At this point, Eddie lurched forward in his chair. “What in the hell’s going on here? What does this line of questioning have to do with the interrogation?”

“I’m sorry?” Katherine stiffly replied, like, What the hell do you mean by what in the hell?

Eddie gave her a taste of his friendly-exterminator expression. “Lady, you’re not here to practice your cross-examination on my witness. The judge’s written order is clear. You can ask questions pertaining to Jackson’s interrogation. That’s it.”

Katherine archly said, “Let me see your copy of the order.”

In our haste to get back to our office, we hadn’t actually stuck around to get a copy. Shame on us.

He triumphantly tossed it across the table at her. She picked it up, read it, then handed it to me, and I read it, then I handed it to Imelda and she gave it back to Eddie without looking at it herself.

It was a limited order. Carruthers was nobody’s fool. We’d said we were investigating the possibility the witnesses were tortured. We could ask about the sequence that occurred after the arrest – period.

Katherine took a moment to regroup. She drew a couple of deep breaths, then smiled at Jackson again. This time it was a forced smile.

“Okay, Everett, let’s review what occurred after you were arrested. Where were you taken?”

“To the Itaewon Police Station. We all were.”

“And what happened there?”

“Well, first they separated us into different rooms. Then they took my fingerprints. Then they asked me a bunch of questions and-”

“Who asked you the questions?” I interrupted.

“A Korean police officer. I can’t remember his name. It was like, uh, like-”

“Like Choi?”

“Yes… maybe.”

“A uniformed cop, or a detective in civvies?”

“He was in civvies. I think he said he was like a chief inspector, or something like that.”

“Where was this?”

“In a room in the back.”

“Were any Americans present?”

“No.”

“Okay, then what?” Katherine asked.

“Then I was put in a cell till some MPs came and got me. They brought me to base. They kept me in a room in the MP station. Then Chief Bales and the same Korean guy came in and asked me some questions.”

“Did they touch you?” I asked.

He suddenly broke eye contact. He looked at Eddie, and Eddie nodded for him to go ahead and answer.

He said, “No… uh, they didn’t touch me.”

I bent toward him. “You’re sure?”

“Yes sir, I’m sure.”

“Then what happened?” Katherine asked.

“After an hour or so, I was released to go back to my unit.”

Katherine turned and looked at me. I shrugged. She looked back at Jackson. “You went to see a lawyer, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Why?”

“I dunno. I’d been at a murder scene. Who knows what the Korean cops thought, right? I thought I’d better be safe.”

“And did the attorney advise you to go back and revise your initial statement?”

Jackson looked at Eddie again. Then he fidgeted for a moment. “Yeah. He said I should tell the truth. I mean, I didn’t kill or rape anybody.”

“Did you contact Carl Moran before you went back?”

“Yeah. I mean, I thought I owed him that. I couldn’t leave him hanging.”

I said, “Does that mean you knew Moran lied in his official statement to the MPs also?”

Eddie came forward. “Drummond, you’re crossing the boundary.”

“The hell I am. Your witnesses were interrogated twice and their initial and final statements conflict. We have the right to know why.”

Eddie scratched his chin for a second. Then he said, “I don’t agree. Do we need to get on the phone and ask the judge?”

“We’re only trying to get the truth. What the hell are you afraid of?”

He smiled. “Nothing. When you get him on the stand, ask anything you want. As long as it’s relevant, of course. Otherwise, I’ll break it off in your ass. You remember what that feels like, don’t you, Drummond?”

If I hadn’t mentioned it before, I don’t really like Eddie Golden. In fact, I dislike him intensely. And not just because he’d bested me twice, but because he was such a puffed-up prick. I guess I was letting my feelings show, because Katherine put her hand on my arm to quiet me. I simmered but kept my mouth shut.

Then Katherine asked, “Everett, this is very important, now. Were you brought to the Itaewon station for a second visit?”

Jackson looked nervous. He turned to Eddie again, but Eddie stayed quiet.

He said, “I, uh, I’m sorry. What was your question again?”

“I asked, were you brought to the Itaewon station for a second visit?”

“No. Uh, I never went back there again.”

He was lying. He wasn’t even a good liar, because his eyes turned away from her, and his face turned red.

Katherine got forceful. “Were you ever beaten? Did Chief Bales or Inspector Choi touch you? Did they attempt to coerce you?”

Then, in a quick, taut, almost frantic rush of words, “No, never. They never touched me. I wasn’t beaten.”

To which I quickly said, “How odd, Everett. I have a copy of a statement from the Itaewon station that says you were beaten.”

His face suddenly became alarmed. “What?”

“You heard me. I have an official police statement that says you were beaten at the Itaewon station.”

Jackson’s lips were just parting, but before he could say a word, Eddie grabbed his arm, and said, “Show me the statement.”

“I didn’t bring it with me,” I replied, which was technically true. Since I didn’t have any such statement, I obviously didn’t have it with me. But such a statement did exist – the cover-up statement I’d overheard Choi confide to Bales that he’d filed, the one that claimed Jackson was beaten by his cellmate. I made a quick mental note to lodge a request with the Korean Ministry of Justice to see if they would produce it. I made a second note not to hold my breath.

Eddie, in the meantime, was smiling. “You’re claiming you have evidence that contradicts my witness. I expect to see that evidence before he has to answer.”

I wondered at this moment how much Eddie knew. Was he aware his witnesses were liars? Or was he just so eager to get another victory notch on his belt that he didn’t want to know what he didn’t want to know? Or did he really just think Katherine and I were a couple of sleazebag defense counsels trying to pull rabbits out of the hat?

Anyway, we’d reached what’s called a deadlock, and Eddie was looking at his watch. “Now, if you two don’t mind, I have a very busy schedule to keep. Unless you have a reasonable objection, I’m going to have Jackson returned to his cell and I’ll have Moran brought in.”

Without waiting for our reply, he got up and sauntered to the door and signaled a guard. Jackson was led out with his head hung low. I found it telling that he never turned and looked at us before he left. Not once. He got out of there as fast as Eddie could arrange it.

Then it was just us lawyers. And Imelda, of course, still standing quietly in the corner, observing us.

Eddie chuckled. “You guys are really grasping at straws. What’s the matter, Carlson? I thought you said you and Drummond had some big surprises for me.”

Like I mentioned earlier, Eddie was into playing mind games.

I was steaming, but Katherine was calm and unruffled, since mind games were her idea of sport also. “Oh, we do, Eddie, we do. We’re just cleaning up a few loose ends.”

“Sure you are, Carlson. You’re hoping to assassinate Bales on the stand. Not unexpected, but a very bad idea.”

“Really? Why’s it a bad idea?”

“Because Bales is clean. He’s rated one of the top three CID agents in the entire system. He’s got the second highest arrest record, the highest conviction rate, and he’s never had a single brutality charge leveled against him.”

Katherine stared him right in the eye. “He’s dirty.”

And he stared right back. “Say that in court, and I’ll make you regret it. This is a court-martial, Carlson, not a trial in some Black inner-city ghetto. Our jury’s going be made up of ten Army officers. They respect CID officers. You open the issue, and I’ll spend three days proving what a great guy he is. Don’t waste your time.”