“So he didn’t kill for sexual gratification, or pleasure?”
“His murders were primarily transactional. Born of convenience. Cold. Calculating. He killed when useful and without remorse. If he did derive pleasure, it was from the sense of power it gave him over these drifting, drug-taking, ‘dirty,’ free-loving Westerners. Vincent had deeply rooted psychological complexes over his own mixed-race heritage, his impoverished background, the fact his father never wanted him, and the fact he never belonged anywhere. And while he loved his mother intensely, and was continually desperate for her affection and approval, he was also conflicted by the shame and disgust he also felt for her. She was from a peasant farming family and worked as a prostitute in Saigon to support herself, and she was the paid mistress of Vincent’s biological father at the time he was conceived.
“In a nutshell, Vincent Kapoor could be defined as a superficially charming, narcissistic psychopath. He constructed glamorous personas in order to mask his deep insecurities. And he used people whenever and however he could.”
“And Bangkok was his base?”
“In the mid-seventies, yes. But his crimes started well before that. His childhood spent in Asia, Africa, France—throughout the forties and fifties—was turbulent, and that’s when his early petty thefts began, and when he began to realize he had a rather special talent for manipulation. In the late sixties he graduated to internationalthefts, major cross-continent car-dealing scams, and charm-based cons throughout Europe and the Middle East. He used multiple passports, seduced and co-opted many women, and cultivated his suave ‘cosmopolitan’ persona. In the seventies—in Thailand—he began to ‘collect’ people—a motley crew of acolytes—and he built a criminal family of sorts—”
“Including Aline-Claire?”
He nods. “She became pivotal to his operation. This is when he called himself André Gagnon and started drugging and robbing travelers along the Hippie Trail. The murders that we know about began in and around Bangkok.”
“A poison, theft, then elimination pattern?”
“Correct. His first known victims were Dutch. A young couple who’d just arrived in Thailand. Their bodies were found burned beyond immediate recognition, and were at first thought to belong to missing Australians. It was around this time that he was dubbed ‘the Naga’—after a shapeshifting creature in Thai mythology. One that hides its true nature, and that can take seductive human form.”
“So what was his connection to France, and Africa?”
“When Vincent’s mother, Mai, told his biological father—a married Indian tailor working in then-Saigon—that she was pregnant with his child, the well-respected tailor rejected her. As I mentioned, Mai hailed from a very poor Vietnamese farming family, was attractive, and used sex to support herself. After Vincent was born, she ended up with a French general stationed in Saigon. The general married Mai in the end, and accepted Vincent’s presence, but never wanted to adopt him and call him his own. The child didn’t even have a passport or official identity when they moved him to France. It was something that dogged him for decades and through subsequent moves to Africa and then back to Paris. It was in Paris that he acquired the habits and looks of a Western culture. By the time he set up in Thailand, he presented as very European, with a polished look of Southeast Asia. Cosmopolitan. The Westerners arriving in Asia found it easy to trust him. He was bothfamiliar to them and had the knowledge of a local—a good ‘guide’ or entry to the East for them.”
“You mentioned to me earlier that Vincent Kapoor is the subject of your next book.”
He nods.
“How far along is the new work? Has it been written?”
“Mostly. I just need to tie up a final bit of research—link up a few missing pieces. I hope to complete this on the ship.”
Sophia leans forward. She says, “Kapoor has already been the subject of several works since the late seventies, as well as inspiration for fiction, including a limited television series. So why him—why now? Do you have a fresh spin?”
For a moment Gideon stares into the darkness of the audience. A hush intensifies. Expectant. Poppy feels herself holding her breath.
“Yes,” he says carefully, slowly. “There is new and compelling—shattering—evidence.”
“What kind of evidence?”
“I’m keeping it under wraps. For now.” He smiles slyly.
“Gideon, the consummate teaser.” Sophia laughs, but then presses—fishing, “Vincent Kapoor was sentenced to life in a Nepalese prison, correct?”
“Correct.”
“And he’s still there?”
A long pause. Gideon gazes at the audience again. Silence thickens.
“He was released. Late last year.”
Poppy draws in a breath. The audience rustles with whispers.
“He was repatriated to France.”
“Why?”
“Nepalese law permits compassionate release of elderly or seriously ill prisoners. And Vincent knows his law. He made a legal case, claiming advancing age, health issues—he’d had heart surgery—and a record of good behavior. The court sided with him. He was discharged on humanitarian and legal grounds.”
“Wow.”
