The Marriage Tree by Christopher G. Moore

Author:Christopher G. Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thailand, detective, asia, bangkok, southeast, calvino, vincent calvino
Publisher: HeavenLakePress

THIRTY-ONE

CALVINO AND COLONEL Pratt turned up at the doctor’s third-floor office and walked in. The reception area was empty. No one was behind the desk. On Sukanya’s computer screen a pattern of marigolds exploded into a starburst. Calvino opened the door to the doctor’s office. It was also empty.

Calvino nodded at the door to the surgery.

“That’s where he operates.”

No voices or music—only a deep silence.

“What do you think, Pratt?”

“Only one way to find out.”

The Colonel swung the door open, looked inside and watched as Calvino walked in, shaking his head.

The silence of the surgery had become the silence of a morgue, with two bodies sprawled out.

Colonel Pratt knelt beside the body of the doctor.

“He hasn’t been dead long.”

The doctor lay on the floor face up, with a bullet wound between his lifeless eyes, which stared at the ceiling. A pool of blood created a red halo around his head.

Calvino stood over the operating table looking down at Sukanya. Dark red blooms like rosebuds with black holes covered the front of her white blouse. Calvino counted a bouquet of three small blooms sprouting from her chest. Liquid from her implants—which had taken a direct hit—bubbled through one of the flowers like a clown’s boutonnière spraying water. Blood from her chest wounds dripped from the operating table into puddles on the floor below. A surgical mask covered her nose and mouth. Calvino leaned over and lifted the mask, pulling it back over her head. Sukanya’s lips were bloodied and bruised, her teeth broken.

“Looks like the negotiations broke down,” said Calvino.

Colonel Pratt rose to his feet, his knees creaking, and walked around the doctor’s body on the floor, trying to locate where the shooter would have stood. He slowly shook his head.

“It is likely the gunman fired from this spot.”

Colonel Pratt marked the spot a meter from the body. So much for a routine visit, with Calvino tagging along to guard the door in case of escape. The doctor and his receptionist were going nowhere.

“Where are you going?” asked Colonel Pratt, as he saw Calvino move to the door.

“To check out what my camera picked up.”

He walked out of the surgery and back into reception. On Sukanya’s desk he spotted the blue Honda box and opened it. Her iPhone was inside, overlooked by the killers. He slipped the phone into his pocket and put the lid back on the box. He walked over to the sofa, sat down and reached under the arm where he’d planted the camera. He played back footage from the past hour, fast-forwarding until he saw the two gunmen enter the office.

“Pratt, come and have a look at this.”

Colonel Pratt walked around the blood and back into the reception area. Calvino had his iPad out and had logged into the app that hooked up to a feed from the camera. The Colonel watched the screen as the two men entered. They wore white Guy Fawkes masks and surgery green tops and bottoms. One of the men pulled the doctor from his office.

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