Murder in the Lee Manor - SHINee & EXO (3/9)
Groups: SHINee, EXO
Genre: Mystery, AU
Rating (this part): PG
Warnings (this part): Homophobia
Word count: 3,100
Summary: Who murdered Mrs. Lee?
Disclaimer: This story is entirely fictional.
A/N: I apologise for making Baekhyun slightly homophobic in this fic. I'm not claiming he is like that irl. On a completely unrelated note, have I ever mentioned how much I love writing Key? Well, now I have.
Previous chapters:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Later on the same day Suho joined Chief Inspector Do at the local police station where Do had set up a small temporary office with the help of the local police. They stayed the night at the only inn in the village, and agreed that they would investigate Taemin’s motive on the next day.
On the following day, Suho decided to go and interview the boys Taemin had been with at the lake. Baekhyun, being a local, offered to come with him. Chief Inspector Do, on the other hand, went back to the police station of look into the arrangements of the inquest that had to be held. And so, while Chief Inspector Do made his way to the village, Suho and Baekhyun got in a car that took them away.
The local boys’ home, established and primarily funded by Mr. and Mrs. Lee, was some way out of the village, in the same direction as the Lee Manor.
The Lee Manor had been surrounded by bright green fields and meadows, and for a while the scenery looked picturesque like this as they drove. But when the car entered the road leading to the boys’ home, the scenery changed; the meadows were replaced by thick trees, and no sunlight shone on the winding road leading to the boys’ home.
Finally the car carrying Suho and Baekhyun emerged on the other side of the woods. They drove through a tall gate and arrived at a stoned court.
Suho and Baekhyun got out of the car, looking around. The boys’ home was a large white-brick building with wings on both sides of the courtyard. Most of the facade was covered in grapevine. The court was dotted by sparse sunlight. All the spots of sunlight had been taken up by solitary figures, most of them immersed in a book.
Suho had visited orphanages before - and while he would not have wanted to live in one, this boys’ home certainly looked jollier and less like an institution than the other orphanages he had seen during his short career.
They were met outside by the director of the boys' home. He was a short middle-aged man.
“How do you do, detectives, how do you do,” he said and shook their hands. “Terrible business, this. This way, please.”
They were taken to an echoing corridor. While they walked, the director of the boys' home described the place for them.
“We have ten rooms for fifty boys. Not much privacy here, though there’s certainly more than on average in orphanages. Mr. and Mrs. Lee were always very particular about it.”
“Are the boys taught here?” Suho asked.
“They’re not taught here, no. They have to go to school in the nearest town. This is such a remote location and a small orphanage that it's no use trying to hire teachers here.”
“What are your admission policies? Do you take anyone in?” Baekhyun asked.
“In principle, yes. However, as I said, this is a far-away location. Practically all our boys come from this village or somewhere near in this county, if they have been sent here by the local authorities. So, no, we don’t see many new faces. I know all the boys by name, and Mr. and Mrs. Lee did too.”
“They came here often?” Baekhyun inquired.
“Two to three times a year. Besides, they are well-known couple in this village anyway. Everyone knows who they are. Most of the villagers have driven or walked past their estate at some point in their lives.”
Baekhyun and Suho exchanged glances.
“Are the boys free to leave the home during the day?” Suho asked.
“The older ones are. We have a strict curfew, though. But really, this village is very safe. Nothing ever happens here. Well… apart from now… Now, I’m not so sure,” the man said, shaking his head.
He let them into his office and closed the door behind them. Two young men were waiting for Suho and Baekhyun in the room.
One of them was called Sehun. He was a lanky boy with an expressionless face. The only thing that betrayed his nervousness was his hesitance to meet Suho’s and Baekhyun’s gazes. His answers were curt; he did not speak unless he was encouraged to do so, and when he did, his deep voice (which he seemed uncomfortable using, Suho thought briefly) had a trembling ring to it.
The other boy, Jongin, was different - he held their gazes courageously, even defiantly. He had the kind of serious and handsome face that had the ability to make girls go crazy - and even for men it was a pleasant face to look at. He was much more eloquent and communicative than Sehun.
“We met Taemin at the manor gates at nine o’clock. He came to let us in. Then we walked to the lake through the forest on the Lee Manor grounds,” Jongin recounted their morning.
“Was it a long walk?”
“No, it was quite short. But we weren’t in a hurry, so it took some time to get to the lake.”
“And what did you do at the lake?”
