Chapter eleven
Eventually I decided to drive round to Na’s office. I realised that what had promised to be an interesting, possibly exciting, and lucrative job had now developed into something quite different. Na was inaccessible when I arrived, but I sent in an urgent message.
He turned round rather irritably as I burst into his office.
‘What is it, Moon?’ he demanded testily. ‘I told you to ring Jo Yun-je if anything important turned up. He can handle any immediate problems’, ‘Jo’s dead’, I said abruptly. ‘He’s been murdered’. Na stared at me for a moment without speaking. Not by so much as a flicker of an eyelid did he betray any emotion. He said quietly: ‘What happened?’
I struggled to regain my breath. ‘I arranged to meet Jo at my flat’, I said. My voice sounded odd, even to myself. ‘When I arrived he was already there. He had a knife in his back’.
‘Did you inform the police?’ demanded Na immediately. ‘No, I thought I’d better see you first’.
Na nodded. ‘You did quite right. Have you got your car here?’
‘Yes’
Na quickly rose from the desk. ‘Right! Tell me the rest of the story on the way …’
I unlocked the door of my flat and stood aside for Na to enter, expecting some exclamation as he saw the body, but there was none.
‘He was standing just there’, I began – then stopped dead and gazed about me with shocked disbelief. The body had vanished. ‘But I tell you, he was standing there – then he fell forward and lay there’ I said, pointing to the floor. ‘Damn it, I saw him with my own eyes!’
Na said nothing. He stooped slightly and examined the carpet.
I hurried to the mantelpiece in the drawing room. The tobacco tin from the Battle of Inchon had also disappeared.
‘Hell’, I muttered, ’am I going crazy? The tin’s gone too!’
‘So I see’, said Na in a matter-of-fact tone.
‘But I swear it was on the mantelpiece!’ I said helplessly. ‘Moon, are you absolutely sure that Jo was dead?’
‘Quite sure’. I wheeled round to face him. ‘I could hardly make up a thing like this! They were both here twenty minutes ago; Jo was lying in the hall and the tin was on the mantelpiece. You believe me, don’t you?’
‘Let’s get this sorted out’, said Na evenly; he might have been suggesting a rubber of bridge. ‘Sit down, Moon. You say that just after lunch you had a telephone call from this man Seong Jeong ryong, who wanted to buy Park’s car from you?’
‘That’s right. He said he’d seen it advertised in AutoMart’.
Na considered this for a moment. ‘Did you place the advertisement?’
‘No, but someone did; I saw it myself’.
‘Did Seong give any special reason for wanting the car?’
‘At first, no. Later, he said it was for a customer’.
Na fingered his chin pensively. ‘So you saw Seong, completed the deal, and arranged to deliver the car tomorrow morning?’
‘He tried to talk me into leaving the car with him this afternoon. I wasn’t having any’. ‘Oh, he did, did he?’ said Na. ‘Why didn’t you leave it?’
After momentary hesitation I said: ‘Well, for two reasons: I wanted to get Jo’s reaction to the Seong incident, and I wanted another opportunity to go over the car again, just in case I’d missed anything’.
‘How did this man Seong Jeong-ryong strike you?’ asked Na.
‘Bit of a rough diamond’, I said. ‘The usual type of small-time car dealer on the make. But I was more surprised at the price he gave me more than anything else: fifteen million won was a ludicrous figure. I don’t know a lot about the second-hand car trade, but even I realised that is wasn’t worth anything like that. Obviously Seong – or the people he was acting for – wanted that car in a hell of a hurry’.
‘What about the garage?’
‘It looked genuine enough. Couple of petrol pumps, a sort of office, and a few cars for sale parked out in front – the usual sort of thing’.
‘I see’, said Na thoughtfully. ‘Well, go on. Did you telephone Jo?’
‘I rang him as soon as I got away from Seong. I told him briefly what had happened and he said he’d meet me here as soon as I got back to Town’.
‘How long did it take you?’ Na asked.
