He walked out of the front of the guesthouse and crossed over to find some shade and to get a look at Mae Sot. Gee was right, the place had every creed and colour. As he walked down the busy roads, stepping on and off the pavement as it crumbled beneath his feet, a tall black African walked by, his wife in full burka walking behind him. Mann watched him as he shook hands with a man wearing a fez. Sikhs rode by on bicycles with turbans on their heads and Hindus in white robes sat with Burmese, Thai, and Indian men drinking coffee in cafés. Chinese men shared shisha pipes with Africans. The odd pale-faced westerner darted past.

Mann came off the main street and headed towards a covered market area. He was swallowed up by the stalls that touched one another overhead, and a dark wet world of life and death blinked up at him from below as he passed stalls groaning with the weight of butchered pigs, piled high and buzzing with flies. Pink-eyed white rabbits in cages on the floor stared up at him. A crusty-faced woman thrust a live disembowelled frog into his face. It was then that he saw Louis rushing through the market. He wasn’t stopping to buy. Mann slipped in unnoticed behind him. He had tailed him to the end of the first set of stalls, across a small road, and back into darkness when Gee stepped into his path. His face was grave.

‘You are lost, my friend. You do not want to go that way.’

40

Shrimp left the middle-agers to sleep whilst he went in search of a bar and some locals to talk to and find out the truth behind the tsunami rebuild. He came out of his hotel and walked away from the beach towards the town and the sprawling market that sprang up every evening. It was filled with noisy bars and garishly-lit avenues of stalls selling fake bags, sunglasses and Calvin Kleins.

Shrimp was about to sit with some lobster-faced Aussies who were wearing vests and talking about boxing with the Thai barman—all friendly enough but not exactly enticing. Then he heard the familiar strains of Madonna and ‘Like a Virgin’. Out of the corner of his eye he spied a mirrorball. Three girls in sequin hotpants and glittering heels beckoned him over. He gave the Aussies a wide berth and linked arm in arm with two of the girls as they escorted him to the bar. It was a small semi-circular space done out in a glitzy seventies style with an impressive collection of mirrorballs and Kylie memorabilia. Lava lamps decorated the bar. Shrimp felt at home.

‘What can I get you, good-lookin’?’ the tallest of the three girls asked in a clear voice as she moved behind the bar to serve him. She had long thick hair, heavy makeup, but good bone structure, thought Shrimp—and great legs.

‘Do you have Diet Coke?’

‘Sorry, hon, we only have regular. We have a great champagne cocktail, half price and, as it’s happy hour, you get two for one: one for you and one for me.’ She smiled cheekily.

‘Okay.’

‘Fab.’ She gave a giggle before turning on her heel and bending over into the fridge at the end of the bar. She pulled out the bottle of fizz and popped it amidst giggles and mock shrieks from the other girls. Shrimp had seen her give it a little shake before she popped it. He didn’t blame her, from the sound of the girls, a lot was expected of a cheap bottle of fizz. She popped the cork and a plume of fizz obliged, much to the delight of the girls. She poured him out a flute and one for herself.

‘Salut, baby!’ she said.

‘Cheers.’

‘What’s your name, hon?’ she asked as she wet her lips with the fizz.

‘Li,’ Shrimp answered. ‘Yours?’

‘Mine’s Summer. Over there are June and July.’ She motioned to the shrieking girls.

‘Nice place you have, Summer.’

‘Thank you, hon, but I used to have a real smart place before the tsunami.’ Summer retouched her makeup, snapped the compact shut and threw it back in her handbag. ‘I lost everything in that wave.’

‘Didn’t you get help from any charities? Didn’t the government help you rebuild?’

‘Sure, they made promises but the money didn’t come. I made a big mistake and made a private deal with an investor. They promised me money to rebuild it. They made me sign it away—the bar, everything. I had something special then. Now I just have this…’ Summer rolled her eyes around the makeshift bar that she assembled every evening and took down at dawn.

‘Who made you?’

‘The people who run this Thai boxing place. Built a brand new stadium at the end of the beach.’

‘Where did they get the money to build that?’

‘Those Thai boxers have friends in very high places. They muscled in on lots of the small folk. They got the backing of the police, the local government. They took it from me.’

‘How did they manage to do that?’

‘After the tsunami the government just hung on to the money. It wasn’t just people here in the town who lost out. The fishermen all along the coast? They all lost their homes and the government wouldn’t let them come back. They sold off their land to big developers.’ Summer shook her head sadly. ‘I put my heart and soul into making that bar work. Ah well…that’s the way it goes. They did it to a lot of people along this beach.’

‘Have you got the forms that you signed—can I take a look?’

Summer rolled her eyes and shook her head.

‘So dumb—they took it all off me. I never had anything to show in the end. It’s the same with many of us here in the market. We had nice places by the beach but after the tsunami it’s all gone. So, tell me, honey, what’s all this to you? Smart dresser like you? You just on vacation here or what? Why do you care about us?’

‘I am looking into some charities. You say those Thai boxing people have done the same to others?’

‘Yeah. It wasn’t easy after the tsunami. We should have waited. It’s just the government money didn’t come quick enough and we trusted them. People are really scared of them now.’

‘Who else got cheated? Can you take me to them?’

‘Sure.’

They left the bar and walked through the bars and the stalls until they came to a stall on the edge of the lit area. They found a couple with a sleeping baby lying on a piece of cardboard. Their stall was a small one, the usual tat mainly: necklaces, shell ornaments but also some beautifully carved wooden figures. The man was sat on a stool carving one, and the woman was making a silver wire necklace.

They looked up and smiled but looked concerned at the sight of Summer with Shrimp. The man stood to greet them. Summer spoke to him in Thai. Then she turned to Shrimp.

‘This is Yada and his wife. They had a business on the beach before the tsunami.’

Yada nodded furiously. ‘It was a good business, sir. We had a shop, it was my grandfather’s shop. In our family many years. My father too, he was a furniture maker. Very beautiful.’ He pulled out a catalogue with glossy photos of ornately carved pieces of teak furniture. ‘Can make all these things.’

‘What happened?’ Shrimp took the folder and politely turned the laminated pages.

‘We were waiting for the money from the government and two people from NAP came and they said we could get money quicker if we let them help. I trusted them. They said that lots of people from the Netherlands collected money to help.’ Yada looked across at his wife. She looked as if she had lost her faith not just in the world but in her husband. Her silence spoke volumes. ‘I know I should not have. I thought I would get more money. I listened to them…I lost everything. They make me fill in forms. The money comes through and they show me a piece of paper that say I no longer own my shop.’

‘Did they bring a lawyer with them?’

‘Oh yes, sugar.’ Summer answered while trying on a brass bangle. ‘They have a whole team.’