Chapter twenty-four
I thought it might be a good idea to let Ma Park think that I was a police officer. The more I considered this, the better I liked it: Ma would be unlikely to talk freely to a casual frequenter of her cafe, but it I were to throw a scare into her with a few threatening overtones she’d probably tell me all I wanted to know.
I went to see the old man called Nam Woo-jin and found him immersed in files in his little office just down the corridor from Na’s office. Apparently he was quite used to such requests, for within ten minutes he had supplied me with a warrant card, which told me that I was Detective-Inspector Ryom Han-gyong of Seoul police. I had the feeling that if I had asked Woo-jin for a baby elephant he would not have evinced any particular surprise.
There were only two lorries parked outside ‘Ma’s Cafe’ and one of these was revving up, preparatory to moving off. I went into the cafe and saw that there was only one other customer, who was mopping up the remnants of his meal with a piece of bread.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and decided that I looked the part. I wore a raincoat and a trilby hat because all the plain-clothes men I had ever seen had always worn trilbies and raincoats, whether it was raining or not.
Ma, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, was washing up behind the counter. She served me without meeting my eyes, or making any comment.
I took my cup of tea to a table by the wall and picking up a three-month-old illustrated magazine idly flipped through the pages.
The other customer swallowed the rest of his tea and went up to the counter. Ma took his money and have him the change. After he had gone I heard the remaining lorry in the car park being started up.
Ma glanced idly in my direction and poured herself a cup of tea.
‘Come and have that cuppa with me, Ma’, I said. ‘I want to talk to you’.
Ma eyed me shrewdly. Then she came over to my table and put her cup on it. Easing her large bulk into the chair opposite she said off handedly: ‘I haven’t got time to sit an’ gossip, love’. ‘Who said anything about gossip?’ I snapped.
Ma’s nostrils twitched. ‘Don’t you talk to me like that, dear’. She said balefully. ‘I don’t like being ordered about, y’know. Who are you, anyway?’
‘Come off it, Ma’, I said. ‘You remember me, don’t you?’
She looked at me through narrowed eyes. ‘You bin here before?’
‘You know very well I’ve been here before’, I told her. ‘D’you know who I am?’
Ma switched on a smile. ‘No, I don’t, dear’. The smile vanished as abruptly as it had come. ‘And I couldn’t care less. You owe me four-pence for your cuppa’.
I fumbled in my trouser pocket. ‘My name’s Bok Ye-joon’, I said. ‘That's nice’, said Ma acidly. ‘Four-pence, dearie – if you've got it’.
‘I expect I’ll manage it’, I said. ‘The pay at police HQ isn’t all that handsome, but it’ll run to a cup of tea now and then’.
Ma’s mouth closed in a thin line. ‘Police HQ? Who d’you think you’re kidding?’
‘Don’t you think I’m from the police?’
‘No’, she said uncompromisingly, ‘I don’t’.
I produced my warrant card. ‘Does that convince you?’
Ma looked at me with grudging respect. She said uneasily: ‘What d’you want? You ain’t got nothing on me’.
‘I’m just making a few inquiries’, I said casually. ‘It’s nothing to do with the local police – in fact, they needn’t know anything about it, unless you want them to. I think you can help me, Ma’.
‘How could I help you?’ she demanded with a show of truculence. ‘I ain’t never bin mixed up in anything’.
‘You’re lucky’, I told her. ‘Perhaps you’ve got an influential boy friend’.
‘Get on with it, love’, she said more affably. ‘I ain’t got all day, y’know, so what about getting to the point?’
‘All right’, I agreed, ‘we’ll get to the point. You remember that when I was here last I asked you about a man and a woman. You said you’d seen them’.
Ma regarded me suspiciously and then nodded.
‘You told me they’d been here the previous Friday’, I continued. She nodded again. ‘That’s right, love’.
I took a photograph from my wallet. It was a snapshot taken by me of Kim Joo-young and Park Song-yong. I passed it over to ma. ‘Have you seen these two people before?’
She looked at the photograph and then at me. ‘never seen ’em before in me life’, she announced.
‘But that’s the girl and the man I spoke to you about’, I pointed out. ‘You said you’d seen them here’.
‘I know I did, love’, replied ma equably.
‘Then why’, I said with as much patience as I could muster, ‘did you say that you’d seen them, if it wasn’t true?’
Ma’s self-assurance was slipping a little. ‘Well, its’s a bit difficult to explain’, she said uncertainly.
‘Someone told you to say it. Right?’
‘Right’, said Ma after suitable hesitation. ‘Who?’
‘Oh, just a pal of mine’.
‘And how much did this pal of yours pay you?’
Her piggy little eyes glittered dangerously. ‘Now, don’t you start getting bloody insulting’, she said with enormous menace. ‘I done it as a favour, see? You don’t think I’d take money from a pal, do you?’
‘Not you’, I said. ‘How much?’
