Proofreader/Editor: Itane, Hwarang
The pale light blinked once more.
During the rainy night, the light is gone, the sound of wind howling outside the widow, and the serial killer’s happy story. If it was a program on the TV, I would watch it happily with a beer. Jude complained quietly, and he leaned on the sofa and stretched his legs. He could hear the raindrops hit his window.
“Why?”
[I think it’s better to say that later. It lessens the suspense.]
“Wow, you should become a movie director. So, how are you going to make the beginning, director?”
[What’s important in this part is, they weren’t that close to each other. Well, if you see the old man’s fortune, it’s not that surprising. While they didn’t see each other, they got awkward with each other little by little, and they were used to complaining to one another already. But on the outside they weren’t that bad. They just politely greeted each other. You know that kind of relationship, when you meet your relatives during the holidays, and just throw some good words to one another.]
“You are saying, they had something rotting inside of them?”
[Yes. There wasn’t any particular situation, but I didn’t know it will bring that kind of a fun event. It was above my expectation.]
“A fun event, you mean the murder?”
[It isn’t that simple, Detective. It was very new seeing the different kinds of ill intentions meet each other and tangle like a complicated architecture. Was it because it wasn’t one-to-one feeling? It was incomparable with the Mrs. Sarkozy’s time. It had been a while since I felt that kind of joy.]
“So, what. What happened.”
[When they found out, that ‘that’ disappeared. They panicked. The whole household turned upside down, literally. They were in panic so much that everyone turned red and purple and looked for water and heart medicine. But after a little time passed, those people came back with the similar facades as usual and all of them said, “Let’s end this without telling people.”]
“Why? It was a theft.”
[That was the old man’s most secretive property. It seemed like how he got it wasn’t that clean. So they thought if they reported to the police, the gem might be taken away. They thought it was better for them to look for it secretly by themselves.]
“How would they know the thief? How were they gonna look for it secretly by themselves.”
[You know, Detective. No one in the family thought the culprit was an outside person.]
A sound of a laugh came out like holding the laughter in at a funny comedy scene. Jude didn’t care and raised one of his eyebrows.
“So, everyone thought the thief was among them?”
[Yes, just like that. No one suspected other than their siblings and relatives. Nobody carelessly said anything, but they had that intention. It was like trying to hide a body that was showered with perfume, which mean it was useless.]
“……How, can that be?”
[Uh? Don’t tell me you still don’t get it. Eight people gathered in a secluded house, and one target. Isn’t it obvious? And there wasn’t any strange movement at night. And importantly, only they knew about the gem. That means- they only had themselves to suspect. When one cogwheel started spin, the whole machine started to work.]
“So, what was the second cogwheel?”
Jude asked indifferently and took out a can of beer from the refrigerator. He felt around the fridge to find something to eat, like fruits, but soon he sighed and closed the door. How is it that there are only beer cans in the fridge? If he had a mother to visit his house, he would have to endure a storm of nag. When he opened the beer can and sat down, Alvin’s voice came up again.
[Do you know who died first?]
“The oldest uncle, Roygan Maples. The cause was getting hit by a weapon, and the weapon was well… Was it something like frying pan in the kitchen? I think it was something like that. But it didn’t have the fingerprints, so they aren’t sure who did it. And they don’t even have a person to hear the story from.”
[Everyone was not in the moment to feel sorry to each other. They all needed some money to keep their nests, and even their children needed the money. Except for the youngest child, they all knew they need many things for their future. Their hostility towards the other relatives’ family showed from time to time. Two days passed in that uncomfortable atmosphere. The one who couldn’t stand the atmosphere and raised his voice was the Uncle.]
“Aha. Who was the person?”
[It was towards the youngest uncle. The oldest uncle was not a straightforward person, so he quietly called the youngest uncle late at night to the kitchen and started to nitpick like how can you do this, you know my business is hard right now, I’m trying to send my kids to a famous private school, so you can’t be like this, I’ll give you as much as you need when I success later so understand me.]
“The youngest uncle, probably denied.”
[Yes. He even got mad at his older brother. He questioned back if his wife or he did it, or if his first son did it. After that the conversation changed to attacking each other. It was a little unexpected that the brothers who looked so calm outside, had that much dissatisfaction and anger towards each other.]
Jude carefully licked the foam and tilted the can. The cool beer coldly went down his throat. He got happy that the hotness disappeared a little bit and paid attention to Alvin’s quiet and clear voice.
[You are a failure, you (older uncle) were always like this, you didn’t even give me a single dollar when I was in the hospital so how can I trust that word, all kinds of talk came out. All their disgraces from long time ago when they were little came up. But both of them denied stealing the gem, and that made them mad at each other the most. That attack was what end of the conversations, the youngest uncle swung his arm holding the heavy frying pan.]
“Ahh, is that so.”
[In the cartoons, there are scenes where they hit the bad guy’s head with a frying pan a lot, you know, right? If you swing it right, you can easily kill a person. So the oldest uncle stopped breathing just like that, and the youngest uncle panicked. Fortunately it was late at night, so no one came out to see, and the youngest uncle cleaned his fingerprints and left his brother’s dead body and went back to his room. He couldn’t clean up that dead body without any sound. He needed a separate key for the basement, and it was obvious that the door’s sound would be loud.]
“…..So, the morning came just like that?”
A small sound of giggling vibrated in his ears. After a few more sips of the beer, Jude found an almost expired packet of peanuts in the cabinet, his voice rang again.
[That’s what happened. The oldest aunt was the first person to come out to the kitchen and screamed, and the cogwheels started to move all at the same time…..]
The sound of the raindrops hitting the pavement and his window got stronger, and Jude tilted his head. If this story, that doesn’t sound like it’s going to end soon, ends, will the rain stop to? He slightly tilted his head again, and the blond detective tilted his beer can.
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Hello! I missed you guys T^T
Continue to Part. 21
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