Chimera

CHAPTER 11

Forestry Division Headquarters, Phuket, Thailand

It was nearing dusk when the police helicopter carrying Colonel Kulawnit, Bulatt, and two M4 carbine-armed Thai Forestry investigators who functioned as Kulawnit’s bodyguards, landed at the Forestry Division headquarters in Phuket. A unformed Major was waiting beside a pair of black SUV’s at the edge of the helipad.

“Colonel, I offer my most humble apologies. Your son died while under my supervision and care, and there is no excuse for my failure. I will forward my resignation immediately,” Major Sathan Preithat said in English, acknowledging Bulatt’s presence, as he opened the rear door of the SUV and stepped aside.

Bulatt glanced at the Major’s face and decided that he’d never before seen anyone who managed to combine the looks of utter dismay and absolute rage into one barely-controlled expression.

Kulawnit had been stone-faced as he walked toward the waiting vehicles; but he hesitated at Major Preithat’s words, blinked, and then shook his head and turned to face his subordinate commander.

“Khun Sat,” Kulawnit said. “There shall be no more talk of your resignation. I placed my son in your charge because I considered you to be the most competent and loyal commander in our Division. I did so because I believed he would have the best opportunity to become a skilled leader of good men under your guidance. And I know from his letters that you were succeeding in his training beyond all of my expectations. His death was not your fault. Please devote your skills now to helping me find the killers of my son, and our Rangers.”

The Major’s expression shifted slightly, his sorrow- and rage-filled eyes taking on a glistening edge. “We will find them, Khun Prathun, I promise you that.”

“Khun Sat, this is U.S. Wildlife Special Agent Gedimin Bulatt, a member of Interpol, and my friend.”

Bulatt and Preithat acknowledged each other with brief nods.

“Khun Ged left the Tokyo Interpol meeting this morning to assist us with the Clouded Leopard investigation,” Kulawnit went on. “He now offers us his skills as a crime scene investigator. He also believes he may have useful knowledge about the foreign hunters who plague our country that could help us in tracking down these killers, so I want him to be a part of our investigation. I trust him as I trust you, so please give both of us your full briefing.”

“Yes sir, of course.”

“If there’s anything I can do without interfering with your work, I’m at your service, Major,” Bulatt said, staring into Preithat’s glint-edged eyes. “And I promise to help you and Khun Prathun find these people, and bring them to justice, in any way that I possibly can.

Preithat hesitated, and Bulatt thought he could see the Major having to fight against a deeply ingrained sense of national pride; but if there was an internal battle being fought, it didn’t last long.

“If you see or know anything that will help us identify and locate these… creatures, Agent Bulatt — ” Preithat struggled visibly to control his words. “Please, do not hesitate to speak out. I would be both grateful, and in your debt.”

“Good, then we’re all in agreement. Let us not waste any more time,” Kulawnit said as he pulled himself into the back seat of the SUV. “Tell us everything you know so far about my son’s death.”

On the road to the Police Morgue, Phuket, Thailand

“I sent them out on patrol to investigate some information I received from an informant — that three British or Australian guides were taking their wealthy clients into the Khlong Saeng Wildlife Preserve to kill endangered animals for trophies,” Major Preithat said from the front seat of the SUV. “We’ve had many such complaints against foreign guides in the last two years; but when we investigate, we almost never find evidence of illegal kills.”

“Instead, you find them in possession of legal kills, and with all of the proper documentation; as if they knew your Rangers were coming?” Bulatt asked.

“Yes, exactly.”

Bulatt could almost hear the Major’s teeth grinding together.

“Our Interpol associates in Russian are facing the same situation,” Bulatt said, and then hesitated before continuing on. “In their case, the foreign clients — mostly hunters from the United States — are wealthy enough to bribe the Russian permit officials and their supervisors, who make sure the efforts of Russian game wardens in the area are focused on ‘less valuable’ suspects.”