“We swam. Built a fire. Just messed about,” Jongin replied.
“And were you together all that time?”
Jongin paused to think. “Well, Sehun went a little further away from me and Taemin for a moment when he was collecting firewood. But me and Taemin were together all that time,” Jongin said finally.
“But you must have, at some point, um, had to, um, relieve yourselves?” Baekhyun said.
“Oh. Yes. But that only took a minute,” Jongin answered. “It’s not like any one of us could have run off to the Lee Manor in that time.”
“So you admit that there were moments when all three of you were completely alone?” Suho asked.
“Yes. You could say that.”
“And how did you befriend Taemin? Did you go out with him often?” Suho said.
Jongin continued: “We met him in the village one day. And we decided to hang out. There aren’t too many new faces around here. Everybody knows everybody, so he kind of caught our attention.”
Suho was not sure if Jongin was speaking only for himself, or whether Sehun shared his sentiment. Sehun nodded a little, but it seemed like it was difficult to get words out of him.
“When did you meet the first time?” Suho asked.
“About two years ago,” Jongin answered.
“And I assume that you are good friends now?”
“Yes, we are.”
“Did Taemin ever invite you over to his home? Did you meet his parents?”
“Yes, he did, and yes, we did meet them. They actually invited me over last Christmas. They already recognised us because they come here often,” Jongin said.
“And you, Sehun?” Suho turned to the other boy, who had been quiet for a long time.
“Oh. Yeah. It was just as Jongin said.”
“May I ask the two of you one more thing: how long have you been living in this boys’ home?” Suho said.
“Since I was eleven,” Sehun replied.
“And how old are you now?”
“Seventeen.”
“And you?” Suho asked Jongin.
“Since I was ten. And I’m seventeen years old too.” The brave front he had put on seemed to crumble temporarily.
Suho and Baekhyun considered their statements for a moment.
“If I may ask, why did you…?” Suho began, but then he saw the director shake his head. Suho cleared his throat and pocketed his notebook. “I think that will be all for now.”
“Yes. Thank you,” Baekhyun concurred, and they wished the boys a good day and then they left.
The director came to walk them to the front door.
“I hope their answers were of use for you,” he said. “They’re at that age when they’re not the most talkative.”
“That Jongin was quite talkative enough,” Suho replied.
“Ah, yes. He is a brilliant young man,” the director assented non-committally.
They arrived at the front door. A bell rang somewhere, signalling midday.
“Is there anything else you need?” the director asked Suho and Baekhyun.
“Actually, there is. I would still like to know where you were between ten am and one pm on Saturday,” Suho said.
“Me? Oh, I was right here. Out in the garden in the back, most likely. It was such a rare occurrence to have so many of the boys out of the house, so I seized the opportunity and took some time off from work.”
“Very well,” Suho replied. He looked at Baekhyun, but Baekhyun did not seem to have anything more to ask.
They bade farewell to the director of the boys’ home and got in the car. When they were driving away through the thick woods, Baekhyun asked, “Do you really consider the director a suspect?”
Suho shrugged, looking out of the window.
“Who knows? It was best to ask, just in case. Mrs. Lee was working closely with this boys’ home. There might have been differences of opinion; envy; suspicions of misconduct - who knows? And I didn’t think much of his alibi. If most of the boys were out, who could possibly vouch for him? And in any case, he must be a powerful figure in the eyes of those boys. Who would dare to testify against him?”
“When you put it like that…” Baekhyun replied thoughtfully.
They were silent for a moment, both of them going through the conversations they had just had. Baekhyun was the first to speak.
“My men conducted a search in Mr. Lee’s house yesterday,” he told Suho.
“Any findings?” Suho asked, interested.
“Nothing incriminating or conclusive. We weren’t expecting there to be, of course. It always takes a bit of digging around to get to the truth or to find anything. This whole thing is still so… fragmented in my head - I haven’t been able to form a picture of the case yet, and it’s difficult to look for things if you don’t know what you’re looking for,” Baekhyun elaborated.
“Yes, I know what you mean,” Suho replied.
“Oh, and that tutor for Taemin, Mr. Kim, came back. I saw him for the first time yesterday. He’s a bit of an unusual character, if you ask me. We really ought to interview him as soon as possible,” said Baekhyun.
“Why not do it right away?” Suho asked. He said to the chauffeur, “Excuse me, sir! Can you take us to the Lee Manor?”
“Yes sir, no problem.”
