At eighty-thirty on Friday morning, I drove again through the Lee's gates and up the sweeping drive to the house. Lee Joon greeted me at the door.

"Sergeant Kim! Good news, I hope?"

"Well, I believe we have the lad who started the fire, sir, yes."

"Splendid!" he boomed, ushering me into the hall. "Anyone I know?"

"I don't believe so, sir."

"There! Just vandalism then, as I suspected. Case solved, eh, Sergeant?"

"It's too early to say that for certain, Mr Lee. Actually, it's your wide I've come to see. if I might have a few words with her, please..?"

"My wife? Whatever for? It's been a big shock to her, you know, all this unpleasantness. I'd rather not involve her too much if possible."

"I'm afraid she's already involved" I thought "Right up to her neck." But I didn't say it aloud.

"If you could just call her for me, please?" I persisted, following him through to the same living room we'd all sat in just a couple of days earlier. 

He hesitated. "Very well", he said, and went upstairs to find her. 

They came back into the room together. SuYoung Lee smiled at me, cool as ever. 

"I do hope this is important," she said, then turned to her husband.

"Joon, dear, would you be an angel and fetch us something to drink?" The sweetness of her voice could not quite disguise the fact that this as an instruction, not a request.

"Tea, Sergeant?"

I nodded, watching Mr. Lee leave the room and close the door behind him.

When we were alone, she dropped into an armchair, and I noticed she was not quite able to look me in the eye. 

"We have the man who burned the factory down, Mrs Lee. His is name is Bang Cheol Yong aka Mir. I believe you know him?"

She said nothing for a while. I could see from her face that she was carefully considering her response. "Yes" she said, at last.

"I have reason to believe that you paid him to do it. In fact, this was not the first time he has received money from you, was it? I can only assume that he's done other little jobs for you in the past. Jobs you'd rather not tackle yourself, perhaps? Am I correct?"

She said nothing. In the stillness of the room, I could hear every breath as she struggled to maintain her composure. Her eyes were closed now and her head had dropped forwards into her hands.

"Arson is a serious offence, Mrs Lee, even if you're not the one who lit the match. Your husband will have to be told. Unless you'd like to him yourself."

She let out a moan. 

"I would like to know why, Mrs Lee. What made you do it? Were you afraid the firm would go bust? Afraid of failure, of what people would say? Or perhaps, with the factory gone, you thought your husband might stay at home more. All those evenings when he worked late..."

Her eyes looked up, her eyes swimming with unshed tears.

"Sergeant," she said, "you must think we a fool! My husband doesn't work late. He hardly works at all! That's why the business was falling to pieces. He spends all his time with some girl." She seemed to spit the words out. 

"I don't know who she is. And I don't want to know! I just want it to stop."

She had puzzled now. "If you knew he had someone else, why burn the factory? If you'd got away with it, he'd received a small fortune from the insurance company. Weren't you at risk of losing him altogether? It would be enough time with her, maybe even leave you and run off with her if he chose."

Her eyes showed a momentary flash of terror before she bursts into tears. 

"I didn't burn the factory, or have someone do it for me," she sobbed. "I had nothing to with it, you have to believe me."

I passed her tissue from the depths of my pocket and waited. 

"Yes, I paid Bang Cheol Yong money. You have no idea how much! First it was his father almost eighteen years ago. A million won in those days. Then more, whenever he needed it. I thought it was all over when he died, and for a while it seemed I was right. but then it was Mir, the son. Asking for just a little at first, and then a little more..." She dabbed her eyes with the tissue, now a soggy mess in her hand. 

"I thought it would never end."

"They were blackmailing you?" She nodded.

"So if you didn't pay him to start the fire, why did he do it?"

"Because I tried to stand up to him. I told him I'd given him enough more than enough and there would be no more. He said he'd do something terrible, but I didn't believe him. Thought it was all talk, and I qoulc call his bluff. When the factory burned down, I knew it had to be him. Revenge, you see."

"Why didn't you tell me all this on Wednesday? It could have saved a lot of time and trouble. All that stuff about Jung.."

"I wanted to throw you off the scent. I didn't want you to find Mir. Then...well, perhaps he wouldn't have led you back to me." 

She stood and faced me. "Must we tell my husband? Please. Can't we just let it drop? I don't want to press charges for the blackmail. I just want it to stop, and I think it will now, don't you? Mir isn;t as bright as his father. I think he just saw the chance of making a few won and it's all gone much further than he ever intended. One crime is bad enough, but two..If he goes to jail for starting the fire, it will all ober, won't it? The blackmail, I mean. Lesson learned. And I can't put it all behind me and forget about it. Joon will be happy to believe the arson was jsut come random act of vandalism. He need never know."