"I was last back in 2010. That's why your compadre over here doesn't know me."
Sergeant Gurung leaned against the car window. "Listen, we are under specific orders here. I don't quite know how to put this, but we're not allowed to let you enter."
* * *
*1 Malay for "bald-headed." For some reason, the word has also become popular as a nickname for little boys with crew cuts.
*2 Singapore Chinese Girls' School, which we ACS boys used to call Sucking Co-uh, never mind.
*3 Hokkien for "I couldn't give a damn."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TYERSALL PARK, SINGAPORE
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS EARLIER …
"Three, four, five," Eddie counted as he stood by the window in the upstairs foyer, looking down the driveway. There were five cars in the motorcade-four, really, if you didn't count the minivan transporting all the maids bringing up the rear. Auntie Catherine and her family had just flown in from Bangkok, and Eddie was surprised there were so few cars in their convoy. In the lead was a white Mercedes S-Class with diplomatic license plates, obviously provided by the Thai embassy, but the other cars were a random assortment: a BMW X5 SUV behind the Benz, an Audi that looked at least five years old, and that last car, he didn't even have a clue what it was-it was some non-European four-door sedan, something that didn't register on his list of acceptable vehicles to be seen in.
Yesterday, when he had arrived with his family from Hong Kong, his executive assistant, Stella, had arranged a fleet of six matching Carpathian Grey Range Rovers, making for an impressive entrance as the Cheng famille pulled up to the front door of Tyersall Park. Today he felt almost embarrassed for Auntie Catherine and her clan. Her husband, M.C. Taksin Aakara,*1 was one of the descendants of King Mongkut, and Eddie remembered every detail of his last visit to Thailand when he was nineteen as if it was yesterday: The sprawling compound of historic villas set in a garden paradise on the banks of the Chao Phraya River; the way his cousins James, Matt, and Adam had three servants each that would prostrate at their feet as if they were little gods, ready to attend to their every whim; the fleet of forest green BMWs idling in the front courtyard ready to take them to the polo club, the tennis club, or any of Sukhumvit's hottest dance clubs; and Jessieanne, that sexy cousin of theirs who went down on him in the upstairs toilet of a pizza parlor in Hua Hin one night.
So why were the Aakaras pulling up in such a ragtag bunch of cars? And wait a minute-what the hell was happening outside? Sanjit the butler and the entire household staff-including the Gurkha guards-were all dressed in their crisp uniforms and assembling along the front driveway! And Ah Ling and Auntie Victoria were also part of the greeting party! Fucky fuck, why hadn't they done this for his family when they arrived yesterday?
Eddie was annoyed to see that his parents had gone outside too, and he was determined that he would under no circumstances join them. Thank goodness Fiona had taken the kids to the zoo, otherwise they would surely want to be part of this idiocy and make the Aakaras feel like they were truly hot shit. He ducked out of view and hid in the service hallway, waiting for everyone to come upstairs, knowing it was always the custom at Tyersall Park for guests to be served iced longan tea in the drawing room when they first arrived. Two waiters passed by rolling cocktail trolleys filled with glassware and large silver samovars of tea, mystified by Eddie lurking in the hallway. He glared at them and hissed, "You didn't see me! I'm not here!"
When Eddie began to hear voices coming up the stairs, he ambled into the drawing room with his hands nonchalantly tucked into the pockets of his salmon-colored Rubinacci trousers. Auntie Cat was the first to arrive at the top of the grand staircase, chattering away excitedly with his mother in that distinctive convent-schoolgirl lilt of hers.*2 "What a surprise to see you and Malcolm out front! I thought you weren't arriving until this evening?"
"That was the plan, but Eddie managed to fly all of us down on a private jet yesterday."
"Wah, gum ho maeng!"*3 Catherine remarked, as a waiter approached them bearing a silver tray filled with tall glasses of iced longan tea.
Eddie studied his aunt for a moment as she sat down on a divan next to his mother, marveling at how different the sisters looked. Auntie Cat's stocky, athletic physique was enviable for a woman in her seventies, and in such contrast to his other aunties with their bony, aristocratically malnourished frames. Unfortunately, she did take after her sisters in her fashion sense-on a charitable day, Eddie might have politely described her style as "eccentric." Today, she just looked god-awful in that boxy purple silk pantsuit, obviously tailor-made and obviously several decades old, mud-colored Clarks open-toed walking sandals, and the same pair of Sophia Loren bluish-tinted bifocals he had seen her wear for decades.