“So, what do you have there?” Jonghyun asks, looking at the new gun Minho was holding.

 

“Tactical Intelligence sent us these new guns as a test trial.” Minho says shrugging.

 

“It looks like the same thing to me.” Key says rolling his eyes.

 

“Oh Key, just because you can’t appreciate a nice gun doesn’t mean I can’t.” Minho says dryly and they laugh.

 

“Are these the pictures HQ faxed us?” Jonghyun asks picking up a case file lying on the desk.

 

“Yes.” Onew replies.

 

“Please buckle your seatbelts, we will be landing shortly.” The pilot says.

 

“Here we go.” Key says, referring to the familiar rush when opening a new case.

 

“Here we go, again.” Minho corrects.

 

1000. 06/01/2012. Mokpo Police Department. Mokpo.

 

“Agent Lee, these are agents Kim, Kim and Choi.” Onew says sticking his hand out for the other to shake.

 

“Officer Im Yoona.” The woman replies, taking his hand. She had long brown hair that was tied into a bun and an innocent face that made it difficult to believe that she was the chief of police here in Mokpo.

 

“Do you have somewhere we can set up? You can brief us on the way.”  Onew says and Yoona nods. They follow her to an office and Key starts on posting the pictures onto the corkboard right away.

 

“They sent the Feds huh?” A male officer asks Yoona.

 

“It’s under their jurisdiction; they have evidence of two other similar incidents. Get back to work.” Yoona snaps at him and Onew looks impressed. No wonder she’d made it to the top, she was tougher than he thought.

 

“Do you think you’ll find the bus?” Yoona asks and SHINee exchanges a glance.

 

“Ma’am, I believe we’ll find the bus, but it’s been 24 hours.” Jonghyun says and Yoona nods her head, lips pressed firmly together addressing the implication.

 

“We’re going to catch the killer, don’t you worry.” Minho says with a determined look on his face.

 

The driver continues straight past the exit on the highway.

 

“Excuse me, I think you missed the exit.” One woman tells the driver.

 

“Yes, I’m just taking a back road; there is a blockage down that highway.” The driver tells her and she nods and sits back down. The driver drops something out the window and moments later the tire is flat.

 

“Flat tire, I’ll go have a look.” The driver declares to everyone, closing the door behind him. People are looking at their watches and complaining about the time. Some try to make phone calls to their bosses but realize they have no signal here.

 

The driver tapes up all the cracks in the bus and feeds a tube into the bus that starts releasing gas. The passengers start to cough and feel nauseous. One person falls onto the ground and starts convulsing. The woman who approached the bus driver starts crawling to the front of the bus.

 

She makes it to the door, banging at it weakly before her hand slumps to her side.

 

“Im, they found the missing vehicle.” Another male officer says.

 

“And?” Yoona asks, bracing herself for the answer.

 

“They didn’t find anyone alive.” He replies sadly.

 

“Get a team out there.” Yoona says. “You follow the cruiser.” Yoona says to Onew and he nods once, not having to be told twice.

 

“Park and Kim are already on scene. They found the bus when they were doing their patrol.” The officer reports and Onew looks up in alarm.

 

“Tell them not to touch anything and to block off the road. We don’t want anyone contaminating the crime scene.” Yoona says, reading the panic in Onew’s expression. The officer bows and goes to call the patrol.

 

“Can I have access to a lab here?” Minho asks and Yoona nods.

 

“We have a fully functioning crime scene lab; I’ll have Hanyoung make you a full access pass.” Yoona says, and another girl Minho assumes is Hanyoung nods.

 

SHINee gets in two separate SUVs, Minho and Onew in one, Key and Jonghyun in the other. They drive about 20 kilometers west and come across the scene of the crime.

 

“A very isolated location.” Jonghyun notes as they get off the car.  They’d arrived off a small road that had branched off from the main highway. The closest infrastructure was at least 10 kilometers away.

 

Minho smells a distinct smell of bitter almonds. “Stay back!” Minho yells, “There are traces of Hydrogen Cyanide on scene!” Minho backs up slowly from the bus and someone brings a detector.

 

“Clear!” He declares and the team proceeds towards the scene of the crime. Someone brings Minho a mask and Minho puts it on, he sees the rest of the team do the same. He hears something crack under his foot and looks down to see broken glass.

