Beneath the golden pillars of a Thai temple, nine monks chant the final funeral verse as family members light incense sticks and place the urn of ashes next to the murder victim's photo. Across the courtyard, Malai stops to buy lottery tickets from a street vendor and chooses a set of numbers matching the time and day of her boyfriend's death. In Thailand, important dates are good luck, no matter what the circumstances - even if the deceased was a hired killer. A Thai proverb says: 'Do good, get good. Do bad, get bad.' Tim, a hit man who killed the son of a prominent politician, fulfilled this Buddhist prophecy when he was gunned down at a shopping mall in central Thailand. The revenge killing was payback for murdering the boy four years ago, carried out by Tim and an accomplice. Tim, the 25-year-old son of a police sergeant, was a gunman for a political heavyweight in northern Thailand who went by the name, 'the Colonel'. With at least two alleged murders under his belt, Tim's days were already numbered. He was generous with his money. It was the Buddhist way of making amends for his misdeeds, Malai said. 'He gave money to beggars. He would release fish to the water and birds to the skies.' The former beauty queen had met Tim in a Chiang Mai nightspot known to be frequented by gangsters, and the two had moved in together. His blood money bought her gold jewellery, an expensive wardrobe and surgically enhanced breasts to further her career as a model. The slim 22-year-old said Tim originally told her that he was a bodyguard for the Colonel, but later the truth came out. She feared for their lives after gunmen sprayed their house with bullets one night. Malai said she pleaded with Tim to quit, but he remained loyal to his crime boss until a pair of assassins, working for a rival jao pho, or godfather, shot him dead from the back of a car. Tim had sold his latest 9mm handgun on the day of the slaying and had gone to the local mall to buy his girlfriend a gold bracelet. 'Tim had told me many times he was not afraid to die. He was only afraid not to have a gun to shoot back if someone tried to kill him,' Malai said.
