Chapter 55: Summer

Two of the evidence techs in Sangbum's team were busily unpacking their kit bags, removing canister vacuum cleaners, compasses and calipers, four-by-five cameras and video equipment, fiberglass brushes and vials of gray and white fingerprint powder. The cartographer was already plotting the coordinates of the room on graph paper, prior to marking down the exact location of every item of furniture, every ashtray, every bloodstain. The other three would set to work momentarily, snapping photos and bagging evidence. Kim Hyeok figured he'd better get out of their way.

Carefully he retraced his steps, backing away from the corpse. On the steps outside, Bong and Myung stood waiting.

"Let's see the window," Kim Hyeok said tersely.

The two men nodded. Wordlessly they led him down a hallway adjacent to the living room, into a large and well-kept kitchen.