Ma looked at me, like a boxer sizing up an opponent. ‘If you must know’, she said sullenly, ‘I made a thousand won it and that’s all’. Her voice took on a wheedling note. ‘Honest to Gawd, a thousand won – not a won more’.
‘All right, I believe you’, I said. ‘But I think you’d better tell me the whole story, don’t you?’ Ma said: ‘Well, this bloke Seong Jeong-ryong, him at the garage down the road – ’
‘Seong Jeong-ryong?’ I broke in. ‘That’s right. You know him?’
‘We’ve met’, I said. ‘Go on, Ma’.
She became more verbose. ‘Well, I can’t say that I’m surprised you know him. Mind you Seong Jeong-ryong’s not really a crook, even if his cars are crap. There was a bloke got an Equus Prestige off ’im – ’
‘Never mind the cars’, I said. ‘Tell me about Seong’.
Ma shot me a reproachful look. ‘Well, he comes up here one day last week and he asks me if I’d like to pick up an easy thousand’.
‘And after careful deliberation you said “Yes”’, I murmured. ‘Wot’s that?’ demanded Ma beligerently.
‘Skip it’, I said.
‘He gave me a description of you’, she went on, ‘and said you might be calling in here, making inquiries about a young woman and her boy friend. I was to tell you that they’d both been here last Friday and that the gent in question was always popping in and out – one of my regulars, as you might say’. Ma paused for breath.
‘Then what?’
‘Then I was to get Seong on the blower and tell him you was here. And that’s all I did’.
‘This man, Si’, I said, ‘the man who came in here and spoke to me – had you ever seen him before?’
Ma shook her head emphatically. ‘No, dear, never clapped eyes on him. I was very surprised when he come in; I thought it’d be Seong, seeing as how he’d arranged it all’.
‘Have you seen Seong since I was here last?’
‘Yes’, she said. ‘He come in here the same afternoon. I asked him who that fancy boy was, and he said he was another car dealer. Seong said they was trying to buy a car off you, but you wouldn’t part with it’.
‘And you believed him?’
Ma shrugged her fat shoulders. ‘Well, I dunno’, she said dubiously. ‘I thought it sounded a bit fishy. I thought the three of you might be mixed up in some monkey business – stolen cars or some such racket’.
‘I see’, I said, looking at her searchingly.
Ma was clearly disconcerted by my questioning. ‘I’ve told you the truth, dearie’, she insisted. ‘I don’t believe in getting the wrong side of you boys’.
‘Very wise of you’, I said. I got up and headed for the door. ‘Oh, I still haven’t paid for my tea’. ‘That’s all right, love’, said Ma, all smiles again. ‘Have it on the house …’
I decided to go and see Seong Jeong-ryong next. Seong, I imagined was the type who would talk if I made it worth his while. On the way to his garage I reviewed the information Ma Park had given me, and decided it was reliable. No doubt about it; she had been scared.
When I sounded my horn Seong emerged and I told him to fill the Equus up. He eyed the car with undisguised admiration.
‘Nice car you got there’, he remarked as he slammed down the cap of the petrol tank. ‘Not bad, is it?’ I said. ‘Only bought it yesterday, as it happens’.
‘Hmm’, said Seong. ‘What’s on the clock?’
‘Only done about five thousand’.
‘You for real?’ Seong’s eyes widened enviously. ‘How much did you have to fork out for it?’
‘Just over sixty-five million won’.
‘Nice!’ said Seong in awestruck tones.
‘You think I got a good deal then?’ I asked naively. ‘A good deal? That was a bargain, it’s givin’ it away’.
‘I bought it off a friend of mine’, I explained. ‘Her husband’s just died. As a matter of fact she had two cars there and I reckon the other one’s a better bargain than this. But I always fancied a jag’.
‘She must be a proper mug to let that Equus sixty-five’, commented Seong.
I gave him a knowing look. ‘If you step in quickly you might get the other one cheap’. ‘What’s the other one?’ he inquired eagerly.
‘A Sonata Luxury’.
‘Aha’, Seong beamed. ‘How old?’
‘Just a year, I think. It’s in beautiful condition, anyway’.
Seong looked covetously at the Equus. ‘Well, this job’s certainly a snip. You know, I like the sound of that Sonata’.
I simulated deep thought for a moment. ‘Tell you what’, I said presently, ‘you come to my place this evening and we’ll nip round together and take a look at it. I’ll introduce you to my friend and the rest will be up to you. How about that?’
Seong looked pleased. ‘Ta very much, Mr Moon’, he said. ‘I’ll do that’.
I handed him a card. ‘That’s my address’, I said. ‘Come at about eight o’clock’.
‘I’ll be there’, he assured me, pushing the card into his pocket. He waved jauntily as I drove away.
Out of deference to me and a possible client Seong had shaved and put on a collar which was very nearly clean.
