Slicky Girl Nam looked up. 'But you've allowed it before.'
Herbalist So's face froze. He didn't answer. The exotic brews in his pots bubbled and occasionally boiled over. Flame sizzled.
'All you would have to do,' Slicky Girl Nam continued, 'is to find him for me. And when you capture my husband, I will be the one who kills him.' She raised her gnarled fists into the wavering light. 'With these hands!'
Herbalist So breathed out very slowly. 'There is the matter of expense,' he said.
Slicky Girl Nam lowered her head once again. 'I cannot pay. My husband holds all the money. I have nothing.'
'Of course,' Herbalist So said. 'You are but a helpless woman. Totally under the control of a strong husband.'
There was mockery in his voice. They both knew that Slicky Girl Nam was only trying to drive a hard bargain.
Slicky Girl Nam knew what price she had to pay. It was huge, but what choice did she have? The jade skull must have tremendous value or all these men wouldn't be fighting for it so desperately. But for the moment-and maybe for the first time in her life-Slicky Girl Nam couldn't think of money. All she could think of was the tortured body of her adopted daughter, Mi-ja.
When Slicky Girl Nam finally spoke, she spoke very softly. 'My husband has stolen an antique. It is very old and very valuable. For some reason, Buddhists from as far away as Mongolia are after it.'
Herbalist So raised his bushy eyebrows. 'What type of antique?'
'It is a jade skull.'
One of the pots boiled over. Herbalist So rushed to the stone stove and snagged burning twigs. The flames lowered. He quickly returned to the wooden bench.
'The skull is yours,' Slicky Girl Nam said, 'as a gift, if you help me find my GI husband.'
Framed by the ghostly shadows, a smile crossed Herbalist So's lips. He clamped his hands on his knees.
'So it will be,' he said.
Slicky Girl Nam lowered her head three more times to the floor and backed out of the chamber.
32
Panting and swearing, we dragged Herman up to the roof of the 7 Club. All the way, he kept swiveling his head, searching for the slicky boys, convinced they were about to pounce.
Actually, he was safe with us. I knew Herbalist So, the King of the Slicky Boys, and I also knew that So wouldn't get rough with Eighth Army CID agents except as a last resort. The slicky boys were patient enough to wait until they found Herman alone.
Why were they after him? That seemed clear. Slicky Girl Nam, one of their own, had decided to take her revenge on her husband, Herman the German, for the death of her adopted daughter, Mi-ja.
The rain was coming down hard now but the red tile roof of the fake pagoda atop the 7 Club protected us from its fury. We sat Herman down on a bench. I snatched the leather bag from his grasp and propped it in a corner.
Herman looked up at us, confused as to why we were so angry. Ernie didn't say anything and before I could stop him, he crashed a right cross into Herman's face.
Herman cried out. Blood spurted from above his eye. Ernie punched him again.
'You son of a bitch! Your own daughter! I oughta kill you!'
I grabbed Ernie, held him. Herman didn't try to fight back, he just reached for his eye.
'Easy, Ernie. Easy.'
Ernie stared glassily at Herman. I'd seen him like this before. Ernie was about to go berserk. Only one way to stop it.
'Take deep breaths,' I told him. 'With your nose. Concentrate on loosening the muscles of your neck. Let them relax. That's it. Now your arms. Okay, better.' I slapped him on the cheek and peered into his eyes. 'You okay now?'
Ernie spoke through gritted teeth. 'Get that guy talking and get him talking quick.'
I turned back to Herman. 'You heard the man. Spill it, Herman. Everything.'
'Fuck you guys.'
Ernie exploded. He punched Herman and punched him again. I'd stop him for a second but then he'd wriggle free and lay another roundhouse on Herman's skull. Through it all Herman remained sitting, only occasionally covering his head. A reflex action. Other than that, he made no attempt to defend himself.
Finally, his knuckles raw, Ernie stopped punching and started reading Herman off. 'You let them cut off your own daughter's ear! Then her finger. Kept her away from her mother for days. And then you let them stuff straw down her throat. Can you imagine dying like that? You're a dog, Herman. A fucking dogl'
Ernie's shouts became hoarse. The monsoon rain poured down. Nobody downstairs could hear us, no one down in the street, no one in the buildings surrounding us.
When it seemed that Ernie's explosion was over, I spoke again to Herman.
'You ready now, First Sergeant, Retired? You ready to tell us what the fuck really happened?'
Slowly, Herman nodded his head. Droplets of blood splattered to the wet cement floor. 'I'm ready,' he said.
'And don't leave anything out,' Ernie growled.
'I didn't know what the jade antique was at first. Something valuable, sure. Lady Ahn told me that. But I didn't know how valuable. Not until Ragyapa found me.'
'How did he find you?'
'I don't know. Probably just asking the antique dealers in Seoul. They must've given him the word that Lady Ahn was planning on working with me. That's when he approached me.'
Herman wiped a clot of blood from his eyebrow. 'Ragyapa flew to Korea all the way from Hong Kong. He used to live in Mongolia, but not anymore. Because of the Commies.'
Herman's eyes flashed up briefly. I wondered if he wanted approval for his grasp of international affairs. When he saw our faces, his lids drooped once again.
'Ragyapa told me that the jade was a carving of a head and it was owned by some old dude. Koobel Can or something like that.'
'Kublai Khan,' I said.
'Yeah. And it had been lost for centuries until some monks found it, and now Lady Ahn was going to swipe it from them,'
Apparently, Herman didn't realize that the main value of the jade skull was that it was carved with a map of the whereabouts of the Tomb of Genghis Khan. I wasn't going to educate him. Instead, I asked a question. 'Why didn't Ragyapa steal the jade skull from the monks himself?'
'He said it was protected by some mean mothers. Lady Ahn had an in, she was related to one of the monks or something.'
'So it would be easier to wait until she stole the skull and then turned it over to you?'
'Right. We'd take it from her and split the profit. My end was going to be five thousand dollars.'
Herman waited for us to whisde. Neither one of us did. He sighed.
'So I said, okay. Why not? But the problem was that Ragyapa didn't think Lady Ahn was going to be able to pull off the theft by herself. She needed help. If some Koreans helped her, it wouldn't take them long to realize how valuable the skull was. They'd rip her off before we had a chance.' He glanced up at us again. 'That's where you two guys came in.'
'Why us?'
Herman shrugged. 'You speak the language. You're good investigators. And you're honest.'
I didn't thank him for the compliments. We'd screwed this case up so badly that I didn't think compliments were in order. Especially from Herman.