They turned right at the next crossing, and soon they saw the Lee Manor in the distance.
It seemed that the household had got used to the detectives and the police coming and going within the past 24 hours. Mr. Lee was no longer there to meet them at the door. Instead, Suho and Baekhyun stated their business to one of the maids, who promptly took them to meet the person they had come to interview - the tutor, Mr. Kim Kibum.
They met the tutor in his room. The room was located in the second floor, and gave towards the meadow behind the house.
Mr. Kim was a handsome young man with high cheekbones and shrewd eyes.
“You’ve come to interview me, is that so?” he asked and, without bothering to wait for an answer, he said, “I was wondering when you’d come and take my statement. I thought I’d go to the police station myself today, but it looks like you got here first. Yes, I hope we get to the bottom of this. Shoot away.”
“Er, yes,” Suho began, sitting down in a seat that Mr. Kim offered him.
“First things first, where were you at the time of the crime?” Suho asked.
Without any hesitation, Mr. Kim answered, “I was out of the house, in town. It was my day off, you see.”
“And what time did you leave the house?”
This time, Mr. Kim made a small noise of hesitation. “I should say I left around 10 o’clock. Mr. Lee came and dismissed me himself. He commented on the nice weather and urged me to go out while it lasted.”
Suho and Baekhyun nodded.
“And while you were in town, were you by yourself, or with anyone who could give you an alibi?” Suho continued.
“Oh yes, I met with a friend of mine. I’m sure she can tell you so if you asked her. Shall I give you her name and address?” Mr. Kim replied.
“We’ll take those later,” Suho said quickly. “She won’t mind answering these questions?”
Mr. Kim stared at Suho for a moment. Then he said with a chuckle, “No, I’m sure she won’t.”
Suho glanced at Baekhyun.
“And… both Mrs. and Mr. Lee were happy with you?” Baekhyun asked a bit more cautiously.
“Yes, I should say they were.”
“Both of them?”
Mr. Kim tilted his head slightly, fixing his eyes on Baekhyun, and Suho was struck with an image of a cat, or a tiger more like, about to pounce on its prey at the next provocation.
“Why do you ask?”
“We need to know. You’d be surprised how often there is some hanky-panky going on,” Baekhyun said.
“No. There was nothing inappropriate between me and Mrs. Lee.”
“And… what about Mr. Lee?” Baekhyun asked.
“Oh. You’re asking because you think…?” Mr. Kim threw his head back and laughed. “Your prejudice betrays you. I can assure you that I fancied neither the wife nor the husband. I came here to teach Taemin, and only for that reason. I have been here for three years, so I should say that they were happy with me. It must seem odd to you, detective.”
Baekhyun made an embarrassed grimace.
Mr. Kim went on: “And, just for the record, there is a possibility that I will now lose my job. So, before you go making up theories about me lusting after my employers and killing the mistress in a fit of jealousy, consider the fact that I may become unemployed because of this.”
Baekhyun said nothing. It was up to Suho to bring the interview to conclusion. “Before we go, I must ask you if there is anything else you could think of, something that could shed light on this matter?”
Mr. Kim looked thoughtful for a moment, staring out of the window. He turned back towards Suho and Baekhyun and said, “No, I don’t think there is anything.”
They asked Mr. Kim for the contact information of his friend. Then they thanked Mr. Kim and left.
Baekhyun let out a huff of indignation as soon as they had stepped out of the front door. “I seriously thought that he seemed the type… That he may have been after the wife as much as the husband, if you get my drift. One of those folks. And we know the repressed governess type, so why wouldn’t it apply to a man like him… Who knows what kind of an influence he has on that boy?” Baekhyun muttered.
“Very good, I’m sure,” said Suho.
“Yeah, well, there’s no question that is good at what he does. He seemed competent enough,” Baekhyun said, clearly trying to pull himself together. “I guess I’ll have to go and find his friend now. Are you coming with me?”
They were halfway to the estate gates. Suho looked to his right, towards the garden. “You know what, I would like to have another look at the crime scene. Shall we meet in the town after that?” Suho asked.
Baekhyun agreed to this, and they parted ways. Suho made his way to the garden. He went across a slope of lawn and through the trees surrounding the swimming pool. Like he had been during his first visit, he was enchanted by all the green, the leaves whispering in the breeze; the way the sunlight filtered through the trees, casting stark shadows on the pool.
