See Phuket And Die, Chapter Three

It was three-thirty in the morning and the Banana Disco was closing. Almost a thousand people streamed out of the front doors and down the stairs onto Thawiwong Road, spreading out in all directions, immediately filling the sidewalks

along the beach road. Noi shoved her hands into her jeans and sauntered down the sidewalk stepping around the open plastic coolers and people selling beer on the sidewalk. The bars were all closed so it was that or the 7/11 on the back road. Noi did not feel like having another beer; she had her eyes open for a customer, anyone; she hadn’t had one all night and she had to pay the rent and send money home to her mother who was taking care of her two children. She was no kid anymore at thirty-three and she was feeling particularly old tonight, unable to attract any farang’s eye.

A motorcycle pulled up next to her near the curb. The driver motioned for her to get on the back. Good luck!

As she slid one leg over the seat she said, ‘Two-thousand short time.’ He nodded his head yes and off they went. He made a right on Sawatdeerak Road and drove for fifteen minutes without saying a word. He wore a full helmet and visor but he appeared to be young and in good shape. She could see by his hands that he had tan skin like hers. She prayed to God that he was not a Thai; hopefully he could be Japanese and he would be a big tipper or they could fall in love. She had been kind of day dreaming, just holding on. They turned onto a small dirt path and continued for a few minutes until he stopped, shut off the engine and stepped from the bike. She started to get off the back and was about to say, ‘Where is your house?’ when he punched her full force in the face.

She was knocked from the motorcycle onto the ground and as she looked up he kicked her in the head. She fell back and lay still.

The man was calm and worked methodically. He removed his helmet and jacket, placing them on the motorcycle.

He pulled a pair of surgical gloves from his shirt pocket and put them on. He took a two-inch wide roll of fiberglass tape from his jacket and placed a strip over the girl's eyes and one over her mouth. He taped her wrists together in front of her. He unbuttoned her jeans, slipped off her shoes and pulled her pants all the way off along with her thong underpants. He thought that if he had found another abomination like the one last night he would loose his mind. He would try to do his best to bring these Thai whores closer to God and save them from the error of their ways but for a monstrosity such as that, there was no hope for salvation. He dragged the girl over to a small tree and wrapped the tape around the trunk and one ankle. This would give him some working room and if she woke up she could not run away.

He unzipped a leather billfold-like case. Nestled inside were four gleaming stainless steel scalpels, shorter than a pencil, a few with longer blades, all of them thinner and sharper than any razor. He would take his time and do this right. He bent over her vagina and carefully sliced off the flap of skin protecting the clitoral glands. He discarded the sliced clitoral hood and pressed a sterile gauze pad against the wound. He took a smaller scalpel from the leather holder and skillfully excised the clitoris and some of the surrounding tissue. A neat operation indeed. The girl was starting to move about. Damn, he should have done this before; he took a syringe from the case and jabbed it into her upper leg. That would keep her quiet for an hour at least.

He poured Betadine antiseptic on the wound and tied a sanitary pad over the open incision. He hoped someone would find her in the morning. It was almost light now and he thought that she would be all right. He removed the tape from her mouth and eyes so she could call out for help when she woke up.

She would not be able to have sex for some time and when she did she would not enjoy it. If he performed enough of these operations he might be able to put an end to this filth.

The man climbed on his rented motor bike and headed back towards the Safari Beach Hotel. It was not a five star

accommodation like the kind he was accustomed to but it was nice enough and more importantly they allowed female visitors.

He was planning to invite some girls over in a few days as a matter of fact. He would go back to his hotel and take a nap and then make plans for the party.

Police Lieutenant Jipthep’s phone rang at six-thirty just as he stepped out of the shower after his morning run.

It was Lt. Colonel Sanitasut. ‘There’s been another one,’ he shouted. ‘Another girl has been cut up like the last one.’

‘Is she dead or alive?’

‘She’s alive. She’s at the Vachira Phuket Hospital. Get over there right now and find out all you can.’

Jip drove to the hospital and showed his identification to the girl at the front desk .

‘Where’s the girl that was brought in this morning all cut up?’

‘The one whose boyfriend chopped her with a butcher knife? She’s on the fourth floor.’

‘No, the girl with the cut vagina.’

‘She’s up there too.’

Jip took the elevator up and went to the desk on the fourth floor. ‘I need to see the girl with the vagina wound and

her doctor also.’

‘Fifth bed down on the left. I’ll call the doctor.’

‘Why are the beds in the hallways?’

‘Full up and besides this looks like another charity case.’

The girl was awake and had an IV in her arm. She told Jip her story. ‘I never saw his face. I have no idea what he looks like. What did he do to me? I’m in so much pain down there.’

‘I’ll have to talk to the doctor.’ Just as Jip said that, a young man in a long white lab coat introduced himself as Doctor Nakalee. He was light skinned, handsome and wore a white shirt and blue striped tie underneath his coat. He didn’t look old enough to be out of high school never mind medical school. Jip nodded his head away from the girl and they walked down the hallway.

