Mr. Roper had left in his helicopter that afternoon to deliver the Lao Loum couple to their village near Mahaxai. They would stay there overnight. The fussy Lao pilot had been trained by the Thais during the old regime. He was protective of his craft and objected to flying in the dark. It appeared he didn’t have faith in the instruments to see him home. So Siri and Daeng had been entrusted with the task of babysitting the two girls and keeping an eye on the three Bru. The latter were easy enough to control. They were close to home and seemed so relieved to be out of the camp they spent all their time asleep. The girls were another matter. Still they didn’t speak—not even to each other. Madam Daeng pulled her most popular games and tricks from the hat but there was no reaction. When they ate they stared at Daeng like street dogs afraid she’d steal their food. They would not lie together at bedtime; each kept to her own bedroll. She sang them a lullaby, one her grandmother had taught her, about ghost cats that nibble at your cheeks if you don’t go to sleep, and eventually, albeit reluctantly, they dropped off.

Daeng and Siri sat in front of their room. Apart from some silent and mysterious guest in room 4 (the manager had suggested this was a government official writing a top-secret document), Roper’s team was the only clientele. The doctor had brought along a couple of bottles of Daeng’s home brew and some rice snacks and Siri was reading aloud by the light of an old oil lamp. Insects dropped onto the pages and he swept them away with the side of his hand.

“See how much fun his stories are?” he said.

“Yet we still have no idea what he wants us to do,” said Daeng.

“Maybe he’s already told us,” said Siri. “Don’t forget we’re only able to read half his diary.”

He thumbed back through the earlier pages written in Japanese.

“Perhaps our clue is hidden amidst all this beautiful penmanship.”

“Which is where it will have to stay unless you can produce a Japanese translator. I imagine they’re few and far between in Thakhek.”

“Fear not, good wife. Tomorrow our investigation begins in earnest and we can, at last, make sense of the mind of our grounded pilot. All will be revealed.”