If there had to be a place to die, this wasn’t so bad. Of course, Mrs Lee had not died a natural death; she had not died peacefully. No, it had been violent. She must have been frightened in her last moments.
Suho let out a sigh and went around the crime scene again.
When he stood with his back towards the house, a path ran into the woods on his right. He decided to follow it for a short walk. The path was clear and it looked like it was used often. However, the woods thickened quickly around Suho and soon no sunlight filtered to the path through the trees. The trees were tall, mostly pines. The path was littered with pine needles. They would hide footprints well, unfortunately. And in any case, the weather had been clear and warm for the past two days. There would be no footprints left on dry ground.
Except that there were. Suho wiped away some of the pine needles, and noticed shallow tracks on the path. This person had a long stride - either the person was very tall, or they had been running. Running would explain why the prints were relatively deep.
Suho looked back and forth along the path. There would be no need for him to see where the path led; Mr Lee would likely be able to answer that. And so Suho made his way back to the pool, careful not to trod on the footprints.
Now, making his way back to the pool this way, Suho noticed some other curious things as well. The bushes were thick; one could not see the spot where Mrs Lee had been sitting, painting, from this forest path, until one had reached the end of the path. She had been sitting facing the end of the path. So, perhaps…
Suho looked around. Yes. He noticed that the thick shrubbery on his left-hand side looked trampled on. There were snapped branched, and it looked like the leaves had been pushed out of the way. The murderer must have gone round this way to blitz Mrs Lee. But what did it mean? What did it suggest? That the murderer did not want to be seen, obviously; that they knew that Mrs Lee was in the habit of sitting here, perhaps? Either that, or they had seen her here on that very day.
But did that suggest that the murderer was a stranger? No, there were no strangers in this case, Suho was sure of that. But if the murderer had been, say, Mr. Lee, why take the trouble to go to the woods to kill his wife, if not to frame someone else? Surely it would have been only natural for Mr. Lee to come over to his wife, make a little chit-chat about her painting, embrace her, and then…
No. The more he thought about it, the unlikelier it seemed that Mr Lee was the culprit. Unless, of course, the murderer had wanted to avoid eye contact at all cost. Could that suggest a close relationship with the victim?
With these thoughts Suho left the pool and made his way to the town to meet Baekhyun.
© fulushouxi 2015
Genre: Mystery, AU
Rating (this part): PG
Warnings (this part): Homophobia
Word count: 3,100
Summary: Who murdered Mrs. Lee?
Disclaimer: This story is entirely fictional.
A/N: I apologise for making Baekhyun slightly homophobic in this fic. I'm not claiming he is like that irl. On a completely unrelated note, have I ever mentioned how much I love writing Key? Well, now I have.
Previous chapters:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Later on the same day Suho joined Chief Inspector Do at the local police station where Do had set up a small temporary office with the help of the local police. They stayed the night at the only inn in the village, and agreed that they would investigate Taemin’s motive on the next day.
On the following day, Suho decided to go and interview the boys Taemin had been with at the lake. Baekhyun, being a local, offered to come with him. Chief Inspector Do, on the other hand, went back to the police station of look into the arrangements of the inquest that had to be held. And so, while Chief Inspector Do made his way to the village, Suho and Baekhyun got in a car that took them away.
The local boys’ home, established and primarily funded by Mr. and Mrs. Lee, was some way out of the village, in the same direction as the Lee Manor.
The Lee Manor had been surrounded by bright green fields and meadows, and for a while the scenery looked picturesque like this as they drove. But when the car entered the road leading to the boys’ home, the scenery changed; the meadows were replaced by thick trees, and no sunlight shone on the winding road leading to the boys’ home.
Finally the car carrying Suho and Baekhyun emerged on the other side of the woods. They drove through a tall gate and arrived at a stoned court.
Suho and Baekhyun got out of the car, looking around. The boys’ home was a large white-brick building with wings on both sides of the courtyard. Most of the facade was covered in grapevine. The court was dotted by sparse sunlight. All the spots of sunlight had been taken up by solitary figures, most of them immersed in a book.
Suho had visited orphanages before - and while he would not have wanted to live in one, this boys’ home certainly looked jollier and less like an institution than the other orphanages he had seen during his short career.
They were met outside by the director of the boys' home. He was a short middle-aged man.
“How do you do, detectives, how do you do,” he said and shook their hands. “Terrible business, this. This way, please.”
They were taken to an echoing corridor. While they walked, the director of the boys' home described the place for them.
