Haruki furiously slapped the rental form with her name on it down on the table in front of Tiffany. “Well? How do you explain this?”

The lawyer stared down at the form in silence.

Haruki pushed away from the table, glaring at her friend. “Tiffany! Tell me what’s going on! Why would you use my name?”

Slowly, Tiffany looked up and smiled. Haruki nearly recoiled in surprise at the coldness in her eyes. It was the look she fixed defendants with before she nailed them, sealing their fate as guilty.

She was also surprised to find her palms sweaty as she approached the table again and leaned forward. “What is going on, Tiffany?” she asked again, more quietly this time.

 Tiffany leaned back in her chair, manacles clanking as she twisted a strand of dark hair around one finger. “Oh, don’t worry,” she said, the smile never leaving her face. “I’m still your friend, Haruki. We’ve always been a team.”

“The plan’s changed, Tiffany. You’ll need to improvise a little.”

“Trust me. I can handle this.”

“There’s something odd about the bruising on his face,” Shindong murmured, turning Chunji’s head from one side to the other.

“It seems a bit excessive for a mugging,” commented Eunhyuk. “I mean, usually after they take your money, they leave you alone.”

“I concur,” Shindong replied. “Ah. Look at this.” He drew out a tiny fiber from under Chunji’s wrist with a pair of forceps and held it up for the detectives to see. Eunhyuk peered closer, but Donghae just stared blankly.

“Nylon fiber,” the coroner explained, placing it in a plastic dish. “Often used in rope and such. And the chafing around his wrists suggests that they were tied together.”

Eunhyuk’s eyes widened. “Wait, you’re saying that whoever attacked him bound his wrists together? Why would a mugger do that?”

“A mugger wouldn’t do that,” Donghae snapped, shaking his head. “I knew it as soon as we saw the body. It’s not a mugging gone wrong. This was murder.”

His partner’s gave him a disbelieving look, before turning to Shindong, who was nodding slowly. “There are defensive wounds on his arms. He was hunched over, trying to protect himself, as someone kicked and punched him around the head and chest.”

“There’s no way anyone would put up that much of a fight over money,” Donghae muttered.

“We don’t know how much money it was,” retorted Eunhyuk. “It could have been a drug deal gone wrong.”

“There’s one more thing,” Shindong murmured, pointing to the left side of Chunji’s chest. “These blows were delivered post-mortem.”

Donghae pushed off from the table he was leaning against and headed towards the door. “Hey! Where are you going?” demanded Eunhyuk.

“To find Haruki,” he replied.

“What?” Eunhyuk raced after him, sending an apologetic wave at Shindong, who merely nodded and began examining something stuck to Chunji’s hair. “What do you need to find Haruki for?”

“She said it was a mugging gone wrong,” Donghae gritted out. “I knew it wasn’t.”

“So, what?” Eunhyuk snapped pushing Donghae so that he slammed into a wall. “What’s the point? Are you going to go up to her and rub it in her face? ‘I was right, you were wrong’?”

“Of course not.” Donghae pushed his partner’s arm aside and roughly shoved past him.

“Then what is it?” demanded Eunhyuk.

“She said that she arrested Chunji two years ago and the charges were dropped,” Donghae snapped. “What are the odds that she’s the one who comes across his body?”

Eunhyuk’s mouth fell open slightly. “You’re not suggesting…”

“No!” Donghae said in exasperation. “But it’s another murder that connects to her in some way! It could be important!”

“Or it could be a coincidence,” Eunhyuk retorted.

“Haruki doesn’t believe in coincidences,” Donghae said.

“God damn it!” yelled Eunhyuk, startling Donghae so much, he turned to stared at his normally mild-mannered partner. “That’s all you ever say these days! Haruki this, Haruki that. What the hell is wrong with you?” Donghae just sighed and shook his head slightly. “Just because people get murdered doesn’t mean it has anything to do with our resident trouble magnet.”

“Don't call her that,” Donghae snapped. “You don’t know anything about her! You have no idea what she’s been through-”

“Oh my God,” gasped Eunhyuk, taking a step backwards. “So that’s it.”

“What?” Donghae demanded, but his partner just shook his head.

