Red Alert(NYPD Red #5)(61)

He remembered the day he met her. She had come to Klong Prem prison not for the boxing but to watch her older sister parade around the ring in a bikini, holding up a card announcing the number of the next round.

“You’re from America?” she asked him after he’d won four matches that day.

He smiled. She was cute. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Who was your favorite president?” she asked.

“Abraham Lincoln.”

“Then he’s the one I’m going to read about,” she said, flashing a bright smile. “Thanks.”

He was twenty-two at the time. Jam was only twelve.

She came back for his next match and told him she’d read three books about Lincoln. “I cried when they shot him,” she said. “What’s your favorite book that you read when you were my age?”

“To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.”

And so the friendship took hold. Soon Jam would start visiting between boxing matches, and the prisoner and the schoolgirl would talk about literature, philosophy, history, and her favorite subject, America.

“Whenever the girl comes,” Pongrit Juntasa instructed his guards, “let her in. She makes him a better fighter.”

That may or may not have been true, but by the time he was twenty-eight, Geraldo Segura had become Rom Ran Sura, the best Muay Thai boxer in Southeast Asia—with his sights set on the rest of the world.

Special prisoners are afforded special privileges, and one evening Segura was given a hot shower and clean clothes and driven to Juntasa’s house. A guard escorted Segura to the dining room, where the head of the Department of Corrections was standing next to a table set for two.

“Rom Ran Sura, your most recent victory at the World Combat Games has once again brought great honor to the kingdom,” Juntasa announced. “As a reward, His Majesty has graciously reduced your sentence by another seven years.”

Segura silently did the math. He had been fighting for his freedom, and with this latest grant from the king, he would be out by the time he was fifty years old. He thanked his benefactor.

“I have one other gift,” Juntasa said. He raised his hand, a door opened, and Jam Anantasu entered.

“It is her eighteenth birthday,” Juntasa said. “The age of consent. Enjoy your evening.”

He left the room, and Segura stood there, barely able to breathe. Jam was a vision, a goddess in a white-lace dress, her shimmering black hair cascading down to her bare shoulders, her lips parted in a shy smile, her smoldering eyes locked on his. She was no longer a child. She was a woman—the one he wanted to spend his life with. If only she was willing to wait.

They dined. They drank. They talked. They laughed. And then they adjourned to a bedroom suite, where the air was filled with soft music and the scent of jasmine, and they made love by candlelight.

The next morning, he returned to prison. He never lost another fight, and with each new achievement, the king rewarded him by taking more time off his sentence.

The conjugal visits continued, and over the next ten years, he and Jam had four children. As the dream of a life together slowly became a reality, she took a job working in the American Embassy in Bangkok. She was the one who secured his passports: one that gave him easy entry into the U.S., and a second passport with a new identity for his new life. Their new life.

He was too well-known in Thailand to go back, and as much as he knew Jam would want to live in America, that was impossible. The plan was to meet her and the kids in Adelaide, Australia. Flynn Samuels had given him contacts. After putting his life on hold for twenty years, he was ready for a fresh start.

But not yet. He still had two more people to see in New York.

Princeton Wells was no doubt expecting him. But first he had to pay a surprise visit to one of the most ruthless men in the city.

The J train stopped at Broadway Junction, and Segura connected to the L, took it six stops, and got off at the Rockaway Parkway station in Canarsie.

He tightened the straps of his backpack around his shoulders and started the mile-long walk to the Karayib Makèt on Rockaway Parkway.

He had a gift for Malique La Grande, and he planned to deliver it personally.





CHAPTER 58



“Good morning, handsome.”

I looked up from my keyboard. It was Cheryl. I checked my watch. It was only eight thirty. “Hey,” I said. “What the heck are you doing here?”

“Well, I was thinking you’d be happy to see me,” she said, “but I guess I thought wrong.”

I jumped out of my chair and gave her a hug. “Of course I am. I just thought you were spending the day at that conference in Philadelphia.”

“It was a total yawn. Then Captain Cates called this morning and asked me if I could come back. I caught a six-thirty train, and here I am.”

Kylie was at her desk taking it all in. “I don’t know about Zach,” she said, “but I, for one, am thrilled you’re here. It would have been even more fun if you’d been here last night.”

“Why? What happened?”

“You know the robbery we caught last week at the Mark hotel?”

“Shelley Trager’s poker game,” Cheryl said. “Did you find the guys who did it?”

“Just the opposite. Shelley doesn’t want us poking around. The hotel management is so grateful he’s sweeping it under the rug that they offered us dinner at the Jean-Georges restaurant in the lobby. C.J. and I went last night. The place was packed, the food was incredible, and it was free. Guess who turned down an invitation to go with us?” Kylie pointed in my direction.