Swimming with Gypsies

Jill Evans for Kennebec7

[Swimming with Gypsies]

Hi, I know you’ve all been expecting Ty Callison back here, but he’s not. He’s somewhere out in the Andaman Sea between Burma and Thailand in an area called the Mergui Archipelago. He sent me some text messages for while, but now- silence. Before he left with Lakshmi and a Thai drug cop called Phunamee in some kind of native fishing canoes, he asked me to write his blog for Kennebec. –If he didn’t return in five days.

    It’s more than five days since we’ve seen Ty. Am I worried? Sure I am. It was a crazy endeavor. Only someone like Ty Callison would do this.

    He and Phunamee snagged a couple Slovakian thugs reputedly running drugs into Thailand from Burma. They got some information out of low-level Thai drug mules that these characters, Ivan and Bobby, might have kidnapped Seng, the ex-policeman who had been helping us with the Miranda Weiss case.

    If there is anyone in the world who’s better at surviving than Ty Callison, I haven’t met him or her yet.

    As some of you know, Ty has certain extra-sensory abilities that help him avoid death and disabling injuries, so he goes around taking chances that ordinary cops might steer clear of. Paddling off into the Andaman Sea with sea gypsies in search of Seng has got to be one of his most extravagant exploits.

    Yes, I’m very concerned.

    And, of course, the eccentric Indian guru or shaman, Lakshmi, however you might be inclined to describe her, invited herself along. “My father was a soldier. He taught me how to shoot every kind of gun.” But not just that, mind you. “’ I lived with the Moken Sea Gypsies for over a year. I lived in their boats.”

    We had been having an introductory dinner with Lakshmi at a Japanese restaurant in Krabi, Thailand, when Seng called Ty on his cell phone. He was trailing Sandy Barrett, who was driving Phil’s Porsch. He had a young Thai boy with him. Ty took off to help Seng. Before he could reach Seng’s location, telephonic communication was suddenly cut off.

    I started getting text messages from Ty. [I’m on a boat with Lakshmi and Moken Sea Gypsies. Drug smugglers kidnapped Seng. On island near Burma. Gypsies know the way. Lakshmi knows gypsies.]

    And another one: [Jill: Enjoying the trip. These gypsy folks dive under water. Catch fish with bare hands. Druggies came with boat and weapons. Our disguise worked. L. and me got naked like real fishermen and jumped in the water.]

    Imagine that, if you dare. Old Ty Callison, nekkid in the Andaman Sea with a tall drink of water middle-aged Indian (east-Indian, I should clarify) gypsy-shaman, purportedly with multiple college degrees. Equally naked.

    Would Ty’s good buddies back in Scottsdale be shocked? Not likely. They would probably hoist a few brews in his honor!

    Not that Ty is much of a drinker. Some call him ‘the Monk,’ but they simply don’t know the other side of the Callison coin.

    A bare-ass swim in a strange ocean with a boatful of gypsies for a good cause might just be an unexpected ploy that could save lives~ particularly Seng’s.

    Seng is the young Thai ex-police officer who is presently the head of security at the Weiss estate. Six nights ago he was following Sandy Barrett around in Krabi. This had not been at Ty’s request, but Seng didn’t much care for Sandy, and felt that Miranda’s nephew might know more than he had revealed about his aunt’s death.

    Ty and I are being paid to come to Thailand to ferret out the truth about Miranda’s demise. Then, the fact that Seng suddenly disappeared during his surveillance of Sandy diverted Ty’s attention.

    Phunamee, the narcotics cop, had worked with Seng during his days on the Phuket police force. He presented Ty with information that these Slovakians, Ivan and Bobby, had used kidnapping as a weapon before, to keep those police that they weren’t able to pay off, from interfering in their drug operations in southern Thailand. Allegedly, these thugs were being managed by top brass in the Burmese navy,

    There are some 900 islands, only a few that are said to be occupied, in that Mergui Andaman Archipelago.

    Most of them belong to Burma; a few to Thailand. Perfect staging areas for drug operations in this part of the world.

    I was doing the forensics and working with the Scientific Investigation people sent down south from Bangkok concerning Miranda’s untimely death. Miranda’s foundation, The Miranda Cause, donated $10 million a year to the Thai AIDS program. They didn’t want to lose that, now that Heidi Koenig, Miranda’s niece and my sponsor, was in charge of the Cause.

    Ty had momentarily switched over to the issue of Seng’s disappearance. He felt responsible for Seng because the young security man had voluntarily followed up on Ty’s nascent suspicions about Sandy Barrett.

    Ivan and Bobby, the Slovakian suspects, could not be held long by the police in Phuket. They had friends in high places. They had mockingly implied that Seng must be taking a holiday. Maybe he wanted to get away from his wife and two daughters for a spell. Maybe he wouldn’t want to return.

    That was enough for Ty. Not trusting the local cops, Ty and Phunamee decided to track down Seng themselves, and bring him back alive.

    That was the beginning of Ty’s gypsy adventure. The people who knew the Archipelago were these Moken Sea Gypsies, who practically lived on their boats.

    Lakshmi, the anthropologist-hippy, east Indian middle-aged ‘babe,’ threw in with the boys because she seemed to know the gypsies, claiming to have lived with them for a year.

    I think maybe ole Ty is smitten.

    But where is he now…?

    I wouldn’t bet against Ty in a situation like this. I mean, as a few of you may know, he actually made himself invisible for several seconds during the shootout at the hospital in Phoenix. It involved Billy McCrae who was a dead spirit operating as the fashion model, Carmen DaSilva.

    Kennebec is making a graphic novel about the case.

    I don’t want to confuse those of you who know nothing about our Billy McCrae case. But I was there, actually shooting a gun.

    I saw what I saw…and what I couldn’t see.

                                                                  ~ Jill Evans~

[To be continued]

Jill Evans

Krabi, Thailand

July 10, 2010