Chapter 29
When my phone first rang, I didn’t hear it. It was the third time before I finally understood Harabeoji was calling. I shoved the notebook into my bag.
“Kent can get us in to see Channing. I know you’ll want to come. Don’t say anything to anyone or else it’ll jeopardize Channing’s chances,” he said.
“Did you tell him Channing didn’t steal his watch?” I asked.
“He said we’d talk later.”
“Why would you trust anything he says?”
“For now, we have to play by his rules so we can get Channing free. Ames is right, we have to focus. Gwaenchanh-eulgeoya, Dahee.” It was a phrase he used a lot with us.
It’s going to be all right, he often said.
With her, he would also tell her to be patient.
She was the impatient one. I could always put my head down and work for something over a long period of time.
Patience wasn’t hard for me, but right now it was.
A bald white man in a red baseball jersey and dark pants was waiting at the front door of the police station.
Kent called him Buzz. He didn’t say anything to us.
His face remained passive, and he didn’t make eye contact with me.
I remembered that Ames had said Buzz was the police chief who was Kent’s witness for the supposed missing watch.
It took everything I had to stop myself from lunging at Kent and forcing him to admit he’d attacked Channing at his house.
I hoped there would be a chance for me to talk with Buzz alone, when I could tell him the truth about Friday night.
Buzz entered first and then Kent and Harabeoji followed.
I was struck by how Harabeoji handled himself knowing that this man had put his hands on his granddaughter.
Harabeoji walked close to Kent and gently asked, “You’ll let her out today?
” And Kent said simply, “That’s why we’re here.
” No one would suspect this elderly man had anything but respect for this younger one.
It was a gloomy room with a uniformed police officer seated behind glass. There were a few straight-back chairs. Otherwise, it was empty. Buzz raised a hand to the officer, and she nodded and hit some button. Buzz pulled the door open, and we all filed in.
There were a couple of doors and a large open space with tables, and then we went through another door, and then down a short hall with blinking fluorescent lights overhead.
It was cold and windowless, similar to those I’d seen in movies.
I shivered and rubbed my shoulders. My claustrophobia threatened to drown me, but I kept my focus on the back of Harabeoji’s plaid button-down shirt.
When Channing was released, we’d run back down this hall so fast, I told myself. My palms pricked.
There were two holding cells across from each other.
The cement walls were painted an ugly green, somewhere between army green and lime.
Unlike ones I’d seen in TV shows and movies, the only metal bars were on the single door.
There was a metal toilet with a sink attached above it in one corner of each jail cell along with a single window with bars across it.
I took all this in, but my focus was entirely trained on the woman in a black T-shirt and gray sweatpants, barefoot, sitting on a thin mattress on a steel frame welded to the wall, with her legs tucked up beneath her.
I halted and gasped. My hands flew to cover my mouth.
She ran up to the bars when she saw us. I could tell she was searching for someone other than me and Harabeoji.
Her eyes darted back and forth. Her face was flushed and streaked with dirt and tears.
I wished there had been someone in that other cell, so she’d have signs of life around her. It felt like a tomb.
Harabeoji and I extended our hands toward her. There wasn’t enough space for her arm to slide between the bars, so we had to make do with touching her slim fingers.
“You look good,” he said as if reassuring himself.
“I don’t believe you,” she said to Harabeoji.
“You’re our Channing,” he said, and patted the metal door.
Her fingers were cold and reddened. “Dahee, how are you?” she asked.
“How am I? Forget how I am. We’re here to get you out.
” I laughed nervously because those metal bars looked thick and impossible to bend or cut through.
She pressed her forehead against them, and I wanted to tell her not to touch them like that.
They were loaded with germs. The prickling in my hands eased.
At least she was here in front of me. Even if we had these metal bars between us. She’d be out soon, I told myself.
“Where’s Minjae?” she said. “They’ve done something to him, where is he?”
“Get your flip-flops so we can go,” I said. She ran to the bed, grabbed them, and returned to the door, holding them up.
I stepped back, expecting Buzz to come forward and unlock it, but he stayed where he was, at a distance. Kent had a neutral expression on his face.
“She’s ready to go,” I said to Buzz. I didn’t thank him, because all of this was a mistake in my mind, and we didn’t need to show gratitude to someone who was on Kent’s side and had caused this situation to begin with. He didn’t react, which puzzled me. When was he going to let her out?
My grandfather walked over to Kent and waited. The silence was confusing. What was Buzz waiting for?
Kent looked down at the concrete floor as if searching for an insect to crush with his shoe.
Then he cleared his throat, coughing into his closed fist, and seemed almost shy as he said, “All Channing has to do is admit she made a mistake. I’m willing to drop the charges on theft and assault as long as she shows some gratitude for the effort we’re making today, dragging the chief here from his family on a Sunday, his day off, and of course Channing must return my watch.
