Chapter Thirty
Cafe Paris is a favourite restaurant of mine; so I was automatically given a corner table. The head waiter brought me a soju and handed me a menu. I tried to divert my mind from Zhong by selecting the dishes I would recommend to Su-mi. I was still rather on edge from the episode of the telephone and I didn't want her to notice it. I was expecting to have to do some clever fencing, anyway, about the light being on in her living room the previous night; I'd had the distinct impression that she'd suspected me at first of being connected with the searching of her apartment that afternoon.
Directly I saw her I knew that whatever else was scheduled for the evening it was not dinner with me. She wore her red suit and a mere wisp of a hat.
'I'm terribly sorry', she said contritely, 'but I'm afraid our dinner date's off'.
I experienced a sense of relief, which I did my best to conceal. I rose, and drew out a chair. 'At least you can spare time for a drink', I said. 'You look as though you need a tranquiliser'.
'I do, indeed', she sighed, sitting down. 'But I've no time. So-ra's waiting in my car. There's a hitch over a drum-top table we bought at Wonju. We have a customer for it, and now the auctioneer says he didn't accept our bid. So-ra can't wait to have it out with him'.
I thought it rather a late hour for a business row with an auctioneer, and said so.'He does a lot of deals in his local at night', Kim Su-mi said indifferently, then toyed with the cutlery in front of her. 'But I simply had to see you, Han-sang. It's about my apartment. Another very odd thing has happened'.
'Oh?' I said, noncommittally.
'I have two keys to my apartment. One I keep here' - she tapped her handbag - 'the other is always in the Chinese dish on my hall table'.
To bridge the pause, which I felt to be a little too obviously pointed, I said: 'Go on .'
'When I looked for the spare key this morning it had disappeared! I tried to phone you at once, but there was no reply'.
'Why did you phone me, Su-mi? There's nothing I could do about it'.
'Of course not, I know that, but .' Her eyes rebuked me. 'Well, you knew about my apartment having been searched, and I thought you'd show some interest in the disappearance of my key'.
I tired to show some interest in a key, which was at that moment in a pocket of a suit in my wardrobe. 'If that key was used to get into your apartment, how would the - er - visitor have got hold of it?' I asked her.
'That's what bothers me'. She met my eyes for a long moment. 'Someone who visited my apartment in the last few days must have taken it'.
I waited for her to go on.
'There have only been four people', she continued, watching me. 'So-ra, Hyeok, that detective . and you'.
'You're forgetting Doyle', I put in quickly. 'And his murderer'.
'Doyle was murdered -' she began; then in a startled voice: 'The murderer! Did he take the key . and come back yesterday?'
It was a problem that I thought I'd solved until I'd had that phone call from Zhong. Now I'd readjusted my thinking. 'It's possible', I said, then threw the really loaded question at her. 'How did Doyle get into your apartment in the first place?'
She stared at me for a second, then said quietly: 'You're not suggesting that I gave him one of my keys?'
I said weakly: 'No, what I meant - but expressed it very clumsily - was that the murderer could have entered your flat by the balcony, and then when Doyle rang the door bell .'
'Oh, Han-sang', she said wearily, 'why would Doyle be calling on me?'
'He was staying in Seoul. He could have looked you up in the phone book, decided to drop in on you .'
She stood up. 'Isn't it the same old circle? It simply doesn't lead anywhere'. She glanced at her watch. 'Heavens, I've been here ten minutes - So-ra will be having a fit'. Her eyes softened. 'I feel an absolute beast walking out on you like this'.
'There's always another night', I suggested. 'Tomorrow perhaps?''I'm dining with Hyeok tomorrow night. And every other night this week I have engagements'. Suddenly her face brightened. 'I know! I'll make sure we're back from Wonju by ten. Drop in at my apartment just after. We'll have tea together'.
At that moment the patron himself came to the table, spreading his hands in consternation at her obviously imminent departure. She smiled winningly at him, and with a wave of her hand she was gone.
I reassured the patron, who was protesting that he was coming to take Madame's order personally. 'It wasn't the service', I assured him. 'Her sister's ill'.
I ordered the Korean barbeque, which merited his recommendation. But my mind was more concerned with the tea, which was to follow . the tea at ten, in Su-mi's apartment.