-Track Twenty-Two-
Following her devastating telephone call from Charles, the British Embassy in Bangkok called Lucy an hour later. The Embassy official sounded blasé on the phone when he told her about her father dying and her best option was to have him cremated the following day in Thailand.
Lucy, after losing her temper with the man, insisted that she spoke to the British Ambassador and became angry when the man said the Ambassador was otherwise engaged. Enraged, Lucy refused permission to cremate Steve in Thailand and insisted that an autopsy carried out. She said that she wanted Steve’s body, along with Elvin, Charles, and Wayne repatriated to the UK and told the official that she would sort things out and get back to them. The official sighed and hung up.
Bernard handed Lucy another brandy. He could see the rage in her eyes when she sculled the brandy as she glared at the phone.
“I will check your father’s travel insurance policy,” said Bernard, and went to his filing cabinet.
Lucy shook with rage and hurt. With tears streaming down her face, she called Steve’s number and spoke to Charles.
“Hello Lucy, is everything okay my dear, you must be heartbroken. We all feel devastated but heard nothing further from the Embassy, so don't know what's happening.”
Lucy heard the tremble in Charles’s voice and knew they would all be terrified.
“Hello Charles, I received a call from the British Embassy in Bangkok wanting permission to cremate dad tomorrow, but don’t worry, I refused and I will bring you all home.”
“Thank you Lucy, we don’t know what to do”
“Don’t worry Charles, I have a few calls to make, and then I will be there as soon as possible.”
Lucy heard Charles breathing a sigh of relief before he said. “Thank you Lucy, I will let the others know. They will be delighted you’re coming. I’m afraid without Steve we are all useless.”
“Get some rest Charles, and I will call you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight Lucy, and thank you.”
Lucy said goodbye, hung up, and then called Fredrick Farquharson-Jones.
Although upset, Lucy felt relieved after speaking with the old Barrister who sounded confident he could help.
She drank her brandy and told Bernard.
“That’s good news darling,” said Bernard, reading the travel policy, “and the insurance covers your father for repatriation to the United Kingdom to the value of £100,000 and his other insurance covers him for another £200,000, so I will phone the companies.”
Lucy and Bernard spent the next morning making phone calls and sorting out paperwork. That afternoon she received a phone call from the British Embassy in London, apologising for their Bangkok Embassy causing her any distress. The official told her that her father’s body would remain in the morgue in Pattaya until things are resolved. Still angry with the official in Thailand, Lucy snapped at the man and asked questions about repatriation for her father and the others. The official stammered, told her they were sorting things out in Thailand and apologised again before hanging up.
Lucy seethed and then chuckled when she thought about what Fredrick would have called the official, and shouted at the phone, “You ’re a piss ant,”
That evening, Lucy received a call from the British Ambassador in Bangkok, who told her that he’d arranged everything that her lawyer had insisted upon. Lucy vented her anger out on the Ambassador, calling him a piss ant with incompetent staff.
Lucy was the second person to yell at the Ambassador that day and he didn’t want his Embassy in Bangkok investigated, with him losing his job, or worse, going to prison, as Fredrick had warned him earlier would happen.
“What’s happening?” asked Wayne after Charles finished his call.
Charles smiled. “Lucy is coming out here as soon as possible,” he said, “and she will let me know more tomorrow.”
They all breathed a sigh of relief.
“She not only sounded upset but also angry,” said Charles.
“Huh! What do they want?” asked Wayne furrowing his brow when he saw three Thai policemen come into the hotel reception and walking over to the three.
The smirking policemen sat with the three, and one said. “We need to know what happened to your friend who died?”
Oh, said Charles, taken aback. “What do you want to know?”
The police took out statement forms, filled in details in Thai and handed Charles, Wayne and Elvin each a form and a pen. He told them to write about what happened at the Million Year Stone Park.
The three wrote what they had witnessed about Steve’s death and handed back the forms.
One policeman took the statements while the other two smiled.
“Okay,” said a policeman after glancing at their English written statements. “You pay.”
“Pay… Pay for what?” asked Charles.
The policemen glared at Charles, and in pidgin English, said. “In Thailand, the police come and you pay them.”
“Oh, so how much do you want?” asked Charles looking surprised, thinking. ‘That must be the coffee money that Embassy man mentioned.’
“Up to you, but usually foreigners pay 10,000 baht each,” said the smirking Thai
Although confused, the three scraped together 30,000 THB cash and the police left smiling.
Almost out of cash, Charles, Wayne, and Elvin went to get more money from the ATM, came back to the hotel, and called Gus in the Philippines and then Jerry.
Gus was with Captain Navarro and saddened by the news. Gus told them he would throw a party in Steve’s honour and asked if they were okay and if they needed anything. Oggie took the news badly and Charles heard him sniffing back tears when he told him.
Jerry offered to come to Pattaya to help, but the three declined his offer because Lucy would be there soon. However, they asked Jerry if he would get their equipment back to England and Jerry said he would have it shipped the next day, but it would take time to get there.
The three had had a long, traumatic day, and, still trembling, they drank a few beers and whiskies at the hotel's bar before going to bed, although none of them slept.
