The Coroner's Lunch (21 page)

“I bet it was meant for you.”

They walked to a bench and shared memories from their year at the youth camp. But Siri had to get to the point.

“A few days ago, they brought you a girl who’d slashed her wrists.”

“Yes, they did. How did you know that?”

“I’m currently the state coroner.”

“My! Congratulations.”

“And I’m afraid I need to dig her up again.”

“Oh, but you can’t.”

Siri pulled a sheet of paper from his shirt pocket that he’d written, stamped, and signed on Judge Haeng’s behalf. “I have here a warrant signed by….”

“No. I don’t mean I doubt your right to do it. What I mean is you can’t dig her up, because we haven’t buried her yet.”

“It’s been four days.”

“I know. Normally we’d have her in the ground right away. But this was a bit difficult.”

“How?”

“She has a sister.”

“She has?”

“They came down from the north together. She refused to let her sister be buried here. She’s trying to get the money together to take her body back to the family in Sam Neua.”

“Where is she?”

“The sister?”

“Both of them.”

“The body is in an old kiln we have here. We used to make pots. It’s dry and quite airtight. With all the kids here I couldn’t have her lying around.”

“I understand. What about the sister?”

“She’s living with a fellow who fixes bicycles, just down from the Thai Embassy.”

Siri wheeled Dtui’s bicycle under the straw canopy of the repair shop. It seemed to be deserted. He coughed and heard a rustling from out back. A taut-bodied young man wearing nothing but soccer shorts came out through a gap in the wall.

“Hello, boss. What’s wrong?”

“Can you fix the brakes? They only work when you’re going uphill.”

“No trouble.” He flipped the heavy bike over onto its handlebars as if it were made of balsa wood.

“Is there somewhere I can take a pee?”

“Sure, boss. There’s a latrine out back, if you don’t mind the flies.”

Siri walked through the gap, where he found a tall, slim girl in a
phasin,
shelling tamarind. There was a five-month swelling beneath the cloth of her skirt. He didn’t bother with the latrine. He knelt down beside her; she didn’t seem to care very much. Her mind was elsewhere.

“Hello. I’m Dr. Siri. I just came from Sri Bounheuan temple.” Her eyes grew wide and in some way afraid. “That’s your sister there?” She nodded slowly.

“I’m a coroner. Do you know what that is?”

“Yeah.”

“I need your permission to look at your sister’s body.”

She emptied the seeds from one more tamarind pod before she responded. “Can you tell? If you look at her, can you tell if she killed herself?”

“I think I can. But I need to operate on her.”

“You mean cut her open?”

“Yes. Is that all right?” She didn’t seem to like the thought of her sister’s body being defiled. “If it becomes my case, I can arrange for the body to be shipped back to Sam Neua.”

“Free?”

“We’ll pay.”

“She won’t be a mess, will she?”

“I can get the embalmer to make her look nice.”

“She didn’t, you know?”

“Kill herself?”

“Yeah. She didn’t kill herself.”

“How sure are you?”

“I know her.”

“Do you know where Mahosot Hospital is?”

“Yeah.”

“If you come and see me there this evening about six, I should have some answers for you. I’d like to talk to you, too.”

She nodded again. “Thanks.”

The morning had passed him by. He didn’t even have time to put the bicycle back in the carpark. He pulled up alongside Auntie Lah’s stand to get some lunch.

“You? Dr. Siri?” She lit up like a brand-new traffic light. She was so pleased to see him, she used the illegal royal “you,” and bowed her head in a very polite
nop
.

“Now, Mrs. Lah, didn’t they teach you anything at your political seminars? You don’t want to let our chicken counter see you do that.”

“Ah, Doctor. That little twerp doesn’t scare me. Where’ve you been?”

“Khamuan.”

“I made your sandwich every day last week.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot to cancel. I’ll pay you for them.”

“Not to worry. I ate them myself. I was just worried you wouldn’t be coming back. It’s lovely to see you.”

She fixed him a very special baguette and gave him the opportunity to look at her. She was a fine-looking woman. He couldn’t imagine why old men would chase new-hatched chicks when there were pretty hens in the yard. Something in him stirred, and he wondered what it would be like to be with her. He hadn’t been with a woman since he lost Boua.

