6:24PM.

It was the first time she’d seen the dining hall and it took her a moment to just soak it in, opulent and absurdly over the top as it was. The dinner table looked like something from Arthur’s roundtable, long varnished teakwood arranged with about a hundred platters and expensive plates and polished cutlery all winking in the pale gold light from the overhead chandeliers. Against the far wall were two sets of knight armour that looked like guards and an old grandfather clock counting out the time and various other bits of furniture and on the table were four unopened bottles of red wine in an ice bucket and glasses left out for every person in the house. They entered and Wendy closed the grand doors behind them.

‘Take a seat, please,’ Irene said.

Rosie looked at her uneasily.

‘Please. It’s okay, you’re not in any trouble. I just want to ask you some questions.’

She pulled out one of the chairs and sat with her hands neatly in her lap like a child while Irene paced up and down.

‘What are you thinking?’ Wendy said.

‘I’m thinking I should’ve brought a notepad along with me.’

‘To a dinner party?’

‘You never know when you might need one.’

‘Oh, .’

‘What?’

‘My Notes app! I can use that. Will that work?’

‘Uh, sure. I guess it will.’

‘I’ll be right back.’

Irene turned to Rosie and smiled apologetically. ‘Sorry,’ she said.

‘It’s okay,’ said Rosie. Her voice was high and light and almost airy and it made Irene feel rather bad for questioning her. There was something about her that seemed quite reserved – as if she didn’t truly belong.

‘Can I ask your name?’

‘Rosie. Oh, like, my full name?’

Irene shrugged. She waited for Wendy to come back and grin at her dumbly and say, ‘My phone.’

‘Seulgi just gave it to you?’

‘Yeah. I told her you asked for it.’

‘And she just…gave it to you?’

‘Yeah? Guess she trusts you. What?’

‘Nothing,’ Irene said, and turned to Rosie again.

‘Roseanne,’ she said. ‘My name’s Roseanne Park. I’m Australian. Moved here when I was young with my family. Been working here since, well, since forever, really. Well, since I was old enough to work.’

‘How old are you now?’

‘Twenty-three. Been working here since I was seventeen.’

‘How is it?’

‘It’s good. I enjoy it. I mean, it pays well, and I get on well with everyone. It’s nice.’

‘Not anymore,’ Wendy said.

‘No, I guess not.’

Irene coughed and cleared . ‘Where were you at the time of the murder?’ she said.

‘I don’t know. I don’t know when he was murdered.’

‘Right. We haven’t established that part yet.’

‘How are we gonna do that?’ Wendy said. Irene thought about for a while. She stood there with one knuckle up to and she was silent for an uncomfortable amount of time before she snapped her fingers and said, ‘The power went out at five minutes past five. It came back on at eight minutes past. That’s a three-minute window when the power went out, where nobody could see anything.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘I checked my watch. It’s a dumb habit of mine.’

‘Like OCD?’

‘Sure, I guess. Except not quite. I know what OCD looks like, and it’s not that. Anyway, it was a three-minute window.’

‘Okay. Five oh five, to five oh eight.’

‘Yeah,’ Irene said. ‘Except that doesn’t mean anything, because Seulgi and I came out of a room upstairs about ten minutes later and saw Mr Kim with Mr Jae at the top of the stairs. He told us he’d been showing Mr Jae his priceless collection of Qing artefacts upstairs.’

‘Are they actually Qing artefacts?’

‘What?’

‘Oh, you know. I just thought it was something he was saying. Like, it was a euphemism or something.’

They both turned to Rosie. ‘No,’ Rosie said. ‘He actually does have a big collection of Qing artefacts. Vases, cups, pottery. Stuff like that. He loves the Qing Dynasty for some reason. Never really told us why. Well, loved.’

‘Huh. Neat.’

‘Anyway,’ Irene said, ‘we saw Mr Kim – alive – at roughly five fifteen, on the balcony with Mr Jae.’

‘How was he?’

‘What?’

‘I mean, how did he look?’

‘Well, he didn’t have a knife in his back for starters. So, better than he does now.’

‘Fair enough.’

‘Then he showed us around the kitchen. He was going to introduce us to you, Rosie, and to Jennie, but you weren’t there. So then I took some canapés.’

‘What?’ Rosie said.

‘I took some canapés. To eat.’

