Free Six and a Half Deadly Sins by Colin Cotterill Page B

smell long before they were told about it. Everyone had been eager to send the two cadavers back to their villages for their respective rights and cremations. But Phosy had insisted they stay put until he could have a look at them. With no electricity tocool them, the bodies were wrapped in various herbal leaves and placed near open windows. The temperature had been low since the killings, but still the rotting flesh announced its decline.
    With Mrs. Loo stubbornly anchored in the jeep, Phosy and Xiu Long went into the room and peeled back the leaf shrouds. The wounds were deep and ugly, and already the maggots had come to claim their lunch. Phosy was no Dr. Siri. All he could do was confirm the men were dead, as if there were any doubt. He could see no evidence of anything but an attack with large sharp weapons.
    Xiu Long leaned over the corpses and studied them with fascination. “Deceased,” he said.
    When they pulled up in front of the police station, there was an NJ-130 truck parked out front. Behind the dirty windshield was the man-mountain Phosy recognized from the previous morning even without his AK-47. The man’s ears perched squarely on his shoulders. Beside him sat a woman-child with a powdered face and lipstick. She could barely see over the dashboard. Nobody sat in the driver’s seat.
    Phosy climbed down from his jeep and walked past the open window of the truck. The big man let out a sort of growl. The inspector grinned and proceeded to the open front of the police office.
    He was confronted by toothless foreman Goi on his way out. The toothless one put his hand on Phosy’s chest. “Where do you think you’re going?”
    Phosy looked at the hand and took a half step back. “I already warned you about the stick,” he said. “I feel even more uncomfortable about greasy hands. If your granddaughter wasn’t sitting there in the cab watching, you’d have a broken wrist by now.”
    Raging red bonfires burned in the foreman’s eyes. Had he teeth, he would have bared them. Phosy recognized thesigns. This man had killed. The power of life and death, the impunity that came with holding a knife to the jugular of anyone standing in his way, had made him invulnerable. But the difference between this creature and a drunk who took a broken bottle to all comers in a brawl was that this man had a brain and cunning. He planned. He wasn’t impetuous. That was what most frightened Phosy.
    Foreman Goi looked over Phosy’s shoulder as Xiu Long stepped from the jeep, and he nodded at the Chinese man. Goi may have smiled too, but expressions on his face were all a matter of conjecture. He took another step forward and reached out again with his hand. This time he began to brush dust off the detective’s shirt with his fingertips.
    “Clever Vientiane,” he said, not loud enough for anyone else to hear, “you’ve managed to temporarily plug a few gaps in your leaky life.”
    “No idea what you mean,” said Phosy.
    “You know your Chinese backup can’t be here forever. And I see your wife and child have left on an unexpected vacation. But you’d be surprised what a small world this is. How easy it is to trace a person. We can—”
    Phosy pushed past him, causing the foreman to take a step back. Goi’s heel hit a pot of dead flowers, and he toppled backward and thumped into the dust. It was a more dramatic fall than the inspector had planned. He decided to take advantage of the moment.
    “Who the hell is this man?” shouted Phosy to the policemen standing in a line on the office step with their mouths open. One of them went to help the foreman but got a slap for his trouble.
    Foreman Goi struggled to his feet. “Get off me,” he yelled.
    “Inspector, you really shouldn’t—” Sergeant Teyp began.
    “I asked you his name,” said Phosy.
    “It’s Foreman Goi,” said Constable Nut.
    “And what’s Foreman Goi doing here?” Phosy asked.
    Sergeant Teyp looked apologetically at the toothless foreman, then