Thinning Herds

“Stabbed.”

The doctor of the house looked up grimly. The body of the dead man, who in life had been Byun Baekhyun, lay on the floor of Yifan’s room. A stunned Taemin, bringing the rest of Odd Eye and the household with him in the wake of the terrible news, had quickly summoned Yixing. Jonghyun was kneeling next to the doctor, expression caught between morbid fascination and horror. Onew observed the proceedings, stomach lurching slightly. Key and Minho had joined him, and he glanced over at them.

“How is Taemin holding up?” he asked.

“Poor kid’s absolutely rattled,” Key stated, “I gave him some brandy to soothe his nerves. Probably the first stiff he’s ever seen. He needs someone to look out for him.”

Behind him, an anxious Jongin had taken it upon himself to swaddle Taemin in blankets, so that he now resembled a lumpy snowman. The youngest detective was sitting on Yifan’s bed, clutching a mug of cocoa with white knuckles and a blank expression. Onew hoped he would be well; he was fond of Taemin and didn’t want to see him in such a state.

“Stabbed to the heart, death would have been instantaneous,” Jonghyun added, bringing back Onew’s attention. He was inspecting the wound. “Like in those plays – caught when he wasn’t looking!”

“He’s been dead at least four hours,” Yixing continued, “No more than six, I should say.”

“So he was killed sometime after breakfast, around the time when he supposedly disappeared on an errand,” Jonghyun concluded.

“Precisely!”

The two men looked at one another with the quiet respect of one equal to another, nodding firmly. “The funny thing’s the wound,” Yixing mused aloud, “Why, I could show you something that would fit just perfectly – one of my surgical knives, very thin and very sharp. A very slender kitchen knife might fit the bill as well. Oh dear – you don’t think someone’s out to frame me?”

“That remains to be seen,” Onew told him, as Yixing pulled out one such blade from his coat. Jonghyun tested the blade with his finger, wincing and immediately the injured finger. “Are any of your knives…missing, doctor?”

“Of course not! I keep them nice and tidy; I run a tight ship,” Yixing responded, looking positively shocked that anyone could think such a thing. “My, Baekhyun doesn’t look pretty, does he?”

“No,” Onew murmured, shuddering slightly.

His eyes were staring up at them, glassy and blank, and there was a mask-like quality to his skin. His lips were peeled back slightly from his teeth, as though in shock and fury. Onew bent down gently and picked up Baekhyun’s right hand. Something was visible through the fingers. He detached it carefully, and held it out to the rest of Odd Eye, a little slip of paper with the faint shadow of lines and numbers.

“Do you see this?”

“Money,” Minho realised. “He was blackmailing the murderer! He seemed off that day, this was why!”

“I have been such a fool!” Onew cried out, cursing loudly, “I should have realised then! His language, it was suggestive. Do you remember what he said? ‘What could I have seen or heard? My room is on the other side of the hall. It is impossible that any of us should have heard anything. Naturally, if I had been unable to sleep, if I had walked through the halls, then perhaps I might have seen him, but it was not so.’ Of course that is what did happen! He did walk through the halls and he did see something. And then, yesterday, he tells Chanyeol he will ‘see it sorted’ – how else could he have done that if he had not known something?”

“So he demanded the money, demanded with threats – perhaps to protect his friend? Assuming of course that Chanyeol is not himself involved,” Minho said thoughtfully.

“Friends can kill friends very easily,” Onew said harshly, “We cannot dismiss the possibility. And so, they arrange to meet within this room, and Baekhyun, oh, he would count the money the moment it is handed to him. He is the type. Off guard, the murderer is able to strike, fleeing with the money without noticing that a corner had been torn. How could we not have grasped the most logical conclusion – it fit his personality, that scheming, calculating nature of his!”

He breathed heavily. His eyes came to rest upon Byun Baekhyun’s dead face. In that face he saw another. Something in his chest clenched. “And so Baekhyun lies dead before us now,” he whispered, “Because I was not fast enough to grasp it.”

Key rested a gentle hand on Onew’s shoulder. The older detective met his gaze. “You cannot blame yourself for the actions of others.”

“He didn’t deserve to die,” Onew whispered, “Innocent he might not have been, but – dammit!”

“People are going to take actions out of our control,” Key sai