An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered. -- G. K. Chesterton

Patton House

Enniskillen

1 March, 19—

It had been an eventful year. First that forgery case in Busan, then an abduction in Hong Kong, then the suicide-that-wasn't in Sapporo, then a trip to Rome to catch a money-launderer, all in the space of a month and a half. The minute he had handed the money-launderer over to the authorities, Seo Yo-han had promised himself that he wouldn't take on a single case until August.

He was going on holiday, and if he heard so much as a whisper of another mystery he would run a mile in the opposite direction.

So he got on a train to France, and then on a boat to England, and then spent a week taking photos in the Lake District. While there he remembered Miss Patton, who he'd cleared of a murder charge almost two years ago, and her invitation to visit if he was ever in Ulster. He wrote to her and quickly got a reply saying she would be glad to see him. So he got on another boat, then on a train, and finally ended up in Enniskillen.

It amused him that he had gone from one Lake District to another.

Miss Patton had sold her aunt's house and bought a new one on the outskirts of the town. Her sister and brother-in-law (and their son, and two dogs) shared the house with her. When Yo-han arrived he was promptly pounced on by Mrs. Király, formerly known as Octavia Patton, who had endless questions about the circumstances of her aunt's death and how her sister had become a suspect.

Yo-han couldn't help thinking Mrs. Király was rather like his half-brother Hyeon-su.

Ophelia Patton was much more cheerful than he remembered, and Máté Király was downright friendly. He had a sneaking suspicion that life with Rachael Patton-Langdale had made their personalities much more abrasive than they naturally were. Mr. Király Jr. was a paragon of tranquillity by one-year-old standards, meaning he generally cried no more than five times a day, and the dogs showed their approval of the visitor by jumping into Yo-han's lap and licking his face.

Miss Patton's house was right beside the river. On the right was a park and a collection of piers. On the left was a large house on a hill, surrounded by a wall and a forest. At the bottom of the garden was a path running beside the river. This started in the park, continued past Miss Patton's and the house on the hill, and disappeared around a corner further downstream. It was agreed that this path was open for anyone to use, and a fence divided it from the garden.

Across the river was a large field with cows wandering across it. An old empty house stood in the field. Off to the side was a small house, and beyond it one of the bridges connecting the main town with its outskirts.

A less likely setting for a mystery would be hard to find.

One evening Yo-han took his camera and went down to the path. He took photos of everything, but he couldn't get a good view of the bridge. Since the path was open to the public he thought nothing of going further down.

This part was technically on the grounds of the house on the hill, but there were no gates and no signs warning people away. The trees cast a shadow over it.

The sunlight fell on the field and the empty house. It cast a golden sheen on them. Light glinted off glass in one of the windows. The house beyond it was hidden by a hedge with only its roof visible. A small boat was moored near it. The bridge still wasn't properly visible.

Yo-han moved further along the path and set up his camera again. Finally! He took the photo and turned to go back. Then he stopped at a strange sound. Branches snapped. Footsteps approached. At first he thought a group of people were chasing each other through the forest. Then he realised there was only one set of footsteps. Someone was running like their life depended on it.

A narrow path wound its way through the forest. Yo-han hadn't noticed it until a person raced down it and skidded to a halt at the edge of the riverside path.

If this man's sudden arrival was startling, it was nothing compared to his appearance. He was wearing full evening dress, torn in several places where he'd gotten caught by branches, but wasn't wearing a hat. His hair was dishevelled in a way that suggested he'd been tearing at it. And he was staring at the water in an ominously intent way. He seemed completely oblivious to Yo-han's presence less than a foot away.

Yo-han knew instinctively what the man was planning to do. He dropped his camera without even realising it. He lunged for the man.

The man began to step off the bank.

Yo-han grabbed the man.

For a minute there was a confused struggle. Yo-han tried to pull the man back to safety while the man thrashed around wildly. The two of them staggered perilously close to the water. Then Yo-han tripped and dragged the man down with him.

They landed safely on the path. The shock briefly stopped the man's struggles. After years of dealing with escaping criminals and dodging attempts on his life, it took more than a fall to disorientate Yo-han. He struggled to his feet and tried to pull the man up too.