 

“Proceed with caution; there is broken glass on the ground.” Minho calls to the team.

 

“None of the windows are broken, why is there cracked glass?” Key asks.

 

“I think I can answer that one.” Jonghyun says, picking up an empty glass bottle with a gloved hand and dropping it into the evidence bag.

 

“What are these glass bottles for?” Onew asks, inspecting it. It was about the size of a vial, made of clear glass with some kind of pattern etched into the side.

 

“The doors have been taped shut, the unsub made sure there was no gas that escaped from the bus.” Key notes.

 

“Complete and absolute power.” Jonghyun remarks and Key nods in response. Minho takes off the tape and cracks open the door, almost tripping on the dead body in the way.

 

“What’s more is that the traces of Hydrogen Cyanide are very faint, usually there’s a higher concentration of it found.” Minho says.

 

“Almost as if someone had it out?” Onew asks.

 

“Exactly that. Come look at this.” Minho says, bringing them over to a small hole cut in the side of the bus.

 

“This must be where the unsub put in the gas.” Jonghyun says, tracing the hole with his gloved finger.

 

“There’s a cellphone signal jammer right here.” Key says, pointing near the driver’s seat.

 

“He made sure his victims couldn’t contact anyone or have anyone trace him through cell. He’s very meticulous.” Jonghyun comments.

 

Onew observes the bodies strewn, most were slumped over in their seats, as if they’d fallen asleep on the bus, and others had fallen onto the ground in a heap.

 

“We won’t know until the bodies are autopsied but the cause of death was most likely the Hydrogen Cyanide.” Minho says, walking out of the bus.

 

“You know, this bears similarity to both drowning and strangling.” Jonghyun says as Key snaps photos of the victims.

 

“How so?” Onew asks.

 

“Well you see, both take into consideration breath leaving the body, as if life were leaving the body itself. The water in drowning can be highly symbolic, perhaps as the rebirth from life into the afterlife or fear of water and drowning itself. This chosen medium of Hydrogen Cyanide must be important to the unsub somehow.” Jonghyun says.

 

“Interesting.” Minho says, “Hey guys come down over here.” The three follow to see what he’s looking at.

 

“Tire marks?” Key asks and Jonghyun snaps a picture.

 

“Not of just any car either, judging by the indentation, this must have been a larger car, most likely an SUV, especially since it needed to handle off road.” Onew says.

 

“Right there, there are footprint indentations in the dirt.” Key says pointing just left of the dirt.

 

“So, the unsub parks his car and then goes to kidnap the bus? That doesn’t make any sense; this is in the middle of nowhere it would’ve taken him a long time to get anywhere.” Minho says.

 

“Perhaps he has a partner.” Onew suggests, pointing over to the second set of prints.

 

“Interesting. A different shoe size, smaller.” Key says.

 

“The second partner is probably lighter too judging by the depth of the indent.” Minho says. “I’d say it’s a woman and probably his wife.”

 

“But look here, the smaller footprints and some of the larger prints had been left here much earlier than the heavy footprints. Could it be that the partner left the car here and then got picked up by the unsub?” Key asks.

 

“So you think she doesn’t know what the unsub is doing?” Onew asks.

 

“It’s highly possible, most females in relationships with serial killers have no idea what’s going on. Actually, in one case, a serial killer was burying dead bodies in their yard and when his wife questioned him on the smell, he said it was because of mice.” Jonghyun says.

 

“And he just bought it?” Minho asks and Jonghyun nods.

 

“You’d be surprised at how little people need convincing sometimes.” Jonghyun replies.

 

“How is the unsub explaining this to her then?” Key asks.

 

“Maybe he’s pretending that his car broke down and asking her to pick him up, popped tire?” Key suggests.

 

“Quite possibly.” Minho says.

 

“What’s this?” Onew asks, a shiny thing catching his attention.

 

“It looks like a circle with a star inscribed in it.” Minho says.

 

“That’s a pentacle, is the unsub religious?” Key asks.

 

“Not sure, let’s head back to the station, we can have a closer look at all the case files and see if we can get any leads on this.” Onew says putting the cross into a plastic evidence bag and handing it to one of the officers nearby.