“Oh my god, oh my god, Oh-My-God! This is amazing!”

Jongdae couldn’t contain his excitement while he read through the file, discussing the case’s specifics with his partner while they drove to the cemetery.

Minseok was the one behind the wheel, so he was depending on Jongdae to read him the information, but it was taking too long, since both detectives were getting excited at every minor detail they read.

“Okay, okay! Let’s pull ourselves together! We need to show the chief that we can be professional. We got to be serious when we get there, okay?”

Minseok talked as if he was trying to tone down their happiness, but he could barely follow his own instructions at the moment, since the smile wouldn’t disappear from his face.

“Okay, let me continue!”

Jongdae was the first to be able to relax his face and not smile anymore, assuming a more serious expression. Once he succeeded, his partner was quickly able to follow.

“Quick recap: 3 bodies were stolen so far, each from a different cemetery. Parts of the first and second bodies have surfaced in trash cans all over the south-east part of town, but there has been no sign of the third body yet.”

Jongdae flipped through the thin pages of the file, reaching a part about interviews, and he realized they’d probably have to talk to most of those people again, so to confirm their statements, and be able to get a proper read on them.

“That means that the third body is still with the people who stole it; probably being prepared to be discarded like the others.”

Minseok naturally deduced. The two were now serious and proper, as more and more they realized that they were in for a real puzzle, something truly challenging for their rookie minds.

“Victim one was Kim Soorong, age 47, died of a heart attack; victim two was Lee Haneul, age 32, died of lung cancer; and victim three was Jang Nara, age 29, died in a car accident. We need to find out what these three people had in common. So far there seems to be nothing, no family relations, no apparent social relations; they lived in different parts of town, they worked in different fields… A cemetery had hundreds of graves to steal from, why these three? What was it about them that made the thieves choose them?”

Jongdae started to present the puzzle, looking at the file to see if there was any info that could help them.

“There’s still the probability that they’re chosen at random too.”

Minseok added, and Jongdae groaned.

“Yeah… And if so, that would just make it harder for us.”

The younger man started sinking down in the car seat. They were too used to being able to solve a case in 10 minutes or less. Now they really had to work on it, and follow all the steps of their training.

“Hey, don’t be down. Just read me the interviews; let’s see if we can find a relation.”

Minseok instructed, trying to encourage his partner. The two went on to discuss the case and the possibilities all the way to the cemetery, but unfortunately got no further to solving the case than when they had begun reading.

“Don’t worry. I bet talking to the groundskeeper will help. He might have seen something suspicious.”

Minseok tapped Jongdae’s back as they walked through the paths between the graves and the huge trees. They were making their way to the little humble shack on the middle of the grounds, where they figured they’d find the person they needed to speak to.

“Says here in the file that he didn’t see anything…”

Jongdae was trying not to feel down, but he was feeling haunted by the possibility of them not being able to solve that case; if that happened, he knew it would be it for them, they’d probably be stuck with desk duties for the rest of their working days.

“But we’ll ask again anyway. Maybe he remembered something since when he talked to the officer.”

Minseok said, pushing through the same feeling his partner was experiencing. He hated seeing his friend feeling down like that, but he completely understood him. The same dark thoughts kept passing through his mind.

“Okay, let’s go try…”

It was hard, but Jongdae knew that that was no time to moping around and being depressed. He would simply be a burden to Minseok if he continued like that, so he decided to just focus on the task at hand, and not worry about the future right away. They were just getting started anyway, there were still a lot of chances for them to find a breakthrough in the case.

“Mr. Kim?”

Minseok called out as soon as they entered the little shack, but that wouldn’t even have been necessary, because entering the single room establishment made the only man inside immediately turn to them.

“May I help you?”

The old man was thin and short, but seemed sharp. He looked a bit worn down, like he had lived more years than he told; his skin was thin and stretched out, folding into wrinkles at many places of his face, and his muscles seemed to be void of strength. If he were to face an intruder on the cemetery, no matter how sharp his stare could be, when a fight ensued, it was clear he would lose.

“Hello sir. We’re with the police, and we need to talk to you about the stolen body from last night.”