“We have ten rooms for fifty boys. Not much privacy here, though there’s certainly more than on average in orphanages. Mr. and Mrs. Lee were always very particular about it.”
“Are the boys taught here?” Suho asked.
“They’re not taught here, no. They have to go to school in the nearest town. This is such a remote location and a small orphanage that it's no use trying to hire teachers here.”
“What are your admission policies? Do you take anyone in?” Baekhyun asked.
“In principle, yes. However, as I said, this is a far-away location. Practically all our boys come from this village or somewhere near in this county, if they have been sent here by the local authorities. So, no, we don’t see many new faces. I know all the boys by name, and Mr. and Mrs. Lee did too.”
“They came here often?” Baekhyun inquired.
“Two to three times a year. Besides, they are well-known couple in this village anyway. Everyone knows who they are. Most of the villagers have driven or walked past their estate at some point in their lives.”
Baekhyun and Suho exchanged glances.
“Are the boys free to leave the home during the day?” Suho asked.
“The older ones are. We have a strict curfew, though. But really, this village is very safe. Nothing ever happens here. Well… apart from now… Now, I’m not so sure,” the man said, shaking his head.
He let them into his office and closed the door behind them. Two young men were waiting for Suho and Baekhyun in the room.
One of them was called Sehun. He was a lanky boy with an expressionless face. The only thing that betrayed his nervousness was his hesitance to meet Suho’s and Baekhyun’s gazes. His answers were curt; he did not speak unless he was encouraged to do so, and when he did, his deep voice (which he seemed uncomfortable using, Suho thought briefly) had a trembling ring to it.
The other boy, Jongin, was different - he held their gazes courageously, even defiantly. He had the kind of serious and handsome face that had the ability to make girls go crazy - and even for men it was a pleasant face to look at. He was much more eloquent and communicative than Sehun.
“We met Taemin at the manor gates at nine o’clock. He came to let us in. Then we walked to the lake through the forest on the Lee Manor grounds,” Jongin recounted their morning.
“Was it a long walk?”
“No, it was quite short. But we weren’t in a hurry, so it took some time to get to the lake.”
“And what did you do at the lake?”
“We swam. Built a fire. Just messed about,” Jongin replied.
“And were you together all that time?”
Jongin paused to think. “Well, Sehun went a little further away from me and Taemin for a moment when he was collecting firewood. But me and Taemin were together all that time,” Jongin said finally.
“But you must have, at some point, um, had to, um, relieve yourselves?” Baekhyun said.
“Oh. Yes. But that only took a minute,” Jongin answered. “It’s not like any one of us could have run off to the Lee Manor in that time.”
“So you admit that there were moments when all three of you were completely alone?” Suho asked.
“Yes. You could say that.”
“And how did you befriend Taemin? Did you go out with him often?” Suho said.
Jongin continued: “We met him in the village one day. And we decided to hang out. There aren’t too many new faces around here. Everybody knows everybody, so he kind of caught our attention.”
Suho was not sure if Jongin was speaking only for himself, or whether Sehun shared his sentiment. Sehun nodded a little, but it seemed like it was difficult to get words out of him.
“When did you meet the first time?” Suho asked.
“About two years ago,” Jongin answered.
“And I assume that you are good friends now?”
“Yes, we are.”
“Did Taemin ever invite you over to his home? Did you meet his parents?”
“Yes, he did, and yes, we did meet them. They actually invited me over last Christmas. They already recognised us because they come here often,” Jongin said.
“And you, Sehun?” Suho turned to the other boy, who had been quiet for a long time.
“Oh. Yeah. It was just as Jongin said.”
“May I ask the two of you one more thing: how long have you been living in this boys’ home?” Suho said.
“Since I was eleven,” Sehun replied.
“And how old are you now?”
“Seventeen.”
“And you?” Suho asked Jongin.
“Since I was ten. And I’m seventeen years old too.” The brave front he had put on seemed to crumble temporarily.
Suho and Baekhyun considered their statements for a moment.
“If I may ask, why did you…?” Suho began, but then he saw the director shake his head. Suho cleared his throat and pocketed his notebook. “I think that will be all for now.”
“Yes. Thank you,” Baekhyun concurred, and they wished the boys a good day and then they left.
The director came to walk them to the front door.
“I hope their answers were of use for you,” he said. “They’re at that age when they’re not the most talkative.”
“That Jongin was quite talkative enough,” Suho replied.
