9:53 PM.

‘And that wasn’t even the worst part either. I mean, it was pretty bad, but I’ve seen worse than that personally. And so have my housemates. They’ve seen me in more compromising positions than that, if you get my drift. The fact that he didn’t even know my name wasn’t the worst part either. I mean, he kept calling me Yeeun for some reason. I was like, “Bro, it’s Yeri,” and he just ignored me. But whatever, that wasn’t all that bad. No, the worst part was what happened next. So it’s, like, eleven PM, and my housemate text me just after ten and to say she’s not gonna be home until midnight, but I guess something must’ve come up because she gets home an hour early at eleven and opens the front door and walks in and he’s just standing there, right in the middle of the room, completely - , covered from head to toe in clown paint. And I mean real clown paint too, the water-resistant that’s almost impossible to rub off, none of this basic Halloween Joker and Harley Quinn from eBay or whatever.

‘I mean, ignoring the specifics for a moment, the mere fact this guy agreed to wear it is kinda impressive on my behalf, don’t you think? I had him wrapped around my finger. This guy would have literally done anything I wanted him to. If I had told him to jump off a cliff, he would’ve asked me which cliff. That’s the level we’re talking. That’s the effect I had on this guy after, like, six hours of knowing each other. And I mean, not to toot my own trumpet or anything, but there’s good reason for that. I could a golf ball through a straw. You won’t believe how far that gets you with some people. And not just guys either. Has its uses with both genders, if you catch my drift. I’m like a biual’s wet dream or something.

‘But anyway, back on topic – he’s there in this red and yellow clown paint, and he’s got this clown nose on, and he’s painted his lips all red too, and to top it all off he’s got this red wig on, and the paint – get this – the paint on his face is just completely ing white. He looks like a ghost. At first I honestly thought it was chalk. It’s hilarious, and also strangely kind of a turn on. Don’t ask me why. It just was. His whole face. I mean this is, like, the best Ronald McDonald cosplay you’ve ever seen in your life, except, y’know…he’s . And so there I am, laid out on the couch, just as as he is, and I’m dressed like Colonel Sanders – you know, the KFC guy? Except the female version.

‘Yeah, I’ve got this grey wig on and this grey beard like I’m Guy Fawkes or something, and I’ve got this little y bowtie on that looks kinda like a choker, and that’s all I’m wearing – my clothes are on the floor somewhere. And we’re already totally drunk by this point. Totally, totally drunk. I’m talking, like, a whole bottle and a half of Tequila between us, and some limes too, I mean we were slamming it back like it was water or something. And we’re there, about to get frisky, and he’s just standing there in the middle of the livingroom, and then my housemate opens the door and walks in, and the first thing she sees is me, , with my legs spread and my little Colonel Sanders moustache, and right at that moment – right at that ing moment, the worse possible timing – he opens his stupid mouth and says, “Daddy Ronald wants the Colonel.” And then she sees him, and you know what I said about the clown paint? That he’d covered himself head to toe in it? Yeah, well, he turns to her, and she sees that he’s also painted his— .’

‘What?’ Wheein said. ‘He painted his ?’

Yeri never finished her story. The next thing she said was: ‘What the are they doing here?’

Everybody turned to the staircase. None of them had heard Irene and Seulgi coming down the stairs, least of all Lisa, and when she saw them the look on her face was as if she had seen something raised from a morgue, as if it were Mr Kim or Mr Jae given animation again.

‘How did you get out?’ Sooyoung asked.

Seulgi shrugged, her best air of nonchalance about her. ‘Oh, you know,’ she said, ‘climbed out the window, scaled the side of the building, slipped in through one of the upstairs windows. No biggie. Nothing out of the ordinary. And I kind of wish we’d just stayed in that boiler room now, after hearing all that. So, thanks Yeri.’

‘You’re welcome,’ she said. She was almost smiling. As if she were in some way happy to see them alive and well and back. Irene rubbed her head. They all watched her intensely, Lisa most of all. The knife was still on the glass table at a ninety-degree angle beside two bottles of whiskey and two glasses. Mr Jae was still there. Nobody had touched him at all.

‘God,’ Wendy said, ‘I knew you’d find a way out, boss. I just knew it.’

‘Thanks.’

‘I was telling them how I thought they’d made a mistake and how you were the one who was going to solve this case. And they wouldn’t listen.’

‘Uh huh. So, where are we up to now?’

Silence.

‘Well?’

‘I’m sorry,’ Lisa said, ‘but we voted you out, remember?’