‘From the time I phoned Jo? About ninety minutes, less if anything’. Na nodded.
‘When I arrived he was standing in the hall out there’ – I pointed through the open door. ‘At first I didn’t realise anything was wrong. I went up to him and he said something like: ‘Moon… the Battle of Inchon …’ Then he fell forward into my arms and I saw the knife in his back’. ‘And then?’
‘I had a pretty fair attack of the jitters’, I said frankly. ‘I came in here and was going to dial 999. Then I noticed the cigarette tin on the mantelpiece and I decided not to ring the police, but to come to you instead’.
‘I see’, said Na.
‘It all sounds rather improbable now’, I concluded apologetically, ‘but I assure you –’
‘Don’t worry’, said Na, ‘I’m used to unlikely stories and this one isn’t at all improbable. Jo’s body may have gone – in fact it has gone – but there’s blood on the carpet outside. You see, Moon, you disturbed them. They were in the flat when you got here’.
‘They?’ I queried. ‘Who the hell are ‘they’?’
Na ignored this question and picked out his phone. He dialled a number and then said crisply: ‘Park Cheon-soo … This is Na. I want you to get on to Ra Jong-yil right away. Tell him that Jo’s had an accident … Yes, a very serious one … You understand? … That’s all. Good night’.
Na hung up and I poured two large glasses of soju. I said: ‘the first time I ever saw Jo he was ordering a drink in the bar in Sinjang-ri’.
Na gazed into his glass. ‘He was one of my best men – and a friend. You don’t make many friends in this business; at least I never have. But Jo Yun-je was one of them’.
I was silent, realising that anything I might say would seem woefully inadequate. But Na did not dwell on Jo for long. ‘How does all this affect you?’ he asked. ‘In what way?’
The ghost of a smile played round Na’s lips. ‘You don’t have to go on with this job if you don’t want to’, he said. ‘We only asked you to help us because you know Park Song-yong well. But – well, you’re not really one of us; you can drop out any time you feel like it’.
‘I don’t feel like it’, I said.
Na raised his eyebrows. ‘Aren’t you frightened?’
‘Certainly I am’, I said. ‘I’m as scared as hell’.
Na’s smile broadened. ‘I’m delighted to hear it, because you’re no good to me unless you’re scared’.
‘Put your mind at rest’, I said. ‘I’m your man’. I held out a hand that still trembled slightly. Then I poured two more drinks and said: ‘Of course, it might help a little if you satisfied my curiosity’.
‘About Park Song-yong?’
‘Yes’.
Na took a drink and then put his glass on the table. ‘Three months ago something was stolen from a house in Gangnam’, he said. ‘We believe that this’ – he paused for a moment – ‘this – er – particular thing passed into the hands of Park Song-yong and that he intended to hand it over to Arsenio. You know what happened: the plan misfired’.
‘Which means’, I said, ‘that Park’s still got the thing you’re looking for?’
‘Well, we hope he has. It’s our job to find him before he gets rid of it. Or has it taken from him’.
‘I suppose it’s no use asking you what this thing is?’ I inquired tentatively.
Na shook his head. ‘No use at all, I’m afraid. I’ve already told you a great deal more than I should have done. Find Park Song-yong and I’ll tell you the rest’.
‘There’s just one point I’d like you to clear up’, I said. ‘Do you think Park Song-yong murdered Jo?’
‘You’re guess is as good as mine’, said Na non-committally. In fact, it might even be better; you know Park – I don’t’.
‘I don’t think he did’, I said with certainty. ‘In fact, I’m damned sure he didn’t. It looks as if Park’s up to his neck in all sorts, but he wouldn’t kill anyone’.
‘Well, I hope you’re right’, said Na. He finished his drink. ‘You know, your garage friend interests me just at the moment’. He picked up his hat and coat. ‘We’ll go over that car tonight with a fine tooth comb’, he announced. ‘If we don’t find anything you can go ahead and keep the appointment’.