by Harry Brady
As per routine, Jeannie Edwards left the nursing unit at 9:00 to make her rounds in the memory care wing.
At 9:35, Raymond entered room 365 with a small paper cup. Going over to Millie’s bedside he said, “Your doctor just called in an order for another heart pill” and handed her the cup with a pill in it.
Millie questioned him, “That`s unusual. Are you sure about it?”
“Listen, lady” he said, “Your doctor wants you to have it tonight and I`m going to make sure you take it.”
Millie removed the pill from the cup and pointed to a glass of water sitting on a table at the foot of the bed asked Raymond to hand it to her. As he turned to get the water, Millie adroitly palmed the new “heart pill” and substituted a baby aspirin that she had in her left hand. Making it obvious that she had a pill in her hand she put the baby aspirin in her mouth. She then took the glass from Raymond and swallowed the baby aspirin.
Putting the glass down she said, “Thank you, Raymond.”
His response was, “I hope you sleep well tonight.”
After Raymond had left she pulled her cell phone from under the covers and called Warren. ”Phase 1 of our plan worked perfectly. Let the others know they can stand down. After Raymond goes off duty, I will disappear for a day or two”.
Zone 1 Police Headquarters – December 7, 2018, 8:05A.M.
The intercom crackled in the squad room, ”Cash, the old folks home is here again and they say they need to talk to you.”
When Cash arrived down at the front desk, Millie triumphantly handed him a zip-lock bag with a glass tumbler inside and a baggie with a single light brown pill in it. She said, ”Detective Cash you wanted more evidence. Here it is.”
Being more than a little confused he said to her, “Let`s go to a room where we can talk.” As he started to walk toward an empty interrogation room the whole entourage follows. ”No! No! No! Only Millie.” The chastised members of the group watched as Cash and Millie entered an interview room and he closed the door.
After Millie`s ten minute explanation of their plan Cash skeptically said, ”You are telling me that five people in the home all of whom are in their eighties and nineties have decided some guy they don`t like is a serial killer and he tried to kill you last night and you want me to arrest him.”
“First of all, Detective Cash, it is not The Home. It is Holy Angels Retirement Community. All we want you to do is run the fingerprints on the national data base and also determine if that pill is fentanyl. We don`t think Raymond Benson is really Raymond Benson, and Warren says this is how they catch a lot of criminals on television.”
Cash slumped back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling said, ”O.K. I`ll do it, but don`t expect miracles.”
Millie smiled and said, “While you check the evidence, we can pray to the Blessed Virgin for a miracle if you need any help.”
Suppressing a smile Cash got up and led Millie back to the waiting group.
When they were all back in the car everyone began to talk at once. After Millie answered all of their questions one by one. Warren asked “Now, you said that you needed to disappear at your sister`s for a few days, I can drive you there right now if you give me her address.”
Chapter
20
December 12, 2018
Phil and Laura Cash were finished with dinner and sat in the living room of their one-hundred- year old two-story red brick home in the Fineview area of Pittsburgh. Fineview was obviously named for the fine view of the panorama of the city. From the picture window in the living room, the view encompassed the lower Northside, then across the busy Allegheny River to a bustling downtown. The vista extended southward across the Monongahela River to Mount Washington. Turning to the west you could see the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers to form the mighty Ohio River. Indeed it was a fine view
They sipped the last of their coffees and reviewed the day. Robin, their ten year old daughter had triumphantly shown them her artwork depicting the Pilgrims and native Americans enjoying the first Thanksgiving. She prominently placed the Native Americans in her drawing and had told the teacher that she and her father were part Native American.
Brian the six year old was doing fine academically, but still was a disruptive presence in the classroom and school yard. How to deal with this was the current discussion. Just then the phone rang and Phil went to the kitchen and picked up the call. It was Henry Kim, their neighbor from across the street, ”Phil, I hate to bother you at home but my family needs your advice and help. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”
“Sure, Henry, what can I help you with?”
“I`d rather not talk about it on the phone. Can I come over to your place and talk?”
“Absolutely! We`ve just finished eating. Come on over.”
A few minutes later Henry and Phil sat at in the living room, while Laura was cleaning up in the kitchen. She stuck her head into the room and greeted Henry and asked if he would like a cup of coffee. He declined and she retreated back to the kitchen.
“So what`s the problem?” Phil asked.
“There is a serious threat to the safety of my parents and by extension to me and my wife and children.”
Phil took a sip of his now cold coffee and sat back and indicated to Henry to continue.
“As you know, my parents have a small restaurant downtown on Sixth Avenue. Last evening about nine o`clock as they were cleaning up and preparing to close for the night, a young Korean woman came running in and asked them to hide her. She was hysterical, but the story she gave was almost unbelievable.” Henry sat back and took a deep breath.
“Go on,” Phil prodded.