“That may be our situation as well, only worse,” Preithat said bitterly. “Our informant also suggested these guides were working under the protection of a senior Forestry Division Ranger.”

“One of your own men?” Bulatt blinked in surprise. “Did the informant give you a name?”

“No, but I — ” Preithat hesitated and looked over at Colonel Kulawnit who nodded his head silently.

“I had reason to believe one of my Captains might be taking bribes — from the foreign guides as well as some of our own criminals,” Preithat continued. “I was investigating this possibility when one of my informants called yesterday morning. So I sent Captain Choonhavan on an assignment that would require him to spend the next two days in Surat Thani. After he left, I sent Lieutenant Kulawnit and Sergeant Tongproh out to patrol the Chieo Lan Reservoir area with a pair of Rangers they brought down from headquarters.”

“So that no one in your office except you would know Lieutenant Kulawnit and Sergeant Tongproh were out on patrol last night?” Bulatt asked.

“That was my intent,” Preithat replied with a heavy sigh. “With Choonhavan out of the way — and unable to provide a warning or a false permit at the last minute — I had hoped these guides might be caught in the act with their wealthy client.”

“Do you know if Lieutenant Kulawnit and his patrol made contact with these individuals?” Bulatt asked.

“No, I don’t. The last radio contact we had with them was late last night when Lieutenant Kulawnit advised our dispatcher they were going to investigate a gunshot in the southern portion of the Khlong Saeng Preserve.”

“So we do know that someone was poaching in the Preserve last night?” Kulawnit asked.

“We think so, but we don’t know where. There are so many tire tracks on the roads, and the rains make it very difficult to distinguish and follow any one set. However,” Preithat added, “we do know that someone with an Australian or possibly British accent tried to contact Captain Choonhavan late last night. Unfortunately, the night duty clerk hadn’t been properly briefed, so she provided the caller with his contact information in Surat Thani.”

“So we must assume he’s been warned,” Kulawnit muttered. “Do we have him in custody yet?”

“No, we are looking for him now. We have a witness who thinks they saw him leaving his hotel early this morning with a Caucasian male.”

“We need to find him quickly,” Kulawnit growled.

“Yes, we will, Khun Prathun,” Preithat promised. “In the meantime, we know that three Australian or British nationals checked out of the Shining Wind hotel late last night, along with an American hunter who is extremely wealthy. They stayed in expensive suites and ate expensive meals; but, at the moment, no one at the hotel can find any of their records. We’re trying to locate the hotel manager now.”

“Did anyone see these men leave Phuket?” Kulawnit asked.

“Not that we’ve found so far,” Preithat replied. “We know a helicopter arrived at the Phuket heliport late last night, and a private jet took off shortly thereafter. It seems likely they would be connected. We’re talking with the night shift personnel at the airport and examining their records now.”

“Assuming it’s an American plane, if you can get me the registration number, I’ll try to track it down from our end,” Bulatt said.

Preithat made a quick note in his field notebook.

“We also understand that the three guides often chartered a local helicopter and pilot, and two local workmen to assist in their hunts. The helicopter is missing and we’re trying to locate the workmen and the pilot now. And we have some information that the guides owned an expensive fishing yacht — the Avatar — which they moored at Phuket Harbor. The Avatar is no longer at the harbor, and no one seems to know its whereabouts. We’re looking for the harbor master now.”

“Major Preithat, you seem to be looking for a large number of people related to this incident,” Bulatt said hesitantly. “I don’t mean to sound critical. It just seems… unusual that so many significant people would suddenly be so difficult for the Thai police to find. Conspiracies can be large, of course, but — ”

“It is very unusual, and puzzling,” Preithat agreed. “It’s understandable that the people involved would try to disappear if they knew we’d found Lieutenant Kulawnit and his team; but we have that information tightly controlled.”

“What about your informant?”

