5:24AM.

It wasn’t until she was at the top of the stairs that she stopped and turned and glanced toward the lounge where Seulgi was asleep and then with her head still throbbing Irene decided to leave her there a little longer. There were more pressing concerns. Things that had been of no importance that now felt suddenly very important indeed. Certain people. She took the note out of her pocket and looked about as if some other party might be privy to her there but she was alone and they had started arguing downstairs and she could hear them very clearly.

She read through it again. In truth she didn’t know what it could mean but surely it meant something. She finished reading it and sighed and put it back where it belonged. Then for a while she stood on the balcony watching them all below. None of them seemed to notice her. Her eyes ran over each of them. Something still seemed off.

‘Why not?’ Wheein said.

‘Because the boys in blue are on their way,’ Yeri said, ‘and I’m willing to bet they want everyone questioned. I mean, I’m not a legal expert or whatever, but…yeah. Plus, have you ing seen the weather out there? You wanna go home in this? It looks like a Stephen King novel.’

‘Which one?’ Rosie said.

‘What?’

‘Which Stephen King novel?’

‘The Stand,’ said Wendy.

‘Does it look like The Stand?’

‘Or maybe The Gunslinger, I suppose.’

‘I was thinking she meant The Mist. Because of, you know…the mist.’

‘The only Stephen King I’ve ever read is Misery,’ said Jisoo.

‘That’s a good one. Maybe it was Firestarter, though.’

‘Look,’ Yeri said, ‘who gives a which Stephen King novel I meant? God, you people are so dense. And why are you so bothered about leaving anyway? And why in such a hurry? You got somewhere to be or something?’

‘No,’ said Wheein, ‘but I don’t want to be stuck here any longer than I have to.’

‘Agreed,’ Wendy said. ‘Also, there’s a corpse right there.’

‘Well, yeah…that too.’

Yeri moved her piece on the board. ‘Really?’ she said. ‘You sure you’re not trying to run off before the police arrive? You’re sounding awfully suspicious right about now.’

‘You can’t do that.’

‘Can’t do what?’

‘That. You moved four squares. You only rolled a three.’

‘What? I—’

‘Don’t pretend you didn’t. You must think I was born yesterday.’

‘I—’

‘Pulling that “You must be guilty” distraction to get ahead. I see through it, don’t you worry. Go on. Down the snake.’

‘,’ Yeri muttered, and put her piece right back at the start. ‘Alright. What about you?’

‘Me?’ Jennie said.

‘Yeah. You.’

‘Oh, so suddenly you’re interested in me?’

‘Not really, no. But Irene was right about these two here, and that got me thinking – we don’t really know anything about you either. You’ve been pretty quiet as well.’

‘I’ve been perfectly not quiet, thank you very much.’

‘What?’

‘You just think everyone is quiet because all you ever do is talk.’

Yeri laughed. ‘Hey,’ she said, ‘with a mouth like mine, why would I ever close it? I could show you, if you like.’

‘You’re disgusting.’

‘What? I didn’t— Jesus, and you think I’m the gross one? Get your mind out of the gutter.’

Jennie folded her arms and clicked her teeth.

‘So, go on, then.’

‘Go on what?’

‘Tell us a bit about yourself. Why you’re here, what you like to do, what’s your favourite hobby, when was your first kiss, how many marshmallows you can fit in your mouth, whether you like mint or vanilla. Stuff like that.’

Jennie was quiet for a long time. Then she said, ‘Well, I—’

‘Nice. Thank you very much for sharing with the group.’

‘But I—’

‘Next person, please? Mr Jang, how about you?’

He was stood off to the side of them still and he looked at Yeri and cleared his throat and said, ‘Well, I don’t know what there is to say. Apparently I’m suspicious or something. I don’t even know what I’ve done wrong. I just work here. I was outside, and then I wasn’t.’

‘You were outside, and then you weren’t. Brilliant. Anyone else?’

‘Why are you so interested in us?’ Rosie said.

‘I’m just trying to make small talk. me, right?’

‘How about I go next?’ Sooyoung said, hands still tied in the kitchen towel, slumped into one of the sofas, looking like something lifted out of a swamp.

‘Not you.’

‘Why not?’

‘I think you’ve done enough talking. Or murdering. Or whatever. Sounded better in my head. What about you?’

‘Me?’ Wendy said.

‘Sure.’

‘What do you wanna know?’

‘How long have you wanted to be a writer?’

‘All my life.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah. Why?’

