Case1- Drowning-Pt.1
Cold Blood
#Drowning
“How can you say she just drowned, when even a blind person could tell that she was killed!?” Youngjae shouted as he followed behind the guy in front of him, everyone’s eyes in the office on him “Watch how you’re speaking to your superior!” the other shouted back, yet this wasn’t something that Youngjae cared about, what he rather cared for how a clear homicide case got turned into simple suicide case.
“Tell me who thinks it was a suicide!?” Youngjae finally shouted in rage looking around, as everyone’s eyes darted to whatever but Youngjae or the superior’s eyes. After a few seconds an annoyed voice spread through the room. “Fine” the superior shouted again as he looked around the room “Knock yourselves out, but if this is found to be a suicide, watch out for the consequences you will all face!” he finished by pointing his finger at Youngjae, clearly stating that he will be taking up most of the blame.
Youngjae couldn’t care less, he knew he will be able to prove wrong to the other, and with the other leaving the room, he felt a smack to his head “Idiot!” he heard, met by an annoyed person behind him “Why did you have to involve us all into this for!?” he narrowed his eyes in anger, but soon began smiling along with Youngjae. “You know you all love me” Youngjae laughed, as he wrapped his hand around his best friends shoulder, “Come on Himchan” he led his friend away, as he motioned for the others to come along “No ladies for you tonight” he laughed and Himchan let out a fake cry, which Youngjae was sure was indeed real.
They all found themselves in small meeting room, with Youngjae taking the lead role, telling everyone who’s in charge of what. Rather than catching the criminal their first priority being to prove that the murder, was in fact a murder and not a suicide like their chief believed it to be. Though their team only consisted of 8 people, they were still known as one of the best teams in not only their station, but also in the whole Seoul.
“Time to work!” Himchan excitedly exclaimed, followed by small laughter from the others. Everyone knew that Himchan was one of the laziest ones in the team and even during stake outs he would be the first one to fall asleep and the last to wake up.
-
Youngjae and Himchan started off by visiting the victim’s apartment. It was a rather up-class place in one of the complex buildings in Mokdong area. They first studied the surrounding area, carefully noting anything that could link to the case. The area itself seemed rather safe; it was well lit with many CCTV cameras installed, which they took from the security guard.
After a while they finally had the building security guard open the door to victim’s apartment. When the door got open, they got greeted by darkness, with the curtains drawn closed, allowing only dim light to spread across the room. “When was the last time you seen her?” Youngjae asked the security guard that waiting by the entrance, as he searched for the light switch. It took a while for the security guard to answer “Around a week ago…” he said, then thought for a moment longer “It was pretty late, she came back right when I was finishing my shift, saying that she felt like someone was following her” he gulped nervously and quickly added “I asked her if she wanted for me to call police, but she said it was fine” he defend himself. “Himchan, go ask around” Youngjae said, finally finding the light switch and turning on the lights.
There wasn’t anything strange around the room, there didn’t seem to be any sort of fight or any traces of struggling, everything around seemed rather tidy and neat. From the way Youngjae seen there wasn’t much he would be able to find here, if anything at all.
He went around, continuing to look for anything that would give him any sort of clue. The only thing he was able to find was the victim’s phone, that was left laying on the bed. After 20 more minutes, he finally gave up not finding anything else that stood out. On his way out, he noticed a picture in a wooden frame, with the victim and two other guys and a girl. He took off the thick frame, taking the picture out and putting it into his pocket, deciding it might be useful at some point.
Luckily enough, Himchan was pretty much done asking the basic questions from the neighbours. “Our victim seemed quite popular” Himchan noted, as they were headed towards their car. “What do you mean?” Youngjae questioned without much interest. “According to the neighbours she was a total party animal, barely anyone seen her sober or without some guy with her” Himchan explained.
