Chapter Text
It was nighttime. The enormous mansion in the middle of the woods was quiet, and only a few birds chirped among the trees. The moon had hidden behind the clouds, leaving the forest and the house submerged in darkness. The air felt hot and stifling, and lately temperatures hadn’t dropped below thirty-five degrees, even after sunset. The scorching ground emanated smoke in the daytime and barely cooled off after dark.
There was no wind, and the leaves on trees didn’t rustle. The short, finely trimmed grass hadn’t wilted yet, so it didn’t echo the footsteps of a boy dressed merely in pyjamas and socks. He didn’t even have shoes on as he hid behind bushes, dashing from one hiding place to another. The windows were all dark, and seemingly everyone inside was asleep. But the boy still stole glances at the house every now and then, all the while making his way towards the gates.
The only guard there was fast asleep. He’d been watching his favourite show and eating chips, but nothing ever really happened at nighttime, so he had fallen asleep halfway through the episode. His booth was fitted with an air conditioner, so the guard was sleeping peacefully, the air being cool and fresh inside. The tablet in his lap had already begun streaming the next episode, and the half-finished bag of chips had fallen to the floor, several pieces sticking out.
The boy squinted. He looked no older than twelve, his long hair messy and pushed carelessly behind his ears. His nails were uneven, as if he’d been biting them, and one finger was even bleeding slightly. His new, freshly-cleaned pyjamas had a few spots here and there from all the rolling and crawling on the ground he’d been doing. He was curling his feet inside his socks, the grass strands poking at the skin underneath.
Seeing that the guard was fast asleep, the boy dashed across towards his booth and the closed gates. He knew there was an alarm system built in, but there was a way to avoid it. He just needed to push in the right place and the alarm would switch off.
The boy pulled out a twig from the inside of his shirt and poked at the bell until he was confident the alarm had been turned off. Then he bit his lip, turned around and took one last look at the house. All the windows were still dark, and the only sounds audible were the rustling of grass and the boy’s heavy breathing.
The guard snored loudly, and the boy jumped in fear. He balled his hands into fists, ready to fight if needed, but the guard only turned onto his side, facing away from the boy. His greying hair looked tousled from sleep, and the tablet was still playing the show. The audio was fairly quiet, and the boy couldn’t hear what the characters were saying. He didn’t really care though.
In one swift motion, the boy leapt over the gates, managing to avoid all the built-in systems and not making a single alarm go off. The guard stirred upon hearing the metal gates swing slightly from the boy’s weight, but didn’t wake up. The boy was fairly tall for his age but thin and agile. Anyway, he was outside already, so nothing mattered anymore.
The boy swallowed thickly and took off instantly, running into the forest. He didn’t know where he was headed; only that he was going very, very far from here. At that moment a dog barked; the guard jerked awake, the tablet sliding off his lap and clattering onto the floor as well.
“Shit! Fuck!” the guard cursed, wiping his face quickly. “Sajangnim! Sajangnim!” he grabbed his intercom and pressed the button, calling frantically.
“Yes?” a sleepy voice finally came through.
“AB4! AB4 escaped!” the guard said hurriedly. He shrugged on his jacket and ran out the booth, fumbling with the keys for the gates. “The fucker even disabled the alarm system!”
“What?” that woke the man up. The sleepy tone turned serious and demanding. “Release the dogs. Find him immediately, you hear me? Bring him back in one piece.”
“Yes, sajangnim”, the guard said and turned the device off. He wasn’t sure how this had happened, but he was damn sure he’d bring the boy back before sunrise.
Dogs barked, chasing through the woods. They went based on smell, all chasing one slim figure moving among the trees. The boy acted confident, contrary to how he felt. And even when he heard the dogs barking not far behind, he kept running. Even when he fell and hurt his knee so bad it felt like he’d ripped it apart, he got up and kept moving forward. He wasn’t going back, not ever.
“Good morning, everyone!” a young police officer entered the precinct, all smiles. He was relatively new, he’d just graduated from the academy and had been assigned here. For now, no one ever really gave him important tasks, but he hoped to get a promotion in a few years and become a real detective. That’s what his father would have wanted.
“Jung-woo-ya”, the captain, Hyeon-sik, waved at him. “All good? Ready to patrol?”
“I am! Sir!” Jung-woo put his hand to his forehead, saluting his captain as was procedure. He really wanted to make a good impression on everyone. When he was a child, his mother had told him to always try and be friendly and polite with everyone, especially people you saw a lot. Jung-woo would make sure to follow his mother’s advice till the day he died.
Hyeon-sik gave a small laugh. Just like everyone else in the precinct, he was a little exasperated, but nevertheless thoroughly charmed by the newcomer. Jung-woo had that effect on everyone he ever met. He grew on them quickly, making people adore him and pamper him like their own little brother.
“Do-ah”, Hyeon-sik called. “Your partner’s here. You can go patrol the streets now. Remember to come back for lunch!”
“Yes, captain”, a voice came from behind a pile of papers. Lee Do, Jung-woo’s partner and senior, was as serious and emotionless as ever. He only smiled at the captain, but those too were rare occurrences where everyone gasped at the fact that Lee Do’s face was capable of such a thing.
Lee Do wasn’t grumpy or snappy, he was simply a very closed person who preferred to keep to himself most of the time. Jung-woo didn’t like that. He adored Lee Do and his courage and smarts, but he wanted the man to cheer up a little. Why was he depressed all the time?
