Chapter, Twenty-four
A taxi was dropping a fare as I came out of the office building. I was in it before the driver had put his flag up, and directed him back to my car.
I'mmediately I'd retrieved my car I drove to World Cup Buk-ro, cursing the rush- hour traffic. I wanted to catch the barrow boy before he packed up. I knew now why I'd experienced that vague sense of familiarity when I'd seen him that morning. In the moment No Jung-jong had pulled the gun on me a chain of images had flashed through my mind: looking down the muzzle of a gun; the blow on the back of my head; my recovering consciousness; the neat, fair-haired figure of a man slipping a note into my cigarette case . I was certain now that the barrow boy and the man who had left the note were one and the same person.
Turning into World Cup Buk-ro I thought for a moment that I'd missed him. Then I spotted the barrow at the far end. I braked behind it, got out, and went up to him.
He had his back to me as I said: 'Thanks for the tip - it came off'.
He turned an unfamiliar sallow face towards me, waggling the stub of a cigarette between his lips. 'What's that, mate? Mistook me for someone else, 'ave yer?'
'Oh, I'm sorry!' I said, with a laugh. 'A bag of apples, please'.He eyed me as though I were a drunk, decided I wasn't, put four apples in a bag, and tossed it onto the scales. 'There you go, guv'.
I took ten thousand won note out of my wallet. 'Where's the other chap who was on the barrow this morning?' I asked.
'Oh, 'im. 'E's 'aving a night orf', he said. Then he scratched his head. 'Ain't you got nothin' smaller than that?'
'You needn't bother about change', I said, waving the money at him. 'That is, if you tell me where that other man is'.
'What you take me for?' he said nastily. 'Go on -scarper!'
He came round eventually, after I'd shown him an old business card that I had in my wallet, and persuaded him that the other man was an old schoolfellow.
'Well, this chap, 'e just come up to me, see - and 'e paid for the loan of the barrow! Says 'e was an author writin' a book about barrow boys. To tell the truth, mate, I wondered what he was up to, so I kept me eye on 'im from round the corner, see. 'e don't make no move to serve no-one! Then today I see 'im givin' you the nod'. He wiped his nose with the sleeve of his jacket. 'Beats me, guv!'
'Will you be seeing him again?'
'Dunno. Might see 'im in the boozer - he's been in there the last couple o' nights .'
'Give him this card if you do see him', I said, handing the card over with the five-pound note. 'It's got my phone number on it. Tell him to give me a ring'.
'Right - o!' He stuck the fiver in his waistcoat pocket, grinning at me. 'Cor!
The Missis won't believe a flipping word of this!'