‘Yeah. And now we’re back. So what are you going to do about it? Vote us out again?’

‘Actually, yeah.’

‘Woah, woah, woah. Wait a minute. Just…hold on for a minute. Hear me out. I know who did it.’

‘I’m sure you do.’

‘Just let me finish first.’

Lisa sighed. ‘Alright,’ she said. ‘Whatever. Make it quick.’

‘Thanks. First of all, I’d like to say a big thank you for putting us in that boiler room. Great plan, very well executed.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Secondly – Yeri, you need to have a little more privacy, I think.’

‘What?’ Yeri said. ‘Why? I was just telling a story. Don’t shame me for my kinks, man. That’s not cool.’

‘I’m not. I’m just…you know. For your own sake.’

‘Whatever.’

‘And thirdly, like I said, I know who did it.’

‘Yay. Presentation time.’

‘Okay, actually, before I start, let me back up real quick. I’ve got to ask – Yeri, what are you doing here?’

‘What?’

‘Well, you voted to let us stay.’

‘Yeah.’

‘So why are you still here?’

Yeri looked blankly at Irene. Then she said: ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Did they not…vote you out as well?’

‘Uh, no.’

Irene glanced at the others for an explanation.

‘She’s not a threat,’ Lisa said.

‘A threat to what, exactly?’

‘To getting in the way of sorting this whole thing out. She’s not incompetent or misleading. She’s just annoying.’

‘That is the most suspicious sentence I have heard in literally my entire life.’

‘Got a point,’ Yeri said. ‘Maybe you shoulda voted me out. But on second thoughts…thanks for, you know, not doing that. Really appreciated.’

Irene motioned to Seulgi and Seulgi stepped away. ‘Okay,’ Irene said. ‘Whatever. Forget I said anything. Do I have your full attention?’

Predictably, silence.

‘When I found those documents in Mr Kim’s safe earlier, which are…where, by the way?’

‘Oh,’ Wendy said, ‘they’re here. Sorry, boss. I kept them warm for you.’

‘Thanks.’

She took the sheaf of papers from Wendy and pulled one out and set it at the front of the pack and continued.

‘I went through and found information on all of you. Names, company names, occupations – you name it. I confronted each of you about it. Got you to tell the truth. To spill your secrets. Some of you were rightfully angry, and I get that. But one person in particular stuck out to me.’

‘Who?’ Sooyoung said.

‘You.’

‘Me?’

‘No. You.’

‘Me?’ said Lisa.

‘No, not you. I meant you.’

‘Me?’ said Mr Jang.

‘No, not you either.’ Irene pointed at Wheein. ‘You.’

Wheein looked around the room. ‘Me?’ she said.

‘Yes. You.’

‘Why me?’

‘Because I mentioned that you’re a key investor at Front House Publishing company. You even have a permanent seat on the board of directors, which gives you significant power there. You’re partially responsible for stocks, stock options, money flow, contracts, things like that. Your everyday business things.’

‘Where are you going with this?’

‘I mentioned everyone else here as well. Everyone apart from Mr Jae – god rest his soul – because I couldn’t find anything on him.’

Wheein remained quiet.

‘Well, that was a lie. A straight-up, boldfaced lie on my behalf. I did find documents on Mr Jae. I just had to test something out first.’ She pulled another document from the middle of the pack. ‘Here,’ she said. ‘You want to know what business interests Mr Jae here had? He’s the CEO of a large company. Been there eight years now. Do you know what that company is? Would anyone like to hazard a guess?’

‘Ooh,’ Yeri said, ‘me, me me.’

‘Go on.’

‘Oh, I’m gonna love this next part. It’s like Poirot or something.’

‘Yeri.’

‘Is it Front House Publishing company?’

‘Yes it is.’

‘What?’ Lisa said. The rest of them turned to Wheein as if looking for an explanation but she could not or would not give one. There she remained, eyes never leaving Irene.

‘Mr Jae is – or was, rather – the CEO of Front House,’ Irene said. ‘the same company that Wheein is on the board of directors for. That whole bit he did earlier? When he said, “I’ve never met this woman before in my life?” Yeah, that was just a straight-up lie. He knew you very well, didn’t he? And so did Mr Kim. Except that’s not the only thing I found, because why would Mr Kim have a document in his safe that simply explained who you are? He knows that already. He’s met you before. That would be weird, so no, of course he wouldn’t. The document here isn’t for that. It’s the exact thing I talked about earlier, a rough draft copy, the condensed notes version if you will, of a much longer contract proposal. A proposal led by Mr Kim to completely buy out and take over Front House Publishing. And if he did that, well…there’s no telling what changes would be coming after. Except, of course, there is.’