The man made no effort to get up. Yo-han tugged futilely at his sleeve before deciding a more direct method was called for. He knelt down and began to physically lift the man to his feet.

He got a shock when he put his arm around the man's chest. In the scrimmage a minute ago he had held the man's arms, afraid that he would try to punch him or shove him away. He'd had no time to notice anything about his physique. Now he realised that he was abnormally, unhealthily thin.

The man made a final effort to escape. He struggled for a minute, then gave up and let Yo-han lift him.

His face was very pale, and the skin was stretched over his cheekbones and jaw. Yo-han guessed he was probably in his mid-twenties, but he had a haggard, exhausted air that made him look much older. He had dark circles under his eyes, and a fading bruise on the side of his face.

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Yo-han looked at this strange figure. His first thought was that the man was ill. His second was that it wasn't entirely a physical illness. He had the hunted look of someone being driven to breaking point. Absurdly Yo-han was reminded of Miss Patton when he had first seen her.

The man stared at him through eerily large and bright eyes. He didn't react when Yo-han spoke to him.

He tried the simplest question first. "Who are you?" No answer, so he tried again. "Do you live up there?" Yo-han pointed up to the lighted windows visible between the trees.

Still no answer.

Yo-han was much better at apprehending criminals than dealing with attempted suicides. It was getting dark, he was cold, and he honestly had no idea what to do now there was no immediate danger. The man had come from the forest, so the logical conclusion was that he came from the house on the hill. Therefore the best solution was to bring him back there, and possibly warn his family to consult a doctor if they hadn't already.

"Come on," he said, and tried to put his arm around the man's shoulders.

The man shied away. For a second Yo-han feared he would run for the river again. But he stopped, still staring fixedly at Yo-han's face. It was quite disconcerting.

When he spoke his voice was quiet but much steadier than expected under the circumstances. "Who are you?"

"My name is Seo Yo-han. I'm staying nearby. Now come, you should go home."

The man shuddered. "I can't!" he almost screamed. "She's poisoning me!"

Part of Yo-han's mind told him now was the time to leave. He could guide the man to the house, the police, or a hospital, but he most certainly was not going to get involved. The rest of his mind sighed and said goodbye to his plans for a holiday.

"Who is she, and why do you believe she's poisoning you?" he asked. The man hesitated, so Yo-han added, "I'm a detective. I solved the Patton murder two years ago." And had never been able to recapture the murderer in spite of meeting him several times, but that was beside the point.

The man was silent. When he looked up there was a mixture of hope and desperation in his eyes. "My name is Alexander Lennox, and I know my wife is poisoning me. I'll pay you anything you want if you can only find the proof."

Yo-han frowned. Half of him wondered if he was dealing with a delusional paranoiac. What were the chances that Miss Patton had moved next door to a would-be murderess? But Lennox's physical state could be the result of poison instead of illness. "I believe we should discuss this indoors. Are you willing to go back to your own house or would you rather come to my host's?"

He hoped it was the former. What Miss Patton and the Királys would say if he turned up on their doorstep with a possible lunatic didn't bear thinking about.

Lennox seemed quite calm now. He straightened up and brushed a strand of hair back from his face. His eyes landed on something behind Yo-han. He stiffened. A strange look flashed across his face.

Yo-han turned, expecting to see the mysterious Mrs. Lennox, and got another surprise.

A spectator had arrived, so silently that he hadn't even heard a branch crack. Yo-han had plenty of time to study him, because his attention was riveted on Lennox.

He was a young man of about twenty, with dark hair and wearing a suit -- though not a fine suit like Lennox's. His eyes were so dark that they seemed to be all pupil, which gave him a startling and almost ghostly appearance. Yo-han couldn't see him clearly in the waning light, especially as he was standing just inside the trees, but he had an idea that some intense emotion was written all over his face. Then the man stepped out of the shadows, and his face was perfectly blank.

"Lady Kilskeery is looking for you, sir," he said in an oddly toneless voice.

