Jiyong listened to the message with a frown on his face. “You got this yesterday? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were out and then I had some errands…who is it from?” Haruki demanded.

“I can’t tell you,” he replied. “I’m sorry, but I have no idea. The number is blocked.”

“Can’t you unblock it?” she snapped, casting an anxious glance at their colleagues going about their own business.

The hacker looked troubled as he passed the phone back to her, shaking his head. “I can try to trace the call, but whoever did it probably used a disposable phone. All I can suggest is that you get a new phone and a new number-”

“Please.” Haruki pushed the phone back towards him. “Jiyong, please. I need to know who it is.”

The blond frowned as he traced a finger along his eyebrow thoughtfully. “Does this have something to do with the dead girls you asked me to look up a couple weeks ago?”

“I don’t know what to take this as,” she murmured. “A threat from the killer, warning me to stay away?”

“Do you know if Donghae got the same message?” asked Jiyong.

Haruki shook her head. “No, he didn’t.”

"Ironic that a police officer should have a stalker,” Jiyong murmured. “Fine. I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t promise anything. If the guy was smart enough to get away with murder, he wouldn’t leave such an obvious trace. You need to hurry up and get a new phone. And when you do, give it to me. I’ll see what I can do to keep creeps from calling you again.”

The detective smiled. “Thanks, Jiyong.”

“Hey, Haruki.” Sungmin came up to them and nodded at the hacker. “And Jiyong.” He turned back to his friend with a grin. “Ready to go? Better to get it over with now then later.”

“Where are you going?” asked Jiyong.

“I have to pay Heechul a little visit,” Haruki replied. The hacker winced sympathetically.

“You know you’re going to have to go in there eventually,” Sungmin coaxed.

Haruki planted herself firmly in her seat. “I know. I’m just waiting for the right moment.”

The other detective laughed as he gave her an incredulous look. “‘Right moment’? Haruki, you’re asking for a report, not proposing.”

She blushed and flung the car door open, fumbling with her seatbelt. “Lee Sungmin…” she began, before pausing.

“Hm?”

“Just shut up.”

She could hear him laughing even after she slammed the door shut and walked up the front steps of Heechul’s house. The house wore its owner’s personality; the curtains peering through the half-open windows were mismatched and flamboyantly colored. One side was painted a different color from the others, as if the owner had suddenly decided that he didn’t like blue anymore and preferred bright purple.

She took a deep breath and knocked cautiously on the ex-police officer’s door. “Heechul?” she called. “Are…are you there?”

There was no answer, but she could hear the sound of something being violently tossed around inside. She carefully turned the doorknob and stepped inside.

“Die!”

The detective shrieked involuntarily and ducked to the side as a boot came flying at her head.

“Oops. Missed,” Heechul deadpanned. “There’s a fly in here. I was trying to kill it. Toss my shoe back, will you?”

“Ever heard of flyswatters?” Haruki muttered as she threw the boot back to him.

“Hey, you’re here asking me for a favor, so I wouldn’t get cheeky,” Heechul warned.

“Right.” The detective frowned slightly, wondering how Siwon had ever gotten along with Heechul in the first place. Then again, Siwon got along with everyone…

She shook her head to bring herself back to the task at hand. “So…the bullet analysis? Did you get anything?”

"Yeah, I got something,” Heechul replied.

Haruki waited for him to elaborate. When he didn’t, she sighed and crossed her arms. “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Heechul!”

“Hey, hey! Show some respect to your elders!”

Haruki gritted her teeth as her hands balled into fists. “An FBI agent was murdered in our department and whoever did it is running around killing innocent young girls.”

“So what?” retorted Heechul. “I’m out of this line of work, okay? I don’t even know why you brought me back into the case. That new kid, what’s his name? Right. Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun’s capable of this kind of thing.”

"Because you’re the best when it comes to firearms,” Haruki replied. She was practically pleading now. Cooperating with Heechul had always been difficult due to the man’s self-centered personality. No one, not even Chief Park, could get him to work when he didn’t want to.

