by Mike Ramon
Chapter Eighteen
Seoul, South Korea
June 5 -- 11:01 UTC/8:01 pm local time
Again David Diehl found himself walking alone with Captain Violet Rhee on a Seoul street at night, but this time they we not in search of some lowlife to question; this time they were just getting a bit to eat. He had left it up to her to decide where they would eat, and she immediately settled on a place--though she refused to tell him anything about the place she had chosen, other than that she thought he would like it. They had invited Agent Norwalk along, but he had declined; he hadn’t seemed right since the day Sergeant Jung Hyeonjun had been killed. David was worried about him, but didn’t feel he knew the man well enough to play shrink with him.
“Here it is,” Violet said.
They were headed for a restaurant whose sign identified it as the Diner Americana. When they walked in David saw that the place was packed.
“What is this place?” he asked.
“It’s an American-style diner,” Violet said. “That’s why I thought you would like it; I thought it would remind you of home.”
“When I’m home I usually just grab something from McDonald’s,” David said. “But this place looks nice.”
A hostess showed them to their table right away, one of only two that were unoccupied, and left them with their menus. David could hear low classic rock music playing from hidden speakers. Looking around the restaurant he saw that the patrons were an even mix of Asian’s and non-Asians. He wondered how many people had been brought here by a Korean friend or colleague who was eager to treat them to a taste of home.
David looked at the menu. All of the prices were listed in Korean won, and he still hadn’t gotten used to converting the figures to the dollar equivalent.
“Have you eaten here before?” David asked.
“A few times.”
“What’s good?”
“You can’t go wrong with a medium rare cheeseburger.”
“A woman after my own heart.”
Violet laughed. David folded his menu and set it down on the table.
“A burger sounds good,” he said.
They waited for a waitress to stop at their table and ordered--two burgers (medium rare), a couple orders of fries and two milkshakes, chocolate for him and strawberry for her.
“It might take a while for them to bring the food,” Violet informed David after the waitress had gone off with their order. “They’re a bit slow; that’s the one bad thing about this place.”
They chatted for a while, joining a chorus of at least two dozen different conversations.
“Are you married?” Violet asked.
“Where did that come from?”
“I’m just curious. I don’t know much about you.”
“I don’t know much about you, either,” he countered.
“Yes, well…you can ask me a question after you answer mine.”
“No, I’m not married.”
“Never married?” Violet asked.
“That’s two questions. No, I’ve never been married.”
“Why not?”
David laughed.
“My turn,” he said. “You aren’t wearing a ring, so I assume that you’re not married either.”
Violet looked down at her own hands, which were pressed flat on the table. Here fingers were indeed bare of any matrimonial ornamentation.
“You are correct,” she said.
“Do you have a boyfriend, a main squeeze?”
“No, no boyfriend.”
“A girlfriend?”
Her eyes went wide and she flushed with embarrassment.
“No, no girlfriend,” she said. “I like men, but…work, you know?”
She shrugged, and David nodded his head in understanding.
“I almost got married a long time ago,” he said. “But it was like you said--work. Then I retired, but by then whatever she and I had was gone.”
They stared at each other for a long moment, neither of them saying a thing.
“We’re a couple of sad saps, aren’t we,” David said, breaking the silence between them.
“Yes, that’s it--sad saps,” she said and laughed.
When the food came they dug right in. Neither of them had realized how hungry they were; over the past week meals had been quick and light, food eaten simply to keep their bodies running more than any other reason. David had to admit that the burger was very good, if a bit greasier than he would prefer, and the shake wasn’t so bad either. The fries were the best part, thick and crispy with a bit of skin still attached to them.
“I’m glad you brought me here” he said through a mouthful of burger.
Violet giggled.
“What’s so funny?” David asked.
She pointed to his chin. He used a napkin to wipe his chin and the napkin came away with a glob of yellow mustard.
“Did I get it all?”
“Yes,” Violet answered.
When they had finished their meal Violet insisted on paying.
“Don’t worry,” she assured him. “This is a work dinner. I will be compensated.”
“How was this a work dinner?”
“We are partners, aren’t we? So this was a work dinner, helping us to get acquainted with each other so that we can work better as a team.”
“Yeah, in the States we’re always thinking up ways to get out of paying for things, too,” he said. “I knew this guy who worked for the FBI; he tried to charge a plasma television to the Bureau.”
“What happened when he got caught?”
“Well, it was the FBI, so he probably got promoted.”
They shared a laugh.
They walked to the car, which again was Violet’s unmarked service vehicle. She drove him home, “home” being a three star hotel that the South Korean government was paying for. David and Violet Rhee said their goodbyes, and he thanked her for the meal. David paused at the lobby entrance and turned back; Violet had already pulled away from the curb and was driving away, headed to wherever “home” was for her.
David headed up to his room on the eighth floor. When the elevator stopped at his floor he through about staying on it and going one floor up, where Agent Norwalk had a room. He got off the elevator just before the doors closed, deciding that he was too tired to do anything but take a hot shower and go to bed.