Restless Soul - Alex Archer [81]
She shook her head. “You look exhausted. On second thought, I’ll take a cab. I insist.”
She had a stop in mind before the station. After freshening up she returned to Rose’s desk and picked up the antiques-dealer cards she’d left there and the bag with the broken skull bowl.
“Mind if I borrow your phone?” she asked.
Rose waggled her fingers at it. She was busily typing away on the laptop Annja had been using. But this time it was plugged in so the battery could recharge. Annja took the phone a few feet away from the desk, as far as the cord allowed.
It took several minutes for the man at the lodge’s front desk to summon a sleepy and somewhat incoherent Luartaro.
“I have been worried about you!” He added that he had not yet panicked, however, as the resort reported that she had come and gone yesterday evening, and that he spoke with one of the policemen who’d remained behind after Annja left for Chiang Mai.
Annja gave him a rapid-fire account of finding Zakkarat’s body and dealing with the smugglers at the cavern, and told him she would return to the resort as soon as possible.
“I have to talk to more police today. Just routine.” Indeed, she figured it would be. There were always reports to fill out. “And there’s an antiques store here in the city I want to—”
“You think someone there’s involved with this.” Luartaro’s tone was matter-of-fact. “I think I know you well, Annja. You are curious, and you cannot quit on a mystery. My sister would like you.”
Annja had no reply for that. “I have to go,” she said.
“Take care of yourself, Annja. I don’t want to lose you.”
The cabdriver took her for a tourist, and when she asked him a few questions about the city, he broke into a clearly memorized speech in fluent English.
“This city, it was the capital of all the Lanna Kingdom after it was founded almost eight hundred years ago. It was also the land’s cultural center, and the center of Buddhism in Northern Thailand. Many, many temples were built by King Mengrai. We will drive by one of them.”
Annja had passed him the address she wanted to go to. “It was a little more than four hundred years ago that King Mengrai’s dynasty ended and Burma occupied this land. To this day you can see the Burmese influence on the city’s architecture. There and there.” He pointed to a pair of squat, ornately decorated buildings, one of which looked to be an art gallery.
“It was in the late eighteenth century that King Taksin—”
Annja thought sadly about Zakkarat Tak-sin and wondered if his wife had been notified. She would call Luartaro later to make sure, and she would send flowers or whatever was appropriate.
“—defeated the Burmese forces and took back this land.” He turned and looked over his shoulder, grinning broadly. “In the 1930s Chiang Mai grew to be more important when the last remnants of the Lanna Kingdom dissolved.”
She saw a man in a three-piece suit riding a bicycle and balancing a briefcase on the handlebars. Two blocks later she spotted more bike riders in business attire. Traffic had been light when they left the consulate, but it was becoming heavier now, and the driver wove in and out of the lane close to the sidewalk. The sky had been a brilliant blue, although it was full of clouds over the consulate. The farther south they traveled the more gray the sky became.
“It is going to rain again,” the cabdriver said.
“I wonder if all this rain hurts tourism.” It was an idle thought, and she’d voiced it to be conversational.
“Tourism is very good to Thailand. And Chaing Mai is important to tourists like you. Very scenic, this province, because of mountains, valleys, flowers. Good weather.” He paused. “But we are in the rainy season now. So many things to do—mountain biking, elephant shows, trips to hill tribe villages. There are many places you should visit. Chiang Mai Zoo has more than two hundred Asian and African animals. And Doi Suthep-Doi Pui National Park—”
“I don’t have much time for sightseeing,” Annja said politely. She slid to the other side of the backseat and looked out the window at a temple that