We arrived at Busan in an hour by plane. There were three black cars waiting for us when we got out of the airport. Immediately we were taken to the Busan Police Headquarter and given enough space to work. Everything was set up and PO unpacked all his equipment which included at least 3 laptops and other stuff that I couldn’t identify.

Another important-looking man in a suit came in and shook hands with Team Leader and they exchanged a few words and the man left.

“It’s only been about 3 hours since time of death,” the coroner said, “Cause of death is most likely due to the gunshot wounds, two shots, one to the heart and another through the mouth but… oh… wait, the head wound is more serious than I thought.”

“Well, it left a bit of a dent in the wall,” Jonghyun joked.

I started to take in the details of the room.

“Signs of forced entry by the door,” Hwasa noted.

I walked towards the drying out blood on the wall. I bent down and read out loud, “Hong Yeongsik.”

“That’s the owner of the apartment’s name,” said one of the forensics team members.

“We’ll need a confirmation of the victim’s identity but we’re pretty certain that that is the victim’s name,” Hwasa said.

Back at the Police Headquarters, we were discussing what we knew and hypothesizing what we didn’t.

“The Unsub is definitely male. Tall. Some kind of past trauma perhaps a family member dying by suicide. I mean why else would there be a gunshot through the mouth,” Jonghyun said seriously.

Team Leader Ahn continued, “All of the victims were killed the same way, definitely the same killer. The trauma at the head looks like the Unsub shook or smashed the victim’s head into a hard surface multiple times. So, the Unsub is strong and possibly young if he can handle the weight of a full-grown man.”

“There’s a lot of anger, I’m thinking that there is a significant event that had all three types of injury. He doesn’t discriminate between male or female or their age, we haven’t had a very young victim: one is 27, the other is 31, the next one is 24 and the recent one is 39 years old. The second victim was married so I suppose he’s not targeting single people either. You mentioned that the name of the victim was written on the wall, that seems significant. Why only the name?” Yugyeom added.

“Maybe the names are the trigger?” I suggested.

“What it does tell us is that the Unsub studied the victims or knew them from somewhere. I think it’s definitely only one perpetrator, no signs of a second one and there’s only one distinct signature, the names. All of them had names written in the victims’ blood somewhere in the crime scene,” Hwasa answered.

“Does anyone else feel like the murders are carried out to too much perfection?” Myungsoo inquired suddenly.

There was a silence as the question shot through everyone’s brain. The implications were clear. “There’s more victims than the 4 that have surfaced,” Hwasa said out loud what everyone had realised.

“PO start looking for any cold cases with any of the three injuries. He started somewhere and we all know earlier kills have mistakes and those mistakes could lead us to him,” Team Leader Ahn said gravely. “Woohyun and Myungsoo please put up everything we know onto the board,” he instructed.

Victim #1

Shin Chilhyeon (Male) – 01 October 1990 è murdered in an alley after going out at night

Victim #2

Kwang Taehyeon (Female) – 11 April 1986 è murdered at the victim’s workplace

Victim #3

Lee Seungyeop (Male) – 06 February 1993 è murdered at home

Victim #4

Hong Yeongsik (Male) – 15 August 1978 è murdered at home

Method of murder

1. Trauma to the posterior aspect of the head
2. Gunshot to the chest/heart
3. Gunshot through the mouth

Other significant details

1. Name of victim written in blood in the crime scene