Read Inspector Zhang And The Dead Thai Gangster for Free Online

snapped her notebook shut in frustration.
    Inspector Zhang smiled. “Not necessarily,” he said quietly. “We have eliminated the impossible, so we are left with the truth. If he was not shot on the plane, then he must have been shot before he boarded. That is the only possibility.”
    “Okay,” said the Sergeant hesitantly.
    “And if he did not die before boarding, then he must have been murdered on the plane.”
    The Sergeant shrugged.
    “So the only possible explanation is that he was shot before he boarded and was murdered on the plane.” Inspector Zhang pushed his spectacles up his nose. “I know that those two statements appear to be mutually exclusive, but it is the only possible explanation.” He took out his cell phone.   “I must use my phone,” he said, and headed towards the rear of the plane.
    The pilot came up to Sergeant Lee and they both watched as Inspector Zhang talked into his cell phone, his hand cupped around his mouth. “Is he always like this?” asked Captain Kumar.
    “Like what?” asked Sergeant Lee.
    “Secretive,” said the pilot. “As if he doesn’t want anyone else to know what’s going on.”
    “I think Inspector Zhang does not like to be wrong,” she said. “So until he is sure, he holds his own counsel.”
    “Do you think he knows who the killer is?”
    “If anyone does, it is Inspector Zhang,” she said.
    They waited until Inspector Zhang had finished, but when he did put the phone away he turned his back on them and headed out of the door at the back of the plane.
    “Now where is he going?” asked Captain Kumar.
    “I have absolutely no idea,” said Sergeant Lee.
    After a few minutes the Inspector returned, followed by two brown-uniformed Thai policemen with large handguns in holsters and gleaming black boots.
    “Is everything all right, Inspector?” asked the pilot.
    “Everything is perfect,” said Inspector Zhang. “I am now in a position to hand the perpetrator of the crime over to the Thai authorities.” He strode past them and headed towards the front of the plane. Captain Kumar and Sergeant Lee fell into step behind the two Thai police officers.
    Inspector Zhang stopped at the front of the cabin and looked down at the bodyguard, who was sipping a glass of orange juice. “So, Mr. Gottesman, I now understand everything,” he said.
    The Israeli shrugged.
    “The confrontation at the security checkpoint at Changi Airport was nothing to do with your client’s watch, was it?”
    “It was his watch; it set off the alarm,” said the bodyguard.
    “No, Mr. Gottesman, it was not his watch. And you should know that I have only just finished talking to the head of security at the airport.”
    The bodyguard slowly put down his glass of orange juice.
    “Your client was wearing a bullet-proof vest under his shirt and he was told by security staff that he could not wear it on the plane, isn’t that the case, Mr. Gottesman?”
    The Israeli said nothing and his face remained a blank mask.
    “They made him remove the bullet-proof jacket and check it in to the hold,” said Inspector Zhang.
    “If that happened, I didn’t see it. I’d already left the security area.”
    “Nonsense, you are a professional bodyguard, your job requires you to stay with him at all times.   No bodyguard would leave his client’s side.   And I also spoke to the hotel where Mr. Srisai stayed. There were reports of a shot this morning. A gunshot. At the hotel.”
    The bodyguard shrugged carelessly. “That’s news to me,” he said.
    Inspector Zhang’s eyes hardened. “It is time to stop lying, Mr. Gottesman.”
    “I’m not lying. Why would I lie?”
    Inspector Zhang pointed a finger at the bodyguard’s face.   “I know everything, Mr. Gottesman, so lying is futile. You were with Mr. Srisai when he was shot. The chief of security at the hotel told me as much.”
    “So?”
    “So I need you to explain the circumstances of the shooting to me.”
    The bodyguard sighed and