‘How is she, Doctor?’

‘She’s been through a lot actually – an operation like that performed outside in the woods and then just left there.

We’ll keep her at least a week. An infection could easily set in. I will say one thing though, whoever performed the

clitoridectomy did a very adept job under not so sterile conditions.’

‘A professional job would you say?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Thank you, you’ve been very helpful.’

The doctor shook his head. ‘What the hell is going on?’

‘We’re trying to find out.’

Jip spoke to the girl again, left his card and drove back to the police station.

Jipthep was in the office of Lt. Colonel Sanitasut. ‘I interviewed the girl at the hospital. She works in a massage

parlor during the day and freelances out of the Big Banana or the VIP at nights. Her girlfriend saw her getting on the back of a black Suzuki a few blocks away from the Banana but neither girl has any idea what the man looks like. He was wearing a helmet and dark jacket. You’ve got to give me some men; this is two mutilations in two nights.’

‘Yes,’ Sanitasut sighed. ‘The newspapers are going to kill us; we’ll both end up being posted to Pattani or somewhere down south if we don’t put a stop to this. That’s all I need is to go down there and be stationed among the Muslim extremists. I’ll take everyone off helmet checks immediately; just a waste of time stopping everybody that does not have a helmet for a two-hundred baht fine. That will give you at least fourteen men and I’ll take twelve men from traffic duty.

The traffic is impossible anyway so it doesn’t matter. You have about fourteen hours to find this maniac. If we have a few more of these cases, they’ll transfer me for sure, send me to God damn Narathiwat where you can’t walk the streets without being worried about getting blown up or shot. I can assure you that if I get screwed on this you will be coming along with me.

Check the hospitals, see if anyone has just been fired or has been acting strangely. Find out if there are any scalpels missing from the hospitals and the local clinics. Find out where one can buy scalpels in Phuket. I want a list: names and address of every person that made a purchase in the last six months.

I want every officer on the street from midnight to five in the morning. There will be no time off on this one.

If anyone complains tell them to come directly to my office, possibly I can sympathize with them. Everyone will

assemble here at midnight and you can give instructions to the officers as to where you want them to patrol.

Spread them along the beach road. During the day they can check every hotel and guesthouse for anyone that has signed in as a doctor.’

Jip waited patiently for the Colonel to pause for breath and then jumped in. ‘You have the dead girl’s clothes,

identification and mobile phone. Can you have the secretary call every number on the phone. It’s better if a woman calls and talks to the parents. At night we need the men in plain clothes. Everyone will carry a badge and gun of course.’

Jip saluted and left the office smiling for a change. He had received the men that he asked for and anyone voluntarily going to Sanitasut’s office would have to be crazy. Jip had plenty to do. If this happened for a third time there would be hell to pay, the governor would be here and have them both on the carpet.

The visitor slept soundly and woke up about two in the afternoon. He wanted to have a dozen girls on Saturday night

and he wanted to be sure that they showed up. The girls that worked in the bars were notoriously unreliable and he could not stand those places anyway. He knew that the best thing to do would be to go to the Crystal Massage Parlor and make the arrangements himself. He had passed it a few times on the back road. It was ablaze up with lights of all colors and a huge sign.

He approached it with just a bit of trepidation as he had never been in a place like this. It was on the second floor

and there were at least forty girls sitting behind a glass wall on the right as you walked in.

The girls were sitting on a platform covered with red cloth and raised steps like bleachers. There were three sections with three different prices for the girls. He could not discern any difference between them.

Some girls looked at him and smiled, others did not. He was aware of the fact that many Thai girls did not want to go with a man of his ethnicity but he had no idea why. It was obvious, he thought, that one could see that he was not an Indian. His hygiene was as good or better than anyone's and his money was certainly the same color.

When a male attendant in a navy jacket approached him and started to point out the different girls, he asked to speak

to the manager or owner. Another man appeared in the same type jacket and introduced himself as Khun M.

‘I want to arrange for a dozen of your girls to come to my hotel suite Saturday night at seven o’clock. I’ll need them

to perform the usual services such as a body to body massage.’

‘What kind of party are you having? How many people will be there?’

‘Just me. I like a lot of attention. The girls will be perfectly safe. I am in suite 609 in the Safari Beach Hotel. I would like them to be young and attractive and it's imperative that at least a few speak good English so I can convey my needs to the girls.’

The manager smiled his understanding. ‘Bar fine three-thousand baht per lady. They get eight-thousand for the night.

You can pay bar fine now to me.’

The customer removed a large stack of silver notes from his jacket pocket and counted out forty-one thousand baht.

‘There’s an extra five thousand in there for you to usher the girls into a cab and make sure they arrive on time.

You can also tell them that I will be paying them twelve-thousand each for the evening instead of the usual price.’

Stickman's thoughts:

Excellent!