Read Welcome to Hell for Free Online Page A

bills, but totalling around 100,000 baht (US $400). The police had helped themselves.
    There were two policemen in the room where I counted the money. They kept staring at me. I asked the lawyer what to do. He whispered that it would be best just to finish counting, take the money, and go. If we complained that there was money missing, it would mean the police would have to have an internal investigation, and they’d hold the money for longer.
    It had only been in the police station overnight and there was 100,000 baht missing. I wondered how much would be missing by the end of the investigation.
    After I finished counting the cash, I withdrew my complaint against Hayes. He had been using this pseudonymn for years, I found out, and was from New Zealand – not Australia. This was the reason, the police said, they hadn’t been able to find him.
    Before finally withdrawing the charge, I made it clear to Hayes that any one of the 30 men could re-charge him at any time. I wanted him to know that he wasn’t home free. He was going to have to help find O’Connor whether he liked it or not.
    This frightened him to the extent that he suddenly remembered where O’Connor lived, and where his favourite restaurants and bars were.
    Thinking that they were going to earn more money, the investigation team offered to drive to O’Connor’s house and arrest him.
    Hayes said O’Connor lived about 30 km away.
    I waited in the patrol car while the officers went into the apartment. After about half an hour, they came back. They said O’Connor wasn’t there and had checked out.
    But they said they would now place a spy there. They promised that if O’Connor ever returned to his apartment they would get him. He wouldn’t escape.
    There wasn’t much more I could do.
    I took some solace when I read the morning papers the next day. When I first started searching for O’Connor and Hayes, I contacted a number of journalists who highlighted my case. They had reported the original con and now they reported about how I had caught Hayes.
    This prompted Hayes to leave Thailand the moment he was released from custody. His cover blown, he jetted off to destinations unknown.
    Now the only thing left for me to do was wait for news of O’Connor.
    There wasn’t any point in going back to Europe anyway. I had lost everything. The bank had taken my business and repossessed my house to pay back the money I’d borrowed. My wife had left me and taken our three children back to Ireland. I had nothing left but time on my hands.

4
    In time, I built a new life for myself in Thailand. I gradually got used to Bangkok, its climate and its food. You could say that I gradually immersed myself into the city’s culture.
    I grew to love the smells and sounds of the city, its people and even the constant traffic.
    I also got to know my way around the city and its back streets. I moved into a small house outside the city. I bought food in the local market every week and discovered the joys of eating Thai food. I enjoyed a good quality of life.
    All the time, the people fascinated me. While warm and friendly, they looked upon all foreigners as outsiders or as a potential means to escaping whatever problems they had. I would in time learn that nothing they said could be taken at face value, but at that time I was alone.
    And I was desperately lonely.
    I missed my children who lived with their mother in Ireland. I would talk to them by phone but I often felt like there was a part of me missing.
    They say every cloud has a silver lining. I thought that mine was Nanglung, a beautiful-looking girl who had acted as my translator during my dealings with O’Connor and Hayes.
    Nanglung and I had remained friends after O’Connor vanished. Her name meant Waterfall and I found her exotic and alluring. When I decided to stay in Thailand and search for O’Connor, she helped me. I was wild about her. I couldn’t help but fall for her. Everything about her was