Colin Cotterill - Thirty-three Teeth

Colin Cotterill

Thirty-Three Teeth

The second book in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series

2005

The national coroner of Laos, Dr. Siri Paiboun, is no respecter of persons or party; at his advanced age he can afford to be independent. With the assistance of his helpers, the mentally retarded Mr. Geung and Nurse Dtui (Fatty)-who has dubbed him Super Spirit Doc-he elucidates the causes of mysterious deaths. But he also communes with the deposed king, whose special channel to the occult has left him, and attends a conference of shamans called by the Communist government to give the spirits an ultimatum: obey party orders or get out.

VIENTIANE, PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF LAOS, MARCH 1977

T he neon hammer and sickle buzzed and flickered to life over the nightclub of the Lan Xang Hotel. The sun had plummeted mauvely into Thailand across the Mekhong River, and the hotel waitresses were lighting the little lamps that turned the simple sky-blue room into a mysterious night-time cavern.

In an hour, a large Vietnamese delegation would be offered diversion there by members of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party politburo. Theyd be made to watch poor country boys in fur hats do a Lao falling-over version of Cossack dancing. Theyd be forced to suck semi-fermented rice whisky from large tubs through long straws until they were dizzy. Theyd finally be coerced into embarrassing dances with solid girls in ankle-length skirts and crusty make-up.

And, assuming they survived these delights, theyd be allowed to return to their rooms to sleep. Next day, with heads as heavy as pressed rubber, theyd sign their names to documents laying the foundations for the forthcoming Lao-Vietnam Treaty of Friendship, and they probably wouldnt remember very much about it.

But that was all to come. The understaffed hotel day shift had been replaced by an understaffed night crew. The sweating receptionist was ironing a shirt in the glass office behind her desk. The chambermaid was running a bowl of rice porridge up to a sickly guest on the third floor.

Outside, an old guard in a jacket so large it reached his knees, was locking the back gate that opened onto Sethatirat Road. At night it kept out the dogs and the odd traveller tempted to come into the garden in search of respite from the cruel hot-season nights. A wall two and a half metres high protected the place as if it were something more special than it was.

Leaves floated in a greasy swimming pool. Obedient flowers stood in well-spaced regiments, better watered than any of the households out along the street. And then there were the cages. They were solid concrete, so squat that a tall man would have to stoop down to see inside. Two were empty. They housed only the spirits of animals temporarily imprisoned there. A monkey replaced by a deer. A peacock taking over the sentence of a wild dog.

But in the grim shadows of the third cage, something wheezed. It moved rarely, only to scratch lethargically at its dry skin. The unchristened black mountain bear was hosed down along with the bougainvilleas and given scraps from the kitchen from time to time. Its fur was patchy and dull like a carpet in a well-trodden passage. Buddha only knew how the creature had survived for so long in its cramped jail, and the Lord had been banished from the socialist republic some fifteen months hence.

People came in the early evening and at weekends to stand in front of the cage and stare at her. She stared back, although her glazed bloodshot eyes could no longer make out details on the mocking faces. Children laughed and pointed. Brave fathers poked sticks in through the bars, but the black mountain bear no longer appeared to give a damn.

They naturally blamed the old guard the next day. Too much rice whisky, they said. Slack, they said. The guard denied it of course. He swore hed re-locked the cage door. Hed thrown the leftovers from the Vietnamese banquet into the animals bowl and locked the cage. He was sure of it. He swore the beast was still in there when he did his rounds at four. He swore he had no idea how it could have got out, or where it could have gone. But they sacked him anyway.

After a panicked search of the grounds and the hotel buildings, the manager declared to his staff that the place was safe and it was a problem now for the police. In fact he didnt see it as wise to mention the escape to his guests at all. As far as he was concerned, the problem was over.

But for Vientiane, it had hardly started.

TOMB SWEET TOMB

T he sun baked everything in the new suburb. Comrade Civilai stepped from the hot black limousine and, without locking the doors, walked up to the concrete mausoleum where theyd put Dr Siri. The gate and the front door were open and he could see clear through to the small yard at the back. There was no furniture to interrupt the view.

He kicked off his Sunday sandals and walked into the front room. It was as if the builders and decorators had just left. The walls were still virgin Wattay blue to match the swimming-pool-coloured airport. They were unencumbered by pictures or posters or photographs of heroes of the revolution. No French plaster ducks flew in formation. No clock ticked. If he didnt know Siri had lived here for a month he would have guessed this to be a vacant house.

On his way to the back, he passed a small room where piles of clothes told him he was nearing a primitive life form. In the backyard he discovered it. Dr Siri Paiboun: reluctant national coroner, confused psychic, disheartened communist, swung gently on a hammock strung between two jackfruit saplings. A larger man would have bought them both down.

In his shadow, Saloop, rescued street dog and lifesaver, drooled onto the hot earth. He looked up with one eye, decided Civilai was too old and bald to be a threat, and returned to his dream.

A month earlier the yard had been dirt and debris. Today it was a jungle. Siri had gone to great pains to recreate the environment in which hed spent the latter forty of his seventy-two years. For the past four weekends he and his trusted morgue colleagues had set off into the outer suburbs and denuded them unashamedly. Theyd transported a variety of trees and shrubs back to this humble bunker the Partys thanks for his services.

I do hope Im not disturbing you, Civilai said, knowing full well how disturbing he was being. Siris eerie green eyes opened slowly to see his best friend leaning over him.

Ah, boy. Just put the iced lime juice on the table there and get back to the servants quarters post-haste.

Civilai was two days older than the doctor. Both born in the year of the dragon, they showed its characteristic fire and orneriness. Yet neither had exhibited the dragons reluctance to settle down with a mate. Theyd married their first loves and been totally faithful. They were a rare breed of dragon in Laos.

So, this is how the bourgeois medical profession spends its Sundays. Shouldnt you be out digging ditches for the republic? He sat back on the wooden cot on the small verandah.

Im a frail old man, brother. A day of physical labour could very well put me on the slab. I doubt I have a month left to live as it is. Thats why your politburo buddies should be searching high and low for a coroner to replace me now.

There was nothing frail about Dr Siri. He was so far from the black archers of death he wouldnt hear their arrows thumping into the dry earth for many years to come. His short, solid body still scurried hither and thither like a curious river rat. Younger men were hard pressed to keep his pace.