“Sunbae-nim!” Jung-woo jumped to Lee Do like a puppy to his owner. “Let’s go, shall we?”
“Of course”, Lee Do grabbed his taser and the car keys from his desk, leaving the paperwork on the table. “Will you drive or do I?”
“I can drive!” Jung-woo perked up. Sitting in the car beside a silent Lee Do was far less entertaining than actually driving around town himself. He quickly caught the keys Lee Do had handed to him and rushed outside.
Lee Do followed him, shaking his head slightly and sighing. His new partner was awfully energetic and cheerful, something Lee Do himself wasn’t. He didn’t hate Jung-woo, he just grew tired quickly. As he drove, concentrated on the road, Jung-woo would fidget in his seat, ask a thousand questions and do many other things at the same time. Lee Do just wanted a break. He failed to see why Jung-woo couldn’t simply stay put for at least a few minutes.
So today he had decided to have Jung-woo drive and at least give him something to do. Jung-woo, as expected, was ecstatic, and by the time Lee Do joined him in the car he had already fastened his seatbelt and had his hands on the steering wheel.
“Where to?” Jung-woo asked.
“Let’s just do the usual route”, Lee Do told him, fastening his own seatbelt. “You’ve never driven it before, but I’m sure you remember it from all the patrols we’ve done together.”
“I do, sunbae-nim”, Jung-woo nodded. He started the car, and Lee Do noticed the way his hands were twitching from nervousness.
“Relax”, Lee Do told him. He reached out to ruffle his partner’s short hair. “This is what we all do.”
The first thirty minutes passed in relative silence. Lee Do, for once in the passenger seat, was able to relax and stretch his legs. He took out some files from the front compartment and began looking through them, using Jung-woo’s quietness to his advantage. The young boy was fully concentrated on the driving he was doing and never took his eyes off the road, watching out for anything that could potentially happen.
Then, of course, Jung-woo got bored.
“Sunbae-nim”, he whined, pouting. “Why do we always have to do this boring stuff? I mean, sunbae-nim has actually been here longer than me, and you’re still stuck here. That’s unfair.”
Lee Do had to smile. It didn’t quite reach his eyes, though. “I’m fine where I am”, he said calmly, looking up from his papers to glance at Jung-woo. He was young and ambitious, it was understandable he was bored. But Lee Do had seen things he never wanted to see ever again. Things that Jung-woo should never see. “Police work is mostly papers and patrolling. It’s not as exciting as they must have told you in the academy.”
Jung-woo sighed. “I know right”, he complained. “I’ve pretty much gotten it over the time I’ve been here. It’s just stupid. Police officers should protect the citizens, right? And sunbae-nim only has a taser and never a gun. What if there’s a robbery? Or a murder?”
“There are ways to protect without using a gun”, Lee Do said, voice level, looking out the window. His hands clenched into fists around the papers he wasn’t really reading anymore. “You’ll see.”
Jung-woo wanted to ask more questions, but the words didn’t come out of his mouth. He suddenly slammed on the brakes, and that got Lee Do’s attention. He looked to the left, where Jung-woo was staring, and gasped.
They had entered a more or less unpopulated neighbourhood a while ago. A few blocks around here were going to be renovated, so there weren’t that many people around. Naturally, that made the neighbourhood very attractive to all kinds of gangs. Lee Do even knew a person whose men stayed here. He didn’t mind as long as his men didn’t mess with civilians though. They didn’t really do anything bad other than dishonest business.
Gangs were not uncommon in their area, and many youngsters with nowhere else to go joined them. They were mostly kids, so even if they did something, it was rather uneventful and easily stopped or even prevented. The sight before them, however, stopped Lee Do dead in his tracks. He was sat frozen in his seat, unable to move.
There was a car parked near an abandoned warehouse, a rather old one. It was a white van, a few dirt spots visible here and there. However, that wasn’t what had gotten their attention. There was a man chained to the exhaust pipe, mutilated beyond imaginable. His body seemed like one big wound, there literally was no undamaged skin left on him. His clothes were ripped apart by some sort of brute force, his hands were tied behind his back, and there was a metal collar around the man’s neck.
“What… in the world is this?” Jung-woo whispered, barely holding back from puking.
That made Lee Do come back to his senses. He shook his head and bit his lip, trying to wake up from his stupor.
“Don’t look”, he ordered. “Call the forensic team. Then drive the car out to make space.”
“Y-yes, sunbae-nim”, Jung-woo stammered before obeying. Lee Do, meanwhile, got out of the car to take a closer look at the body.
He’d been in the military for a long time and had seen things no one should ever witness in their life. He’d watched people burn up in fire, explode with grenades in their hands, buried alive in the sands with no way of escaping, drown in mud and so much more. But he’d never even imagined such cruelty. The man had likely suffered unbearable pain before finally passing. Death must have been relieving for him. A blessing after all the suffering he’d endured.
Lee Do didn’t believe in god, but he still whispered a few prayers he remembered, looking at the victim before him. He could not for the life of him imagine who could have done such a thing to the poor man, no matter who he’d been or what he’d done. This was simply unacceptable.
He knelt beside the man, running his fingers across his bare skin. The blood felt fresh despite the sand and dirt mixed in. So the culprit could not have gone far. The man must have been dead for only about half an hour or so, not longer… It was crazy to think about. If only Lee Do had gotten here a bit earlier…
He glanced around, but there was no hiding place in sight. Could the murderer be watching his victim, enjoying it, basking in the wake of the terrible sin he’d committed? Or had he left the second the poor man had stopped breathing, feeling thoroughly satisfied with his work?