‘Why is that relevant?’

‘I’m just getting a picture of everything.’

‘She’s good,’ Wendy said, almost with adoration in her voice. ‘This is what experts do, you see? They take in every little detail. Paint that picture in their heads. A beautiful, flowing landscape of stuff. Including canapés. That’s why she’s a pro. Right, Irene?’

‘Right, I guess. Anyway, we were there in the kitchens. You and Jennie were somewhere else.’

‘We went to set the table and get everything prepared. And I went to go put away the laundry upstairs. There’s a closet with all the—’

‘I know, I’ve seen it.’

‘Oh.’

‘So, we were in the kitchen. That was about twenty past five. Then Mr Kim said he needed to go back to his office.’

‘Oh, he would’ve gone to his study.’

‘Sorry?’

‘His study,’ Rosie said. ‘He would’ve gone to his study, not his office. Or maybe he went to his office first, I don’t know. But at half past five every evening he has to take his medicine, so he would’ve done that.’

‘Medicine? What medicine?’

‘About two hundred milligrams of Heparin before his evening meal, and then again every morning before he gets dressed. Usually in the morning it's much more. And twenty milligrams of morphine for his back pain.’

‘Holy ,’ Wendy said. ‘He injects ing morphine at home?’

‘Yes.’

‘I thought you were only allowed to do that at hospital?’

‘Well, you thought wrong.’

‘Mr Kim was hardcore as . Damn.’

‘He injects this every day?’ Irene asked.

‘Yes,’ Rosie said. ‘Sometimes it was more than once a day, if the pain got bad. The morphine, I mean. But always at five thirty in the evening, always in his study. And he always insisted on doing it himself. Said he hated getting help from any of us. He was always too proud for that. The Heparin’s only a recent thing.’

For a moment she looked very miserable. As if she were about to cry.

‘Do you need a tissue?’ Wendy said.

‘Do you have one?’

‘No. Sorry.’

‘Okay,’ Irene said. ‘Wendy, are you writing this down?’

‘Oh, yeah. Sorry. My bad.’

‘So, at five twenty something, he goes upstairs, likely first to his office as he said he would to us, then to his study for his evening medicine.’

Rosie shrugged.

‘So, what?’ Wendy said. ‘Someone snuck in and killed him then?’

‘No. We saw him again, remember? Just before six PM he came out onto the balcony and told us to fetch everyone for dinner.’

‘Right. Yeah.’

‘That was the last time I saw him.’

‘Me too.’

‘Rosie?’

‘I was in the kitchen,’ Rosie said. ‘God, I can’t believe he’s gone.’

‘I know. Take your time.’

‘I just—’

‘It’s okay.’

‘My family.’

‘What?’

‘Nothing.’

Irene and Wendy looked at each other. ‘Okay,’ Irene said, ‘so we know that the last time he was seen alive was about half an hour ago, just before six PM. Then he presumably went back to his study.’

‘And then the power went off again,’ Wendy said.

‘Correct. It was off for about seven minutes, give or take.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘I was checking my phone.’

‘God, you’re good,’ Wendy said with a beaming grin.

‘It comes with the territory. So, between five fifty-six and six oh three, the power was out. Then the power comes back on, and a couple minutes later the first person to find Mr Kim in his study – dead, this time – is Jennie, who screams and alerts everybody else.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Well, that’s our timeline. Roughly speaking. There might be a few holes in it along the way.’

‘Okay, so now what?’

Irene was quiet again, thinking. She turned to Rosie, hands still in her lap, and said, ‘Were you close with Mr Kim?’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Were you close with him? You said you’d been working here seven years.’

‘About as close as you can be with your employer,’ she said. ‘He was always good to us. The money was good.’

‘Do you sleep here?’

‘Sometimes. We’ve got our own bedrooms. But it’s usually only for when he’s in bad health and one of us has to stay late to see to him and we can’t make it back home for the night. Jennie and I don’t even have cars. It’s about two hours to the bus stop, you know? Imagine that when it’s eleven at night and you’re on your own and god knows what is out there. That’s why we usually stay here.’

‘Do you get much of a social life?’

‘Not really. But it comes with the job. I can’t complain, really.’

‘What about your family?’

‘What?’

‘You mentioned your family.’

