6:35PM.

‘I told you, you’re wasting your time. You’re not gonna get anything out of me that you wouldn’t get out of anyone else. I don’t know anything.’

Irene studied her. She was sat at the same chair Rosie had been sat at, legs crossed, arms folded, slumped a slight like a little kid. Her eyes kept trailing over the table and back to Irene and Wendy again. She nodded Wendy’s way and said, ‘This your new sidekick?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Get bored of your other one already?’

‘Funny.’

‘Are you gonna this one in front of me as well?’

‘What?’ Wendy said.

‘Did she not tell you?’

‘Tell me what?’

‘That’s enough,’ Irene said. ‘Stay on topic.’

‘What topic?’ Yeri asked. Irene was quiet for a moment, almost embarrassed. Her phone read 6:36. The rain hammered on. ‘Okay,’ she said.

‘Okay? Okay what?’

‘I’m gonna—’

‘Ask me some questions, and you want me to answer them as truthfully as I can. Yeah yeah, I get it. Listen, like I said – twice, by the way, I’ve said it twice – you’re wasting your time. And I don’t just mean with me. You’re wasting your time with all of them out there. They’re not gonna give you anything.’

‘Why not?’

Yeri laughed. It was a laugh Irene immediately disliked, a cynical, patronising laugh. ‘Have you spoken to them at all today?’ she said. ‘They’re s, all of em. Even your friend.’

‘Watch it.’

‘Or what? You’ll arrest me? Shoot me? Yeah, yeah. Listen, what I mean is – if they know anything, and let’s be honest, they probably do, they’re not gonna tell you it. You can’t just sit them down and get them to spill everything. If one of them has killed my granduncle, you think they’re just gonna sit down and tell you about it? Maybe spill the deets in a long, drawn-out confession? Ooh, wouldn’t that be good?’

‘That’s not what I intended anyway.’

‘No? What was, then? To sit down and have dinner with them? To make sure I didn’t eat all the casserole? What’s the point?’

‘To establish a timeline of events and to make sure I understand who everybody here is at this party.’

‘Yeah, that’s not gonna happen either. Jesus. You know, when I was talking to you earlier I thought maybe – just maybe – there might be one other smart person in this house with me. I thought maybe you had it figured out, at least a little. But now I’m starting to think I was wrong about you. No offence, of course. Like I said to your friend earlier, there’s nothing wrong or shameful in being below average intelligence. It’s just one of those things. You can change it slowly. You’ve just got to commit to it. But as it stands right now – and again, no offence on this – you don’t have two brain cells to rub together.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Nobody here’s gonna be telling you the truth.’

‘And what’s the truth?’

‘C’mon, it’s business. Like I said, everybody here’s an , everybody’s got something to hide. Relationships, secrets, rotting bodies under the floorboards. You know, typical stuff. And if you think they’re gonna come in here, sit down, and politely tell you everything about themselves – investigation or otherwise – well, you really are the dullest lightbulb in the drawer, aren’t you?’

Irene was quiet. Part of her wanted to slap Yeri and a larger part wanted to swallow her pride and silently acknowledge that she was probably right, at least in part. Eventually she said, ‘What about you?’

‘What about me?’

‘Are you going to tell me about yourself?’

‘I’d rather not, thank you.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because I don’t want to. Happy now?’

‘Hey,’ Wendy said, ‘you can’t talk to her like that.’

‘Who are you, her lapdog or something?’

‘I’m just a fan. Not a lapdog.’

‘Could’ve fooled me. Look, if you want something out of me, something specific, then ask me. Otherwise I’m just gonna go in there and sit down again, because I seriously can’t be bothered with this. I’ve still got a headache. I’m thinking maybe a couple more aspirin. Or maybe some of that morphine my granduncle’s got upstairs in his study. Maybe that’d help.’

‘How do you know he takes morphine?’ Irene said.

‘What? Because he told me.’

‘Why would he tell you that?’

‘I don’t ing know. He just did. God, you’re terrible at this. So much for Korea’s most famous private investigator.’

‘Show some respect,’ Wendy said.