Lee Do glanced at the chain. It was rusty and looked very old, likely in use before Lee Do had even been born. The collar was attached to it with some new links though. Had the murderer fixed the old chain for this specifically?
He followed the chain to the van and squinted at the number plate. It looked painted over. Lee Do felt it and nodded to himself. Yes, his suspicions were correct. He was a keen observer and was able to tell someone had painted over the numbers and made it look like a different number plate. That action seemed strange and unnecessary to have been done by the culprit. Had the van perhaps been stolen? Had the victim done it instead of changing the number plate completely?
That was when the forensic team finally arrived, and Lee Do was forced to retreat to let them do their job. He was sick. He barely restrained himself from throwing up. This was absolutely disgusting, nothing like the petty beatings or even occasional murders the gangs committed.
As the officers took photos, numbered the evidence and examined the body, Lee Do noticed the way their faces barely managed to stay straight. Of course, everyone on the team was very professional, but even then they couldn’t hide their horror at the picture before them. Lee Do could understand them very well.
Finally, the body was removed and placed into the wagon for further inspection by the forensic pathologist at the station, and Lee Do managed to breathe freely again. Without the mutilated person in front of him even the air seemed to let up. Lee Do rubbed his face with his hands, shutting his eyes tightly to try and get rid of the horrific image in front of him.
“Sunbae-nim”, that was when Jung-woo finally appeared by his side again, looking green. If Lee Do had to guess, he had just finished puking in the bushes. “Are they done?” he asked in a shaky voice.
“They are”, Lee Do reassured him. His maknae, the bubbly youngster, was understandably shaken, and there was nothing Lee Do could do about it. He had intentionally removed Jung-woo from the crime scene as soon as possible, giving him a reason to leave and not come back, but that did not mean he hadn’t already seen the body. Even Lee Do still needed to catch his breath, obviously Jung-woo felt horrible after this.
Jung-woo released a shaky sigh. He blinked at Lee Do a few times then bit his lip. “Sunbae-nim”, he spoke up. “Um… what now?”
Lee Do wasn’t sure what Jung-woo meant. He frowned. “Well, per procedure, we need to identify the body and look for clues that can tell us who the culprit could be. We also need to have the body examined to pinpoint the exact cause of death and…”
“No”, Jung-woo interjected, and Lee Do looked at him in surprise. The boy’s face was determined, and his eyes were flashing. “I mean, aren’t we going to help them?”
“That’s not exactly our duty”, Lee Do preferred to omit the fact his participation in investigations wasn’t exactly welcome. He had become a simple patrol officer for a reason. Jung-woo had nothing to do with the investigation anyway. He was way too young.
Jung-woo huffed. For someone who had just thrown up at the sight of a dead body he was surprisingly persistent.
“Sunbae-nim!” he pouted. “It happened during our patrol so it is exactly our duty. We’re the ones to have found him. So we need to be a part of the investigation.”
That was true. Lee Do would have to go and report the incident, explain what he’d seen and discovered. Plus, there was the issue with the paint…
Lee Do blanched. Had the forensic team taken photos of the number plate? He rushed towards the van, where the team members were still photographing the evidence and checking for any fingerprints. The body was gone along with the collar and a few links, it appeared. They must not have been able to take the collar off, then. The culprit would have been thorough with it, Lee Do realised.
He knelt down, ignoring Jung-woo hovering behind his back and demanding incessantly what was going on, and grabbed a wet wipe from his pocket. Then he began rubbing furiously at the number plate, which was surprisingly easy to do. The paint came right off, as if it had been nothing but watercolours, and the real number plate became visible underneath.
“What’s that?” a forensic officer asked. “Was that paint?”
“Perhaps the van has been stolen”, Lee Do suggested. “It might have been by the victim or the culprit. We need to run the number plate and see who it belongs to.”
The man nodded. He snapped a couple of pictures of the real number plate and gazed at Lee Do in wonder. “You should get promoted to detective”, he said with awe. “You have really keen observation skills, Lee Do-nim.”
Lee Do simply smiled and waved it off. He didn’t feel the need to explain why he wanted to stay exactly where he was. Only the captain knew, and even then Lee Do had never told him explicitly. He didn’t like sharing.
“Sunbae-nim”, Jung-woo perked up when Lee Do turned back to him. “We, um… we still need to finish our patrol, right?”
“You do it”, Lee Do told him, voice heavy, leaving no room for argument. “I have to go back to the station to deal with the case.”
He wasn’t letting up. Jung-woo had been right, after all; it had happened in the neighbourhood they had been patrolling at the time of death, and they were the first witnesses. The murder had been so brutal and inhumane it had shaken something in Lee Do, brought something back he hadn’t been willing to let show ever again. He felt determined to crack the case, help the detective team along as much as he could.
It was no longer a simple murder. It was a cruel, soulless act of violence that Lee Do couldn’t condone. It was such an outright denial of humanity that Lee Do felt the overwhelming need to get to the bottom of this, find the criminal and make him face the trial to bring justice to the victim.
“But sunbae-nim…” Jung-woo attempted to protest, but Lee Do shook his head. He wasn’t going to let his maknae get involved in such cruelty. No way.
Jung-woo nodded grimly and wandered back to the car, shoulders slumped. Meanwhile Lee Do strode towards the main road and called a taxi, telling them to take him to the forensic building.
