CHAPTER 53
When Cass looked up after talking to me, there was a cloud of grey dust on the approach road from the highway. I imagine he thought it was Jimmy and me already, but we were at least twenty minutes away.
But something was coming, and it wasn’t coming slowly. A dark-coloured truck appeared, and it didn’t go into the car park but headed straight up the slope towards the temple.
Cass grabbed his new sandals and his backpack and ran barefoot and was hobbling to a pile of builder’s rubble, an abandoned cement mixer and a stack of concrete posts and barbed wire at the rear. He stopped there briefly to put on the sandals and peer around the cement mixer.
The truck had stopped at the temple steps, and two men jumped out, leaving another sitting inside with the engine running like a bank robbery with a getaway car.
The two men in jeans and tee shirts ran up the steps into the temple, looked this way and that, and then as one ran around the side of the temple, the other went inside. But it was what they were both holding and pointing that worried Cass. He’d seen similar in Turkey and Syria and heard them referred to as Berettas.
Guns and Buddhist temples didn’t mix.
He’d not seen the three monks all day, but suddenly, one—the youngest one—appeared from somewhere and stood. His hand was to his mouth and was clearly wondering what was going on. Cass didn’t wait to find out. Using the cement mixer, he climbed over the wall, ran into the trees, scrambled up the rough hillside, through the trees and undergrowth, until, exhausted, he stood for a moment to catch his breath and look back towards the temple. From there, all he could now see was the huge head of the white Buddha level to where he was standing. Breathing heavily, he then heard more cars or trucks. Doors slammed, men shouted, and then came the ominous crack of gun fire that reminded him of Syria.
Cass’s mind was in turmoil. He had no idea what was happening, but his fear was that Jimmy and I had already arrived, and there was some sort of shootout with the men in the truck.
He pulled the phone from the bag, wondering whether to use it or turn it off and remove the battery, which was what someone had told him meant the phone couldn’t be tracked.
He was still standing there, surrounded by thick forest. He was sweating and holding the phone in his hand when it vibrated and then buzzed. He swiped, held it to his ear, and listened. It was me.
We were on the main road close to the side road leading to the white Buddha but had arrived there just as a group of around six police cars and trucks arrived from the other direction. All except one had raced down the side road. The remaining one parked sideways across the road barring our entrance.
Then, just as I called Cass’s number again, another car, a private Toyota, arrived from the south and stopped right behind Jimmy’s motorbike. A man I’d never seen before jumped out and ran towards Jimmy.
I heard Cass’s voice answering the phone.
“Cass? Cass?” I shouted. “It’s Kurt again. Answer it, will you?”
“Yes.”
“Where the hell are you, man?”
“Where are you?”
“On the road. We’d just arrived when the police turned up and took the road towards the temple. Then we heard gunshots.”
“I saw a truck arrive,” Cass explained. “Two men got out and went into the temple. I thought they were looking for me, so I ran up into the hills. Then I heard more cars and gunfire.”
I paused because two white minibuses turned up with red lights flashing—ambulances. Both took off towards the temple as a queue of trucks, cars, and motorbikes began to pile up from both the north and south and were told to stop by the police.
“Two ambulances have just arrived,” I said to Cass. “They’re heading for the temple. Jimmy wants to speak to you.”
I handed the phone to Jimmy as the stranger from the Toyota stood there.
“Cass?” Jimmy said into the phone. “I’m Jimmy. Wherever you are, stay put. We need to know what’s going on here. Keep the phone open.”
That’s when I got introduced to the stranger.
“This is Mark Dobson from Asher & Asher,” Jimmy said.