Yeri shrugged and fiddled with her piece. ‘No reason,’ she said. ‘Just asking.’

‘What about you?’ Wheein asked.

‘What about me?’

‘How long have you wanted to be an annoying little ?’

‘Most of my life, really. I have this super rare disease where I derive extreme ual satisfaction from pissing off people who think they’re better than they really are. It’s why I spend so much time talking to you.’

‘Very funny.’

Yeri shot her the falsest possible smile.

‘I mean it, though. How long have you been the loudest person in any room you enter? There must be a reason for it.’

‘Who are you, Wilhelm Wundt?’

‘What?’

‘C’mon, Wilhelm Wundt? German doctor and psychologist, prominent in the nineteenth century, and notable for opening the Institute for Experimental Psychology at the University of Leipzig, widely regarded as the world’s first centre for studying psychology? Widely regarded as the forerunner of what we now consider modern psychology? No? Nothing? God, read—’

‘A ing book for once in our lives, yeah. I meant it, though.’

‘I bet you did.’

‘What’s the reason? The real reason. Compensating for something?’

Yeri scoffed. But she wouldn’t look Wheein in the eyes. Wheein scooped up the dice and cupped them in her hand and leant forward. ‘C’mon,’ she said. ‘There must be an explanation behind it. Is it some deep-seated issue from your childhood? Maybe something to do with a lack of attention? Maybe you were neglected by a member of your family, or one of your close friends, or you have a particularly harsh memory of something where somebody ignored you and you never want to repeat that again? And so you always have to make yourself known to people, so they’ll never ignore you.’

She moved her piece on the board and continued. ‘Or maybe it runs deeper than that. Maybe it could be that you suffer from long-standing self-confidence and image issues, and you use your words as a weapon to hide that. Kinda like how often clowns are the saddest people in society, despite making the largest amount of people laugh, right? Or comedians, I guess. I think it could be that. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a combination of both. That could possibly explain what feels like a lack of emotional development as well. As if you’ve been stunted or something in your growth. That would explain a great deal. Well? Yeri? What is it?’

‘Six,’ Yeri said.

‘What?’

‘You rolled a six, so why are you moving nine squares?’

Wheein looked at her and at the board again. ‘,’ she said.

‘See? That psychology distraction doesn’t work on me. I know all the tricks of the trade. All of em. I wrote the damn book on the tricks of the trade. I’m, like, the tricktrademaster.’

‘I thought I had you for a minute.’

‘Well, think again, buttercup. By the way, just for the record, I ing hate clowns. And no, that’s not some psychological or whatever, before you start poking and prodding. I wasn’t scared by a clown as a kid, and nobody ever dressed up as a clown and gave me a swirlie in the toilets at school when I was younger, and I’ve never had with somebody dressed as a clown either. I just hate them. Dunno why. Just don’t find them funny at all.’

Wheein only shrugged. Irene watched them from the balcony. It was almost half past five in the morning and soon the sun would come up and the police would be here and still something felt off. So without a word she went on back down the stairs and waited for them to notice her and when they didn’t she cleared and said, ‘You, come with me.’

‘Me?’ Jisoo said.

‘No.’

‘Me?’ Mr Jang said.

Irene sighed. ‘No,’ she mumbled. ‘Sooyoung. With me.’

They all looked at her. Sooyoung looked rather confused. She said: ‘Me?’

‘Yes. You. Come here, please.’

‘Why? You’re not gonna, like, execute me or something, are you?’

‘What?’

‘You’re not gonna take me out back and shoot me or something.’

‘I don’t even have a gun.’

‘Wheein said you did.’

‘I— look, please just come upstairs for a minute. I need to ask you something.’

‘Can’t you ask me it here?’

‘No.’

‘You can.’

‘Alright,’ Irene said. ‘I can. But I’m not going to. Better?’

Sooyoung shrugged and pulled herself up off the sofa and away from the rest of the group.

‘No,’ Yeri called out, ‘don’t let her pet the rabbits, George!’

‘What?’

‘You know, from Of Mice and Men. No? Nobody? Seriously? Like…seriously?’

‘I understand that reference,’ Wendy said with a proud smile.

‘Well, at least one person did, I suppose. God, it’s like being in a house with the world’s most uncultured murder suspects. Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d find myself saying. Man, what a doozy of a day.’

When they were alone in the room at the far right end of the corridor Irene closed the door behind them and stood a moment listening to see if anyone had followed them.

‘What are you doing?’ Sooyoung said.