The forensic pathologist’s office looked clean and pristine, as always. Kim Jae-min, the best pathologist they had in the area, was already busy examining the body. His face was unreadable, and he seemed unshaken and uncaring, as his job demanded. Jae-min was someone who always did the best he could when he was at work and never let any details slip past him.
“Lee Do-ssi”, he nodded when Lee Do entered his office, flashing his badge at the entrance. “I assumed you weren’t doing cases anymore?”
They had known each other for quite a long time, so naturally Jae-min was surprised to see Lee Do back at work after so many years of radio silence. They hadn’t even seen each other that much at all because of the different nature of their duties.
“I changed my mind”, Lee Do said, and Jae-min appeared to be satisfied with that. At least, he had learnt not to pry. “What can you tell me about the man?”
“We still haven’t identified him”, Jae-min said, noting something down on a piece of paper. “His DNA isn’t in the system. He is around fifty-five years of age, no chronic illnesses.”
“Cause of death?” Lee Do beat his nausea and bent over the body as well. He wondered at how peaceful the victim’s expression was, despite having been mutilated beyond belief.
“Appears to be shock. He wasn’t strangled even though he had a collar on. Based on the nature of his wounds and the state of his clothes…” Jae-min took a deep breath, as if steadying himself for what he was about to say. “I’d say he was being dragged down the streets for at least half an hour. Alive.”
Lee Do’s heart skipped a beat. So that was what the collar had been for. He’d wondered why the killer had chosen to attach him to a van that might or might not have belonged to the victim, but now it made sense. The poor man had died from shock while being dragged over the pavement, his skin being scraped off by rough stones and sand.
“He didn’t struggle? He just… let the culprit chain him to the exhaust pipe of a van?” Lee Do asked incredulously.
“There’s a sign of a bruise that began to form on his head”, Jae-min pointed to the victim’s head. “It looks rather pale. I don’t know if it was enough to knock him out. And there’s no signs of being strangled, just here and here”, he dragged a gloved finger across the neck. “But that’s from the collar digging into his skin while he was being dragged. He didn’t choke. I would assume he was conscious the entire time.”
Lee Do had to turn away because he was feeling sick again. The killer had made sure the victim stayed aware for the whole time he did such atrocities to him, and he’d even forced him into a collar like a dog and made him comply. Lee Do was now definitely going to find that man and get him to pay for what he’d done.
“Anything else important?” Lee Do managed to ask after a while.
“It’s hard to tell”, Jae-min shrugged, looking over the corpse. “That body’s a mess. I’ll try to find some DNA that could belong to the killer, but I’m not sure about that. I don’t think he even touched him at all. He must have simply chained him to the van and then driven off.”
“Thank you so much, gyosu-nim”, Lee Do bowed slightly to show his respect. “I appreciate it.”
“Come by sometime”, Jae-min suggested. “I remember you liked playing chess before. I’ll take you. How does that sound?”
“I’ll call you when I have time”, Lee Do said. He rather enjoyed Jae-min’s company and wouldn’t mind spending time with him, but he was a loner and preferred being alone most of the time.
At that, they said their goodbyes, and Lee Do left to go to his own station. He might not be allowed to talk to the detectives but he still had access to the police database and would easily find the owner of the van. Lee Do had a good memory and he’d memorised the number plate exactly.
“Do-ah”, as soon as he went through the doors, the captain rushed to him, grabbing his hands. “Are you all right? Jung-woo just came back and he told me everything. Are you okay?”
“I am, timjang-nim”, Lee Do nodded in affirmation. “Thank you. I need to get back to work, though, so we’ll talk later.”
Hyeon-sik followed Lee Do with a worried gaze. He knew the man had a lot on his mind, but was also aware it was better not to disturb him. Lee Do would tell him eventually, when the time was right. He just didn’t want the person he considered something like a son to suffer. The thing was, Lee Do was already an adult, and Hyeon-sik had little to no control over what he was doing.
“Just be safe, okay? Take care of yourself, Do-ah”, he muttered, running a hand over Lee Do’s shoulder. That man had always been like that. He’d throw himself in the face of danger and do his duty never paying attention to his own state of body and mind. He’d exhaust himself until the point he was completely broken and even then would not let up.
Meanwhile, Lee Do wasn’t listening anymore. He was busy typing the number plate into the database. As the screen loaded, Lee Do tapped at the table impatiently, waiting for the results to show.
When the screen finally spat out the information, Lee Do was extremely surprised.
“Huh?” he frowned, blinking at the screen. It said that the van had been registered for a new owner just a few hours prior today. Someone had bought it from someone else.
Lee Do grabbed his phone and dialled the number of the buyer, but it wasn’t in service anymore. He tried calling again, using a different number shown in the database, but it wasn’t in use either.
“Strange”, Lee Do muttered. The buyer was one Tae Han, and he had only given his name, date of birth and two phone numbers. Lee Do tried running that Tae Han through the database, but it showed no results. It appeared such a person didn’t exist.
Lee Do blinked at the screen, dumbfounded. Who had bought the car? The victim? It would seem so, but why didn’t the system show anything? The numbers were both out of service, there was no home address, nothing at all. Just a name that belonged to no person.
“What’s up, sunbae-nim?” Jung-woo plopped onto the chair beside Lee Do, leaning over his shoulder to glance at the screen. He appeared to have recovered from the ordeal and looked as chipper as ever, if a little pale.
