Chapter 11

Sulli was waiting at the living room with a freshly brewed tea and some homemade cookies served to her. She busied herself with her phone, exchanging emails with Krystal and all sorts of thing she could with her phone apps. She poured in milk into her tea and stirred it before taking a sip.

Some more sugar I guess.

The living room was quite luxurious, one could say. A humble chandelier, an old-style fireplace with fancy paintings on top of it, a rocking chair placed nearby and the round table on which Luna placed the plate of cookies. It's like in the movies and maybe a bit cliché. The interesting part, however, was the shelves of books that seemed to crowd the living room, making it look like a library of some kind. There were also two windows; one overlooking the front of the house while the other showed a children's playground. It was in the evening so there were many children playing with their parents - or babysitters - watching them. It hit closer to home for Sulli as she watched in envy.

Amber and Luna, on the other hand, were in the room across the living room. Amber had given Luna the book for her to inspect. She browsed through the book to see if anything was amiss but all was ordinary, other than the unusual code appearing a week before his death.

"Well, this is a problem. I managed to find a similar code to this but without the reference, it will take long before we can decipher this," Luna expressed her frustration.

"Can you explain just how this works?"

"For example here, I drew this as a reference to write my code.

Then, the code

Our problem is that when I use the same reference, it doesn't make sense at all which means, he used another reference."

"So that's how it is. Let me have the book."

Amber's hands roamed around the book to see if there's any secret opening on the book. She was about to give up when she felt an almost unnoticeable uneven surface at the cover's surface. She took a pocket knife out of her pocket and cut at the boundaries, revealing a small paper with the reference written on it.

"That's neat trick!"

"I figured that the book itself will be the safest place to hide it."

"Let me have it."

"This can't be. I must tell Vic-unnie immediately. She said she's going to the hotel after the interview with the father."

"Call her?"

"I tried but I can't reach her. I'm going there. Keep an eye on Sulli, will you? And contact Zhoumi for back-up!"

Luna nodded and sent her off before returning to the living room and met with a worried Sulli.

"Is everything alright, Luna-unnie?"

"I hope so. Just stay here with me and we'll wait for her call."

Defle(x)tion

"Where's Jaejoong-ssi?"

"He's not here at the moment. Please have a seat, detective."

Victoria took a seat on the couch and looked over her notes. She jotted down something on her notebook and closed it back.

"William, did you know Han Daewan?"

"Yes, I do. He's the new business partner for a major project," William responded as he stirred the cup of tea and served it to her.

"Only that?"

"Well of course, why do you ask?"

"Just curious. Will he be back soon?"

"I'm afraid not. He has a meeting that will run late if you don't mind waiting."

"I'm a bit busy so how about I come back later?"

Victoria sipped the tea and finished it with a gulp before trying to excuse herself - keyword trying. When she got up from the seat, she was feeling dizzy so she grabbed the armrest for support and pushed herself up.

"My head feels fuzzy," Victoria complained.

"Let me help you."

Just as William stepped forward, she fell limply on the couch; vulnerable and defenseless. He searched her coat pocket for something but he couldn't find anything but her car keys and her notebook. He took the car keys and slipped behind the back door and unlocked the car in search for something that could incriminate him if it was found. He gave up searching and called his henchmen.

"Do you have visuals on the partner?"

"Yes boss and she's headed to the hotel."

"That makes things easier. Contact your men and gather over here."

"Yes sir!"

He left the car as it was without even locking it and went back upstairs. He took a rope from the store room and tied Victoria to a chair firmly. He loaded his gun with live ammunition and pointed the barrel to the still-unconscious detective.

Careful not to get yourself killed, detective.