Untrustable

Chapter 19

"I- what?" he asked. Christopher looked confused; of course he would be. I just shoved him away to Pluto when he knew I had liked it– no, I loved it.

"Did Dockus smoke?" I asked again. The deja vu has left the chat; it wasn't important.

"He... did, I believe so." I almost cringe at his choice of words– talking formally as if we haven't been making out on the sofa, right before he was going to be taking a bite at it.

I shook out the thought as I limped over to Dockus' body, who still had the firewood in his mouth, the tip of it burnt black. Smoking.

"Did he carry cigs with him? Or at least... a lighter?"

"Yeah– pretty sure Mrs. Dockus gave him a lighter a few years ago as a present, and he used that. It's a golden one with a carved eye on each side."

"Can you check if they're missing?" I asked.

"Sure." Christopher slowly lifted himself up from the couch, and walked over to his belongings again. After a few shuffling, he said, "Nope, not in here. He always puts it in his right suit pocket."

A lighter, which was a present. Arctic Fox must have used the same lighter to light the fire then. One thing that's missing.

A present, which was missing. What else does one wear on himself?

Christopher came to stand next to me, with an arm around my waist. Not too intimidating, but more like for comfort.

"You thought of something?" he asked.

I felt my shoulders unclench as I looked up at him, and allowed myself to smile for once since I walked into this Palace.

"I got it."

***

During dinner, JYP asked me if I found the person who "has brought great sadness to this Palace."

"Yes, sir, I believe–"

Christopher cleared his throat. Right.

"We believe Mr. Bang and I have found the killer."

The entire dining room was silenced with 1 sentence. Han and Keeho dropped their forks. Mrs. Dockus froze in the middle of sipping soup.

And JYP gasped, dramatically throwing the utensils down on the table, dragging the chair back as he placed his hand on his chest.

"You found him? Where is he?"

"Who's gonna tell him?" Christopher said, eyeing me.

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes at him, I quietly stood up from my seat.

"There were 3 people here who attended the banquet last night," I said, slowly walking next to JYP. "Mr. Keeho, Mr. JY Park, and Mr. Peter. Is that correct?"

All 3 of them nodded.

"Mr. JY Park, you had planned this banquet to celebrate your birthday, correct?"

His answer was short, unlike usual. "Yes."

"And what did you do during the party?"

"I– I greeted a lot of people, I had fun with a lot of people, I danced with a lot of people, I sang with a lot of people, and then I went to sleep with my teddy bunny."

"On what floor did you sleep on?"

"The 6th."

"And on what time?"

"At exactly 10 o'clock."

I slowly walked over to Keeho. "Mr. Keeho, your job was to keep eyes on Mr. Park, correct? It was your duty to keep him safe."