The Love Trap by Nicole French

5

Iremained at the police station for another two hours sorting through the evidence with Cho, who, yes, turned out to be a distant cousin—the son of a son of my great-grandfather. He still would not show me Kim’s notes, though. However, he did tell me everything he could remember about them, then dragged out the four boxes of files left over from the other murders, and together we pored over documents and photographs. Many of them were quite gruesome, detailed accounts of each of the murders. After looking at them, I tended to agree with Cho—it seemed unlikely that all of these crimes were committed by the same person, despite the clear modus operandi. There were too many key differences.

“I think the place is important,” I said again as Cho escorted me and the security detail to the parking lot. “Especially if we are trying to link any of these to John Carson.”

Cho did not agree. His opinion was that too much of the previous investigations had focused on place.

But I wasn’t willing to let it go. “Cousin,” I begged. “Please. Help me look again. John Carson was here during those years for a reason. We should check if he had dealings in any of the towns where the bodies were found. It’s worth a look. Ask about the prostitution ring too.”

My mother wouldn’t thank me for reminding any members of her family, distant or not, about that side of her life, but it couldn’t be helped. It was part of the case.

Cho rubbed his chin. “Go back to your hotel,” he said after a moment’s thought. “You will be safe there while I go to Jinan. You said you have a doctor’s appointment, right?”

I nodded. “Yes, the day after tomorrow in Suwon. I’m pregnant, you see.”

Cho nodded, like he was unsurprised. My cousin was even more unreadable than Eric. Why hadn’t I inherited that particular family trait?

“I will call you,” he said. “But this is dangerous, so please stay in your hotel otherwise. I think we are close. We will find your mother, Jane.”

My chest tightened. I wanted to say thank you, but couldn’t get out the words. As the real stakes of what I was doing here caught up with me, it was very hard to breathe.

“Please be careful,” I managed finally.

Cho tipped his head. “I am always careful. It’s my job.”

And with that, we said good night.

But instead of directing Tony back to the hotel, I had another destination in mind. I wasn’t quite willing to sit around my tower like a princess and wait for the world to do my bidding.

“Tony, I want to go to Jinan. Can you take me there?”

Tony frowned at me through the rearview mirror, as did the other detail sitting beside him. “Mrs. de Vries, the detective—”

“I know what he said, Tony,” I cut him off. “But I want to see it for myself. You guys will be with me. I’ll be fine.”

* * *

Jinan was barelyvisible from the car when we arrived about an hour later. The middle of the town was a ramshackle mix of apartments, new construction, and the Korean versions of strip malls, which eventually gave way to wide swaths of farmland. Thirty years ago, it had been a tiny village, but recent growth had upgraded it to a municipality. Tony escorted me to a late lunch with the rest of the team and then drove for hours while I took in every detail I could.

Eventually the afternoon passed into night. The lights and highways gave way to the bleakness of unlit farms. The fields themselves looked dry, brown, and barren—there was no snow on the ground, but Korea in January was still frozen. No one was out.

Tony drove until we approached the edge of a large farm that left the lights of the main village in its dust. It was deserted. The perfect place for a murder.

“Stop here,” I said.

“Mrs. de Vries, shouldn’t we just go—”

“I said stop, Tony!”

Tony reluctantly pulled over, followed by the other sedan carrying the rest of our security team. Everyone got out, and while I walked to the edge of a field, the others quickly formed a queue of four linebacker-shaped men, trailing me like an absurd version of Make Way for Ducklings.

I shut them out as I observed the desolation. This was where my family was from? Was this their farm at one time? Did it belong to a distant cousin now? Maybe an aunt or uncle?

I honestly didn’t think I would stay to find out. I didn’t feel any particular kinship with this place. My mother had made her home in Chicago with Carol, my true father, the man who raised me. What was I expecting? Some kind of enlightenment? A flash of belonging?

There was nothing for me to discover here. Except, of course, her.

