“Start killing the Seven Dragons. First Horsehead and then Water Doggy.”
“I didn’t want to,” she replied. “They wanted to, the other orphans. But I told them no, there was a better way. We’d arrange for the bones of Mori Di to be shown to the world and then the Seven Dragons would be punished. Punished properly in a court of law. Not by, how you say? Vigilante justice?”
“That’s correct.”
“Right, vigilante justice. I didn’t want that. That’s how our parents were killed, trying to take the law into their own hands.”
“But you changed your mind.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because of you.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Because of you. Remember? You told me that you fought with Horsehead. Horsehead was mad at you for interfering with his plans with that American girl and everybody in Itaewon said that maybe he would kill you.”
“That was just Horsehead blowing off steam. He didn’t mean it.”
“How do you know?” When I didn’t answer, Doc Yong gazed back at the wallpaper. “Anyway, I didn’t want to take a chance.”
I paused at that statement, overwhelmed for a moment. I felt gratitude that someone-after all my years of being an orphan, all my years of being alone-had felt so strongly about me.
I waited until I regained my self-control. It took a couple of minutes. Then I said, “So that’s what started it?”
She nodded her head slowly.
“And Two Bellies?”
“Miss Kwon. She try very much to help us. To protect us.”
We sat in silence. I thought about all that had happened: tragedy, revenge, miscalculation. The usual.
Finally, I turned to Doc Yong and said, “What should we do?”
She shook her head. “You don’t have to do nothing. I do everything.”
The honchos of 8th Army were still pissed about Jessica Tidwell. And the fact that we had yet to find her and bring her in was still making Colonel Brace’s life miserable at the 8th Army Officers’ Club.
“Whatever happens to her,” Colonel Brace said, pointing his forefinger at us, “is on you two.”
“How do you figure that?” Ernie asked. He didn’t say “sir.”
The pressure we were living under had made him even more reckless than he usually was. Fortunately, Colonel Brace chose to ignore the lack of military courtesy.
“That’s what her father, Colonel Tidwell, is saying,” Colonel Brace replied, “as well as the Eighth Army commanding general. You two left her out there. You didn’t pick her up when you should have, when you shot that corporal at the White Crane Hotel, when you had the chance, and now whatever happens to her, whatever she does, whatever trouble she might stumble into, is on you two. And nobody else.”
“Maybe the blame,” Ernie said, “should be on her parents.”
“Don’t get smart with me, Bascom.”
Before Ernie could say anything more, I jumped in. “We’ll find her, sir.”
“You’d better. Immediately if not sooner. Because whatever crimes she might commit or, worse yet, whatever crimes might be committed with respect to her, are going to be your responsibility.”
He pointed his forefinger at us once again, the finger of blame.
This was nonsense. Ernie knew it and I knew it. Even Colonel Brace secretly knew it. But the military mind has a tremendous capacity for passing on blame. And the collective wisdom of the officer corps of 8th Army actually had a genius for diverting blame and sliding it on down the line toward the lower ranks. And the better an officer is at that particular skill, the higher his rank.
When I dragged him outside, Ernie was still sputtering with rage, looking to punch somebody. I stayed just over an arm’s length away from him.
Mrs. Tidwell was waiting for us in the parking lot.
She wore a neatly pressed dress and she was fully made up but she still looked like hell. No amount of makeup could hide the bags beneath her eyes.
“What are they doing to my Jessica?” she asked.
“What is who doing?” I asked.
“Those Korean gangsters.”
“I don’t think any gangsters are around her now, ma’am,” I replied.
Ernie sidled over to the jeep. He knew better than to try to face an irate mother in his current emotional state. I was glad he did.
Mrs. Tidwell looked confused. “If she’s not being held by gangsters,” she asked, “then why doesn’t she come home?”
“She’s young, Mrs. Tidwell. Young people like their freedom.”
“Freedom? Freedom to live amongst animals?”
I didn’t bother to answer. Mrs. Tidwell turned her head away. “No,” she said. “I didn’t mean that. I’m just so worried about her. Doesn’t she understand that I can’t sleep at night and that I sit by the phone all day waiting to hear from her?”
“She probably doesn’t think about that. She’s young and she’s just enjoying her freedom, ma’am.”
“What is she doing out there?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Why haven’t you found her?”
“We will.”
“When?”
“We’re going right now, to see what we can find out.”
Mrs. Tidwell grabbed my arm. “Hurry, won’t you?”
“We’ll try.”
“This is causing a great emotional strain on her father.”
A great emotional strain trying to point the finger of blame over at the 8th Army Officers’ Club, I thought. But I didn’t say anything.
Instead, I patted Mrs. Tidwell on the shoulder and said, “We’ll do our best.”
Walking the streets of Itaewon, Ernie grinned at me. “Mrs. Tidwell really gave you the business, huh?”
“She’s worried.”
“Can you believe that asshole, Brace? Saying we’re responsible for anything that happens to Jessica Tidwell.”
“That’s the way the military mind works. If something goes wrong, it’s the fault of the lowest-ranking man.”
“Which in this case is us.”
Two kids holding wooden boxes accosted Ernie, asking if he wanted to buy chewing gum. Ernie rummaged through their wares, found some stale ginseng gum, and tossed the kids a quarter. They took one look at me, spotted a cheapskate when they saw one, and ran off for greener pastures.
“So after you rousted Jessica out of that hotel,” I asked, “where would she have gone?”
“You mean the time she kneed me in the balls?”
“There was another time?”
“No, that was it. She had money, left over from that pile of yen she had in her purse at the White Crane Hotel, so she could’ve gone anywhere.”
An MP had been assigned to guard Paco Bernal’s ward at the 121 Evac and, so far, Jessica hadn’t turned up there again. She had, however, made a couple of phone calls. Paco wasn’t well enough to talk to her yet, although his condition was improving, but one of the medics had taken pity on Jessica and told her that Paco would be flown out next week to Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu. They had a large rehab center and the doctors thought he’d make faster progress there. Of course, if I were him I wouldn’t be in any hurry. Once he was well enough, the
