A Sticky Plot Congeals
Chapter 16
We’d finally caught a break in the case. It was a small one, but very important because it confirmed our suspicions: Albert Wu was dirty. One of his couriers had been ripped off on his way to Bangkok to deliver a shipment of opium. Angie’s underworld sources were damn good. Word on the street was that Albert was absolutely furious. There seemed to be no honor among thieves or rival drug traffickers after all.
A small-time competitor had followed the courier from the mortuary to the bus station and watched while the courier boarded the #72 express bus headed to Bangkok. There was only one stop on the route and that’s where the switch happened. The courier had mistakenly placed the duffel bag of drugs in the underbelly of the bus. He’d never had a problem before and didn’t expect one on this routine delivery. Moreover, he didn’t want the bag in an overhead compartment and close to him in the unlikely event the cops conducted a random search. Besides passenger luggage, the bus picked up and delivered packages along the way. The courier could claim the bag wasn’t his if inadvertently discovered by the authorities. Unlike the airlines, there was no formal bag check system for bus travel in Thailand. A passenger simply placed the item in the luggage compartment and that was it. Overall, the honor system worked well, except for the occasional, thieving drug dealer.
It was dark when the bus pulled into the Nakhon city terminal. Most of the passengers left the bus, either because it was their final destination or to visit the coffee shop for the 45 minute rest stop. As usual, the driver parked in the #1stall where the side of bus was in full view of the patrons inside the shop. The luggage compartment door was left open for new passengers boarding for the final leg of the trip to Bangkok.
The rival dealer had tailed the bus and had watched this same routine several times over the past few months. He had a duffel bag filled with bags of rice that closely resembled the one carried by the courier. Tonight he acted without hesitation. He opened the opposite luggage compartment door on the far side of the bus and did the switch. The only reason he placed a phony bag in the hold was to throw off the courier in the off-chance he decided to peek into the compartment. Since the bag was located on the far side of the hold, he wouldn’t be able to get a close look. The unlit interior helped with the ruse.
Three minutes later the rip-off artist drove off into the night many thousands of dollars richer.
Angie’s prose tale of poetic justice had us all doubled-over with laughter. We all agreed there was still some mystical, comical karma left in Thailand.