How the hell could I have missed it?

CHAPTER 19

Koreans can be infuriatingly bureaucratic when it suits them, which just happens to be most of the time. They can also cut through the crap when they want to, and my request to meet with Minister of Defense Lee Jung Kim and his wife in their home got approved within hours.

It obviously required Minister Lee himself to make that happen. Although we’d met only briefly – and on unfortunate terms – he didn’t know me from Adam… or Kim… or whomever. I assumed he granted my request out of curiosity, or because he wanted the opportunity to box my ears, both because I’d been so curt to him and because I was helping defend the man who’d so cruelly slain his son.

At six o’clock in the evening, I was standing gingerly in my starchiest battle dress and my most sparkling boots, dead center on the floor mat in front of his door. The home was made of musty red brick and was larger than most Korean houses, particularly ones inside the city limits, although it would’ve seemed tiny and ordinary in any middle-class American neighborhood. Koreans have this thing against flaunting wealth, so they tend to live unpretentiously, except when it comes to cars and TVs. They’re nuts for Mercedeses and Sonys.

Having been inside a few Korean houses in my day, I took the cultural precaution of bending over and halfway unlacing my boots, so I could smoothly step out of them. It’s one of those Asian things, and I’m a worldly guy, so I know the drill.

I rang the bell, and a sharp-looking Korean Army major with a holstered.38-caliber pistol on his hip opened the door. He wore the Korean Army version of battle dress, and I guessed by the muscular, sinewy look of him he’d probably been handpicked from the Special Warfare Command, which is one of the toughest, deadliest outfits in the world. The guy could probably crack ten bricks with the bridge of his nose. I also noticed he was wearing his combat boots inside the house. I observed this right after I saw him staring curiously at my untied, mostly unlaced boots.

I said, “Hi, I’m Major Sean Drummond. I have a six o’clock appointment to meet with Minister and Mrs. Lee.”

In fluent English, he said, “I know who you are. I advise you to tie your boots, so you don’t look stupid.”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” I mumbled, bending over and lacing my boots as fast as my nimble hands could manage. Nothing like making the right first impression, I always say.

“Follow me,” he said when I was done.

Like many Korean homes, this one was dimly lit inside and sparsely littered with old Korean chests and bric-a-brac. The walls were spotted with scrolls, and paintings of mountains, and more of those flying cranes. The Lee family tastes ran toward Korean traditional.

The major led me down a hallway and through the living room to a covered porch tucked off the dining room. I could see two old people seated and sipping tea.

The major stepped aside to let me proceed. Following me in, he stayed close behind me like a good bodyguard. This is what comes from living in a country known for its frequent coups and attempted coups, not to mention the occasional terrorist attack by the bad guys up north.

Minister Lee stood up and crossed over to shake my hand. His face was grave and unsmiling, but curious. He courteously said, “Welcome to my home. May I introduce my wife.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Lee,” I said, bowing in her direction and calling her Mrs. Lee, even though Korean wives almost never share their husband’s name. I knew she wouldn’t mind, though. Koreans have long since learned that Westerners, and Americans in particular, are too inconsiderate to learn their customs, so they politely ignore our bad manners.

I said, “Minister Lee, I apologize for what I said in the minister of justice’s office last week. I had no idea who you were.”

He nodded.

“Also, please allow me to express my condolences for the death of your son. I’ve learned a great deal about him. He was a remarkable young man. I can only imagine how terrible this loss is for you both.”

Again he nodded. Then, the diplomatic necessities obviously concluded, he waved for me to sit across from him and his wife. I stole a glance at her while I arranged my trousers. She was small and slender, delicate-looking, and although she was in her mid-sixties, you could see the traces of astonishing beauty. A noble beauty. Her features looked carved, and although there was an aging puffiness around her eyes, they still reminded me of a pair of big dusky black pearls.

She was demurely studying me right back, and I couldn’t even begin to guess what she was thinking. I knew what my mother would be thinking had it been me that ended up with a web belt around my throat, and the defender of the son of a bitch who did that to me was seated on her back porch.

Mrs. Lee, however, graciously rose and leaned across the small coffee table that separated us. She placed a small green porcelain cup in front of me, then filled it with pale, watery tea from a small, discolored, badly dented teapot. Had it been my mother, the tea would’ve been laced with strychnine.

“What an interesting teapot,” I mentioned in an attempt to break the ice. “A family heirloom?”

The minister answered for her. “My father gave me the pot when I entered the army in 1951. He was a poor man. He made it with his own hands before he was murdered by the North Koreans. I carried it with me my whole career, through two wars, even during my years in prison.”

I leaned forward and studied the teapot more closely while he said, “So what did you wish to see us about, Major?”

I looked up at him. “Sir, did the hospital return your son’s possessions after his death?”

“Yes.”

“I’d like your permission to search them. I have no right to ask, and if you say no, I’ll certainly understand. However, I’m sure you want the right man convicted for your son’s murder. Your son’s belongings might hold an important clue.”

Most folks would’ve told me to hit the street and don’t let the door hit me in the ass. I was banking on the same streak of fairness Minister Lee had shown in the justice minister’s office. On the other hand, I braced myself for a typhoon of anger.

He studied me with an intrigued glance. “May I ask what you’re searching for?”

Well, we got past the typhoon, but this was the tricky part. I, of course, came here to see if I could discover whether the key to Whitehall’s apartment was still in No’s possession when he died. The problem was, as far as the minister, his wife, and everybody else was concerned, Lee No Tae wasn’t gay, and he certainly wasn’t having an affair with Whitehall – he was an unsuspecting, gullible hetero who’d been lured to a party where he got brutally beaten, murdered, and raped.

I couldn’t very well admit I was looking for the key to the romantic hideaway where Lee No Tae went to make love with the man he supposedly wasn’t having an affair with.

“Well, sir,” I said as convincingly as I could, “my client claims there might have been some evidence in No’s possession that would vindicate him.”

“And how can that be?”

“Because we believe my client was framed for your son’s death.”

I watched his reaction, because I figured that if the South Koreans were the ones tapping my phones and bugging my room, he’d already know damn well we were preparing to claim Whitehall was framed.

If he wasn’t surprised, he fooled me. His neck reared back, his forehead crinkled, and his lips twisted in a funny way. He was either an ace actor or was genuinely unaware. Of course, no man was likely to rise to the atmospheric heights of minister of defense unless he was fairly skilled at deception. Especially in the capital of Korea, where intrigue’s an everyday sport.