‘Sit.’

‘What?’

‘On the bed. Sit.’

Slowly she did. She asked: ‘Whose room is this?’

‘It’s Yeri’s bedroom.’

‘Why did you bring me here?’

‘Partly because it’s quiet and out of the way, and partly because I wanted to ask you something. Two things, really. But I’ll start with the most important one.’

‘Well,’ Sooyoung said. ‘Go on, then.’

‘Why did you do it?’

‘Do what? Oh, you mean kill the guy?’

Irene sighed.

‘Do you want, like, a full manifesto, or the post-it note version?’

‘Just the normal length, please.’

‘So, somewhere in between?’

‘Whatever. I just want the reason.’

Sooyoung was quiet. There on the edge of the bed with her face of mud and her tied hands she looked like something from a horror movie and Irene realised with a certain fear that this was not too far from the truth at all. ‘Well,’ Sooyoung said, ‘you were right.’

‘Right about what?’

‘He found out about what I was doing behind closed doors and he was gonna put a stop to it.’

‘The fraud?’

‘Do you have to call it that?’

‘Well.’

‘I wouldn’t exactly call it “fraud,” so to speak.’

‘What would you call it, then?’

‘Look, the point is – it doesn’t matter. He found out. He was gonna fire me. Well, not fire me, but pressure the board of directors. And without H&H Enterprises I’d have basically nothing.’

‘So…you killed him?’

‘You think I worked all my life to get to where I am now, just to have it taken away from me?’

‘You’re, like…twenty-six.’

‘Twenty-four, and yes, exactly. That’s my point. If you’re old and shrivelled and your doesn’t work and you can barely get out of bed in the morning and you’re on god knows what medication and you get suddenly ousted for fraud— I mean, uh…not fraud, but whatever, it doesn’t matter. You’ve lived your life, right? Who cares if you spend your last few years cooped up in some cell? And if you’re old and rich your chances of ever being locked up are, like, zero percent. But me? I’m young, I’m y, I’m free. I’ve got my whole life ahead of me. Do you know what something like a fraud charge and being fired from a company like H&H would do to me? H&H isn’t some small thing. You’re talking about a company big enough to be listed on the NASDAQ. It’s international, baby. And I lose that, at twenty-four? You don’t get it, do you? In the investing world that is like glue. It sticks to you. Follows you around wherever you go. Nobody would be hiring me for the rest of my life. And I’m not on retirement money yet. Well, I mean…I am, but not, you know, retirement retirement money. Not private jet, condos in Turks and Caicos, Bugatti retirement money. More…rented beach house and rented Ferrari and pina colada retirement money.’

‘And now you’ll be spending those years in a cell.’

‘Uh, no, I won’t. Trust me on this one. That I said earlier? About me only getting a couple months maximum, or not even that? Maybe community service? Yeah.’

‘You’ll be looking at twenty years.’

Sooyoung laughed. It was a laugh that Irene hated the sound of, a smugness to it. A sort of coy victory. ‘No offence,’ she said, ‘but there are some things you’re not as knowledgeable on as you think you are. And this is one of them. So, yeah, I killed him. Switched his medicine around and then stabbed him when it didn’t work. And am I gonna get away with it? Yeah, I think I am.’

‘Not really. Your reputation’s ruined. You’re a murderer.’

‘Yeah, I am. And do you know what? That’s cool. That’s a hell of a lot better than being a fraudster. The investment world is corrupt but it’s not stupid. It runs on money, Irene. Money and nothing but. People aren’t people, they’re just these expendable cogs through which more money is extracted. Think of it like one of those machines that makes sausages out of pigs, you know? Except, like, the people are the pigs, and the sausages are the…money…or something. I dunno. But you get me, right?’

‘Why are you admitting all of this to me?’

‘Are you recording?’

‘What?’

‘Are you secretly recording this?’

‘No.’

‘Exactly,’ Sooyoung said. ‘But you should’ve been. Because now it’s your word against mine. And my army of well-funded private lawyers. And however much money I decided to stuff in the judge’s pocket to get me a lighter sentence.’

‘You’re sick.’

‘Am I? I don’t think I am. News flash for you – Mr Kim wasn’t some saint. Nobody in this house is. Nobody on this planet is.’

‘I think that’s a very cynical worldview.’

‘Yeah, well.’ Sooyoung shrugged. ‘So,’ she said, ‘what’s your second question?’

Irene was quiet a while. She thought about the letter in her pocket. Then she said, almost hesitantly: ‘What about Yeri?’

