Why was this case becoming more tangled and hard to grasp? Why wasn’t it getting any easier?
Right then, the straw mat shifted and I saw the gray face of Scholar Ahn, his eyes staring blankly up at the sky. I knew I’d never forget the sight.
* * *
The afternoon had grown cold, so the chief maid instructed me to light the ondol heating system of the main pavilion. She spoke with a tone of such casualness, as though nothing had happened this morning. As though I had not just returned from cutting down a hanging corpse.
Inside the under-floor furnace, a small space beneath the hanok structure, I crouched and fanned the flames. With enough kindling, the curls of woodsmoke would spread throughout the underground ducts and heat the stone plates laid under the floor of the building, warming the air inside as well. The fire crackled as I fanned, emphasizing the silence around me. A silence I did not want, for I kept thinking of the hanging corpse, his clouded eyes staring at me, as though he wanted to talk to me. Who killed me? Why?
A sound in the distance pulled me out of my thoughts, voices in the light rainfall.
I struggled out of the dark, cramped space and hid behind the beam that upheld the tiled pavilion roof, peering ahead. Officers, legal clerks, and servants stopped in their tracks to greet Commander Yi, who strode through the bowing crowd, seemingly oblivious to all, staring fixedly at the ground with his brows slammed low over his eyes. Behind him followed Officer Ky?n.
A few steps more, then Commander Yi stopped and turned to address Ky?n. “Clear yourself from my sight, and do not appear before me again until you have solid evidence,” the commander said in a voice so low it was almost a whisper. “Do not make a single mistake.”
The hairs on my skin rose, sensing that trouble was around the corner, and Ky?n knew exactly what it was.
Once Ky?n was alone, he rolled his shoulder once as he stalked across the courtyard like a predator about to pounce on his prey. I followed him, quickening my pace to catch up, until I was near enough to call out, “Officer!”
He paused in his step. A snarl slid into his voice. “Good afternoon, Damo Seol.”
We stood alone in the narrow alley, the space that connected two courtyards. His lips stretched over his teeth into a grin, angry and sharp like fish bones. “So it has to come to this. My hyung is dead”—he took a step toward me, backing me up against the wall—“and you and I, I think we both know who killed him.”
A pang of guilt hit my heart. Misu’s terrified eyes watched me, her confession yawning around me like the grave. She is dead, she is dead. But Ky?n was the last person I could trust with her testimony.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, keeping my expression blank.
“I think you do, and that is why you came after me.” He tilted my chin up with his finger, his eyes peeling away my mask. “All I see is a face clouded with suspicion.”
I jerked my chin away and slid along the wall until I was a few steps away from him. “What did Commander Yi mean by solid evidence?” I asked.
“Commander Yi wanted to know what I knew.”
“Because you were close to Scholar Ahn.”
“That, and because he took my suspicion seriously. When he read the letter, he could have dismissed me to cover up Inspector Han’s sin, but instead he only punished me for breaking into the inspector’s office. Cut my monthly stipend, he did, and that was it. The letter confirmed Inspector Han’s guilt.”
“What letter?”
“The letter you watched me steal nearly two weeks ago.” Ky?n closed the space between us again, making me feel his full towering height. “Whatever you know, you will tell me. Then I’ll tell you everything you want to know. Or you can keep silent like a coward, and you will bear the weight of responsibility for the next person who dies. You’re only sixteen, Seol, far too young to make important decisions. Just do as you are told.” He tapped my chin, twice. “Think about it.”
Once I was alone, I looked down at my fingernails, which had dug into Scholar Ahn’s waxy skin. And Lady O’s as well. Wind rolled through the narrow alley, laced with rain. Goose bumps rose as the breeze slithered up my skin. I didn’t want