other.
The Seven Luck Bathhouse was a long cement-block building painted powder blue. At the entrance sat a young woman nursing a baby.
The woman leaned back in fright when Ernie and I emerged from the rain. Her long bruised nipple popped out of the infant's moist mouth. Immediately, the child began to wail, grasping with its tiny claws until the mother regained her composure and managed to shove her breast back into the baby's greedy reach. All was quiet again.
'Kang Kuabu oddiso?' I asked. Where's the Widow Kang?
The woman glanced toward the entrance marked yoja. Women. 'In there,' she said.
Ernie understood and started to push through the swinging door. The young mother shouted. 'Women only!' She pointed. 'Men must enter on the other side.'
Ernie looked back at her, smiled, then pushed on through into the steaming darkness.
I slapped two thousand won, about four bucks, onto the rickety table in front of her.
'Police business,' I said. 'It will only take a minute. Don't worry.'
The woman's face was still crinkled with concern but she grabbed the wrinkled bills and slipped them into a pocket in her long dress.
I pushed through the women's entrance and felt the steam grab onto my face.
The bathhouse reeked of mint-scented lather. At first I couldn't see Ernie. But my eyes became accustomed to the darkness and I made out his shadow down the long hallway. As I stepped down the corridor I felt the spongy spring of wooden slats beneath my feet. The walls were made of cement, and in each large room, water spit freely from nozzles onto women in various stages of undress. They were all busy. Scrubbing themselves with pumice stones, shampooing hair in great billowing cathedrals of suds, or drying themselves carefully while seated on short wooden benches.
Up ahead, Ernie stopped at the entranceway to each room and peered in, studying something carefully. I caught up with him. He glanced back over his shoulder.
'Checking the whazoos,' he said.
'What?'
'Whazoos. When I find breasts large enough, I'll know we've found Lady Ahn.'
What an investigator.
The women inside the bathhouse were so preoccupied with their own cleanliness, none of them had noticed us yet. We moved down the hallway. At the end, we heard wood slapping on flesh and the voices of two women. Laughing.
As we approached the room at the end of the hall, the slapping became louder. So did the laughter.
Inside, two tall Korean women, completely naked, were beating one another with willow branches. Both had their hair knotted up inside of white towels. With each slap, the women laughed louder, and each slap was delivered with more fervor. More joy.
Ernie and I stood mesmerized.
He mumbled through wet lips. 'The whazoos,' he said. 'I'd pick 'em out of any lineup.'
Lady Ahn was built like Venus, only better. Her limbs were long and straight, hips round, waist narrow, breasts heavy and ripe. At the V between her legs, jet black pubic hair stood out straight and lush with no hint of curl.
The other woman wasn't bad looking either. A little older, a little thinner, not quite as tall. Fifi Kang. She had a right to be proud of her figure, too. Still, she looked skeletal compared to the ravishing Lady Ahn.
The two women twirled, still beating one another with the quivering twigs. I was worried they might actually cause bruises, even cuts, on their golden flesh. But their swats were practiced. The flicks of the wrist delivered with just the right amount of snap. It was clear they'd enjoyed this ritual before.
Finally, Fifi Kang stopped, standing perfectly still, her eyes wide. She lifted the white towel higher up on her forehead.
Lady Ahn, waiting for the next blow, turned when she didn't receive it. She saw Ernie and me standing in the doorway.
I was beginning to sweat. It was hot in here, and I felt like taking off my shirt. In fact, after soaking up the beauty of Lady Ahn, I felt like taking off my shirt and my pants and everything else.
The four of us stood frozen, staring into one another's eyes. Neither Fifi Kang nor Lady Ahn made any movement to cover their nakedness. I expected one of the women to scream. Instead, Fifi Kang raised her willow branch and rattled it at us.
'Dumb GI don't know this lady shower?' She waved the twig. 'You go man side. Not here.'
I started to speak but instead of words coming out I just croaked. Lady Ahn had me more worked up than I realized. I tried it again and managed something slightly better than a squeak.
'We're here about the jade skull,' I said.
Lady Ahn stepped backward. Fifi Kang continued to brandish her twig.
'You go back my shop. You look at jade there. Plenty of jade. You no bother lady in bathhouse.'
Ernie stepped into the shower room. Keeping his back close to the wall, he leaned in and switched off the water.
'What you doing?' Fifi Kang said. 'You kara chogil' Get out of here!
Ernie grabbed her twig and held it. Fifi Kang struggled for a moment but stopped when she realized struggling was useless. Ernie gazed deep into her eyes.
'Answer the questions,' he told her.
By now, people had started to realize that two men were in the women's bathhouse. Behind us, we heard footsteps, concerned chatter, shower spigots turning off.
'We want the jade skull,' I said. 'I know it's valuable, but we're willing to pay for it. Without it, a little girl in Seoul will be killed. She's already been hurt badly. You must help us save her life.'
I pointed at Lady Ahn. 'You knew about this, but still you ran away.'
She turned away from me, angry now, over her shock, for the first time realizing her nakedness. She snatched a towel from a peg on the wall.
'Why you follow me?' she demanded. 'Why you bother me? Why you don't leave me alone?'
'I can't.' Not sure what I meant by that. Maybe something about the case. Maybe something else. 'A little girl has been hurt. We heard her scream.'
Ernie tilted the end of one of the benches, lifting it into the air. What the hell he was planning to do with it, I didn't know. Fifi Kang caught on quickly, however. Whatever it was that Ernie was planning wasn't going to be good.
'Okay,' Fifi agreed. 'We will talk. In my shop. You go outside wait. We get dressed.'
'We'll wait here,' Ernie said.
The smooth skin of Lady Ann's forehead crinkled in rage. She'd had enough. She stormed forward, straight- armed Ernie out of the way, and pounded out the door past me. I gazed after her in admiration. All by herself, almost naked, she was as imposing as a royal procession. Unstoppable.
Fifi Kang, like a lady-in-waiting, scurried after her, droplets of water spraying in her wake.
Ernie dropped the bench with a bang and he and I followed. Ahead, soft flesh wiggled.
The dressing room had a plastic drape slid across it, and Ernie and I waited as the two women dried themselves and got dressed.
Back at the entranceway, a door slammed. Gruff male voices barreled down the corridor. Boots pounded on planks.
Ernie glanced at me and lifted his eyebrows. I shrugged. Whoever it was, now that we'd gone to all the trouble of finding Lady Ahn, I wasn't leaving. Not until we obtained the jade skull.
The footsteps grew closer. From the cloud of steam, dark figures emerged. Khaki-clad. Visored caps. Nightsticks slapping at the seams of their trousers. The Korean National Police.
Maybe the girl at the Rising Phoenix antique shop had called them. Or maybe the young mother guarding the entranceway to the bathhouse. Whoever it was, it didn't matter now. The KNPs clearly had our number.
There were four of them, and they came to a halt a few feet in front of Ernie and me. The leader had a dark, mottled face, and his mouth was open, his eyes wide, staring up at me, amazed that two grown men would
