Behind the Night Bazaar Read Online Free PDF Page B

there was no sign of his colleagues being affected by the grisly murder. Komet was grateful no one had witnessed his own reaction.
    The Scientific Crime Detection Division team arrived. With a glance from Ratratarn, Komet took the remaining papers from the wallet and carefully replaced it on the table. He shuffled through the items—motorbike licence, ATM card, a couple of withdrawal receipts, student ID—before coming across a business card, printed in English on one side, Thai on the other.
    ‘Di Di Yah Der Mon Pahs,’ he transliterated aloud.
    ‘What’s that?’ Ratratarn materialised in front of him.
    ‘Name card, Sir. It was in the deceased’s wallet. Looks like it belongs to a foreigner.’
    The lieutenant colonel snatched the card from Komet’s fingers. ‘“Didier de Montpasse,”’ he read in English. ‘“Research consultant, Rural Development and HIV/ AIDS.” There’s an address here…Komet, you’re coming with me to check it out. Could be the farang boyfriend. Pornsak!’
    His call interrupted the sergeant’s interrogation of a young man in the crowd of onlookers.
    ‘You and Tanin stay here until the SCDD boys are done.’
    ‘Ah, Sir, here’s something that might interest you. This guy—what did you say your name was?’
    ‘Mana.’
    The young man wore jeans torn at the knees and a pale blue T-shirt, a thick fringe of hair shaded his eyes like a visor.
    ‘Khun Mana was here a few hours ago, around ten,’ Pornsak said. ‘Says he witnessed an argument between the deceased and a foreigner.’
    ‘The farang was very angry, Sir,’ Mana piped up, licking his lips as he spoke. ‘I’m not sure why. I think it had something to do with money.’
    ‘Would you know this foreigner if you saw him again?’
    ‘Oh, yes, Sir. We all know him.’ He indicated the other young men in the group. ‘He comes around here a lot. He helps us…’ His voice trailed off.
    ‘Helps you what?’ Pornsak said, grabbing Mana by his T-shirt and eyeballing him.
    Komet recognised the homage to their chief in the sergeant’s action, but the gesture merely made Pornsak look like a thug.
    ‘He helps us look after ourselves,’ Mana said, more annoyed than frightened. ‘You know, to look after our health, protect ourselves from getting AIDS—’
    At the word AIDS, Pornsak let go of the young man as if he’d been stung.
    ‘What’s this foreigner’s name?’ Ratratarn said, toying with the business card.
    Mana licked his lips again. ‘We call him Khun Di, Sir.’
    ‘ Cheu Khun Di proh wah pen kon dee, chai mai ?’
    The young man nodded. ‘We call him Mister Di because he’s a good person. I think his real name is Didi, Didiyer—something like that.’
    Ratratarn glanced at the card and smiled—or was it, Komet wondered, a grimace? His chief’s smile was a lifeless tightening of the lips. Ratratarn was in his fifties, but his face was smooth, apart from two thin, crescent-shaped scars which enclosed his left eye like parentheses. Beneath his close-fitting uniform, his body had the strength of a much younger man.
    The lieutenant colonel looked up sharply and Komet, fearing Ratratarn could read his thoughts, studied the serial number on the licence he’d taken from Sanga’s wallet.
    ‘Tanin, get a signed statement from this kid. Pornsak, interview everyone here and see if anyone else witnessed the argument between the victim and the foreigner. Komet, you come with me. We’re going to pay a visit to this Mister Good.’
    Didier was no stranger to insomnia, considering it an occupational hazard. But it wasn’t his usual mantra of ‘what more could I be doing?’ that had him watching the luminous digits of his bedside clock change from 3:09 to 3:10. He looked at the empty space in the bed beside him, thinking about Jayne.
    Had he damaged their relationship? The heat of the moment gave him an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. Before that night, he wasn’t even sure he could initiate sex with a