“That time,” the mama-san told me, “she already pregnant.”
“With her daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she give the baby up for adoption?”
“No can do.”
“Why not?”
“Some woman,” the Uichon mama-san said, “no can do.”
I thought of the smiling woman’s mad expression. “It would’ve been better for her daughter, don’t you think, if Miss Yun would’ve turned Ai-ja over for adoption? She could’ve grown up in the States or in Europe. She wouldn’t have ended up here, working for GIs.”
Still squatting, the Uichon mama-san puffed on her cigarette for a long time. Finally, she said, “Better, yes.” Then she pounded her fist on her chest. “But inside, never better.”
“What happened to your friend, Ai-ja’s mother?” I asked.
Without looking at me, the Uichon mama-san slid a skinny finger across her throat.
“Killed?”
“Die.”
“What happened?”
She told me, and I took notes, but not many. I kept thinking about Ernie stalling Lieutenant Cheon, and about Private Rodney K. Boltworks out there somewhere still on the loose. The story was upsetting, but it was all a long time ago. It didn’t seem to have anything to do with our current investigation, so finally I interrupted.
“The daughter of Miss Yun, this young woman named Yun Ai-ja, where is she now?”
The Uichon mama-san shrugged. “She go. GI beat her up, then her brother come.”
I stopped her right there. “Her brother?”
“Yes. Dong seing.” Younger brother.
“What does he look like?”
She described him. I took notes, trying not to let my excitement show. I pulled out the sketch of the man in sunglasses that Ernie and I had been calling “the dark GI.”
“Is that him?” I asked.
“Yes.”
So that was it. All three of the people involved in the robbery of the Olympos Casino and the murder of the blackjack dealer Han Ok-hi were identified. At last. Now we just had to catch them.
“What happened after her brother arrived?” I asked.
“He taaksan kullasso.” She raised two forefingers on either side of her head, indicating that he was angry.
“Why?”
“Ai-ja, she all hurt. Here, here, here.”
She pointed at her face and shoulders and back.
“Bruised,” I said.
“Yes. GI punch many times.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Ai-ja no do nothing. Never make GI angry. She out in grass with crazy GI. He move far away from us. Nighttime, so my other girls plenty busy. First, I don’t hear nothing, then I hear fighting.”
“She fought back?”
“You better believe-uh.”
“But she didn’t scream?”
“Ai-ja never scream. Never ask for help. I run over there, try to stop him. He no stop. Finally, GI tired of punching Ai-ja. He stand up, very happy on face. He give extra money, maybe ten MPC.” Ten dollars in Military Payment Certificates. “Then he go back to Charley Battery. Say he no want any other man touch Ai-ja that night. But he don’t have to say because she manhi apo.” Hurt very much.
“Did you take her to the hospital?”
The mama-san shrugged. I took that as a no.
“And then her brother showed up?” I asked.
“Yes. Maybe two days later. He tough man. Very tough.
Half-GI baby gotta be tough. He so angry, he come back next time Charley Battery come to Nightmare Range.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Maybe one month.”
“What did he do?”
“He tell Ai-ja wait for mean GI. She do. Together with mean GI, she go in bushes. Maybe mean GI he want to beat up Ai-ja again. But when he start, her brother jump on him.” Her eyes gleamed at the memory. “Like tiger from mountain.”
“They fought?”
“They fight. GI bigger, stronger, but Ai-ja brother, he tough. Very tough. He taaksan beat the shit outta GI. GI bloody, all beat up, but then something funny happen.”
“What?”
“He laugh.”
“The GI laughed?”
“Yes. He happy. He get beat up, he like. So Ai-ja brother, he do again.”
“He kept beating on him?”
She nodded her head. “Until GI go back to Charley Battery. He have guard duty that night.”
So much for military security.
“Later that night,” she said, “Charley Battery have alert. Move to other side of Nightmare Range. We follow. Again they fight, all three. Ai-ja and her brother knuckle sandwich with GI.”
“Ai-ja was fighting him too?”
The mama-san nodded.
“Next day, morning time, Ai-ja go.”
“Where did she go?”
“Itaewon,” she said. “That’s where she grow up. That’s where her brother grow up. They want to live there.”
“They grew up in Itaewon?”
“Yes.” She proceeded to tell me more stories about that, but I was impatient and interrupted.
“That morning, when Ai-ja left with her brother, the mean GI went with them?”
“Yes. He say he no wanna go back Charley Battery. Too much bullshit.”
“So he followed Ai-ja and her brother?”
“Yes. Like, how you say, kangaji?”
“Puppy dog,” I said.
“Yes. GI follow like puppy dog.”
11
Ernie jammed the jeep into fourth gear and gunned the engine down the four-lane highway known as Tongil- lo, Reunification Road. We were heading south, back toward Seoul.
“So what’d she tell you?” he asked.
“I know who the dark GI is now. He’s the smiling woman’s brother.”
Ernie shot me a glance. “How’d you get that?”
“She recognized him from the sketch. Boltworks beat up the blonde, and little brother came to the rescue. The mama-san was friends with their mother. She’s got a million stories.”
