“I only met her once,” she tells him hoarsely. “She looked so different then. Her name was Soo-min…”

Well, Seokga thinks grimly, it seems as though the whys have found him anyway. “Go on,” he says, folding his arms as he processes, quickly, the damning fact against his nephew.

“Their relationship was rocky, but Hwanung was infatuated.” She shakes her head. “Most of their tension came from Soo-min’s fear that her husband would find out about the affair. He was a violent man. At the behest of your brother, I attempted to intervene through couple’s therapy sessions and subtly show Hwanung all the reasons it was wrong to be with her. Godly Gossip was the least of my worries. But they stayed together—until her husband found out.” Dr. Jang laces shaking fingers together. “By that time, my sessions with Hwanung and Soo-min were over. I didn’t find out…until today, from Hwanung, that Soo-min had been murdered by her jealous spouse. Hwanung begged Hwanin to do for Soo-min what he did for Hani, but Hwanin refused. That was three years ago.”

Seokga tenses. Three years ago was approximately when Hwanung and Hwanin’s relationship started to deteriorate. “Hwanung knew if he were heavenly emperor, he’d be able to do what Hwanin refused,” he says slowly, putting the pieces together. “He waited until the moment Hwanin was alone and vulnerable—on a Jeoseung cruise ship without any other gods near. He was working with Soo-min. In her samjokgu form, she killed Hwanin and they threw his heart into the river, hoping it would deposit the baby somewhere he would suffer. They miscalculated.” He feels as if he’s missing something. What harm could baby Hwanin ever do? But he plows on, eager to close the case. “To gloat, she moved the body to where I would find it. Maybe that was done impulsively. It led to problems for her after—when Soo-min found out we were investigating, she tried to keep me from Kisa, and she had to destroy the security room after Somi overheard her calling Hwanung.”

But how did Soo-min avoid the security cameras while dragging the body? Perhaps it was Hwanung, teleporting his father’s corpse to the unsupervised stairwell. Yes, that must be it. How did he appear on the ship without Yeomra noticing, as he did today? Seokga grimaces. Yeomra must have been busy with his demon lover again.

“But why did they kill the captain?” Dr. Jang pushes.