Houses Full of Deceit

Chapter VII: The Game's Afoot

Why do you want a political career? Have you ever been in the House of Commons and taken a good square look at the inmates? As weird a gaggle of freaks and sub-humans as was ever collected in one spot. -- P. G. Wodehouse, Cocktail Time

In its long and hardly illustrious history Liverpool, like every city, had seen so many strange people — most of them its own inhabitants — that it took no notice of one more. A smaller and less eccentric place would have taken one look at a man dragging around a very large suitcase, which smelt strongly of chemicals and other, even less pleasant things, and immediately become suspicious.

As it was, An Ji-hun got through customs, the docks, and all the way to the trains without anyone asking awkward questions like "what have you got in that case".

The conductor on the train to London was the first person to notice something odd. "Funny smell in here," he said, sniffing. Ji-hun could have told him he sounded like a dog. He gave Ji-hun an unfriendly scowl. "Bootlegging, is it?"

He would have got a nasty shock if he could have known how close he came to being killed. Ji-hun had a razorblade hidden in his sleeve. His fingers itched to reach for it. He'd grab the conductor, turn him around, and slice deep into his throat. The blood would spray away from him. Then he would cut off the man's finger and add it to his collection, framed on his wall forever.

A train company would notice if its conductor disappeared. Someone would comment on the smell of blood. Ji-hun regretfully waved goodbye to his dream.

"A chemistry set, sir. I'm a chemist going to the London conference."

Predictably this made the conductor's eyes glaze over. Ji-hun had learnt that pretending to be very enthusiastic about obscure chemicals would make most people leave him alone.

Two hours later he stepped onto a London platform. Now to find Seo Yo-han.

~~~~

Anyone who asked at the Castle Hotel would be told that yes, Seo Yo-han was staying there. No, no one had seen him come or go. No, no one actually knew what he looked like. But he was on the book and he had paid for his room, so he had to be there.

Yo-han knew An wouldn't be fooled for long. He just wanted to get as much evidence as possible before revealing himself.

If he left it too long, he wouldn't put it past An to hunt down every Korean in London.

Only two people knew the truth about "Nam Seon-ho", who was staying at a guesthouse miles away from where Seo Yo-han was supposedly staying. Leopold was in Blackpool and Phil was in Enniskillen. Yo-han estimated he had two weeks before Ji-hun tracked him down. This was the man who had followed him across several countries and oceans, after all.

All three of them had their own areas to investigate. Phil was tracking down everything in the papers about Timothy Avington. Leopold was searching for murders where victims' fingers had been removed. And Yo-han was waiting impatiently for a telegram from Seoul.

It came a week after he went into hiding. To be specific, it was a series of four telegrams, two written in both English and Korean. Min-gyu must have used an entire month's salary to send them.

Yo-han laid them out on his table in order of earliest to latest. Their messages were identical in both languages, with only the inevitable differences in grammar and syntax.

Car belonged to Jeong Dong-sik.

Jeong very friendly with man from British Embassy.

A space of several hours passed before the next telegram, which was sent only in English.