Whispers of Refuge Box Set

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 9

“You swear it was my sister you saw with this man?” Jae lowered his face toward Sun’s schoolmate and balled both his hands into fists. The crisp morning air might have felt cold against his skin if he weren’t so angry.

The teen nodded so fast Jae wondered if he was jostling his brains out of place. “He’s the one, I tell you. Short. Ugly face. Lots of pimples. Maybe your age or a little older.”

Jae figured a swift blow to the boy’s head would stop it from bobbing up and down so much, but he needed more information first. “And it was my sister you saw talking to him last night?”

He nodded more vigorously. “Yes, your sister, Sun. Everyone knows Sun.”

Jae’s blood pressure rose even higher at the sound of this sniveling boy speaking his sister’s name. He grabbed his collar and lifted him off the ground. “What do you mean, ‘everyone knows her’?”

The boy fluttered his legs and held his hands up in a position of surrender. “No, no. Nothing bad. Nothing wrong. Your sister ... she’s a good girl. She’s ... I only meant we all know each other. Every one of us. Including your sister.”

Jae lowered the boy back to the ground. “And it was my sister you saw speaking with this man?”

“Yes, sir. At least I think so.” He adjusted his shirt and backed away several steps from Jae. “Now that I think about it, though, maybe not. It was evening. The sun was setting. It was hard to see.”

“I hope you’re right,” Jae snarled and dismissed him with a wave. Sun’s classmate ran off in the direction of the school. Jae squinted in the early morning light until the boy was out of sight and then headed home.

“Mother?” He crouched down by her lopsided bedside. “Mother?” Jae repeated. The wispy woman stirred in bed. Jae held her hand in his. “It’s time to wake up.”

She grabbed his wrist with her leathery, gnarled fingers. “Is Sun home?”

“Not yet. But I found one of her friends on his way to school. He said he saw her just last night at the park.”

“The park?”

“She was probably there with the kids she knows. You know how those teens like to go and play together. She probably stayed out too late and went to her friend’s house to keep from breaking curfew. I’m sure she’ll be in school today. You don’t need to worry about her.”

Mother patted his cheek. “You’ll check for me?”

Jae hadn’t slept more than a few hours, but he pressed Mother’s hands and nodded. “Of course. I’ll go check this afternoon. I’m sure she’s there already.”

Father slouched at the table, and Jae couldn’t tell if he had overheard their conversation or not. Jae strode by and headed off in the direction of the police station. His boss had files of all the vagabonds who showed up in Chongsong. Jae would have to swallow down the remnants of his family pride and confide in the captain.

That afternoon, after fulfilling some of his duties for the day, Jae left the station and headed to the park to talk to one of the men there. “What can you tell me about this man?” Jae passed the photograph to the leather-faced beggar. Jae’s co-workers at the police office nicknamed the man Tip and often relied on his acute memory and watchful eye. A few feet away, a bronze statue of North Korea’s deceased Great Leader gaped down on the pair. Tip shrugged. “Yeah, I’ve seen him.”

“He lives here?”

Tip shook his head. “Here and there. He only comes around occasionally from what I can tell. Why do you want to know?”

Jae reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pouch of uncooked rice. Tip shrugged again but took the bag, bouncing it in his hand. “Like I said, he comes and goes.”

“Goes where?”

Tip put the rice in his pocket. “Wherever do any of those young fools go who want to make some money?”

“He crosses the border?”

Tip’s leg bounced, and he stared at the bronze statue. “That’s not what I said.”

Jae leaned forward. “But you don’t deny it?”

“Listen, I like rice, but it’s a little bag. Got anything else?”

“Just this.” In one swift movement, Jae spun the man around and wrapped his arm around Tip’s neck. He didn’t want to injure him — not yet — but he hoped the surprise might loosen Tip’s tongue. “The last time my sister was seen in Chongsong was here at this park, talking to this man,” he snarled into Tip’s ear. “She’s been missing since last night. And you’re either going to help me find out where he’s taken my sister, or I’ll show you first-hand what I intend to do once I find him. Understand?”

Tip nodded and shrugged once more when Jae loosened his hold. “I could tell you what the car looks like.”

“Then do it.”

As Tip described the vehicle, Jae forced himself to remember each and every detail, refusing to imagine what this pimple-faced punk in the photograph might have done to his little sister once he got her alone in there. “Did you see him in his car yesterday afternoon or evening?” he demanded. “Was anyone with him?”