-
As they enter the office, Youngjae quickly reached for his pocket taking out the cell phone he had picked up earlier “Here” he said, handing it over to Baek San. “What is this?” Baek asked, as he curiously looked at the phone that was now in his hand. “Found it in the victim’s home” Youngjae said “and it seems locked”. “OK, I’m on it then” Baek said, as he stood up, taking the phone with him, then stopping for a moment as he opened the door “I should be done by morning”.
Youngjae and Himchan stayed to watch through the CCTV recordings that they have obtained earlier, carefully watching for the smallest detail that might give them some sort of clue. “Oh” Himchan jumped up “There she is” he said pointing at the screen and they both drew closer to the screen as they observed. The victim walked home by herself, stopping for few seconds to talk to the guard, before heading for apartment. After 20 minutes they see her again, leaving her apartment in a quick pace as if rushing somewhere. “She seems in a hurry” Youngjae notes, “Mm” Himchan nods in agreement.
-
With the morning arriving both Youngjae and Himchan were already present listening to all that Baek had found. “The last call seems to be made from a public phone and it lasted for 5 minutes” Baek said pointing at his computer screen, as he ran the call history obtained from the phone. “Do you know where from the call was made?” Himchan asked. “Yeah” Baek said, quickly opening the maps “Looking at the code, it was one of the phone booths in the Mokdong area”. “Mokdong area?” Youngjae asked surprised. “Yeah” Baek nodded. “It looks like 15 minutes’ walk from her apartment” Himchan said, as he studied the map. “What about the time of the call? When was the call received” Youngjae quickly asked. “It was …” he said as he looked at the call history again “22:10” He said, pointing at the screen. “It’s the same” Youngjae noted, “The time she went out”.
“What about other calls or texts, anything strange?” Youngjae asked as he scanned the call history on the screen. “There isn’t anything else that’s strange with the call history” He looked up at Youngjae who looked quite disappointed at the answer “However, it’s the text history” he added, quickly grabbing both Himchans and Youngjaes attention “What is it?” Himchan asked excitedly. “If you look, there seems to be three people who she kept close contact with, however if you look at around a month ago, all contact was lost with all three of them”.
After a while of thinking, Youngjae finally remembered the picture he had found at the apartment, “What about this?” Youngjae said as he took the picture out of his jackets pocket and handed it over to Baek, “Do you recognise any of them?”. Baek studied it for a while, and seconds later he was searching for something on the computer. “Here” he said opening one of the pictures from the phone “The four of them seemed to be really close, there are quite many pictures of them on her phone, but again, since a month ago, they haven’t appeared in any of her pictures taken”.
“So a women who suddenly losses all contact with three people she was close with, and the only other thing being that the day she died she received a phone call from a public phone” Youngjae said, as he dropped down the basic points in his notebook, not being sure how they could possibly connect. “But don’t you think it’s strange?” Himchan questioned, gathering the others attention “Who still uses public phones, when it’s almost impossible to find someone who doesn’t have a phone?”.
“I guess that’s strange” Youngjae agreed “but we first need to find out what caused them to lose all contact so suddenly”. “Is there anything else?” Youngjae asked, facing Baek again. “The club!” he exclaimed as he nearly forgot to mention “On the day she died, she seems to have gone out to a club, from the text it seems like it’s a place she frequents”. “Any idea of the club’s name?” Himchan asked excitedly now “Well I’m not sure if it’s the right one, but…” he began as he once again went through the pictures and opened one of them “If you look here” he pointed at the writing on the barmen’s top, that was visible in one of the pictures she had taken with some guy “The picture was taken on the day she died, so I’m pretty sure it’s this club”.
“Ok” Himchan said impatiently, as he looked at Youngjae “At least we got some leads. Now let’s go check it out!”. “Print me this picture, and tell the Kim Bum and Cha Seon to find the people from that picture I just gave you” Youngjae said as he patted Baek’s shoulder, as he collected the picture that just got printed off and then left with Himchan.
