14
Palinki was the armorer at the MP Station. A big Samoan, his smile seemed to fill the sky. So did his shoulders.
“No problem, brother. Keep it for as long as you want.”
“Just for training,” I said. “But I’d feel better if the First Sergeant didn’t know about it. He gets antsy when we check these things out.”
“Hey, you did me a favor before, George, and I haven’t forgotten.” He pointed to his big square head. “Nobody will know about this but you and me.”
“Been staying out of the ville?”
“Yeah. And I haven’t been drunk since it happened.”
Palinki had nearly killed three GIs he caught harassing a couple of high school girls who were on their way home through the Itaewon market. Ernie and I managed to get him out of the way before the MP patrol arrived. The girls were frightened but unhurt and the GIs recovered after some hospital time. They just slunk around the compound nowadays, staying out of Palinki’s way, and not going to the ville much anymore.
I looked around to make sure no one was watching. “I need one more thing, Palinki. You got any, you know, extra ammo?”
During peacetime the U.S. Army accounts for every weapon and every piece of ammunition with fanatical precision. But with so much of it floating around, a smart armorer can always squirrel some away for that rainy day when some ammunition is lost and he has to cover himself by replenishing inventory.
Palinki looked at the .45 in my hand. It was gray and had a big white number 3 stenciled on the grip.
“I can spare a little. How much you need?”
“Six rounds.”
Palinki rummaged among the green metal ammo boxes, stood up, and held out six cartridges. They looked like bits of candy in his gigantic paw.
“Bring ‘em back if you don’t use them.”
“Will do.” I put them in my pocket. “Thanks.”
“You got it.”
He sat back down and hunched over the comic book that he had been reading. It looked like a brightly colored doily between his two thumbs.
Ernie had gassed up the jeep, and I told Riley that we’d be out all day trying to pump up our black-market statistics. We just drove.
“So what’s the big mystery, pal?” Ernie said.
“I found out about your marriage paperwork.”
Ernie looked at me, took a quick swig of coffee.
“I broke into the chaplain’s office.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway,” I said, “I found your paperwork and the paperwork of Miss Yoon Un-suh.”
Ernie looked straight ahead.
“It wasn’t any of my business, you got a right to your privacy, and I shouldn’t have been poking around in there. Somebody signed out your paperwork.”
“For what?”
“Shopping for companions.”
“I don’t like it, George. We ought to just go grab Bohler’s ass and slap him with an assault charge.”
“If he had a little less rank I’d agree with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“This is a two-star general, the chief of staff to boot. They’re not going to take the word of some low-level enlisted scum CID agents against his and they’re definitely not going to even consider the testimony of some slut Itaewon bar girl.”
“She’s not a slut.”
“Yeah. I know. Just trying to make my point.” I shook my head in resignation. “The commanding general would probably put out the word and have the Korean National Police arrest us for pandering—for trying to corrupt the morals of some poor innocent two-star general.”
“Sounds about right.”
“Yeah. And we’d not only lose our jobs for bringing those kinds of accusations without proof, but we’d also stand a chance of getting court-martialed ourselves.”
“For what?”
“The Uniform Code of Military Justice has a clause concerning the willful defamation of an officer’s reputation. You can’t call him a scumbag and you can’t spread rumors about him that could hurt the morale of the troops by exposing the man in charge, who might lead us into combat someday, as the scrotum that he really is.”
“They wouldn’t charge us with anything,” Ernie said.
I looked at him. He looked back at the road.
“All right. Maybe they would.”
“You’re damn right they would.”
“So how do we nail this dick?”
“Get the goods.”
It was nearly dark by the time I got to her place. I didn’t knock but just slid the door back. The Nurse tilted her face slowly upward and looked at me as if she’d been expecting me.
She wore a tight black sweater and dark corduroy pants. The room was empty except for her purse and a coat and a broken mirror on the wall. I slipped off my shoes, stepped in, and slid the paneled door shut behind me. I sat cross-legged on the floor and faced her.
“Tell me about the General.”
She looked down at her lap.
“That night,” I said, “the last time you saw Bohler, did you bring him back here?”
She looked up, suddenly angry. “I never bring man back here! Only one man. Ernie.”
“What was the marriage application for?”
“Ernie wanted to marry me.” She threw her long hair back off her shoulder. “I thought about it. Maybe he was the first one who made me think about it. But I can’t.” She looked away. “I can’t leave Korea.”
“Why not?” I said. “What has Korea ever done for you?”
“I have to stay,” she said.
“What about Ernie?”
“You don’t understand. Me and my little brother, we need money. Nobody help. We have to get money. But we didn’t want to hurt Ernie. Just for money. Ernie young. He’s GI. He doesn’t need money.”
She took a slow breath and looked down at her lap. “I had done . . . it before. Some GIs . . . I don’t know why.” She waved her hand as if to dismiss something. “They like me. They all the time want to steady me, they all the time want to marry me. But they want do strange things. So I tell them I need money, bring money, and maybe then we can do.”
“What about Bohler?” I said.
She looked down again. “I have to do.”
“Have to do? Who says you have to do?”
“Everybody,” she answered. “Policeman say, Korean man say. Everybody say General number-one honcho. I have to do.”
“How did you meet him?”
“With Korean men.”
“Who?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. They all same.”
“What happened?”
“Korean man say I have to eat with him at party house. I pour him drinks, I laugh at what he say.” She shrugged again. “He like me.”
“And then he started coming to your place every night?”
“Not every night,” she said matter-of-factly. “Maybe two, three times one week.”
“And then you realized that he’s not a normal man.”
“Yes.” She said it very softly. “He’s not normal.”
She became very tense, and very red, and very quiet.
She had been coerced by the local powers into assuaging the needs of the chief of staff of the Eighth Army. Despite the shame, it had given her a strange sort of power. No one would hassle her. In fact, she could probably count on a certain amount of protection by the local police. As long as she was taking care of the General, the police and the mayor and the local businessmen were all happy. Everyone was happy. Except her.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked. “You tell Ernie?”
“No,” I said. “No.”
“I don’t know, Geogi.” She looked sad.
“What about Bohler?”
“I don’t ever want to see him again.”
“Bohler will look for you,” I said. “He might even send the Korean National Police after you. There are two of them outside now.”
“Yes.” She nodded.
“Aren’t you worried about them?” I said.
“No. They are not looking for me. They are looking for you, Geogi,” she said.
And then it hit me. The KNPs had been following me. Somehow they’d discovered that I had the film.