The Virgin Whore Trial: A Holly Park Legal Thriller

by Brad Chisholm

  Mick leaned against the corner of her desk with his legs crossed. This one was pretty hot, with a fiery spirit, too. Impressive. She wasn't backing down so he walked over to Holly and stood deliberately close to her. He was wearing some mens’ cologne, Polo, or Aramis, a fragrance that Holly hated.

  "If you can't piss with the big dogs, stay out of the tall grass," Mick turned and slammed the door shut.

  Chapter 46

  If there were ever a day when Holly needed her father's calming voice, it was today. She pulled into the church parking lot and slipped into the last row of the pews. Just sitting there calmed her stormy seas. Her father was a charismatic man ageless in his vigor. Finally, Holly could feel herself relax as she listened to the comforting familiar resonance booming from the speakers.

  "Do you have time to talk?" Holly ran in. Her father listened, then said words, as Holly knew he would, that would comfort her. It was everything he said. And some things he didn't say, too. His experiences growing up in North Korea was under the Japanese occupation and escaping the North Korean communists during the Korean War had forever shaped him. Even after many years in America, he suffered no fools.

  "Be careful, Holly," he warned. His tone was somber. "You don't know Koreans."

  Holly thought about his words as she drove home. It was true. The more she was drawn into Korean culture the less she knew. Logan Burg had been right. She was a banana after all. Yellow on the outside and white on the inside.

  The next morning stood in front of the refrigerator and drank orange juice and grimaced. She looked out her open balcony door. It was everything a Monday morning at six would be. Nobody moving, nobody lurking in cars, no sounds of gardeners with their leaf blowers, nothing. She hadn't slept well and felt like hell. She applied fresh lipstick and put on a brave smile, picked up her briefcase and left.

  Outside, Holly looked around carefully, but there was nobody who seemed out of place. Detective Chang had spooked her, but damned if he was going to break her.

  Thank god Logan Burg hadn't held a grudge and had agreed to sublet an office on short notice. Kate Hong had not been happy but all Holly could do was mumble a short apology and leave. She did not give a reason.

  Holly almost went to her old office out of habit. Holly already missed the annoying Mi Rae and her unsolicited takes on everyone and everything. As she was unpacking, a head popped into the doorway.

  "Nice digs!" Mi Rae took an appreciative glance at her surroundings. "I can't believe you left this for Koreatown. There are so many good-looking lawyers, too! Anyone single?" Mi Rae asked, cocking her head prettily. Mi Rae was so impressed her excitement could not be contained.

  "Perfect timing, you can help me unpack."

  "I don't want you to be lonely so I brought you lunch - bento boxes," Mi Rae announced proudly, handing her a bag, which Holly put on a side table.

  "Plus, I needed an excuse to get out of the office."

  "Why?" Holly asked, frowning, immediately wondering if McChang was poking around.

  "Kate is in a foul mood, that's all."

  "It's supposed to rain, that makes everyone grumpy," Holly suggested.

  "Oh, Kate is more than grumpy! She's in full bitch mode," Mi Rae offered cheerfully. "Even Neil Cooper refused to stay and went out for an early lunch."

  Mi Rae sat down and began organizing the food. Holly went to the kitchen for water and came back a few minutes later.

  "Mi Rae, did the old court files on the Wolf Linser case ever show up?" Holly asked, as she opened the bento. There was yellow tail and tuna sushi, California rolls, and shrimp tempura. "What a feast," Holly said, gratefully.

  "Ta-da!" Mi Rae ceremoniously announced and handed over the papers like a magician. "The messenger service brought it this morning. That's really why I came, of course."

  "Thank you, Mi Rae. Yummy," Holly said in between bites.

  "You will pay me back for the lunch, won't you?" Mi Rae asked, sucking her chopsticks and smacked her lips. "You make more than I do."

  "Of course I will - and I'll give you money for the parking. You'll cry when you see what they charge."