She pulled another document out of the pile.

‘This is a brief list of shareholders and investors that would have an important role to play in the switchover. All the people who would be in positions of influence and power once the takeover had happened. And guess whose name is curiously absent from this list?’

‘Let me guess,’ Lisa said. ‘Wheein’s?’

‘Winner winner, chicken dinner. And not just Wheein’s – Mr Jae’s name isn’t on here either. And the reason is obvious. Look.’ She pulled out a third sheet. ‘Here,’ she said, ‘is a draft version of the legal case between the purchasing party, that’s Mr Kim and his consortium, and the selling party – that’s Mr Jae and his associates. And it’s a very short list of associates, too. Seems he wasn’t all that popular when it came to people backing him as CEO. This list is dated to August of this year. Now here’s that exact same list, dated one month later. You want to know what I found when I was reading through the two and comparing them? On this one here, the earlier list, your name is on the list of Mr Jae’s backers. And on this one, the later one, it’s gone. No Wheein at all. Which seems to suggest to me that you went back on your word to Mr Jae, didn’t you? You promised you would support him in his campaign to keep control of Front House, presumably involving a vote on the board of directors or something similar, and then in a desperate effort to keep your job you went back on your word. You betrayed him. You up to Mr Kim, thinking that your sudden show of allegiance would encourage him to keep you on the board of directors once he took over. But it didn’t work, did it? He still wanted you gone. He was planning on buying out the company and forcing both you and Mr Jae out of a job. Wasn’t he, Wheein?’

The look on her face was anger and confusion. ‘What are you—’

‘Talking about? You knew he was going to kick you out. Ruin your career. Everything you’ve ever worked for, gone just like that. That’s why you’ve been here all the time recently, so much so that the maids have even set out a bedroom for you at the end of the hallway. You gave yourself every possible opportunity to try and convince Mr Kim to let you stay, to keep you on, even if the role wasn’t as big, but he just wouldn’t relent, would he? He wanted you gone and there was nothing you could do about it. So, you picked the final resort. You killed him.’

‘That’s hilarious.’

‘You’d spent enough time here that you knew the place practically inside and out. Almost as well as Mr Kim himself. You’ve been here in the past month, too, so you knew about his medications – Jennie herself mentioned that he used it all the time as a conversation starter. Right?’

Jennie nodded.

‘You knew about the naloxone, you knew about his morphine, and you knew about the Heparin he was taking for his leg complications.’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘Come on. Stop lying. The game is up.’

She shifted, awkward and uncomfortable in her sofa seat. Even the whiskey glass on the table had gone untouched, its angle a slight off centre, marginally more than ninety degrees for once. Lisa ran a hand through her hair and stood up and nodded to Irene and said, ‘So, go on then. Tell us the rest.’

Irene cleared and continued. ‘You planned it to a tee. You knew this weekend was scheduled to be terrible weather and that it would give you an excuse when it came to cutting out the power lines, so you booked the time up here to try and reason with Mr Kim one final time. But it didn’t work. He didn’t listen. The maids said they saw you coming and going from his office to talk with him these past few days. But he just wouldn’t listen no matter what, would he?’

Wheein was silent. Perhaps it was shock or perhaps a visceral anger but Irene couldn’t quite tell and it unnerved her. ‘So, at the last possible minute,’ she continued, ‘you made up your mind. You were going to do what had to be done, for the sake of your career. With Mr Kim out of the picture, the consortium of buyers he had organised would fall apart, and there would be no selling of Front House, so you would keep your job on the board of directors. And presumably Wendy here would keep her contract too.’

‘Is that right?’ Wendy said.

‘No,’ Wheein replied.

‘So you planned it all out,’ said Irene. ‘You made sure to stay in the room right down there along the hallway, so that you had easy access to the generator room just next to it. But then, a of pure luck – the storm knocks out the generator without you needing to do anything. That was at five minutes past five in the evening. I was upstairs with Seulgi and Yeri when it happened. Things couldn’t have gone better for you if God himself had come down and helped you out. Then, under the cover of that darkness, you slipped into Mr Kim’s office when he was upstairs with Mr Jae and switched his medicines around, and just to make sure there’s no chance of the plan going wrong you steal the naloxone from his bag and hide it.