“Can’t you hear yourself, man?” Eunhyuk asked quietly. “You’re forcing your help on her when you know she won’t accept it. This has to stop.”

“What are you talking about?” Donghae snapped as Eunhyuk turned and began walking back towards the morgue.

“You. Her,” Eunhyuk replied. “You’ve got to let her go, Donghae. Nothing good will come out of falling in love with her.”

Luhan was sure he had never seen that many boxes in the Evidence room before. The other boys were staring in various states of disbelief and annoyance at the steady stream of khaki-wearing people entering the office and dropping off boxes. It was more work than they’d ever seen before. But it wasn’t his job anymore. He didn’t belong here.

He watched, only slightly amused as the others straightened suddenly as Chief Park entered the office with a smile. “Hello, boys. Sorry about the mess.”

“What is all this?” Kris was the first to find his voice.

The police chief sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m sure you heard about the arrest of Tiffany Hwang, one of the assistant district attorneys.” A round of nodding. “We’ve cleaned out her office and her house and we need you boys to go through this and look for anything incriminating.”

“Like what?” asked Sehun.

“Anything suspicious, put it to one side for the crime lab,” Chief Park instructed. “And keep an eye out for Taemin’s diary.”

At this, Luhan, who had been slumped across his desk moping all day, sat up, eyes widening. “It’s gone?”

“We think she took it from you after the accident,” Chief Park murmured.

“So you’re sure it was her?” asked Kris.

“She is the most likely suspect, especially since she doesn’t have an alibi for where she was during that time,” the police chief explained. “And if there’s any chance, any chance at all, that she didn’t get rid of the diary yet, we need it.” He smiled at them again, before turning towards the door. “Good luck.”

“Wait!” called Luhan. Chief Park glanced at him. “Um…when can I start working in the Crime Scene Unit again?”

“You won’t be working in the Crime Scene Unit,” Chief explained.

“What?” gasped Luhan. “But why? It was an accident! It wasn’t my fault-”

Chief Park reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a pack of paper, tossing it onto Luhan’s desk. “That’s for you.”

“What is it?” asked Luhan.

“Some study materials for the detective’s exam,” Chief Park replied and Luhan’s eyes brightened as the other boys stared at him in amazement. “I was impressed with how you solved that code. We could use a brain like yours in Forensics.”

Luhan slowly touched the papers, almost reverently. “I thought you needed a glowing recommendation from a superior officer to take that exam,” he half-whispered.

Chief Park shrugged. “You got one.”

“Who was it?” asked Luhan.

“Who do you think?” Chief replied with a slight smile as he turned and left the room.

“I’m still impressed with how he did it.” Kyuhyun shook his head. “I mean, he’s almost an amateur! And it only took him an hour to crack the code in that diary.”

Yoona nodded absentmindedly as she picked up one of the dishes Shindong had sent up to her lab and placed it under the microscope.

“So how did it work?” asked Minho from Yoona’s other side. She loved that they were talking to each other as if she weren’t even there.

“Luhan explained it to me. It’s pretty ingenious,” Kyuhyun explained. “In the past, people would take a long sheet of paper and roll it a certain way, before writing a message on it. Then, they’d fill up the paper with random sentences, so that the only way to read the real message would be to roll the paper up in that exact same way.”

Yoona adjusted the magnification and took a picture of the fiber, frowning thoughtfully.

“So what Taemin did was a variation on that,” Kyuhyun explained. “The number for the date signified a page number and the number for the month was a line number. If you folded up the bottom corner of that page to the indicated number, the word on that line that wasn’t hidden would be part of his actual message.”

Yoona walked to her desk and picked up an album of photographs of evidence she’d collected previously. She held out her newly printed picture, comparing it to the ones in the album.

Minho smiled slightly, shaking his head. “It’s too bad Taemin was crazy. He was a genius. He could have been one of our best detectives.”

“Excuse me?” Yoona said sharply, glaring at them over her album. “Are you forgetting that he murdered at least seven people, four in a brutal and bizarre way?”

“Hey, I was just saying ‘could’ve’,” Minho retorted.

“What’s up with you?” asked Kyuhyun.