“There are two who have been providing us information. One is a corrupt businessman named Yak who works out of Surat Thani. What you would call ‘organized crime’ in your country, only in Thailand they are not so much organized as competitive. When pressed, he grudgingly provides information, but mostly about his competitors. The other is a Malaysian pirate named Kai. We have reason to believe that these informants may be conspiring to control the illegal guiding business in southern Thailand.”

“By control, you mean putting themselves in direct competition — and presumably in conflict — with these Australian or British guides?”

“Yes, but I should add a working alliance between these two informants is highly unlikely,” Preithat said. “These are extremely devious, daring and dangerous adversaries. I’m sure they’re both planning on cutting the other out of the business once they’ve eliminated their competition.”

“But do you really think either of them would be devious and daring enough to arrange for the death of Lieutenant Kulawnit?” Bulatt asked.

“No, I don’t,” Preithat said after a moment, “I cannot believe either of them would be so stupid.” His eyes flickered briefly to Colonel Kulawnit, who remained stone-faced and silent. “They’d know the consequences would be severe, and impossible to escape.”

“So Captain Choonhavan is probably your best lead?” Bulatt suggested.

“Yes,” Preithat agreed. “And when we find him, I’m certain he’ll be anxious to tell us everything he knows about these foreign guides.” Preithat turned to stare out the windshield at the isolated facility they were rapidly approaching. “Very anxious, indeed.”

The Police Morgue, Phuket, Thailand

The familiar heavy odors of death and decay hit Bulatt the moment he followed Colonel Kulawnit and Major Preithat in through the double-doors of the police morgue.

Kulawnit’s two bodyguards — both hardened investigators — took positions inside the doorway with their M4 carbines at the ready, apparently unaffected by the familiar sights and odors. The room was air-conditioned; but the straining chillers and air-handlers were no match for the effects of Thai heat, humidity and insects on human corpses.

Bulatt had spent five years as a police homicide detective in southern California before joining the federal government, so he wasn’t jarred by the sight of four blood- and mud-stained Forestry Division Ranger uniforms lying on the morgue floor — on lengths of white butcher paper — next to three morgue carts bearing bodies draped with white sheets. A fourth body, naked and partially dissected out, lay on the nearest of the three autopsy tables in the room.

“They were found in their jeep, by the ocean near Khuraburi, yesterday morning,” Major Preithat said as he motioned for the pathologist to pull back the first sheet.

Colonel Kulawnit’s only reaction as the sight of his son’s partially-decomposed corpse was to walk over to the front end of cart and stand there, staring down with his hands clenched behind his back.

The pathologist hesitated, glanced questioningly at the Major, received a curt nod, and began his presentation.

“As you can see, Lieutenant Kulawnit was struck in the right side of his head by two bullets. His wounds are similar to those of Sergeant Tongproh and the other two Rangers. All head shots, no other wounds on the bodies. If it is of any consolation, Colonel,” the white-coated pathologist added, turning to face the grim-faced Kulawnit, “death appears to have been instantaneous for all four men.”

As the pathologist continued to recite his initial findings, Bulatt knelt down beside the blood- and mud-stained uniforms, closely examined the four uniform shirts, and then stood up and walked over to the stainless steel table where Sergeant Tongproh’s body was in the final stages of the autopsy process.

He nodded silently to the white-coated technician standing guard beside the table, and then bent forward to examine the entry wounds through the left side of Tongproh’s exposed and empty lower skull. The upper half of the sergeant’s skull and his brain were lying in a tray hovering over his dissected-out chest cavity. Next to the skull top was a small stainless steel bowl containing two partially-mushroomed bullets lying in a bloodied wad of gauze.

“Do you see something of interest, Khun Ged?” Colonel Kulawnit asked quietly as he walked up beside Bulatt.

For reasons that were completely beyond Bulatt’s comprehension, the Colonel now seemed calm, almost at peace with himself. But beneath that calm exterior, Bulatt sensed a vengeful presence waiting patiently to be released.

