Now, apparently, she was trying to contact me. That’s what the fragment had been about. She was in possession of a valuable manuscript, and she was willing to make a deal to turn it over to the South. Her price, apparently, would be to attain her freedom. Help in escaping from North Korea.
How I’d go about bargaining for that help, I didn’t yet know.
The next morning, Riley was already in the office when I brought in two cups of coffee from the snack bar and plopped them on his desk.
“One’s for you,” I said.
“You win the Irish Sweepstakes?”
“No. I just felt generous.”
Riley lifted the plastic lid, sipped on the hot java, and then said, “Were you in the safe earlier this morning?”
“No,” I replied. “I just got here.”
“Somebody was. They moved my receipt book.”
I stood up. “Is the safe still open?”
“Yeah.”
I walked over to the safe, swung back the heavy door, and looked inside. It was gone.
“I had a sealed envelope in here,” I said, “marked Sueno. Did you take it out?”
“Not me,” Riley said.
I sat back in front of his desk and drank my hot coffee. Before half of it was gone, I knew what had happened. Inspector Kill. He’d wanted the fragment back, he’d figured I was the one who took it, and now, somehow, he’d managed to get it back in his possession. I should never have showed it to him in the first place, but that was back when I trusted him.
What I would do next, I wasn’t sure. Doctor Yong In-ja was a shrimp between warring whales. Somehow, the shrimp had to be saved.