Jinki stood in front of the two-way mirror with his arms folded; they now had a new suspect, the infamous golfer by the name of Choi Minho. This all seemed like a job one man could do on his own, but the detectives wouldn't let the golfer wander around freely anyway. Stranger things have happened than two men killing one woman in a way that only needed one person to get the job done.

The captain pressed his lips together. He'd question Minho, alright, just not now. He was tasked with telling Taemin that his boyfriend was brought in and ultimately classed as a suspect. He didn't know how the blonde would react, and he hated thinking that Taemin would take it pretty hard - he never wanted to hurt his detectives in any way, but he didn't have a choice right now.

He could always hope and pray that Minho was innocent (that way, Taemin wouldn't have to know that his boyfriend was considered as a suspect in the first place) and not tell the blonde he was here, but there was always the chance that Minho was indeed guilty somehow and would go to trial. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 would be an even worse way for Taemin to find out, in Jinki's books.

He walked away from Minho - who had yet to be questioned - to find Taemin. It didn't take too long since he was at his table, typing away at his computer. Now that he was off the big case of the murder of Park Sooyoung, he had smaller cases hitting his desk. It was a little too obvious he wasn't enjoying things like hijackings and petty little robberies done by undisciplined school kids, but what else could he do? At least he had something to keep his hands and mind busy.

“Taemin,” Jinki greeted him with a little nod, “I take it you're enjoying filling out reports?”
“I guess...” The blonde sighed at the attempt of a joke - this was all too lame to laugh about. Their biggest case was right under his nose and he couldn't put any work towards it because his boyfriend couldn't keep his in his pants! It made him angrier the more he thought about it, and he wouldn't lie that he hadn't thought about going into Minho's interrogation room to grab him by the throat to throttle him.
“What can I do for you?” He asked his superior, waving his thoughts away in his mind like a dark cloud.

“I came to let you know before you heard it from anyone else. Minho has been brought in for questioning,” Jinki revealed, expecting the worst; for Taemin to throw a hissy fit, to defend Minho like there was no tomorrow, to scream and yell that there was no way that someone as innocent as his boyfriend would do something as crazy as murder someone, and that he, as a detective, would've known if Minho was capable of something so dark and sinister. Jinki could see himself having to give Taemin another half hour or hour to cool off again, and would probably be forced to place some security guards by Minho's interrogation room just so that the blonde wouldn't try breaking him out and hiding him somewhere while no one was looking. He wouldn't underestimate how strongly Taemin felt that Minho was in fact innocent.

He cringed internally, waiting for the storm, but it never came.

The blonde stared blankly at his superior for about a minute in silence before he turned back to his desk calmly.

“What does that mean?” He asked. Due to the way he was sitting, the elder man couldn't see what expression he had on his face at the moment.
“Well, it means he's a suspect as well...” Jinki confirmed nervously, “since he had a relationship with Jonghyun at the time of the murder, and since Jonghyun is already a suspect,”
“Hm...I suppose you're right,” The younger man said after another long pause, then continued clicking away at his keyboard. He had pulled up another report of a case he had finished earlier that day; a trespassing issue that hadn't taken more than fifteen minutes to resolve.
“What?” Jinki frowned. Again, this wasn't what he expected from Taemin, so he didn't know how to react.
“You're right. He's probably involved somehow. Jonghyun is, after all, and since they've been dating for who knows how long, it would make sense. Even if Minho isn't directly involved, I'm sure he knew of Jonghyun's idea to murder Sooyoung to some extent,” Taemin turned his head to glance at his boss. His eyes were a little glossy, a little wet with tears he fought back, and he then turned back to his computer.
“I have a lot of paperwork to finish up, so if you don't mind, and there's nothing else, I'd like to be alone now...” He said afterwards.

This was a completely rational request from someone who had gone through so much in the past 24 hours - even Jinki himself would want to be alone with his feelings of betrayal and sadness. But there was something about Taemin's behavior at the moment that didn't quite make sense; Jinki couldn't put his finger on it, but it was certainly strange.

Something told him to start investigating one of his own detectives.

“Kibum, are you busy?” Jinki called the detective from the telephone in his office.
“No, not really. Unless you count buying cupcakes as being busy,” Kibum replied with a little chuckle while taking the box of treats with one hand, using the other to hold his phone.
“Not at all. Would you mind waiting there for me? Maybe we could share those cupcakes,” Jinki said.
“Only if you'll buy the coffee,” Kibum smirked, a thin string of flirtation in his voice, and Jinki laughed to himself, “sure. Send me the location of the bakery you're at, and I'll stop by soon,”

Jinki stopped by the bakery only ten minutes later, two coffees in their containers. One latte, one black coffee.

“Smart of you to go to the nearest bakery during the break,” Jinki grinned as he walked over to where Kibum was sitting at one of the tables by the large windows which looked out into the street.
“Saves me some time. That way, I can eat them at the station and still have a few minutes to enjoy a cup of coffee with it,” Kibum replied proudly; if he was a peacock, Jinki was sure he'd be fluttering his wings to emphasize his confidence at the moment.
“Besides, Taemin doesn't like waiting,” Kibum continued, accepting the coffee cup that was handed to him by the elder one.
“Yes, speaking of Taemin...I called you here because I didn't want any of the other officers overhearing us back at the station. I need to ask you a few things about him,” Jinki said. Kibum frowned as he bit into the soft, sweet cupcake; he knew he'd get scolded by his partner that he'd return so late with the desserts, but this seemed important, so he pushed the thoughts of Taemin's incessant whining to the back of his mind.
“Sure. What do you need to know?” Kibum questioned.

