Bruce and his camera appeared in the doorway. He was drunk and giggly.

“Afraid you have to either look soused for the camera or come down and poin the . . . join the party,” he said. “People are leaving. No hosts. Bloody poor show.”

“He’s right,” said Daeng. “There’s nothing we can do tonight. Come, young Bruce. Follow me from guest to guest and I’ll disclose their most intimate secrets for the camera.”

“Bravo,” said Bruce. “I’ll have enough footage to produce my own documentary. In fact, that’s a bloody good idea.”

“Stay with Daeng,” Phosy told Sihot.

“Not so close her husband will get jealous but near enough to take a bullet for her,” said Siri.

The party was over and nobody had died. Siri and Daeng lay on a patch of grass at the river’s edge, close enough to feel the spray from the water dashing against the rocks and getting whisked up on the breeze. They were holding hands and had been since they staggered down the bank. They heard a splash. Crazy Rahjid had abandoned his white nightshirt and was backstroking naked against the current. He should have been carried away by the force of the water but he remained, neither ebbing nor flowing, as if he were anchored.

“Will you have a wake for me?” Daeng asked her husband.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re not dead.”

“When I am.”

“I’ll be dead ten years before you, and I’ll be in far too advanced a state of decay to think about all that organizing.”

“He said I’m next, Siri.”

“I know. You’re not the type to worry about dying.”

She sighed. “I just don’t want to go without knowing who he was and how he did it. How sad will it be if our final mystery together remains unsolved.”

“I’m afraid to say Dr. Porn isn’t looking that innocent,” he said. “Maybe it is solved.”

“But so many questions are still unanswered.”

Rajhid vanished below the surface of the water. He was something of an aquatic animal, but, instinctively, Siri and Daeng began to mentally count the seconds. Siri must have lost count because when the Indian reappeared near the far bank, the doctor had him under for an hour.

“Have you seen him?” Daeng asked.

“He’s over there,” said Siri.

“No, I mean, Civilai. Since . . .”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t tell me.”

“Sorry. We had a bit of a chat the night he died. I disappeared in Dr. Porn’s office when she went to get her motor scooter.”

“Was he . . . natural?”

“He was suspended at the end of a rope with lava lamp effects all around him.”

“No, I mean, did he seem different? Is the other world like an afterlife?”

Siri gave it some thought. “I don’t think so,” he said. “I mean we won’t be lying there hand in hand in our halos sipping cocktails.”