“Ah, yes. He is a brilliant young man,” the director assented non-committally.
They arrived at the front door. A bell rang somewhere, signalling midday.
“Is there anything else you need?” the director asked Suho and Baekhyun.
“Actually, there is. I would still like to know where you were between ten am and one pm on Saturday,” Suho said.
“Me? Oh, I was right here. Out in the garden in the back, most likely. It was such a rare occurrence to have so many of the boys out of the house, so I seized the opportunity and took some time off from work.”
“Very well,” Suho replied. He looked at Baekhyun, but Baekhyun did not seem to have anything more to ask.
They bade farewell to the director of the boys’ home and got in the car. When they were driving away through the thick woods, Baekhyun asked, “Do you really consider the director a suspect?”
Suho shrugged, looking out of the window.
“Who knows? It was best to ask, just in case. Mrs. Lee was working closely with this boys’ home. There might have been differences of opinion; envy; suspicions of misconduct - who knows? And I didn’t think much of his alibi. If most of the boys were out, who could possibly vouch for him? And in any case, he must be a powerful figure in the eyes of those boys. Who would dare to testify against him?”
“When you put it like that…” Baekhyun replied thoughtfully.
They were silent for a moment, both of them going through the conversations they had just had. Baekhyun was the first to speak.
“My men conducted a search in Mr. Lee’s house yesterday,” he told Suho.
“Any findings?” Suho asked, interested.
“Nothing incriminating or conclusive. We weren’t expecting there to be, of course. It always takes a bit of digging around to get to the truth or to find anything. This whole thing is still so… fragmented in my head - I haven’t been able to form a picture of the case yet, and it’s difficult to look for things if you don’t know what you’re looking for,” Baekhyun elaborated.
“Yes, I know what you mean,” Suho replied.
“Oh, and that tutor for Taemin, Mr. Kim, came back. I saw him for the first time yesterday. He’s a bit of an unusual character, if you ask me. We really ought to interview him as soon as possible,” said Baekhyun.
“Why not do it right away?” Suho asked. He said to the chauffeur, “Excuse me, sir! Can you take us to the Lee Manor?”
“Yes sir, no problem.”
They turned right at the next crossing, and soon they saw the Lee Manor in the distance.
It seemed that the household had got used to the detectives and the police coming and going within the past 24 hours. Mr. Lee was no longer there to meet them at the door. Instead, Suho and Baekhyun stated their business to one of the maids, who promptly took them to meet the person they had come to interview - the tutor, Mr. Kim Kibum.
They met the tutor in his room. The room was located in the second floor, and gave towards the meadow behind the house.
Mr. Kim was a handsome young man with high cheekbones and shrewd eyes.
“You’ve come to interview me, is that so?” he asked and, without bothering to wait for an answer, he said, “I was wondering when you’d come and take my statement. I thought I’d go to the police station myself today, but it looks like you got here first. Yes, I hope we get to the bottom of this. Shoot away.”
“Er, yes,” Suho began, sitting down in a seat that Mr. Kim offered him.
“First things first, where were you at the time of the crime?” Suho asked.
Without any hesitation, Mr. Kim answered, “I was out of the house, in town. It was my day off, you see.”
“And what time did you leave the house?”
This time, Mr. Kim made a small noise of hesitation. “I should say I left around 10 o’clock. Mr. Lee came and dismissed me himself. He commented on the nice weather and urged me to go out while it lasted.”
Suho and Baekhyun nodded.
“And while you were in town, were you by yourself, or with anyone who could give you an alibi?” Suho continued.
“Oh yes, I met with a friend of mine. I’m sure she can tell you so if you asked her. Shall I give you her name and address?” Mr. Kim replied.
“We’ll take those later,” Suho said quickly. “She won’t mind answering these questions?”
Mr. Kim stared at Suho for a moment. Then he said with a chuckle, “No, I’m sure she won’t.”
Suho glanced at Baekhyun.
“And… both Mrs. and Mr. Lee were happy with you?” Baekhyun asked a bit more cautiously.
“Yes, I should say they were.”
“Both of them?”
Mr. Kim tilted his head slightly, fixing his eyes on Baekhyun, and Suho was struck with an image of a cat, or a tiger more like, about to pounce on its prey at the next provocation.
“Why do you ask?”
“We need to know. You’d be surprised how often there is some hanky-panky going on,” Baekhyun said.
