7:43PM.

The first thing anyone asked when they came downstairs was, ‘What the hell was that noise?’

‘Noise?’ Irene said.

Mr Jae glanced at them uneasily. Everybody had ceased arguing and now they stood around again and Yeri and Wheein were still seated and Wheein was sorting out the glasses and the champagne on the desk. ‘What did you do?’ Mr Jae asked.

‘I know what they did,’ Yeri said. ‘They broke something. Didn’t you?’

‘No,’ Irene said.

‘It sounded like something breaking to me. In fact – I’m not an expert on this, so whatever – but I’d go so far as to say it sounded kinda like a bunch of pottery breaking, didn’t it? I’m not the only one who thinks that, am I?’

‘That’s what it sounded like,’ Jisoo said.

‘Yeah. Which seems either like a massive coincidence, or…’

‘Or?’ Seulgi said, arms folded, in a tone that Irene had heard many times before and didn’t quite like the sound of. It was a sort of simmering fire – as if waiting for the right moment to be set off. To be unleashed. Yeri shifted, smug in her seat.

‘Or you went upstairs to have a little y time and broke all of my granduncle’s priceless Qing artefacts. But no, a private detective and a stuck-up, failing artist wouldn’t ever do something like that, would they? No! Especially not you, Irene. You’re by the books and professional – sitting us down, interviewing us, checking alibis. You certainly wouldn’t sneak off upstairs to stuff a hand down your girlfriend’s pants during a murder investigation, would you? Would you? Surely you’re not that ? What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? Seulgi got your tongue?’

‘Listen,’ Seulgi said.

‘Listen to what? Gonna make more excuses?’

‘Why do you have to be so ing intolerable? Why can’t you just act like a normal person for once?’

‘My granduncle’s dead. Or did you forget that part? I’m a bit on edge. But hey, am I wrong? Well, am I?’

Irene was silent. Seulgi looked at her, as if waiting for her to answer for them. So eventually she said quietly, ‘Yes.’

‘Yes I’m wrong? Or yes I’m right?’

‘Yes you’re right.’

‘I know. I always am.’

‘I went to go and see if I could find anything that could be used as evidence, or could point me in the right direction, from Mr Kim’s room. And then Seulgi surprised me—’

‘Oh, is that what we’re calling it now?’

‘And we must’ve bumped into one of the racks and knocked off a bunch of the vases. It’s no big deal. Nothing to worry about.’

‘No big deal?’ Mr Jae said. ‘Do you know how much the artefacts in that room are worth?’

‘Were worth, I expect,’ said Yeri. ‘Past tense only.’

‘Billions of won! They represented years – decades – of investment!’

‘Jesus, you sound like they killed one of your kids or something. Lighten up. It’s just some stupid pottery.’

‘Typical. I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand anyway.’

‘Actually, I’m a classics student, so I know all about archaic arts and crafts. I took two modules in Art and Architecture across Asia Minor, and my end-of-semester assignment was on Domestic Space in the Roman World. So, yeah, I do know my , thank you very much. But thanks for being a patronising creep anyway. Really appreciated. And what do you mean, “someone like me?” What the ’s that supposed to mean?’

‘You know.’

‘No, actually, I don’t know. That’s why I asked.’

‘He’s right,’ Jennie said. ‘It was expensive. Very expensive.’

‘Oh, who cares?’

‘We didn’t mean to do it,’ said Seulgi. ‘It was an accident.’

‘See? There you go,’ Yeri said. She turned to Seulgi and shook her head and laughed. ‘I can’t believe I’m actually sticking up for this one over here, but she has a point – it was an accident, so who’s all that bothered by it? My granduncle’s dead, so I doubt he cares.’

‘Thanks,’ Seulgi said.

‘Yeah yeah, whatever. Don’t get used to it.’

‘I mean it. Thanks for backing me up. Why can’t you even take a simple thank you without having to be snarky and dismissive all the time?’

‘Oh, are you gonna cry now? Like this one over here? God, why do you all have to be so overdramatic?’

‘Listen—’

‘No, you listen.’ Yeri looked at her. Irene thought she might snap but she didn’t. Instead she shook her head, almost as if she had been defeated, and said, ‘Man, I can’t even dunk on you anymore, Seulgi. No offence or anything, but it’s kinda like beating up a kid with no arms, you know? Where’s the fun in it? The kid can’t swing back. He’s just sort of left there, flailing about. Trying to punch you, but he can’t. So he’s swinging his body around and the sleeves of his jumper are flapping about like inflatable tubes and then eventually he falls over. And because he’s got no arms he can’t even get up. Like a turtle on its shell. And maybe there’s a couple other kids laughing at him too. Poor little armless bastard. There’s no satisfaction in that. It’s just, well…it’s almost mean. It doesn’t make you feel any better. That’s you, Seulgi – a kid with no arms.’

