“What do you mean ‘where is Mr. Jung?’” Namjoon demanded.

Taehyung gave the taller man a flat look. “If you listen to the words in the context of the situation then you can easily decode the question. However, if you need a dictionary to understand the sentence word for word then I can happily send you one if you give me your mailing address.” The detective deadpanned.

Namjoon glared at Taehyung. “Now listen here-“

“Cut it out, we don’t have time for this. We have to find Mr. Jung.” Seokjin interrupted.

“He was here when we got to the basement.” Jungkook said, trying to figure out when exactly they lost the weapons expert.

“Did he go back up?” Jimin asked.

Taehyung shook his head. “If he did, then we would’ve had to wait for the elevator to come back down.” He pointed out.

“So he’s still in the basement?” Yoongi said. “But why? Who’d want to be down here longer than they’d have to?”

“I have absolutely no clue.” Taehyung grinned as he stepped out of the elevator. “Lets go find some.”

The five men followed him out. “Or Mr. Jung.” Jungkook suggested.

Taehyung shrugged. “Or Mr. Jung. Whatever comes first.” He clicked on a flashlight once more. “Alright, you three take the west end of the basement.” He said, pointing to Yoongi, Namjoon and Seokjin. “And we’ll check the east end.” He gestured to Jimin, Jungkook and himself.

“Hold on.” Yoongi spoke up. “You said we should all stay together and now we’re suddenly you want us all to spilt up?” There was a mummer of agreement among the group.

Taehyung sighed. “I never said we shouldn’t split up, I said we shouldn’t let anyone out of our sights.” He clarified.

“Do you think this is a good idea?” Jimin questioned, nervously.

“If you’re worried about the killer suddenly murdering you, which, would be good for the investigation. We’d be able to mark it down to two people.” Taehyung replied. “But I doubt that’d happen. If they’re smart enough not to give themselves away thus far, then they’re smart enough not to give themselves away so easily just to kill you.” He tilted his head. “And I’d be rather disappointed.”

Yoongi stared at Taehyung in disbelief, before rubbing his temples as if he suddenly had a headache. “What kind of detective are you that you wish people to commit crimes and be difficult about being found out?”

“One with high standers that likes to be entertained. Now come on, Mr. Jung is around here somewhere and we’re wasting time.” Taehyung responded, turning on his heel and disappearing into the dark, Jimin and Jungkook close behind him.

“Wait! Detective Kim!” Seokjin called after him. “We don’t have a flashlight.” He sighed as Taehyung didn’t respond, as he was already gone.

The doctor turned to the two remaining men. “Do any of you happen to have a flashlight?” He asked.

Namjoon and Yoongi shook their heads.

“I suppose we’ll have to make do without.” Namjoon shrugged as he started towards the west end of the basement.

“Do you think he did it?” Yoongi asked, falling into step with the taller men.

Namjoon hummed as he thought, but then shook his head. “Honestly, no, but then, I wouldn’t really know.”

Yoongi raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You don’t? Why not?” he asked.

“Well, for one, where he was sitting doesn’t make sense for the time frame.” Namjoon answered.

“Maybe he’s fast, He was the first one to blame someone else after all.” Seokjin said as he squinted into the darkness.

“The General did say we all had a motive.” Yoongi added.

“But is it bad enough to make him murder General Yeo?” Namjoon asked.

“If it made him angry enough then maybe.” Seokjin cut his eyes to the two men next to him. “Speaking of motives, what exactly are yours?”

Yoongi stiffened. “Do you think that is necessary information for us to share?”

“I don’t see why not. If we don’t have anything to hide then I should be easy to answer.” Namjoon replied, casually. “I suppose if I were to kill the General, then it would probably be due to fact that he denied me promotions.”

Yoongi scoffed. “You too? That damn bastard wouldn’t promote me either.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Even when I was most qualified.”

The two men looked over at the doctor. “How about you then? What’s your motive?” Namjoon asked.

Seokjin was silent for a moment, the only noise was a quiet dripping from one of the pipes above them and the echoing of quiet footsteps across the basement floor.

“If I killed him, my motive would be because of the past feud we had.” Seokjin finally spoke, at the inquisitive looks, the doctor elaborated.

“The General was having issues with how I treated my patients. He wanted me to prescribe them pills and then mark them for active field duty so they could get back to their duties faster.” Seokjin shook his head. “I tried explaining the repercussions, that while they’d be able to return to the field, the pills aren’t doing anything other than removing the pain and suppressing the symptoms. Not to add that the patients would get addicted, leading to an increase in accidents and other health issues. When I explained this to the General, he said he didn’t want to hear it and if I didn’t follow his orders then he would have me discharged and replace me with someone who would.” Seokjin explained.

“Damn, I knew he was horrible, but I didn’t realize he would sink that low.” Yoongi said.

The conversation fell silent as they continued their search, however they couldn’t seem to find any trace of where the weapons expert had gone.

Across the basement, the three other men weren’t have much luck either.

“Are you sure it was a good idea to separate?” Jimin asked.

Taehyung sighed. “For the tenth time, Mr. Park. Yes. I’ve already explained my reasoning to you.” He said as he shined the flashlight in front of them.

“Detective Kim.” Jungkook suddenly spoke up. “I saw something a little bit ago, and it’s been bothering me.”

Taehyung raised an eyebrow. “And what would that be?”

“When you went to retrieve your flashlight from where you’d dropped it, you also picked up something else.” The youngest answered.

Jimin frowned. “He did? What?”

Jungkook shrugged. “I was hoping Detective Kim would be able to answer that.”