  After lunch Mi Rae left. Holly cleaned up then walked over to the kitchen for fresh coffee and returned to her office, and carefully placed her green shaded lamp on her desk and turned it on. Then rain spotted the windows. The weatherman had been right after all. The rain was coming down hard and flowing along the curbs in rivulets.

  Holly turned to the file on her desk, waiting for the coffee to kick in. She reached for the manila envelope that contained Wolf Linser's file. The public defender's office had handled the case. Holly opened the file and began reviewing it when she noticed something. Officer Mick Chang was the arresting deputy? Her heart started pounding and she continued to read. There was a list of items seized:

  1. 5 pornographic videos (various artists)

  2. Penthouse magazine

  3. An empty Graacher Himmelreich Spätlese wine bottle

  4. One Chanel lipstick

  5. Family Photographs (various)

  The sound of the rain pounded against the glass window as Holly slowly turned the pages of the file. The arraignment, plea and sentencing were taken only two months after the arrest. Wolf Linser had caved with no fight at all. The public defender had done almost nothing.. She picked up the photos and absentmindedly flipped through them. It was then Holly saw the photo. At first Holly thought it was a photo of Naomi then realized it wasn’t.

  The girl in the photo held two fingers next to her eyes in the double v-sign as she smiled, her head tilted girlishly to one side. Her large beautiful eyes had an artful innocence as she stared into the camera - eyes that gave away nothing. She wore a necklace around her slender neck, the kind you would only see in a very expensive catalog or Vogue magazine and not the kind of necklace a young girl would wear. The necklace was two interlocked circles of gold and diamonds resting on the hollow of her long and slender throat. She was wearing a halter top which with the slightest touch would fall from her slender white arms and shoulders. Holly turned the photo over. "Honeymoon at Jeju Island," the inscription was in English, in the faded, school girl- careful cursive script she had seen before.

  Holly felt a strange cold chill wash over her and her breathing became difficult. It was a copy of the photo the Dumok had shown her on his first visit to her office. The one that had disappeared. How did it end up in this file?

  Holly grabbed the envelope and read: Office of the Public Defender? How did the Public Defender get the photo? This could not be the lost photo. It had to be a duplicate but why was it in Wolf's file?

  Holly quickly scanned the other family pictures, her eyes searching, as she scrutinized them. Holly gasped. It was so clear. It was plain and obvious and had been under her nose all along. Alexis Linser was Nara Song. She had changed her identity. That meant Naomi was the Dumok's daughter. Naomi was not dead. Grabbing the photos, Holly rushed out into the rain.

  Chapter 47

  The next night Holly left work early and stood on the corner. "Johnny!" Holly waved. Johnny Gee quickly opened the front door and stood by the car waiting for Holly to get in.

  They drove out to the end of the freeway and then up the Pacific Coast Highway and ended up at an outdoor eatery without table cloths barely visible from the highway. The restaurant was adjacent to an upscale restaurant with white lights around the palm trees. From where they sat, they could hear the band from next door.

  "Isn't it nice that we can enjoy the ambient sounds from here?" Johnny said inhaling the night air deeply. He smiled, quite pleased.

  They ordered beer which was very cold and had a slight sour taste. Holly didn’t have much experience with beer, but she gamely took a longer sip. Holly said quietly, her eyes wide, stirring the remnants of her drink with a little black plastic straw. Holly felt her shoulders relax and finally, she was able to feel the merry-go-round in her head slowing down. Each of the riders on the merry-go-round was one of her clients, but eac
h time the merry-go-round stopped, they changed horses.

  "Be careful. You don't know Koreans!"

  The words echoed in her head. Both the Dumok and her father had warned her. And now Johnny was warning her too.

  Holly told Johnny how she had been hired by the Dumok to find Nara Song. Then subsequently by Kendall Taylor to find out why her ex-husband, Wolf Linser, had left her for another woman, who turned out to be Wolf’s ex-wife, Nara Song, living under the identity of Alexis Linser. She told him about Kate and Choi - even about the morgue visit and the car accident, which she suspected was an attempt on her life – or that she was stressed to the point of imagining things.

