Four

It took him almost half an hour as Inseong finally looked up from his notes, staring at them as a deep sigh left his lips. From the other table, his partner gave him a glance, shaking his head before giving the other his full attention.

"So? What did you get?" Jiho asked, noticing the sudden brightness in the other guy's eyes.

"Well, either our seniors are too stupid, or they are so distracted by the possibility of getting any and all links to the trafficking ring, that they can't see that these are not the same cases as the ones ten years ago."

"You don't have to call them stupid," Jiho muttered, which Inseong promptly ignored as he stood up from his desk.

"The Chief is still in, right?" He asked, pointing a thumb towards the chief's office, waiting to receive the other's nod before hurriedly striding over to the cabin. He waited outside for a couple seconds as he breathed deeply, and then knocked on the door of the cabin.

"Yes, detective?" Chief Han asked when the younger opened the door and stepped inside.

Inseong could feel his heart hammering in his chest as he stood in front of the Chief, notepad clutched tightly in a hand. "Um, Chief, regarding these new cases about the trafficking ring, I have found some discrepancies from what I've heard the other officers say," he said cautiously, being careful as to not say a word about how he actually knew about the cases. The Chief would definitely not like it if he found out that one of his junior detectives was pestering his senior about the details, and Inseong would not want either Jiho or Taeyang to be on the receiving end of the older man's anger.

"I see..." the chief mused as he steepled his fingers together, resting his chin on the thumbs as he gazes evenly at Inseong. "And have I assigned you to these cases?" He asked, voice coming out stern and grim.

The junior detective blinked, straightening up as he shook his head quickly. "No sir."

"I thought so. Please get back to whatever work you are required to do."

Inseong had no option but to bow in apology, before bolting out of the chief's office. Once out of the cabin, he practically ran back to his desk, tossing his notepad on the table as he sat down with a groan. From where he sat, Jiho's gaze followed the other's every move, and the man cleared his throat.

"No luck?" He asked, fighting to keep the smirk off his face at the pitiful expression on his partner's face.

"None at all," Inseong grumbled, leaning over his table to peer at the computer, reluctantly getting back to work.

It was a little while after having had their lunch that Jiho took a break from his work, turning to Inseong. "Say, what exactly did you find out?" He asked, a slight frown on his face while his eyes showed genuine interest. The other guy rubbed his face with one hand, before reaching forward for the notepad, flipping the pages till he found the one he was looking for.

"For starters, the culprit -- or multiple culprits -- have broken a pattern from the old cases, while creating a new pattern, which is the occupation of the victims. Both victims were doctors, and it is possible that them being females is a pattern as well," he began explaining as Jiho nodded silently. "As far as breaking a pattern goes: in all of the old cases, the bodies were found in trashcans next to parks. But this time, only the first body was dumped in a park's trash bin, and the second was in a small restaurant's."

"Can you really call that a pattern, though?" Jiho asked, his frown deepening in thought. "I mean, maybe they didn't intend to use park bins to get rid of the bodies ten years ago."

"No, just think about it, Jiho," the other insisted, beginning to remember every single detail of the old cases. "The police had realised that the culprits favoured bins close to parks for some reason, and I recall them strengthening the security near almost all the parks in the country. Yet, the killers still managed to dump the bodies in those exact bins. That was most definitely not a coincidence, it was deliberate."

Jiho bit his lip, hesitating for a while before nodding in agreement. "Okay, but maybe they decided not to follow that pattern this time. Maybe it was just a coincidence that they decided upon a park for the first victim?"

Inseong shook his head. "That one was on purpose, they wanted us be reminded of the old cases, so that when our attention has been switched to those, we won't care about any other details of the current murders. It's a carefully devised plan by whoever is doing this, and not a coincidence. The universe is rarely so lazy," he quipped, while still being serious.

"Alright, calm down, my Korean Sherlock," Jiho commented with a wary grin.