‘You are the worst human being I’ve ever talked to.’

‘Oh, lighten up. I can think of at least one person worse than me.’

‘Who?’ Rosie said.

‘Well, for starters, whoever in this room stabbed my ing granduncle to death. Which, back on topic – weren’t we all pointing fingers at you a minute ago?’

‘For the last time, it was an honest mistake. I just forgot about Mr Jae being here, just as I forgot what I had for dinner yesterday, or what your name is, or anything like that. I just forgot. Okay?’

‘Not really,’ Sooyoung said.

‘Why are you getting involved?’

‘Why should I not? Yeri’s right – someone in this house is a killer. And we still don’t know who.’

Wheein leant forward and picked up her whiskey glass, careful not to knock anything beside it. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘I’m sure they’ll decide to come clean at some point tonight, right? Right, Irene? Or is that not your plan?’

‘I don’t know,’ Irene said. ‘I don’t have a plan.’

‘Thought not.’

‘Okay, so—’

‘Look,’ Lisa said, ‘you’re not going to get anything out of anyone. We’ve been over this already.’

‘Maybe you’re guilty.’

‘Nice.’

‘Maybe you are. Why else would you refuse to say anything?’

‘I haven’t refused anything, have I?’

‘Not technically, but—’

‘There you go, then.’

Irene sighed. She looked at Wendy and Wendy shrugged almost in apology, as if to say: I dunno what to do, boss.

Yeri turned to Jisoo. ‘Come to think of it,’ she said. ‘What about you?’

‘Me?’

‘Yeah. You.’

‘What about me?’ Jisoo said.

‘You haven’t said all evening. Just stood there listening to everyone else point fingers at each other. Those are always the most suspicious types to me.’

Jisoo was quiet. When she tried to reply she stuttered and could only come out with a, ‘Sorry.’

‘What?’

Irene turned to her. ‘She has a point,’ she said. ‘Jisoo.’

‘What?’

‘Where were you at the time of the murder?’

‘When was the murder?’

‘Just before six.’

She was quiet. Almost as if she seemed hesitant to say anything. Then: ‘I was asleep.’

‘What? Where?’

‘In the kitchen.’

‘You were asleep in the kitchen?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Is that some sort of joke?’

‘What? No. I was.’

‘You were sleeping on the job.’

Jisoo hung her head and Yeri laughed. ‘God,’ she said. ‘I don’t know whether it would be worse for that to be true or not. Is there nobody around here that can do their ing job properly?’

‘What’s your job?’ Wheein said.

‘Don’t have one. Well, not here anyway.’

‘What about elsewhere? Are you gonna tell us where you work?’

‘Oh, yeah, sure. Sorry, I forgot about that part. The address is 3 Go Yourself House, right on the corner of Eat A Lane. That’s just past None Of Your Damn Business Avenue.’

‘Nice. Very mature.’

Yeri smiled and turned back to Irene. ‘So,’ she said, ‘what’s the big verdict? You still think someone tried poisoning him? Or what? Where are we now? I kinda got sidetracked there for a while. Lost my focus. Sorry, continue. Please.’

‘What’s the use?’ Irene said. ‘You’re not going to be listening anyway.’

‘I’m listening now, aren’t I?’

‘For how much longer?’

‘Not long.’

‘How much morphine is too much morphine?’ Mr Jae said.

‘Why? You fancy a session or something?’

‘Will you be quiet and let the people who know what they’re talking about actually talk for once?’

Surprisingly, Yeri was quiet, if only for a brief minute. Mr Jae turned to Jisoo and Jennie and Jennie shrugged and said, ‘I don’t know exactly. Maybe fifty milligrams. Maybe a little more.’

‘How long would it take to have an effect?’ Wendy said.

‘Well, taken intravenously, almost instantly. In fact, instantly.’

Irene paced for a moment. Then she said, ‘Rosie, you said he took two hundred milligrams of Heparin, was it?’

‘Yeah,’ Rosie said.

‘Every evening with his morphine. So if someone were to switch the doses around – twenty milligrams of Heparin.’

‘That’s basically nothing.’

‘And two hundred milligrams of morphine.’