“You’re talking about a psychopath who stalked one of our colleagues for months and nearly killed another, and you’re acting like he’s Sherlock Holmes!” snapped Yoona.

“I didn’t-” protested Minho.

“Calm down, Yoona!” Kyuhyun shot back. “The guy’s dead, okay? That makes him a victim now. I know that you and Haruki both like going on your ‘Men are terrible’ rants-”

“What? I never said-”

“But the fact is, Taemin was tried for all of his crimes,” Kyuhyun snapped. “He wasn’t convicted and that’s not his fault. Now, he’s dead and it is all of our responsibilities to find his murderer and bring him to justice.”

Yoona said nothing as she pulled out a picture and squinted at it.

“Are you even listening to me?” asked Kyuhyun.

“Sure,” Yoona replied. “Guys, I think I found something.”

“What is it?” asked Minho, coming over to her desk.

She held out a photograph of a thin white fiber. “This was found on Chunji’s body. There were a few more on his clothes. Thin silk, extremely fine. Looks expensive.” She held out another photograph of an identical fiber. “This was found caught in the trigger of the gun that killed G.O.”

Kyuhyun’s eyebrows rose for a moment as he nodded slowly. “Shindong said he had a hunch that Chunji’s death might be related to Taemin’s and G.O.’s.”

Yoona smiled. “Forensic evidence doesn’t lie.”

“But what’s it from?” asked Minho, looking at the tiny fiber.

“Don't know. I haven't seen something like this before. I’ll have to do comparison tests,” Yoona replied. “We’ll need samples of silk from different manufacturers. And someone tell Donghae and Eunhyuk what we found.”

“On it.” Kyuhyun rushed out of the lab. In silence, Yoona turned back to her microscope and began examining another dish.

After a lengthy silence, Minho mumbled, “Hey.” The girl looked up, impatiently raising an eyebrow. “Look, I’m sorry if I upset you earlier. The fact is, Taemin was my friend before we found out he was a serial killer. I don’t want to let that go. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was making light of his actions.”

“I understand,” Yoona said quietly. “I was upset to learn that, too. But you were there at his trial. Everyone portrayed Taemin as a victim, seduced by Haruki into thinking she loved him. They made her out to be the villain, playing with his mind. Not that it excused what he did, but it swayed the jury into feeling sorry for him. And now that he’s dead, he’s the victim again and Haruki is still the dangerous temptress that led him to his death.”

Minho said nothing as Yoona stared down into the microscope again. “The fact is, Minho, when women are victims of a crime, they usually share as much blame as their attackers in the eyes of the public.”

“Nothing good will come out of falling in love with her.” Falling in love? With Haruki? Donghae scoffed to himself, causing Jonghyun, who was eating lunch beside him, to cast him a curious glance.

He was Lee Donghae, notorious player of the Forensics Department. He never went out with a girl more than once and his smile was enough to charm most girls straight to his side. Well, most girls…

Donghae groaned and rubbed his temples as he thought again of Haruki’s tear-filled eyes as she asked him if she was responsible for Taemin’s death. He could still hear her quiet voice recounting her sister’s death and feel her hand, trembling and cold, in his own.

He stood up abruptly, shoving his uneaten sandwich back into its Ziploc bag. It was only because of what Eunhyuk had said that he was thinking about these things. He needed to see her, just to reassure himself that none of it was true.

Back in her own office, Haruki could still feel Tiffany’s smile sending chills down her spine. She sighed and propped her elbows on her desk, burying her face in her hands. We’ve always been a team? What was that supposed to mean?

Hyoyeon had been distraught when Haruki had reluctantly told her about the evidence linking Tiffany to not only the car accident, but also the murders she was investigating. However, the blonde had agreed to prosecute her friend and former partner, though she’d warned that with Tiffany’s outstanding reputation, it would take airtight evidence to even bring the case to court.

And there was none.

She heard footsteps approaching her desk and looked up to see Sungmin, holding out a cup of coffee to her. “You really shouldn’t drink so much caffeine,” he commented as she took it and nodded in thanks. Instead of drinking, though, she rolled it between her hands, letting the cup warm her still-cold fingers. “Is everything alright?”

“Tiffany’s involved in the killings,” Haruki said without preamble.