"Anyway," the other continued, "there's something else that could be considered as a pattern." He flipped another page of his notepad, scanning the contents of the page before looking back up at his partner. "Let's assume that, going by the rough timestamps we have, the first victim was kidnapped at nine on Monday last week, killed somewhere around seven in the morning on Tuesday, and the dead body was dumped at night on the same day, at ten. This coincides with the shadow I saw while going home, but it also gives us certain time gaps between each activity."

The other man blinked in slight confusion, taking a few seconds too many as per Inseong's standards to understand everything. "And what about those time gaps?" He asked keeping his voice low. He noticed how his partner was starting to get a little excited because of all the discoveries, and God knew how difficult it was for Inseong to stay quiet during such times.

"Comparing the estimated timestamps of the second case with the first one, I can say with certainty that the culprit waited for ten hours after kidnapping to kill the victims, and another fifteen hours to dump the bodies."

"You... what?" Jiho whispered, his mouth hanging open as he stared at Inseong. He had no idea how intelligent his partner really was. He let out a low whistle, settling back in his chair as a small smile appeared on his face. "Your powers of deduction are no joke, man," he said with a slight chuckle.

Inseong beamed, his face flushing a faint pink from the compliment as he kept the notepad away. "All of this is still mostly guesswork, though. If I had to talk about this in front of a judge in Court, it would be ruled as 'circumstantial evidence'," he said, pouting as he made air quotes around the two words with his fingers. "We'll need more evidence, and I'm afraid the only way to get it is..." he trailed off, looking at his partner worriedly.

"When there will be more of such cases," Jiho completed, sighing at the end of it. The two of them truly hoped that something of that sort won't happen.

Alas, the world was hellbent on going against their wishes.

Now, as adults, they could understand the urgency of the situation, and the true level of panic that was beginning to spread throughout the country once again as in the next week, another dead body showed up. The entire police force seemed to be on edge, and Inseong could clearly see the tense, taut looks on even the most junior police officers. He badly wanted to do something, anything, to be able to contribute towards the case, but he knew that the chief would hear none of it. Which is why, right after hearing about the latest murder, he began making plans.

"What?!" Jiho all but screeched as he stared, wide-eyed, at Inseong.

"Shhh!" The latter was quick to place a hand on Jiho's mouth. He craned his neck, checking to see if anyone had heard his partner's shout. Only a couple heads had briefly glanced at them, however, so he sank back in the chair. "You don't have to be so loud."

The guy resisted the urge to roll his eyes as Inseong slowly lowered his hand. Look who's talking. His voice dropped to a whisper as he leaned closer to the other. "You can't be serious. Why should I steal the files from him?"

All he got from Inseong was a deep sigh as his colleague ran a hand through his hair. "No one's telling you to steal them, okay? Just tell Taeyang that you want to borrow them for a while, easy. You were the one who had said that you two are close."

"You idiot, that doesn't mean he's my boyfriend or something, who will do anything for me," Jiho muttered, burying his face in his hands.

"Isn't he?" Inseong joked, immediately pulling his lips into a pout as the other detective looked up at him.

"Oh, no, don't you dare give me that look," his partner warned, holding up a finger in front of him, but Inseong's puppy-like gaze was relentless.

"Please?"

Jiho sighed, putting a hand to his forehead as he looked away from the other. "You owe me big time, dude."

Inseong's face instantly broke into a wide grin as he straightened up, hurriedly typing something on the computer. "Have I ever told you that you're the best? Because you are," he said, before gazing at the monitor, a hand cupping his chin in thought. He sat, motionless, for a few long seconds, suddenly standing up with his phone in hand.

"What are you doing?" Jiho asked, frowning at the other.

"Acting," his fellow detective answered with a wink, taking a deep breath, and Jiho watched as Inseong's facial expression changed completely into a look of distress, and he marched to the chief's office definitively before rapping on the door.

The junior detective had just finished typing a message to Taeyang about wanting to have a quick look at the case files, when Inseong walked out of the cabin and back to his desk, his disturbed expression giving way to an easy smile. Jiho narrowed his eyes at the other suspiciously.