“No. There was nothing inappropriate between me and Mrs. Lee.”
“And… what about Mr. Lee?” Baekhyun asked.
“Oh. You’re asking because you think…?” Mr. Kim threw his head back and laughed. “Your prejudice betrays you. I can assure you that I fancied neither the wife nor the husband. I came here to teach Taemin, and only for that reason. I have been here for three years, so I should say that they were happy with me. It must seem odd to you, detective.”
Baekhyun made an embarrassed grimace.
Mr. Kim went on: “And, just for the record, there is a possibility that I will now lose my job. So, before you go making up theories about me lusting after my employers and killing the mistress in a fit of jealousy, consider the fact that I may become unemployed because of this.”
Baekhyun said nothing. It was up to Suho to bring the interview to conclusion. “Before we go, I must ask you if there is anything else you could think of, something that could shed light on this matter?”
Mr. Kim looked thoughtful for a moment, staring out of the window. He turned back towards Suho and Baekhyun and said, “No, I don’t think there is anything.”
They asked Mr. Kim for the contact information of his friend. Then they thanked Mr. Kim and left.
Baekhyun let out a huff of indignation as soon as they had stepped out of the front door. “I seriously thought that he seemed the type… That he may have been after the wife as much as the husband, if you get my drift. One of those folks. And we know the repressed governess type, so why wouldn’t it apply to a man like him… Who knows what kind of an influence he has on that boy?” Baekhyun muttered.
“Very good, I’m sure,” said Suho.
“Yeah, well, there’s no question that is good at what he does. He seemed competent enough,” Baekhyun said, clearly trying to pull himself together. “I guess I’ll have to go and find his friend now. Are you coming with me?”
They were halfway to the estate gates. Suho looked to his right, towards the garden. “You know what, I would like to have another look at the crime scene. Shall we meet in the town after that?” Suho asked.
Baekhyun agreed to this, and they parted ways. Suho made his way to the garden. He went across a slope of lawn and through the trees surrounding the swimming pool. Like he had been during his first visit, he was enchanted by all the green, the leaves whispering in the breeze; the way the sunlight filtered through the trees, casting stark shadows on the pool.
If there had to be a place to die, this wasn’t so bad. Of course, Mrs Lee had not died a natural death; she had not died peacefully. No, it had been violent. She must have been frightened in her last moments.
Suho let out a sigh and went around the crime scene again.
When he stood with his back towards the house, a path ran into the woods on his right. He decided to follow it for a short walk. The path was clear and it looked like it was used often. However, the woods thickened quickly around Suho and soon no sunlight filtered to the path through the trees. The trees were tall, mostly pines. The path was littered with pine needles. They would hide footprints well, unfortunately. And in any case, the weather had been clear and warm for the past two days. There would be no footprints left on dry ground.
Except that there were. Suho wiped away some of the pine needles, and noticed shallow tracks on the path. This person had a long stride - either the person was very tall, or they had been running. Running would explain why the prints were relatively deep.
Suho looked back and forth along the path. There would be no need for him to see where the path led; Mr Lee would likely be able to answer that. And so Suho made his way back to the pool, careful not to trod on the footprints.
Now, making his way back to the pool this way, Suho noticed some other curious things as well. The bushes were thick; one could not see the spot where Mrs Lee had been sitting, painting, from this forest path, until one had reached the end of the path. She had been sitting facing the end of the path. So, perhaps…
Suho looked around. Yes. He noticed that the thick shrubbery on his left-hand side looked trampled on. There were snapped branched, and it looked like the leaves had been pushed out of the way. The murderer must have gone round this way to blitz Mrs Lee. But what did it mean? What did it suggest? That the murderer did not want to be seen, obviously; that they knew that Mrs Lee was in the habit of sitting here, perhaps? Either that, or they had seen her here on that very day.
But did that suggest that the murderer was a stranger? No, there were no strangers in this case, Suho was sure of that. But if the murderer had been, say, Mr. Lee, why take the trouble to go to the woods to kill his wife, if not to frame someone else? Surely it would have been only natural for Mr. Lee to come over to his wife, make a little chit-chat about her painting, embrace her, and then…
No. The more he thought about it, the unlikelier it seemed that Mr Lee was the culprit. Unless, of course, the murderer had wanted to avoid eye contact at all cost. Could that suggest a close relationship with the victim?
With these thoughts Suho left the pool and made his way to the town to meet Baekhyun.
© fulushouxi 2015