Chapter 7

Or was her sister the killer?

Vạn Phong looked at her.

Then at the knife in my hand.

“Fuck! You killed her, didn't you? You're the murderer!”

“Calm down!” I shouted. “If I killed her, why call you? Don't I know how to dispose of a body?”

Trịnh Văn Văn agreed.

“Right. If it were him, she would have accused him before dying, not said something so disconnected.”

He clutched his head.

“Who else could it be? Only three of us are alive.

“I'll kill you both. One of you has to be the killer.”

“Don't forget,” I reminded him. “We haven't found Hướng Bắc.”

The three of us sat facing one another.

Honestly, I still couldn't identify the killer.

There was even the possibility that Vạn Phong and Trịnh Văn Văn were working together.

Playing with me.

Waiting until I grew sleepy to torture me slowly to death.

Then a question broke the silence.

“Vạn Phong, there's no one else now. Who knows how long we'll live? I have something to ask.”

“Then don't.”

“I want to. Do you really love me?”

I stared.

What?

Didn't he have a wife?

Was I supposed to hear this?

He glanced at me.

Perhaps in our situation, nothing mattered anymore.

“Yes.”

“When will you divorce her?”

“Soon.”

“You said that last time.”

I rose to give them privacy.

Then thought better of it. Going out was dangerous and might cause suspicion.

I walked around examining the appliances instead, pretending to study their brands.

“When I say soon, I mean soon! Fuck, is this the time to care about that?”

“To you, I've only ever been a toy. Haven't I?”

“What nonsense?”

“Just like Vương Ngưng. Hướng Nam. Hướng Bắc. Right?”

Fuck.

He immediately seized her throat.

“Don't talk shit!”

Should I intervene?

That they could fight like this in front of me almost ruled out their working together.

Accomplices wouldn't need to act this far.

Trịnh Văn Văn probably wasn't the killer either.

Otherwise, what she had just said was absurd. It sounded like someone who had completely broken down.

That left Vạn Phong or Hướng Bắc.

But it still didn't fit.

He had alibis for the earlier killings.

Hướng Bắc, on the other hand, had no evidence clearing her.

Of course, the two could be working together.

Then the jammer, severed bridge, the whole isolated-house setup would make sense.

Only a possibility.

We had all been here several days. Preparations could easily have been made beforehand.

“Calm down. I didn't hear anything.”

I stepped in to make peace.

He released her.

She held her throat and coughed violently.

“We can't all stay awake like this,” I suggested. “Why not take three shifts?”

Now that I was almost certain they weren't partners, at least we could finally rest in turns.

Both agreed.

Trịnh Văn Văn said she couldn't sleep and would take the first watch.

We stayed in a ground-floor suite.

They occupied the room near the entrance.

I took the other.

We called it rest, but no one dared sleep deeply.

Crash!

Glass broke outside.

Trịnh Văn Văn fell backward.

An arrow was embedded in her chest.

Blood spilled from her mouth and nose.

Eyes wide, she stared at Vạn Phong, as though she wanted to say something.

Or ask something.

He couldn't be the killer.

The arrow had come through the window from outside.

“Was it you? You climbed out, killed her, then climbed back in to pretend you're innocent?”

He really had gone mad.

He shoved me into a corner and gripped my throat.

“It's you! If I kill you, I'll live! You're the killer!”

“Hướng... Bắc...”

I tried to remind him she was still missing.

He couldn't hear reason.

Just as I was about to lose consciousness, the pressure vanished.

Fresh air flooded my lungs.

I gasped.

An arrow was lodged in his neck.

It went through from left to right, its tail still trembling.

Now everyone was dead.

Only me.

But I knew a killer was still outside.

I raised both hands above my head.

Step by steady step, I walked out into the open.

Taking a deep breath, I shouted, “Come out.

“Vương Ngưng!”

A figure slowly emerged from the darkness.

She carried a bow, just like the ones at the resort's archery range.

She smiled faintly.

“A writer indeed. Tell me. How did you know?”

“Because everyone else is dead.”

“Why not Hướng Bắc?”

I took an inhaler from my pocket.

“Her asthma's severe. I found this in her room.

“She couldn't have lasted so long without it.”

She nodded.

“Yes. An oversight.”

“I've seen everyone else's body,” I went on.

“Only you fell into the gorge without one being found.

“If I'm right, the person down there is Hướng Bắc, wearing your clothes.

“After killing me, you'll have to deal with her body. The police finding it would be troublesome.

“Or perhaps you've already arranged for it never to be found.”

She smiled coldly.

“May I ask why you wanted to kill us all?”

“You really don't know?”

“No.”

“I've wanted you dead for years. At last, I had a chance to gather you in one place.”

“I'm on the list too?”

“Yes.”

“How could you be sure I'd stay? Or anyone else?”

“I'd make you stay. I know you. If I'm here, you'll stay.”

“And the others?”

“Vạn Phong handled them.”

“You were together?”

“In a way. But he didn't know I would kill anyone.”

“Tell me. Why all this?”

She looked at me.

“Remember my job entertaining clients at a karaoke club?”

I did.

At university, her father had been seriously ill and needed a great deal of money.

She worked as a hostess, pouring drinks, and sent everything home.

It wasn't secret. Many classmates knew.

According to her, it was only drinks. At most, clients touched her thigh or kissed her cheek.

Nothing else.

But once a girl was connected with a place like that, what people said was no longer hers to control.

Mạnh Phàm, Tôn Kiều, Trịnh Văn Văn, and Vương Ngưng shared a dorm room.

Mạnh Phàm went everywhere recounting her “glorious exploits.”

Tôn Kiều followed her for gossip every day, adding embellishments, though she knew much of it was invented.

Trịnh Văn Văn said little, but kept her distance.

She wouldn't touch anything Vương Ngưng had touched.

Dirty, she said. She was afraid of catching something.

The twins lived next door.

They were friendly with the boys, and through them, the stories spread to the male students.

Then the whole school knew.

Hearing them, Vạn Phong offered to pay to sleep with her.

She refused.

He returned to class boasting about how pale her legs were, how beautiful her breasts, how passionate she was in bed.

Cốc Cường and Hoàng Kiện backed up his story.

Ultimately, none of that was the worst.

Having chosen that work, she wasn't afraid of gossip.

Then the university found out.

They called her mother.

Unable to bear the public pressure, her mother hanged herself.

Soon afterward, her father died with no one left to care for him.

I knew everything before that.

Only their deaths were new to me, revealed that night.

“Tell me,” she said. “Did I have a reason to kill you?”

I said nothing.

She did.

“What about me? Why kill me too?”