“She claimed that she had been kidnapped in the small village of Bupyung in South Korea and smuggled into the U.S. and forced into prostitution by Korean criminals.” Henry paused here to organize his thoughts and continued. “She was brought into downtown Pittsburgh to a cheap hotel and a Korean thug arranged for her to meet a John in the lobby. The John came and had obviously been drinking. The thug turned her over to that man, who pushed her down a hallway and into a room. The first thing the guy did was to go into the bathroom. She bolted from the room and ran out the back door of the hotel. She ran frantically, but had no idea where she was. Somehow she ended up on Sixth Avenue and ran past my parent`s restaurant. She saw the menu in the window written in English and Korean. My mother had just put a small nativity scene in the front window of the restaurant that morning, so the young woman knew that they were Christians and would help her. My father was setting the tables for the next day, and the woman ran to him and literally collapsed in his arms. My mother heard the commotion and came out of the kitchen to investigate. They managed to have the woman sit on a chair and tried to get an explanation, but all the woman would say was that evil men had kidnapped her and made her do bad things. My mother took her back into the kitchen and tried to calm her down with a cup of tea. My Dad went out to lock the front door just as three burly Koreans pushed their way in. Dad told them that the restaurant was closed for the night. They pushed him aside and asked if a young girl had come in. He said that no one had been by and the last diners had left forty-five minutes earlier.” Henry took a deep breath at this point and said, “I think I need that coffee now.”
Phil got up and went into the kitchen and returned with the coffee.
After taking a sip Henry sat back and said, “Thanks for the coffee and thanks for listening to my story.”
Phil sat down “Please continue.”
“Well, the thugs didn`t believe him and they came in and began to search the place. After they finished in the main dining room, if you remember, there is a small upstairs private dining room. They went up there cursing and not being too careful with any of the furnishings. Next, they came down and burst into the kitchen. My mother was doing some dishes and they confronted her. She must be a great actress
because she didn`t appear nervous at all and would talk to them only in Korean. They trashed most of the kitchen but could find no trace of the girl. They finally stood my parents up against the kitchen wall and warned them if they found out that they were lying their restaurant would be burned down. Then, they walked out cursing and turning over tables on their way.”
“Where was the girl?” Phil asked.
“My mother heard them come in and hid the girl in a storage cabinet under a sink.”
“So is she is still in the restaurant?”
“No.” he paused then added “She`s across the street in my basement with my parents. Phil, we need your help.”
Detective Phillip Cash sat back took another sip of his cold coffee and realized that he was now wearing two hats. One was that of a neighbor and friend. The other was that of a policeman sworn to uphold the law.
Pushing back from the table he said, “Let me check with Laura and make sure the kids are getting ready for bed. Then, I`d like to go over and talk to your parents and this girl.” Going into the den he saw that Brian had already put on his pajamas and Laura was checking Robin`s science homework with her. Laura looked up and asked what the problem was. Cash said, “I`m going over to Henry`s for a while we can talk later.”
A few minutes later Phil and Henry walked down the steps to Henry`s finished basement. There was a large couch, several easy chairs, and a large screen television set. A door was open to a small guest bedroom. Sitting on the couch were Henry`s parents and Henry`s wife, Hilda. In one of the easy chairs was a small Korean girl in high heels, a short yellow low-cut dress, and too much makeup. Phil guessed her to be about nineteen years old. Immediately, Henry`s parents stood up and bowed. But the Korean girl remained seated looking at the floor. Hilda, Henry`s wife, also got up and greeted Phil.
Phil walked over and shaking the father`s hand he turned to the mother and in broken Korean said, “An nyeong ha se yo .”
She relied in perfect English, “Thanks for coming to help us.” Turning to the girl, she helped her stand and told Phil, “This is Soon Ling Oh.” The girl partially bowed and Phil nodded back. Then Henry pulled up two chairs for Phil and himself and they all sat down.
The girl spoke in halting English and a forty-five minute discussion followed about her ordeal, as she traveled from Bup Yung South Korea and how she arrived at the Kim`s Garden of the Morning Calm Korean Restaurant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She broke down sobbing several times telling how she and two other girls had been abused and mistreated by their captors.
Later that evening, when Phil crossed the street to his home he found Laura up waiting for him in the den. Phil recounted to her the amazing story, he had just heard over in his neighbor`s basement. Laura somewhat astounded asked him, “What do the Kim`s want you to do?”
“They don`t know what they want me to do, and frankly at this point, I`m not sure what I want to do.”
Chapter
21
Very early the next morning Phil Cash, Henry Kim`s father, and Soon Ling Oh, got into Cash`s two thousand sixteen Chevy Malibu and started down the hill from Fineview heading on an exploratory expedition. They crossed the Sixth Street bridge went crosstown to the Liberty Bridge and into the Liberty Tubes that went under Mount Washington. Exiting the tunnel they turned left onto route fifty one south. What Cash was trying to reproduce was the route the thugs had taken when they drove Soon Ling to the downtown hotel.
During the discussion the prior evening in Henry Kim`s basement, Soon Ling had told the group that she and two other South Korean Girls were being held prisoners in a two-story house overlooking a river. She did not know the name of the river or the town where they were being held captive. However she did say that there was a large abandoned building and next to it was a large rusty structure that resembled a giant beer barrel. Further along during the previous night’s meeting, she described her trip into downtown Pittsburgh. Three of the thugs had taken her in a large black vehicle to the hotel. At first they just drove along the river and then took a road that came to a tunnel where they made a right turn. It was a long brightly lit tunnel that opened to a bridge where they crossed the river and were in a big city.
