As much as I appreciated Mr. and Mrs. Yun’s assurances that my grandfather and I could stay with them for as long as we liked, I resented how eager they were to hear every detail about the crisis at the beach. Maybe that was why I didn’t say anything about Kent’s assault on Channing when they offered to track Kent down the next morning.
“He’ll be at church; he’s always at church,” Mr. Yun said. “Don’t worry, Dahee, he’ll make them release her.”
“It has to be a misunderstanding. Mrs. Ku told me that more than ever, there’s more paperwork for the police, and the parents are back now so if there’s any question about how the boy went missing, it’ll be straightened out,” Mrs. Yun said, and Harabeoji added that Mrs. Ku had told him the same.
It turned out that they were wrong. Kent was not at church. We were sitting around the table in the Yuns’ kitchen while Harabeoji made barley tea. I got to my feet when the Yuns returned with a strange rumor that Channing had stolen valuable jewelry. Charges had not been formally filed. They said they would be and that she’d be held until Monday, when she could be arraigned in court and bail could be set for her release. The first possibility for such an accusation was that Edison and Austin’s parents had assumed a piece of their jewelry was missing. The timing made no sense, but maybe while the police were questioning Channing about the beach incident, the parents had added a robbery charge this morning.
Mr. Yun phoned right away to ask the Ahns. We could only gather part of the story from his side of the conversation. After he hung up, he seemed to relish being the go-between with the Ahns, which I found irritating.
According to him, the parents had not pressed any charges and had not spoken to the police. All their information had come from Kent, who had called them in Paris and, today, had stopped by. The boys’ father made a point to tell Mr. Yun that the front door lock’s code had been changed, in case Channing or I were thinking about returning.
Mr. Yun went on to explain how new the Ahns were to East End and gave us details about their extended families that I found irrelevant. I looked out the large kitchen window to the trees. The blue tarp of the trampoline taunted in the distance.
I spoke sharply to Mr. Yun. “If they didn’t accuse Channing, who did?”
“Kent will know. I left several messages with him. Maybe we should drive over to his house,” Mr. Yun responded.
“I don’t care about Kent,” I said. “Does this mean Channing has to stay in that police station? Is she still even there? Doesn’t she get to make a phone call or something? Was she read her rights?”
“Calm down,” Mrs. Yun told me. “Have you had anything to eat this morning? It’s nearly noon. You need your strength.” She offered me a fluffy biscuit and a glass of orange juice. Harabeoji accepted one of her offerings to show his appreciation but he wasn’t in a mood to eat either. I could tell by the way he moved it around on his plate.
I didn’t reply, which created an awkward silence. Harabeoji commented on how fall arrived sooner in East End than Boston. He stood by an open window, and Mr. Yun said, “First day without the AC.” To test his observation, I slid open the glass door to the terrace. The air did feel already cooler. From my position I saw Paul appear at the top of the stairs to his apartment above the garage just then. He quickly ran down the stairs, skipping the bottom step.
“Ames is on her way, she just called me,” he said as he walked into the house. “She had to go to Boston this morning for that article she’s writing, but she’s bringing some Gochu-Wings for lunch, and she heard from her coworker about Channing.”
Food. That was all anyone thought about. As we waited for Ames, Paul helped his grandmother peel carrots and cucumbers for crudités. Mr. Yun showed Harabeoji photos on his phone and made some comments about social media posts. I waited.
It took Paul’s cousin an interminable amount of time to get to us, and when she did, she didn’t immediately tell us what her colleague had said about Channing. Everyone ate, even Harabeoji, but I couldn’t. Ames had brought cardboard cartons filled with fried chicken. They smelled good. I sat on my hands. Suddenly panic took hold of me. Where were Edison and Austin? Why didn’t I see them at the table? And then I remembered I wasn’t responsible for them anymore.
I turned to Ames. “Why are they holding Channing?”
“It’s Kent,” she said as she put a piece of chicken on her plate. “No official charge yet.” She had held up her fingers in air quotes around “official.”
“He’s accusing Channing of theft and assault. He says she stole a fifty-thousand-dollar watch the night of the party,” she finished.
I asked her to repeat herself which she did. Harabeoji had put his chopsticks down. He’d managed somehow to eat the chicken wing without using his fingers. She went on to explain that Kent had turned his back on Channing in his room for a few minutes during the tour he was giving her the night of his housewarming party and then found her touching his watch collection. When he confronted her, she fled. He discovered later that his Patek Philippe was missing. Ames inspected the wings in the box in front of her, chose a piece, then brought it to her mouth.
“I hate him,” I said so loudly that she dropped the piece of chicken.
The Yuns looked uncomfortably down at their plates.
“Makes no sense to me. Why would she do that if he walked in on her?” Paul said.
“Because he assaulted her,” I replied.
“When did he do that exactly, because he says she attacked him,” Amessaid, wiping her fingers on a napkin. She didn’t seem bothered by my revelation in the least.
“Wait, you didn’t say that!” I said.
“When he confronted her, she shoved him and then fled,” Ames replied in a calm voice. “Sorry, forgot that detail.”
“He forced himself on her. We have a witness. My grandfather walked in on them,” I said. “Tell them,” I said to Harabeoji.
He looked shocked, and it took him a moment to respond. “I didn’t know he’d—Dahee, what did Kent do to Channing?”
“He grabbed her and put his mouth on hers,” I said. “He wouldn’t let her out of that room. You interrupted Kent when you knocked, so she was able to get away. He had her pinned until you came in.”
There was silence.
