"All of us, all of us, all of us trying to save our immortal souls, some ways seemingly more round about and mysterious than others. We are having a good time here. But hope all will be revealed soon."
― Raymond Carver, All of Us: The Collected Poems
--
"And you're positive he said 'Hendy'?" Jooheon asked, although the name was clearly unique enough to not be confused with another.
"Yes. Why? Does that mean something to you?" Hyunwoo asked, having once again immediately called Jooheon to update him from the squad car.
"It means we're in deep shit," Jooheon said with a sigh.
"Why's that?"
"Because Hendy and some of the guys he hangs around with are involved with a lot of bad people," Jooheon said, and there was a staccato tapping in the background that Hyunwoo could make out, maybe a pen or a fingernail. "They're middlemen, basically. If somebody needs something acquired, they're the people who can make it happen. We've busted them countless times but can't make anything stick because there's no real transaction history. The only way we'd be able to get them dead to rights is if we had a video of the money being handed over, but we've never been able to get close enough." There was a pause. "I just emailed you a photo of him."
Hyunwoo pulled the phone away from his ear only long enough to see the notification ribbon appear. "When you say 'acquire,' what exactly are you talking about? Drugs? Guns?" Hyunwoo hesitated. "Kids?"
Jooheon's sigh was long and not particularly inspiring. "It's hard to know concretely, but none of those would surprise me."
"So we have to find Hendy," Hyunwoo said. "And somehow convince him to tell us where he took the kids."
"If he took the kids," Jooheon corrected. "I know you want to run into this headlong, but just remember that we have literally no evidence to run on here, just hearsay from a minor, and that we have no leverage over Hendy. Even if he had a part in this, he's got no reason to turn over the information."
That was a devastating thought to Hyunwoo, that they might be so close to someone who could tell them and not be able to get their answers. "What can we do, then?"
Jooheon was quiet while he thought. Finally, "I'll ask around. Maybe another officer in a different department has something on Hendy that we can use. It's a long shot, but they may have been saving some leverage to get a bigger fish. I'm hoping they'll forget about the bigger fish in lieu of a few missing kids."
"I hope so too," Hyunwoo said, because if they refused, he thought he might just lose all faith he had in law enforcement. "Call me back when you hear something," he said. "I'm going to keep driving around. Maybe I'll spot Hendy."
"Don't pick him up until you hear back from me," Jooheon warned.
Hyunwoo hung up.
--
Referencing the photo Jooheon had sent him, Hyunwoo drove around quadrant four, keeping an eye out for Hendy. Either Jooheon would get back to him with leverage, or Hyunwoo would stumble upon Hendy and figure out something on the spot.
He was hoping Jooheon would call back first.
As luck would have it, though, Hyunwoo spotted someone matching Hendy's description loitering outside a local gas station with four other guys. There were plenty of cigarettes and a bottle of vodka to go around. Once the bottle was empty, one of the guys threw it to the ground, and they laughed when the glass shattered. Hyunwoo stayed in the car, parking further down the road so he could keep an eye on Hendy. He didn't want to move in without Jooheon's call. Not yet.
He stayed in position, and some thirty-odd minutes later, several members of the group detached themselves and peeled away from the gas station, leaving Hendy and one other guy. They started walking, and Hyunwoo quietly pulled out of the parking lot he'd been sitting in. He idled in the street for a moment before switching into drive just as a call came in.
He checked the caller ID. "Tell me you have something."
"You may hereafter refer to me as the dentist," Jooheon said with a bit of panache in his voice.
"And why's that?" Hyunwoo asked, driving slow and keeping an eye on the figures that were about half a mile down the road from him.
"Because I spent all morning pulling teeth, for fuck's sake," Jooheon said. "Pricks didn't want to hand anything over, and it took begging and a little bit of chocolate bribery as well as a promise for a favor to be cashed in at any given future time."
"But you got it?" Hyunwoo asked.
"You sound neither impressed nor particularly sympathetic to my woes."
"Great, I'm picking him up now," Hyunwoo said, cutting off the call before Jooheon could protest and tell him what a horrible idea it was.
--
"I didn't do nothin" were Hendy's first words when Jooheon and Hyunwoo sat across from him at the metal table in the interrogation room.
"I would love to believe you," Jooheon said with a thousand-watt smile. "Only, there's this trippy little thing called a surveillance camera, and it sort of disagrees with that." Jooheon leaned forward, elbows planted solidly on the table. "We have footage of you breaking into a liquor store and walking out with a couple hundred dollars' worth of merchandise."