-
They had barely entered the club, with Himchan already half loosing himself to the music, making Youngjae smack him on the head “Remember what we came here for” he said annoyed with a fake smile on his face, as warned Himchan to behave himself. Himchan just chuckling in apology “It’s a habit”. They went around showing the picture to random people in club and asking if they have either knew the victim or the guy. The search was over quickly, with one of the ladies pointing towards the bar. Youngjae didn’t even bother looking for Himchan, he knew the other was most likely already somewhere dancing with some girl by now and he didn’t want to waste time fetching him.
He sat down beside the guy who was flirting with some girl. He put the picture down so that the guy could see it, who quickly looked up to him “Who are you?” He asked Youngjae with suspicion, telling the girl to leave him alone for a moment. Youngjae went into his own pocket, as he took out his badge with a small smile laying it down next the picture on the bar counter “I’m Youngjae of Gangnam Police Station”. The guy seemed somewhat nervous now, as he began quickly getting up, with Himchan grabbing him by the shoulder and pushing him back down, as he took the seat next to him, smiling at Youngjae proudly. “You will need to come with us” Youngjae said, taking the picture and his badge off the counter and motioning Himchan to lead the guy away, “I wouldn’t try anything funny if I was you” Himchan warned him as he led him away after Youngjae.
-
“I had to let him go” Cha Seon said as she took a seat next to Youngjae. “Nothing?” Youngjae asked disappointed. “No” Cha Seon shook her head, “That day was the first time he met her and the second they went out of the club she just told him she was feeling sick and that she will just head home alone, so he just went back to the club”. “Did you check the CCTV records from the club?” Youngjae questioned. “I did” Cha Seon sighed, “But it’s just like he said; only she got into the taxi and you can see him going back into the club, and when you look at the time from CCTV records from her appartment building it does show her coming back alone”.
“What about the phone booth? Weren’t there any CCTV cameras around? ” He asked, though he could already tell the answer from Seon’s expression, as she shook her head. “The area where the call was made from is in one of poorer areas, we tried looking for CCTV cameras, but we couldn’t find any, so we asked locals, but they said that only some of the shops on the main street have them, and even those are 10minutes from the location”.
“Any finger prints?” Youngjae asked hesitantly, as the other shook her head again “There’s far too many, and we need to have at least something to match it up against”. Youngjae bit on his lip, so far and they haven’t found anything that would be useful.
-
“I found all of them” Kim Bum reported to Youngjae “However, it seems that one of them has died”. “What?” Youngjae questioned as he grabbed the report from Kim Bums hands and scanned the contents. “According to reports it seems like a suicide case” Cha Seon added, “However, same as our case, the guy has drowned and the team in Busan hasn’t ruled out that it could be a murder”. Youngjae raised an eyebrow “Anything suspicious?”. “I’m not sure” Cha Seon shook her head “There wasn’t much I could find out, as Busan police didn’t tell me much, only saying that it was their case and that we shouldn’t interfere”. “How can it be their case?” Himchan asked annoyed “We have the right to know since it links to our investigation”.
Youngjae bit his lips, in annoyance “So we can’t even obtain the pictures from the murder?”. Seon shook her head in reply, “You probably need to ask Chief Yoo if he can do something, since it links to our case in some way”. The answer made Youngjae feel even more bitter, he planned to close this case without the chiefs help, as the other from the start didn’t believe this case would lead anywhere and now asking for help seemed like something that will hurt Youngjaes pride for a while.
Youngjae took a deep breath “I go ask Chief Yoo and you two go bring the two remaining ones from the picture here, we need to find out how they were connected to the victims and what happened a month ago for them to lose contact”. “Ok” Cha Seon smiled at Youngjae, with Youngjae smiling back at her, before she headed out with Kim Bum.
