Chapter 12. Something’s fishy

Donghae was anxious. In the end, Kyuhyun had decided that he should go alone with Hyukjae so that the other two could focus on finding out more about just what did the club lady do in those two days and that meant he was supposed to do a really good job otherwise he would not have whom to blame the failure on to. Hyukjae seemed really relaxed, as if he was an ace at interrogating people and for a few seconds Donghae even forgot that the black haired was a police officer. The brown haired was nervous, constantly rubbing his hands together, going through all the information in his mind.

“It will be alright.” Hyukjae reassured Donghae. “I have the badge and that’s enough to get us the pass.”

“What if I ask something stupid?” Donghae questioned.

“I’ll save you.” Hyukjae grinned.

Donghae watched, slightly amazed, as Hyukjae showed his badge, since he still kept it, noticing how easily people smiled and were quick to give them information and everything else needed. They found the lady in question easily and seeing how natural she behaved and how easily she could recall the same things she had said in her testimony, it was hard for the brown haired to think there was anything weird about it.

“Do you recall her mentioning anything that was strange for her? Someone that probably made a pass on her on something?” Donghae tried, hoping that maybe they could get a hint about the man.

If the dude was really killing for his sick ual relieve, then maybe he had the habit of hitting on women. Maybe he tried establishing some sort of conversation and if it didn’t work out or he thought he had some sick type of connection... maybe that’s how he picked women. He found it hard to believe that a man with proper skills to communicate and flirt with a woman would need to go to this extent.

“Not really....” the lady thought about it for a bit. “The dude at the doll store told her something weird though.” She whispered this part, slightly tilting her head to point to the shop.

“What did he say?” Hyukjae frowned, moving to get a visual on the place.

“That she is as pretty as a doll.” The lady answered.

“And why is that weird?” Donghae frowned now, wondering when did that became a creepy thing to say.

“Have you seen the dolls?”

After they finished their conversation with the lady, they pretended to go for a walk. If the guy at the doll shop had something to do with the killings, they couldn’t flash Hyukjae’s badge. He had no official way of explaining what he was doing there and if the guy started running, it was going to turn messy. They had only one option and that was to pretty they are admiring the dolls. With that intent, they approached the shop and looked at the displays. Donghae took a picture, wrongly impressed by what he was seeing. The dolls were pretty realistic, even the wig used for them looking good but there was something about those empty eyes and lack of smile combined to the rather pale skin that rubbed Donghae the wrong way.

“Want me to order a doll for you?” Hyukjae grinned, remembering how Donghae had freaked out because of his nightmare.

“I’m fine. Do you think they use real life people to make these?” Donghae leaned even closer to the display, finding the details too exact for his taste.

“That is a possibility.” A male’s vice was heard from behind them. “We can design a doll based on someone, to give as a memory.”

The male seemed to be in his late 30s and he was pretty neatly dressed and without looking as if he was ready to lift skirts at any given moment. He actually looked like just some ordinary dude working in a mall. They got invited inside the shop and although Donghae was not happy with it, he followed as well.

“We do our best to stay on point as much as we can. The dolls also have flexible legs and hands if required.” The man introduced.

“Is there any restriction to making them?” Hyukjae questioned, making Donghae flinch in fear that the other might make him one.

“We do reserve our right to choose our clients. We try to express unflawed beauty and therefore we have some requirements.” The man agreed.

“Such as?” Donghae asked, slightly ticked off by the ‘unflawed beauty’ mention.

“The hairstyle must be clean. Features must be pertinent to our culture. No bright hair colors or tattoos. The optimal height so that the dolls would look at their best is between 165 and 175 cm.” the man spoke again.

“That rules out Heechul hyung.” Hyukjae joked.

“Ah, yes. My apologize. We only provide them for woman.” The store clerk quickly added.

“Why just women?” Donghae frowned again.

“I prefer exposing the beauty of a woman. Once a woman blossoms, she is at the peak of her beauty.” The man replied. “Or to be more precise... we think they should be confident in their looks so I target them.”

