Alfie was sure he made the right decision to keep his mouth shut and withhold evidence. There were too many unanswered questions, and the police didn’t interview anyone in the village. As soon as he heard Joy didn’t call the police, yet they made an arrest without eyewitness evidence, he knew something was not right.

Why didn’t Joy call the police?

Was it reasonable to assume that she was too scared? There was every chance of that, and Alfie thought so. Tum wasn’t delivering to the shop and she must have served him a drink, unless he helped himself. In which case she knew he was there. Neither Tum nor Bia was part of the truck delivery crew, so they must have been in the shop together, at the same time. It was difficult to imagine Joy was unaware of either of them, even if she was working at the back of the shop. Did she think she had no responsibility to the police, and the paramedics would deal with the police from hospital?

Why didn’t the police interview Joy?

She must have been the first person on their list. He couldn’t work out why the police didn’t interview her. Maybe they did, or maybe they knew the history between the men, put two and two together and came up with four. Then realised it wasn’t the right answer. Whatever, Joy was tight-lipped. Why?

Was Bia on life support?

Of course not. That wasn’t difficult to work out. Assuming Tum’s family never went to the hospital and didn’t check, it would have been easy to hoodwink them into thinking he was brain dead. Thirty thousand baht to avoid a murder indictment was cheap. Bia’s family must have known he owed Tum money, so they agreed to say nothing in exchange for thirty thousand baht, by tricking them into believing Bia was on life support.

What evidence did the police have to arrest Tum when there were no witnesses, or the only witness nobody knew existed?

Someone must have told them Tum was in the shop. Either Joy or the delivery man in the back, putting ice in the freezer. There was no one there when Alfie passed, except two men fighting. But the obvious person to have told them was Bia when he regained consciousness.

By thinking laterally, Alfie concluded that it worked out well for all concerned.

Bia took a nasty pasting just because he owed Tum five hundred baht for drugs. That wasn’t good for the village. If everyone in the village was beaten half to death because of a five-hundred-baht debt, most of the community would have been in intensive care. With the other half in prison. But Bia could pay Tum back out of the thirty thousand baht his family got from Tum’s family. Tum avoided a murder wrap, and the police, who had been trying to nail him for ages for drug offences, got their man. Everyone was happy.

Alfie had learned not to believe everything he was told – especially the facts.

“Village life in Thailand is far too clever for a simple farang like me. Goodnight Pong.”

“Goodnight Alfie.”