“I have his report back in my office about when he arrived on scene, but I was wondering if he told you anything more than what's in there,” The elder man said seriously, and Kibum tapped his chin in thought, “well, I'm not sure...I can't see that he'd tell me something but not add it in his report...”
“Anything will help. Maybe about what he was doing there in the first place. He doesn't live in or near that neighborhood, does he?” Jinki hummed out; he knew Taemin didn't, but he wanted to coax Kibum into talking.
“No, no, he doesn't. He lives quite far away from there, actually,” The detective answered, took another bite of his cupcake, then let out a loud “mhm!” when he remembered something his partner had revealed to him.
“I remember he told me he went to a store there to buy some cupcakes or donuts for him and Minho. I don't really remember what it was...but I do know he told me he had to throw away whatever it was that he bought before he went over to the victim's house to investigate. He was worried it'd expire, or not be as fresh when he got home, so he didn't bother keeping it,” Kibum said with an affirmative nod. He couldn't remember the specific details, but he hoped the summary of it could help Jinki.

“Did he say he threw it away at the house, or in a public trashcan?” The elder one asked, his eyebrows pulling down with seriousness once more.
“I'm not sure. He just said he threw it away before the police arrived on scene,” Kibum nodded again. Jinki looked at his watch, then leaped up from his seat.
“Where are you going?” Kibum frowned as he watched his superior nearly run out the door, and the younger man called out pathetically, “you forgot your coffee?”
But Jinki had already run off. Kibum sighed, then grinned to himself - he'd just have to buy another coffee for his boss to make up for it.

When Kibum got back to the office, he slapped the box left with two cupcakes inside down on Taemin's desk.

“Took you long enough,” The blonde grumbled to himself as he opened the white box, biting into the one chocolate cupcake with a satisfied sigh. He was sure there was no way he'd be able to survive without sweet things in his daily life.
“I'm sorry. Something came up,” Kibum folded his arms while leaning against the blonde's desk - Jinki hadn't said not to tell Taemin about their meeting, but Kibum had a feeling it was better not to anyway. After all, it seemed as if their boss was investigating Taemin for some reason. Why? Kibum wasn't sure, but he hoped all of this would get explained to him eventually.

“How are you doing? Do you want me to ask Jinki to let you go home early today? It might help you feel better not having to sit here with a bunch of paperwork,” He smiled as he squeezed his friend's shoulder.
“No, it's nice to get some normal work done for once. It keeps me busy, and I think that's best for right now, anyway,” The blonde bit into his cupcake again, wiping his mouth when it was smeared with icing.
“Well, then, at least let me help you,” Kibum smiled as he pulled up a chair to sit down beside his partner.
“Now why would you want to do that? Last time I checked, you don't like paperwork,” Taemin tapped his fingertips on his wooden table as he leaned his cheek on his other hand to grin teasingly at his partner.
“I don't, but I know you don't either. And when you do something you don't like or don't want to, you mess it up somehow! So let me take a look at these you've done already, just in case...” Kibum teased as he grabbed the finished stack of paperwork, and Taemin clicked his tongue; he liked teasing the elder man, but it was nice having some company when doing boring work like this.

Jinki stopped by one of the trashcans in Sooyoung's neighborhood; there was only one bakery in the area, and even if Taemin hadn't bought the desserts from there, this was the only trashcan close enough to the house he could've used to throw his treats away.

“Lee Jinki, police captain. I need you to go through this trashcan carefully. I'm looking for something,” He said as he flashed his badge to the trashmen who were about to scoop up the black bag to throw into their truck. Jinki had just made it in time, and even though the men seemed a little disgruntled to be stopped from their work, they did as they were told.
“What is it?” One asked. He was quite tall and muscular, but Jinki wasn't intimidated.
“A box of donuts or cupcakes. Doesn't matter if they're from the local bakery here or another store,” The captain said with a firm voice, and the men dug through the bag.

They didn't find anything like that.

“What about leftover food?” Jinki asked.
“Yeah. Some half eaten takeaways,” The burly one answered. Then, Jinki sent them on their way.

His fears were confirmed; Taemin's suspicious behavior wasn't a good sign, and now that there weren't any desserts in the trash like he had claimed, his testimony was slowly becoming more and more questionable.
The reason Jinki had asked about leftover food was to cover his own bases; it was well-known that homeless people often scoured the trashcans for food, so there was a chance someone stumbled upon the desserts and ate them. But if there was leftover food, it meant that no one had stopped by this trashcan to go through it for food at all this week. It didn't make sense for someone to find a full box of treats and then not return in the following days hoping to score again - if someone had found the sweet things, they'd take that, then come back and take the leftover food as well. Thus, Jinki was sure Taemin wasn't telling the truth about the desserts he had supposedly thrown away.
The forensics team reported some loose papers and containers from food in Sooyoung's trash, nothing about desserts.

So, Taemin had lied about it. But there was one more way for Jinki to confirm it.

He stopped by the bakery and two other stores which sold similar treats, showing them a photo of Taemin and proceeding to ask if they had seen him or if he had bought anything from them. All three places replied that they hadn't served him, and they also checked their security cameras and tills to make sure they were correct. No one had any account of anyone buying anything from them until at least 8 or 9 AM that morning.

It was now confirmed; Taemin lied about his reason for being in the neighborhood, and therefore indirectly confirmed himself as a suspect in the process as well. The investigation into him had only just begun, and Jinki knew it. He also knew what his next stop would be; Minho.