Free The Chiang Mai Chronicle: A Declan Power Mystery by T. Hunt Locke

around their desks. Declan caught another glimpse of himself in a chrome framed mirror. He decidedly did not fit in to this picture.
    A young lady, an administrator, walked crisply up to him and perfunctorily greeted him. She then thrust forward a clipboard into his hands. It held an employment application and a pencil. “Fill this out,” she said drily. She looked him over with a shake of the head. It was a less than positive assessment. “We’re not hiring at the moment,” she said with a pinch of her nose before pivoting and returning to her cubicle.
    Declan followed her hypnotic sway as she haughtily returned to her small corner of the universe. She looked distinctly familiar. He came across many ladies on any given day and his memory seldom failed to serve. But in this instance nothing sprang to mind.
    He placed the clipboard to his side. Ben had secured a two o’clock appointment. It was a meeting that would be kept. Christopher Minor had invested a stack of chips in World TEFL. But the image of Martin Gay still clung tenaciously to the institution’s reputation. No amount of chrome and glass could alter that. On almost every day a new post would appear on the Thai Visa website conjuring up the nightmare that was Martin Gay’s TEFL scam. Declan Power could change all that. Declan Power could proclaim that World TEFL, under new ownership and management, was now an educational center which could be trusted.
    He looked closer at the curvaceous young lady behind the desk. An idea sprouted into his mind and a smile to his face. Bingo! Miss prim and proper had a second job. She worked the freelancer circuit over at the Chiang Mai Entertainment Center. If nothing was happening there, she’d find her trick at Hot Shot Disco. This girl was top shelf. If a man wanted to take her back to the hotel he was laying two thousand for an hour and about five thousand for the night. ‘A real spinner,’ one of her clients had opined approvingly. 
    Declan tapped the pencil on the clipboard. For too long he had focused mainly on the ‘working’ girls in the pubs and go-go’s. It was time to branch out. The Chiang Mai Chronicle’s centerfold, his baby, needed a makeover. This buttoned down office administrator would be the perfect subject to launch a spin-off page. He already had a bold letter caption in mind: ‘She can shake it like a dry martini!’
    Another thought crossed his mind. Riff and Raff over at Chiang Mai Land said a true stunner, a high society type, had come to see Gay and escorted him drunkenly out of the pub. Could this be the dame? It was well known Martin carried on with the female staff. Was she a holdover from the previous administration?
    Christopher Minor emerged from his office. He shot Declan a glare. 
    “Power! This way,” he commanded in a low gravelly tone.
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    “She just now into go-go on Loi Kroh. Power go away on his bike.” The man waited impatiently for his next command. He didn’t like his master’s demand to speak English at all times. Worse yet, he had to follow one or the other all day on his bike through the oppressive smog and heat. A smile crept to his face. A pleasant thought wafted into his mind. He thought of the new girl Rose. He straightened up. Tonight, perhaps, he’d be served the new girl Rose as a reward for his diligence. His lord was kind.
    The person on the other end of the line paused. “Sit tight and wait. Follow the lady. Power is already heading into my web. I believe his girlfriend’s name is Oum. Do not be found out!”
    The command would be followed. That was without question. If one wanted to be king one had to think like a king. The lord of Lan Na understood that and recently had begun to understand the darker exercise of power. The Lan Na Guard had been a stroke of genius. Seemingly, these rugged, well educated, graduates of King Mengrai University served as decorative pieces to stand ceremoniously around the