Chapter Seven: The Leather Shoes

The morning sun climbed high.

Leto stood at the entrance of the residential complex. The blazing sun scorched the concrete, and the heat rising from it warped the air.

"Woo-ooh—woo-ooh—"

A shrill siren suddenly tore through the sultry stillness.

Leto had only just stepped inside when a blue-and-white ambulance roared out through the gates, and in the window he caught a flash of white-clad medical staff swaying with the vehicle’s motion. The urgency of it sent an inexplicable chill through his chest.

He quickened his pace instinctively. After turning past several apartment blocks, he saw a crowd gathered below the building where Kai was said to live. Yellow caution tape gleamed harshly under the sunlight.

Leto’s steps suddenly turned unsteady, as though he were walking on cotton.

He could see it clearly: a pool of blood on the concrete, not yet fully congealed, had spread across the ground, while several uniformed officers were taking photographs and gathering evidence.

"Oh? His brains splattered out..."

"I heard he fell from the eighth floor?"

"That’s right. The window’s still open..."

"Why would he do that..."

"..."

From not far away, the low murmurs of the neighborhood women drifted into Leto’s ears.

He looked up. The wide-open window on the eighth floor looked like a black gaping mouth, the curtains stirring faintly in the morning breeze.

Leto’s throat went dry, and sweat ran from his temple to his chin—that was the living room window of Kai’s apartment.

He could hardly believe it. Kai was a gambler, yes, but he had also stood with him through six years in this city...

If they had not gone to the villa...

While Leto’s mind reeled in confusion, his phone suddenly began to buzz in his pocket. When he pulled it out, the screen clearly showed the name Kai.

His hand jerked, and he nearly dropped the phone.

"Hello? Dongzi, why are you picking up so slowly? You scared me half to death. Listen, I’ll say it and you remember it—hello?"

Kai’s anxious voice came through the line. For a moment Leto could not react, staring blankly at the room with the open window on the eighth floor.

"Hello? Dongzi!"

"Ah... yeah..." Leto finally came to himself, his tone a little unnatural. "Old Kai, where are you now?"

"Of course I’m looking for you!" Kai said, clearly frantic. "Damn it all, what rotten luck. Someone broke into the place, and I slipped and died. Now the police are after me, and I didn’t dare tell them I was at the casino.

"I’m going to say I was with you. If the police ask, don’t you mess it up!"

When Kai had finished in one breath, Leto wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and let out a slow breath. His voice relaxed as he asked:

"I’m downstairs at your place right now... at the jumping-off scene."

"What!?"

Hearing Kai’s shock, Leto hung up, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it. His legs still felt weak. He turned and crouched beside the exercise equipment in the courtyard, patting his throbbing head.

Kai was fine, and that let him breathe a little easier. But what had happened to his wife the night before, and that strange handkerchief, still pressed on his heart like a stone...

"Hiss... exhale..."

He breathed out a lungful of smoke. The ground now held a third cigarette butt, and not far below the building a minivan had also arrived and shut off its engine.

As the door opened, Kai’s round body squeezed out. His yellowing white T-shirt was smeared with grease, and beneath his swollen eyelids hung two dark, bruised bags.

"What a damn curse!" Kai shouted from a distance. "No wonder I’ve been losing at cards these past few days. Dongzi, what are you doing here? You look terrible."

Leto stood up and rubbed his numb legs. "I... I was planning to talk to you about something."

Kai’s small eyes immediately lit up. "So you’ve made up your mind? Boss Hu was even calling me yesterday to hurry you along!"

Leto shook his head instinctively and led Kai to a quieter corner, lowering his voice.

"Do you know what I saw last night?"

Kai shook his head and took a cigarette from the pack in Leto’s hand.

"I saw the handkerchief on that female corpse’s face! Damn thing came back with me!"

The color drained from Kai’s face at once. The cigarette he had just lit fell to the ground, and his fleshy lips trembled.

"Re... really?"

Before Leto could nod, a stern voice came from behind them.

"Is one of you Kai? We’re from the police station. Please cooperate with our investigation into this morning’s fall from the building."

Two uniformed police officers stood behind them, one holding a notebook.

Kai immediately put on a sycophantic smile. "Yes, I’m Kai. This really has nothing to do with me. I spent the night at a friend’s place..."

The officers turned to Leto. "And this one?"

"I’m his friend." Leto answered mechanically. "He really was at my place last night."

One officer nodded. "Then please come upstairs with us. We need to take a brief statement."

Kai’s apartment was on the eighth floor. The elevator was thick with the smell of cheap perfume mixed with sweat. Leto stood in a corner, and all the while he felt a chill crawling down his back, just like that night when he had stood as a groomsman at the villa.

"We’re here."

The officer’s voice pulled Leto back to reality.

The voice-activated light in the eighth-floor corridor was broken, and in the dim hallway only the green glow of the emergency exit shone faintly.

Leto walked at the rear. Just as he stepped out of the elevator, the door on the other side suddenly opened with a click, and the light inside made the corridor at least a little less dark.

Pat.

The faint sound made Leto pause mid-step, his side glance fixed on the slowly opening elevator door.

But no one came out. It was as if some child had played a prank.

Leto swallowed and looked away, taking a step forward. Behind him, the elevator door began to withdraw its light, narrowing and slowly closing.

The corridor sank back into darkness. Leto hurried a few steps, trying to catch up with Kai at the end of the hall.

Then his shoulder suddenly tightened, as though someone behind him had seized him and held him back.

Leto frowned. He was certain there was no one behind him—no one had even come out of the elevator just now.

Unless...

It was as if he suddenly remembered something. He instinctively looked at his shoulder.

There was a hand there, pale with a faint bluish tinge, mottled with corpse spots. Leto could almost smell the faint stench of death from his nostrils.

The instant he saw it, every hair on his body stood on end, and a strangled cry burst from his throat.

"Ah!"

"Fuck!"

Shock triggered his self-defense instinct. He swung both fists backward with all his strength, nearly throwing himself off balance.

"Hey! What’s going on!"

From the end of the corridor, the officer’s loud question brought Leto, who had fallen to the floor, back to himself. He looked up.

Behind him, there was nothing at all.

"Dongzi... what’s wrong?"

Kai also jogged over and helped him up, concern in his eyes.

Leto rubbed the wrist he had braced against the floor. He wanted to explain, but had no proof. Bracing himself, he glanced around and forced a smile.

"Just... took a fall..."

"Watch out. Use a flashlight!"

An older officer stepped forward and handed him a flashlight. Somehow, once the police were beside him, Leto no longer felt that coldness lingering at his back.

"Let’s go."

Under the bright beam of the flashlight, Leto walked ahead of the officers, and only then did he regain the faintest sense of safety.

Click...

A moment later, Kai took out his key and opened the door. A stench washed out at once—alcohol, sweat, and some indescribable, fishy odor. Leto wrinkled his nose and followed the officers into the small apartment he had visited countless times before.

The living room was in complete disarray. Drawers had been yanked open, clothes were strewn across the floor, and the coffee table was piled high with empty bottles and takeout containers. One officer began photographing the scene while the other questioned Kai about the events of the previous night in detail.

Leto stood to one side, his gaze drifting unconsciously toward the bedroom.

The door was half open, revealing more chaos inside.

Most striking of all was the wide-open window. Sunlight streamed through it, casting a bright patch onto the floor.

At the edge of that patch lay a pair of polished leather shoes, neatly placed side by side.

Their toes pointed outward, as if someone might at any moment slip them on and walk straight to the windowsill...