Snatched Read online

  “Meiwa go back to the hotel and wait for me there.”

  “Are you going to talk to that man?”

  “Yes, more or less!”

  Danny put some notes under the coffee cup and slipped out of the café and walked parallel with the alley. He saw the man cross the next soi and go into another alley. He continued along the parallel road and saw the man come out of the alley and jump on a baht bus. Danny flagged down a motorbike taxi. He knew enough Thai to give directions of right and left and straight on. He followed the baht bus until the thin farang got off and went into an open fronted bar in one of the quieter sois off the main road. Danny let him settle at the bar with a whisky before he followed him in and sat a few stools down from him along the bar. There were half a dozen farangs scattered around the bar, each seemed to be alone, either reading the Bangkok Post or watching the TV on the wall, which was showing the BBC world news. Prince William’s rescue was still the headline news. Some of the men were eating sausage sandwiches. All were drinking either beer or whisky. These were all long term ex-pats. There were four women, all in their thirties, who had already had a lifetime of working the bars and were now past their best. They were dressed in small dresses that didn’t quite fit; breasts and thighs bulged out from under tight clothes. All the women had big tattoos on their breasts and thighs. They smiled at the men in the bar and groped them openly whenever they refreshed their drinks. Another older lady sat behind the counter. She was about 60 years old and wearing nothing more than a thin white smock, which finished just above her knees. She was a big woman with huge breasts that hung down, her nipples spending all day looking at her knees. Her mass of black pubic hair was clearly visible through her smock and so were the big tattoos on her stomach and back. Danny didn’t know if this was the look that she was trying to perfect, or if it just happened by accident and laziness. Her name was May and she took an instant interest in Danny, but that was just because he was new blood. The black rain clouds from the west had reached Bangkok. Suddenly the heavens opened and the rain lashed down, flooding the streets in minutes and clearing the sois of everyone who didn’t need to be going anywhere in a hurry. The mobile food stalls pulled down heavy plastic sheets to protect the food from the rain and scantily glad bar girls huddled together under the plastic waiting for their somtam or other super spicy food to be prepared. The rain poured off everything as if it was trying to cleanse the city of its sins.

  “My name is May. You want drink?”

  “I’ll have a brandy.” Danny lit up a cigarette while he waited for May to pour his drink.

  “You on holiday? Where you stay?”

  “I’m not on holiday” laughed Danny. “I live here.”

  “I not see you before. I think I remember you if I see before!”

  “I was living up north, but now I’ve just moved here. I’m just finding my way around and looking for new friends.”

  “Okay. I your friend now.”

  “Thanks May. My name is Danny.”

  “You like lady Mr. Danny?”

  “Yes, who doesn’t?”

  “You like me?”

  “You are cheeky. I’ll smack your bottom.”

  “Oh! I like this!”

  “I don’t think you’d like my smacks” laughed Danny.

  “Oh! You like the rough stuff!” laughed May. “I like too.”

  “As long as you don’t start crying and run off to the police. That’s happened to me before!”

  They both laughed. May moved around the counter and sat next to Danny. The banter carried on in the same vein for the next hour. Danny bought May a couple of drinks and gave her a few hard slaps on the bottom. The thin farang with the long ponytail was listening into their conversation and started smiling. He made eye contact with Danny and the two men nodded to each other.

  “I like a bit of the rough stuff too” he announced, by way of introduction.

  “Can’t beat it” said Danny.

  “My name is Alfie” the man said, offering his hand. Danny shook it and looked at one of the tattoos that stated George loves Mary. It looked like he had done it himself, probably a long time ago.

  “Nice to meet you Alfie. My name is Danny. Who the feck are George and Mary?”

  “I’m George. That is my real name, but I call myself Alfie. Mary was an old girlfriend from my youth.”

  “Why do you call yourself Alfie?”

  “Image. It’s all about image over here. In England I was an old man called George. Over here I’m a young man called Alfie.”

  Alfie leaned over as if he was going to tell Danny a secret that nobody else should know.

