Authors: Mike Sullivan
Tags: #9781615729852, #Damnation Books, #dark, #suspense, #dead, #girl, #beach, #Mike Sullivan, #Exotic, #Thailand. Gruesome, #needlefish, #love, #story, #contrast, #conflict, #worlds, #lifestyles, #Hong Kong, #mafia, #Contract killing, #Corruption, #crooked cops, #Strange, #female, #serial killer, #Eerie, #chilling, #murders, #tropical, #island, #paradise
Dead Girl Beach (15 page)
A week later, after spreading Suma and Arun's ashes across the sea, Lawan's life returned to normal. At a roadside restaurant on Sunrise Beach, she sat with her friend Duan Sakda.
A crowd of swimmers splashed out into the calm, azure waters of the sun-speckled ocean. Loud shrieks and shouts of playful laughter drifted back across the sand at them. Lawan sipped her Diet Coke, and the ice tinkled in the glass as she set it down on the table. She stared across at her friend. Duanâa tall woman with a wide, angular face and big, brown eyesâordered from the menu and handed it back to the server.
“Sorry, I can't stay long. You know how it is.” She smiled and started to blush. “I'm a working girl, and you know Bennieâhow mad he gets if you show up late for work. Rumors are flying around that he's hired a new Mama San to take over, so maybe things will relax a bit when she comes in. I sure hope so.”
“Are you happy there?” Lawan asked.
Surprised by the question, Duan hunched shoulders, and her palms turned up. “Well, I need to make a living,” she said smiling. “Not like you, a woman of leisure.”
“I've hadâ”
“A lot to deal with,” Duan said, cutting in. “I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound so insensitive.”
Lawan went into her handbag and pulled out a photo. “You don't have to work there, anymore.”
“Huh?” Duan's big eyes narrowed in confusion. “I'm afraid I've lost you.”
The server came with their orders, set them down, and left. No longer able to hold back her excitement, Lawan said, “Don't eat a single bit until you see this.” She laid the photograph down in front of Duan.
“Welcome to our new business.”
Surprised, her eyes went wide with excitement. Duan stared down at photo.
The building was brand new with a glossy red and gold sign over the front door. The sign said L & D Hair Salon. Duan recognized the street where they grew up, in their home town of Phuketâa trendy, tourist destination on Thailand's southern gulf coast.
Duan gushed, “Oh, my God. Lawan, a beauty salon!” Her mouth flung open. “How did you do that? How?”
“Payback moneyâ¦$200,000.00â¦from the Langers. We can start a new life now, away from the bars.”
A few days later in Phuket, Lawan took down the closed sign in the front window of the salon, and they were open for business.
Three weeks before, Tara Bennett had returned to her office at police headquarters in Taiwan. Her boss had received a call from the Chief of Police in Bangkok, commending her on outstanding fieldwork and her dedication to solving crime. As a result, she received a promotion and a pay raise.
That very same day, Seabury took a speedboat over to Koh Samui Island. He caught a flight to Bangkok. Later that afternoon, he caught a United Airlines flight to Seattle.
The next day, he dropped by the Inlandboatmen's Union hiring hall on West Nickerson Street. Biff Barnes was sitting at his desk in his office. When he saw Seabury, he waved him inside. The stout, beefy Irishman with blue eyes and a shock of black, oily hair leaned across the desk and looked at Seabury. The smell of cigar smoke filled the air.
“This isn't posted on the board, yet.” He tossed a 5 x 10 inch note card on top of the desk in front of Seabury. “It's a freighter hauling ammo to Yokohama. Leaves the day after tomorrow. Want it?”
Seabury shrugged and thought a minute. “The day after tomorrow, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, Biff. Sign me up.”
After Seabury left the union hall, he sauntered down the block and around the corner to the Skipperâa local bar with a whiskered sea captain posted on a sign above the front door. Inside, he ordered a beer and sat at a table near the window looking out onto the street. The day was bright and sunny. People moved along the sidewalk past the window.
Seabury drank his beer. The memory of Dao Suttikul stabbed at his heart a little as he watched a couple walking arm-in-arm down the sidewalk. He drew air back into his lungs and released it in a heavy sigh. The sight of the woman's hand as it slapped playfully at the man beside her moved Seabury. It was the same way Dao's hand slapped playfully at his own armâjust little things that he remembered. He wondered about the life that they might have had together, if things had worked out differently. Then again, wasn't that lifeâso strange and unpredictable?
In the smokeless air of the bar, Dao's image began to fade. It would never be lost, but in timeâlike all thingsâit would flicker out there on the horizon and gradually disappear to become a distant memory. Seabury had a new life, now. The sea was his home.
As a writer and job counselor, Mike enjoys writing thrillers set in exotic locations. Living in Thailand provides this opportunity. He has self-published a job hunt text titled
How to Get Hired Fast
.  The book has generated  brisk sales from teachers wanting copies for their classes.
He has just completed the second in a series of Sam Seabury novels titled People at the End of the Lake. His main character, Asia's version of Lee Child's epic hero Jack Reacher, is a gritty, intelligent, no nonsense merchant seaman who can't say no to anyone in trouble.
Email Mike Sullivan at
[email protected]
.
Visit him online at:
http://createfly.byethost7.com/mjpsullivan/
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