somehow make their way into a women's bathhouse. I spotted the insignia on his collar and read the engraved plate on the flap of his breast pocket. Lieutenant Ho. Central Precinct.
Ernie thrust his chest out, tugged up on the belt around his waist, and chomped loudly on his ginseng gum. The four policemen formed themselves into a semicircle around us, hands on the hilts of their nightsticks.
Lieutenant Ho jerked his thumb toward the front door. 'Pak ei kal' he snarled. 'Bali.' Go outside. Quickly.
Ernie snorted. 'No way, Charley. We're here on official police business.'
Lieutenant Ho didn't understand but he knew Ernie wasn't planning on following his order. His face flushed red. 'Jikum!' he shouted. Now!
Ernie laughed.
It was too much. One of the policemen stepped in and grabbed Ernie's elbow. As if he'd been raked by claws, Ernie spun, launched his knotted fist, and backhanded the cop up against the wall.
'Tangsin weikurei?' Lieutenant Ho shouted. What the hell's the matter with you?
All the policemen unsheathed their nightsticks.
I leapt in front of Ernie, fumbled in my pocket, pulled out my CID identification.
'Jom kanman,' I said. Relax. 'Uri Mipalkun honbyong.' We're from Eighth Army.
I thrust the badge in front of me, waving it from side to side, as if it were a crucifix and I was trying to ward off a pack of vampires.
Lieutenant Ho clutched his nightstick, his knuckles turning white, his face burning crimson. Still, he somehow managed to control himself. He studied the badge carefully.
When he was finished, he gruffly told Ernie to show him his. Ernie bounced on the balls of his feet and puffed out his chest again, but I told him to cool it. Finally, he pulled out his badge and flashed it in front of Lieutenant Ho.
Lady Ahn and Fifi Kang stepped out into the hall. Both wore cutoffs and T-shirts and rubber thongs, routine garb for a trip to the bathhouse. Lieutenant Ho swiveled his attention to them.
'What is it with you?' he asked them angrily. 'These two Americans, how do you know them? What are you doing with them?'
Lady Ahn stood taller and began to answer but the lieutenant cut her off, firing more questions at her. Ernie didn't like it. When he took a step forward, two of the policemen angled their nightsticks for a quick backhand to the skull if he came any closer. Ernie stopped, clicking furiously on his gum.
Lieutenant Ho was talking nonstop now, shouting, all his anger at not being able to arrest Ernie and me-at having his authority lessened in the eyes of his men; by foreigners yet! — focused now at the two women.
Fifi Kang fidgeted, smiled, and bowed, attempting to soothe the sputtering Lieutenant Ho. But Lady Ahn stood her ground, no longer even attempting to answer his questions, staring down imperiously at the furious policeman.
Lieutenant Ho was talking so rapidly I was having trouble following him, but I understood enough to see where he was heading. He was accusing the two women of consorting with foreigners, a crime if you're not a registered prostitute.
When Fifi Kang tried to explain that it was us who barged in on them, Lieutenant Ho shouted even louder. Finally, he barked out an order. The three other policemen slipped their nightsticks into their holders, stepped forward, and took Fifi Kang into custody.
It was more than Ernie could take. He shot forward like a Doberman on the attack and stood nose to nose with Lieutenant Ho.
'You can't do that!' he shouted. 'They're our suspects. We found them and we're the ones who are going to interrogate them.'
This was territorial for Ernie. He hunted down these women, they belonged to him.
The policemen started to drag Fifi toward the entranceway. Ernie grabbed her elbow and jerked her back.
There was no way shouting was going to solve this. The more Ernie embarrassed Lieutenant Ho, the less likely that the lieutenant would give in. I shoved Ernie against the wall and whispered urgently into his ear.
'Mellow out, pal. Let me try it my way.'
When the first policeman reached for Lady Ahn, she slapped his hand. 'Manji-jima!' she shouted. Don't touch me.
Fifi wiggled herself free from the policeman who was holding her and scurried over and embraced Lady Ahn.
'You'd better hurry,' Ernie told me. 'I'm about to knock me some KNP out.'
I pulled out my badge again.
'We're here on official business,' I said to Lieutenant Ho in Korean. 'A case concerning the kidnapping of a child. A case that has the attention of the Eighth Army Commander and has the attention of your own Ministry of National Defense.' I pointed toward Lady Ahn and the Widow Kang. 'We must interrogate these two women. You are making that impossible.'
Doubt flickered, for the first time, in Lieutenant Ho's eyes. Still, his face hardened.
'You interrogate them in prison.'
Someone screeched behind me. A policeman. Four rivulets of blood ran down the side of his face. Fifi Kang stood in front of him, red nails bared. The injured policeman snapped open the holder of his nightstick and belted Fifi on the flesh of her arm. She screamed, and suddenly Ernie was in the middle of everything, windmilling one punch after another.
A KNP leapt on Ernie's back. Without thinking, I hopped forward and smashed the cop's head with a sharp left jab. He flopped to the ground like a sack of barley.
Another KNP came at me. I crouched and punched him in the stomach, and then I was shoved against a wall and I saw Ernie barreling toward the door, pushing the women in front of him.
Lieutenant Ho charged me with his nightstick. I hooked one of the wooden benches with my foot and slid it in front of him. The lieutenant crashed into it with his shins, howled, and slammed face-first onto the floor. As the other policemen started to close in, I picked up more of the short benches, tossing them into the narrow corridor, forming a barricade, and then I was backing out the door.
Through a curtain of rain, I saw Ernie and Fifi Kang and Lady Ahn disappearing down an alley. Ernie waved for me to follow.
I did. Sprinting at full speed.
We sloshed through the alleys, making dozens of hairpin turns, the heavy footsteps behind us gradually fading.
All four of us were breathing heavily when we finally stopped long enough to look back and catch our breath. Rainwater ran in rivulets down my face.
'We lost 'em,' Ernie said.
'Great,' I wheezed. 'But for how long?'
Ernie caressed the raw knuckles of his right fist and grinned. 'But it was worth it, wasn't it?'
I could never figure why he loved trouble so much. We were in deeper shit now than we had been since we first heard about this kidnapping two days ago, but Ernie seemed elated.
The two women seemed a lot more worried than Ernie.
'Bali wa,' Fifi Kang said. Come on. 'We go my hooch. Policemen no catchy up there.'
'Yeah,' I said. 'You bet. Policemen no 'catchy up' there.'
Ernie slapped me on the shoulder.
'You worry too much, George. Think positive.' He pointed to the side of his skull. 'That's the secret.'
As we wound through the narrow pathways of Taejon, rain slamming down on our backs, Ernie offered the two women a stick of ginseng gum.
Fifi Kang accepted. Lady Ahn stared at him as if he were a piece of dragon dung. Even with her hair sopping wet, she looked regal. Ernie grinned sheepishly and stuck the gum back in his pocket.