That was before the accident that crushed his leg and forced him into retirement. Although the fracture had eventually healed, the pain had never gone away, which only added to his irritation. Now, every single conversation with him resulted in migraines, blood, and (occasionally) tears.

Heechul clapped his hands. “That, I am. Let me show you what I found.”

When the man’s back was turned, Haruki just shook her head. She really didn’t understand him.

He led her to the back of his house, where a model of his laboratory was set up. He’d taken a lot of his equipment with him when he left, much to the objections of Chief Park and the other members of the lab, but Heechul always got his way. Haruki could still remember Yoona complaining about the costs of replacing all the missing equipment.

Gesturing to a microscope in the back, he said, “Go ahead. Take a look.”

Squinting through the eyepiece, Haruki peered down at the two bullets, noting the scratches etched on the surfaces. Straightening, she shrugged. “So?”

Heechul rolled his eyes. “Ugh, you field people. Just don’t understand the beauty of our work. Look.”

He strolled over to a computer and switched it on. After typing rapidly, an enlarged image of the two bullets appeared, followed by a series of complicated figures that Haruki didn’t understand.

“Every gun has a unique fingerprint,” he said softly as he stared admiringly at the images. “Every bullet it fires carries those unique marks with it. Whenever a gun is purchased, those images are entered into the database so that it can be tracked.”

“Are there ways of avoiding that?” Haruki asked.

“There are, but we don’t have to worry about that here,” Heechul replied. “Because I found a match.” Reaching into his printer, he pulled out a report and handed it to her.

Haruki’s eyes widened when she read the name of the gun’s owner. “Choi Siwon?” she gasped. “That gun is Siwon’s?”

“Correction. That gun was Siwon’s,” Heechul replied. “He turned it in last year and got a new one. Something was funny about the trigger.”

“So who has it now?” Haruki asked.

Heechul shrugged. “No idea. I-” He stopped talking as he narrowed his eyes at something over her shoulder. “Get the hell out of here, you stupid insect!”

Haruki made her escape as he began hurling his boot around the house again.

“Well, anyway, thanks for the ride.” Haruki smiled at Sungmin as he held open the door to the police station for her.

“It was no big deal,” he replied. “Any time-”

“Ah! Sungmin! That’s where you’ve been!” Sungmin’s partner, Kim Ryeowook, rushed up and dragged him off by the sleeve as soon as they returned to the office. “Sorry, Haruki!” he called as he hauled the other man away.

Haruki smiled slightly and shook her head, but her grin dropped as she looked down at the report in her hands. Who should she give it to? Chief Park? Shindong?

“Hey, how was your visit to Heechul?”

“Siwon…” Haruki was aware that her voice was slightly shaky. “Just the man I was looking for.”

“Why? You need to ask me something?” He raised an eyebrow at her and she nodded dumbly. “Well, shoot.”

Under other circumstances, she might have laughed at his choice of words. Instead, she held up Heechul’s report and said hesitantly, “Heechul…he analyzed the bullets…the bullets that were used to kill Ok Taecyeon…the FBI agent.”

“Oh, he did?” Siwon’s eyebrows shot up. “Did he find anything?”

"Yeah.” felt dry.

“And? What did he find?” Haruki swallowed hard, refusing to meet Siwon’s confused eyes. “Haru-”

“It’s yours, Siwon,” she blurted out. “The gun…it’s your old gun. The one you turned in because the trigger was messed up.”

She watched as Siwon’s face morphed from disbelief to anger. Without a word, he brushed past her and stomped off.

“What was that about?” Taeyeon asked as she came up with a stack of papers in her hand.

“I…I don’t know,” Haruki replied. “I’ll see you at lunch-”

“Oh wait! You never got back to me about Chief Park’s-” here, Taeyeon lowered her voice “-surprise birthday party. It’s next week and I know you’ve been busy, but the entire department is going to be there, and you know how old he is. I mean-”

Haruki had been slowly shaking her head until something Taeyeon’s said caught her attention. “The entire department?” she repeated, interrupting the other woman’s ramble. “Are you sure?”