” He lifted his chin in Channing’s direction as he spoke.
“You assaulted me,” she replied with an edge of hysteria in her voice. “Tell your friend the police chief what you did to me in your room.”
“You’re insane. You’re the one who’s lying,” Kent said.
“I’m not—” Channing’s voice rose. I reached for her hands through the bars to calm her down, sensing danger, but she had stepped back.
I approached this man, Buzz, whose face had become menacing. “Channing didn’t steal anything from Kent. He’s making it up because he’s obsessed with her, and he’s the one who forced himself on her the night of the party at his house.”
Buzz acted as if he hadn’t heard a word I said.
He sniffed and looked to one side and then the other.
“I said Kent Cho assaulted Channing Shin, not the other way around,” I repeated, walking closer to him.
He had his hand on his belt as if it were a holster with a gun.
He looked as if he wished we’d give him a reason to use it.
I heard Harabeoji say to Kent, “Can’t we get her out first?”
“It’s really very simple. We’re all making an extra effort and really putting ourselves on the line.
All this time and real risk. Channing says she didn’t assault me—” He raised his hands.
“I just need an apology. There are witnesses that night who saw my face after she struck me. And I do want my watch back. If we have to go through the legal system I will. That watch belongs to me.”
“You’re full of shit,” Channing said.
Kent let out a laugh and leaned toward the cell. “So emotional. I thought you’d like to have a hot shower and sleep in a bed tonight, instead of another night here,” he said.
I gave up on Buzz and turned to Kent. “We can work it out,” I said to him. “We’ll buy you another one if that’s what it takes.”
“You?” he scoffed. “Yeah, right, you.”
Harabeoji turned to both men. “Could we release my granddaughter and discuss this all together in a better place? With some fresh air and sun, we could work this out in your office. That would be best, wouldn’t it?”
Kent turned to Buzz, and I thought, Here we go, now he’ll take out his keys and let my cousin out. Instead, he ignored my grandfather. I realized then that Kent hadn’t bowed to Harabeoji in greeting as he had in the past.
“You know, Buzz,” Kent said slowly. “Channing doesn’t seem to appreciate the enormity of our generosity.
” He shook his head and said aloud as if to himself, “You know what? I’m sorry I wasted your time.
Looking at Channing’s response, she might even flee East End.
We’ll have to talk to the judge about a higher bail. Thank you for trying to help a friend.”
Buzz gave Kent a scathing look. I wondered if he hated him as much as we did. Kent seemed clueless, or maybe he didn’t care.
“Please, you have to let her out today. This minute. We’ll prove she didn’t take your watch.” I didn’t realize I was shouting until Harabeoji put his hand on my shoulder.
Kent turned to me. “I don’t respond to demands.
This was a mistake. I hoped for our relationship that we could work something out, but I won’t stand for abuse.
Does it matter any less if a woman strikes a man then if a man hits a woman?
” Then he turned and walked briskly away, with Buzz following him.
I stood there dumbstruck. I understood now that in this moment, Kent was the one who held her future in his hands.
Channing said, “Wait, what just happened?”
Harabeoji leaned forward, his hands on those cold, dirty steel bars. “Channing, gwaenchanh-eulgeoya.”
Was it going to be all right, as Harabeoji was saying to my cousin? I chased after those men. “Chief Harper, please, you’ve got to let Channing out. We’ll do whatever you want. Just get her out of there, please,” I pleaded.
He still refused to meet my eyes. I passed him in that narrow hall and ran to Kent. He was faster than I imagined he could be. He was waiting at a door.
“Look, clearly, you care about Channing. There’s no need to bring the police into this,” I begged.
Kent looked around, then he said to me, “I thought she was just immature. I could work with that. In fact, I want to help her grow, mold her into a better person. She’s childlike, innocent.
I did a lot for her. This is how she repays me?
You saw her in there. She lies about me hurting her in my own house.
In front of everyone. I can’t have that. I have my reputation.”
Buzz came over just then and said my grandfather refused to leave Channing behind. Kent looked at me with the coldest eyes I’d ever seen and said, “This can get much worse if you don’t get your goddamn grandfather out of there right now, do you understand?”
“What do you mean?” I stammered.
“I mean, we’re not even supposed to be in here, so if you don’t get your grandfather out of there right now, this minute, the two of you will join her in there. You and your grandfather.”
Buzz laughed. He actually bellowed. “These people think they can do whatever they want,” he shouted to Kent. He’d heard me the whole time, and this was the one time he was going to let me know it. I ran back the way I’d come, and I told Harabeoji what Kent had said, only part of it.
“Come on, we have to go, hurry,” I said. Then, I called to Channing, “Hold on, we’ll get you out. The judge will release you as soon as the court opens. We’ll be back. We love you.”
She nodded, her chin against those dirty steel bars. “Love you too,” she said.