Singapore Sling Shot - Andrew Grant [88]
“And not one drop of blood was shed.”
“Cynicism suits you admirably, Daniel,” Sami replied smoothly with a hint of a chuckle in his voice. “You will find your bank account has received a substantial injection of cash. I suggest you look for an investment or two and then come and work with me—just as soon as I take care of Lu, that is.”
With that, the phone went dead. I left the patio and went inside. The laptop was more or less a permanent fixture on the bar in the lounge. I fired it up and logged into my Cayman Islands bank account. How Sami had tracked that down, I have no idea, but track it down he had. When I checked the figures, I almost fell through the floor. As it was, I sank onto one of the barstools and tried to focus on the numbers on the computer screen.
There was now US$50 million in my account. That was over and above the two and a bit that had been loitering there, left over from Bernard’s loot following my apartment purchase.
“Oh boy!” I muttered. Did the money make any great difference? I really have no idea. The two million and change that had been there would have kept me in luxury until my dotage. Now having a real fortune to play with, what the hell did I want to do with it? Sami was right, of course: invest it. As to going to work for him? Well, I bore easily, and when I’m bored, trouble sort of finds me. Life around Sami Somsak is never boring. Maybe I’ll say yes to him.
Half an hour after my conversation with Sami, I was in the apartment complex’s pool doing some serious laps. My good intentions were cut short when Nim, the pool girl, appeared holding a towel and a walky phone. I dried a hand and an ear and took the handset. It was Sami, again. There was no preamble.
“Tuk Tuk is dead! I’m on my way to the airport. I’m going home for the funeral.”
“Should I come?” Tuk Tuk Song, Sami’s uncle, had been both a friend and an enemy to me. I had saved his life and earned his gratitude and friendship. That had survived until I killed his son, Arune. The moment I did that, all bets were off and I was enemy number one.
“I think not, Daniel. You will see Sakura in good time. She has to grieve or be seen to grieve first.”
“How did you know about Sakura and me?” I asked, completely dumbstruck. Our final conversation, the one in which she had invited me to come to her on Tuk Tuk’s death, had been a whispered one between her and me in the Jeep I’d commandeered from the newly dead Choy Lee.
“Tuk Tuk told me,” Sami replied simply. “She told him!”
“That’s crazy,” I replied. “You don’t tell your dying husband that once he has popped his clogs, you’ll be seeing the man who was his sworn enemy.” Even as I said that, I knew that perhaps it did happen that way. The relationship between the beautiful Sakura and Tuk Tuk was, to say the least, unusual, just as the relationship between Tuk Tuk and me had been. Then, of course, there was the female factor. I have to admit that when it comes to understanding women, I am a complete, abysmal failure.
“Uncle still regarded you as his friend, Daniel. The fact that he was honour-bound to kill you because you killed Arune was something that saddened him greatly. Perhaps he thought that when he was gone and you and Sakura came together, the balance would be restored. He loved her and he greatly respected you. He told me not long ago that he wished you had been his son rather than the idiot he’d bred.”
I grunted. My mind was racing, trying to sort out the implications of what the hell Sami was telling me. If I went to Sakura, was I fulfilling Tuk Tuk’s dying wish? In reality, would I ever know if it had really been her wish that I go to her, or had it been Tuk Tuk’s idea all along? Where the hell was my free will in this whole bloody mess? And what about Simone?
“Are you still there, Daniel?”
“Yeah. I’m just trying to figure out who the fuck is manipulating who here.”
Sami laughed. “The workings of the world, Daniel. Just relax and roll with the tide. When the time is right, go to Sakura. If things work out,