“I was trying to find the owner of the van”, Lee Do explained. “But see here. It only shows the name of the person that bought it today, and there’s nothing else about him. I tried running his name through the database, but it gave back nothing.”
“Hm”, Jung-woo frowned, and then his face lit up. “Today, you said? Then why don’t you try contacting the seller? I mean, he should know who he sold it to, right?”
Lee Do blinked. That was actually an insanely good idea. The person who’d sold the car must have seen the buyer’s face at the very least while giving the van to him. They must have gone to the insurance company together as well. Perhaps the seller would be able to help Lee Do find the man. Had it been the killer or the victim?
The van had a large owner history, having been passed down from person to person for years. But Lee Do was only interested in the second to last person on the list. He dialled the number shown with shaky hands, aware he was one step closer to solving the mystery.
Jung-woo’s face looked excited as the phone rang. Someone picked up only a couple seconds after Lee Do pressed the call button.
“Hello?” a cheerful voice said.
“My name is Lee Do, I am from the police department”, Lee Do stated, trying to quench his nerves. “Is this Moon Baek?”
“Yeah, that’s me”, Moon Baek answered. His voice sounded young, Lee Do thought. Young and chipper, similar to Jung-woo’s. “Am I in any trouble?” he asked, although no real worry could be heard in his tone.
“No, not at all”, Lee Do hurried to say. He knew the people didn’t usually trust the police and always assumed they’d done something wrong when an officer called them or came to their house to ask questions. It was understandable that Moon Baek had asked that. At least he hadn’t hung up upon hearing that Lee Do was from the police. “I just have a couple of questions regarding the car you sold today.”
“Oh, that car”, Moon Baek hummed. “Sure thing. What do you wanna know?”
“Who did you sell it to?” Lee Do asked. He had been full of hope when he’d called, but something suddenly felt off. If the buyer had been as cautious as not to even disclose any personal data – Lee Do began to realise the name could be fake – it was doubtful Moon Baek knew anything.
“Uh…” there was a pause, and Moon Baek clicked his tongue a few times. “Well, some guy. Tae Han I think his name was. I wanted to get rid of that old piece of junk, you see, and he called me up only a few days after I put up the ad. So I just sold it to him and that was that.”
So Moon Baek knew nothing. Lee Do sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. It was to be expected, though. The buyer had been very secretive about his identity, why would he tell Moon Baek anything? And even then, Lee Do understood that Moon Baek hadn’t been likely to pay any attention to the man. Why would he? He had only been interested in selling the van.
“But why do you ask, officer? Did that piece of crap finally lose it and fall apart in the middle of the road?” Moon Baek joked.
Lee Do pursed his lips. Should he tell him? Moon Baek deserved to know, it had, after all, been his van up until today. On the other hand, the cheerful and carefree voice suggested Moon Baek wasn’t the type of person to handle such news well. He might be terrified or even disgusted that his van had been used for such things.
“It was involved in an accident”, Lee Do decided to settle on the mild version of what had happened. “A person died. I’m looking into this case.”
Moon Baek seemed to be digesting the information, judging by the breaths coming into the phone.
“I see”, he said finally after a long pause. Lee Do couldn’t tell by his voice if he was okay or not, but at least Moon Baek didn’t sound shaky. “Where did you say you were from, officer?”
“The local police station”, Lee Do answered, dumbfounded. He failed to see how that would help. “Why?”
Moon Baek did not bestow him with an answer and hung up.
Lee Do sighed again and put his head on his folded arms on the table. He resisted the urge to bang his forehead against the hard surface a few times and then straightened in his chair, resigned. Their only lead had turned out useless. Lee Do didn’t even have access to the detective team. He could call the CCTV department since he had a few friends there, but he doubted it would be any good. The neighbourhood was being renovated, so there were no CCTVs there. The criminal knew well enough what he was doing.
Even if he’d been driving the victim around for a long time, he must have stayed within the neighbourhood to avoid being caught on camera. Afterwards he must have left on foot, and there was no way to find out which way he’d taken and track his movements. It seemed like a perfect crime.
“Sunbae-nim”, Jung-woo poked Lee Do in the shoulder. “Let’s go have lunch, okay? Maybe you’ll come up with something after we eat.”
Lee Do didn’t reply, but his exhausted gaze said it all. He was unable to comprehend how Jung-woo could eat after all that. Lee Do himself doubted he’d be able to swallow one bite for the rest of the day.
“Do-ah”, Hyeon-sik approached them and bent down to meet Lee Do’s eyes. “Your maknae’s right. Go have a bite. You shouldn’t starve yourself.”
Lee Do pursed his lips, nodded and turned away to face the computer again. He loved the captain as if he were his father, but his stomach churned at one simple thought of food. Lee Do stared blankly at the screen, as if hoping it would show something different. Perhaps Tae Han’s real name or at least his address or something. Had he been the killer or the victim?
Eventually Hyeon-sik let up, knowing better than to pry, but Jung-woo kept pestering Lee Do, trying to get him to stand up.
“Come on, sunbae-nim”, he was almost dragging Lee Do by the arm. “Please. You’ve been in this strange mood for the entire day. Are you blaming yourself for what happened? Don’t. It’s not your fault. We’ll find him, eh?”
Lee Do finally lifted his eyes again to look at Jung-woo and say something, but at that moment the door of the precinct swung open, and a tall young man walked in.