‘No, I don’t think I will. Are we done here?’

‘We’re not,’ Irene said, a slight sterner and more impatient than usual. ‘I’ve got some more questions. And I think I’ll start with the most obvious one – where were you at the time of the murder.’

‘I don’t know.’

‘What?’

‘Well, I don’t know what time the murder was, do I? Why the hell would I know that?’

‘We think the murder was sometime between five fifty-three and six oh three.’

‘Well, I can’t remember.’

‘What?’

‘I can’t remember,’ Yeri said. ‘Jesus, are you deaf or something? Both of you. All of you. No wonder I never ing showed up around here.’ She looked at the pair of them as if they were stupid and sighed. ‘Alright,’ she said. ‘. I was upstairs the whole time on my phone, in my room. If you want to know, I was putting in complaints for all of my orders on Amazon. You know, the complaints where you say you didn’t actually get your package delivered and then ask for your money back? Yeah, I figured out a while ago that they just give you a refund for, like, ninety-nine percent of the without even bothering to check whether you’ve actually got it or not. Crazy. I’m guessing it’s because they’re such a big company that it’s literally not even worth the manpower hours to go through every individual thing and follow it up. Is it morally wrong? Of me, I mean. You know what? Who gives a ? I’m getting paid.’

‘Prove it.’

‘What’s to prove? It’s free money.’

‘Not that, you— never mind. Prove that you were upstairs the whole time.’

‘Who am I, Harry Houdini? Did you see me come down at all?’

‘No.’

‘No. Exactly. Because I was upstairs. In that room. My room. The room you barged into earlier, to have with your girlfriend.’

‘I didn’t see you, because I wasn’t down here the whole time. And it was dark. And she’s not my girlfriend. And we weren’t going to have .’

‘Anything else?’

‘No, I think that about covers it, actually.’

‘Well then.’

‘Well what?’

Yeri crossed her arms like a petulant child. ‘What the do you want me to say?’ she asked. ‘You can’t prove anything, I can’t prove anything, no one can prove anything. The lights were out, in case you didn’t realise. And then, boom, they come back on, that weepy maid comes upstairs and finds my granduncle dead, and now here we are. Where do you wanna go from here, huh? You think anyone’s gonna spill anything. No. Like I said, I can’t prove anything, you can’t prove anything, no one—’

‘Can prove anything. Yeah, I get it.’

‘Do you, though? Do you really?’

‘I get it,’ Irene said.

‘What’s all that about you and your girlfriend?’ Wendy said.

‘Nothing. Ignore her.’

‘Does nobody else know?’ Yeri asked.

‘Yeri.’

‘That one outside. The pretty one. What’s her name? Seulgi?’

‘Seulgi.’

‘They came into my room with their hands – and lips – all over each other. Just like that.’

‘Wow,’ Wendy said, ‘really?’

‘Why the would I lie about something like that?’

Wendy turned to Irene and Irene shrugged and sighed. ‘It’s a long story,’ she said.

‘Oh, I don’t mind,’ Wendy replied, almost naively.

‘We used to date for a few years. We broke up a couple years back. It was…a mutual thing. Just didn’t really work out with our career paths and stuff. We were always stressed, always fighting. At first it was good. Really good. It stayed good for a while. After eighteen months or so we even rented this little apartment together. And that was when I think it first started to go bad. When you’re working a job like P.I, or hell, even retail like she was, sometimes you just want to be alone, and you can’t really do that in a house with someone else you live with. Someone you love. I’d come home every day and just be so tired and worn out about something inane on a case I’d be working on and Seulgi would be stressed about her artwork and not being able to pay her half of the rent and we’d argue over something tiny and dumb like the laundry or not having done the dishes or what takeaway we wanted to order for the night and then it just escalated from there. You know, there were times when—’

‘Oh my god,’ Yeri said. ‘Who gives a ? Jesus, learn how to be concise. I thought detectives were good at that short-hand but I guess not. I mean, c’mon, where’s the SparkNotes version?’

‘I was just explaining to Wendy.’

‘She doesn’t care either.’

‘I do,’ Wendy said.