A shiver passed down my spine, and I hugged my thick parka around me. God, where was she? Was she all right? Was she…dead?

“Eomma,” I murmured, holding out my hand so the wind could pass through my fingers. “Eomma, where are you?”

My cell phone blared in the night. I pulled it out, recognizing with dread the number that had appeared there more than once over the past few weeks. A payphone in the middle of a concrete complex surrounded by barbed wires.

I considered not answering. I really did.

But I couldn’t. I never really could with him.

“Jane?”

I melted into the wind, and before I knew it, tears welled. That voice. Its deep, melodic timbre called to me from oceans away.

“Eric?” I whispered. “Eric, how—”

“They gave me a phone call today. Jane, what in the hell? You’re in Korea?”

His voice was stilted and scratchy through the poor line from Rikers. It was morning in New York. Eric’s trial started in a few days—he should be talking with Brandon or someone local. Instead, he was using his phone privileges to call me.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“What?”

“I said I’m sorry,” I repeated louder. “Eric, I had to. The investigator is dead. Carson killed him, I know he did. Now he has my mother, Eric. He took her, and he’s going to d-do something to her—” I cut myself off as the gravity of the day washed over me with the force of a tidal wave. More tears fell. Oh God, where was my mother?

“Jane, you need to come home,” Eric said, his voice pained.

“I can’t,” I replied. “Eric, I have to find her. If I don’t, no one else will.”

“You can’t—Jane, you can’t stay there. That’s exactly what he wants!”

I swallowed thickly. I was aware of the likely motives. John Carson had paraded around Chicago with my mother as if he were baiting a fish. And like the dumbest tuna in the sea, I’d bitten.

But I wasn’t diving into this without help. I had four gorilla-sized security guards, and now a detective cousin on my side. I wasn’t alone.

“Eric, I have to,” I said. “It’s my mother.”

“What about my wife, Jane? What about our baby? Did you think of her?”

The fact that he had already given it a gender choked me up even more. In his mind, Eric was already imagining that future. To him, we had a daughter, and now I saw her too. I wondered if he could see her face. See himself holding her. Loving her.

I pushed the image away, mostly because I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t see past the fact that the two people in the world I loved more than anything were being kept from me, locked away in one form or another. But one had a whole team of people helping to save him. The other had no one but me.

“I have an appointment the day after tomorrow,” I said. “For another ultrasound check. Suejean helped me find someone in Suwon to do the basic eight-week scan, so I’ll be on track when I come back.” Whenever that is. I didn’t mention that I was no closer to finding my mother than I was when I arrived. Another scan was overkill, maybe, but it was at least something I could do to assuage Eric’s fears.

“Jane, be reasonable,” Eric said. “Look, if everything goes the way it’s supposed to, I’ll be out of here today. God, I hope it’s today. Just…just come home, all right? We’ll go back to Korea if we need to, but we should figure this out together.”

“Eric…” My voice was so pitiful, but I wasn’t moving. There was nothing else I could do but remain where I was. I had to try. I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t.

Eric seemed to sense it. “Fine, then stay there. But don’t meet with anyone, don’t do anything, okay? Not until I can get there too.”

“Yes, but who knows when that will be!” I burst out. “We hope the judge does the right thing and throws out the case, but what if she doesn’t? What if it’s just one more person in Carson’s pocket that we didn’t anticipate? Eric, I have to do this now, don’t you see? He’s close. She was spotted not ten miles from here just yesterday!”

There was a long silence on the phone, and for a second, I wondered if the unstable line had cut out. But then, Eric finally spoke.

“Jane,” he said in a voice that creaked. “I’m begging you. Please come home. Please.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I have to go.”

“Jane!”

“I’ll be home soon,” I said. “You’re safer where you are. Listen to your lawyers, and for God’s sake, don’t do anything stupid when they get you out of there.”

“Fucking hell, Jane, I—”

“I love you,” I cut him off, pushing the tears away. And then I ended the call, turned to the car, and sobbed all the way back.