Chapter 14

It was still dark out but she was all geared up for her morning training; a pair of knee pads, a pair of elbow pads and a helmet fixed on her head. She did a light stretch to loosen up her muscles and making sure that she wouldn’t get cramps suddenly while riding. She secured her water bottle to her bike and mounted it, starting to pedal slowly to the streets and picked up the speed when she reached the Han River.

The morning breeze felt refreshing and she boldly released one of her hand from the handle to take out her phone from her pocket and played some music. She turned up the volume and put it back into her pocket. With the upbeat music, she continued her biking until she reached Gayang-dong Underground Passage where she stopped to drink.

No one was around and the sun was just beginning to rise from the horizon. She unfastened her water bottle from the holder and drank a mouthful of her sports drink but noticed that it was very sweet-tasting, contrary to what she used to taste. It didn’t take more than 2 minutes for her to fall soullessly to the ground, dropping her water bottle with its content pouring out to the ground in a slow, steady flow.

D  E  F  L  E  ( x )  T  I  O  N

It was six in the morning when her phone rang and she routinely picked it up as she sat on her bed.

“Liu here.”

“We’ve got a case. It’s over by the Han River.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen.”

When she saw the digital clock by her phone charger, she sighed but got up from her bed nonetheless. She went out of her room to go check on Sulli, who was still sound asleep on her own bed and the curtains blocking the light from outside. Seeing her so peaceful, she decided that she’ll just write a note telling her that she had to leave for work. She returned to her room and got a change of clothes for the day and headed for the washroom. It consisted of a pair of black work pants, a grey tank top and a black dress-shirt – also not forgetting her glove. Although it no longer worked as her power limiter, it didn’t feel right when she didn’t wear them.

She returned to her room and took out her badge and firearm from her drawer and equipped them; firearm into her hip holster and the badge into her inner chest pocket. Also, she pinned an arm band to the sleeve of her left arm and exited her apartment quietly. She started her car engine and gave a minute for the car to be heated up before she drove out of the compound with Han River as her destination.

f(x)

When she arrived at the scene, she had expected a crowd but she never thought that it would be full of the media people. She walked in between the crowd; cleverly avoiding the questions directed to her about the victim and the case and found Victoria standing with the medical examiner discussing about something.

“You’re just in time for the initial report, Detective Liu.”

“Amy, hey! When did you return?”

“Today. I figured you’d miss me,” Ailee said with a smirk.

“Yeah right. So what about the victim?”

“There’s no visible trauma on the victim. She has been dead for 2 to 3 hours according to liver temp and rigor mortis.”

“Could it be suicide?”

“That’s a possibility but I doubt it. She didn’t need to be out here if she wanted to commit suicide. Also, no suicide note.”

“Okay, that makes sense. How’d she die? Poison?”

“I’ll have to check her tox screen and I’ll know more once I had autopsied her,” Ailee  replied as she turned to her colleague to transfer the body to the ME office.

“Vic-unnie, what’s her name?”

“Hye Gi-ssi.”

“The Hye Gi? The ones that appeared in the news headline just last week?”

“Yes, the cyclist. She was found in her riding gears and her bike was with her.”

“How’d she ended up here? The biking path?”

“That’s what I thought too. She had on her GPS-tracking-watch so we should know her whereabouts up until she showed up here, dead.”

They walked over to where a white tape had outlined her body on the road and her bike was still there. They clasped their hands together for a short silent prayer.

“There seemed to be a sap-like liquid which I presumed was from the bottle. What’s that?”

Victoria called the forensic technician nearby to take a photo and have a sample of the liquid sent to the crime lab to be tested. Amber was inspecting the bike to see if it was sabotaged in any way but she didn’t find any traces of it so she moved away from the bike and let the forensic team to bring it back to the HQ.

“There’s nothing else we could gather here. She had no next of kin. Her parents died when she was in 8th grade and she had no siblings. We should head back to HQ and research more about her,” Victoria suggested.

“Let’s do that but I’ll make a quick stop at the coffee shop. I haven’t had breakfast yet.”

“Alright, I’ll meet you there. Pick me up some pastry would you?”

“Okay. Say kimchi because the media people won’t stop the interview,” Amber said as she gestured to the nearly out-of-control crowd.

They both passed by with much difficulty as the reporters were persistent and won’t take ‘no comment’ for an answer. Some even shoved each other and some was in a danger of being trampled on.

“Hey! Don’t push!”

The police officer guarding the crime scene decided to blow the whistle repeatedly and the others pushed back the crowd as gentle as possible. When the two detectives were out of the obstacles, they rushed to their respective cars and bolted out so none of the reporters would chase them down the road. They finally gave in when the police officer used the megaphone to speak.

“This is an on-going investigation. We will release the news if we caught any suspects so all of you are just wasting your time here. Go back, there’s nothing to see here!”

He was responded with a very unified denial but they know that they had to disperse before they are accused of obstruction of justice or public disturbances. When every single person was out of sight, the police officer sighed in relief. He assigned about five people to stand guard and returned with his partner to their patrol car for a change of shift.

D  E  F  L  E  ( x )  T  I  O  N

Morning Ssul. Gotta go, I have a case. Sorry! Text me if you’re hanging out with the 94-liner later. Love U

Sulli smiled at the short note stuck to the refrigerator and opened the door to make a breakfast for herself. With an egg in one hand and sticks of bacon in one, she went to the kitchen and readied the fry pan. She covered the surface of the non-stick pan with butter and cracked the egg onto the hot surface.

One sunny side-up.

Taking a plate, she swiftly transferred the egg and felt satisfied with herself when the egg yolk didn’t break. Next, she unwrapped the plastic cover from the bacon and put it on the pan, flinching away when the melted butter made a popping sound. If it had been oil, her hand would have been scalded and she cringed at the mere thought of it. She finished cooking her breakfast and heard her phone ringtone so she hurried to her room where she had left her phone, unaware that she had left the gas tap on.

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