Chapter Nine
Angel Vessel
I groaned when my alarm rang. I opened my eyes slowly and saw that I was in my bed. "Did he bring me in here?" I mumbled to myself as I got up to wash up. After brushing my teeth I went into the living room and froze. Woohyun was asleep on the couch. "Yah!" I went over to him to shake him awake.
But as I was shaking him, I noticed how dirty he was. His hair was messier than usual and there was even a leaf in it. His face was streaked with dirt. And so was his skin in a few places. He groaned softly. Then his eyes fluttered open. "Minji?" He said sleepily. "How could you sleep at my house?" I asked quietly. "I don't know. I just wanted to rest." He sighed and sat up. "Why are you so filthy?" I asked. "Searching…woman." He said rubbing his eyes. I blinked at him. "So did you find the rest of her body?" I asked. "Mhmm."
"Tell me where to find them." I said brightening up.
"No. You need someone else to find them. How are you going to explain that you know where her body parts are to anyone else?" he asked. "They'll be reported today. I promise." I sighed understanding his point and nodded.
"What did you do? Climb through a forest or something?" I asked as I picked the leaf out of his hair. "Mhmm." He nodded. I sighed. "Go shower. I'll get you a towel. I have some men's clothes lying around. I'll throw your clothes into the washer." I said.
I shoved a towel into his hands and ushered him into the bathroom with an old black v-neck and sweatpants that an used to belong to one of my exes.
He came out toweling his hair and smelling my passionfruit shampoo. "You don't have to wash the clothes. I'll head back to my apartment." He grabbed a plastic bag from the kitchen and stuffed his clothes into it. "You're leaving?" I asked. Now that I knew he had made good on his promise to me, I felt bad for chasing him out.
"Yeah. You should get to work too." He said cocking his head towards the clock.
I turned to check the clock on my wall and gasped. ", , . I'm late." I grabbed my blazer and bag. He laughed softly as I pushed him out of my apartment and ran to get my car.
After parking my car, I ran towards the police station. But suddenly the front door opened as I tried to go in. "Ah!" I fell backwards towards the stairs and closed my eyes waiting for the impact, but it never came. "Are you okay miss?" Someone asked. I opened my eyes and blinked. The man had grabbed my arm to steady me. He smiled. "Yeah I'm fine." I straightened. "You shouldn't run. You might run into trouble." He said. "Ah…yeah. I'll be more careful." I said softly. It was a light hearted warning but something about it made me uneasy. I gently tugged my arm out of his grasp. "I haven't seen you here before." I observed.
He fixed the square frames on his face. "I'm a new transfer." He smiled. "Oh a transfer to which department?" I asked. He was about to reply when someone shouted. "Minji!" I turned around to see Myungsoo yelling out his car window. He had just pulled in front of the station. "I just took care of two recoveries. We just got another call. We gotta move out." he said. "Coming!" I called and ran back down the steps. I turned around to say bye to the man but he was already gone. "Who were you talking to ?" Myungsoo asked as I got into his car. "I don't know." I shrugged.
"Did you sleep well last night?" Myungsoo asked. "Yeah. But I shouldn't have. We still have nothing on these two cases." I sighed. "Well I think this will be the last dismembered limb. Then we can gather whatever forensics has to give us and work on leads." Myungsoo said. I checked my phone. "Kim Hana's parents will also be landing at Incheon today. We need to talk to them too."
"We'll get this guy." Myungsoo said and I just looked out the window as I nodded. In my heart, I hoped that we would. But if this guy used to be an angel then he would have powers like Woohyun too. I had realized only now, how comfortable I had been around him. In reality, I had only met him a few days ago. He said he was was my guardian angel, but I didn't know a thing about him.
"Minji?" Myungsoo called me. "Minji?"
I turned to him. "Huh?"
"We're here." He said. "You okay?"
"Yeah…" And I got out of the car. We were on one of the hiking trails on the side of Namsan. Since it was autumn, the foliage had become a beautiful mix of red and yellow. But, no matter how nice the weather was or how beautiful the scenery was, it couldn't hide the dark atmosphere. I was glad that we were going to finally be able to give the woman the peace of finding her body. Now, I just wanted to give her the peace of finding her cold blooded murderer.
