Sixteen Floors
The meeting room drained quiet as an ebbing tide. Even Officer Yun, who had lingered to the last in hopes of getting a word in, was hauled out by Taeo's hand, and at last Seon had the room to herself.
In the darkened space, only the blue glow of the screen flickered on and off. Its dizzying afterimage blurred her vision, but her mind had never been sharper. This meeting had never been convened to find the truth. The evidence was flimsy, there was no testimony from the officers who had responded to the scene, and yet everyone in that room had been falling over themselves to bring things to a close. The intent behind it was written all over their faces.
"Hah..."
Seon let out a long breath and rose from her seat. They had agreed on a twenty-minute recess, so she meant to at least get some fresh air.
The old iron door groaned as she pulled it open. In the corridor beyond, Seok-cheol stood leaning against the wall, scrolling through his tablet. At the sound of the door he straightened at once and hurried over.
"Your Highness."
"Now I understand why Grandmother sent me here."
"It seems it wasn't easy for you."
Seon smiled wearily, letting her shoulders sag. The Emperor had apparently anticipated, at least in part, how the investigation would unfold. But what exactly was she supposed to do about it? What could her untrained eyes possibly catch that the professionals hadn't? The premise itself was flawed. They had no intention of investigating. They weren't even trying to look like they were.
"It seems Grand Prince Uigu's reach doesn't stop at the Office of the Inspector General."
"It was common knowledge that he frequented the police agency. They say royals who get into trouble contact him first precisely because he has so many connections there."
"Even so, I didn't expect it to be this blatant."
Seon exhaled a hollow breath and pressed a hand to her hip. The subject of this investigation was the Crown Prince. The imperial family's standing might not be what it once was, and the voices of those who resented them had grown louder, but the Crown Prince remained genuinely popular. A grave accident had left him hovering between life and death, and yet this attitude flew in the face of public sentiment. If it ever came to light that such a slapdash investigation had been conducted, it would be the officials responsible who paid the price.
And still they were proceeding this way, which could only mean a deliberate purpose lay behind it. The faster the Crown Prince's accident was wrapped up, the more one person stood to gain. Her head ached all over again. He was barely clinging to consciousness, but that didn't mean his influence had died with his silence. According to the Office of the Inspector General, the police were in charge of the investigation's overall course, which meant that if they lost the power struggle, it was over.
"I need to clear my head."
"I'll escort you."
"No. I'll go alone."
Seok-cheol's brow furrowed immediately.
"This isn't exactly familiar ground for you, is it?"
"Which is exactly why I'll be fine."
Seon stretched, twisting lightly at the waist as if to shake off the stiffness. Her easygoing manner only deepened the displeasure on his face.
"Don't worry, Jeonwi Jo."
"Even when someone may have tried to assassinate the Crown Prince?"
"All the more reason I have nothing to worry about here."
Seon murmured the words as her cold gaze swept the empty corridor.
"If something happens to His Highness and then, right on its heels, to me as well, whoever orchestrated this won't be able to bury it so easily a second time."
Seok-cheol's mouth opened and closed, his eyes still full of protest, as if there were more he desperately wanted to say.
"The elevator goes straight up to the roof. I doubt the CCTV will conveniently break down here."
Even as she said it, Seon understood his worry. She hadn't refused his insistence on walking her to the elevator, after all. He pressed the button first, watching the numbers climb from one to two, and kept up a steady stream of anxious reminders the whole way.
Ding.
Seon, who had been nodding along half-heartedly, felt a wave of relief as the chime sounded and the doors slid open. What she needed, more than anything, was to be alone.
"Ah."
But fate was not on her side. The elevator was not empty.
She gathered up the composure that had loosened during her conversation with Seok-cheol, deliberately curving her lips into a smile, and stepped inside with a slight bow of her head. Through the narrowing gap she could see Seok-cheol's mouth forming a protest, but her finger jammed the door-close button and he vanished from view.
"Which floor?"
Taeo had said nothing in front of Seok-cheol, only jabbed the close button without a word. Now that the two of them were alone, he spoke in a stiff, clipped voice.
Seon glanced at the light glowing on the panel and answered while staring straight ahead.
"Looks like we're headed to the same place."
"Ah."
Taeo had spotted the red light for the rooftop floor as well, and offered nothing more.
The silence was suffocating. Waiting for the elevator from the third floor to arrive had taken an instant; rising to the top felt like being trapped in time itself. Of course the rooftop had to be on the sixteenth floor. She resented the display for showing a mere six.
"How far do you intend to take this?"
The number ticked from six to seven. Taeo had spoken first. Seon turned her head slowly toward him, taking in the jaw that still looked rigid and unbending.
