After looking around the crime scene again and making sure they didn’t miss anything else, Leeteuk suggested he and Donghae went back home to sleep a bit before coming back the next day and continue working. Eunhyuk agreed, they were too tired to do anything more today, and anyway it was too dark.

“You want a lift?” Eunhyuk offered Donghae.

“Actually…”

The brunet seemed embarrassed to ask something.

“Spit it out!”

“I don’t wanna intrude but would you mind if I stayed with you tonight?”

Eunhyuk was surprised by the request, but he also understood that it had something to do with Donghae not wanting to see his brother. Well it wasn’t as if it bothered him… he had a big couch.

“Hop in.”

With a happy and relieved smile, Donghae got in the car and they went back to Eunhyuk’s apartment. He lent a pajama to the brunet and bid him goodnight after making sure he was comfortable on his couch. Finally in his bed it wasn’t long before he fell asleep. But his sleep was anything but peaceful…

He was back at that apartment in which his sister had just moved, preparing for her child soon to be born. He could hear Sora laughing and humming old songs while cooking him and Siwon weird shaped cakes, but that were absolutely delicious. He could see her smile… But then her face changed and instead of the bright beautiful woman he knew, a distorted image of her appeared. White like snow, cold as ice, twisted in pain and in a silent scream, while her eyes pleaded… pleaded to be saved. Then Eunhyuk heard him.

Plic. Plic. Plic.

Eunhyuk didn’t see it but he knew that sound was from the blood dripping on the carpet... Again:

Plic. Plic. Plic.

One more step behind him. It could only be him. Eunhyuk wanted to turn around, to see the killer’s face, but he just froze and was incapable to move. Then he felt a hot breath in his neck and whisper in his ear.

“I did it for you…”

Waking up with a jerk, it took a moment for Eunhyuk to realize that he was in his bed back at his apartment. A cold sweat running down his spine, the man tried hard to dissipate the bad feeling of this dream that was so vivid. But this dream… it was more like a memory that was trying to resurface, after all he had seen the killer’s face, he just was incapable of remembering it.

Knowing very well that he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, the detective got up and went to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. Passing by the living room, he saw Donghae peacefully sleeping, his mouth slightly opened and his breath steady. Eunhyuk took a moment to observe the brunet, and couldn’t help but smile. This guy was a mystery to him, and he really didn’t understand why he trusted him so much when he didn’t even know him. Then he surprised himself in wishing the brunet would take him in his arms and reassure him from the nightmares that were hunting him. What the hell was happening to him?! Whatever it was he wasn’t sure he wanted to figure it out just yet… he had too much to deal with already.

***

After sleeping less than 2 hours, Eunhyuk was soon back at the precinct. Without any detours he went straight to the NP and strangely the place was empty of geeks. The detective couldn’t help but let out a sigh. He really didn’t want to see Leeteuk or even Kyuhyun.  So he went to Yesung’s lab and was about to knock, when he heard voices inside, and decided to listen in.

“We can’t keep doing it hyung…” They will start asking questions.”

Eunhyuk was surprised to recognize Ryeowook’s voice and he imagined he was talking to Yesung.

“Don’t worry, they are not even looking into it.”

“Until they do! Seriously hyung, it’s the last time I cover up for you.”

Before he could hide, the door opened and Ryeowook came face to face with Eunhyuk. His eyes widened and he looked absolutely terrified that he had been heard; it was really the first time the detective saw such strong emotion on Ryeowook’s face,

“Hey Wook, I didn’t see you last night…”

“Yeah… I was taking care of some personal stuffs…” the young man said, his neutral face back.

Eunhyuk was going to ask him what those “personal stuffs” were but Yesung interrupted them.

“Oh Hyuk, good thing you’re here, I found something. Come on in.”

With no other choice, the detective went into the lab while Ryeowook quickly ran away. Donghae was right; those two were definitely hiding something. Yesung’s lab was large with two chirurgical tables at the center of the room, two desks against the wall in the right just when you entered and at the back of the room a wall full of huge iron drawers, where he conserved the bodies, before sending them to the local morgue.

Yesung made him come to the center of the room where the two bodies, they found the night before, were.

“Hae is not with you?” he asked. “Shouldn’t we wait for him?”

“I didn’t call him yet, I wanted to let him sleep in a little bit more.”

“How thoughtful of you…” the red haired man smirked.

Eunhyuk frowned, wondering if he was seen as a cold hearted jerk and that the smallest kind thing he would do would come as a surprise… or maybe it was something else.

“So, Zhoumi and I, we ran the tests and indeed the nails you received a few weeks ago are Petunia’s.”

“Did you nicknamed the victim?” Eunhyuk’s eyes widened.

“What?! I thought it suited her! Anyway it’s hers and they were apparently teared off post mortem.”

“So she is one of the Checkmate killer’s victims?”

“Not quite…”

Yesung went to the woman’s body and showed her wrists.

“She has the exact same wounds as Joe here, and the cause of death is the same, a bullet in the brain. Even if the victim type is the Checkmate killer’s the MO is not the same. My theory is that the both of them worked for a mob and that it turned out badly for them…”

Eunhyuk kept staring at Yesung and then let out.

“Couldn’t you come up with something better than Joe?!”

“Is that the only thing you remembered?!”

The red haired man pouted, and Eunhyuk couldn’t help but smile. He knew that it was absolutely not the time to joke around and that there was a bog possibility of Yesung being involved in the killer’s case but he somehow just needed to find again some normality in his relationships, and that was the eccentricities of his friends and colleagues.

“Anyhow, I was able to clean Joe’s tattoo and have cleared the image of it. I sent it to Kyu, you should go see him.”

“Where is he by the way? Actually, where is everyone?” It’s almost 11am…”

Yesung didn’t answer and just shrugged. Eunhyuk left the lab and decided it was maybe time to call Donghae in. He was going back to his desk to see the other’s phone number when he saw Sungmin talking with Kyuhyun in a corner of t