‘God, you’re such a -up.’

‘You’re just plain rude.’

Yeri folded her arms and pouted.

‘So yeah,’ Irene said. ‘We used to date. Broke up about two years ago. Haven’t spoken since. I don’t know why, but it just didn’t feel right.’

‘But you still have feelings for her?’ Wendy said with a tilt of her head. The look on her face was almost too empathetic, too understanding.

Irene sighed. ‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘I think I do. I don’t think I’m over her fully. Well, I mean, I thought I was, because I finally stopped thinking about her every day, but then she shows up out of the blue, just like that, and hey, there she is again. Right back on my mind. And when she kissed me, I just…I couldn’t help myself.’

‘Does she still have feelings for you?’

‘I guess. We haven’t really had time to discuss it.’

‘I think you should sit down and talk it out. It seems very important to you.’

‘Oh my ing god,’ Yeri whined. ‘What are you, a marriage counsellor?’

‘No. I’m just someone who respects and understands others. Maybe you should try a little bit of that, too.’

‘Maybe you should go fu—’

‘Alright,’ Irene said, ‘that’s enough. Do you have anything else to say?’

‘Quite a few things.’

‘Anything relevant, or helpful to this investigation?’

‘Oh, well in that case…no.’

‘Fine. Whatever. You’re free to go.’

‘Thank you, your Highness.’

On her way out she gave a wry smile that Irene wanted very much to wipe off her face. She made a show of closing the door behind her.

‘I don’t like her,’ Wendy said.

‘She’s certainly quite the character.’

‘Yeah. She reminds me of someone I used to know. This guy from college. He was just like her – rude to everyone, a little stuck up, never able to confront their feelings and emotions, always sulking and pretending they were the only ones being honest. Yeah. Shame what happened to him.’

‘What happened?’

‘Oh, it’s a long story.’

Irene nodded.

‘Well, it’s not really. He always talked about killing himself. Always really morbid about it, and it was real weird how he was always so calm whenever he talked about how he would do it. He said – get this, you’re not gonna believe this – he said that one day, when he was fed up and wanted to go out, he was gonna hire a convertible car, a Chevrolet he said, one of those old American ones, buy some balloons and string, buy some chicken wire, buy some superglue, and drive out somewhere.’

‘And then what?’

‘Then – get this, you’re not gonna believe this bit either – he said he was going to tie one end of the chicken wire around his neck, then tie the other end to the accelerator pedal. Then he was going to tie the balloons around his neck as well and superglue them in place. And then he said he was gonna wait until the right time, when the car was exactly where he wanted it, and just floor the gas pedal. He said if he’d done it right the chicken wire would be just tight enough that the force of it would take his head clean off – swoosh, just like that. And then you’d have this decapitated head just floating away somewhere, glue to some balloons, like a damn Jack-o’-lantern, and you’d have this headless corpse driving a convertible down the freeway at two hundred kilometres an hour like something out of the apocalypse. Like Death, the headless rider. Except instead of a giant black horse, it would be a 1963 Chevrolet convertible. Crazy. Just crazy.’

‘Jesus Christ.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Did he…you know.’

‘What?’

‘Did he do it?’

‘Oh, I don’t know. Haven’t spoken to him in years. But she reminded me of him, for some reason.’

‘Right,’ Irene said.

‘Are we gonna get someone else in here?’

Irene thought about it for a moment. Then without another word she opened the big doors and went back out into the main hall. The others were all still there, some arguing, some sipping whiskey and champagne, Seulgi still stood with the tray of phones beside her on the marble flooring. When they saw Irene enter they all turned to her and fell silent like kids in a school assembly and waited for her to speak. Even Yeri was quiet, stuffed between Wheein and Sooyoung on one of the sofas.

‘Okay,’ Irene said, ‘we’ve decided to do things a little differently. To save time, and for sanity’s sake, it might be better to question all of you here together.’

‘What?’ Wheein said.

‘Might. I said might. I didn’t say it will for definite.’

‘How come those two got to be interviewed and we don’t?’ Jisoo said.