In America Yo-han had once driven past a reservoir behind a concrete dam. He had thought about the amount of water contained behind that dam, and the devastation it would cause if the concrete broke. This man's blankness reminded him of that dam.

"Tell Mother I'll be up in a minute," Lennox said, almost carelessly.

The man stared at him. Lennox's shoulders slumped. He headed towards the path up through the forest. Then he paused and turned back to Yo-han.

He asked, "Could you come round after dinner tomorrow? We can discuss this then."

Yo-han agreed. He watched as Lennox and the young man disappeared into the trees. A strange feeling that the last fifteen minutes had been a dream swept over him. Then he saw his camera lying on the grass. That convinced him that it had been real enough.

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"Do you know your neighbours well?" Yo-han asked casually over tea that evening.

Miss Patton considered this. "We don't have many neighbours. This house was only built last year. I've heard they're going to build other houses nearby, but it hasn't happened yet."

"There are those people in the big house," Király said.

"Oh, yes." Miss Patton frowned. "Them."

Yo-han raised an eyebrow. "Who are they?"

"The Lennoxes. Otherwise the Viscount and Viscountess of Kilskeery," Miss Patton said, injecting an astonishing amount of disapproval into each syllable. "Vi can tell you all about them. Vi!"

Mrs. Király was in the nursery putting her son to bed. At her sister's shout she hurried to the sitting room on tiptoe and closed the door softly. Then she glared at Miss Patton. Somehow she managed to shout in a whisper, "Quiet! You'll wake Baby!"

Miss Patton rolled her eyes. "Johnny was in the next room when we hung those pictures and he never woke up, not even when you dropped three." Mrs. Király seemed about to protest, so Miss Patton continued, "Anyway, we were talking about the people in the big house. What do you know about them?"

Mrs. Király sat down on the settee next to her husband and accepted the teacup he handed her. "I know nothing good about them, that's for sure. Well," she paused to consider, "the old lady's alright. I don't know much about the viscount. But the viscountess! She's always throwing noisy parties! And Jenny — from the costume department in the opera house, you know — said she'd heard from her sister who works in the household that the viscountess went around with a male friend during her honeymoon! The viscount walked out on her in the middle of the honeymoon, you know. Left her in London and caught the first boat home, and I can't say I blame him. She's an American."

She said the word as if it was a curse she hesitated to repeat.

Yo-han listened with interest. Adultery had a tendency to lead to murder — almost all of his early cases had been easy to solve for that precise reason — but he also knew that a viscount was unlikely to stay faithful even if his wife was a saint. Had it been the viscount he had met by the river? It seemed too improbable, like something from a shilling shocker.

"I take it they didn't marry for love," he observed.

Mrs. Király laughed. "No, she wanted a title and he wanted her father's millions. I pity their children."

So there were children. But was Lennox their father? A woman desperate to cover up her children's illegitimacy might well resort to murder. Yo-han considered this new information and what he'd heard from Lennox.

There wasn't enough to make any deductions yet. He would wait until tomorrow to draw his own conclusions.

"They're having some sort of house party now," Miss Patton said glumly. "Or preparing for one anyway. Did you see the carriages arrive yesterday? I know what that means. Loud music, shouting, people up at all hours... If I'd known about the neighbours I'd never have bought this house."

Király said, "They're hosting half the Ottoman embassy." Everyone turned to him in surprise. He shrugged. "I saw those carriages, and I heard the people in them. I recognise Turkish when I heard it."

A British viscount attempted suicide while he and his American wife were entertaining Turkish guests, and a Korean detective was asked to investigate. It sounded improbable. Yo-han had a feeling there was more to this than met the eye.

That night he sat in the living room and thought for a long time. It seemed mysteries would follow him everywhere whether he liked it or not. His job now was to solve this one before it ended in murder.

Miss Patton stopped in the doorway before she went up to her room. "Are you working on another mystery?"

"I wasn't," Yo-han said, "until two hours ago." He summarised the meeting by the river, leaving out the attempted suicide. "Tomorrow I'm invited to meet Lord Kilskeery after dinner. I'll know more afterwards."

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The next evening Yo-han set out for Lennox House in his best suit, with a sinking feeling in his chest.