‘That’s a lot of morphine,’ said Jisoo.

‘Enough to kill someone?’

‘Yeah,’ Jennie said. ‘They’d be dead in minutes, probably. Feeling woozy, hyperventilating, passing out. Whole nervous system would just go haywire.’

‘Jesus,’ Yeri said. ‘What if, like, you accidentally injected too much one day? You know, maybe you’d had a few too many cheeky Tequila sunrises and you shot up, like, double the recommended dose. Is that it for you?’

‘No,’ Jennie said. ‘Well, not necessarily. He has a drug called naloxone with him. The hospital prescribed it alongside his morphine, for emergencies. It’s an anti-opioid.’

‘A what?’

‘An anti-opioid. They’re designed to counter the effects of opioid medications when taken intravenously. Like morphine. So, you take too much morphine, you’ve got maybe a minute, maximum, to take naloxone to counter the effects of it. He keeps a little vial of naloxone with him at all times. Presumably in his desk drawer or something. I don’t know. He doesn’t share that bit with us.’

‘Well,’ Wendy said, ‘that certainly narrows down the suspects list quite a lot.’

‘Not really. He’s always talking about it. Always mentioning it. It’s been his go-to conversation starter since he went to the hospital a couple months ago and first discovered the clot in his leg. He always joked about accidentally overdosing. Which I thought was…kinda morbid.’

‘Yeah, no ,’ Yeri said.

‘It’s true,’ said Jisoo. ‘He did talk about it often.’

Irene studied all of them to see if they might react but they did not. Only Wheein, finishing a glass of whiskey, and Yeri, yawning. She said to Sooyoung, ‘What about you?’

‘What about me?’

‘Did you know about this naloxone?’

‘No.’

‘And you?’ Irene asked Wheein.

‘I don’t know. Maybe he told me about it. I never pay much attention.’

‘How very convenient of you all.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Nothing,’ Irene said. She glanced at Seulgi again. Couldn’t help herself. She was so beautiful, and it was wrong of Irene to think that at a time like now and even more wrong to steal an extra little glance but it had been two long years and in that time she’d thought about Seulgi often and the flame had not dimmed at all and now here she was, just as gorgeous as ever, albeit under completely the wrong circumstances.

‘Boss?’ Wendy said. ‘Boss.’

‘Yeah. Right. Sorry. So, there’s the possibility that someone easily switched his medications around under the cover of darkness. Or even before that. And that he overdosed on morphine.’

‘Jesus,’ Seulgi muttered. ‘What a way to go.’

‘Oh, you would know, would you?’ Yeri said.

‘Actually, I would.’

‘Why? You OD’d on morphine before?’

‘No. But that is strong.’

They turned to her, even Irene, and she shrugged.

‘I trapped a nerve in my lower back last year moving some boxes and . I could barely walk. Honestly thought I was gonna lose function in my legs at one point. They hooked me up to morphine for a week at the hospital. Worst week of my life. That ’ll kill you if you’re not careful. It really is as strong as they say it is, but it takes away the pain. Kinda looks like treacle, too. Like it’s super thick or something. Felt like they were sticking honey into my veins. I was basically in cuckoo land for a week straight. ’

‘Why did you not tell me you went to the hospital?’ Irene said.

‘What?’

‘Why did you not tell me?’

‘Oh, I’m sorry, Miss I Must Know Everything About Seulgi At All Times, for not informing you of my little trip to the hospital a year ago. Maybe I should’ve sent a text. Or a ing business card instead. You know, here I was thinking that all it would take for us to go back to normal was one little conversation upstairs and a bit of kissing. Shows how ing naive I am, I suppose. Jesus, what is it with you and—’

‘Here we go again,’ Yeri said. ‘God, get a room. God knows there’s enough in this house. No one wants to hear this rocky relationship will-they-won’t-they crap. It’s getting boring, honestly.’

‘Listen—’

‘No thank you.’

Irene was quiet. She watched Seulgi arguing. A pang of guilt hit her at having lashed out like that but it was something she couldn’t control and never had been able to – that overprotectiveness. That desire to help Seulgi no matter what, to take her pain away. And sure it was controlling and sure it made little sense when they had been apart for so long but it was there and it wasn’t going away. Not now and not anytime soon.

A silence filled the room that was oddly tranquil. Even Yeri had stopped deliberately provoking the rest of them. They all turned to Irene expectantly, as if she were about to deliver some holy sermon or crucial order with which they could absolve themselves of any wrongdoings or suspicion of such. But instead Irene levelled her gaze at Wheein first and then at Mr Jae and said, ‘What about you two?’

