The world’s first capture of a serial killer via live feed was passed around social media like a fuck photo in a Catholic school. Some Facebook and Twitter users commented on how staged it seemed and that two of the men in the video did not later appear in the official police statements. The biggest complaint from the conspiracy theorists was that the picture was just a little too grainy to identify the faces properly. The last thing Damien’s Finns uploaded to the site was an expression of gratitude to ‘Expat Watch’, a fictitious organization of anonymous undercover volunteers that allegedly assisted the Thai police in their unenviable task of investigating major foreign criminals.
Due to the very average quality of the video, CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera only ran the story for a day. A Thai government spokesman said, ‘We do not comment on home videos posted to the World Wide Web unless they contravene specific laws of the Kingdom of Thailand’. Shortly after that the story was sucked into cyberspace to float around on the sea of yesterday’s news.
Mad Mike had been right as usual; Inman’s arrest made the front page of all Thailand’s newspapers. When the police discovered a walk-in safe at his Las Vegas Real Estate office with shelves loaded with jars of pickled ears the story made the front page a second time. General Amnuay declared himself a hero and Carl’s name was never mentioned, much to his relief. The interrogation was perfectly choreographed and Anthony Inman accepted his guilt in a windowless room at police headquarters. After that he never spoke again. The system that had protected him for so long had lined up against him and he didn’t have a hope in hell.
It was in General Amnuay’s best interest that Anthony Inman spent the rest of his days in a dark cell without any contact with the outside world so that was what was going to happen. His crimes carried the death penalty but foreigners never got executed in Thailand. You never know though; perhaps they would make an exception for Anthony Andrew Inman.
Carl read all of the English language papers every morning on his idyllic island beach. He held onto the money for a few weeks to make sure they weren’t coming for him. When he felt reassured by the passing of time he transferred a million US dollars to his preferred Thai-Chinese moneychanger who operated from a backroom on lower Sukhumvit Road. Then he contacted General Amnuay to send one of his trusted boys to collect it at his convenience. It had been a long time since Carl had a general on his payroll.