“You make the dolls?” Hyukjae looked surprised.

“Yes.”

Donghae was in a really bad mood even as they left the mall altogether. He had not liked that dude one bit. Now he perfectly understood why the lady thought he had said something weird to her. He was a ist, gross human being that liked to pick out beautiful woman and then turn them into dolls. He was pretty sure the douche kept a copy of a doll for himself. Returning to the house, Hyukjae was surprised to see that the two other men were looking rather dashing for their supposed meeting at the club. There was no chance for them to take to the delivery guy that night and it looked like the two playboys took their time to look their best.

“What’s wrong with Donghae?” Kyuhyun questioned, noticing how upset the other looked.

“He got freaked out by some dolls.” Hyukjae chuckled.

“Aww... did they try to get you?” Heechul joked.

“The dude pissed me off. A ist creature. He looks for unflawed beauty. He targets women with unflawed beauty. Between 165 and 175cm tall, clean hairstyle, no tattoos.” Donghae mimicked the dude, mocking him in the process.

Moon had been rather amused until Donghae mentioned the last sentence. There was something off about it but she wasn’t sure what it was just yet. Tapping her fingers against the keyboard, she thought for a few seconds about it and decided to take the time later on to find out what was about it that she did not like.

“And the dolls are creepy. I can show you.” Donghae rushed to send the pictures from his phone to all of them.

The pictures got displayed on the screen and once again Moon felt something was off with them. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it until she saw another photo of the inside of the shop, in a corner. She zoomed on that side even though no one told her and then used her own program to magnify the spot and get a clear look. Maybe Donghae was right about something after all.

“Call him crazy...maybe... call me crazy... but doesn’t that doll seem familiar?” she asked, her head tilted to the side, her eyebrows furrowed as her eyes narrowed to get an even better look.

“Maybe....” Siwon spoke this time. “Maybe not.” He shrugged next.

The two did not have the time to deal with the doll phobia because they had to go to a club and check the territory in order to find the appropriate moment to talk to her. They had no badge and they couldn’t straightforwardly ask about the killing so it was going to take some time to reach the subject they wanted. Leaving the house, they both patted Donghae on the shoulder and then laughed a bit as they left.

“Right?” Donghae moved towards Moon. “It’s creepy, right?” he asked, needing some help.

“I don’t think he is that wrong.” Moon turned towards Kyuhyun.

“What do you mean?”

“Call us crazy, but don’t they look similar?” she put on another photo.

Pulling up on the screen a photo of a victim, she arranged them side by side. Same brown long straight hair, black eyes, nice features. The resemblance was there but they couldn’t take it as something alarming. Plastic surgery was something that happened almost on a daily basis and many people looked very much alike. Even more so, many woman had brown long hair and black eyes. Unless they found a whole aisle of dolls that looked like the victims, they didn’t have anything. Both Kyuhyun and Hyukjae explained that to the other two because it wasn’t enough to even be suspicious.

Moon was not convinced. Donghae had almost given up trying to make his point because it was getting obvious they were thinking that he just had a phobia about it and that was why he was freaking out. But there was something there and it was bugging Moon and she had to figure out what it was. She moved closer to the desk and then began checking something out pretty sure that there was something there and that she needed to check out everything she could to find it. It was close to 2 o’clock in the morning when the other two men returned. Hyukjae had gone to the bathroom in order to wash and Donghae was still sulking while Kyuhyun was going through a passive mental breakdown because so far they had absolutely nothing. The two clubbers didn’t seem to be all that happy either.

“She said she took a secret trip with her boyfriend and lied to her parents about it. By boat and her married boyfriend paid.” Heechul huffed, extremely upset. “She did lie.” He then turned smug. “I was right. HA”

“She gave us the name. It should check out if he ordered things for two during those days.” Siwon added, passing Moon a note.

“Isn’t there a punishment for lying to the police?” Heechul slapped his hands on the desk right in front of Kyuhyun. “Because of people like her others get away with murder!” he exclaimed, o