‘I beg your pardon?’ Mr Jae said.

‘I’d like to know about you two.’

‘I’ve never met this woman in my life.’

‘I meant separately. Not, like, as an item.’

‘Oh.’

‘I know about everyone else here. I know Sooyoung is an investor with stakes in H&H Enterprises, which Mr Kim also had a finger dipped into. I know Lisa here is the future chairman of Hyundai Group.’

‘Well, maybe,’ Lisa said.

‘And that Mr Kim also had stocks invested in Hyundai Group, didn’t he?’

With some reluctance: ‘Yes, he did.’

‘And I know that these three—’ she pointed to Rosie, Jennie, Jisoo, ‘work here. And I know that Mr Jang here does too. I – sadly – know about this one here too.’

‘This one,’ Yeri scoffed. ‘Thanks.’

‘And I know Wendy here is a journalist and Seulgi works in art. But I don’t know about you two. Mr Kim never told me that. He said you were business associates, but that could mean about a thousand different things. And I want to know what exactly he meant by that. Did you work together with him? Are you business owners? Things like that.’

They were both quiet, both watching her. Neither seemed to be in the mood to answer anything. Then Wheein shifted where she was sat with her legs crossed on the sofa and said, ‘Both Mr Kim and I are stakeholders in a private equity firm. Well, were both stakeholders. Obviously not anymore. Since…you know. Does that answer your question?’

‘Not really. And you?’

‘You don’t need to know that,’ Mr Jae said.

‘Actually, I kind of do.’

‘I’m not at liberty to answer, so unless you’re going to put me under arrest, I suggest you stop questioning me. Because you’re not going to get an answer.’

‘Why don’t you just answer the question?’ Lisa said.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘You heard me. We all answered.’

‘Actually, no you didn’t,’ Wendy said. ‘Right, boss?’

Irene nodded.

‘None of you answered anything. She just used her incredible deduction skills to work out who you all were and what you did.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Yeri said, ‘but I genuinely cannot tell if you’re being sarcastic or not. You know you’ve got a problem when you’re so dumb that somebody can’t tell if you’re ever being serious.’

‘I guarantee I’m smarter than you.’

‘See? Only a dumb person would say something like that. Smart people know their worth and know not to play it up. Dumb people never think they’re dumb. That’s the curse of the dumb person. It’s also why you can never argue with a dumb person either, because they’ll always believe they’re right. They lack self-awareness. Also, while we’re here and on the topic – why don’t you just arrest them already?’

‘What?’ Irene said.

Yeri nodded towards Wheein and Mr Jae. ‘They’re clearly hiding something,’ she said. ‘Otherwise they’d tell you. At least, that’s what you believe, right? So why not do it?’

‘Hold on a minute,’ Mr Jae said.

‘Maybe she has a point,’ said Lisa.

‘Oh, like you can talk,’ said Sooyoung. ‘What did you spill? That you work for Hyundai Group? You didn’t even admit that! Mr Kim had to do it for you! You’re no better.’

‘And neither are you.’

‘Alright,’ Irene said, ‘that’s enough!’

A strange and eerie silence filled the room. The way they all looked at her there at the head of the sofas made her feel very small and very vulnerable. ‘Mr Jae,’ she said.

‘What?’

‘Is there anything more you’d like to share about what you do?’

‘Not really, no.’

‘Brilliant,’ Yeri said with a laugh. ‘A man who is, A, physically incapable of telling the truth, and B, is scared of honey badgers. Not much of a man at all, huh?’

‘What did you just say?’

‘Hold on,’ Irene said.

‘You ing—’

‘I said hold on!’

‘Do you not understand how dangerous honey badgers are? I’ve seen them eat through the of dozens of men. And they don’t stop there. It’s like they have this voracious appetite for male ia.’

‘What about s?’ Jennie said.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Do they…you know. Do they go after female ia as well?’

‘Oh. Well, I don’t know that. I don’t have a .’

‘Really?’ Yeri said.

‘Now listen—’

Wheein sat forward again. The way she spoke was always quite nonchalant and Irene found it a little unnerving. She set her empty glass down on the table and shifted it again so that it was perfectly neat and said, ‘I propose we hold a vote to kick this one out of the room. Or lock her away somewhere.’

‘What?’ Yeri said. ‘Why me?’

‘To shut you up.’