  "I don't know why Nara Song lived under the alias of Alexis Lee, or what this Choi person's involvement is about,” Johnny begain. “Your job for the Dumok was to find Nara Song. You did. Your job for Kendall was to find out why Wolf left her for Alexis. You did. That's it. I think you're a little too close to the flame, Holly, if you want my honest nickel's worth," Johnny Gee leaned back in his chair and flagged down a server and ordered another beer and a basket of chicken wings. “Our job as lawyers is to fulfill each client’s instructions as best we can, though I admit when the instructions are so broad, it can make you crazy.”

  "I think the Dumok really just wants to know if his daughter is alive," Holly said, slowly, remembering New York.

  "Then go tell him, counsel," Johnny said, pressing the tips of his fingers together. "That you found out by accident doesn't matter. Client doesn’t care how you did it.”

  "Will you come with me?" Holly squeaked.

  "Holly," Johnny scolded. "You just need to take a deep breath. It's like muddy water, if you take a glass of muddy water and leave it alone long enough, the crud will settle on the bottom, and the water on top will be clear. If you keep picking it up to see if the mud has settled, it never will."

  Holly nodded. Muddy water. Johnny had nailed that one. She would go and see the Dumok. She would go alone.

  Chapter 48

  The next night Holly again drove up the winding Pacific Coast Highway. It brought to mind many apocryphal stories of gangsters, serial killers, suspicious car wrecks and celebrity homes lost in mud slides.

  Driving through the canyons now, after the rain, the heavy scent of sage and eucalyptus filled the air, the hills were shadows, except for a golden half moon in the east. The traffic had thinned out. Holly prayed she wouldn't get lost. “Just keep the ocean on your left,” everyone had joked. She had a sudden shivering image of coyotes huddled in the brush. She checked the address before pulling off the main road and onto a private road. There were signs that said "Private" along the single lane road. Dense wild foliage finally gave way to palm trees and manicured landscaping. She now saw bursts of magenta, lilac and white bougainvillea vibrated with color, even as the light was fading.

  The moon was higher and fading now. Holly stared out the window straight ahead, wondering whether there were hidden cameras in the "Private" signs lining the road, trying her best to beat down the urge to turn back. The mounting fear and climbing dread left her short of breath.

  Holly continued driving without stopping until she reached the beach house. It was right on the ocean. A cracking sound filled the air - she thought, perhaps the breaking of waves crashing the shore. She pulled the car into circular driveway behind his black Mercedes, next to the damp sand. Holly could see him, the outline of his form looming over the water, on a flat plane of damp sand, in a brilliant white shirt with his sleeves and pants rolled up. The sunset formed a silhouette of the Dumok's body, his height and broad shoulders unmistakable.

  Holly heard the sharp crack again, punctuating the waves crashing against the rocks. It was then she noticed the white and bloodied corpses of a half dozen sea gulls and pelicans that littered the sand around him. The Dumok didn't turn as Holly walked up to him and instead remained focused, tracking a bird with a revolver. Holly felt sick to her stomach and stared at the horizon line as she walked. The ocean looked like it was on fire as the sun sank into it.

  He must have been aware of her but made no acknowledgment. The gun cracked and Holly jumped, she couldn't help it. Fortunately he'd missed the shot and the pelican continued its low course over the water.

  "I didn't realize you kill your own dinner," Holly said. She knew she was on dangerous ground, and tried to keep the fear and criticism out of her voice. The Dumok barely nodded his head then, in a forced, stiff bow not taking his eyes off the swarming birds above him. He tracked another bird, followed it, fired, then watched as it fell to the ground.

  "Do you know how pelicans die, Holly, in the wild, in the care of mother nature, in the arms of our Christian god?"

  "No."

  "They feed by diving for fish, and they have a protective clear membrane over their eyes to protect them from the impact of diving into the salt water. But as they age the protective layer gets cloudy, and they slowly go blind. Then, they starve to death," he paused. "Perhaps I am kinder than Mother Nature."

  Holly didn't know what to say, she tried to read his mood.

  "I've learned to identify the old ones..." he stood there reloading. "As for the sea gulls, they're just rats with wings."

