Houses Full of Deceit

Chapter IX: The Mousetrap

I felt a distinct pleasure in passing on my own discomfiture. -- Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Ji-hun lit another cigarette. He watched Seo walk away from the bus stop. He knew Seo knew he was watching. The question now was, would he try to fool Ji-hun by going to a random house? Or would he boldly go into his own house and think he could defend it?

Seo went to the house at the far end of the road. The bus had long since left. The other passengers who had got off had gone to their own homes. Anyone watching would think Ji-hun was waiting for another bus.

He finished his cigarette and lit another. He checked his watch.

Seo had five minutes to prepare. That was as sporting as Ji-hun felt like being. Now that his prey was practically caught, he found the whole business tiresome. He wanted Seo dead quickly.

He didn't go up the street. He crossed it, followed one of the alleys between houses, and made his way towards Seo's house by way of the adjoining street.

No one was around to see him at this hour. Seo couldn't have picked a better time if he'd asked Ji-hun's opinion.

He circled round and approached the house from behind. At the back there was a small lawn, a low hedge enclosing part of it, and a few trees separating it from the road beyond. Ji-hun crouched behind the hedge and peered through the leaves. He would much rather have had either a house completely in the countryside, or one surrounded by other houses. The former would have had more places to hide, and the latter would have had more directions to approach from.

He watched the kitchen windows. Nothing stirred inside.

It was the work of a moment to dart round the hedge and take up position at the house's wall. Ji-hun stayed bent almost double so no one looking out of a window would see him. He made his way around the house and to the kitchen door. One of the windows he passed was ajar. An obvious trap if ever Ji-hun had seen one.

His main object wasn't so much to get in through the kitchen — that was what Seo would expect — as to make Seo think he was trying to get in through the kitchen. Then, when Seo came to investigate, Ji-hun would run round to the open window and come in behind him.

He knelt on the doorstep and took his lockpick out of his pocket. He made as much noise as possible at trying to force the lock.

Exactly as he predicted. He heard footsteps inside the house. They started from somewhere near the other side and came swiftly closer.

Ji-hun left the door. Still ducking below the windows, he went round the other side of the house.

~~~~

"Come on," Leo hissed.

"He's still here," Phil said.

"Not now. He's gone to the front door. I left windows open on both sides so we could get in."

Phil could see the obvious problem there. "You've given him an easy way in too."

Leo grinned. "Not if he thinks like me. He'll assume it's a trap and he'll avoid the windows. Quick, before he comes back!"

~~~~

If I was an assassin, what would I do? Yo-han asked himself repeatedly as he waited for An to arrive.

It was an interesting exercise, but not a useful one. How could he predict what someone as plainly insane as An would do?

Those open windows worried him. Leopold said no assassin would fall for such a blatant trap. But was he right? And speaking of Leopold, where was he? Where was Phil? They should have been back before Yo-han.