Rosie’s whole demeanour changed. She sat upright and wiped her palms on her apron and said, ‘I didn’t mean anything by it. It was a stupid thing to say. I was just…worried.’

‘Worried about what?’

‘Nothing. It’s just…god. Just something dumb I said in the moment. Ignore me.’

‘What do you know of Yeri?’

‘Not a lot,’ Rosie said. ‘I mean, she comes and goes sometimes. Every couple of months. Never really says anything to any of us. Just barges in and goes right on up to her room and then speaks to Mr Kim and then leaves again. Rude as hell, too. I don’t know how or why he put up with her. Maybe because she’s family, I guess. But he even—’

‘Had a bedroom set out for her. I know.’

‘I was going to say he even lets her beat him at snakes and ladders. And he’s always asking her to figure out riddles for him and stuff, but she never does. For some reason he used to love riddles. All sorts of riddles. And she couldn’t even have the decency to indulge him that much. But that too, yeah.’

‘Why do they play snakes and ladders?’ Wendy said.

‘What?’

‘Instead of chess. Or at least checkers.’

‘How should I know?’

‘The plot thickens.’

‘Wendy,’ said Irene. ‘Focus.’

‘Right. Sorry. So, what now?’

Irene ran a hand through her hair. ‘What can you tell us about the others here?’ she said. ‘In confidence. Nothing you say will come from you, I promise. They won’t know.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Do you know any of them? Have they been here before? Seen them around?’

Rosie shrugged, an air of nonchalance to it. ‘A few of them,’ she said.

‘Like whom?’

‘Sooyoung, Wheein. I don’t think I’ve seen Lisa here before, but I know Mr Kim’s gone down to Seoul a couple times to talk to her, and he’s always in these digital meetings with her.’

‘Zoom?’

‘No, he was usually quite slow. He had bad knees.’

‘So, do they come up here often?’ Wendy asked.

‘Sooyoung’s been up a few times before. Sometimes she stays the night. I think the last time she stayed was about three weeks ago, in the guest bedroom upstairs. Even brought her coat and stuff with her. She came up a couple weeks ago as well to discuss some things with him and stormed out in a huff afterwards. I can’t remember ever seeing someone looking so angry before.’

‘Angry?’ Irene said. ‘What was she angry about?’

‘I don’t know. I wasn’t in the room. But she went up to Mr Kim’s office and they were shouting over something and then she came out and just left without a word. I thought maybe I wouldn’t see her again. But, well, here she is. And they seemed in good spirits earlier today, before you arrived. Like they were on talking terms again. Or like nothing had ever happened.’

‘And what about the others?’

Rosie shrugged. ‘Yeri’s here and there, like I said. Sometimes she’ll come up and stay and then leave without a word. She’s been here about a week now, not really doing much. I think maybe she’s dropped out of university or something. Mr Jae’s the same as Sooyoung, although usually he won’t stay.’

‘When was the last time Mr Jae was here? Before today, I mean.’

‘Oh,’ she said, ‘about a year ago, I think.’

‘And did he ever have digital meetings with Mr Kim too?’

‘I’m not sure. You’d have to ask him.’

‘Okay. And what about Wheein?’

‘Wheein’s similar to Yeri,’ Rosie said. ‘Coming and going. She’s a major shareholder in one of the companies Mr Kim had a stake in, so I guess she comes here to talk business and stuff often. And she’s always talking about how she has to constantly be up and down the country doing business stuff, so I guess she just figured it was easy to stop here often. She’s even got her own room and everything. I mean, she rarely lets us in to clean, because she’s always super neat and tidy and prefers to clean things herself. Don’t know why. She always has to have things just the way she likes them. She even, like, puts things at certain angles and stuff.’

‘Where is it? Her bedroom, I mean.’

‘Down there on the left. Just past the bathroom.’

Irene nodded. ‘What can you tell me about the other two that work here? Jennie and Jisoo?’

‘What do you want to know?’

‘Just general things. What are they like?’

‘That’s a vague question again.’

‘I know. But still.’

Rosie gave a shrug of the shoulders. ‘They’re nice,’ she said. ‘We get along well. Very different people, but we get along well.’

‘Different? Different how?’