‘Just because. It’s the luck of the draw. It doesn’t mean anything. Now, is there anything anyone wants to say? Anyone?’

The room was silent.

‘Anyone at all? About anything. Okay, whatever. I’ll start. Mr Jae.’

He was sat on the far-left sofa with a square glass in one fat hand and he looked at her uneasily as she smiled.

‘Can you tell me where you were at five fifty-six?’

‘Five fifty-six? I don’t know. I wasn’t paying attention.’

‘Just before the lights went out, I mean. Went out for a second time.’

‘Oh,’ he said. He was quiet for a moment. Then he said, ‘I was in the lounge room upstairs.’

‘The one next to Mr Kim’s office?’

‘Yes.’

‘What’s in there?’

‘A pool table. Some whiskey. Some other things. We used to go in there sometimes to talk.’

‘So you were in the lounge room?’

He nodded.

‘And then when you heard Jennie scream, you came out to see what it was?’

‘Yes. That’s correct.’

‘Okay.’

‘What?’ Yeri said. ‘That’s it? Just like that? We’re done with the questioning, you can go free, you’re done? All of that? Really now? After the ing Spanish inquisition you tried to put me through. On two occasions, by the way. Nobody else got that treatment, did they?’

Irene ignored her. ‘So you were in that room the entire time the lights were out?’ she said.

Mr Jae nodded. ‘I just stayed put. I figured it was a brief power surge and it would come back on. And it did.’

‘Okay. Wheein.’

‘What?’ Wheein said.

‘Where were you at five fifty-six?’

‘I don’t know. Presumably in my room.’

‘Which is where?’

‘Over there. Far left, along the hallway. Just past the kitchen.’

‘So you were there—’

‘The whole time while the lights were off, yeah. I wasn’t doing anything. Just sat there reading something on my phone, waiting for dinner.’

‘Okay. Sooyoung?’

‘You saw me. I was in the bathroom.’

‘Yeah. Right, of course. What about you two?’

She turned to the maids. Jisoo shrugged and said that she was setting the table when the lights went out.

‘I was in the spare bedroom upstairs,’ Jennie said. ‘I was changing the bedsheets. I didn’t move until the lights came back on. I thought maybe I’d knock something over if I tried.’

‘Okay,’ Irene said. And then, for completion’s sake: ‘Seulgi? What about you?’

‘What?’ Seulgi said. ‘Are you kidding me?’

‘I just need to know where everyone was.’

‘I was still in the closet.’

Yeri laughed.

‘Upstairs, I mean. The literal closet. The closet we were in.’

‘Right,’ said Irene.

Yeri sat forward, almost smugly, on the sofa. ‘See?’ she said. ‘No offence, but what did you expect? A confession? News flash – nobody here’s going to say anything, to you or to anyone else. They’re all s. Aren’t you?’

‘I see now why you were estranged,’ Seulgi said.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘You’re a real, genuine piece of , you know that? Can’t you just have a little bit of understanding?’

‘Oh, boo-hoo, are you gonna start crying?’

‘Listen—’

‘Nah, I’m good.’

‘Alright,’ Irene said, ‘everybody just stop. Be quiet. Let me think.’

‘Thank god it wasn’t me in that study,’ said Yeri.

‘What?’

‘I mean, not just because I’m not dead, although that’s a big part of it. Duh. The biggest part, actually. But yeah. Being stabbed by one of my friends is one of my five biggest fears.’

‘That’s ed up,’ Seulgi said. ‘I think that says something about your friends. Or about you.’

‘What are your others?’ Wendy said.

‘What?’

‘What are your other four biggest fears?’

‘Oh,’ Yeri said. ‘Panthers, leopards, wildcats, and getting a brain aneurysm.’

‘What?’

‘What what.’

‘A brain aneurysm seems a bit…out of nowhere.’

‘Exactly. That’s why it’s so scary. You never know when it’s gonna hit.’

‘I meant in your list.’

‘Well, the point stands.’

‘Why panthers? And leopards. And wildcats.’

‘I dunno. I’m just scared of them.’

‘What about tigers?’

‘No, I actually don’t mind tigers.’

‘Lions?’

