Dorothy reached over and squeezed Magda’s hand.

‘But the main point of this story is that Deming changed. I always suspected it was after he met you. He gave away a lot of his money to charities like drug rehabilitation units.’

Magda pulled out the photo of Deming with the dark-skinned Asian man.

‘I found this photo amongst the papers. Do you know the man in the picture, Dorothy?’

‘I haven’t seen him for years. He was involved in the Golden Orchid. His name is Gee.’

‘Who was he?’

‘He was an ex-addict that Deming liked. Deming handed over his share of the Golden Orchid to him and helped him with ideas for advancing the handicrafts. He set him up in a shop here. It’s in Chinatown—Gee’s cousins run it.’ ‘So that was the end of Deming’s involvement with the Golden Orchid?’

‘Yes, as far as I know. Of course, he still owned all the land and the buildings that were registered to the company.’ Dorothy paused and looked up at Magda. ‘You do know that, don’t you?’ Magda shook her head. ‘Well, that was one of the last things I did for Deming. I liaised with the solicitor when Deming had the land transferred into the boys’ names. Jake and Johnny Mann must still own all the two thousand acres of land in Burma.’

103

Mo’s eyes were bright and burning with an unearthly sweat of exhaustion and of satisfaction as she approached Boon Nam. They had fought solidly for twelve hours and now just a handful of Boon Nam’s army remained. She stood over him as she watched him being tied to a tree by Phara and the others.

‘Boon Nam, every soldier deserves to die an honourable death.’ He looked at her in the dusk, his eyes defiant. He was ready for death. She pulled his trousers down and held his penis in her hand and began to work it. Boon Nam became semi-hard. Just at the point that his eyes began to take on a new look, a hopeful look, that, despite the terrible predicament he found himself in, he might just be about to get laid, Mo smiled at him.

‘But you are no soldier; you are a murderer of women and children and a rapist…’ She got her knife and sliced it right through at the base of the shaft. Boon Nam screamed in agony as his body convulsed in pain and shock.

‘Bring me a cooking pot, girls,’ Mo shouted. ‘Meat’s on the menu tonight.’ She looked him in the eyes. Boon Nam’s face contorted with agony as he fought against the pain. ‘Let your death be without dignity and let your spirit roam forever.’

104

Shrimp caught a domestic flight up from Phuket to the small airstrip two hours outside Mae Sot. Then he caught a taxi to Mae Sot and checked into Mary’s before walking the few doors up to King’s bar. ‘You have a bag for me?’

Eric was reading a magazine and listening to ‘Stairway to Heaven’ on the juke box. He stopped and looked up as Shrimp approached him. He did not seem fazed by Shrimp’s battered face—a mixture of fresh swellings on old bruises. He studied him and smiled.

‘My name is Li,’ said Shrimp. ‘Johnny Mann left something for me.’

‘Ah yes,’ Eric replied. He disappeared out the back and came back carrying a bag. ‘Your friend said you would come for it and he said you would pay me well for looking after it.’

‘Of course. He is a good judge of character.’ Shrimp smiled to himself. If Eric had known what was in it, he would never have held out for the two hundred US dollars. As he was leaving the bar Eric called after him.

‘Where is your friend?’

Shrimp turned in the doorway.

‘On his way back.’

‘And you, are you staying here long?’

‘Just passing through.’

Eric nodded.

‘The whole world passes through Mae Sot. It is like a Stairway to Heaven is it not?’ he nodded towards the juke box and grinned. The music changed. AC-DC came on. ‘Or maybe it’s a Highway to Hell,’ said Shrimp as he left.

Shrimp went back to Mary’s to wait. He rang Ng.

‘NAP’s prints are all over some big deception cases in Patong. They’ve been making money-brokering deals between local corrupt officials and foreign investors.’

‘Yes. We know. Alfie’s found the evidence in her emails.’

‘Keep it all for me, Ng. I intend to help these people.’

‘I will. Katrien’s been doing the deals and pocketing the money. She’s been using it to bring in large drug shipments. She’s been trying to buy her way into the big league in the world drug trade.’

‘What do you want me to do, now?’

‘We dare not risk Katrien finding out Mann has backup; she may decide it’s not worth the risk of getting caught. Stay where you are till we know what’s happened to Mann.’

‘How was he the last time you spoke?’

Ng paused. ‘He was very sick. If he doesn’t make it, if something has happened to Mann, then we have to hope she will contact you through Magda or Alfie. She is not going to want to say goodbye to that money. She will want it, whoever she gets it from, and that might well be you.’

‘I’m not giving up on Mann, Ng.’

‘I know, but you might have to.’

Shrimp hung up and texted Mann again

I’m here, Boss. Have the goods, awaiting instructions, Shrimp.

105

As soon as Alfie got the call from Ng, he went back to the shop in Chinatown. He knew he was out on a limb—he should have applied for a search warrant—but if he did, he knew the shop would be emptied before the warrant was issued. Ng had said there was a link between Deming and the Golden Orchid and Burma. Right now that felt as good a link to getting Jake home as Alfie had had so far. He wasn’t about to let it slip through his fingers.

Alfie went into the shop opposite to watch discreetly. A young designer had taken advantage of the space and low rent; Alfie was standing in the doorway of a young woman’s passion for plastic baby dolls and rubber handbags. He watched the activity opposite. He saw the same man as last time, the owner, hovering just inside the doorway and watching Alfie. Alfie paid for the bag he had bought for Magda and looked tentatively around as he crossed the road. The ache in his side reminded him that he was still strapped up from the wound and the stitches were not due out for a few more days. But the panic he felt in his lungs and his heart told him he had to risk it—they didn’t have a few more days. They had waited too long to act as it was. At least these people would realise he was a problem that wasn’t going to go away, if nothing else.

As he reached the shop doorway, he flashed the owner a big broad grin and the man nodded, looking puzzled, and stepped aside for Alfie to enter. Inside, there were three men, swarthy, tricky-looking types, sitting on boxes that looked like newly arrived stock. They were drinking small shots of strong coffee. The owner closed the door behind Alfie.

‘This is the policeman I told you about,’ he said. The men stopped drinking coffee and stood up with knives in their hands.

106

‘She is in so much trouble, and that dirty little receptionist as well. She’s been helping Katrien to cook the books.’ Magda and Dorothy sat in Katrien’s empty NAP office and Dorothy opened a drawer hidden on the underside of the desk. ‘She thinks I don’t know where she hides things but she forgets how long I have been here. This is what I wanted to show you.’ She pulled out a folder about the history of NAP. She turned the plastic sleeves until she found what she was looking for—an article about the missionary couple who had rescued Katrien from Burma when her village had been destroyed.