"I'm awfully sorry," Mr. Chan said. "I know it'll be a blow to Burke. He was very fond of your father."
I'll bet he was, Se-jin thought, twisting his face into a scowl. Murderously fond. "When will Mr. Hill be coming back to Korea?" he asked.
"He doesn't have any plans to be back anytime soon. I'll call him tonight and tell him about this. I must have missed it in the newspapers."
"It was covered in a very small story," said Se-jin, his voice betraying his disappointment. "The funeral was today."
"Did they give you any details of what happened?"
Se-jin told him what the North Korean police reported. He explained the reasoning given him for keeping the story practically under wraps.
"I can see their point," Chan said. "You probably know Burke was assisting him in the investigation that took him to Pyongyang. I wonder if he might have talked to any of the other officers up there about what he had accomplished?"
So Hill was "assisting" him, Se-jin thought. No doubt it was Hill's suggestion that sent his father to his rendezvous with death. "I'm not aware that he talked to anybody," he said. If he had, no one had mentioned it. "Look, if Mr. Hill should come back anytime soon, please ask him to call me."
"Be happy to. I'm sure he'd want to talk to you, anyway."
When the mail arrived that afternoon, Ji-young brought a large brown envelope into Jerry's office.
"This is for Mr. Hill," she said. "Should we forward it to him? It has a Pyongyang postmark."
"Let me have it," he said. "I have to call Burke tonight. I'll see what he wants to do about it."
She went back out to her desk, and Jerry stared intently at the envelope. It couldn 't have aroused his curiosity more if it had contained a map bearing the location of buried treasure. Surely it had been sent by Captain Yun, or by someone acting in his behalf. The name in the return address was unfamiliar, but they had no other contacts in North Korea. Could it be a treasure, indeed? The treasure they had sought, the solution to the Poksu puzzle? He decided to go ahead and open it.
Carefully, he slit open the envelope and slipped out a photograph and a brief note. He stared at them with obvious disappointment. The faces in the photo were dim and indistinct. One was Young Tiger Lee, who was not further identified. The other was Ahn Wi-jong, his friend. Jerry concentrated a moment on a nagging thought from the past. Ahn. There had been an Ahn who was a big shot in the Korean drug-smuggling ring that operated out of Chiangmai, Thailand. Could there be any relation?
Chapter 56
"You just missed a freebie, boss," a smiling Evelyn Tilson said as Burke walked in carrying his heavy briefcase, having driven straight to the office from Dulles. It was around noon.
"A freebie?"
"Yes, sir. As in free lunch. The Chief came by a little while ago with a visiting fireman in tow. Was going to invite you to his club for lunch. He left a file for you to look at post haste. How was your trip?"
"Interesting," he said with a grin. "You might even say exciting. I ran into my son."
That brought an expression of shock. "Little Cameron, not two weeks old?"
"No, no. My son by my first marriage. I hadn't seen him in twenty years."
"I didn't know you had a son by your first marriage," she said. "In fact, I barely knew you had a first marriage. Look, it's fine to keep company secrets. That's the law. But family secrets are something else." She followed him into his office. "Sit down and start at the beginning. Tell me all about this long missing sibling."
He shook his head. "It's too long a story for now, Evelyn. I'll tell you about it in due course. You'd better bring me that file now."
"Slave driver," she said, exhaling a deep sigh as she headed for her desk.
She was back a few moments later with an amber folder. It contained a memo from Nate. Jerry Chan had called and informed him about Captain Yun's death. Also about the envelope from Pyongyang containing the photograph.
The news of Yun's death hit him a stunning blow. He sat there for a moment almost in shock, then studied the memo again. There were no details, just the stark statement that Yun had been killed in an accident in Pyongyang. What kind of accident? When had it happened? Were there witnesses? He thought of his father-in-law's death in Hong Kong. Could it have been something other than accidental? He felt a slight annoyance that the piece of paper would reveal nothing further.
Then he re-read the part about the envelope from Pyongyang. Faxed copies of the photograph and note were attached. It had to have been sent by Captain Yun. Did that mean he anticipated something might happen to him? The note was as bare of detail as the surface of a 100-watt bulb, but lacking its quality of enlightenment. Evidently he had made contact with the old partisan. Why hadn't he included an explanation of what he had learned about the Young Tiger's identity? Recalling the letter from Dr. Lowing that came with the manuscript, he speculated that Ahn Wi-jong was the man Dr. Lee had planned to visit in Chiangmai, Thailand. He was apparently Young Tiger Lee's childhood friend and could confirm the Poksu leader's real name. The photograph offered some intriguing prospects, though Jerry seemed to think it was too dark to be of help. You couldn't tell much from the faxed copy.
He checked his watch. It would be after two a.m. in Seoul, but there were too many unanswered questions. Furthermore, he needed to get someone on the way to Thailand. That had to be where the final answers lay, and with the way people bearing crucial information had been dropping like insects from a bug zapper, he knew it was necessary to track down Ahn Wi-jong without delay. He tried to remember if he had told Jerry about the Chiangmai angle.
He dialed the number for Jerry's apartment and was surprised to hear it answered on the first ring.
"Don't tell me you were sitting up waiting for my call?" Burke asked half-seriously.
"Actually, I've been up about thirty minutes," Jerry said. "I wasn't sleeping too well."
"I didn't know you were bothered with insomnia."
"I'm not. Normally. I guess I've been stupidly worrying about what the doctor said yesterday morning."
"What did he say?"
"He thinks I have some artery blockage problems. He wants to do an arteriogram today. Hell, I can't believe this, Burke. I run four-to-six days a week. I've got an appetite like a horse, though I try to stay in bounds on my eating. I should be as healthy as a linebacker for the Forty-Niners."
"Is this doctor any good?" Burke asked.
"Got his degree from Johns Hopkins."
"Sounds good to me."
"He was recommended by a doctor at the Embassy. Of course, he says it may not be all that bad. Probably clear it up with that balloon they run through your arteries. Balloon angioplasty, or something like that."
"Let's hope so," Burke said. Then his voice took on a note of agitation as he changed the subject. "Now tell me, for God's sake, what happened to Captain Yun?"
Jerry told him about the call from Lieutenant Yun Se-jin. Afterward, he had looked back in the newspaper and found the article, so small he had missed it at first.
"They didn't find the driver, huh?" Burke asked. "Did he give any hint that it might have been other than accidental?"
"No. Are you thinking it might have something to do with this character Hwang?"
"That's a definite possibility. Why would Yun have mailed the photograph unless he suspected something might happen to him?"
"Good question. Incidentally, I put the photo on a flight to the States before I came home last night. You should have it first thing in the morning. I'm afraid it's too dark to tell you much, though."