Thailand Honey

It was all about diamonds; always had been - right from the start. A package worth some 400k in US dollars had been stolen by Chelsea’s little sister Anni. To these gorgeous Thai girls, theft was like borrowing – and the diamond scam was extra pocket money. To them, it was Thailand Honey: it made their life a little sweeter. To me, it was life or death.

It was Friday morning. Chelsea and I were sitting at a café table in the concourse by Bangkok’s River City shopping mall, near the Si Phraya cross-ferry terminal. We were waiting to hand over smuggled stones to Villavito, the man who organised the scam.

Then, as the crowd of ferry users melted away, we saw him, weaving towards us like an angry cobra, ready to strike. A moment later, a snub-nosed Smith & Wesson .38 revolver was aimed at my face.

 “Raphael - I have them here,” and I started to open my backpack.

“All my diamonds, David?” Always Mr Polite.

“Most of them,” I said – and pulled out the two gold pin-cushions that held the dross we’d helped to smuggle from Laos.

“And what about Rudi?”

“He couldn’t come,” I said.

“Why was that?” Villavito asked me.

“He tried to rob you...”

He wasn’t listening. “I warned you,” and waved his gun the way they do in cheap detective movies.

I put up my hands. “It’s OK – you have the consignment...” and I pointed to the two little cushions. “And we’ll soon find the missing package.”

“You had your chance,” he said. “Now it’s my turn.”

“Raphael – be reasonable!” I tried.

Too late... he raised the gun to shoulder height – changed his aim and fired twice. Both hit Chelsea – and threw her backwards like a broken doll. She hit her head on the edge of the veranda and just lay there, not moving – her blood spreading over the paving stones in a crimson flood.