  "It seems merciful," Holly said as calmly as she could manage. "But the decision is not ours whether we live or die."

  "No, but we choose how we live," the Dumok responded, feelingly. "Darwin preached the survival of the fittest. The theory is that natural selection will enable the strong to survive and not only preserve but improve the species. I will give you an example. A deer hunter will stalk and try and kill the finest example of the herd. An animal predator will usually attack the weakest example, because it is easier and of less risk to itself. A wolf's priority is to eat and survive the hunt. So which predator is better for the survival of the herd, and the species?"

  "The wolf, because the strongest deer surviving to breed will produce a stronger herd in the next generation," Holly answered, hoping it was not a trick question.

  "I agree. I am a predator, in Darwinian terms, and therefore not always in harmony with the human society we live in. But nature proves me right. Mother Nature is much crueler than I am."

  Holly stared out at the horizon line. All the strength was leaving her knees.

  The Dumok bent to carefully pick up the spent shell casings. When he had them all he put them in his pocket, and walked towards the beach house, motioning for her to follow. He remained silent on the walk back. When they reached the deck he finally turned to her, searching her face with eyes that were dark and flashing, he took her face in his hands and kissed her. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, listening to the waves.

  "I would invite you in, but I sense that you have your business face on," he said softly. "Shall we deal with that first? Is it too cool for you out here?"

  Holly sat in a white wicker chair, she found his politeness and formality comforting.

  "Shall I bring drinks?"

  Holly waited for him to come back. He went inside and a moment later returned.

  "Burgundy," he said as he handed her the wine glass. "It is the lightest one I have in the house."

  The Dumok smiled too, and they were suddenly comfortable together. He poured the wine into her glass before filling his own glass. The label read "Savigny Les Beaune", some small village in France, she thought. Where they lived happily and grew what they needed and made wine, the young girls stomping the grapes with their bare feet while singing grape-stomping songs, taking long lunches... maybe in another life Holly could have been a happy grape-stomper, she thought. In a place where young girls didn't murder politicians - or even sleep with them for money... or maybe they did. Maybe it was the same everywhere.

  "Holly, you are like the most exquisite saké, subtle with a hidden fire, to be enjoyed slowly, and appreciated."

  Holly blushed. She was really glad it was getting dark so he couldn't see her face. The brightest things were the moonlight reflec
ting off his white shirt, and the sea, and the flashing of his eyes and teeth when he smiled. He was quiet for a long time. Holly sipped her wine and waited, enjoying the cool breeze. She could happily have slept, she in her chair, he in his, holding his hand. It would have been enough for her. But, she had a purpose. She had come for a reason. She had a job to do.

  The Dumok smiled again and took the glass for a longer sip. So, Holly told him in the only way she knew how. She had practiced in the car. A dozen ways, a dozen tones. Like trying out different keys and tempos for a piece of music. They notes were immutable, but the feelings they stirred... in the end she was pure Holly. She just blurted it out.

  "I found her. Nara Song and your daughter are both alive!" Holly blurted.

  For the briefest of moments the Dumok paled. Or it could have just been the moonlight on his face. His eyes turned inward, and when he came back, his voice was hoarse. There was bitter and profound sadness when he finally spoke.

  "So the rumors are true," the Dumok examined how the moonlight refracted through the wine glass held by his manicured fingers and how a slight movement of wrist changed the spectrum.

  There was another silence. She looked at him squarely in the eyes and smiled, hesitantly. She wanted to say something kind, to comfort him. But before she could speak he spoke again.

  "How?"

  "Exactly like you guessed. Nara Song just walked into the American Legal Services office.

  "What is the nature of her troubles?" the Dumok inquired, his eyes banked with a lifetime of slow-burning anger.

  "Nara Song has been living under the alias Alexis Lee Linser, who is the mother of Naomi Lee Linser, who I'm sure you know from the news, is charged with the Councilman's murder."

  "What did you say?" The Dumok reared his head back, and said it with such force she let out a small cry as if he had struck her.