Tip tilted his head to the side. “I was sick last night.” Jae didn’t know whether to believe him or not. He debated whether he should lead him to a less public area and jostle his memory. “He usually heads northeast.”

“So you did see him?”

Tip shook his head. “Nah, I already told you I was sick yesterday. But when I do see him come, it’s usually to talk to some ...” He faltered for a moment and glanced over Jae’s shoulder. “He usually comes and talks to some young girl and then takes her east in his car.”

“And you don’t know what he does from there?”

“Healthy young man alone with an innocent little girl?” Tip cackled. “Let’s just say I don’t think they sit around sipping tea.”

Jae lowered his face until his nose pressed up against Tip’s. “Do you realize that’s my sister you’re talking about?”

For a moment, Tip’s eyes widened, but then he softened his expression and shrugged both shoulders again. “Hey, I’m just telling you what I know. That’s what you wanted, right?”

Jae sighed. “Right. That’s what I wanted.” He turned on his heel and strode to the police station. It was time to have another talk with his boss.

It wasn’t hard to convince the police captain to let him track down Sun’s abductor, but it did cost Jae his entire savings. He had stored away some of his black-market profits for the past two years to give Sun something of a wedding celebration when her time came. Knowing his sister’s best prospect in life was to find a wealthy husband, Jae had saved up his money in hopes of one day helping her woo him. Now, unless Jae got to her in time, Sun would never catch a man of any kind, so he handed over his savings and convinced his boss to help him.

The police captain had been watching the broker for some time. Two other girls had disappeared from Chongsong over the past nine months, including his wife’s young cousin, which probably explained his willingness to aid Jae on his way. With all of Jae’s savings in his pocket, the captain signed the travel papers Jae needed and agreed to grant him an undocumented leave of absence from police duty.

His intel would take Jae as far as Onsong. There weren’t any checkpoints, the captain assured him. “He’s been followed before to this cabin.” The captain wrote some directions on a piece of paper and slipped it into Jae’s hand. “We think he uses it as a hideout for his customers while he gets his travel plans in order.”

The captain was just as cooperative, although less direct, when Jae asked how he should get to Onsong. “I’ve noticed the officer on night duty leaves the keys on the peg in my office. It’s quite foolish of him. Anyone with access to my room could just walk in and take the car.”

Jae had a little more work to finish at the police office but went right to Mother’s bedside when he returned home that evening.

“Let her rest,” Father grumbled.

Jae ignored him. Mother opened her eyes, and her expression changed in an instant. “She’s gone.” It wasn’t a question.

Jae lowered his voice. “I know. But I found out some things. I met a man at the park who knows where she might be.”

Mother made a move to sit up in bed, but Jae pressed gently down on her bony shoulders. “I’m going out to find her, Mother. You just rest and go to work tomorrow like normal. It might take me a few days.”

Mother whispered something in a gravelly voice. Jae had to lean forward to hear. “Curfew.”

“I’ll be all right, Mother. I know what I’m doing.” He stood to leave.

She clasped his hand and didn’t release her grip until he turned around to look at her. “Bring back my daughter.”

Jae bowed his head. “I will, Mother. I promise.”

Father let out a grunt as Jae strode out the front door into the darkness of night.

He found the cabin about an hour later. Sun had been gone for an entire night and day already, but he still hoped against reason she would be there. He pulled the police car up in front and fingered his rope.

He was a few steps away from the car when his flashlight beam landed on something in the road. He dropped down and clutched the thread-bare shoe, which his sister had outgrown years ago but still offered scant protection from the elements.

Sun. His heart repeated her named with each quickening pulse.

After slinking around to a window, he peeked inside the small wooden building. The moon offered up only a thin sliver of light, but he could make out the shape of a person on the bed. Only one. It was too big to be Sun, Jae noted with disappointment. Perhaps the broker himself? He took out the rope he had brought with him. If the broker was asleep, his job would be easy. He peered in the window again and tugged on two ends of the weapon, testing its strength. He would find out exactly where his sister was. And then he would mangle the man who stole her away.

Jae cracked the door open and listened. The only thing he could hear was his own pulse pounding in his ears. He clenched the rope and entered the dark cabin. In some way, he blamed himself. He should have warned Sun. He should have told her what these men were like. It was a conversation Father certainly never had with her, and Mother was too busy keeping the family from starving to notice how Sun had blossomed and matured over the past six months. Mother had no idea how beautiful Sun had grown.