“The uniform shirts belonging to the sergeant, the corporal and the constable,” Bulatt replied, still staring at the pair of bullets in the bowl. “The blood-splatter patterns suggest all three men had their heads turned sharply to the left when they were shot from the left side. It also appears that your son’s head was turned sharply to his left when he was shot from the right side.” Bulatt hesitated. “Do we know if any of them managed to fire a shot of their own?”

Colonel Kulawnit and Bulatt both turned to look at Major Preithat who had joined them beside Sergeant Tongproh’s body.

“It appears not,” Preithat said. “All of their pistols and rifles were found fully loaded, as were all of their extra magazines and ammo pouches.”

“Was there anything about their jeep that tells you something about the direction of the fired shots?” Bulatt asked.

“Not that I’m aware of.” Preithat shook his head. “The jeep appears untouched by gunfire, externally and internally. There were some blood spatterings on the left front and rear seats, and perhaps some on the right passenger seat, but that’s all. Our crime scene team is now examining the jeep and searching the area where it was found. I will take you there, once we are finished here.”

“Would Lieutenant Kulawnit have been sitting in the front passenger seat?” Bulatt asked.

“Yes, that would be normal procedure. And Sergeant Tongproh would have been driving.”

“So Lieutenant Kulawnit could have been standing outside the jeep, on the right side, and the others could have been standing outside the jeep on the left side, or perhaps behind the jeep, when the shooting occurred?”

“Yes, that could be consistent with our procedures; especially if they were confronting someone,” Preithat said.

“And could have been surprised by a second person — someone they didn’t know was there?”

Preithat nodded silently, the expression on his face slowly shifting from controlled rage to thoughtfulness. Finally, he said: “I have known Sergeant Tongproh for many years. He was a very professional police officer, and very careful in the field; easily my best non-commissioned officer. I still find it difficult to believe that anyone could have surprised him like this.”

“Surprise being the key word,” Bulatt said. “Which is interesting, given the condition of these bullets — ” Bulatt nodded his head at the stainless steel bowl, “- which, I assume were removed from Sergeant Tongproh’s head?”

The pathologist — who was now standing beside Major Preithat — nodded silently.

“Why do you say that?” Preithat asked.

“They didn’t mushroom very much.”

“Is that significant?”

Bulatt shrugged. “Perhaps not; but nine-millimeter hollow-point rounds are usually high-velocity and do a good job of expanding after they hit a solid target. The fact that these didn’t suggest a number of possible situations: long-distance shots, reduced powder-loads, old ammo, or — perhaps more likely in this case — a silenced pistol; which could explain how Sergeant Tongproh and the others were all caught by surprise.”

“You’re suggesting Sergeant Tongproh, the corporal and the constable were shot by someone who came up behind them, to their left, by surprise,” Preithat said, “and Lieutenant Kulawnit — ?”

“- by the person he was interrogating,” Bulatt finished.

“Which would mean — ” Preithat started to say when a uniformed constable stepped into the mortuary, winced, and motioned for his attention.

“What is it?” Preithat demanded.

“You have a call, sir,” the young constable said, trying not to look at Tongproh’s body on the table. “The captain said it was important.”

Preithat excused himself and went outside with the constable. As he did so, Colonel Kulawnit turned to Bulatt.

“If I understood you correctly, you’re suggesting this might have been an ambush conducted by at least two people, at least one of whom may have been armed with a silenced pistol? Not poachers, but professional killers?” Kulawnit’s voice expressed his disbelief.

“It doesn’t make sense to me, either, Khun Prathun,” Bulatt said softly. “I’m sure your crime lab staff will be able to tell us much more, once they’ve examined the evidence; but — ”

“Excuse me, Colonel,” Preithat interrupted as he quickly re-entered the morgue room. “That was the police commander of the Surat Thani district. They’ve located Captain Choonhavan.”