"What did you do?" He asked, receiving a grin so bright, he almost felt that he would be blinded.

"I told the big boss about how I will need a few days' leave to take care of my sick mother in Daegu," was the other's confident reply.

"Are you crazy, Inseong?" His partner exclaimed, eyes widening in disbelief. "Now you're resorting to lies, just to be involved in this case?"

Inseong's brows furrowed as he stared disapprovingly at Jiho. "It was only half a lie, okay? My mother does live in Daegu, and I'll just give her a heads up about pretending to be sick if anyone asks her about it for confirmation. She will understand if I say this is for a case," he shrugged, proceeding to lean forward on his desk with his elbows propped up on the surface. "Now, can I expect the case files by today evening, please? I promise I'll return them before leaving tomorrow. I need to check out the crime scenes on my own, and try to find any key witnesses."

Jiho lowered his face in his palms, rubbing at his eyes before glancing up at Inseong. "You are taking a huge risk by trying to conduct an individual investigation, bunny. This might cost you your job, you know that, right?"

The latter nodded, expression slightly grim despite the former's use of his nickname. "I know. But I have to risk it, if it means getting closer to catching the culprits."

"I knew it," Inseong muttered softly to himself as he sat at the table in the kitchen, hunched over the files scattered around him. "These are just copycat murders."

Once again, Jiho had proved to be a dependable partner by giving him the reports well before evening, and Inseong had quickly taken copies of the same before returning the originals to the other, as promised. He had to board a train at dawn, and he wanted to study as much of the case as he could before he had to leave. It had been quite late at night, but he continued working on it, Jihun having given up on trying to drag him to bed.

He could clearly see his theory about the time gap pattern coming true as he studied the third murder, the estimated timestamps roughly matching the ten- and fifteen-hour gaps he had calculated. The older cases had had no such pattern, since the trafficking ring had just gone about dumping the bodies haphazardly without any care for the timing. The only thing that was even remotely orderly ten years ago had been the trash bins near parks, and the copycat killer had definitely defied that, since the parts of the third body were found in a residential area, with nothing recreational close by.

He had been wrong about the victims being doctors, though. During the past week, he had even gone so far as to persistently cautioning Youjin about being extra careful. He, as well as the other three, had been very worried about the older man's health. Ever since the first murder, he had become quite nervous, and had begun to show signs of forgetfulness, and would often space out. However, as Inseong currently stared at the occupation of the third victim written on the paper, he knew he could rest easy; the thirty-seven-year-old man known as Kang Jaewon was a well known florist in the small town of Boryeong, owning a modest, small-scale flower shop in the city.

"Why was the body found in Yeongyang, though?" He asked himself. "The cities aren't related," he mused as he brought up the autopsy photographs that had been included in the files. His face twisted into a slight wince as he took quick glances at the separated body parts that stared back at him through the photos. He blessed the heavens above for giving him a good enough tolerance for sights that would have made others queasy, for the condition of the dead bodies was certainly not something anyone could look at comfortably. Even from the photographs, he could tell that the cuts had been made cleanly, and the reports stated that the victims had been administered healthy doses of anaesthetics, in just the right amount that was necessary.

Inseong was no doctor, though, and he made a mental note to ask Youjin about the medical specifications when he came back from his little trips. A look at his wristwatch told him that it was time to leave for the train station, and he gathered all the papers, keeping the files carefully in the stroller suitcase that was lying open by his feet. After a final check of his trusty notepad, police badge, gun and mobile phone, he zipped up the suitcase, heading out of the house.

Author's Note:

This was written in less than two days, while the previous one took me more than a week XD maybe the block is finally fading away.

Um... *ahem* it's my birthday ^o^ Yes, I was born on Valentine's Day. So ironic, though, I'm extremely unromantic.

I would love to hear your thoughts about this chapter! This was the most fun to write so far. Hope you enjoyed!