I said: ‘I’m damned sorry about this, Seong. If you’d got here a bit earlier you could have had that Sonata’.
‘You don’t mean someone nipped in front of me?’ he said.
‘I’m afraid so’, I said sadly. ‘He got it for eighty million. He was a dealer, I gather’.
‘Bloody dealers!’ exclaimed Seong Jeong-ryong with disgust. ‘E’ll make at least ten grand on that, the bastard!’
I poured out a generous tot of soju and handed the glass to Seong. Regretfully I said: ‘Well, that’s the way it goes’.
He shook his head. ‘Thanks, Guv’. He swallowed resentfully, then muttered: ‘Bugger, an’ to think I was so bloody near to makin’ an easy ten thou’.
I refilled his glass. ‘Of course’, I said casually, ‘if it’s just a question of making a few thousan won, I know how you could pocket a quick two thousand – just like that!’ I snapped my fingers dramatically.
Seong looked up from a morose contemplation of my carpet. ‘What’s the catch?’ he wanted to know.
‘You’ve only to tell me what happened to that Genesis Coupe I sold you’, I said quietly.
Seong hastily finished his soju and put the glass on the table. ‘Well, thanks for the drink’, he muttered. ‘I got to be getting back’.
I assumed a pained expression. ‘Doesn’t two thousand interest you?’
‘Too right it does’, Seong assured me. ‘Any easy money interests me. But I ain’t talkin’ about that particular car’.
I looked at him carefully for a moment. I knew that he wasn’t going to pass up two thousand won as readily as that. ‘I’ll make you another proposition’, I said at last.
Seong looked at me guardedly. ‘I’m listening’.
‘I met a man called Si at Ma Park’s cafe’, I said. ‘He came to see me in answer to a phone call that Ma made to you’.
‘I dunno nothin’ about that’, said Seong, rather too readily. ‘I dunno what you’re talking about, mate’.
‘I think you do’, I corrected. ‘But what really interests me is that it took Si over an hour to get to the cafe after Ma phoned you’.
‘So what?’ said Seong sullenly.
‘So Si couldn’t have been waiting at the garage’, I said. ‘Your place is only five minutes from the café’.
‘I dunno what the ’ell you’re taking about’, said Seong.
‘Don’t you? Then I’ll tell you. As soon as you heard from Ma Park you telephoned Si. You rang him and it took him just over an hour to get to Ma’s Cafe’.
‘You’re nuts!’ Park said offensively. ‘I’ve never even ’eard of anyone called Si’. He started to move towards the door.
‘I’ll give you two thousand won, Seong, if you’ll tell me the number you called’, I said deliberately.
Seong stopped dead and eyed me cautiously. ‘Two thousand won? Just for a phone number?’
‘Yes’, I said. ‘Simple, isn’t it?’
‘Sounds a bit too bloody simple to me’, he said. ‘Ave yer got the two thou ’ere?’
I crossed to the desk and unlocked a drawer. I took out a bundle of notes and casually tossed them on to the table. Seong, apparently mesmerised, watched me.
‘Let’s get this straight’, he said. ‘I give you the phone number, an’ you give me two thousand won. Right?’
Patiently, I repeated: ‘As soon as you heard from Ma Park you phoned Si. I just want the number you called, that’s all’.
Seong’s eyes were glued to the pile of notes. He fought a final battle with some misplaced loyalty and lost. In a hoarse voice he blurted out: ‘’ere you go and waved the screen of his phone under my eyes … ’
Mercifully Seong was far too occupied in looking at the money to glance at me, for I doubt very much if I managed to keep a poker face on seeing the screen.
I pointed to the money and said: ‘All right, Seong. Help yourself’.
He picked up the notes, counted them deftly, and transferred them to the inside pocket of his jacket. What, I wondered, was Seong going to do with this sudden windfall? I thought of gambling dens, gargantuan alcoholic sessions, shady car deals – all things obviously dear to his heart. I suddenly felt a lot better about my assignment: up to now the enemy had had it all their own way, but at least one of them was open to financial persuasion.
Seong said tensely: ‘If anyone asks you, I never give you that number, see? I never even seen you tonight. You got that?’
‘I’ve got it’, I said. ‘I don’t even know you. Now, get out of here’.
Seong looked aggrieved. ‘Don’t be like that, Guv. I got to cover myself, see? I got a business to look after’, he pleaded.
I decided that I had had about enough of Seong. I pointed to the door. ‘Out’, I said succinctly. He shot me a look charged with venom and left.
When he had gone I paced up and down the room for a full minute. Then I picked up the telephone and dialled.
Kim Joo-young’s voice answered. ‘Hi there!’
‘Hi, Joo-young. Nice to hear your voice. Can you drop round to see me about six tomorrow evening?’
She said: ‘Of course, darling, I’d love to. Have you got some news for me?’
‘Yes’, I said slowly, ‘I’ve got some news for you …’
I hung up before she could ask if it was good news.