  “Between me and you I named myself after the character from the film Alfie” he said, in something just above a whisper.

  “The Michael Caine film?” nodded Danny.

  “No. The new Alfie……..Jude Law. That’s his name.”

  “Why didn’t you call yourself Jude?”

  “I never thought about that. It’s too late now. Everyone knows me as Alfie.”

  Both men laughed and raised their glasses to each other.

  “Can I buy you a drink, Alfie?”

  “I’ll have a whisky. Thank you.”

  Danny ordered a drink for Alfie and another for May and himself. The three of them sat at the bar getting drunk and talking about sex and giving a woman a good smacking. When May got up to go to the toilet Danny gave her an extra hard smack on the bottom and May squealed.

  Alfie leaned over again.

  “Do you like the really rough stuff?”

  “Of course. Who doesn’t?”

  “I mean, anything goes sort of rough stuff!”

  “I do indeed, but I usually end up having to pay off the police.”

  “I know a place.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I know a place where you can go and beat the fuck out of a girl before you fuck her.”

  “Sounds like my kind of place, Alfie.”

  “They have European girls too, from Germany or Finland or somewhere like that!”

  “I like a bit of Asian.”

  “Oh, they have Asians too. Thai, Chinese. They have all sorts.”

  “And they let you beat the fuck out of them first?”

  “They have no choice. It’s a locked brothel. They are prisoners. You can do whatever you like and it’s cheap, but if you kill the girl you have to pay for her replacement.”

  “You’re giving me a hard on Alfie!”

  Alfie laughed and raised his glass again.

  “You’re a man after my own heart Danny. Have another drink.”

  Alfie bought a round just as May returned and the conversation went on as before. When they finished the last drink Alfie said;

  “Danny, I’ll take you to a skull bar. I’ve got something to tell you and it’s not for May’s ears!”

  May laughed and totted up the bar bills in the men’s cups. Danny didn’t know what a ‘skull bar’ was, but he didn’t want to ask. They paid the bar bins and the two men walked out of the bar like old friends. Drunken old friends! Danny just allowed Alfie to take him wherever it was he was taking him to. They jumped on and off two baht buses to take them there and Danny followed Alfie into a grotty little bar in a quiet soi. Alfie opened the door and both men walked into the dimly lit bar. A few old men sat around. Some were in the booths that lined one wall, others sat at tables and a couple sat at the bar. Each man had a girl kneeling on the floor between his legs sucking on his penis. The girls were all older than most bar girls and were all well past their best. Their skulls, or more precisely their mouths, were their only saleable asset now in the cut throat world of prostitution, where there were so many younger, fresher girls available at a very cheap price. In this bar the men go
t a blow job for 200 baht while they had a beer or read a paper or watched TV. There was no chat up lines. No flirting. You ordered a drink and some woman would get on the floor undo your pants and suck you. Danny was hit by the sadness of the place. All the women looked beaten by a life of prostitution. These were the ones who had never got out of the trade when they were still young enough to get out. The ones who never made enough money to get out or never met the farang who was going to change their lives. These were the ladies at the end of their careers working the bars.

  Alfie and Danny sat at the bar and Danny ordered a whisky and a brandy. Two older ladies who had been sitting at a table with four other ladies watched them come in and, once the drinks had been served, they walked over and, without any introduction, got on their knees between the two men’s legs and undid their pants and started sucking as the two men carried on talking to each other as if the women weren’t there. Danny thought it was surreal. But nothing in Thailand surprised him anymore!

  “The Pink Lady” said Alfie.

  “Who’s a pink lady?” said Danny, looking around as if a pink lady was sitting in the room. Alfie laughed.

  “The Pink Lady is a locked brothel. You should try it.”

  “Where is it?”

  “I’ll take you there tomorrow, if you like?”

  “Will I get in?”

  “Of course you will. We just walk in and choose who you want from the blackboard.”

  “The blackboard?”

  Alfie laughed again.