"Then arrest me," Hendy said with a smirk.
"We could," Jooheon said slowly as though really mulling over the idea and savoring the very thought. "And boy would I love to. I know a prison cell with your name on it and it's been expecting a resident for a while. But..."
Hendy's smirk widened. "But you want something from me, huh?"
"You, my friend, are a very bright boy." Jooheon rested his chin on a fist. "So you hear what I'm pitching, yeah? Your prison cell stays empty for a little while longer, and this footage just miraculously disappears..."
"And you want me to snitch on someone," Hendy guessed, leaning back in his chair with a small snort. "I'd be better off in prison."
"That could be true," Jooheon said with a thoughtful nod, looking over at Hyunwoo. "That'd probably be best, right? He gets his time out of the way and goes back to his life of delinquency with all his bones intact."
"Unless there was an accident at the prison," Hyunwoo said, shrugging carelessly as though the thought didn't matter to him. In truth, it did matter, and playing this part was pretty difficult for him, but Jooheon had been very specific as to how they'd play this interview. "And there was a rumor going around that you'd snitched on your friends to get a lighter sentence. They're in the video too, right?" Hyunwoo asked, looking over at Jooheon, who nodded pleasantly like this whole thing was just a nice cordial chat that happened to be missing a pitcher a lemonade and a plate of stale cookies. Hyunwoo looked back at Hendy. "So, you walk out of prison with most of your bones intact. Still not a bad deal."
It sounded awfully bad to Hyunwoo. He felt sick.
"Not a bad deal," Jooheon repeated, taking over with a smile. Hyunwoo got the feeling he didn't feel as badly as Hyunwoo did about the whole thing. "I mean, unless of course the prison guards don't get there in time to break it up...so maybe not most of your bones...but still a few...maybe not enough to break into liquor stores in the future, but enough to say, 'thank you' when someone's propping up a straw against your lips because it's the only way you'll be able to eat."
Hendy's posture still held a bit of casual arrogance, but he'd certainly paled. "You're threatening me. That's not allowed."
"Isn't it though?" Jooheon looked over at Hyunwoo with a shrug. "I'm no lawyer."
"Neither am I," Hyunwoo responded.
Jooheon looked back at Hendy. "Actually, that's not a bad idea – why don't you call up a lawyer? Oh, but then he'll just have you plead out to a worse deal than the one we're ready to serve you. You'll still do jail time, you'll still snitch on your friends, but maybe you get a little time shaved off. Our deal?" Jooheon swept his hand out in front of him as though serving up a prime dish. "No jail time. The video vanishes. Your friends won't think you're a snitch. You'll walk away with all your bones and hopefully not have to eat through a straw for the rest of your foreseeable future. So, Hendy. How does that sound?"
Hendy's eyes narrowed. "Who do you want me to snitch on?" he asked. Not a clear sign that he'd take their deal, but faint interest at the very least.
"It's pretty simple," Jooheon said. "Two kids went missing. Hyungwon and Minhyuk, who live on the block where you hang out sometimes by the motel. Sound familiar?"
Hendy shrugged, but Hyunwoo read the glint of recognition in his eyes. "Maybe, maybe not."
"Well, they're missing, and we'd like to find them," Jooheon said. "That's the deal. You tell us where they are and you walk."
Hendy crossed his arms. "What makes you think I know where they are?"
Hyunwoo almost groaned; his body language was incredibly obvious, but unfortunately, 'the suspect looked suspicious' didn't often hold up in court.
"You met up with them a few times recently," Jooheon said. It was partially based on Kihyun's intel, partially a guess.
"And?" Hendy asked. "Like you said, I hang around that neighborhood sometimes. Nothing wrong with saying hello."
"It is when they go missing," Jooheon said with a razor-sharp smile. "But you already knew that they were missing, didn't you?"
"I don't have to incriminate myself," Hendy said. "Yeah, that's right, I know my fifth amendment, thank you. And I think I want my lawyer now."
"That's fine by me, but the deal I made you is off the table when we leave this room."
There was nothing warm in Jooheon's voice, and it really made Hyunwoo realize that Jooheon was just as much invested in this case as he was. For some reason, that made the weight on his shoulders easier to bear.
Hendy was quiet for a long moment. "Let's just say," he said before clearing his throat. "Let's just say that maybe I knew someone who knows what happened to them. That person would be very unhappy with me if I accidentally mentioned their name by some slip of the tongue."