-
“We need permission to look at the records from Busan’s case” Youngjae demanded “And what for?” The chief asked as he smirked, annoying Youngjae further. “Because it links with our victim” Youngjae stated. “Fine” The chief replied “Knock yourself out”. Youngjae stared at the chief for a minute in disbelief and suspicion as to how easily he had gotten the permission “Go” the chief shouted after a while, getting annoyed with Youngjae who was just staring at him. “Yes sir” Youngjae smirked satisfied with the result as he left the office.
“Get ready, we are going to Busan!” Youngjae shouted out to Himchan, as he grabbed his jacket, with Himchan soon joining him.
-
Here he was again, at Busan the place he disliked the most on the surface of the earth and being it him himself who pushed to be allowed to go here. They first went to inspect the nearby area by the lake, where the victim was found. Though the body was already removed, the area was still guarded by police, and was cut off for normal people.
“How can someone even drown in this?” Himchan finally burst out as he pointed at shallow river. He was right; the river wasn’t even that deep and seemed to barely even reach up to the knees height. After taking few pictures of the scene, they headed to Busan police station.
-
The station was crowded. Youngjae and Himchan could barely find their way through all the drunks and people that were shouting and what not fighting with each other. They walked slowly studying their surroundings and trying to avoid getting hit by the people around them. “Who are you two?” Someone from behind them shouted, and they quickly turned around, not fully sure if was them that the person was talking to. “We are from Gangnam police station” Himchan quickly answered in a raised voice, seeing how the old man behind them was looking at them. He raised an eyebrow questionably “And what do people from Seoul want here?”
“We are looking for the Chief Soo” Youngjae yelled, trying to shout past all the noise that was around “We don’t have much time” he highlighted, not wanting to waste any more time in this place. “Come with me” The older guy shouted back, leading them through crowd of people and into a small office, “Sit down” he said, pointing at the few chairs by a coffee table, as he sat down himself on a chair behind the main desk that was in the room, with the name tag reading ‘Chief Kim’. “How can I help you boys?” he asked finally, looking at them, as they took their seats, surprising them both. “We are here regarding the drowning case; our chief should have contacted you”. “Ah, yes” he said, as if only remembering now “Wait a minute”, he quickly entered few numbers into the phone that was on his table and lifting it up to his ear, “Come here” he said firmly into the phone and placing it back onto the desk. Within few minutes a guy ran in, “Yes?” he said as he breathed heavily. “Show them to the evidence room” the chief commanded.
-
They spread all the pictures and reports regarding the case on the table, as they scanned through the contents, trying to not to miss out on anything important. After few minutes a light haired guy entered the room, squinting his eyes the second he seen what Youngjae and Himchan were doing, turning to his colleague who was also watching them “What is this!?” He roared, as he began walking towards them, Youngjae and Himchan looking up to see what was happening. “Calm down Daehyun” The guy who led them in said to the other, as he walked to him and whispered something, making the other even more angry.
“I’m Youngjae and this is Himcahn” Youngjae said, as he stood up from his seat, and walked towards the other, extending his hand, with a wide smile plastered on his face. He watched as the guy’s expression turned to disgust within seconds after hearing their names and he merely glanced at Youngjaes hand as he ignored it.
“Jung Daehyun” he said coldly looking back at the other “This is part of our case so don’t think we will be just handing it all over to your team” he warned Youngjae and Himchan with a quick smirk, as he walked out of the room. The firmness in the others voice seemed unsettling; he just met Youngjae for the first time, and Youngjae couldn’t believe how much it seemed like the other hated him in such an obvious manner. With the other leaving, Himchan got up putting his arm on Youngjae’s shoulder, and squeezing it lightly “Someone seems to be overprotective with their cases” Himchan snorted.
The case seemed to match their case fully. Both victims were found drowned in rural areas which barely had any people passing by. There were evidence of something large being dragged, which they assumed was the body, but no footprints were left behind, of either victims or whoever that has murdered them. The corpses didn’t show any struggling marks or any of them being drugged and neither suffered from any internal or external wounds.