“How’s your husband?”

She didn’t look up, but he noticed her blush. “Oh, he’s fine. At least he doesn’t give me so much trouble any more.”

“I see.”

“Just have to dust the urn now and then.”

Siri smiled, climbed back on the bike, and ferried his lunch down to the river. She stood, watching him go.

Civilai was sitting alone on the log. Crazy Rajid was lying naked on the bank a few meters from him.

“Am I disturbing anything?”

“No, you’re right on time. I was just starting to get envious.”

“He certainly has something to be envious of. Nothing compared to me, of course.” He sat down beside his friend.

“Really? I assumed it must have dropped off from lack of use by now.”

“No, still there. I felt a little bit of activity just now, to tell the truth.”

“Not one of the bodies? Don’t tell me you’ve stooped so low.”

“You know Mrs. Lah? The one who makes my sandwiches?”

“Her on the corner? She’s old enough to be your…daughter. Nice pair of hooters, though. I’d give her a run around the paddock.”

“Dream on, you old fogy.”

“How was Khamuan?”

“Interesting. Cut up two bodies that died of unknown causes, got malaria, and became fluent in Hmong.”

“Of course you did. Let’s hear it then.”

“You don’t speak Hmong.”

“Probably more than you. If you want to talk about chasing girls round paddocks, I’ve done a few laps with those lasses. Come on.”

Siri opened his mouth to speak but nothing came to his mind. He thought of a simple Lao sentence but he couldn’t even translate that. The language he’d been speaking naturally a day before had vanished.

“That’s odd. I’ve forgotten it.”

“Ah, yes. Languages are like that. Here one minute, gone the next. I was fluent in Japanese last Thursday.”

“No. I really could speak it.” Civilai grinned and chewed on his roll, and Siri knew it would be useless to argue the point.

“Do you know what the army is doing up there?”

“Crop replacement, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Replacing trees with fresh air. The province will be a parade ground if nobody stops them. Is there anything you can do about it?”

“Who do you suggest we send in to stop them? Prince Boun Oum on his elephant? No. The generals fought for the revolution for decades. This is the little pat on the back they’re giving themselves.”

“I must have missed that page in the manifesto. I thought corruption was the
reason
for the fight, not the reward. How much is the military giving you lot for forestry rights?”

“Is this what you called me here urgently to badger me about?”

“No. Well, partly. But I was wondering how diplomatic relations are going with Vietnam.”

“Fine.”

“Good.”

“Except there aren’t any.”

“What happened?”

“Hanoi recalled the ambassador and most of the diplomats. All their aid projects are on hold. We brought back our fellow from Hanoi to show them we could be every bit as tough as they could. Now, nobody’s talking.”

“Damn. Not all over this torture accusation?”

“They aren’t satisfied. You didn’t come up with anything to suggest we didn’t work their men over?”

While Crazy Rajid waded into the water and started swimming across to Thailand, Siri went over the details of the case. He told of the visit to Nam Ngum even though he was sure his older brother had seen the district chief’s report already. But then he added something he was sure Civilai wouldn’t have read.

“Somebody tried to kill me.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“The day we got back from the reservoir. Nguyen Hong and I decided there were still too many questions unanswered.” He produced the two deformed shells from his pocket. “I got home late. I bent down at the front door, and these came flying into the wood over my shoulder.”

Civilai took them from him. “Siri. You…you don’t think this has to do with the
Vietnamese
?”

“It was a bit of a coincidence otherwise.”

“But why? Did you find something that could incriminate anyone?”

“No. But I bet you the rest of your roll, somebody thought we did.”

“Whew.”

“My problem is, I don’t know which side it was.”

“Oh, come on. You don’t think our people would try to do away with you.”

Siri laughed. “You’re quite naïve for a genius, aren’t you, brother? Of course they would. If I had evidence
we
had ‘interrogated’ those boys, we’d have a lot more than just diplomatic détente; there’d be a damned war.”

“All right. For the first time in fifty years, you have my undivided attention. What do you want me to do?”

