Donghae knocked on the side of the door and greeted, “Good morning professor.”

Im Jee Su immediately looked up from her papers and smiled which deepened the lines around . She was obviously passed her 30’s.

“Good morning. You must be the investigator who called yesterday. Please take a seat.”

Donghae nodded and sat down in the chair before the desk, “I apologize if I bothered you in any way.”

“It’s no problem, really. You have some questions to ask me?”

Donghae nodded again and interlocked his hands resting them on his left knee, “You work in the psychology department so I assume you know of Victoria Song?”

Im Jee Su nodded, “Yes, I know her. She’s a very smart young lady.”

“Are you two close in any way?”

“Um…well we weren’t close enough to share our personal lives with each other but we’ve gone out for a few drinks together.”

“I see. Two days ago was there any party of some kind?”

“A party?”

“Yes, a celebratory party to congratulate her of some sort.”

“There was no such party. I was at home with my grandchildren two days ago.”

“I see. Miss Song told me that she’d been transferred to another job, do you know of it?”

“I’ve heard that there’s a new professor, but I don’t know. She’s been awfully distressed lately, but I haven’t seen her ever since summer break started, so I’m not quite sure.”

“Ok, thanks a lot. Before I leave I want to ask if you know Song Philip?”

He watched as the woman frowned then nodded, “I’ve seen him around with Victoria a few times. They seem like very good friends.”

“Do you know if he’s possibly here today?” Donghae asked.

“Oh, he’s out of the country right now currently working on a project. I’m not quite sure when he’ll be back.”

“Thanks anyway. Have a good day professor.”

“You too.”

Donghae smiled, “I will.” then he walked out of the office then slowly made his way down the long extending hallway. As he passed the elevator he noticed one open door amongst all the other closed ones and peeked inside because of curiosity. A middle aged man was moving inside organizing folders and books on the shelves and Donghae assumed he was the new professor. He continued until he arrived at the stairs when his phone started ringing.

“Where are you?” his chief’s out of breath voice questioned before he could even greet the person calling.

“I’m at the tech college.”

“You should hurry back. The autopsy results just came in and it doesn’t look good.”

“I’m on my way.”

When Donghae arrived at the office he found Chief Kang pacing back and forth worriedly in front of his long oak desk. His face was scrunched up as if he were in some trouble.

“Chief?” Donghae called.

The chief turned around surprised then asked, “Why are you only here now!”

“I was out attending to some business…” Donghae went on before the chief cut him off.

“Never mind that come over here.”

Donghae walked toward the desk and watched the chief pick up a piece of paper, “What’s this?”

“The autopsy report,” the chief replied, “the only important information from that whole report is that the angle in which the bullet was lodged into his head tells us it’s not a suicide attempt.”

“Someone shot him?” Donghae asked.

“He was murdered. Il Chung and Sandy were murdered.”

Donghae stared back at his chief feeling his heart quiver for a moment.

“Any guess who did it?” Donghae asked.

“I was going to ask you.”

Donghae remained silent and stared at the ground running through his memory. Nothing came to him except for Victoria who’d lied about the congratulatory party two days ago. Could it be her? But they had been friends hadn’t they? Was it possible? Well, she was the only suspicious person at the moment.

“I think there is,” Donghae replied, “Victoria Song, the woman who discovered their bodies that morning.”

“Ok, tell me what you have.”

“She seemed reluctant to tell me where she had been two days ago, but she told me she was at a party and had spent the night with a friend. I checked in on two professors at the tech college she worked with and one of them clearly stated there wasn’t any party two days ago. What do you think?”

“It’s worth checking her out. Do that while I go to the morgue and let Sasha know we’ll be at the funeral this weekend.”

/////

Victoria shot up in bed with beads of sweat forming on her forehead. She’d dreamt about waking up in a casket buried underground. Wiping her forehead she finally got up and unlocked the bedroom door. She glanced around the room and really wished she could get out of Incheon as soon as possible.