"I can imagine," Jooheon said, sounding almost sympathetic. Hyunwoo was honestly starting to admire his acting skills.
"And I'm certain you can imagine that unhappy people can be dangerous people," Hendy extended. "What's to protect me if I were to let that information slip?"
"Great question," Jooheon said. "This friend of yours-"
"I never said we were friends," Hendy said quickly. "Or even acquaintances."
Hyunwoo got the feeling like Hendy was on the wrong side of an interrogation a little too often.
"Okay. So let's say this person you happen to know about who knows the whereabouts of several missing children – let's say that person is doing something possibly illegal," Jooheon said in a tone that made it very clear that something illegal was most certainly happening. "We're going to put that guy in prison, with or without your help. It's going to happen. Even if you don't give us a name, we're going to find out one way or another. So he's going to end up in prison. And if you don't give us a name, you're going to end up in prison too," Jooheon said, "for the liquor store robbery. And this not-even-an-acquaintance-of-yours character is going to think very long and very hard on who would have given him up, and then he'll see you during your hour of mandatory exercise in the courtyard, and all the math is going to add up for him."
Hendy grew paler.
"So whether you tell us or not, he's going to be unhappy with you, I'm afraid. That's just the cost of doing business. But where you come in is that you get to choose whether or not you want to be in prison with him. Either you talk and walk, or you clam up and end up as cell buddies with him." Jooheon dropped his smile. "I can't promise you protection, but I can promise you that you're a hell of a lot safer on the outside than the inside."
"Give me a few minutes to think," Hendy said.
--
"Well?" Hyunwoo asked Jooheon once they were outside the interview room. "What do you think?"
"He'll give us a name," Jooheon said, sliding his hands into his pockets. "His type always does. They all pretend to have some sort of code – you've heard the expression 'Honor among thieves,' right? – but in the end, no one wants to be the fall guy. He'll talk."
"Then what?"
"Then we find that guy and watch his movements for as long as it takes to lead us to the boys."
"Then we can bring them home."
Jooheon smiled. "Then we can bring them home."
Hyunwoo exhaled unsteadily. He knew he'd never really had a serious assignment as a police officer. This was his first real case, and it wasn't something he could fail at. The worry was suffocating; he had no idea how Jooheon and the other officers had worked here for years. "Should we go back in?"
"Nah, let's give him a few more minutes to stew," Jooheon said easily, giving Hyunwoo a wide smile. "Good opportunity to get coffee. Besides, if we go right back in, he's going to think we're too desperate and our leverage will disappear."
"All right," Hyunwoo said with a nod. They ambled down the hallway toward the break room, and Hyunwoo took a seat at the small circular table while Jooheon brewed up something for them. Today's copy of the newspaper was sitting on the table, folded up as though someone had already finished reading their fill, so Hyunwoo tugged it closer and spread it out. He didn't receive the newspaper at his current address; he was just realizing now that it might be a good way to learn more about the area. Maybe he'd put in for a subscription.
He flipped through the front few pages – some political news on the front, followed by real estate ads and sports headlines on the following pages. He passed up a few advice columns but stopped on a page near the end.
"Whatcha looking at there?" Jooheon asked as he slid in the seat across from Hyunwoo, setting two cups on the table. Steam rose from the brims, and it would be another minute or two before they could drink without fear of scalding their tongues.
Hyunwoo didn't respond to the question, just spun the newspaper so the text was facing Jooheon. He leaned forward, squinting at the small and slightly smudged text. Blocked between advertisements for a landscaping service and a local tutoring center were several grainy photographs under the bolded headline "MISSING: IF SEEN, CONTACT BELOW."
"This-" Hyunwoo tapped on the top-left image, "is Minhyuk." He stared for a second at the photo, transfixed, before he took another breath and tapped on another picture. "And this is Hyungwon."
"These are the missing boys?" Jooheon rephrased, looking up at Hyunwoo before looking back down at the pictures. "These other kids must be missing too. Shit. Why did we never get a call about them?"
They sat in silence for a few moments before Jooheon sighed and sipped at his coffee, cursing when he burned his tongue. Hyunwoo ignored the coffee and flipped the newspaper back so it was right side up from his view. Then he slowly and neatly ripped out the page with the kids on it and folded it twice before tucking it into his pocket. He might need to show the photos to someone later.
"Ready?" Jooheon asked after he'd finished.