‘Impartial. Honey badgers, though. Honey badgers are a different breed of scary.’

‘She’s right,’ Mr Jae said. ‘Honey badgers don’t just eat you. In fact, they don’t eat you at all.’

‘Oh yeah?’ Wheein said. ‘What do they do, then?’

‘They tear off…your .’

‘Bull.’

‘They do. I’ve seen them do it.’

‘What?’

‘On a video, I mean. Not in person.’

‘Well,’ Sooyoung said, ‘I suppose that’s us safe. From honey badgers, at least. Can’t say the same about anything else, given the circumstances.’

‘God,’ Wendy said. ‘This weather is terrible.’

‘What a strange segue.’

‘I hate it. I can’t hear myself think properly. Can’t think at all. Can’t someone make it, I dunno…stop raining or something?’

‘Make it stop raining?’ Yeri said. ‘What am I, a Quapaw?’

‘A what?’

‘A Quapaw. You know?’

They all looked at her blankly.

‘You know, a Quapaw Indian. Of the Quapaw Tribe of Mississippi and Arkansas. Famous for their rain dance rituals to scare away weather spirits. No? Nothing? God, read a ing book for once in your life.’

‘How do you—’

‘I’m not as dumb as I look, you know. It’s basic history. And I’m a classics student.’

‘Please,’ Irene said, ‘can you all just be quiet for a minute. No more Indians, no more panthers, no more murder.’

‘Now that would be a pretty bold campaign statement. Irene – what’s your surname again? Bae?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Vote For Bae Irene – No more Indians, no more panthers, no more murder. It’s almost got a ring to it, don’t you think?’

‘I can’t win with you. With any of you.’

‘You can say that again,’ Seulgi muttered. Irene was quiet for a minute. Outside the rain lashed against the windows in a hail and it was beginning to thunder again. ‘Alright,’ she said, ‘here’s what’s going to happen. I think it’s best we all take a little break.’

‘What?’ Wheein said, fixing one of the whiskey glasses on the table. Irene watched her for a second. Then she said, ‘Rosie, can you please get a couple bottles of wine or something? Wendy, can you watch her, so she doesn’t do anything?’

‘Yes boss.’

‘So that’s your plan,’ Yeri said with a laugh. ‘Get everyone drunk and hope that someone spills the beans.’

‘Something like that, yeah. Seulgi.’

‘What?’ Seulgi said.

‘Any luck with the phones yet?’

‘No. None at all. I don’t—’

She was interrupted by a knock at the door. The way they all snapped to it minus Wendy and Rosie was almost comical. It came again, and then a third time. Then silence. Then Yeri saying: ‘Well, are you gonna answer it or what? It could be important.’

‘Who is it?’ Seulgi said.

‘Well, I doubt it’s the mailman.’

Slowly Irene stepped forward and opened the door. She hadn’t known what to expect but it certainly wasn’t groundskeeper Jang, soaked to his skin, huffing and out of breath, obviously concerned over something quite serious. ‘Mr Jang,’ she said.

‘Evening ladies. Can I come in?’

He stepped inside and shook himself off by the door like a dog like Irene took one look at the state of the weather and closed it behind him. He looked at them individually and said, ‘We’ve got a bit of a problem, ladies. And Mr Jae.’

‘A problem?’ Irene said.

‘Yeah. Seems, uh, somebody’s been fiddling with the power or something. I tried the outside generator and it seems we’re working on the backup generator now. At first I thought maybe it was the storm that’s knocked it out and it needed a full reboot to get it back online – it’s happened before. You know, right?’

Jennie and Jisoo nodded.

‘Yeah. But then when I checked the outside board I realised the phone lines were dead too. And I couldn’t get anything to reboot. Completely dead. Nothing at all.’

‘That explains it,’ Seulgi said.

‘Explains what?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Well, I need to speak to Mr Kim. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think he needs to know it. Where is he? Why aren’t you at dinner?’

Irene gave a shy and tired sort of shrug. ‘It’s a long story,’ she said. ‘And I’ve got a feeling it’s going to get quite a bit longer before the night’s through.’