Mr. Cho and the forensics were already here. We had walked for about fifteen minutes up the trail before we saw them by a small stream. "What do we have?" I asked. "Its her missing leg. It was discovered by hikers this morning." Woohyun wasn't lying about the forest.
"Where are the hikers?" I asked. "Over there." The uniform pointed out. Myungsoo and I walked over to them. The crunch of the leaves beneath our feet announced our arrival. The couple looked up as we neared them. The uniform that was with them gave us a small and nod and left.
"Hi, my name is Park Minji and this is my partner Kim Myungsoo. We just have a few questions to ask you. Is that alright?"
The woman nodded. "How did you come across the scene?" I asked.
"Well my husband and I usually hike this route every saturday. Theres this little stream we like to swing by, but when we came closer we smelled something rotten. We had thought it was a dead animal. I didn't want to keep going, but my husband insisted and we saw the leg in the water."
"Did you see anything or anyone suspicious?" Myungsoo asked. "No." The man replied. "It was just us. It usually is since it is so early in the morning. I'm sorry we can't be of much help."
"No, you two already did your citizen's duty." I gave them a small reassuring smile. "If we need anything else from you, we will contact you. You may go now." Myungsoo bowed slightly. Mr. Cho was taking off his gloves as he walked over to us. "I'm going to get back to the lab. You guys do your thing. It'll be a few hours before the report will be out." He said and I nodded. "Let's go see Kim Hana's parents." As we headed back to the car I lit a cigarette. "Minji." Myungsoo gave me a dirty look. I took a drag and shook my head at him. "I have a feeling I'm going to need this for what we have to deal with next." I told him.
I was usually good with dealing with most situations. But, I couldn't deal with people crying. I had found crying useless a long time ago, but I understood that I should still show sympathy towards others.
I didn't know what to say for words of comfort, I just looked to Myungsoo for help as Kim Hana's mother kept sobbing. She had started to cry the moment we said we were here to talk about her daughter. "Honey. Do you want to go upstairs to rest? Our flight was a long one." Mr.Kim said putting a comforting arm around her. "No! I need to be here! She was so young. Poor Hana." She sobbed and he sighed looking exhausted. "What would you guys like to know." He turned to us. "I know that you two are usually abroad, but would there be any way to know about Hana's daily life?" I asked.
"Get Marie!" He turned his head and shouted at his butler. The butler nodded and soon a middle aged women in a maid outfit came out of the kitchen. "Sir. Madam." She bowed at her bosses.
"This is Marie. She has taken care of Hana since she was little. Maria would have the most information for you. Marie, help these detectives." He said patting his wife's back softly as her sobbing quieted. He then stood up with his wife and helped her upstairs. The house was grand and the decor was light and elegant. But, there was a choking heaviness in the air. The mood was somber.
We then moved to the dining room to sit with Marie. "My name is Park Minji and this is my partner Kim Myungsoo. We just wanted to ask you a few questions about Kim Hana." I said. Her expression saddened. "Miss was such a nice young lady. I can't believe someone could do something so terrible to her."
"We want to find her killer too." Myungsoo said. "Can you tell us if Kim Hana had any out of the ordinary behavior before the day she went out." He asked.
"I don't think so…" She started. "Ah! Miss became really secretive about two weeks ago." She finally said.
"Why? Do you know?" I asked. "Well, I remember I was returning her laundry a week ago and she was on the phone. She never yelled at me before. But when I walked in, she snapped at me and told me to get out. She would talk on the phone with the man everyday." She said.
"How do you know it was man?" Myungsoo asked. "Because miss would lower her voice and giggle. She's only ever did that when she had a boyfriend. But this one was different. Her boyfriend never came over." She sighed. "Call the phone company. We need her phone records." I turned to Myungsoo. "Got it." And he got up to make the call. Many times crimes were done by people close to the victim. That was why the spouses or lovers were one of the first people to investigate.
"That was a very valuable piece of information. Thank you Marie." I said patting her clasped hands. "Please catch the guy who did this. Please find justice for Hana." The maid's eyes welled with tears. "I promise." I nodded.
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