Chapter 2. Case & Blazer

“Big boss want us to gather in the briefing room at eight, noona.”

“I know. He texted me early in the morning.” Taeyeon yawns, reaching for the coffee cup proffered by Bambam and inhales the heavenly smell of the dark liquid. “Aaaaah. Dark roast. You know me so well.”

“Chanyeol and I have prepared everything for the briefing.” He hands a thick folder to Taeyeon. “You look so pale. Are you okay?”

“You have no idea what had happened to me last night, Bambam. Liquid nightmare.” Taeyeon shudders before taking a sip of her coffee. She instantly feels the magic of caffeine running through her veins and smiles a little. “But this coffee is my saviour, thank you Bambam.”

“Did you even sleep last night?” Kwangsoo comes out from behind the lab's glass door then walks with them in the long corridor of National Police headquarter. “You look like a mess.”

“I know I can always count on you for early morning compliment, Kwangsoo-yah.” Taeyeon grimaces at her tall coworker. “Where's your Boss? I refuse to attend a briefing with a junior ME.”

“Well. This fabulous junior ME is all you got, baby.” Kwangsoo twirls on his foot like a ballerina, lands not so graciously in front of Taeyeon but still manages to shove his face so close to hers. “Boss is still on his zen-isolation leave. Not even the great chief Lee Sooman himself can pull my Boss out of a secret cave somewhere in Tibet.”

“Oh I can. I just don't want to.” A voice filled with authority intrudes Kwangsoo's speech from behind them. The chief walks pass the trio into the briefing room, leaving them scramble to also enter the room.

Taeyeon stands across her superior as two more people come in and gather around the metal table in the middle of the room. Jihyo from crime scene analysis department and Chanyeol, her assistant also join them now.

“Good morning, everyone.” Lee Sooman, the chief of NPA, greets them all while standing by the table. “I heard another body was found last night. Taeyeon, brief me with your progress so far.”

“Our first victim.” Taeyeon opens her folder and slides a picture of a rather gory dead body on the table. “Kwon Nari. 49 years old. Two gun shoots. One to the chest and one to the head. She was found one week ago, tied and locked in a locker of a warehouse in 35th Saemunan-gil where she was worked as janitor. A bottle of mineral water with unknown origin was found next to her body.”

The chief leans a little to see the picture before nodding at Taeyeon to continue.

“She had no close relatives and from our investigation no one around her seems to have any motive whatsoever to kill the woman.” Taeyeon reluctantly admits that the first victim gets her no further clue of the case.

“The body was found in active decaying stage. Further examination of the contents of her stomach revealed that she was left starving and thirsty for at least three days before the killer shot her.” Kwangsoo explains in all seriousnes, no traces of the usually goofy ME as he keeps eye-contact with their boss. “The bullet to the heart was the one that took her life. The one that was buried in her head just extra prize from our kind murderer.”

“Our second victim was found in Daejeon two days ago. Same modus operandy. Tied. Locked. Being left without access to food and water for a few days before the killer shot him two times on the exact same areas with the first victim.” Taeyeon continues. “Same kind of bottled water was also found near the victim.”

Taeyeon slides another picture of bleeding man. “The name is Lee Minjun. Estimated TOD is about two days before finding.”

“No background connections between these two?” Lee Sooman put his hands into the pockets of his pants, clearly deep in thought.

“No. First victim is a janitor in her late forty. The Daejeon's one is 26 years old, a PhD student. But we haven't added the third victim into the equation though.” Taeyeon shrugs.

“How about the bullets and other evidences?”

“Ballistic crew has compared the riffling characteristics of the bullets from Daejeon's case with the bullets from Kwon Nari's body, 99.98% macthes. They are all came from one gun. Daewoo K5. Standard military hand gun used from 1990 to 2010.” It's Jihyo turn to talk. “No other important traces found on the crime scene and on the body. Even the duct tape and the water bottle are both clean from fingerprints. These were done by a pro.”

“The water bottles should be an important clue for us. If the murderer left them next to each body it must be some kind of hidden message.” Chef Sooman looks closer at one file. "What have you got so far, Chanyeol?"

“I already search for it in every database we have access to, chief.” Chanyeol pushes the thick rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose. “No further clue on the origin of the bottle. The fabrication stamp is unrecognizable. Traces team still work on the content of the bottle though. Thorough chemical analysis of the water will take a little longer.”

“The victim you found last night? Was he also killed in the same manner?”

“Yes, chief.” Bambam lays a folder open on the desk. “Same bullet wounds. Same water bottle. We still need evidence processing to prove that this was done by the same person but my hunch says it is.”

“I can't make a report based on a hunch.” The chief frowns for a moment before talking again. “Taeyeon, Bambam, get to the bottom of this. There must be at least one thing connecting the victims. Dig deeper on everything.”

Taeyeon and her work partner, Bambam, nods.

“And you need to work fast on identifying the bullets from the third case, Jihyo. Also focus on the analysis of the water bottle and its content.”

Jihyo also nods, sighing as she lifts the picture of the green bottle to the light. “I had gone abroad a lot but I had never seen this kind of bottled water before. The killer have removed the label and all."

“You will lead the investigation until further notice, Taeyeon. Try getting info about missing gun from the military. We're spread thin between so many cases and the high-profile case at the Blue House. I'll assign more detectives and officers to help you once their respective cases are done.”

“Yes, chief.” There are three more senior detective in the house, but Taeyeon never doubts the result of her hard work. If senior's help doesn't come fast enough, she knows she can always rely on herself and the solid team behind her.

“From the look of it, this might end up as our first case of serial killer in years. National serial killer.” Sooman pinches the bridge of his nose. “I'm not looking forward to it.”

Taeyeon sighs. She doesn't look forward to it either.

“You look like a mess.”

“Well, thank you. You are only the fourth person who said that to me today.” Taeyeon frowns as she takes off her shoes and put them on the shelf by the door. “One more person calls me a mess and I'll be the established queen of mess this country can be proud of.”

Unlike Jiwon who seems ready to leave the apartment looking all pretty in her blue crop-top and denim shorts, Taeyeon looks like someone who has been through a storm. After briefing with the chief, she has spent nearly 12 hours following leads. There were more than ten people she had interviewed since morning, the many calls she made to Daejeon police agency excluded. If she didn't split the workload with Bambam she might have ended up with foam in by now.

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