Taehyung reached into his pocket, his fingers closing around something. The two other men’s eyes followed the movement.

“It’s nothing really, hardly of any importance.” Taehyung answered.

“You thought it was important enough to pick it up.” Jungkook pointed out.

Taehyung removed an old gum wrapper out of his pocket and presented it to the men in his company. “I don’t like litter.” He said simply, putting the wrapper back in his pocket.

Jungkook frowned, sure that it wasn’t what Taehyung had picked up.  He too had seen the way it’d caught the light, but he didn’t say anything else, deciding instead to let the subject drop. As he was convinced that they would eventually find out what the Detective had stowed away in his pocket.

The group of three continued on in silence, looking for where Hoseok could be.

“It doesn’t look like he’s here.” Jimin said, only to be hushed by Taehyung.

“What-“ Jimin began only to be hushed once more.

“Do you hear that?” Taehyung asked, cocking his head to the side.

Jungkook and Jimin shared a confused look before turning their gazes back to the Detective.

“Hear what?” Jungkook asked.

“That noise. It’s almost like footsteps and it’s coming from..” Taehyung paused and then pointed to the left. “There!” He exclaimed, suddenly running towards the noise. Jungkook and Jimin stumbled after him, trying to keep up. When the Detective came to an abrupt stop, it caused the two men to ram into him, sending them all sprawling to the floor.

“Are you okay?” A voice above them asked. They looked up to see Hoseok standing over them and extending a hand. Jungkook and Jimin quickly stood while Taehyung accept the offered hand and rose to his feet.

“Ah, Mr. Jung, there you are.” The Detective grinned, the two men behind him narrowed their eyes in suspicion.

“Where were you?” Jungkook asked.

“In the basement.” Hoseok said slowly.

Jungkook sighed in annoyance. “Why didn’t you stay with us?”

Hoseok blinked. “Oh, well, I tried. But, I got sidetracked. I noticed something and went to check it out and when I looked back everyone was gone.”

Jungkook looked Hoseok over, obviously not satisfied with that answer, but before he could question the weapons expert further, Taehyung swung an arm around Hoseok’s shoulders and started walking. “Better rejoin the others.” The Detective stated.

“Wait.” Jungkook called out. “You’re fine with that answer?”

Taehyung shrugged. “I simply think we should rejoin the group before we press Mr. Jung to explain more.”

Jungkook was unable to respond so he shared a confused looked with Jimin and followed after the older men.

“How do you expect to find the others?” Jimin asked.

“Like this.” Taehyung responded as he began to shout the rest of the group’s names. Needless to say, they regrouped fairly quickly.

“So, now that we’re all together. Please, tell us what caused you to separate from us.” The Detective said.

“Right, well, I noticed something on the way and I stopped to check it, by the time I went to rejoin everyone, you were all gone.” Hoseok explained.

Yoongi narrowed his eyes. “What’d you see?”

“Excuse me?” Hoseok raised an eyebrow.

“You said you went to go check something. What was it?” Yoongi prompted.

Hoseok reached into his pocket and produced a pair of wire cutters. The men peered at the object.

“But there was no wires cut in the box were there?” Namjoon asked, looking at Taehyung who shook his head.

“The deviced used required no cut wires.” Taehyung affirmed. “Which begs the question, where they used for?”

“Couldn’t they just have been left here by one of the handy men?” Seokjin questioned.

No one knew how to answer that, and they all stared at the object in Hoseok’s hand, trying to piece together the mystery in front of them. After a tense minute, Jungkook stepped forward, taking the cutters from the weapons expert.

“Whether or not they were used by the culprit doesn’t matter. If its at the crime scene then it must be bagged as evidence.” Jungkook declared as Namjoon took the cutters from him and inspected them.

“Wait.” Jimin said. “We could’ve dusted for prints.”  Watching Namjoon pass the wire cutters to Taehyung, who slipped them into his pocket.

“Couldn’t we still?” Yoongi asked, frowning.

Jimin shook his head. “No, now that everyone got their fingerprints all over it, every match would be false.”

“Would it?” Hoseok said. “There is bound to be someone’s fingerprints on it and since everyone saw Mr. Kim, Mr. Jeon, Detective Kim and I touch the cutters then who ever else’s is there must the culprit.”

The men looked at each other, thinking over the suggestion before nodding in agreement.

“How is it done?” Seokjin asked.

“I’m afraid I don’t have my kit with me. But, fine powder, a brush and tape will work in a pinch.” Jimin informed them. “I’m sure we can find those around here somewhere.”

Jungkook furrowed his brow in confusion. “Even if we manage to lift a print from the wire cutters, how will we be able to identify it?”

Taehyung grinned and pulled his magnifying glass from his pocket. Twirling it around in his hand. “Don’t worry about that. I’m rather good at identification.”

With that, the seven men walked back to the elevator and climbed inside. Once Taehyung put away his flashlight and magnifying glass, he spoke again. “Since we’re going to have to look for the supplies, we should continue on with our original plan to check the rooms, see if we can gather more clues.”

“Is that necessary?” Jimin asked as the elevator jerked to a stop and the doors slide open with a ding. “After all, we have the fingerprints.”

Hoseok raised an eyebrow and regarded jimin suspiciously. “Why? Do you have something to hide?”

Jimin glared at the taller man. “Are you implying that I’m the murderer?”

Hoseok shrugged as they exited the elevator and headed down the hall towards Jimin’s hotel room. “If the shoe fits.”

“It doesn’t.” Jimin snapped, unlocking the door harshly.

“We’ll see, won’t we.” The weapons expert retorted as Taehyung pushed open the door and they all stepped inside.