How far? His question, obviously about the investigation, struck something fundamental in her. Wasn't an investigation supposed to continue until every suspicion had been resolved? A deep aversion surged up from somewhere beneath her ribs. It felt as though he were announcing, outright, that no proper inquiry would ever happen, and the thought sat poorly in her chest.
Seon turned back to the sealed elevator doors. How was it that not a single other person was getting on?
"Who knows."
The car climbed past the eighth floor before she spoke again. Taeo hadn't so much as twitched at anything she'd said or done.
"How far would I have to go before Inspector Kwon stopped being uncomfortable?"
She heard him draw a sharp breath. Even without looking, the agitation was unmistakable. It didn't last long. He fidgeted with his fists, cleared his throat, made his discomfort plain in a dozen small ways, and yet seemed determined not to let it show.
"I'm a detective. When I can find the answers a victim's family is looking for, it's rewarding. But that isn't always possible."
Taeo went on slowly.
"I admire the effort. I do."
"..."
"But you can see where this investigation is headed if it continues as it is. Can't you?"
Helplessness crashed over her like a wave. She was in an elevator that couldn't be stopped once the button had been pressed; she wanted to leap free and couldn't. Seon knew perfectly well which direction things were flowing. She wanted to right the course, but every path looked impassable. Even without Taeo pressing on the bruise, the situation was painful enough on its own.
To swallow the heat churning in her gut, Seon deepened her smile into something bright and deliberate. The rounded corners of her mouth hid the tangle beneath.
"Judging by the evidence presented in the meeting room alone, it would be difficult to conclude there was any crime beyond an accident."
At last the elevator climbed past the tenth floor. She glanced at the number and lowered her gaze. The surface of her black enamel shoes caught the light. Looking at the quiet gleam of the toe caps, Seon thought of her uncle lying in his hospital bed, barely tethered to life by a ventilator.
What would Uncle have done?
From the time she was small, he would sit her on his knee and tell her stories. How he had handled royals and politicians who refused to listen. How he had acted when every door seemed shut and no answer presented itself.
There was no evidence to establish criminal intent. So was this truly nothing more than a tragic, unlucky traffic accident?
Seon bit her lip. No. If she truly believed that, the Emperor would never have sent her here. And the string of absurdities, the CCTV footage that happened to go dark, the other driver who materialized out of nowhere, was far too convenient to be coincidence.
If there's no evidence. If that's why Uncle's accident must be smoothed over like this.
"Then I need to find the one piece of decisive evidence that can turn this whole thing on its head."
She murmured it under her breath. Taeo only raised an eyebrow and said nothing.
"Decisive evidence..."
As she turned the problem over, a voice she'd heard recently flickered through her memory.
"The autopsy."
Taeo's head turned. For the first time, their eyes met in the narrow confines of the elevator. His expression, caught off guard by the sudden brightness in hers, was difficult to read.
"I hear they're only proceeding with the other driver's autopsy."
"An autopsy warrant can't even be issued for Imperial Household Agency personnel."
Taeo scratched his head, a trace of irritation bleeding into his voice at the cumbersome subject.
"You think we're autopsying only the other driver because we want to? The request for that Imperial Household driver will never be approved, not in a lifetime. What exactly are we supposed to do about that?"
"I suppose that's true, for an Inspector."
At her placid reply, Taeo let out a short, disbelieving laugh.
"And what makes you so different, Your Highness? Honestly, unless you're the Emperor or the Crown Prince Himself, in my eyes you're no different from any other commoner with royal blood in their veins."
"If you're trying to say I'm a royal without any real power, you'd be right. But even so, Inspector, you and I are not the same."
The calmer her voice, the more visibly Taeo bristled. She couldn't tell whether it was her unshakable poise that grated on him, so unlike the other royals he'd dealt with, or whether she had simply caught him off balance.
"I suppose everything about the noble daughter of the imperial house must be different from the rest of us."
"Of course. At the very least, I can have an audience with His Majesty whenever I wish."
At that instant the elevator shuddered to a stop with a chime.
"That warrant. If I were the one to obtain it, would you be able to make a choice then, Inspector?"
"What choice are you talking about?"
Taeo's voice sharpened. Seon answered slowly, enunciating every word.
"If the Crown Prince also dies, would you be able to conduct not only the Imperial Household driver's autopsy, but his as well?"
"As if that were even—! And how would that be a choice for me?"
"Because it would be the choice to find at least a portion of the truth."
"The choice to find at least a portion of the truth."
The doors slid open, offering them both an escape, but neither looked away first. Their gazes, wary and unblinking, locked together in the narrow space between them.