3:03AM.

‘You ing idiot.’

‘Me?’ Yeri said. ‘What have I done?’

‘You were supposed to watch her.’

‘Why me? Of all the people, you thought I should be the one to watch her? Are you serious?’

Irene leapt down off the toilet lid and pushed past them and back out into the main hall but it was already too late and Sooyoung had gone. ‘,’ she muttered.

‘What do you mean “”?’

‘She’s not here, Yeri!’

‘Well…yeah.’

‘Where do you think she’s gone?’ Jennie said.

Irene rubbed her head. Part of her was sure Sooyoung had already left and they were moments away from hearing the sound of the Ferrari engine waking up outside and another part was convinced she was still in the house, for whatever reason. She looked around for any sign of where Sooyoung might have gone. On the glass table was the little asthma inhaler she’d had with her all day. Irene grabbed it and held it up to inspect it. She pulled the cap down and popped out the little round bottle inside and tipped it upside down. It was hollow. Inside was a small brown vial with a sticker on it in the form of a skull and crossbones and about ten drops of liquid in the bottom. She held it up.

‘Is that from inside the inhaler?’ Jisoo said.

‘Yeah.’

‘Don’t sniff it.’

‘I wasn’t going to.’

‘Well,’ Yeri said, ‘I’m not an expert when it comes to this sort of thing, but I’m fairly certain that whatever you normally put inside inhalers doesn’t have a ing skull on the side of it. Or a hazard warning. So, with that line of deduction…’

‘Cyanide,’ Irene said.

‘Yeah. That. Well, that or it’s a pirate decal. But…I mean…yeah.’

‘Well, that solves the poison stew part.’

‘Boss,’ Wendy said, ‘we should go.’

‘Go where?’

‘Find her.’

‘Well…yes. Good point.’

‘She can’t have gotten far.’

‘No, I don’t expect she could have. But—’

She was interrupted by the sound of a car engine outside burbling into life. A bright cone of headlamp light cut across the front of the building and up against the windows in a sweep and was lost again and they could hear the crunch of pebbles on the driveway as the car began to pull away. Irene was already running to the front doors when Seulgi called to her to ask if that was Sooyoung and to no surprise at all it was. It was still raining outside. Irene stood in the downpour watching the yellow Ferrari pull slowly and laboriously down the driveway and toward the front gates and out into the night.

‘,’ she said. ‘ . Lisa.’

‘What?’ And then, before Irene could reply: ‘No. Forget it.’

‘Hurry up.’

‘You’re not ing driving my car.’

‘Then you drive it! Jesus, stop standing about and do something for once. She’s going to get away.’

‘Who cares?’ Yeri said. ‘I mean, if she’s guilty then why bother following her at all? I’m sure the police will get. Eventually.’

Irene wasn’t listening. She motioned for Lisa to unlock her Nissan and with some reluctance she did so. The others watched them. Lisa stepped into the driver’s side and Irene beside her and Seulgi and Wendy came up to the window and leant over to see if there was any room.

‘Two seats,’ Lisa said. ‘Sorry, it’s a coupe.’

‘Go. Now.’

‘Irene,’ Seulgi said.

Irene turned to her. There in the dark with the rainwater dripping off her hair she looked like something from another world and it was enough to give Irene pause for a moment. To wonder if what she was doing was truly the right thing. If perhaps she should stay at the house instead, sort things out with Seulgi. Just relax for once. Put herself above work. But then Seulgi leant into the car and cupped Irene’s face and kissed her gently and said, ‘Be careful.’

‘I will.’

‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’

‘Yes ma’am. Are you staying here?’

Seulgi looked around. There were other cars on the driveway and one of them was Mr Jae’s Rolls Royce but nobody seemed to be in a mood to drive anywhere at three in the morning. ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘Sorry.’

‘It’s okay.’

‘Don’t die,’ Yeri called out.

‘Are you not coming along?’

‘Nah, I’m good, thanks. I’ve had enough excitement for one day. Think I’m gonna hang back, play some snakes and ladders, you know?’

‘Lisa, go.’

Lisa sighed.

‘Please.’

She dropped the clutch and put the car in gear and sped down the driveway in a blur of dust from the pebbles and was gone. The road was a path that wound downward through the long hills and Irene remembered it sweeping away and sure enough sweep away it began to do. She could see nothing. There was the faintness of the headlamps cutting out about four feet of road and the rain falling slantwise in these conical patches of light and then the wall of the night out in front of them.

‘Don’t lose her,’ Irene said.

‘Lose her? Bit late for that. I can’t see a thing.’

‘Just keep going.’

Lisa sighed again. Irene’s eyes never left the road. They were going one hundred and twenty and part of her was sure they were going to die and that would be the end of it. Killed on a mountain road at three in the morning in the pouring rain, maybe slipping down the mountainside. Rolling in a blaze of glory. She imagined herself in a burning inferno, nothing left of the wreckage, and it made her shudder. Overhead lightning broke in pale electric like remnants of a ghost storm and then and only then did Sooyoung’s yellow Ferrari come into view. It was speeding down the road about half a mile in front of them.

