The cafe was empty as Jessica paid for two vegetarian crepes. She glanced out the window as the cashier wrapped them up. All of the customers were outside, crowding around the narrow alleyway to hover and stare as police officers put up yellow tape.

The body had already been carted away by the time Jessica came back outside. She was more familiar with this scene than any civilian had the right to be familiar with. Taeyeon was rifling through a bag spotted with small dark red droplets and Yuri was carefully walking around the alley, photographing the crime scene. The two police officers on the scene were ones that she had gotten to know very well over the traumatic events of the past year. One was Eunhyuk, who had questioned her when she’d woken up to see Haruki’s neighbor lying strangled in the bed next to hers. The other was Donghae, who was questioning Haruki about what she’d seen.

Jessica walked to the edge of the taped off area, blankly at the spot where the body had lain. She’d tried not to look at it, but still, she’d caught a glimpse of his glassy, terrified face before he’d been covered up and carried away. She suddenly felt cold and shivered.

Eunhyuk nodded at her politely as he looked up. “What do you think happened?” Jessica asked quietly.

“It looks like a mugging gone wrong to me,” Eunhyuk replied.

“His cellphone’s gone,” Taeyeon reported. “Credit cards and cash were taken from his wallet.”

“Got an ID of the victim?” Eunhyuk asked. Out of the corner of her eye, Jessica saw Haruki shrug Donghae’s hand off her shoulder as she came towards them.

"Right here,” Taeyeon replied, pulling out a driver’s license and handing it to him. “Lee Chan-hee, age twenty-two.”

Jessica’s stomach twisted. She didn’t feel that hungry anymore. The victim was only three years younger than she was.

“Can I see that?” Haruki asked and he passed her the driver’s license. She stared down at the picture for a moment, before shaking her head. “Chunji,” she whispered.

“What?” asked Eunhyuk.

“I know him,” she explained. “I arrested him two years ago. The charges against him were dropped.”

“Why?” Jessica asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Haruki replied, but the model didn’t miss the way her friend glanced at the ground briefly.

“Maybe you can help us?” Donghae suggested. “If you know the victim-”

“It looks like a mugging gone wrong to me,” Haruki said. “You don’t need me for that.” She turned to Jessica with an apologetic smile. “Ready for dinner?”

Jessica nodded good-bye to the police officers as she slipped an arm through her best friend’s. Haruki had already turned away, so she didn’t see the amused glance that passed between Taeyeon and Yuri. And she definitely didn’t notice the wounded look on Donghae’s face as they walked away.

“What the hell, Jessica?” Haruki complained. Sticking her hand into the shower drain, she pulled out a tangled mass of blond hair and held it up for the other girl to see.

“Ew!” Jessica shrieked as she stumbled backwards and bumped into a wall. “Get that away from me!”

“It’s your hair. Clean our your drain once in a while, will you?” Haruki retorted, tossing it into the trashcan. She peeled off her gloves and stuck her hands under the faucet. “That should do it. Let me know if you’re having any more problems with the drain clogging.”

“Thank you, Haruki,” Jessica said sweetly. “How do you know all this stuff?”

“I’ve been living on my own since high school,” Haruki replied. “Like you.”

“Yeah, but I usually had a boyfriend to take care of these things,” Jessica replied. Haruki wiped her hands and raised an eyebrow. “It’s been a dry spell, okay?”

The mention of the word “boyfriend” brought Jessica back to the dark alley with the dead young man, beaten until his face was so bloody and swollen, not even his own mother would have recognized him. Haruki, however, didn’t look nearly as upset as Jessica felt, but then, she was around dead bodies almost all the time…

“You okay?” Haruki asked and Jessica shrugged her shoulders, but she couldn’t shake off the memory.

“What did you arrest Chunji for?” she asked.

Haruki sighed as she sank down at the dining table. “He beat his girlfriend to death,” she replied and Jessica’s eyes widened in horror. “I…I made a mistake and all of the evidence we collected against him was declared void. The prosecution had to drop the charges.”

“I’m sorry,” Jessica mumbled.

Haruki grunted, pulling the crepes out of the bag and unwrapping them. “It was all in the past.”

After eating for a while in silence, Jessica spoke up again, more for the need of a something, anything to prevent her mind from wandering back to Chunji’s cold, stiff body. “Ever notice that we never have a normal conversation?” she blurted out.