They hung around Martin’s the following day and after their evening meal, they again stayed in the hotel bar, where, as they sat drinking beer, Lucy called and gave them her flight details.
Lucy sat in the Boeing 747 going over things in her mind, although distraught about her father’s death, with things so hectic over the past few days, she had not had time to grieve. She knew her paperwork was in order as Bernard had sorted all that out and Mrs Chew had been a great help. Lucy and Cosmo had been trying to call Kipper before she left, but his phone was on voicemail and they did not want to leave a message, knowing it would be too impersonal and upset him, so Cosmo said he would keep trying.
Lucy looked out of the window as the plane taxied down the runway on a bleak morning at Heathrow. She took a handkerchief from her bag and wept.
“Lucy… Lucy!” shouted Charles waving.
Lucy smiled and wheeled her trolley over to the three old men who looked worried.
“Boy, are we glad to see you,” said Wayne as he hugged the tired Doctor.
“Was your flight okay?” asked Elvin.
“Long,” said Lucy smiling, and put her hand over her mouth and yawned as a man came over, smiled, and said. “You must be Mr Steven Baker’s daughters.”
“Yes, I am Doctor Lucy Fossdyke,”
Charles, Wayne, and Elvin glared at the man as he extended his hand and said. “Welcome to Thailand Doctor Fossdyke, I am sorry it’s under such sad circumstances. I’m Robert Whitehouse from the British Embassy and the Ambassador instructed me to take care of you during your stay. I will drive you all to Pattaya where we can arrange for your father's repatriation. I’m sure you would like to rest and freshen up before I take you to the hospital later today.” Robert smiled. “Please follow me.”
“Thank you, Robert,” said Lucy, and they followed Robert across the foot pass to the car park and got into a black Toyota.
“Robert doesn't look too happy,” whispered Charles smiling.
“No, he wouldn’t be happy, he now has to do some work,” said Wayne smirking.
They drove out of Suvarnabhumi Airport and along the highway for the hour and a half journey to Pattaya.
Robert thought. ‘Doctor Fossdyke seems nice, and nothing like I imagined the fearsome woman who put the fear of God into the Ambassador and the British Embassy staff in Bangkok.’
Charles had booked Lucy a room in the LK Metro, where Robert dropped them off and said that he would pick them up in a few hours and take them to the Pattaya hospital.
Lucy felt weary and grimy, and after a long cold shower, she went to meet with Charles, Elvin, and Wayne in the reception.
Much to the relief of the three, Lucy said she would take care of the situation, and take them and her father's body home.
The Ambassador rang Lucy at the hotel to check everything was okay. He felt relieved when he heard Lucy sounding calmer than the last time they spoke as she thanked him for his help so far.
An hour later, Robert arrived and drove them all to Pattaya hospital.
They stood in the large reception and a Thai Doctor came over, introduced himself as Doctor Wansuk, the Pathologist. He took Lucy to the morgue while Elvin, Charles, Wayne and Robert, waited in the hospital café.
Lucy thought the modern air-conditioned morgue looked immaculate as the Pathologist took Lucy over to Steve’s body laid on a gurney covered in a sheet with his head exposed.
Lucy went over to her father and stroked his head.
“Don’t worry dad, I’ve come to take you all home,” she said and kissed his cold forehead. Noticing Steve’s head bore no scars from a post-mortem, she turned to Doctor Wansuk, frowned and asked. “Was a full post-mortem carried out?”
Doctor Wansuk shook his head, aware that Lucy was a Doctor; he explained that a full post-mortem was unnecessary after he had run tests. He said it was clear from Steve’s cardiac enzyme results that he had suffered a massive myocardial infarction, which led to a fatal cardiac arrest. The pathologist gave Lucy the report, which she read and concurred.
The pathologist and Lucy chatted as he took her back to reception to meet the others.
Robert then took them all to a relative’s suite and gave Lucy paperwork to sign.
Elvin, Wayne, and Charles smirked, realising it must have taken the idle little bollocks days to arrange everything.
Several days later, a Boeing 747 Jumbo jet took off from Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok. Lucy, Elvin, Charles, and Wayne sat in the first-class compartment, while a shiny, teak, Thai-style casket containing Steve’s body lay in the cargo hold.
They arrived at a sunny, but cold, Heathrow Airport fourteen hours later.
Elvin, Charles, Wayne and Lucy walked through the crowded airport, with passengers unaware that the three suntanned geriatrics with the pale middle-aged woman, were the biggest thing to hit the music scene for decades; Fossils.
Bernard met them with a hearse from Cleethorpes to collect Steve’s casket, which the aircrew lifted from the cargo hold into the hearse.
Bernard followed behind the hearse along the motorway and, after taking the casket to a local funeral parlour, he drove the weary old men back to Fossdyke where Mrs Chew and other residents fussed around them.
“They looked relieved to be home,” said Lucy on their drive home.
Bernard nodded and said. “Yes, it’s lovely to have you all home safe. When we get home, you have a nice hot bath while I make you a gin and tonic.”
Lucy felt exhausted as she sat back in the car seat and closed her eyes.