Everyone fell still, no longer whispering and speculating among themselves, and the silence amplified the sound of a young nobleman fanning himself. He stood with his manservant near the front, garbed in a robe of violet that glowed in the sunlight. He had shining jet-black eyes, arched brows, and a seemingly perpetual smirk; condescension seemed carved into his face.
“What did this person look like?” Inspector Han asked. “Answer me and do not leave anything out.”
“It was a man on a horse. He was wearing a blue robe. There was something suspicious about him, seeing him roaming at curfew. But it was too dark to see his face clearly, and he rode off before I could approach him.”
There was an intake of breath among the spectators, and everyone but the young noble frowned. He was still fanning himself, and the corner of his lips rose higher.
“And what time was it when you saw this man?”
“A little before dawn,” Soyi answered.
“Why were you still on the streets so long after midnight?”
“I searched for my mistress, and when I couldn’t find her, I returned to the mansion. But then I thought of how furious Matron Kim would be at me. She had ordered me to watch over her daughter. I grew so fearful that I went out again, to look for my mistress one more time. I was determined to even search Mount Nam.”
Inspector Han arched a brow. “You could have easily shared this. Instead, you ran away. Only two types of people run: children and the guilty.”
“I heard someone had seen me leave the house, and I was afraid.” Her once neatly plaited hair now hung loose, and through the black strands, she peered up at the inspector. “My mother was executed for a crime she didn’t commit. I was afraid the same would happen to me.”
“So that is your reason. And you would say you were on good terms with your mistress?”
“I…” She paused for the briefest moment. “I was.”
“Then is there any reason as to why Lady O would have specifically referenced you? Why she expressed anger toward you in her diary?”
My hand leapt to my throat. Diary? The police had never discovered Lady O’s diary. The inspector was bluffing, but Soyi seemed to believe it. The whites of her widening eyes made her pupils look even blacker. “She … she wrote about me?”
“She did, but about what?”
“I … I don’t know.”
Time slowed as I clutched my collar, wanting to know the truth—and yet frightened of it. Could I have read a person so wrong that I’d looked a murderer in the eye without even sensing it?
“As bad as things are,” he whispered, “you could make them less so by telling the truth. But once I find the truth, no one will believe anything you say. Take control before it is too late. Think about what I have told you.”
Soyi looked sideways and locked her gaze on me, her eyes bright and feverish. “I swear, I would never hurt her.”
* * *
Soyi’s gaze haunted me as I watched the damos untie her wrists and legs, then drag her back to the prison block. Her bound state flooded me with a sense of pity and almost guilt. I would be returning home soon, while she might never leave this place.
The interrogation now over, the spectators dispersed, looks of disapproval or pity etched into the lines of their faces. I was ordered to clean the blood off the interrogation chair. Soyi’s blood. As I did, I noticed the young noble still lingering.
Our gazes met across the police courtyard.
He did not look much older than me. Nineteen, perhaps. He was handsome in a too-perfect and hostile way, like the beauty of a winter’s night: moonlit snow, gleaming icicles as sharp as fangs, and a bone-chilling stillness.
With a gasp, I ducked my head and rigorously scrubbed at the splattered blood. Even when the redness rubbed off, I continued wiping at it, all my attention centered on the footsteps approaching me. On the shadow looming over me.
Swallowing hard, I peeked up. My heart slammed against my chest when I saw the young noble towering above me.
“Are you Damo Seol?”
Immediately I jumped to my feet, held my hands together, and bowed. “Neh.”
“You are the damo assisting with Lady O’s case, I hear.”
“I am, sir.”
“You must have seen her corpse.” He gazed down at me with an air of too-sweet friendliness, and his left cheek twitched. “What did she look like?”
I blinked, caught off guard by his question.
“Is it true?” he pressed. “The rumor that she was a great beauty?”
“I—I cannot say, sir.”
He arched his brow. “It is not a tricky question, girl.”
His prompting lifted the dead woman out from a pool of memory. Her bluish face surfaced, the staring eyes, the purple bruise over her gaping mouth, the dark hole where her nose ought to have been. Death had drained Lady O of every ounce of beauty. It was impossible to imagine who she had once been when all I could think of was what had happened to her—sliced, stabbed, murdered.
“Sir,” I whispered. “I cannot imagine what she looked like before she was … killed.”
Before he could ask any more questions, Senior Officer Shim stalked over, and I had to withhold a breath of relief.
“Finally!” The young noble’s voice pierced the air. “I did want to speak with you, Officer Shim!”
The much older Officer Shim looked like a stray dog that had to fight daily for food. Tall, seemingly scrawny, his face emaciated. Yet he possessed surprising strength and was far more streetwise than even Inspector Han himself. I took a step back and hid behind him.
“Young Master Ch’oi Jinyeop.” An uneasy edge slid into Officer Shim’s voice. “Why are you still here?”
“You look as though you have not slept in days.” The young master snapped his fan shut, then held his hands behind his back. “I hear that once a murder occurs, police officers do not return home for weeks, too absorbed in the investigation to rest.”
Officer Shim kept quiet, still waiting for an answer.
The young master let out a breathy laugh. “You dislike small talk as usual. Very well. I came to inquire if it was true, the rumors of her affair.”
“I am not permitted to share information freely.”
“Inspector Han’s order, I suppose? You obey everything he says. If the rumor is true, perhaps Lady O deserved to die. A woman who cannot be honorable … it is better that she die than live and bring dishonor to her family.”
“Your father must be ashamed to have a son like you.”
Officer Shim’s remark startled me, but what surprised me more was the young master’s calmness. Amusement glinted in his eyes. “What irony, hearing such an insult from a seoja, a bastard abandoned by his own father.”
A muscle worked in Shim’s jaw. “Whether the victim was deserving of death is not up to anyone to decide. No man or woman, noble or slave, ought to be killed without the sanction of the ruler.”
The young master’s gaze shifted to the space behind Shim, and I followed his gaze and saw Inspector Han passing by, too occupied to notice us.
“There goes your master, Officer Shim.” With one smooth motion, he flicked open his fan, airing his manicured face again, and under his breath he said with a smile, “Only dogs and horses long for a master.”