ScotlandA small group of afternoon visitors sat busy on Alfonso Richmond III's mansion's porch. They discussed finances, the market, and the many properties they had purchased or sold in recent months.The majority of the attendees sipped on rare bourbon, top-shelf vodka, and well-aged whiskey, rather than hot dogs and beer. Smoke from a few cigars rippled around, swirling up and out into the evening air.Alfonso stood near the outdoor bar, enjoying a glass of fine Irish whiskey. It wasn't the most costly drink, but it was his favourite by far. Smooth and toasty, it was his go-to beverage.He'd been talking with his coworkers and friends about many issues, but something was bothering him. In fact, he'd probably had a few too many, and the one in his hand wasn't going down easily. He hadn't heard from Javier in a few hours, and the anxiety was driving him insane. Not that he was not already insane; some fears and worries were his enemies, but he'd been looking for something to assist
The next day, Shawn and Catherine rented another pickup to go back Lek-Mraphi's ancestral residence. His phone only rang twice on the other end before Shawn heard, "Mr. Richmond, I need a good explanation for all this! I found your butler with a dead friend in one of the nearby hospitals." Shawn smirked, "I take it you’re in Poland, Detective Rodrigues?" "Yes, sir, we’re at many tourist destinations. It’s a bloody mess over here. We found an unidentified corpse at the base of the stage in the sanctuary, a Russian. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?" "Detective, the Russian corpse shot at me first," Shawn replied plainly. "How is the friend of my butler?" "The corpse will be transferred to London tomorrow morning, and Eddie is going now to London. Care to tell me what exactly happened there?" "That’s good to hear. It's a long story. I guess they shot him to slow us down. They were gone once we got to the parking lot, but I know you know that already, yes?"
LondonElizabeth Grunt thought that with her only potential problems out of the way, she should be able to proceed with relative ease. Her men, who were trailing Shawn and his bitch of a wife, told her that this time there would be no more warning threats but a real thing. Elizabeth looked over at the old man in a grey, pinstriped suit. Eddie nodded. His very thin, almost bald silver hair was combed over to one side on top of a narrow face and a long, hooked nose. He's tired, greenish eyes were sunken back into his face.She had found it difficult to convince Eddie to betray his employer, but she knew his weaknesses. She used her body to get the old man to agree with her. After all, she knew that he wanted her above all else just because she looked like someone from his younger days. And, of course, it was no biggy; he was too willing to share the information he had gathered from Shawn’s little group, and now Elizabeth was grinning her heart out. It was time to let the mighty Richmon
Bangkok, ThailandNothing smelled sweeter than the rain in Bangkok. Catherine loved to look outside and just watch it fall, taking in the cool air, and soft scent just like how she remembered London and their family's little country home. It was the perfect place to be on days like this. Before, she didn't care much for the company since their parents passed away, leaving her and Dave to figure out this crazy world all by themselves.An hour after their trip, Catherine couldn't help herself but ask. "Are you sure telling that detective where we're up to was a good idea?" She cast her husband a sceptical look in the mirror while he was busy blurring his eyeballs from the Bangkok early morning traffic. "I mean, why wouldn’t he just set up a roadblock and bring us in?""I don’t think he'll do that, wife."Hearing him call her his wife many times now, Catherine couldn't help but smile. When he talked to her and looked at her, there was none of the bossy and demanding Catherine had used to
When they arrived at Lek-Mraphi's ancestral homes, the couple walked in the vast parking lot, holding hands like some ordinary tourist lovers on their honeymoon. Each wore a simple white and red-heart printed shirt and a pair of shoes, as they noticed how the business at the temple was on its usual day, like what happened days earlier never happened. The two each take a quarter of the room to search for any sign of the clues left by Dave. On the western side of the temple, there were colourful blossoms and symbols painted on the walls in different places. Some weren’t paintings at all but carvings engraved into the wall, floor, and stone underneath cutout recesses where small statues of Buddhas sat waiting to be worshipped. A vast altar space for monks' worship sat just on each side, which correlated with fire, air, earth, water, and wisdom. Shawn turned on his phone light to get a little extra help and began scanning every inch of the place. The room’s floor was mostly flat, save fo
"Shawn?" Catherine’s shouts echoed through the burial ground. "Where the hell are you?" "In here…" Shawn responded, "be careful…the floors are slippery." Two minutes later, Catherine appeared at the entrance with a small light from the tablet PC in her hand. "What on earth is this place?" "Come, let's see what’s down here." He knelt down in the centre of the rectangular indentation and started scraping away at the surface, working faster now that he had at least a minimal tool for the job. He added and motioned to his wife to see what he was pointing at. "This looks like Ban Chiang. I've been there before with my grandfather." "What is that?" "Ban Chiang, the... well- it was considered the most important prehistoric settlement so far discovered in Southeast Asia. It marks an important stage in human cultural, social, and technological evolution." "Really? You mean, a burial ground?" "Yes. The site presents the earliest evidence of farming in the region and of the manufacture and
London Elizabeth leaned on the railing, palms against the weld surface, fingers curled around the arched metal. She looked out the window at the enormous city below, a satisfied expression on her face, as she watched the ring on her finger. She had been anticipating this moment for months, and it had finally arrived. It was time to totally own the world, and maybe Alfonso could go to hell and she'd be smiling with no worry in the world, because the bastard deserved to suffer in there anyway. Eddie was standing next to her, arms crossed and a foot away from the glass that stretched the length of the wall and provided tourists with a 360-degree view of the city from the observation deck. A dozen feet beyond them, three men in suits stood on the stairs leading to another platform. Her secret lover was one of them, studying the admissions and departures with hawk-like eyes and looking for hostility in Eddie. After all, the old man did not know about her engagement with the younger guy.
Bangkok, Thailand. Wat Phra Kaew, or The Temple of the Emerald Buddha. ***** Dave asked the local guy how to get to the legendary temple, and the long-haired Thai happily assisted them. "My friend, The Wat, is located on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok." The man offered them some local spicy street food, which Dave heartily declined. He continued, "River taxis are the most inexpensive and enjoyable way to get to the Grand Palace and the temple. Unless an important ceremony is being conducted, the temple is generally open to the public. The complex gets busy; arrive early before the tour groups and tropical heat do." "Thank you for the information," Dave responded, his nose wrinkled at the smell of garbage in the area near the food stand vendors. "Neh, do not worry. Are you sure you don't want my chicken intestines?" Dave and Javier shook their heads as the man added, "OK! But you know, photography is allowed around the grounds of the Grand Palace, and it is forbidden in