Lee Do took in the sight before him. The man was wearing a simple hoodie and cargo pants, his hair was pushed back messily behind his ears, but some strands still fell on his face. His eyes were big and warm, and he scanned the precinct quickly, gaze not focussing on anything in particular, until finally he noticed Lee Do.
The look in those eyes only lasted a tiny moment, but Lee Do froze, his insides churning with something he couldn’t name. He wasn’t even sure it had been real; the young man hopped to his desk cheerfully, looking as chipper as ever, even more active than Jung-woo, and Lee Do decided he had imagined the gaze that had pierced him straight to his soul.
“Officer Lee Do?” the man put his arms on top of the glass in front of Lee Do’s desk and leaned forward. Upon closer inspection Lee Do noticed the man’s chapped lips and the freckles all over his face.
“Yes”, Lee Do nodded. He absentmindedly touched the name tag he was wearing. Had the man seen it from such a distance? “And your name is…”
“Oh, I’m Moon Baek”, now Lee Do recognised the voice. Of course, it was that young man he’d just spoken to. “We talked on the phone a while ago. You asked about my car?”
“Oh, yes, that’s right, Moon Baek-ssi”, Lee Do stood up, bowing slightly. He had no idea whether Moon Baek was younger than him or not. He looked very youthful, what with his cheerful face and shining eyes, but there was something about his face that suggested he was older than he seemed. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
“You said my car killed someone”, Moon Baek moved even closer to Lee Do. He was slightly taller so he had to lean down a little to look him in the eye. “I mean, that bastard probably bought it to do just that. I feel bad now. I’ll help you find him.”
Lee Do stopped dead in his tracks. His brain was not computing what he’d just heard.
“Excuse me?” he must have misheard. Moon Baek was offering to join the investigation? Lee Do looked him over. He didn’t seem like the type of person to do well in dangerous environments. He looked way too carefree and simple-minded for that. What if something happened to him?
“What do you say, officer Lee?” Moon Baek winked at him. He took a candy from the small bowl on the nearby table and stuffed it into his mouth, crumpling the wrapper and throwing it straight into the trash can that was a good few metres away. The wrapper landed straight in the middle.
Lee Do sighed. He wasn’t really in the position to refuse help, especially when the help was literally being offered to him on a silver platter. Moon Baek appeared genuinely concerned about his car, although Lee Do failed to see the exact reason behind his behaviour.
“All right”, he got up from his chair and stretched. He wasn’t old per se, but his bones did start to feel off sometimes. They cracked and pulled, leaving his body aching in places it never had before. “But you’re not doing anything dangerous.”
Lee Do decided to later do a background check on this Moon Baek. The man seemed way too eager to go help him, do things he wasn’t actually supposed to. It was strange, but Lee Do made up his mind to just go with the flow for now and see if Moon Baek could be of any use to the case.
“Now that’s no fun”, Moon Baek pouted but huffed in resignation upon seeing Lee Do’s serious expression. “Fine. Fine, all right? I’ll behave.”
Lee Do grabbed the car keys from the table and started towards the exit. Moon Baek followed him, always one step behind.
“Sunbae-nim!” Jung-woo called out to him. Lee Do turned to meet his eyes. “You still haven’t eaten!”
“That’s all right”, Lee Do reassured him. “I’ll have something when I return. I won’t take long, I promise.”
Jung-woo nodded grimly. He knew Lee Do couldn’t be stopped when he put his mind to something, and so he simply shook his head and retreated to sit behind his table.
“Will sunbae-nim be all right?” he asked Hyeon-sik with a worried expression. “I don’t like this Moon Baek person. Can you do a check on him? What if he does something to sunbae-nim?”
The captain stared at the glass doors that Lee Do and Moon Baek had just exited through, face contemplative.
“We should”, he replied. “I trust Do, but we still need to make sure he isn’t putting himself in more danger. This case is very important to him, so we’d better let him work on it. Otherwise he’ll just sneak behind our backs and do it anyway, and that is so much more dangerous because now we can at least know what he’s up to.”
“I don’t get it”, Jung-woo dropped his head on the table. “Timjang-nim, why is he so pent up on solving this case?” he tapped his foot on the floor. “What’s so special about it?”
Hyeon-sik didn’t reply. He knew how shaken Do was by the injustices of this world, by the cruelty that some people demonstrated. He had a good reason, too. But it wasn’t his place to tell Jung-woo any of it. Do would tell him himself one day if he felt like it. For now, Hyeon-sik just leant back in his chair and took a deep breath before typing Moon Baek’s name into his computer.
Meanwhile, Lee Do was behind the steering wheel and Moon Baek was chattering lively in the passenger seat, explaining what happened.
“So I got that piece of junk a few years back”, he was saying, waving his arms around. Lee Do sighed; it seemed no one he ever got into the car with could sit still. And if Jung-woo was short and at least somehow fit into the seat, Moon Baek was far too tall and had to bend his legs a lot to be able to sit. He was also squirming all the while, constantly shoving his elbow into Lee Do’s side, unable to stay put. “It was okay at first, but then I noticed the smell. And who wants their car to smell? I thought a van would be better for me, you can see how tall I am, I can barely fit into your car. But it had this smell. So I didn’t really drive it, I mostly walked or drove my old car. And then that old car broke down and I got me a new one. And that car didn’t fit into my garage because of that freaking van. So I had the van cleaned and put it up for sale.”