Hyunwoo looked to the coffee sitting in front of him. He felt bad for not drinking it since Jooheon had made it just for him, but he didn't like coffee altogether that much in the first place. Still, he took a sip because he didn't want to waste the effort. He cringed at the bitter taste and swallowed the dark liquid before nodding and standing up, newspaper crinkling softly in his pocket. "Ready."
--
"So," Jooheon asked, once again sitting across from Hendy. "What's your decision?" Jooheon's posture was slightly slouched and gave off a carefree demeanor as though he didn't care what Hendy decided. Hyunwoo found it a lot more difficult to play at confidence.
"I'll give you the name," Hendy said, and Hyunwoo exhaled quietly in relief. "But then the liquor store thing is gone, yeah? And you can't tell anyone I told you."
"Write it down," Jooheon said, sliding a pad of paper across the table and uncapping a pen. He pushed the pen toward Hendy and waited.
"The liquor store surveillance?" Hendy asked again.
Jooheon sighed and rolled his eyes. "It'll magically disappear like I told you. Now give us the name."
"Fine," Hendy muttered, grabbing the pen and scribbling something on the pad of paper. He pushed it back toward Jooheon, and the pages fluttered with the sudden motion.
Jooheon spun the pad around with one smooth move and stared at the name for a long moment. "You're sure?" he asked after a second.
Hendy smirked at Jooheon's response. "That's the guy you should be putting in prison. Best of luck, fellas."
Jooheon looked up at Hendy and glared at him, his casual demeanor gone in an instant, and even Hyunwoo got chills from the rage in his stare. "If I find out that you're the one who brought these kids to him – if I hear even one person mention it – then you're going to be seeing me again a lot sooner than you thought, and you're not going to walk that time, you hear me?"
"Like I said," Hendy said, getting up from his chair. "Good luck." He pointed to the door. "Since I was never arrested, I should be free to leave, yeah?"
"Get out of here," Jooheon said, and then Hendy slipped out the door and headed back out of the station to presumably create more trouble.
"What's wrong?" Hyunwoo asked, taking in Jooheon's rigid body language. "Who is he?"
Jooheon sighed harshly before moving his hand off the page so Hyunwoo could see.
"Alfonso?"
"They call him Big Al," Jooheon said, slumping back in his chair. "Which is ironic, since he's neither tall nor Italian. He's a stocky Caucasian male, five seven, a hundred eighty-five pounds. Brown hair, brown eyes. Nondescript to a T."
"Why do you know him?" Hyunwoo asked, feeling that pull in his gut once more that told him that Big Al wasn't a guy he'd like to meet.
Jooheon was quiet for a long moment before he looked over at Hyunwoo. "Listen. I think you should drop this case."
"What?" Hyunwoo was shocked but more than that, betrayed. How could Jooheon not care about the lives of two young kids?
"Not- I'm not saying that we're going to drop the case. I'm going to continue investigating. But I think you should drop it."
"Why?" Hyunwoo asked after a moment, not entirely reassured by his answer.
Jooheon blew out a breath and tapped the now capped pen against the legal pad. "Look. I peeked at your file a few months ago 'cause I'd heard that we were getting a transfer and I was curious, okay?"
"You looked at my file?"
"You gave out more warnings than tickets and you seemed to spend most of your time playing the friendly neighborhood officer rather than arresting people."
Hyunwoo clenched his jaw. "There wasn't a lot of crime back in my old precinct, what was I supposed to do about that? Mirandize citizens at random?"
"I didn't mean it like that," Jooheon clarified after a moment, holding his hands up defensively. "I'm not saying there's anything bad or wrong with working in a slow town. But...this case is going to get really dark, Hyunwoo. I mean it."
"And you don't think I can handle that," Hyunwoo surmised.
Jooheon's features shifted to belie his uncertainty. "I think we're going to find out things over the course of this investigation that would rob any seasoned cop of sleep for months," Jooheon said evenly.
"Jooheon, I know these kids. This is personal to me." Hyunwoo took a deep breath, picturing their smiling faces in his mind. "I can't let this go. I'm not going to drop the case."
Jooheon waited a long moment before nodding. "All right, I'll respect your decision. I just wanted to make sure you know exactly what you're getting into with this."
"Tell me about Big Al."
Jooheon tapped at the paper with the pen again. "Big Al has been under suspicion for a long time." Jooheon blew out another breath as though he were reluctant to go on. "He's connected to various operations, but as of recently, we've come to believe that he's involved in sex trafficking."
