The Lady In The Tree

1 TROUBLE AT T’ MILL-3

“Let’s take a closer look. Sit down in front of the screen.” He pulled up a chair and sat to her right. “OK, right-click on the email item in the list, that brings up the metadata, let’s see what that can tell us. Email forgers and spammers usually blur this data so they can’t be traced… and? Hey, these people haven’t done that! Well, well, well. It shows that we’re either dealing with amateurs or fools. OK, put the cursor in that data, click ‘Control A’ and then ‘Control S’, open Notepad, put the cursor in there and click ‘Control V’. Good, now save it to the desktop. Now we have a copy of where the email came from and when.

“Now we can think about what we’re going to do with it.

“First, we can check who their ISP is… TOT, and who supplied their email address, and that is there, their website is called thaifarmingindustries.com and it is hosted by Hostgator, so, we can report them for a***e to those people and we can report them to the police as well. How far do you want to take it?”

“What do you think? I’m new to all this, I don’t know?”

“To be honest with you, this is the first time I’ve had to deal with a cyber death threat too, but I imagine that the procedure is the same as for spam. Oh, there’s another thing we can do, get their web site delisted at Google by issuing a DMCA.”

“A DMCA? You do what you think you can do, but try to make it look like it don’t come from us, OK? How you say, anonymouse?”

“Yes, that’s close enough for today. OK, I think I can manage that. If I were you though, I would use any contact I had in the Thai police force to find out how to report this, because it is serious a***e. They may be stupid, but they may be violent as well. So, if you like, I’ll email this metadata to the house and deal with it from there, while you scour the Thai police web site to find out how to report this. I can’t do it because it won’t be in English. There may be a few other things we can do too, I’ll have to have a think.”

“Will you be all right here alone? Do you want me to bring my laptop here and stay with you?”

“No, it’s not worth it, I’ll be OK. If they want me, they’ll get me, there’s not much you can do about that. Thanks though.”

At that moment, Da and Bot came in behind them and Lek jumped. Craig was worried for her.

“I’m sorry, Lek, but you can’t work here under these conditions. I’ve got an idea, why don’t you tell Da that you want two of his biggest men to work around the shop until Ayr and Ross get back?. They can repair those holed punts, repaint the outside or dig a garden for you. Plant some flowers – anything so that you are not here alone”

“I’ll think about it, telak…”

“No, you won’t, you will do it! I want to hear you tell them now. I can’t work at home knowing that you’re jumping out of your skin every time the doorbell rings. Go on, tell them.

Reluctantly, Lek did as she was asked, but without giving Da a reason why. Da said that he would have them there after lunch, so Craig went home.

The first thing he did was address the problem of the death threat. He had taken it more seriously that he had let on to Lek – he was really very worried about it, but he knew how far he could go was limited.

He did all he had told Lek he would do, but also left a request for help message on the FBI web site, because the site was hosted in America. Then he wrote an anonymous message complaining about a death threat from the owner of the web site on the Thai police helpline, giving the man’s address.

Craig pulled his rough book into eyesight and changed to Word to continue typing up when he had one more idea to help Lek and ease his mind. He took down Bpom’s lead, and walked him around to the shop.

“Here, Lek, our last precaution, Bpom wants to help as well.”

“Aw, Craig! I haven’t got time to look after him, serve customers and do everything else, please, take him home! Besides, two men will be here after lunch, so there really is no need.”

“Tough, you’ve got him now, and if you refuse, you’ll hurt his feelings. Look, he’s on a lead and we can tie this length of rope,” he said, taking a hank of rope off a shelf. “to that and tie him to the back door. That way, you won’t get any surprises from Ayr’s flat –you can forget about it. You’ll only have to watch the front door and the boys will help there… All right, love?

“I am satisfied that there is nothing more we can do for now, OK, so if you take Bpom, I will go home and leave you in peace. Good, I’ll tie him up around the back, give him some water and get out of your hair. I love you my dear, and don’t want anything to happen to you, because I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“All right, all right, you win, I’ll see you in Nong’s for a beer at seven, as usual. Now go, please, go and do some work.”

“OK, I’m going, bye telak, I love you.”

Lek blushed at such a demonstration of affection before strangers, and Craig, realising it too late, made a rapid exit past a bewildered Da and Bot out of the front door with their dog.