Lee Do was half-listening to Moon Baek blabbing, picking out the useful information from all the other unnecessary things he was saying. Moon Baek was loud, too; it appeared he was unable to speak quietly.
“How did the buyer contact you?” Lee Do questioned, focussed on the case. They weren’t friends; they were simply investigating together. Lee Do didn’t have time for small talk.
“Through the ad, obviously”, Moon Baek shrugged. “I put up my phone number, and he called me saying he wanted to buy it. So we agreed to meet and then go to the insurance company together.”
Lee Do nodded. That was where they were going; he was hoping to retrace the buyer’s steps and maybe find where he lived. If he turned out to be alive, he was most definitely the killer, and then the only thing left to do would be to find proof he’d done it. If not, then the buyer was the victim. Either way, Lee Do needed to uncover Tae Han’s real name and identity.
“You’re so quiet”, Moon Baek complained. “Anyway. I come to the meeting point, and he turns up looking all weird. Barely spoke to me, that guy. He was really strange. I even didn’t want to sell it to him at first, but he had the money. What else could I do?”
“How did he pay?” Lee Do questioned, already knowing the answer.
“In cash”, Moon Baek answered lightly. He shrugged. “I also thought it was weird. I mean, who carries this much money in cash? He brought a suitcase too. Old one, but anyways. Probably some kind of gangster. Now I feel bad, officer. I sold him the murder weapon, didn’t I?”
Lee Do wanted to reply, but then Moon Baek perked up in his seat, pointing at the parking lot near a big supermarket.
“There!” he exclaimed. “Right there. That’s where we met up.”
Lee Do pulled into the parking lot, stopped the car and got out, looking around. There was nothing special about the place; just some cars, people milling around, carrying shopping bags, hurrying to get into their vehicles and get away from the commotion, or just pulling up, parking and rushing to the supermarket to do their groceries or whatever it was they wanted.
Moon Baek also exited the car and leaned onto the roof, eyes locked on Lee Do. He was smiling softly, lips curved up, and his fingers tapped away at the roof of the car. He seemed very hyperactive, like Jung-woo, playful and innocent. Lee Do almost felt bad for falling for Moon Baek’s offer and dragging him into the investigation. Almost.
Lee Do glanced at Moon Baek whose eyes sparkled with life, and then turned away to look at the supermarket. Suddenly, he had an idea and looked back to Moon Baek, who raised his eyebrows questioningly.
“What?” he mouthed, clearly taken aback. Well, with the expression Lee Do likely had on his face, he’d probably taken it personally.
“CCTV”, Lee Do explained, already reaching for his phone in his pocket. “There’s CCTVs all around here. We can retrace the buyer’s path and find where he had come from.”
Moon Baek nodded enthusiastically. “Good idea”, he said. “I really wanna know who he is too. Tae Han isn’t even his real name. Is it?”
Moon Baek was clever, Lee Do had to give him that. He caught on fairly quickly and was able to piece evidence together. Lee Do had never told him the buyer had likely killed someone, only that the van had been involved in an accident. Moon Baek had realised it himself. He was very intuitive, it seemed, Lee Do thought as he dialled the familiar number.
“Officer Lee Do”, Ahn Ji-seon, the female CCTV operator, picked up almost immediately. She used to be very close to Lee Do while he was still on the detective team, and even now they remained good friends. She had, admittedly, had a crush on him before, but Lee Do wasn’t interested in this type of relationship. Thankfully, they remained good friends, and Ji-seon had gotten married a few months back. “How can I help?”
“Ji-seon-ah”, Lee Do glanced at Moon Baek, who had already wandered off from the car and was now strolling up and down the parking lot. He was swinging his arms at his sides, and his steps were random and slow, as if he were trying to find something to do. “I need you to find the CCTV footage of the cameras near Lotte Mart in Cheongpa-ro from earlier today. Around…” Lee Do covered the phone, took a few large steps and patted Moon Baek on the shoulder. He immediately stopped pacing, silently asking what was up. “What time did you meet?”
“Around…” Moon Baek counted something on his fingers. “Ten o’clock?”
“Ten o’clock”, Lee Do repeated into the phone to Ji-seon. “Look for a white van.”
“Yes, officer”, Ji-seon joked, and there was a sound of keys being pressed. Not a couple minutes later she spoke up again. “Found it. There’s two people next to it. They talked and then got into the van together.”
“Good”, Lee Do said. That was probably the footage of Moon Baek driving the van to sell it to Tae Han and then them going to the insurance company. Since Tae Han was buying the van, he had likely arrived on foot. “Can you trace the man who came there on foot? He will have had a suitcase in his hand.”
“Oh, the one in the black jacket?” Ji-seon questioned, and Lee Do looked at Moon Baek to confirm it.
Instead of nodding or otherwise signalling it, Moon Baek snatched the phone out of Lee Do’s hands. “That’s right”, he said into the phone, and Lee Do could hear a surprised sound coming from Ji-seon. “He will have worn a black jacket and blue jeans. Now tell us where he came from.”
Ji-seon seemed hesitant to reply, so Lee Do took the phone back and sighed, looking at Moon Baek sternly. The man didn’t even look ashamed. “I’ll be driving down the path you tell me”, he said and put the phone on speaker before getting into the driver’s seat. “Try to find his exact path.”
Ji-seon hummed in agreement. Moon Baek strapped himself into the passenger seat excitedly and tapped his fingers on his knee. He smiled at Lee Do. “We’ll find the bastard”, he said confidently. “We’ve got the police helping us.”