‘Here here,’ said Mr Jae. Half the room seemed to agree with him. Irene tried to shut them up and realised quite quickly that her authority was dwindling and there was nothing she could do to stop them and so she stepped away and toward the corner of the room, holding her forehead with one hand and wincing. She never even heard Seulgi come up to her.

‘Hey,’ Seulgi said softly.

‘Hi. Sorry.’

‘Are you okay?’

‘Yeah. Just got a headache.’

‘I know that feeling.’

Irene turned around. They were still shouting at each other. None of them appeared to be aware Irene had moved away at all and Wendy had no authority over them either. ‘,’ she muttered.

‘What?’

She turned to Seulgi again. The worry on Seulgi’s face was strangely comforting. It was a look she had missed an awful lot – an encouragement to share whatever was on her mind. An understanding that she didn’t always have to be headstrong and in charge. That around Seulgi she could just be herself. ‘,’ she said again. ‘This – all of this – I’m so bad. So ing bad.’

‘Hey. Hey, don’t say that. Don’t.’

‘I am, Seulgi. It’s true. Yeri had a point. What am I even good for if I can’t solve something this damn simple?’

‘No part of this is simple at all.’

‘How did I ever become a famous P.I? Why does anyone hire me?’

‘Hey. Irene, hey. Stop that, okay? You’re doing it again. You know I used to hate it when you put yourself down like that.’

‘But it’s true though. I’m good for nothing. Here I was thinking I’d be able to sort out a small room of people and I can’t even do that. I can’t do anything right.’

‘Don’t cry.’

‘I’m not crying.’

‘You look too cute when you cry. It makes me want to hug you. And I don’t wanna do that in front of everyone else here, but I will if I have to.’

‘I’m not crying.’

‘You’ve got to be strong in front of the others.’

‘Seulgi, I’m not crying.’

‘Don’t let them see you blubbering like a big baby.’

‘I’m not ing crying, alright?’

‘Okay, good.’

‘God,’ Irene said. The others had not stopped arguing. It sounded like a wall of noise and it made her head throb like it had never throbbed before. ‘What do I do?’ she said. ‘Apart from things up. First I let a man die in his own house. Then I can’t even get the suspects to tell me a few simple things like where they work. Then I break a whole ing room of priceless, four-hundred-year-old Qing pottery. Then I find absolutely nothing useful at the actual crime scene, just a stupid ing safe with a four-digit code and some empty vials and I can’t even figure anything out. Then I it up with you by being selfish and thinking about myself. And then on top of that I—’

She stopped. Something seemed to go off in her head like a Eureka moment because the glare in her eyes had Seulgi taking a step back. ‘What?’ she said. ‘What is it?’

‘Safe.’

‘What?’

‘Qing pottery.’

‘Irene? Are you okay?’

‘He said he was fascinated with it. Especially how it was founded. The Qing dynasty.’

‘What?’

She went on back across the room and called to Yeri. The others ignored her, arguing as they were. ‘Yeri,’ she said. ‘Yeri, come here.’

‘What do you want now?’

‘Can you come here, please?’

‘You mean I have to actually—’

‘Yes. Get up. Now.’

Slowly, as if in mockery, she did. ‘Well?’ she said.

‘What year was the Qing Dynasty founded?’

‘What?’

‘You’re a classics student, you should know. Well, go on.’

‘Uh, 1636. Technically speaking. Why? Wait, why?’

Irene was already halfway up the stairs with Seulgi trailing behind her. She made for Mr Kim’s study two steps at a time. The body had gone fully cold and pale and blue around his lips and blue behind his ears where the blood had stopped and it wouldn’t be long before he began to properly stink and she knew it.

‘What are you doing?’ Seulgi asked. Irene nudged his foot slightly aside and bent down to inspect the safe. It was a big steel thing, all black, with the lone twist dial on the front. She turned it one six three six. It clicked. She felt something depress in her hand. Then she pulled on it and the door opened fully.

‘Oh my god,’ Seulgi said. ‘How did you do that?’

‘1636. The code. The year the Qing Dynasty was formed. God, it was right there in front of me all along.’

‘Is there anything in there?’

Irene took out a whole handful of documents. There were sheaves of paper folded and dogeared and letters and official-looking forms and folders and even a little stamp of approval, like an old signature seal, and a handful of pens and some money and a rosegold Audemars watch and then some other documents too. She held them all up and slapped them on the desk beside Mr Kim’s head and stood up. The grin on her face was almost manic, almost scary.

‘What’s all this?’ Seulgi said.

‘I don’t know. But I think we’ve just blown the doors wide open. Literally, even.’