“Any leads?”

Kyuhyun typed ferociously on his keyboard and brought up a couple of windows for Donghae to see.

“Aside from the identity of the woman and her time of death; no. Every clue we had was a dead end. This culprit is either a pro or he’s done this before.”

“Really now? Who’s the woman and when did she die?”

Kyuhyun’s eyes were still glued to the screen. He clicked through several files and finally found the document he was looking for.

“Post-mortem shows she was dead for at least ten to twelve hours before we found her. Her name is Jessica Jung, twenty three years old. Worked as a beautician in a self-owned salon in town. She’s single, although she’d just broken up with her boyfriend recently, about a week ago. People who knew her say that she’s a sweet girl. She has a younger sister, name’s Krystal. Twenty one years old. Still studying in university. They lived together in a small rented apartment not far from where we found her body. And… That’s about all the information I could find out at the moment. Ming’s currently at their apartment with Sunny to ask questions. That’s all for now.”

Donghae was impressed. “That’s quite a lot of information on the girl in such a short time.”

Kyuhyun smirked. “I’m not called SuperKyu for nothing, you know?”

The inspector chuckled and patted him on the shoulder. “Indeed, you arrogant idiot. What would I have done without you?”

“You’d never have solved half the cases in your book right now.”

“Conceited.”

“Genius.”

“Stuck-up.”

“Intellectual.”

Donghae grinned and gave him a friendly punch. “Shut up, you egoistical creature. If you’re such a genius perhaps you’d know who her recent ex-boyfriend is?”

Kyuhyun folded his arms across his chest. “Sure I do. His name is Zhoumi. He owns a hair salon in the next town.”

“His name sounds… foreign.”

“He’s Chinese. He and the victim met at some beauty social event and clicked immediately. They’ve been dating for about a year already. The reason for their breakup was simply because her boyfriend wanted to take their relationship to the next level but she refused. Simple as that.”

“Wow, I underestimated you,” Donghae said, and Kyuhyun only smirked at the inspector’s acknowledgement. “Where does he live? Has anyone followed him up yet?”

Kyuhyun shook his head. “No. I only just came across this information a minute before you arrived and I hadn’t informed anyone else about it yet. You have anyone in mind you want to send over?”

The inspector mulled for a while. “Send Hyukjae.”

“Hyukjae?” Kyuhyun’s eyes nearly popped out of his socket. “You want to send Hyukjae?”

“Why not?” Donghae asked. “He’s part of my team and he also needs to partake in the investigation as well. So far I’ve only seen him either pranking people or snoring away on his desk. He needs to do something.”

“What if this man is dangerous, Inspector? Would Hyukjae know what to do?”

“I’m sure he can handle it. He’s trained in combat, if you’re too worried. Only your precious Ming can defeat him in a one-on-one at the moment. Send Hyukjae after that man, Kyu. If he refuses, tell him the order is from me. Go now.”

Kyuhyun blushed at Donghae’s comment about ‘his’ Sungmin, but he just let it pass since Donghae didn’t say anything more about it.

“Yes, Inspector Lee.”

* * *

Surprisingly, Hyukjae went willingly enough without Kyuhyun having to mention Donghae’s name at all. Perhaps he was just bored and wanted to do at least something connected with the case at the moment, because none of the other officers trusted him with the investigations. His ears especially perked up at the mere thought of battle, and he flexed his perfect abs just thinking of the action he could get if the man turned out to be dangerous.

He was dressed in normal clothes. Pulling over his black Audi in front of the address Kyuhyun gave him, he got down from the car after scanning his surroundings. The coast seemed clear and his target was reported to be working till six. It was a little past five thirty now. Perfect timing.

Hyukjae strolled casually into the salon, immediately noticing that the place was decked from top to bottom with oriental objects, giving it a distinct Chinese-y atmosphere. However instead of the calming and peaceful ambience he was expecting to feel, he thought the air seemed to be a little hostile.

The salon was empty at the moment. Hyukjae wondered where its inhabitants went.

“Hello?” he cautiously called, rounding each corner guardedly with a hand lightly placed above his gun holster. He definitely smelled something fishy going on and he wasn’t about to risk it. “Is anybody here?”

Something was wrong. The salon was supposed to still be open for business for at least another twenty more minutes, and yet there wasn’t a sing