I grabbed my clipboard, hopped out of the jeep, and strode towards the approaching gate guard.
“Security inspection,” I said. I flashed my badge at him. “Why didn’t you stop and check us at the gate?”
“1 tried to but…”
I scribbled something on the clipboard. “Never mind. Show us the rest of the grounds.”
A GI with a clipboard can do no wrong.
The guard walked us across the frozen lawn and explained how many guards were on duty at any one time and told us how the shift changes worked.
“Anyone in the house?”
“The housemaid. She always comes in early to help General Bohler with his jogging shoes.”
“Help him with his jogging shoes?”
“Yes. Tie them for him.”
Ernie’s eyebrows just about ripped themselves off the top of his head.
“Who else is on the staff?”
‘The cook. He’ll be in first and later his assistant. And of course the housemaid’s assistant.”
We were behind the house now and had a good view of the Frontier Club, the skeet range, and far off in the misty distance the Chamsu Bridge stretching across the rolling Han River.
In the back were two oversized dollhouses. Plastic bowls sat in front of them.
‘The dog?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Why are there two of them?”
“General Bohler, he had another dog, the brother of the one that he has now.”
“She’s a bitch?”
“What?”
“A girl. A girl dog?”
“Yes. But her brother, he disappeared, ran away. Almost two weeks ago.”
“Was this dog a cherry boy?”
The guard looked up at me and his eyebrows arched.
“A cherry boy,” I said. “He never caught a girl dog. Young dogs are very strong and if a man eats a young dog, then he will be very strong, too.”
The gate guard smiled.
“And whoever finds this strong young dog, this cherry boy, he will be able to sell him to one of the special places in Seoul and make a lot of money.”
The gate guard’s frown returned.
“Maybe a hundred thousand won. Maybe more.”
“I don’t know. I never do that. I never eat dog meat.”
“You ought to try it sometime,” Ernie said. “It makes your jamji hard.” He clenched his fist and held his forearm rigidly in front of his chest.
I stopped writing on my clipboard and I think the gate guard was starting to wonder if this was a real inspection.
“Who’s working tonight?”
“Mr. Jung. He will be the chief. Starting at eight o’clock.”
“Tell him we will be back to talk to him tonight.”
The gate guards huddled in the center of the lawn and mumbled among themselves as Ernie careened the jeep down the slippery incline.
“Yo, Sarge. How goes it?”
The crewcut NCO looked up at Ernie from his chipped beef on toast, a little startled at friendliness so early in the morning. He was a stocky man, with a little gray at the temples and the weathered skin that comes when your face has been scraped by a razor about a jillion times. A tiny American flag pinned his black tie to his neatly pressed poplin shirt.
“Okay, Bascom, okay. How are you?”
“Hanging in there.”
Ernie plopped his plate atop the plastic-coated tablecloth and sat down at the small table. So did I. One of the Korean waitresses, carrying a heavily loaded tray, shuffled over and offered us coffee, juice, or milk.
I took one of each.
The Eighth Army mess hall is huge and noisy but the food is cheap. Forty-five cents for breakfast. All you can eat.
‘The old man treating you okay?”
The sarge snorted.
“Late hours?”
“Not so much that. He likes to be by himself at night. It’s the seven days a week. He always has something going.”
“From what I can see, the headquarters pretty much closes down on Saturdays and Sundays.”
“For everybody else. But that’s when he meets all these Korean businessmen. Plays golf with them. Goes to their houses.”
“Why doesn’t he just get their drivers to pick him up?”
“He likes his own sedan, I guess.”
“None of those Koreans has a Lincoln.”
“Only two in the country. Mine and the commanding generals.”
There was pride and affection in the NCO’s voice. For the car. I didn’t detect any for Major General Bohler.
“What kind of guy is he?”
“Ceneral Bohler? He’s like most generals.”
“An asshole?”
“Got to be to get that much rank.”
“I heard he lost one of his dogs.”
“Is that why you’re talking to me?”
Ernie shrugged. “Somebody’s got to find it.”
“So the CID’s on the dogcatcher patrol.” The sarge took a sip of his coffee. “Yeah. The old man took it pretty hard. The gate guards told him the dog had run away. They’d tried to catch him but he’d been too fast for them. I think he believed them. I guess it never crossed his mind that anybody’d do anything to hurt one of his babies.”
“His babies?”
“Yeah. The old guy never has been married. What woman would have him? All he ever wants to do is work and chew people out and talk about how many Vietcong he killed riding around in his chopper. Sort of easy at two thousand feet. So he raises Airedales. He had to leave most of them back in the States, at his home in Virginia, when they sent him out here to be chief of staff but he brought these two puppies with him. You would have thought they were family the way he treated them. I’ve always liked a dog myself. A good working dog. One that will earn its keep and stand by you. But I’ve never been much for raising them for shows and stuff like that. What’s the point? And it was sort of weird seeing the way he always tells GIs to tough it out. When that dog disappeared, he blubbered like a baby. For two days. It was a vacation for me. I just stayed in my room and waited for him to call me. Finally he did. To take him over to the chapel for the wake.”
‘The wake?”
“Yeah. He had that chaplain over there, what’s his name?”
“Sturdivant.”
“Yeah, Chaplain Sturdivant. He had him and his assistant perform a little ceremony for the dog. Since he figured he was dead and all.”
“Who attended this ceremony?”
“I waited in the car. So it was just the chaplain and his assistant and General Bohler and Bonnie.”
“Bonnie?”
“Yeah. The other dog.”
“Did she cry?”
“Not hardly.”
“Who do you think took the dog?”
‘The gate guards. Who else? That sucker’s worth some money downtown.”
“Any proof?”
“Naw. You know they’re slick. You’ll never get anything on them.”
“When did you have this wake?”
“In the afternoon. Over a week ago. It had to be a Sunday. I remember because it was the first Saturday I got off since I’ve been in country. He was so tore up and all.”
‘Did he go anywhere after the wake?”
“Yeah, he did. I let him off by himself. He said he just wanted to get out and walk a while. He told me to take the other dog back to his quarters, which I did. And then I went back to 21 T Car and parked the sedan.”
“He just wanted to be by himself and walk a little?”
“Yeah.”
“Was he in civilian clothes?”
“Sure. He’d attract too much attention with all those stars on his shoulder.”
“Did he often go out by himself?”
“Not that I know of. Never.”
“What’d he usually do at night?”
“Of course there are the official functions at the Officers’ Club or the American Embassy or something like that. But other than that, I haven’t got the slightest idea what he does at night. Stays home with his dogs, I guess.”
“Sunday night, after the wake, where did you let him off?”
“Where else would a person go when they’re feeling down?”
“Itaewon?”
“You got it.”
Investigator Burrows craned his long thin body over Miss Kim’s desk, trying to make her laugh with a glass rabbit filled with bubble bath he had bought in the PX. She ignored him. He stiffened and rose to his full height when he saw Ernie and me walk in.