Haruki paused, mid-bite. “Normal?” she repeated.

“You know, we don’t really talk about things two women would typically talk about,” Jessica explained. “Like reality TV, shopping, men-”

“We talk about men all the time,” Haruki retorted.

“We talk about criminals and psychopaths,” Jessica shot back.

Haruki shrugged. “That’s my life in a nutshell.”

Jessica scowled slightly. “Come on. Let’s talk about something else tonight. How about your love life?”

Haruki choked on her crepe and after a few moments of coughing, she stared at Jessica incredulously. “What?”

“I’ve known you for more than a year and you haven’t told me anything about it,” the model replied.

“That’s because there’s nothing to tell!”

“Please, Haruki,” Jessica said, sounding unusually serious. “I could use the distraction.”

Haruki sighed as she bit her lip and thought for a moment. “When I was a freshman in high school, I went on a date with a guy who asked me out because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Five minutes in, I went to the bathroom and escaped through the window.”

Jessica burst out laughing. “You did not!”

The detective nodded, smiling slightly. “And I’ve never been on another date since.”

“Seriously?” The model frowned. “Never?”

“Pathetic, huh?” Haruki asked.

“But what about Donghae?” asked Jessica.

“I’ve heard he sleeps around a lot, apparently-”

“No,” Jessica replied. “What about you guys? After what happened…aren’t you together?”

“What? No!” Haruki snapped. “What the hell gave you that idea?”

“Well, he was so worried when you disappeared-” Jessica stopped, realizing they were getting back on the topic of Haruki’s work again. “I mean, don’t you think he’s even a little cute?”

“Donghae goes through girls faster than our department goes through packs of coffee filters,” Haruki replied. “He has a date with a different girl every night.”

“Really? When was the last time you heard him talking about a date?” Jessica asked. Haruki just shrugged, but the model pressed, “It was before you started working together, wasn’t it?”

Haruki twisted a piece of the crepe until it snapped off and sat rolling the dough between her fingers. “I don’t need a guy in my life,” she finally said quietly.

“It’s not the worst thing that could happen,” Jessica murmured.

Both jumped as Haruki’s cellphone shrilled, breaking the tension. The detective instantly hopped to her feet and opened it. “Morita.” She listened for a moment, before nodding. “Okay, I’ll be right there.”

“What’s going on?” Jessica asked.

Haruki smiled. “Lu Han’s awake.”

“It’ll be best for you to stay here and rest-”

“You have to let me go! It’s really important!”

“I already called her. You can tell her tomorrow-”

“It can’t wait that long!”

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to. I-”

“No, he won’t.” Haruki poked her head through the door to see Hangeng arguing with a loudly protesting Lu Han.

“Haruki!” Lu Han cried, bolting upright in his bed.

Hangeng raised an eyebrow at her. “How did you get in? Visitors aren’t allowed this late.”

Haruki just smiled, causing the doctor to roll his eyes and mutter something about “stubborn cops” as he pushed past her out of the room.

"Haruki, Taemin knew someone was planning to kill him!” Lu Han blurted out, practically falling out of bed as he leaned over to tell the news he had been bursting to share with her since the day of his accident.

The detective’s eyes widened. “What?”

“He knew someone was going to kill him and wrote it all in his diary,” the young man continued.

Haruki shook her head. “I went through that diary. There’s nothing useful in it-”

“No!” snapped Lu Han, his voice cracking slightly. “It was a code! The dates were in a random order. That was the key to the code.”

“Lu Han, slow down-”

“There’s more than one killer!” he cried. “He realized there was more than one! He saw them at hospital and somehow figured out they were planning to kill him. He wrote all that to help you solve his murder!”

Haruki just stood frozen, staring at the young man blankly.

“You believe me, don’t you?” he asked, sounding close to tears.

After a long silence, Haruki took a deep breath. “Where is the diary now?”

"I grabbed it and drove to the park to show you,” Lu Han replied. “I had it under my arm-”

Haruki held up a hand and he fell silent immediately. There was a suspicion gnawing at Haruki’s mind, a thought she hardly dared to even consider. But the more she thought about Lu Han’s “accident,” the more likely it seemed. She knew she’d seen him holding something under his arm. She knew she’d seen the driver of the car bend over him for a moment, before racing off. Lu Han hadn’t been carrying anything when she reached him-

And now the diary was gone.