He nodded. “I heard. Siwon told me.”

“And once again, it has to do with me.” Haruki drained the entire cup in one gulp, then crushed the cup in her fist and threw it against the wall.

Sungmin’s eyebrows raised slightly as light brown smears splashed the white wall before Haruki sighed and sank back into her chair, staring at nothing, barely even seeming to notice he was there. Finally, she stirred a little and glanced up at him. “Where have you been the past few days? Why didn’t you answer my calls?”

Sungmin glanced at his feet, shuffling them slightly as he shrugged uncomfortably. “Long answer, I was at the courthouse.” She raised her eyebrows. “I had a hunch that I wanted to follow up on. I think it’s going somewhere. I looked up the girls on that patient list and connected each one to a court case.”

Haruki nodded, not completely surprised. “They were all committed to that mental hospital.”

“These weren’t civil court cases, Haruki,” Sungmin replied. “They were criminal court cases. Those girls were witnesses for the prosecution.”

Her eyes widened as she sat up straighter. “Were the defendants found not guilty?” she asked in a whisper.

Sungmin’s lips tightened as he nodded. “Some of them were, yes. Others got fairly light sentences. A few cases were dismissed.”

Haruki’s fingers went cold again and she subconsciously rubbed her hands together. “But that’s not all,” he murmured. “After the courthouse, I…I went to Town Hall. To look up death certificates.”

“Were they all…?” Haruki whispered.

“No, not all,” Sungmin replied. “A lot, though. Many of them died from accidents. Too many for it to be a coincidence.”

Haruki shook her head. “The killer’s a vigilante,” she muttered.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Sungmin replied.

“Did you tell Siwon and Ryeowook?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I wanted to tell you first. I’ll tell them now-”

“Wait.” Haruki said, grabbing his arm. “Maybe we…maybe we shouldn’t do anything right away.”

Sungmin’s eyebrows flew to his hairline. “What?”

“If the cause of death was listed as an accident, it’ll be difficult to link it to our cases so far. Taemin and G.O. were clearly murdered,” Haruki amended quickly. “The killer wasn’t subtle about it. I want to look into it some more, before we jump into any crazy conclusions.”

Sungmin gave her a long look, before nodding. “I can give you a list of the defendants, if you want.”

Haruki nodded. She turned back to her desk and opened up her laptop, only to realize he was still standing there. She glanced up at him. “Sungmin? Is something wrong?”

He quickly shook his head, offering her an awkward smile. “Uh, no. You, um, have coffee on your face.” He reached out to wipe away a drop at the corner of , his hand lingering a little too long on her cheek.

“Sungmin?” Haruki’s voice was barely a whisper.

“I didn’t give you the short answer for where I’ve been,” he said, staring at her just a little too hard. “I was avoiding you.”

Haruki quickly pushed his hand away. “Why?” She stared at the ground, at her hands, at anywhere but his eyes as he took a step closer. Swallowing hard, she managed to ask, “Were you mad at me?”

She felt, rather than saw, his surprise as he shook his head. “No, of course not. I was…angry at myself.”

“What? Why?” she asked, tentatively glancing up to see him hovering over her.

There was something in the look in his eyes that she didn’t recognize. His smile made her shiver even more than Tiffany’s had earlier, but instead of leaving her cold, she felt her face heating up. A part of her wanted to run, but she was paralyzed.

“I’ve been a coward,” he whispered.

And then his lips pressed against hers for a moment and her heart seemed to stop. He smiled slightly as he pulled away.

Then the moment passed and he clapped a hand to his mouth, looking as shocked as she felt. “Haruki, I’m sorry-”

“Get out of my office,” she said quietly.

He was already backing towards the door. “I-”

“Get out!”

Flustered, Sungmin rushed out of the office, past a confused Donghae, who poked his head in. “Um…is this a bad time?”

The glare she shot him sent him running in the opposite direction.

A/N: ...I keep saying I'll never procrastinate again, but I've done it again. I'm so sorry you guys! I just started a new job and I've been settling in and....ugh! You don't need to hear a rant about my life. I don't have a good excuse, I'm really sorry.

Anyway, enjoy!