“I’m the police too”, Lee Do bit back. He was unsure what it was about Moon Baek, but his childish behaviour felt somehow strange given the situation they were in. Lee Do didn’t want him to be there, to experience everything he had experienced in his life. He didn’t want Moon Baek to lose his charm, his innocence, to see dead bodies.
“I’m the police too”, Moon Baek copied him and laughed out loud. “Let’s go.”
As Ji-seon gave them directions, Lee Do drove, fingers digging into the steering wheel so hard it hurt. Thankfully, Tae Han, or whatever his name was, had gone down the streets with CCTVs, so it was fairly easy to track him. Ji-seon walked them back the entire seven to eight blocks the man had walked until she said she’d lost him because he’d apparently exited one of the houses and she couldn’t tell which one since it was dark and the only CCTV camera was facing away.
Lee Do stopped the car. They were in the poorer part of the neighbourhood, similar to the one they’d found the body in just a few hours ago. The houses were all small and dilapidated-looking, likely belonging to some illegal residents or gang members. It was just their luck that there was at least one CCTV.
“Since it’s one of these houses”, Moon Baek muttered, getting out of the car. “We can just check them one by one.”
“Wait”, Lee Do shushed him. He turned around, still holding the phone, and faced the direction they’d just driven from. “Ji-seon-ah, which way was he facing?”
“The last shot I could get was around ten minutes past nine”, Ji-seon said and typed something, tapping away at her keyboard. “He walked down the main road where you are right now facing slightly towards the left.”
“In which hand did he hold the suitcase?” Lee Do demanded.
“The right hand”, Ji-seon said, confused. “Officer Lee? Why?”
Lee Do hung up and turned towards the left, mimicking Tae Han’s movements. He took a few steps forward, confirming his actions, and then began retracing his own steps backwards. The road was going slightly downwards, so Lee Do kept that in mind. He imagined carrying a suitcase in his right hand, the weight of it pulling him down. Which way would he be comfortable walking? Where would he angle?
Moon Baek watched him, as if enraptured. “You’re good, officer”, he praised and clapped his hands. “Shall I call you Mr Holmes?”
“Shut up”, Lee Do snapped and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate. To put himself in the man’s shoes. Where had he walked from?
Taking one step forwards and two steps back, constantly switching between opening and closing his eyes, Lee Do finally reached a house. He felt the porch with his left foot, which was slightly behind his right, and sighed. Moon Baek’s eyes were filled with wonder.
“Oh my god”, he said. “Brilliant! So that’s where he lives, right?”
Lee Do nodded. “I assume so”, he said carefully. “Be quiet. He might be inside.”
Moon Baek nodded. He crept up the porch and opened the door, barely making any sound. Lee Do was surprised Moon Baek was actually capable of being this quiet, judging by the amount of noise he’d been making all this time.
They entered the house together. It was clearly deserted upon inspection, and they needn’t have worried. The house only had one room which was the bedroom and the kitchen. There was also a bathroom, and the door was open, revealing there was no one inside. The house looked rather messy, but there was no dust, signalling someone had been here recently.
Lee Do went straight for the cabinets and tables, looking for any kind of documents, papers, anything to confirm the man’s identity, while Moon Baek hung around, studying the old wallpaper and the rusty kitchen appliances. He wandered around aimlessly, apparently waiting for Lee Do to find anything.
There weren’t really many places to look, and mostly they were filled with personal items Lee Do had no use for. Did Tae Han really have no identification, no driver’s license? Why would he buy the van then, how was he going to drive?
And then Lee Do found it. An old driver’s license, issued way back in 1997. It had expired a long time ago but it looked official.
“Im Woo-sung”, Lee Do read off the license and called Moon Baek over. “Look at this. Is this the man?”
Moon Baek appeared behind Lee Do the next second, crouching down and looking over his shoulder. His body emanated heat. “Yeah”, he nodded. “That’s him all right. So his real name is Im Woo-sung?”
“It apparently is”, Lee Do squinted and gasped. “Wait. But that’s… that’s the victim!”
Lee Do’s entire hypothesis had been based on the fact the buyer had been the killer, but he had actually turned out to be the victim. Well, at least they had identified the victim now.
Lee Do took out his phone with shaky hands and opened the dialogue with Jae-min.
“Gyosu-nim”, he said into the microphone, recording an audio message. “I think I identified the victim. His name is Im Woo-sung. Can you please check his DNA in the database? Thank you.”
“Who’s that?” Moon Baek asked immediately, tone curious.
“The forensic pathologist”, Lee Do said absentmindedly, looking at the driver’s license. “We need to confirm Im Woo-sung is the victim.”
“So someone killed him with the van he just bought”, Moon Baek muttered. “What a twist of fate.”
Lee Do couldn’t agree more. He turned to Moon Baek with the license still in his hand but then the door swung open, and he forced Moon Baek to duck, both of them now hiding behind an old cupboard.
“I heard that piece of shit finally kicked the bucket”, a rough voice said, and Lee Do froze. Gang members? “Let’s split his dough.”
“Sure thing”, another voice said. There were at least four pairs of footsteps, if Lee Do’s hearing was still as sharp as before. He stilled, looking at Moon Baek with worry. They needed to get out of here.
Moon Baek caught his eye and winked at him. He mouthed something unintelligible and lifted three fingers into the air.
“I’ll help you”, he whispered. “I’ll take them down for you. Three… two… one.”
And he lunged.