“Haruki?” Lu Han ventured timidly.

She offered him a tight smile and sank down on the chair beside his bed. “Thank you for telling me all of this. I’m very impressed that you figured this out.”

His cheeks flushed slightly at the praise. “Well, I might not be completely right, but my gut says it’s an important clue.”

“Your gut is a valuable tool,” Haruki replied. She squeezed his shoulder and gently pushed him back into his bed. “Get some rest, alright? You deserve it.”

She headed out of the room to Hangeng’s office, where he was packing his bag, preparing to leave for the night. “Do you mind if I stay here with Lu Han tonight?” she asked.

Hangeng frowned. “Why?”

“He found out some information on one of my cases,” Haruki replied. “It could be dangerous for him. I-I don’t want to leave him alone.”

Hangeng gave her a long look, before sighing. “Only because I trust you, Detective.”

Haruki nodded. “Thank you.”

She returned to Lu Han’s room, where he was nervously plucking at his blankets, having sensed that something was wrong. He looked up as she came into the room and sat down again. “How about I keep you company for a while?” Haruki asked in her most casual voice.

“Why?” he asked. “Am I in danger?”

“No, of course not.”

Lu Han wasn’t stupid; the frequency of his plucking increased until Haruki grabbed his hand. “I promise you, you’ll be safe,” she said softly. “Nothing will happen to you while I’m here.”

He smiled slightly and nodded, before lying down and pulling his blankets over his head. Haruki leaned back against the chair, placing her gun on his nightstand so that it would be within reach. She didn’t even need coffee to stay awake tonight. She had too much to think about.

Haruki had always trusted her gut instinct. While some of the others scoffed at the idea, she often found that instinct solved questions of human nature better than logic sometimes could. It came from years of experience in working with people, who almost never followed expected patterns of behavior. Her gut understood deviations from the norm.

And if Haruki’s gut was correct, then she was just about to accuse Tiffany Hwang, a friend and close ally of many years, of being involved in a murder.

Sungmin rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms over his head, biting back a stream of curses. He’d been holed up in the courthouse basement for what seemed like decades, breathing in the scent of dust and musty, old paper as he searched through case files from over the past few years.

He’d had a hunch, and wanted to follow up on it, which brought him, alone, to the rows upon rows of old criminal trials and court cases. He’d told Ryeowook and Siwon where he was going and declined their offers to go with him. They were needed in the field, following up on tangible leads.

As for Haruki…well, he wasn’t really in the mood to see her.

He turned a page of his notebook and pulled another file off the shelf, flicking it open as his phone rang. “Sungmin here,” he said absently.

“Are you okay?” came Ryeowook’s panicked voice. “I haven’t heard from you for the past few days!”

“I’m fine,” Sungmin replied. “Still following up on that feeling I had.”

"Did you find anything useful?” Ryeowook asked. Sungmin just hummed in response and continued reading. His partner sighed in exasperation. “Haruki’s been asking where you are.”

The lead of Sungmin’s pencil snapped as his hand jerked slightly. “Really?” he managed to say. “What did you tell her?”

“That you were in the bathroom,” Ryeowook replied. As Sungmin chuckled, he complained, “It’s not funny! I can’t lie when I’m under pressure!”

“Relax,” Sungmin told him. “I’m almost done at the courthouse. I just need to make a follow-up visit to Town Hall.”

“Is this really about research?” Ryeowook asked. “Or are you trying to avoid her?”

“Why would I be avoiding her?” Sungmin asked lightly.

“How would I know?” Ryeowook retorted. “Why would you be avoiding one of your partners? Maybe you’re upset with something she did, or you’re jealous, or something-”

“I have to go,” Sungmin cut in.

Ryeowook sighed. “Fine. But I’m not making up any more excuses for you! It’s stressful! I almost told her you had to wash your cat!”

Despite his annoyance, Sungmin smiled at that. “I’ll see you later.”

He hung up and turned to the file he was reading. The young man in the case had a history of violence and abusive behavior towards his girlfriend to the point that she’d filed a restraining warrant against him.

His phone buzzed again and he picked it up without looking at the caller ID. “Sungmin here.”

“Hey, Sungmin. It’s Donghae.”

Sungmin’s scowl deepened. “What do you want?”