Not for the first time since taking on the case, Hyunwoo felt horrified. "How do you know? Why haven't you guys arrested him yet?"
"Because we don't have the evidence to do it," Jooheon said, dropping the pen to grab his opposite forearm instead. "I'd like nothing better than to arrest him. But if we go to trial without enough evidence, he walks, and then we won't be able to try him for the same crimes again due to double jeopardy. So we've been trying to amass enough evidence to take him down for good, but he's careful. Not to mention how much money he's spent on retainers for some powerful defense attorneys."
"So how do the police know about his...business?" Hyunwoo was hesitant to even call it that and make it sound legitimate, but he wasn't sure of a better word to use.
"A former employee," Jooheon said, tapping at the table now with his finger. "But they wouldn't tell us exactly how Big Al advertises his operation. You've heard of Pizzagate, Wayfairgate?"
Hyunwoo blinked. "You're talking about the conspiracy theories saying that a pizzeria and a cabinetmaker, respectively, were hubs for child sex trafficking rings?"
"Right," Jooheon said. "And as of now, that information has been discredited. But the idea isn't entirely false. There are trafficking rings out there that operate under some ulterior front. The problem is, we don't know what Big Al's front is."
Jooheon fell into a frustrated silence, and Hyunwoo's mind turned over the new information. He pulled the newspaper and stared down at the kids, trying to prompt his mind into some grand realization. Jooheon looked over at the newspaper and immediately frowned before looking away.
"Hey," Hyunwoo said abruptly, staring down at the newspaper.
"What?"
"Nothing, there's just...something bothering me about this."
Jooheon pulled the newspaper closer so it sat between the two of them. His eyes scanned the headline and pictures once again. "You're wondering about the other kids? Why no one reported them?"
"That's just it," Hyunwoo said, looking up at Jooheon. "Nobody reported Hyungwon and Minhyuk."
They were quiet.
"You're sure?" Jooheon asked.
"Well, I don't know about Hyungwon," Hyunwoo admitted after a moment. "His parents wouldn't talk to me. But I talked to Minhyuk's parents – mostly his mom – and they refused to acknowledge that he was missing. If they wouldn't talk to me, then I doubt they reported his absence. I can only assume the same for Hyungwon's parents. Or parent," he corrected, realizing he'd only ever heard of a mom. He wasn't sure if Hyungwon had a father in the picture.
"Well, it's true that they avoid police interference," Jooheon mused. "But if they didn't report the kids missing – and we didn't put this page up – then who published the column?"
"I don't know," Hyunwoo said. "But what you said earlier got me thinking. About fronts, I mean. Wouldn't the cleverest front be the most truthful one?"
Jooheon stared at Hyunwoo, encouraging him to keep talking.
"I just mean, well, look. We saw this page and assumed it was published by someone reputable, and I'm sure those related to the victims would assume the same. We think the parents put up the notice, and the parents think we put up the notice. And the information in and of itself is factually accurate – the kids are missing. So no one would bat an eye at it or raise questions because it's true. And if the kids on this page are really being trafficked, then no one should be contacting the tip number because these kids are being locked up somewhere. No one will have seen them but the traffickers and clients themselves."
"So anyone who contacts the number – or at least the firm majority – are people who recognize this as what it is: an advertisement."
Hyunwoo nodded. "That's...that's what I was thinking, at least. And I'm probably wrong. But I don't know of anyone who reported these boys missing, so the only people who would know are us and the people who took them."
Jooheon's face turned ashen so quickly that Hyunwoo gripped his arm, afraid that Jooheon was about to faint. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Not really," Jooheon mumbled. He took a few breaths, and while no color returned to his face, he seemed to stabilize a bit. "Hyunwoo, if that's true..." He blew out a breath. "The newspaper has been running a page like this for a long time. Not every week, but periodically. I always thought it was weird how they buried it in the back, but I...I never...I didn't think to-" He gripped his hands together in front of him, squeezing hard enough for the bones in his knuckles to protrude. "All those kids..."
"We don't know," Hyunwoo said quickly. "We can't be sure, not yet."
Jooheon just nodded weakly. "I'll...call the newspaper. Try and find out who paid for the column. But Hyunwoo, if you're right-"
Hyunwoo stared down at the newspaper.
"Let's hope I'm not."
--
published 01/28/21 (mm/dd/yy)
4359 words