‘There,’ Irene said, pointing.

‘Yeah, I saw. I’ve got eyes, you know.’

‘Just keep going.’

‘What do you think I’m doing?’

‘Can’t you go any faster?’

‘Aren’t you supposed to be following the law or something?’

‘ the law,’ Irene said.

Lisa glanced at her and sighed and built the revs up and put the car into fifth gear. Irene watched the speedometer rise slowly. About a mile downhill the road fed into a junction and beyond that lay only the intestate dark of the trees where it seemed nothing lived and no light had ever existed at all. They watched the Ferrari turn off left and keep going. She was doing at least a hundred and so were they and Irene’s headache was back and there was no sign it was going to subside anytime soon.

‘Keep—’

‘Going. Yeah, I know.’

Half a mile down the road to the left they saw something that they had not expected to see at all. There was no visible road left at all. Or rather what had fallen across the road was some enormous old tree that lay now blocking them from going any further and a tangle of telephone poles and powerlines all ruined in the storm’s mayhem. The Ferrari had stopped. As if Sooyoung in that moment was weighing up her options.

‘Road’s blocked.’

‘Yeah,’ Lisa said with another sigh. ‘I know. God, who are you, Captain Obvious?’

‘Well, she can’t go backwards, can she?’

‘Into us? Who knows? She’s already killed two people tonight. Maybe she’ll make it four.’

‘Five, including her.’

‘Sure.’

‘But— hey, wait, where’s she going?’

‘I don’t know.’

They watched the Ferrari turn off into the clearing at the side of the road and towards the treeline.

‘She’s not…is she?’

‘Looks like it,’ Lisa said.

‘Follow her.’

‘What, are you ing nuts? Follow her? Into the woods?’

‘She’s going to get away if you don’t.’

‘She’s in a Ferrari, Irene! I’m in a Nissan! It’s not a rally car.’

‘I don’t care. Follow her.’

‘This is completely—’

‘Follow her or I’ll shoot you.’

At that Lisa had to laugh. For a moment she just sat there with her hands on the wheel, the engine idling. Then she said, ‘ it,’ and turned right and through the undergrowth towards the trees.

They felt the depression in the land immediately. Coming off the road and into the mud the tyres struggled for grip and the back end of the car was spewing up mud and they could barely see where they were going at all. It was just the rain and the darkness and occasionally the headlights showing them something up ahead that looked marginally like a tree or a great rock and Sooyoung’s Ferrari was somewhere further ahead but they couldn’t see where.

‘Tree,’ Irene said.

‘Yeah, you think I don’t know that?’

‘Thank god it’s flat.’

Lisa laughed in disbelief. They kept on going. It was a good three or four hundred metres before they realised they had no idea where Sooyoung was at all. Whether she’d driven right or gone deeper into the woods or whatever.

‘Where did she go?’ Irene said.

‘Why are you asking me? I can’t see .’

‘Well why didn’t you— wait! She’s there!’

Irene pointed ahead. They saw the smoke first. A faint lash of flame. The front of the Ferrari was wrapped around a tree and the hood was slowly burning and the glass from the front windscreen had been blown out completely and from the wreckage rose a thin and blueish tendril of smoke that vanished in the rain and came back again immediately. Then more smoke. Lisa turned the car so that the headlamps washed out the shape of car and driver and tree all in one frame of reference and then she stopped entirely. Sooyoung was crawling out the passenger side and into the mud like some spelaean thing excavated from the earth. She didn’t even look back at them.

‘For ’s sake,’ Irene said.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Keep the engine running.’

But Irene never moved. She just sat there, watching the smoking Ferrari through the windscreen in silence.

‘Irene.’

‘What?’

‘You gonna go and arrest her?’

‘In a minute. I’m not a fan of this rain.’

For the first time all day Lisa actually laughed.

‘Let me ask you something.’

‘Go ahead.’

‘Why did he invite you today?’

‘What?’

‘Mr Kim. Why did he invite you?’

‘Same reason he invited you, I assume. For dinner.’

‘Did he, though? Do you believe that?’

‘What are you getting at?’

Irene rubbed her head and sighed. The rain beat on. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘But something doesn’t feel right to me. It’s felt off all day. All of this, everything that’s happened…it’s like Mr Kim knew. Like he had it all planned out beforehand. Either that or it’s all just one big coincidence, and I don’t know if I can reconcile with that.’

‘In what way?’

‘Well, firstly, all the people he invited along. You and Wheein, sure. Sooyoung and Mr Jae, too. But me? I’m a P.I. I’ve got no business acumen. And then Seulgi. And then Wendy, despite the fact he didn’t like her. The maids go without saying, as does Mr Jang. And Yeri, too, who was apparently estranged, whatever that’s supposed to mean. And then the will in the box upstairs, and all the documents in the safe. I don’t know…it just feels a little too fishy to me.’

