make it to his lips. The tremor moved into his voice.
“Inspector Han came to me today with his testimony. Apparently Damo Seol collected a secret from Ky?n and Maid Soyi. I hope she did not share this detail with anyone else.”
I rushed to answer. “I did not, sir. Only with Inspector Han.”
Both men stared at me, the meddler in police affairs. The heat in my cheeks moved up to my brows, up to the tips of my ears. Sweat beaded along my hairline. At last, Officer Shim cleared his throat, lifting the knife’s tip of their attention away from me.
“The person who spread this information, yeonggam, was Ky?n, not Seol,” he said. “He shouted about the inspector’s whereabouts on the night of the killing before an audience of officers.”
“I was not made aware of this. Now word will spread throughout the capital, and there are people—” Commander Yi lowered his voice. “There are people who have never trusted the inspector, no matter how many times he has proved himself. This incident has stirred the past awake.”
“That is why I wished to speak with you, yeonggam,” Officer Shim replied. “I was with Inspector Han at the House of Bright Flowers when the murder occurred. When he first arrived, by his mourning robe and manner, I knew he was grieving deeply for his father. You know, Commander, that his father passed away over a decade ago on that very night. That is why he drank more than usual.”
A tense silence followed. My legs had grown numb, the slightest movement shooting an unbearable tingle up my knees. But Officer Shim’s response left me more uncomfortable, and I couldn’t understand why.
“For how long were you with him?”
“From curfew until nearly dawn. Madam Yeonok was with us,” Shim said, and the name he mentioned bloomed with shades of pink in my mind. Yeonok. I’d heard of her, a gisaeng known for her beauty and intellect, who entertained powerful men in the mansion nestled at the foot of Mount Nam. “We were deep in our cups and conversed for most of the night. I remained longer at the House of Bright Flowers, and the inspector left first. He must have encountered Maid Soyi on his way home.”
“But he didn’t return home.” Commander Yi’s voice sank. “At dawn, Inspector Han left the House of Bright Flowers, as you claim. He passed by Maid Soyi—but he did not return home. That is what I learned. So where did he go?”
Officer Shim stayed silent.
I stayed silent.
The question seemed to have thrown both of us into a whirl of disorientation.
Then Commander Yi, surprisingly, turned to me. “What do you think, Damo Seol?”
I licked my dry lips, my mouth filled with stammers and hesitation. I only knew how to be invisible before Commander Yi. In a bare whisper, I answered. But he told me to speak louder, more clearly.
“Wherever it is that the inspector went,” I repeated, “he left long after the murder occurred.”
“That is so … That is so…” With each moment, the shadows clouding Commander Yi’s brows seemed to clear, and certainty returned to his voice. “That is indeed so.”
Officer Shim looked over my way, a slight smile on his lips. I returned it, two comrades serving the same officer, recognizing each other from afar.
* * *
Dismissed, I picked up my tray and stepped out of the guest room into the vast shadow cast by the pavilion. We’ll soon find out who Lady O’s lover was, I thought, gripping the tray tighter as I traveled from courtyard to courtyard. He murdered her. Inspector Han had nothing to do with it.
The moment I walked into the kitchen, two pairs of curious eyes fixed on me. Hyeyeon’s and Aejung’s gazes followed me as I set the tray aside and reached for a wooden cup. My throat scratched with dryness, my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. Anxiety did that to me. I dipped the cup into a water bucket, filling it to the brim, and then emptied it in a few swallows.
“Well?” came Hyeyeon’s voice, smooth and calm. “What happened inside?”
The thought crossed my mind that what I knew was confidential, yet Commander Yi had not warned me to keep silent, and so I told her bits and pieces of what had occurred, about Soyi’s confession, about Inspector Han’s testimony.
“I found it strange,” I added. “Commander Yi mentioned that Inspector Han’s rivals might use this testimony to ruin his reputation somehow.”