to me. “Your suspicion is correct. You are always supposed to interrogate the alibi, make sure his testimony is certain, but no one thought to question Senior Officer Shim. I took it upon myself and asked around. I discovered that at midnight, when Shim claimed to have been with Inspector Han at the House of Bright Flowers, someone actually saw him returning to his residence. So Inspector Han likely made Shim lie about being the inspector’s alibi.”
“What? Someone saw Shim returning home?”
“It was the monsoon season, remember? Children were swept off the street and huts collapsed. His roof caved in under the torrent, and his neighbor looked in to see whether anyone was hurt. That was when he saw Shim return, and he had to hurry off.”
“And this man … Why did he not tell the police? Lady O’s death was so public … surely he must have heard that Shim was posing as Inspector Han’s alibi?”
“Because he was afraid. He should not have been outside wandering the street at that hour. It was after curfew.”
When no man was permitted to roam the streets except those in power—they were always an exception to the law.
“Maid Misu … she will be of use to me.” Ky?n nodded his head. “Yes, she is enough.”
I clutched my hands together, tensing as the silence returned. “Have you … have you made up your mind, Officer? Will you let me go?”
“I have more than made up my mind. We ought to have been allies from the start. Here,” he said, slipping his hand into his robe, then holding out a folded paper. “Remember. I told you that if you joined my side, I would let you see the inspector’s letter. This letter confirmed my suspicion that Inspector Han was bent on killing the priest, and Scholar Ahn had told me that Lady O knew of the priest’s whereabouts. Was it a coincidence that she ended up dead? I think not.”
“And you have this letter with you?”
“Scholar Ahn gave it back to me, but everyone believes it disappeared with him. I’ve kept this close to me, ever since Damo Hyeyeon went through my belongings. Now, go find someone to read it for you.”
I held the letter, the one I’d wondered about since late summer.
Ky?n backed away, still facing me. “You see, Damo Seol. I was right all along. No one will be by Inspector Han’s side in the end. No one.”
I watched him leave the alley with long and hurried strides, as though he could not contain his eagerness to bring Inspector Han down. He ran and disappeared.
All my strength drained from me. I dropped to the ground and held my head, stared at the dirt pathway, at the letter I’d let fall onto the ground. Waiting for a thunder of emotions, of anger and grief, remorse and dread. Anything. But all I felt was a numbing cloud of fog filling me, and in the haze I saw a girl clinging to her brother’s back, so that she wouldn’t wash away down the slope with the mud. T-t-t-t-t-t, she’d imitated the sound of rain tapping her brother’s straw cloak, t-t-t-t-t-t.
An immense weight sat on my chest, and I felt as though I’d suffocate. I thought I’d never change. Not me. But just as my brother had changed, from a delicate flower to a lone mountain—I too had become different.
I had become a traitor.
SEVENTEEN
INSPECTOR HAN’S LETTER TO THE DEAD
I was once told, Little Sister, that when the flower blossoms, the wind intervenes. When the moon is at its fullest, the clouds intervene. When do the affairs under heaven ever comply with human wishes? It is true. My life rarely goes as planned. But today I observed a change in the wind. Perhaps the cloud shrouding my path will roll away.
In the five years that have passed since Priest Zhou Wenmo illegally entered Joseon, I have never seen the priest’s face before. I would more easily find a mouse in a reed field, for at least when it moves, the reeds twitch along with it. But when the priest moves, the Catholics around him remain silent and still.
But I have a new suspicion, and if it is correct, then the man in hiding is the one I have searched for all these years. I will find him, and not even Commander Yi can block my way, which he intends to do. It is better this way, that the priest should die early rather than live long and cause