“Hello, Shin Hye.”

 “Oppa?”

“Ani, not your Min ho oppa. Unfortunately he is all tied up. I have him here with me.”

Was this someone that oppa worked with? Something seemed odd about…

“I’m the one who killed Krystal,” the voice said. “And now I have your lover all tied up. I’m going to make him squeal like a pig and then I’m going to gut him if you don’t do exactly as I say.”

The phone was silent. She stood frozen in place, unable to breathe.

 “Are you there, darling?”

She tried to say something but nothing was working.

“Don’t be afraid, Shin Hye-ah. I need you to think clearly. I need you to save the Agent. Can you do that?”

Her voice shook. “De.”

“Good. The first thing you’re going to do is keep your mouth shut. I can see you, your every move. I can hear everything that happens in that prison of yours. If you tell anyone, including that old nun, that you spoke to me, I will kill him. Do you understand?”

Her mind whirled with the worst possible scenarios. She was in the dark fog again and behind her came the monster, scrambling for her legs as she crawled. The bodies were on the ground, and she was crawling over them.

“Do you understand?”

It was real. She was on the phone talking to the man she’d seen. This was his voice; she recognized it now from when she’d touched the girl.

“De”

“Are you listening? It’s important that you don’t panic. If you panic you’ll do something stupid and I’ll have to kill him. Got it?”

His voice wasn’t angry or sinister. Just calm and direct. But that only made it more frightening.

“Got it?”

“De,” she managed.

In thirty minutes the gardener will climb into his red pickup truck and leave for an extended coffee break like he does every day. You will climb into the back of his truck, under the green tarp he uses to keep the rain off—”

“I can’t leave!”

The man paused patiently. “… off his tools,” he finished. “You don’t have to leave in the red truck, Shin Hye-ah. But if you don’t, then the Agent will be found dead, and it will be because you allowed him to die.”

“I…” Shin Hye began to panic. The room spun and she managed to steady herself by putting her left hand on the wall. Her voice came in a hoarse whisper. “I can’t leave.”

The man ignored her. “The red truck will drive into the city and stop at a Mango Cafe. When it does, you will get out without drawing attention, and you will walk due east one block until you see a shopping strip with a beauty salon. At the end there is a large green garbage bin. Under that bin you will find an envelope with money and a cell phone. Are you getting all of this?”

“I can’t… I can’t leave…”

“Repeat it back to me.”

She hesitated, then stumbled through the instructions, but her mind was mostly on the fact that if she didn’t leave the man on the phone would kill Min Ho oppa.

“But I can’t…”

“Listen.” She heard his voice away from the phone, speaking to another man, demanding he speak.

Then Min Ho’s familiar voice came on. “Tell Sister Mi Kyung, Shi…”

Crack!

The phone went silent and the killer came back on. “So you see, I do have him and I will kill him. Are you listening?”

It was Min Ho, she was sure of it. His voice had sounded scratchy and breathy, but it was him!

“Are you listening?”

“De… I’m listening.”

“Take the money in the envelope, go into the beauty salon, and ask them to make you pretty. Like your sister, Eun Hye. Can you do that for me?”

What was he asking? She had to go into a beauty salon? What did this have to do with Min Ho oppa?

“Pay them all the money, there is enough money in the envelope. Tell them to cancel their appointments if they don’t have space. When you’re done, take a picture of yourself and send it to me so that I know you’ve done exactly as I’ve asked. Then go across the road to the park and wait for me. I’ll call you and tell you what I want you to do next. Now repeat that back to me.”

She did, haltingly.

“Good. Don’t tell them, Shin Hye-ah. Do not say a word. Once you’re gone they’ll start looking for you. Stay out of sight. If they pick you up it’s all over. Okay?”

Her mind seemed to have shut down. She had to figure this out, but she didn’t know where to begin. It was a nightmare. How could she get out of a nightmare?

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

He hesitated. “Thank you, Shin Hye-ah. I’ve waited so long for this.” The line clicked dead.

…………………….

Light peeked through a dozen cracks in the barn’s high roof, but there was no other indication of what time it might be. Morning, Min Ho guessed, but it could be afternoon. A sack had been over his head when he’d climbed out of unconsciousness, and he’d been sedated at least twice since then.

He’d been taken, drugged, stuffed in a trunk. Now he faced his end as Krystal had faced hers. After spending so many hundreds of hours putting himself in the place of killers and their victims, he found himself actually in that position. In and of itself, it was more surreal than terrifying.

But the killer had called Shin Hye, and the claws of dread were encasing him. He felt nauseated.

They were in an old barn with graying planks for walls and dirty hay for a floor. The stale scent of grain and old horse manure hung in the air. Sagging eight-by-eight timbers spanned the sloping roof overhead, begging for an excuse to fold under the weight they supported.

His wrists were tied together behind a splintering four-by-four post. He sat on the damp ground, facing the killer’s stage. Several large wool blankets with wide red and black stripes had been spread out and bordered by railroad ties. On one end the killer had constructed a makeshift planked wall against a large pile of hay bales.

Two pegs stuck out of the boards three-quarters of the way up. On either side of his wall, the Bride Killer had placed candles on two wood barrels. It took little imagination to understand that he’d prepared the wall to drain his seventh victim.

The details had filtered through as he woke. But the one piece of information that dominated his mind sat on an old folding chair ten feet from him, legs crossed and arms, studying him in silence.

This was the Bride Killer, and he looked somewhat similar to the drawing Shin Hye had drawn over as she’d excitedly pulled at her memory. But there were some key differences that might throw the team off, he thought. Small details that forensic artist would focus on, knowing how important they were.

In person, the killer’s mouth was full but looked flatter than on the sketch. Shin Hye had drawn the distance between his eyebrows and hairline too narrow, giving him a more sinister appearance than he had in flesh and blood. And his eyes were wider as well. But a forensic artist would be rendering a more accurate drawing today, maybe already had.

He was a handsome man and looked young who at first glance would inspire confidence. Nothing about him looked suspect. His dark hair was short and well groomed. His hands were manicured. His eyes were dark, but not deep-set or threatening. He was handsome, like so many serial killers. He wore gray slacks and a light blue short-sleeved button-down shirt.

Apart from the phone call to Shin Hye, the man hadn’t uttered a single word. But his intentions loomed in Min Ho’s mind like a shadow in a darkened doorway.

“You should be feeling better now,” the man said. His voice was s