“Do you know who Haruki worked with when she arrested Lee Chan-hee?” Donghae asked.

“No, I don’t. Why?” Sungmin asked.

“Because he was just found dead a few hours earlier and-” Donghae began, but he was interrupted almost instantly.

“What was his name again?”

“Lee Chan-hee,” Donghae replied. “His nickname was Chunji. Why-”

“I have to go.” Sungmin snapped his phone shut and stared down at the name on the file he was reading at.

Lee Chan-hee, a.k.a. Chunji.

Looks like his hunch was correct.

Haruki yawned and kneaded her eyes with her knuckles. She’d dropped Lu Han off in Evidence with Kai and the other boys, instructing him to lie low there for a while. He’d been disappointed, but had listened to her. She hadn’t told him, though, about the recommendation letter she’d dropped off in Chief Park’s office, suggesting that he allow Lu Han to take the Detective’s exam.

Siwon glanced over in amusement, before turning the car down a dirt path. “Didn’t sleep well last night?”

“I didn’t sleep at all,” Haruki replied, taking the black coffee that Siwon handed her with a grateful nod. “Lu Han was awake. He found clues hidden in Taemin’s diary, saying that there was more than one killer and that Taemin knew who they were.”

Siwon’s eyebrows rose. “Taemin knew? Who are they?”

“Lu Han didn’t get that far,” Haruki replied. “He thought it was so important to show me the code right away that he only read one page before going to look for me.”

“Where is the diary now?” asked Siwon.

"I think…” Haruki bit her lip, still unwilling to tell her suspicions to anyone. A hit-and-run could be an accident. But covering up a murder…

“I’m your partner, Haruki,” Siwon said quietly. “You can tell me anything.”

“I think Tiffany took it,” Haruki replied. “Somehow, she found out that Lu Han knew too much and she tried to get rid of him and take the evidence with her.”

“But for her to learn about it only a few minutes after he figured out the clues…” Siwon’s eyebrows narrowed. “That can only mean someone in our department told her.”

“That can’t be,” Haruki whispered. “Not…” Not again.

Apparently reading her mind, Siwon reached over and squeezed her hand. “We don’t even have proof that Tiffany’s involved yet,” he murmured.

Haruki nodded. “Can you…can you keep this between us for now?” The last thing she wanted to do was seem paranoid, accusing someone in their department of being involved again. But she also didn’t want to think that once again, someone she knew well, someone she worked with, someone she’d trust with her life, could be a murderer.

“We’re here,” Siwon announced, pulling up at what appeared to be a junkyard. Old cars were parked all throughout the lot, with sweaty, gruff-looking men peering under the hoods or rolling under the cars to fix them.

"You sure this is the address?” Haruki asked. Siwon nodded, looking just as bemused as she felt.

One man stepped forward as they approached, eyes narrowed at them. “Can I help you?”

Siwon held up his badge. “Valenti PD. We’d like to ask you a few questions about a car you rented out.” He held out the car registration. “Recognize this?”

The man pursed his lips for a moment as he studied the paper and nodded. “That’s one of ours, alright. What seems to be the problem?”

“Do you have any records of renting this car out?” Siwon asked.

“’Course we do,” the man snapped. “Just because this place looks like a scrap heap doesn’t mean it has to operate like one.”

“Could you show them to us?” asked Haruki.

He nodded. “Step into my office, please.” They followed him into a dilapidated little shack in the middle of the junkyard. The man pulled open a drawer in his worn-out desk and tugged out a file.

“The last person who rented the car, Tiffany Hwang,” Siwon said. “When did she rent it?”

The man squinted at the file for a moment before frowning. “What’s the name?”

“Tiffany Hwang,” Haruki repeated.

"No one by that name rented this car,” the man replied. “Last person I have on here is Morita Haruki.”

The detectives exchanged shocked glances. “I’m Morita Haruki,” Haruki snapped.

“Well, it certainly wasn’t you,” the man replied.

Haruki glanced up her partner, lips pressing into a thin line. “I think we just found that proof you were talking about.” 

A/N: Thank you so much to kimxbb and the anonymous sub who requested a poster for me from her shop, Fateful Dreamer. The link is: http://i1.minus.com/isceM7ACNMMg5.png and if anyone has any suggestions where I should put it, please let me know!

Hopefully, updates will come more quickly! I know I keep saying that and eventually, it will be true.