‘That should’ve been enough to kill him, but for some reason it wasn’t. Either he didn’t take the medicines, or he didn’t take enough, or it wasn’t working quick enough. Whatever the reason, you couldn’t risk him dying over dinner – or even worse, not dying at all. So, this time you take it upon yourself to cut the power and the phone lines. This was at five fifty-six PM. And just to make doubly sure you don’t look suspicious, you cut the lines in the generator upstairs, as far away from your bedroom as possible. Then it’s as easy as taking a knife – which presumably you had already taken ahead of time, with your easy access to the kitchen – walking upstairs, opening his door, and then, while he couldn’t see you in the dark, and while he was dosed up on morphine, stabbing him in the back, killing him instantly. Stabbing him in the back because the blood spray would be lessened by the impact, and you could simply walk out, blood-free, and pretend nothing had ever happened.

‘But you know this isn’t enough – you need to give yourself more cover. So, instead of simply walking back out of his study and leaving, which would leave you at risk of being spotted should the backup generator come on too soon, you open the window and climb down the trellising outside, slipping and breaking a piece off in the process. Then finally, you walk back around the building, climb back into your bedroom through the window, dry yourself off, and poke your head out of the door just in time to hear Jennie here scream as she discovers the body. And then, once all that’s out of the way, you figure something out. You realise that you’re not the only one who knows about Front House – Mr Jae does too. He knows all about you being forced out, just as he is. You start freaking out. You realise he’s going to discover it was you, so you do the only thing you can – you kill him, too. You take what’s left of the morphine and put it in the stew and you wait for him to eat it and voila, the only person who could realistically tie you to the crime is now dead, choked to death on chicken stew, right here. A near-perfect crime. Well, apart from a few things, of course, such as fingerprints, DNA testing, alibis, and whatever else. And also this single blonde hair that I found upstairs in his study. But hey, nobody ever said murderers were perfect.’

‘Where are the gloves?’ Jisoo said.

‘What?’

‘You said fingerprints. I think she must’ve used gloves to hide her identity.’

‘Oh. Well, yes. Maybe. I didn’t think of that.’

‘Come to think of it, that makes a lot of sense,’ said Mr Jang. They looked at him for an answer and he continued. ‘Every time we get guests Mr Kim used to ask me to show them around the gardens. I guess that’s how she knew about the trellising.’

They all looked at him in silence. The look on Irene’s face had him wanting to be somewhere else.

‘What?’

‘Why didn’t you ing tell us that earlier?’ she said.

Mr Jang shrugged. ‘Didn’t think it was important.’

‘Jesus Christ. I don’t believe it. I am genuinely stuck in a house with the most— you know what? Never mind. Glad to have that out of the way. Back on topic.’

‘Hold on just a minute,’ Wheein said. ‘This is the most ludicrous I’ve ever heard in my life. What do you honestly expect me to say to something like that?’

‘Nothing,’ Lisa said. ‘That sounds good enough for me.’

‘What? Wait. Hey, I said wait! Where are you going?’

Nobody answered. Half of them were already across the room. Sooyoung was the first one into her bedroom and the first to look around and then Irene and Wendy followed her and Lisa too, knife in hand, as if Wheein might decide to fight back at any moment. But she did not. She just stood there, right at the back of the pack, watching them helplessly. First they tipped over and emptied out her suitcase and then searched under the bed and in the cupboards where her spare clothes were hung and finally in the chest of drawers beside the bed and it was here in the second drawer down that Irene paused.

‘What?’ Wendy said. ‘Boss?’

It was a single small vial in a green bottle labelled NALOXONE, nestled atop a bunch of post-it notes all neatly sorted into perfect piles and pens still in their packaging and all put at right angles like Tetris blocks and a bottle of water slotted in just as routinely at the back of the drawer. The naloxone looked like it had been thrown in there without any care in the world. As if Wheein had been in a hurry. Irene glanced at the window. Big enough to fit a person through, even if it was tight. Wheein was busy picking up her clothes and folding them neatly and she stopped and looked at the rest of them like they were vultures at a feast and cleared and said, ‘What?’

Irene held up the vial. ‘Naloxone,’ she said. ‘Stolen from Mr Kim’s study.’

‘What? I’ve never—’

‘Seen it before? Yeah, I bet.’

‘I mean it. I swear on my life, I have no idea how that got there.’

‘Damn,’ Yeri said, and tried in vain to fight back a laugh.

‘What?’

‘You know what, Irene? For once that was actually kind of impressive. I’m impressed. Well done.’

‘Thanks,’ Irene said, and almost even cracked a smile.