Ernie and I trudged back to the Main Supply Route and this time it took twenty minutes to flag down a taxi.
Ernie said, “If I’d known we were going to be working on a case tonight, during our off-duty hours, I’d have checked out the jeep.”
“No sweat, Ernie. You can afford it.”
“It’s your turn to pay for the cab.”
“Like hell. I got a family to support.”
“The King Club bartender and Miss Oh don’t count. They’re only Class B dependents. Me, I got the Nurse.”
Nobody could accuse the Nurse of being Class B. I paid the cab fare.
We got off about a block before reaching the ltaewon Police Box. I wanted to sneak up on the place. In case we heard screaming.
She clutched the bars, spread-eagled; her long black hair in mad, sweat-matted disarray. Her dress was hiked up to her waist and her facial muscles were bunched in knots across her face as she grunted and tried to hold on.
The two policemen trying to pull Kimiko out of her cell were getting nowhere and when they sensed the presence of two large Americans they pulled harder, cursed, and first a brass button and then an epaulet came off their uniforms. Finally one of them let go, Kimiko’s body recoiled towards the bars, and then he was pummeling her.
She swung back wildly but it was no contest and, while she was protecting herself from the blows, the other policeman grabbed her under her arms and jerked her through the doors and down the hallway to the interrogation room.
Captain Kim came up behind us, red faced, waving his hand in front of my nose.
“No. No. No. You go! You go!”
He put his head down and pushed me and Ernie back towards the front desk.
When we had come in, no one was paying too much attention to us so we decided to slip back into the cell block and see how Kimiko was doing. Now we knew.
“We want to talk to her,” I said.
“Not now. She is in our custody. First we will talk to her. Later you talk to her.”
“When?”
Captain Kim paused and looked around the room, catching his breath.
“Tomorrow. Tomorrow you come back.”
There was nothing else to do. She was in their jurisdiction and, as far as the United States was concerned, no charges had been filed by us against her.
As we were escorted out of the police box, we heard more guttural cursing down the hallway and what sounded like a slap.
We walked until we were out of sight of the police box and then we hopped across the street to the Hamilton Hotel. We found a narrow alley running off the Main Supply Route that gave us a clear view inside the police box, and there we stood in the shadows. I doubted that they’d spot us, primarily because they weren’t looking.
“Well, we’re here,” Ernie said. “We got a great view of the ltaewon Police Box. My next question is, why?”
“I want to make sure they don’t take Kimiko anywhere.”
“Hold on a minute, pal. I’m not going to stand outside here all night just to protect the human rights of some poor innocent bar girl.”
“We won’t have to stand here all night. Just until Captain Kim leaves. He’s the honcho. Nothing important happens unless he’s there to supervise it.”
“Why would they want to move her?”
“I’m not sure. She seems to be at the center of this whole thing. I just don’t want to lose tabs on her.”
“And when Captain Kim leaves?”
“We take the rest of the night off. And then come back here before he returns to work.”
“Holy shit, George. You always get like this. Taking these cases too personal. If Kimiko knows anything about the murder, the KNPs will get it out of her tonight, and if not, at least they’ll give her a block of instruction on the importance of not kicking general officers in the cajones. Nothing to worry about.”
“1 want to talk to her.”
“And you’re worried about losing her trail?”
“Right.”
Ernie sighed. “All right. I’ll get the beer.”
In a few minutes he was back with a big frosty liter of OB. The cap had already been popped off. He took a swig and handed the bottle to me. I was hot and thirsty from all the running around and the beer tasted delicious. I gurgled about half of it down.
We waited.
By the time we were thinking about buying another bottle, Captain Kim walked out of the police box. He had changed into a dark blue business suit and carried a briefcase. Korea, for all its modernity and contacts with the Western world, is still a Confucian society. Scholars are esteemed while people who work with their hands, like policemen, are lower on the social ladder. So it’s not uncommon for people to change into suits on their way to and from work, hoping they will look like your average professor of nuclear physics. Even my houseboy did it.
Ernie watched him go. “Just another day at the office.”
“And now we’re off duty, too.”
“Where to?”
“Where else?”
We walked across the Main Supply Route, up the hill, and into the glittering heart of ltaewon.
The King Club was packed and Miss Oh was busy serving drinks. Ernie and I wedged ourselves into the crowd at the bar so as to stay as close to the source as possible. She spotted me, gave me a half smile, and then let it drop. Trouble.
The band wailed away. They were a little better than the one the club used to have. 1 figured two or three more beers and then I might be able to fool myself into believing they were on key. The last combo had required a six-pack.
I leaned towards Ernie. “Who’s it going to be tonight? Miss So or the Nurse?”
“I sort of gave up on Miss So. The Nurse is all right. She takes care of me.”
Like the time she took the butcher knife to you, I thought. And threw your mattress into the well.
Miss Oh walked by, balancing a tray full of drinks. She sidled her way through the tables and served a group in front of the dance floor. When she was finished, she stopped in front of me.
“I can’t see you tonight,” she said, and started to walk off.
I grabbed her by the arm. “Why?”
“Somebody’s having a big party tonight. I have to go.”
“Who?”
She swiveled her head and stared at me. Her narrow eyes flattened a little. “Why you ask me?”
“Is it the new honcho in Itaewon? Mr. Kwok?”
Her eyes widened for a moment and then her lips tightened. “Yeah. That’s him,” she said. “Mr. Kwok. So what?”
I let go of her arm, we glowered at one another for a moment, and then she tossed her hair back as she walked away. I watched her hot pants sway as she teetered down the crowded aisle.
Ernie took a swig of his beer, looked at me, grinned.
“Miss Lim?”
I thought of something coarse to say but instead just slammed my empty beer bottle down on the bar. “Yeah.” I said.
It was against my principles but there I was in the American Club, after already spending the last two nights with her, looking for Miss Lim again. I didn’t ask but Ginger told me that she hadn’t been in yet. After serving us a couple of beers, Ginger slid off, back to the telephone. If I hadn’t known better, I might have suspected that she