  “Yes. You walk in through the front door and there is a desk in the hallway. Behind it there is a blackboard with the girls’ names on it. It also says if they are farang, Thai, Chinese or black girl and the room number. You point to who you want and they put a tick in the box and you pay and go and do whatever you like to the girl, but you only have an hour to do it.”

  “Sounds good. Do they use their real names?”

  “I don’t know. Does it matter?”

  “No not at all, but I’d like a new girl. Someone not too bruised and battered yet.”

  “The girls are changed all the time. They don’t usually last too long in these places” laughed Alfie. “But there is nothing wrong with bruised fruit!” He gave Danny a knowing nudge with his elbow and Danny smiled and nodded his understanding and agreement.

  “Hang on a minute, I’m about to fire off” said Alfie using his hand to assist himself. The woman got up from the floor and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before she gave Alfie a very high and respectful wai and Alfie gave her 200 baht and she returned to the table where she had been sitting with the other ladies. Alfie looked down at the lady still sucking on Danny.

  “Don’t worry Danny. They suck until you come or until you are bored and pay them. Up to you!”

  Danny and Alfie swapped phone numbers and arranged to meet the next morning for a visit to the Pink Lady. There was some back slapping and Alfie left the bar. He was going to meet his Thai wife! Danny paid his bar bin and paid the skull 200 baht and left the bar. He was already drunk but when he got back to the hotel he carried on drinking. He told Meiwa about Alfie and about the arranged visit to the Pink Lady. He didn’t mention the skull bar. He finished off the bottle of Sangsom and fell asleep on the bed. Meiwa lay with him.

  At 10:00am the next morning Danny was waiting at the entrance to the alleyway to meet George, or as he preferred to be called, Alfie!

  Alfie was on time and wearing exactly the same clothes as he had been wearing the previous day. By the smell of him Danny guessed that he hadn’t showered since yesterday either. The two men walked down the alley and came out at the other end opposite the Pink Lady Club. They crossed the soi and one of the two heavy set Thai men sitting on chairs either side of the door stood up and nodded to them as he opened the door. Inside was a narrow hallway. Another guard sat on a single chair against a wall and just past him was a reception desk. A very attractive Thai lady of about 25 years of age was behind the desk. She had an open bottle of red nail polish on the counter, had just finished the finger nails on one hand and was blowing them gently to dry. She stopped and smiled to the two men and wai’d them at the same time, being careful not to smudge the newly painted nails. Danny wondered for a moment how such a beautiful girl could work in this place knowing that other women were being held prisoner against their will and being beaten, raped and brutalised each day and every day, but he let the thought pass. There was a big blackboard fixed on the wall behind the receptionist, it read;

  Name Nationality Room Customer Time

  Anna Farang 1 x 09:15

  Lisa Farang 2

  Lin China 3 x 09:00

  Yana Farang 4 x 09:30

  Amy Black 5 x 08:30 (2hour)

  Freda Black 6

  Neung Thai 7

  Nok Thai 8

  Judit Farang 9 x 10:00

  May China 10 x 09:45

  Rose China 11

  Adriana Farang 12 x 09:50

  Danny looked at the board and the first thing he thought was that farang and black were not nationalities and that China should read Chinese, but who cared. He saw Nok’s name.

  “I’ll take the one in room eight.” He had blurted it out a little quicker than he would have liked, but nobody seemed to read anything into it. The girl put an x in the customer column and checked her watch before writing the time; 10:10.

  “I’ll have the black girl in room six” laughed Alfie. “I haven’t had a black girl for a while!”

  The receptionist filled in the board and nodded to the guard, who got up off the chair, checked the board and escorted the men to their chosen rooms. The guard banged on the door marked with a big 3 in white paint.

  “Time up” he shouted.

  “Okay” came the reply by a man’s voice from the other side of the door.