‘I dunno, just in general ways. Jennie’s got expensive taste and Jisoo’s a bit of a homebody.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You know, just that. Jennie’s always talking about jewellery and bags and how she craves those sorts of things and stuff like that and Jisoo’s kind of the opposite. Never really talks at all unless we talk to her first, but she’s a bit goofy. I like them, though. They’re nice. They’re good people. They wouldn’t do something like this.’

‘Can you be sure of that?’

‘One hundred percent? No. Ninety-five percent? Yes.’

‘Have they ever had any arguments with Mr Kim?’

‘Ever? Like, ever? I mean, they’ve both been here as long as I have. We all joined around the same time. Yeah, he’s shouted at them before – shouted at me, too. But if he’s ever been truly angry with them I’ve never known about it. I mean, I think he would’ve fired them if that were the case, no?’

Irene nodded again. ‘This next question is off the radar,’ she said. ‘You don’t have to answer it if you don’t feel comfortable.’

‘Okay.’

‘Do you have a recipe for those canapés?’

‘What?’

‘Like I said, you don’t have to answer. I was just curious.’

‘Is this part of the investigation?’

‘No.’

‘Oh. Well, I mean, I could get you a recipe, I suppose. If you really wanted. But aren’t there more pressing matters?’

‘Yes. Of course. Back to the topic at hand.’

‘Okay.’

‘Has anyone looked suspicious?’

‘What?’

‘In general, I mean. You said you’ve seen them all coming and going – Mr Jae, Sooyoung, Wheein, Yeri. And you’ve been around Jennie and Jisoo too, I’m assuming. So have any of them done or said anything suspicious over the past few weeks? Or do any of them have any general reasons as to why they’d do something like this?’

‘I don’t know. Sorry, that’s just a bit of a broad question. I don’t really know how to answer that, really.’

‘Well. Okay. No worries.’

‘Can I go now?’

Irene nodded. When she was back in the main room Wendy turned to her and said, ‘That was cool.’

‘What was?’

‘All that. Doing that. So cool.’

‘I just asked her some questions.’

‘I know. Cool as hell. Do we get to do that to everyone separately?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe. I’m not entirely convinced it’s going to get us anywhere. Maybe it would be better to pit them against each other. Play them off of one another’s egos. I’ve been around people like this before.’

‘Yeah, me too.’

‘They feed off that sort of energy. Constantly one-upping each other, trying to put the others down. I’m starting to think Yeri was right.’

‘What?’

‘Nothing. Ignore me.’

‘So, what do we do, boss?’

‘Boss?’

Wendy shrugged and gave a shy sort of smile.

‘Did you get all that written down?’

‘Right here in my Notes app, don’t you worry.’

‘Alright, good. We might need some of it later.’

‘Who do we interview next?’

Irene was already halfway to the door. She went on out with Wendy in tow and stood for a moment watching them all there silently milling about the sofas and drinking and yawning. The only real sound was the rain outside, howling down, hounding on. She stood a while staring at Seulgi. It wasn’t the right thing to do, but what was? With Seulgi around she had never been able to think straight and this was no different. And one thought remained, an awful, insidious niggling at the back of her head – maybe Seulgi’s not so innocent either.

‘Can’t count anyone out,’ she muttered.

‘What was that, boss?’

‘Nothing.’

A handful of them turned to her expectantly.

‘Alright,’ Irene said. ‘Yeri.’

‘What?’

‘Come on.’

‘What do you mean, “Come on?” Are you my dad or something?’

‘I mean, please step through this way. I’d like to ask you some questions.’

‘Again?’

‘These are going to be different questions. Please, step this way.’

Yeri just laughed. ‘Step this way? Seriously?’

‘Please.’

After a while she sighed and stood up and traipsed her way over to the dining hall like a child who had just been scolded. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘But this is ing pointless and you know it.’

‘Do I now.’

‘Yeah, as a matter of fact, I bet you do.’

‘Hey,’ Seulgi called. ‘Hey, Irene. Wait a sec.’

‘What?’

‘What do you want me to do?’

‘I don’t know. Keep doing what you’re doing.’

‘I’m not doing anything.’

‘Well then,’ Irene said. ‘Keep doing that.’

‘Yes ma’am.’

‘Are you finished acting like you own the place yet?’ Yeri said.

‘Sure,’ said Irene. ‘Come on. I’m sure this will be a very interesting and very productive session of questions.