Poverty and beauty were a deadly combination for someone like his sister.

He tiptoed like a tiger stalking its prey. The stench inside was moist and earthy. He crept up to the bed and nearly vomited. It wasn’t the broker. The suspect in the photograph was ugly, with pimpled scars across an angular face. Even though the dead man’s mouth hung open and his muscled chest and abdomen were covered in blood, he had obviously been desirable — the kind of specimen that could easily turn a young girl’s head. Jae clenched his jaw shut. He didn’t want to look but couldn’t turn away from the mangled corpse. It had been stabbed multiple times. But who would have killed him? The broker? Anyone who lured young women away from their families, for whatever purpose, must also be capable of murder.

Jae shone his flashlight around the room, looking for any clues. On the floor against the far wall he noticed a pool of blood, nearly dried but not quite. Next to it was a bundle wrapped up in some kind of cloth and propped up in the corner. Jae clenched his fist, strode toward the object, and turned down the top of the rag.

Less than a minute later, he was back in the police car, swallowing down his bile as he raced back home. He couldn’t focus on anything but the two bodies from the broker’s cabin. Whenever he tried to think about anything else, his mind conjured up the grotesque images with merciless clarity. The drive back to Chongsong gave Jae time to make sense of what he saw. No matter how hard he tried to explain things, there was only one conclusion. It nauseated him even more than the c*****e he witnessed.

Sun had deceived them all. She wasn’t the innocent, pristine little sister he had set out to rescue. The dead baby bore witness. If the child was Sun’s, she had been carousing around behind her family’s back long before the broker found her in the park. She hadn’t been kidnapped or coerced away at all. Jae clenched his fists and remembered the infant’s pale blue skin.

Sun had conceived a child.

Jae hadn’t recognized the dead man on the bed. Was he the one who convinced Sun to leave with the broker? Was he the one who ruined his sister’s honor? His throat was clenched, ready to let out the roar that any moment might well up from deep within. However the scenario had played itself out, Sun wasn’t victimized. She willingly left with the broker. She wanted to leave with him.

It was still dark when he arrived back in Chongsong. Jae parked the car behind the police building and had no problem returning the keys to the captain’s office. Once he got home, he spent a quarter of an hour washing himself. When his arms and hands were numb with cold, he leaned over and rinsed out his mouth. Could he ever bear the taste of food again? He spit the water out, leaned over, and retched. His baby sister ... pregnant? She was only a child herself, just beginning to mature. He thought about Sun’s apparent coming of age over the past several months, the budding figure, the developing confidence.

Now he could explain it.

And what about the broker? Jae had planned to seek him out, to punish him for deceiving his little sister and threatening her purity. He spat on the floor. What purity? His sister had already experienced the ways of lust and passion before she met with that acne-covered trash in the park. She was already corrupted, already pregnant, already living a lie and hiding her shame from the family that cherished her. And when she found out she couldn’t keep living under her parents’ roof without exposing that lie? She sought out a broker and arranged to escape.

Something in the plans went wrong, though. Jae recalled the bloody corpse on the bed, the mangled chest that probably knew the softness of his little sister’s hair as she embraced her lover in the dark. Who had killed him? Perhaps the broker, driven by lust, had wanted Sun for himself. Jae rinsed his mouth out one last time. He recalled his mother’s tears when Sun first disappeared. Had the harlot even thought about what shame her behavior would bring to her family? Mother already toiled relentlessly to feed everyone. How could she be expected to carry the additional burden of her daughter’s shame?

Jae glared down at the water bucket. He remembered last spring when he rescued Sun from the thawing creek. He should have let the river sweep her away to her death.

Jae didn’t care what future Sun chose. With her lover dead, she would have no respectable way to provide for herself. So be it. Girls like that deserved far worse than a brothel. She could rot away in some shabby Chinese inn until she died, and Jae wouldn’t shed a single tear on her behalf. She was no sister of his. Jae heaved the water bucket outside.

“Sun?”

Jae unclenched his fists and took several breaths to calm himself as he approached Mother’s bedside. “No, it’s me.” He gripped the hand that reached out toward him.

“Did you find your sister?”

Jae swallowed down the pain in his throat and hid his sister’s shoe under his mattress. “Sun is dead.”