Taeyeon’s eyes lit up, taking this as a good sign, and she nodded eagerly. “Yes. Everyone is coming. All the detectives, the people in the forensics labs, Shindong, Sooyoung-”

“I’ll be there.”

Taeyeon hopped up and down, clapping her hands and making a small check on the top sheet. “Yay! You’re the last person to RSVP. So it’s next Friday, six o’clock, at the Disco Drive. You know where that is, right? I can get you directions or-”

“I’ll find it,” Haruki replied. “Do you, uh, need help with anything?”

“Nope, Yuri, Yoona, and I have almost everything covered. Oh, well, if you could chip in five bucks for the present and sign the card, that’ll be it,” Taeyeon replied.

  Haruki immediately dug into her pocket for a five dollar bill and handed it to Taeyeon, who beamed even more brightly. “Great! Friday, six o’clock, Disco Drive. Don’t forget.”

“Friday, six o’clock, Disco Drive,” Haruki repeated. She would show up even if it killed her. After all, few occasions could bring the whole department together.

Maybe a birthday party wasn’t the best time to talk about a murder, but it was as good an opportunity as any for questioning.

“Thank you for your time,” Donghae said as he nodded politely and left the house, the door closing behind him. He sighed, rubbing the back of his head. He’d asked every family on the block if they’d seen a man with a girl that matched Krystal’s description entering the warehouse at some point in the past few weeks. No one had an answer.

Had they hit a dead end? No, they couldn’t have. Every murderer could be caught. This one had to be caught.

Back in his car, he sighed again, hands tightening on the steering wheel, even though he hadn’t started the ignition. Although Donghae often acted like a child, there was a reason he had earned his detective badge. He was intuitive. Logic was his forte. And yet right now, he was completely stumped.

With the clues being left behind, it was as if the killer wanted to be caught, or at least chased after. Why leave a photograph linking IU to Sulli, after the latter’s case had been silent for months?

He was always a few steps ahead. After the photograph linking the first two victims, he had deliberately left behind a whole drawer full of pictures that seemed to pinpoint Luna as the next victim. Then, he had completely switched gears and attacked Krystal, leaving her to die with a chunk of her brain cut up. But why? And who would be next? If the next potential victim was still linked to the others…

On a hunch, he started up his car and drove towards Mirotic Modeling Agency.

Haruki sighed and opened the door to her apartment. Today had been a long day.

“There she is!”

“Gah!”

Jessica and Donghae were seated at her dining table, the former scowling with her arms crossed, the latter sheepishly rubbing his neck.

“How the hell did you get into my house?” Haruki demanded. “Both of you! Out! Now!”

“Wait, wait, Haruki, just hear me out!” Donghae held up his hands surrender-style as he advanced towards his partner, pleading. “Please, Haruki, just listen to me!”

“Two minutes,” she growled, tapping her toes against the floor.

“The murder victims,” he began, lowering his voice so that Jessica couldn’t hear him. “They’ve all been connected so far. IU and Sulli were friends; Sulli and Krystal were high school classmates. Jessica is Krystal’s sister and she matches the victim profile, doesn’t she? It’ll be safer if she stayed with you than in her own apartment.”

“In that case, why don’t you just invite Luna and Amber to stay over here, too?” Haruki asked sarcastically. “I mean, it’s not like my apartment is small or anything.”

Donghae sighed. “Look. The killer’s always been a step or two ahead of us. We thought he was going to target Luna; he ends up targeting Krystal. Right now, it would make sense for him to finish off the rest of that group, wouldn’t it? That’s why I think he’s going to take a different route.”

“So why is she staying with me?” Haruki retorted. “Why not your apartment?”

Donghae managed to look affronted. “Haruki, I’m a gentleman.” His partner snorted in disbelief. “Come on, please? Think of this as an opportunity to make a new friend. You don’t get out much, do you?”

