— Chapter Sixteen —
Chantaburi is a town situated on the south end of the eastern seaboard of Thailand. It is the main coloured, Gemstone trading centre in the world. Dealing with both precious and semi precious stones. There are four stones classed as precious; Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and diamond. These stones are classed precious, by their scale of hardness and density. Ruby Sapphire and Emerald register between 9 - 9.5 and diamond, being the hardest, registers at 10. Every other gemstone, such as Amethyst, Garnet, etc register below 9 and classed as semi-precious.
Diamond and emeralds are not usually found traded at Chantaburi. Diamonds are mainly traded in Africa and Amsterdam. Emeralds are usually traded in South America.
Chantaburi and its neighbour Trat, used to have large deposits of Ruby and Blue sapphires. The mines, although almost mined out, left a legacy of a highly lucrative trading centre. Millions of dollars change hands every day in exchange for precious Rubies and multi-coloured sapphires that would be set in jewellery and worn by people all over the world. Chantaburi bustled with activity on trading days and boosted the Thai economy. Most Rubies now though, come from Africa or the nearby Burma and Sapphires from Sri Lanka. Chantaburi has the reputation for having some of the world’s most skilful cutters of the stones, turning the drab, raw dull stones into beautifully faceted gems. The Thai ruby is one of the rarest and most sought after, as it is Pigeon blood red with just a tint of a violet. The Thai blue sapphires are darker than the light sky blue colour of Sri Lanka sapphires and are much sought after. Both the Thai ruby and sapphire are extremely rare.
Taksin had informed the King on his return from Salaburi, of the findings made by Miss Ratray Sesilin, the geologist and mineralogist, with the group of specialists. She had done some laboratory tests on Vitchae’s ornament and confirmed that it was a large unfaceted ruby. About 60carat in weight and ‘inclusion’ free, which made it very high quality.
Inclusions are small imperfections in gemstones. The more inclusions, the lesser the stones value. No inclusions, the stone is classed as ‘flawless’.
Ratray had surveyed the area where the monks had usually found the stones for carving. She had found a vein of ruby that she could not yet determine the size, but where there was ruby, there was usually sapphire and, sure enough, with the village guides assistance, she had discovered the sapphire vein, deep within a cave. Taksin had informed the King that they were still unsure as to the size and route of the veins, but Ratray remained convinced that the veins would be large and bring prosperity to the village, which would only be a one-hour drive to Chantaburi once their new road had been completes. She had also found Rose Quartz deposits, which usually denoted gold, so maybe there was some of this precious mineral too.
She appeared thrilled when she told Taksin that she had never come across anything as exciting as this, and would continue in the area for several more days, until a complete and thorough report could be made to the King.
Taksin sat in his office at the Imperial Palace. The telephone hadn’t stopped ringing since his return. He and the King were organising, and co-ordinating the improvements and developments of Salaburi. The phone rang again and his secretary announced,
“Major General Nalaphon Chinawat is on the line khun Taksin.”
Major General Chinawat was the chief of Police in Pattaya. The two exchanged morning greetings, pleasantries, and Taksin enquired as to his call.
“Have you any news from the investigation?”
The police chief told Taksin that the body of an Arab had been discovered, which had half the skull cut clean off, by a sharp double bladed instrument that had been found embedded in the wall. They had taken finger prints off the blade and the prints belonged to a young Thai man, about 25 years of age who had been taken to Pattaya Bangkok Memorial Hospital with a bullet wound. He went on to explain that the man had died in the night, rather suspiciously. He also mentioned that they had found a computer in the dead Arab’s hotel room, which had been receiving messages from another computer, and they were now trying to trace the person who it had been linked to. His officer’s had also retrieved several pictures, of what appeared to be the object that Taksin had been searching for.
“Have you any further leads?” Taksin enquired
“Sadly, no,” said the chief, “We appear to have hit a dead end. However, there was blood on a window, so we assume the Thai lad jumped out. We also received reports about three foreigners who accompanied him to hospital, we tried to interview one who was injured, but he seemed a little confused, and we do not know where the other two are. We went to their hotel, and the receptionist informed us that they had left with two girls early in the morning and the girl’s mobile phones are switched off.”
Nalaphon continued,
“It appears that somebody else had been in the room, there was more than just the young Thai and the dead Arab. The Dolphin’s receptionist told my officers that the Thai man had checked in a few days ago, along with another foreign man, who they recognised as a friend of a Mr. Andrew Towhee, an unsavoury character, who had left Thailand some years ago, but they could find no trace of this other man anywhere. They did however; find a scorched area and a slight gold outline on the floor of the alley at the side of the hotel.”
Taksin thanked the police chief and advised him, at this stage just monitor the situation and continue investigating. He was confused and had many unanswered questions.
Who were these foreigners? Moreover, who was this other man? He decided, at this stage just to wait and see what developed. He would inform the King and see what action they should take, if any. He only hoped that the sacred relic had not already left the country and hoped that the young warrior Pon, was safe and would contact them soon.