Martin Limon: Buddha's money

"How it hanging, GI?" she said.

She asked us if we had cigarettes, but neither one of us had brought any. A mistake. She pouted and looked away from us.

"We came to see how you were doing," I said.

"Better if you bring GI tambei," she said.

I handed her a five-dollar bill. "Here. Buy some."

She studied the bill, then stuck it in her brassiere beneath her smock. "GI cigarettes better," she said.

We chitchatted for a while, not wanting to come right out and say why we were here, which was to find out if Slicky Girl Nam knew anything about the whereabouts of the jade skull. After the death of Mi-ja, Herman had been frightened that his wife would try to take revenge. And he had been even more frightened of the slicky boys. But he had never wanted to cut Slicky Girl Nam in on the money he planned to make from the jade skull. Still, she might know something.

She asked me about Herman's funeral, and I did my best to try to make it seem better than it was. Ernie became restless and started fidgeting in his seat. I figured I'd better wrap this up.

"Did you search your hooch?" I asked Nam.

"For the skull?"

"Yeah."

"Of course I search. I search everything. Nothing there."

I noticed a smudge of charcoal on Nam's fingers.

"You have to change your own charcoal here?" I asked.

"Yes. No Herman anymore do it for me."

She hacked out a laugh, and as I gazed into her dark eyes it hit me. The whole scheme. Herman's plan to get away with the jade skull of Kublai Khan.

I sat up and leaned toward Nam. Even Ernie noticed my excitement.

"The night Herman was killed," I said, "he was heading toward your hooch?"

Slicky Girl Nam thought about that. "Maybe. He go that way."

"When you received his note asking you to come to the Virtuous Dragon Dumpling House, you were at home, weren't you?"

"Yeah. I at home. We play huatu." She slapped her hand down, mimicking the action of playing Korean flower cards.

"Was the floor warm?"

She gazed at me, puzzled. "Of course it warm. After Herman run away, ajjima next door start change charcoal all the time."

Her voice trailed off and her eyes widened. She stood up. So did I.

'You son bitch!" she hollered. 'You no can go. You no can go without Nam go with you!"

I motioned for Ernie. "Time to head back to Seoul," I said.

Ernie looked back and forth between me and Nam. "What the hell's going on?"

"I'll tell you when we get in the jeep."

Slicky Girl Nam started to climb across the counter. A female guard ran forward, grabbed her by the shoulders, and shoved her back.

'You no slicky from me!" Nam yelled. "It mine. You got it? I put up with that Herman son bitch for too many years. It mine!"

Three guards had to hold Slicky Girl Nam down as we backed out of the room.

When we were on the road heading back toward Seoul, Emie swerved around a line of slow-moving buses. "What the hell was Nam so worked up about?"

"About the jade skull," I answered.

"I figured that much. But we still don't know where in the hell it is."

"We do now."

"How do you figure?"

I explained it to him.

One thing had always bugged me: Why had Herman boarded a military airplane at Osan Air Force Base with the jade skull in his carry-on luggage? Surely he knew that we would notify the Military Police in Japan or Okinawa or wherever his first stop was. Boarding the plane and arresting Herman and confiscating the jade skull would be a snap. Once he got on that plane, he was trapped.

But maybe he didn't have the skull.

Maybe he had ditched it somewhere and was carrying a soccer ball full of rocks, and if the MPs arrested him they'd find nothing illegal on him. Ernie and I would look foolish. Herman would be released, and the First Sergeant might not believe any of our theories concerning the whereabouts of the jade skull of Kublai Khan. Ernie and I might even come under suspicion for the theft ourselves.

Herman would be able to return to Seoul, wait until things calmed down, and smuggle the skull out of Korea at his leisure.

But where had he hidden it?

I remembered the first night we went to his hooch, how Slicky Girl Nam had punched him around for forgetting to change the charcoal and keep the ondol floor warm. Now I knew why he forgot. He'd been with Ragyapa, slicing off Mi-ja's ear.

And later, at the Beik Hua Yoguan, even when we had a hot tip concerning Lady Ahn's whereabouts, Herman was more concerned about getting back to the hooch and changing the charcoal.

At the time, I thought it was because he was frightened of Slicky Girl Nam's wrath. Now I had a different theory. He didn't have the skull then but maybe he had other things to hide.

Ernie slapped his hand on the steering wheel. "The son of a bitch hid the skull beneath the charcoal!"

"That could be it," I said, "that could be where he kept his stash. And maybe that's why he didn't want Nam-or anybody else-to change the charcoal."

"And when Slicky Girl Nam searched her own hooch for the skull," Ernie said, "she was so used to having a hot floor that she didn't think about the charcoal stove beneath the floor."

"Right. And all the time we were chasing Herman, the skull was sitting there keeping warm."

"And when he left the Virtuous Dragon Dumpling House, he was heading back to Slicky Girl Nam's hooch to pick it up."

"That's what I figure."

"So we'll have to find out."

"That we will."

That night, Ernie and I hiked from the compound to Itaewon and climbed the fence around Slicky Girl Nam's hooch. We slipped through the darkness to the opening that held the charcoal. When I pulled up the metal lid, a red glow sparkled.

We had to be quiet because the ajjima, the old neighbor lady who lived next to Slicky Girl Nam, had taken it upon herself to guard the hooch.

Ernie found the metal pan and the long steel tongs that were used to change the charcoal. I stuck the straight tongs into the perforations of the burning charcoal briquette. When I had a good hold, I pulled it out. Ernie slid the pan under it. I dropped it in, and plucked out the second briquette.

We shone the beam of our flashlight into the steaming cement hole.

"There it is," I said.

At the bottom of the hole was another cement disk. On it was a flat hook. I examined the tongs. The handle had been hammered and bent slightly. It looked like just wear and tear, but I figured Herman had fashioned the tool precisely. I turned the tongs around and stuck them into the hole, handle first.

The bent handle fit perfectly into the metal hook of the disc. I lifted it out. Solid. About four inches thick. Below it was another disc. This one made of metal. I started to lift it out. It was heavier than I expected.

With a scraping sound, a rusty metal cylinder slid out of the bottom of the concrete stove. I set it on the ground. Ernie tapped the lid, and licked his fingers.

"Not hot," he said.

The bottom of the cylinder was even cooler.

"Must've cost Herman a fortune to have this made," Ernie said.

I nodded.

A rock fell off the stone wall behind us.

Ernie wheeled and reached for his. 45. Like big cats, three slicky boys landed in the courtyard.

I didn't give myself a chance to think but charged them head on, swinging the metal tongs in front of me. The first slicky boy ducked. I lost my balance and slammed into the wall.

The slicky boys slipped clubs out of their belts and closed in on me. A chink of stone exploded into dust when Ernie fired the. 45.

"Don't move, assholes!" he yelled.

Lights clicked on throughout the neighborhood. I grabbed the metal cylinder, stuck it under my arm, and Ernie and I backed out of the courtyard.

Once we were in the alley, we started to run.