“Do you know what that Vietnamese delegation came here for?”

“No.”

“Civilai?”

“No, really, I don’t.”

“Can you find out?”

“I can try.”

“Good. I’ll go through Nguyen Hong’s report and see if I can contact him in Hanoi somehow. We still have a lot of unfinished business.”

“Have you told your judge all this?”

“No. You know, I’m starting to think what a coincidence it was that the Justice Department would send me away in the middle of this investigation.”

“You have to start trusting people. You need allies.”

“You’re them, Comrade.”

“Oh, the pressure.”

“Do the words ‘Black Boar’ mean anything to you?”

“Not apart from the obvious.”

“Can you ask around? Something to do with the delegation. Perhaps the war. Vietnam.”

“Where did you get that?”

“From…I’m afraid I can’t disclose my sources.”

“Anything else?”

“There was something, but I can’t rem—oh, right. You speak French pretty well, don’t you?”

“Like Napoleon.”

“Dead?”

“Elegantly. Don’t tell me your French went the way of your Hmong.”

“Shut up. What does
precipitation
mean?”

“Well, it could be when you separate a solid from a solution in chemistry.”

“Or?”

“Falling from a height.”

“Falling from a height? Of course. Of course! They weren’t water-skiing at all.
Felicitations, mon brave empereur.
” He kissed Civilai on both cheeks and saluted him.

Siri got back from lunch at 1:30. His arrival coincided with several unheard-of examples of Lao punctuality.

As Dtui reached the door of the morgue from one direction, three monks with cloths around their noses, carrying a rolled coconut mat, arrived from the other. Geung walked out of the office at exactly the same time. He was in a terrible state.

“Doctor S…S…S…” He was too flustered to get beyond that. Siri massaged his shoulders and focused him on his breathing while Dtui ushered the monks into the examination room.

“Mr. Geung. What’s wrong?”

“Your o…o…office is…is broken.” He grabbed Siri’s hand and led him to the office door. Sure enough, the room had been turned over pretty thoroughly. Dtui, from a very polite distance, was seeing off the monks.

“Dtui. Could you come here, please?”

She stood between the two men and looked at the mess. “Ooh.”

“This happened in the last three hours. How’s the examination room?”

“Normal, and the storeroom.”

“So, they were obviously after something in here.”

“Oh, no. My comics!”

“Listen, Dtui, Geung, this isn’t a joke. This is all part of the danger I told you about before I left. This is why we all have to be very careful from now on. Do you both understand?”

“I understand. I understand,” Geung said, very seriously.

Dtui nodded her head. “Yes, Doctor.”

“That’s good. I’m afraid the only officer I trust is away right now, but we’ll have to tell the police about this. Before we do, I want us to go in there and get an idea what’s missing, if anything. We’ll try not to disturb too much.”

Only one thing was gone: Dtui’s notebooks had been taken from her desk. All the notes, from every autopsy they’d done together, were missing. While they searched through the debris, Siri told them everything he knew about the Vietnam case, including the attempt on his life.

They came to the same conclusion, that whoever had ransacked the office had been looking for Nguyen Hong’s report.

“Dtui, hiding it was inspired thinking. Well done.”

“W…well done, Dtui,” added Geung.

“Give me a raise.”

“From now on, you two have nothing to do with the Vietnam case at all. I’ll take the file home and go through it. Wait, what about the photos? Did they get the autopsy photos?”

Dtui looked skyward. “No, they didn’t.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Well, because they’re in Sayabouri.”

“Sayabouri? What are they doing in Sayabouri?”

“Well, you remember how it was Sister Bounlan’s wedding and we used the end of one film and the beginning of the next for the ceremony?”

“Don’t tell me.”

“She sent them all home to her family. They were in the same packet. Someone was leaving for Sayabouri and she wanted them to take the pictures. She came and picked it up from my desk when I was out. She didn’t have time to check.”

“I can imagine how much granny enjoyed that.”

“She didn’t. They were all as sick as dogs. They put the packet in the post the next day. Should be here by now.”

“You see? Even when you mess up, it’s perfect.”

“It is?”