‘Are you saying he planned his own death?’

‘I don’t know. What do you think?’

‘Well,’ Lisa said. For a long time she was quiet. She looked to be deep in thought. Then she said: ‘I think if you don’t hurry up she’s gonna get away.’

‘What? Oh, right. .’

Irene opened the door and stepped out into the rain and was soaked instantly. Somewhere out there distant thunderheads cracked in violence and the rain kept on coming. The mud was almost up to her knees. Sooyoung collapsed out of the passenger door and stumbled up and slipped and fell against the crumpled hood of the Ferrari and went facedown in the mud like she had been shot.

‘Alright,’ Irene said, dragging herself through the brush like an old woman.

Sooyoung made no reply.

‘Stop.’

She tried pulling herself up and looked back at Irene and Irene almost laughed at the state of her face. Just mud everywhere. Nothing but her beady little eyes and half of a mouth and mud.

‘You can stop now.’

Sooyoung stood leaning against the Ferrari. What was left of it.

‘You want to run some more?’ Irene said.

‘No,’ Sooyoung said, gasping for air. ‘No, I’m good. My cardio is terrible.’

‘Cardio?’

‘Yeah. Truly awful. I got winded just climbing out over the seat divider.’

‘Well, you were in a car crash.’

‘That’s true. I’ll take that one. That’s a nice excuse. Thanks.’

‘Come on.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘Back to the house.’

Sooyoung looked about at the night. ‘I’d rather stay here,’ she said.

‘And I’d rather be with Adriana Lima right now, but we can’t all get what we want, can we?’

‘What?’

‘Nothing. Come on.’

‘Am I under arrest?’

‘Sure,’ Irene said. ‘Can we please get out of this rain? I’m going to catch a cold.’

‘How are you gonna take me back? It’s got two seats.’

Irene glanced back at the Nissan, the engine idling, the headlight beams like holy light. ‘You can sit in my lap,’ she said.

Sooyoung broke into an exhausted laugh. She looked like a woman on the brink of sudden death. ‘Sit in your lap,’ she said. ‘What will Seulgi think?’

‘I don’t know. Let’s find out.’

When they were by the car Lisa stepped out and squinted at them through the rain and said, ‘How do you suppose to get her in the car, then?’

‘She’s going to sit on my lap.’

‘What? But what about—’

‘Seulgi. Yeah, I know.’

‘Uh, no. I don’t give a about Seulgi. I was going to say: what about that mud? Don’t get that on my seats, yeah? It’s so hard to scrub out, especially with leather. God, I hate stains. I should’ve never agreed to this. And you.’

‘Me?’ Sooyoung said.

‘You’re a ing psychopath.’

‘What? Why?’

‘Oh, do you mean apart from the fact you killed two people? Murdered them, even, in cold blood.’

‘Oh, please. Victimless crimes.’

‘Well— wait, what? Victimless? But—’

‘Yeah,’ Sooyoung said, ‘I know. It was just something someone said earlier and it stuck with me. Thought it sounded kind of cool. I think maybe I’m going to start saying that a lot more often in the future. It’s a great excuse. Get caught stealing something? Pfft. A victimless crime. Hurts nobody.’

‘Well, I’m sure you’ll have a lot of time for that in jail.’

‘Prison.’

‘What?’

‘Jail is the local and municipal level, where they detain you for short stays. Prison is where you go when you’re getting life behind bars, which I expect I will.’

‘You don’t see too beaten up about it.’

Sooyoung shrugged. ‘It is what it is,’ she said. ‘I’ve had a good run. I’ve done all the things I want to do. I’ve met the people I want to meet. Loved the people I want to love. Slept with the people I want to sleep with – mostly, some I didn’t as well, but hey, Tequila does wild things. I’m content with where I’ve ended up. So be it. We all meet our fate eventually.’

Lisa was silent.

‘And now you want the real reason, don’t you?

‘Yeah.’

‘I’d be very surprised if I serve a single day over four years – at the absolute maximum – for this. Maybe only eighteen months. Hell, maybe I’ll get off with community service and a slap on the wrist and a cheeky little fine.’

‘For a double homicide?’

‘Never underestimate the power of a good lawyer. Or, in this case, an army of good lawyers. Well-funded ones, too. Very well-funded. Yeah, I think I’ll be just fine. And if I’m not, at least the story’s ironic, no?’

Lisa just shook her head.

‘Come on,’ Irene said. ‘Get in.’

‘Wait.’

‘What?’

The rain kept falling. Irene could see barely anything through it, but she could see Sooyoung’s face beside her, Sooyoung’s dazed grin, Sooyoung struggling not to giggle. ‘I’ve always wanted to say this next bit,’ she said. ‘Just like in the movies.’

‘Say what?’

‘Am I being detained?’

Irene sighed. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘you’re being detained.’