Reversing this story Cash thought the place where the girls were being held was on the south side of the Monongahela River, somewhere along the western Pennsylvania Rust Belt. It was a long shot but he had to start somewhere. The abandoned building she described sounded like an abandoned steel mill with a huge Bessemer converter next to it.
Driving south they exited route fifty-one and merged onto Pennsylvania route eight-thirty-nine that ran along parallel to the Monongahela River. The sun had come out and the river flatlands on either side blended into wooded hillsides with the stark out lines of bare winter branches at the crest of the hills. The small towns they drove through showed the economic blight that had occurred with the demise of the steel mills after World War II; boarded up stores stood next to pawn shops and saloons.
Nothing seemed remotely familiar to Soon Ling, and Cash was beginning to think how futile this expedition was. He thought we have the chance of a snowball in hell and it might take some kind of miracle to find the other girls. They drove through the town of Monongahela and on to Donora twenty-four miles south east of Pittsburgh. Donora was the town that in 1948 experienced the worst smog disaster in our nation`s history. With a population of fourteen thousand, twenty people died from the thermal inversion that also caused a wall of smog that produced over six thousand cases of respiratory problems. Another fifty people died of respiratory diseases in the following months. The main employers in the area at that time were the American Steel and Wire Plant, as well as U.S. Steel`s Donora Zinc Works.
As they came over a rise in the terrain Cash mused that the only other thing that Donora was famous for was that it was the birthplace of Stan Musial the Saint Louis Cardinals hall of fame slugger. Looking toward the river he saw the remnants of the once bustling industrial areas.
Soon Ling suddenly grabbed the now dozing Mr. Kim and began chattering excitedly in Korean to him. Cash slowed down and asked what she was saying. Mr. Kim replied, “She says that`s it. It`s what she could see from the second story of the house where they are being held.” About fifty yards ahead Cash pulled the Malibu into the parking lot of a twenty-four hour laundromat and parked facing the abandoned factory with a Bessemer converter next to it. Cash just sat there and marveled that indeed the converter did look somewhat like a giant rusty beer barrel. The converter stood almost four stories high and dwarfed an abandoned stake truck parked in the empty lot next to it. Cash did not know much about the steel making process but he did remember that the Bessemer process was the method used for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron.
Tears began to run down Soon Ling`s cheeks and she began to shake. Mr. Kim put his arm around her shoulder and in a soft voice began to comfort her in their native language.
“Ask her if she`s sure that this is what she could see from the house.”
After conversing for a brief time with her Mr. Kim said, “Yes she`s sure because of the giant beer barrel. She also said that the house where she was held must be higher up on one of these hills. ”Cash backed the car up and pulled out of the parking lot onto the road and drove to the first intersection and turned up the hill away from the river. After several blocks he turned left on to a side street that had old pickup trucks in the driveways and car ports. He stopped by an empty lot where they could again view the factory. Soon Ling agreed that this was about the correct distance from the beer barrel, but they should go further on the side street to get a better alignment with what she remembered. Cash proceeded slowly ahead and the houses became fewer and fewer. Soon Ling did not recognize anything familiar on this street. Cash stopped and asked her if there was anything else she remembered seeing.
After some brief thought she said that there was a house with green shingles on
the roof. The house was on a street down the hill from where she was kept captive. Cash got out of the car and looking up and down the hillside he looked for green shingles. Because all the trees were bare this time of year it aided his search. Looking further up the hill side he spotted green shingles and on the street one block higher was a two story red brick house.
Getting back in the car he made a U-turn and headed back to the main road and turned up the hill arriving at the street with the two story house. He advised Soon Ling to get down and away from the window and then he turned onto the street and drove by at a normal residential speed. Sitting in the driveway and appearing out of place in this neighborhood was a two thousand eighteen black Cadillac Escalade with tinted windows. Cash continued to the next intersection and turned down the hill. Then he turned onto the street with the house that had the green shingles. He had Soon Ling sit up and told her to get a good look at the two story house as he drove by on the street below it. Soon Ling excitedly confirmed that she was certain that this was the house where she had been held hostage with the other two girls. She recognized the house because of the scalloped blue curtains in the second floor windows.
Satisfied with this, Cash did not want to elicit any suspicion with a relatively new car patrolling the neighborhood so he turned down the hill and headed back to the Northside. On the way back, he mused that maybe miracles still could happen.
Chapter
22
After dropping off the elder Mr. Kim and Soon Ling Oh at Henry Kim`s house, Cash headed for Zone One headquarters. He called Detective LaKeisha Johnson on her cell phone and when she answered He told her, “We need to meet somewhere that we can talk privately.”
“Sounds serious.”
“It is and I will explain it when I see you. How about the Burger King on the corner in about ten minutes?”
“You got it.”
Cash disconnected. LaKeisha was his closest friend in the department and a good listener.