Before leaving they got called into the Chiefs Soo’s office, where Daehyun was seated down, with his arms crossed over his chest, not even bothering to look at Youngjae or Himchan who just entered the room. “Did you find anything useful?” the Chief asked. “We didn’t find anything new, but the two cases seem identical” Himchan spoke up. “The thing is…” The chief sighed “I’m transferring Daehyun to your station to work on the case with your team”. Daehyun quickly shot up from his seat “What!?” He shouted in loud voice “What non-sense is this out of nowhere!?”. “Daehyun!” The chief shouted back “This is an order!”
“I’m not joining their department!” Daehyun retorted “Why must I go there for?” he questioned in anger. “Daehyun, you listen to me! Either you go to Seoul or give up this case and stay here” the Chief said in a firm tone. “What?” Daehyun said half in loss, as he cursed under his breath, glancing back at Youngjae and Himchan who were standing by door looking back at him, as he squinted his at them in hatred “Don’t even hope for me to give this up” he said coldly, as he walked to the door, pushing them out of the way. “Daehyun!” the Chief called, but the other just walked out of room.
-
“Enlighten me” the Chief said sarcastically as he entered the room, with everyone else quickly getting up to bow. He motioned for everyone to sit down, “You better have found something good” he said with an amused smile. Youngjae in anger slammed his hands on the table before getting up. He walked to the projector screen, with Himchan putting up the pictures of the two victims. “The day the victim A died she received a phone call from someone that called from a phone booth and then she ran out in a hurry. 1 day later found drowned by Han river-”. “Can you just get to the point? I already know all of this” The chief said annoyed.
Youngjae glared at him before continuing “There weren’t any CCTV cameras around the phone booth, so we still don’t know who called her. From the phone records we found out that she had few close friends, with who she suddenly lost all contact with, so when we tried to search them up we found that one of them has been found drowned in Busan and the other two are currently waiting in the interrogation room”.
“In Busan?” the Chief asked, finally showing some interest. “Yes” Daehyun said getting up from his seat “The victim was found drowned in shallow lake near an abandoned factory. There wasn’t found any sings of struggle or wounds, but the depth of the lake was far too shallow for someone to drown, even if they couldn’t swin”. “Any witnesses” the chief pressed on. “None so far” Daehyun shook his head.
“So why can’t it be a suicide?” The chief asked mockingly, seeing how they had no real evidence to present him with. “And why can’t it be a murder?” Youngjae finished, with just as equally mocking smile on his face. The Chiefs face grew solemn, as he warned them before leaving the room “You only got one week left, if by then you still don’t get any real evidence this case will closed, got it?”. Daehyun was the next person to leave the room. Youngjae could clearly see that Daehyun was far more eager to solve this case then he was and get back to Busan.
-
Youngjae walked out of the interrogation room, seeing Himchan and Daehyun come out from the other room. Daehyun and Himchan had been looking through the window the whole time while Youngjae was interrogating. To start with Daehyun interrogated the first person, while Youngjae volunteered to interrogate the second one, seeing how Daehyun seemed to lose his cool far too easily as he nearly punched the guy.
-
“So they crashed into a person and after that all broke contact?” Kim Bum questioned somewhat confused “That can’t be the only reason”. “Kim Bum just look into the criminal records for now” Youngjae ordered. “You think that the victim might be seeking revenge?” Himchan asked. “Could be” Youngjae answered, as he got up, taking his jacket into his hands “Well see you tomorrow” he said, as he slightly bowed his head at the others before heading off. Everyone seemed to somehow respond to him, except Daehyun who was sitting at his desk and looking through piles of documents. Youngjae snorted in annoyance. He couldn’t help but notice how the Busan guy was looking down on him and his team as some useless and filthy things which he wanted to get rid himself off.
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Don't worry, the pace will pick up, it's just that it's my first time writing a crime story (and only my 2nd time writing a story in general...^^), so it kind of took me a while to get used to writing this!XD
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