. She picked up the menu and Decker followed her lead and started to look at the food. A moment later he looked up.
“I’ll take the scallops in prik pao sauce,” he said, glancing up from the menu to Selena and back again. “And maybe the shrimp pad see weo. What about you, darling?” he said with a wink.
She gave him another look and buried her face in the menu.
The food arrived fast, and Selena watched the American pilot as he attacked the pile of rice in front of him. It reminded her of the time she saw a crocodile eating a chicken on the National Geographic channel.
“I’m getting worried about Riley,” she said, glancing at her watch.
“I thought you said an hour?” Decker said. “It’s only been twenty-five minutes yet. Plus there’s no sense letting this great food go to waste.”
“Riley will be fine, Lena,” Charlie said.
“Well you two can stay here, but I’m going to check if he’s all right.”
She got up from the table and threw her napkin down on her plate.
Decker looked up at her. “Where are you going?”
“Like I said, I’m going to check if Riley’s all right.”
“You wouldn’t be trying to run out on me before paying me my twenty-five grand?”
“I’m insulted by the mere suggestion!” She started to move away from the table but Decker grabbed her by the arm. “Wait — here he comes!”
Riley jogged back over to them with a broad smile on his face.
“Well?” Selena said.
“Shit — I love scallops!” he said, looking at Decker’s plate. “Is that prik pao sauce too?”
“It is.”
“Bastard.”
“Riley!”
“What?”
“What did you learn?”
“Never pick a fight with a man in a bra.”
“Be serious you silly sod.”
“Sorry — Kunchai’s hosting his meeting upstairs in a conference room opposite his office on the top floor. They’re scheduled to leave in the next hour and then our man’s all alone. You can see the conference room from the side of the building. One of the waitresses there says he keeps any valuables in his private apartment… so time for a chat with our host, I reckon.”
“Any way in besides going past the goons on the front door?” Decker asked.