“That is not the point!” She sighed and uncrossed her arms. “Donghae, I don’t think staying with me will be any safer.”

“What? Why not?”

“I…” What could she say? What could she say without looking weak in front of her partner, especially when she was the only female detective on the force? That after receiving the message from the killer, she was scared? The harassment would never end after that.

“Nothing,” she finally said. “She can stay here. But she sleeps on the couch.”

Donghae grinned. “Thanks, Haruki.”

“I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal out of protecting her, though,” Haruki muttered. “Do you like her or-”

“Ugh! Do you have anything besides neutrals?” Jessica came out of Haruki’s bedroom, holding one of the detective’s blouses by the fingertips.

“That’s my cue to leave,” Donghae replied as he dashed for the door. “You ladies have fun!”

“I will kill you once this case is over!” Haruki hollered after him. “And you!” she snapped, turning back to Jessica. “What’s wrong with neutrals?”

“Well, nothing’s wrong with them, if you like being boring,” Jessica replied, wrinkling her nose. “God, your apartment is so…plain.”

“Not everyone is a model,” Haruki replied. “What were you doing in my room? And how did you get in here in the first place?”

“Donghae picked the lock,” Jessica replied.

Haruki made a mental note to get a deadbolt installed as soon as she could.

“And I was looking for a place to put my stuff,” Jessica added. It was then that Haruki noticed the mountain of suitcases stacked behind her.

“Oh no. You are not putting all that in here.”

Jessica huffed and tapped her manicured nails against the table. “Well, if I’m not going to put it here, then where am I going to put it? You could at least give me some of your closet space.”

“That is bigger than my closet!” Haruki snapped, pointing at the model’s belongings. “Look, you are here as a guest under my roof because we’re worried for your safety. That doesn’t give you the right to barge in here and take over the place!”

The blonde just sniffed and stuck her nose in the air as Haruki felt her new phone vibrate. She hadn’t transferred all her contacts over yet; Jiyong had promised to take care of that for her tomorrow.

The number on the screen was one that seemed familiar, but that she didn’t recognize. Hesitantly, she flipped it open and held it to her ear. “Hello?”

“Haruki, if you’re not busy right now, I need you go to your computer ASAP. I found some-”

“Wait, wait, wait,” she interrupted. “Who is this?”

There was an impatient sigh on the other end. “I can’t believe it. You don’t recognize your favorite hacker?”

“Jiyong? How did you get this number? I literally just got the ph-”

“That’s not important. I traced the number who called you, Haruki. You know, the one with the creepy song?”

Haruki’s eyes widened and she dashed to her room, eagerly flipping on her computer and ignoring Jessica. “What did you find?”

“I was right about the caller using a disposable phone,” he replied. “But they weren’t smart enough to clean up after themselves completely. I traced it back to the credit card used to purchase the phone.”

“Who was it?” the detective’s voice had unwittingly dropped to a whisper.

“You won’t like the answer,” Jiyong warned.

“Just tell me.” Any answer that helped solve the case was a good one, as far as she was concerned.

“Kim Jongwoon.”

“You mean, Yesung?”

“Is that what you guys call him? Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either,” Jiyong replied.

Yesung? A killer? No, she couldn’t see it. He might be a little odd, but he was a sweet guy. He kept tortoises for pets, for crying out loud. But at the same time, he had been investigating the first case and he had found nothing in months…

“Here’s the weird thing, though,” the hacker continued, interrupting her train of thoughts. It couldn’t be Yesung, it can’tbe Yesung. “Almost an hour after the phone was purchased, the credit card was cancelled. All of his cards were cancelled.”

She didn’t even bother to ask how he knew that; her mind was too busy swimming with the implications of this new information. If the other detective had cancelled his cards, then they must have gone missing somehow.

“Haruki?”

Someone must have stolen them.

“Haruki? Are you still there?”

Someone was trying to frame Yesung.