Meaghan looked at her ersatz neighbor and friend, and internally shuddered at the coldness in her eyes. Still, she mustered up enough of her flagging courage to ask a question.
"Why did you do all this?"
"I love Bangkok. A lot of people like the Damnoen Saduak and all the boats floating in the market, but that's too touristy and busy for the work that I do. Had your friend gone there instead of the Khao San Road district, perhaps we wouldn't have met up and she would still be able to talk. As it was, she refused to give us any information right up to the end. A remarkably strong woman, that Iviore."
Meaghan couldn't believe her ears. "You killed her? But why? What did she do to you?"
She could hear the edge of hysteria in her voice, but tried to hold on to her tenuous control.
Shel nodded at Shuk, who stood up from the small chair and moved to casually lean against the bulkhead. Shel swiveled the chair and sat down, leaning her arms against the seatback.
"She was a minor obstacle; she figured out we were laundering money through the company you worked for. It was funny, funneling the money that was funding the destruction of that family's business. The furor was fantastic when Misty did such a fine job with the trail."
Shel smiled, but it never reached those chilly eyes. "I don't suppose it really matters what you found in those files. That is now just a footnote in all this." She finished dismissively. Then she leaned forward while Meaghan involuntarily shrank back.
"Where are your parent's files?"
"I don't know."
Without warning, Shuk stepped forward from the bulkhead and slapped Meaghan. She fell back onto the bunk with the jangling of the chains competing with the ringing in her ears.
The older woman grabbed her wrist shackles and yanked her back up.
Shel continued conversationally, as if nothing happened. "If the BKN had the information, they would have already shut us down. They didn't have anything on their persons; we even check to see if it was embedded somewhere on their bodies. It wasn't in their belongings, so the only thing left is…you. Well, you and your sister."
"Don't you dare touch my sister! I'll kill you first!" Meaghan all but yelled, but Shel appear unaffected. Shuk, however, pulled her hand back to strike her again, only a sharp rebuke from Shel stopping her. She reversed until her back was again on the bulkhead, but the casual stance from before was gone. Instead, she looked at Meaghan with happy malice.
"So, where could your dear, dear parents have secured it? It's going to be a long afternoon for you if we can't figure this out."
~ ~ ~
Rickie thanked his employee as he stepped inside the rollcage of the small 2-seat jetsprint boat. It was a vessel he normally used for racing between friends. The 5-meter long straked vee-hull made it very maneuverable and the 6-litre engine produced up to 650 horsepower on aviation fuel. It was not a boat for the open water, but Rickie thought it was perfect for inside the harbor, as he intended to look for Meaghan no matter what.
He waved at the now-stranded worker and hurried to the other end of the harbor, where the Duanwu Festival was in full swing.