‘What?’

‘I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to be honest with me. Completely honest.’

‘Sure.’

‘Is Yeri your accomplice?’

Sooyoung laughed. ‘What?’ she said.

‘What she was doing earlier, what she was saying…it made me suspicious of her for the first time tonight. Almost like she was trying to draw my attention away from the fact that something feels like it’s not right. As if she were worried I might stumble onto something. And then all of the snakes and ladders. All she ever does is play snakes and ladders. She said she was the best at it. There must be something to that. Must be. I’ve got to be missing something. Is snakes and ladders code for something? Is it a metaphor? Or a riddle, perhaps? Just like how Mr Kim gave Yeri riddles, is she giving one to me? Kind of like how some killers leave calling cards at the scene of the crime, or origami.’

‘Origami?’

‘Yeah. It’s little paper birds and things.’

‘No, I didn’t— forget it. I know what origami is.’

‘Oh.’

‘No,’ said Sooyoung.

‘No, what?’

‘There’s your answer, since you asked so nicely for it. No, Yeri was not – and is not – my accomplice. She’s just got a big mouth. Although, yeah, to be fair to you for once, she did sound a little suspicious, I suppose. But no, she didnt’t help me kill her own granduncle.’

‘Who did, then?’

‘No one.’

‘You don’t have to protect them. Once the police arrive, they’ll figure it out themselves. And then it’ll look worse on you.’

‘What?’ said Sooyoung. She laughed again. This time it sounded almost like disbelief. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘I didn’t have an accomplice. Why do you think I did?’

‘You were right earlier. Climbing out of the window, climbing back in, going around the house, climbing up, stabbing Mr Kim. It all seems too…what’s the word? Difficult? Was it one of the maids? Jisoo would make the most sense, I suppose, considering she was in the kitchen and told us she was accidentally asleep on the job. That would be a convenient excuse, if she truly was helping you. She could’ve easily slipped you a knife through the window. That would’ve saved you time having to climb in. And then—’

‘Man,’ Sooyoung said with a laugh.

‘What?’

‘You really need to get laid.’

Irene rubbed her head.

‘Why are so convinced that I’m still lying to you?’

‘Because it all seems far too convenient. And because—’

‘Because what?’

She was about to say: Because of this letter I found.

‘Irene?’

‘Nothing,’ Irene muttered.

‘You seem wound up.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Like, super wound up.’

Irene nodded and sighed.

‘It can be hard sometimes, I know.’

‘Yeah, it can.’

‘But sometimes you’ve just got to go with the flow. Let it take you wherever. Love is a difficult thing. Everybody wants to be loved, but sometimes it presents itself in mysterious ways. I think it’s got you distracted. I think you should go and be with her.’

‘What? With who?’

‘Seulgi.’

‘I thought you were talking about detective work.’

‘Oh,’ Sooyoung said. ‘Well, that too, I suppose. But also Seulgi.’

‘Who are you, my ing therapist? Why am I even entertaining you right now?’

‘What? How is this my fault? You brought me up here! I was perfectly fine sitting downstairs, waiting for the cops to show up, and then you haul me up here like it’s Guantanamo Bay and lay it on thick and fast with the whole, “Tell me who you’re working with” . What do you expect me to do? I was only trying to be nice for once. Trying to give you some friendly advice, woman to woman. But me, I guess, right?’

Irene sighed. ‘Just go back downstairs,’ she said.

‘Are you gonna talk to Seulgi?’

‘None of your business.’

‘Fine.’ Sooyoung held up her bound hands. ‘Can you take this off, please?’

‘No. It’s for safety.’

‘What, in case I decide to unleash my Viking rage and kill everyone in the house?’

‘Don’t say that.’

‘It was just a joke. God, you act like I dismembered Mr Kim and ate him or some . I just switched a couple bottles around.’

‘And stabbed him in the back.’

‘Oh, yeah. That, too. But still, the point stands.’

‘Please go away now.’

‘Give Seulgi my regards.’

‘Go away.’

‘Sure,’ Sooyoung said. ‘But before I go, one more question – why are you so convinced something else is going on? I mean, something must have you like this, right? Or is this just how detectives behave?’

Irene felt a sudden urge to take the letter out of her pocket. ‘Guess I’m just tired,’ she lied.

‘Is that it? Really?’

‘What’s it to you?’

‘Just curious.’

‘Yeah,’ Irene said with a sigh. ‘That’s it. That’s all it is.’