  There were four rooms on each floor. Room numbers six and eight were on the second floor. The hallway was dimly lit and looked shabby and dirty. Danny guessed that the rooms would be the same. He heard cries and moans and slaps and thuds as they passed each door. His heart was beating hard in his chest. He was already thinking that if Nok wasn’t too badly hurt then he might be able to just walk out with her. He fancied his chances with only three guards to try and stop him, but his thinking changed when they started to climb the stairs with the guard in front of him. He could see that he had a gun stuffed down his waistband in the small of his back. He had to presume that if this guard was armed then the two guarding the door would also be carrying. He would have to think of another plan, but at the moment the most important thing was to see Nok and then at least she would know that Danny was going to save her. The guard showed Alfie into room number six and Danny into room number eight, which was next door. The doors were not locked. Inside room number eight was a naked Thai woman chained to an iron bed. She was lying curled up with her arms wrapped around her legs which were pulled up tight to her chest. She was facing the wall and her hair was a mass of black on the pillow. She was rocking herself and sobbing. Her body had been beaten black and blue. Danny closed the door.

  “Nok?”

  The woman heard kindness in Danny’s voice and turned around. It wasn’t Nok. Well, at least not the Nok who Danny wanted to see.

  “Do you speak English?”

  “Yes, nit noy” the woman nodded.

  “What is your real name?”

  “My name is Nok.”

  “Oh! At least they are using real names” Danny said to himself and realising that that meant Nok wasn’t being held in the Pink Lady.

  “Can you help me Mr?”

  “I’m going to try, but I cannot get you out today. But I promise that I will come back for you, and soon.”

  “You not hit me?”

  “Of course not.”

 
“You want sex?”

  “Jesus! Just relax, I don’t want anything and I promise that I will try to help you. How long have you been here?”

  “I don’t know, maybe not long time but maybe long time, I don’t know!”

  “Okay. You sleep now.”

  The woman turned back to face the wall and went back into her foetal position. Danny could hear Alfie slapping the girl next door around and shouting out demands; more slaps. He sat on the bed with his head in his hands and the only thing he could think about was ‘where is Nok?’

  The hour passed and there was a knock at the door.

  “Time up” shouted the guard.

  Danny went out into the hallway just as Alfie was coming out of his room. Danny saw a black girl lying on the floor, but chained to the bed. She looked out into the hallway. She was bleeding fresh blood from her mouth. Danny tried not to look at Alfie. He was an old skinny man and Danny could easily rip him apart. At that moment that is exactly what he wanted to do and that is why he didn’t want to look at him. The two men were escorted down and out of the front door. They crossed the soi and walked back along the alley.

  “Do you want to come along to May’s bar?” asked Alfie.

  “Not today. I have to meet someone.”

  Alfie gave him a knowing wink and nudged his elbow with his own.

  “Know what you mean son, know what you mean!” he said and jumped on a baht bus. Danny went back to his hotel on the river. He was feeling sad in his heart, he wanted a shower and he wanted to think. The Pink Lady had drawn a blank. Now what?

  ~9~

  It was only 5:30am in England. The Prime Minister was chairing a private meeting. The general election that had been forced because of the vote of no confidence in the government was now only a week away, but it was of little concern to the Prime Minister. The conservatives were soaring in the polls and Labours’ popularity had fallen through the floor. This was a meeting about Syria and what to do about the Syrian President. The Foreign Secretary was there having just got back from Doha and another meeting by ‘the friends of Syria’; which hadn’t accomplished very much, other than an agreement to supply more arms to the rebel forces in Syria. It had become a necessity because the war had been swinging the President’s way. The rebels needed heavy arms, missiles to take out the President’s aircraft and tanks, but it was fraught with danger. Everyone, even the Arab nations, was concerned that any missiles that may be sent would fall into the wrong hands. There would be no control and Israel was threatening to go into Syria if missiles were sent. If Israel went into Syria, other nations were going to go in on both sides. Russia especially was steadfastly still supporting the regime in Syria and had already started massing troops along their southern border with Georgia and Azerbaijan, under the guise of military exercises. Now the mass of Russian troops were only two hours flying time away from Syria. Russia was already supplying arms to support the regime in Syria and already had soldiers on the ground in Syria as ‘Military Advisors’.