“Here, I have another sheet.” Onew said as he handed off a sheet of paper to Minho. Minho put it on the top of his stack as he walked towards the conference room where the other members had gathered. Taemin had (painfully) lugged his computers into the large conference room where it was easier for them to gather together.

The reports Taemin printed out had been basically useless, most police departments didn’t even try and investigate past identifying the victim. With no family there to claim the body, there was no drive to find the truth behind the murder.

Without access to proper resources, SHINee was forced to get creative in their method of investigation. They resorted to printing out news articles and collecting as much information about the case as they could through them.

“Here, I have details about the victim.” Key said as he wrote them down on their smart screen while Jonghyun worked on the victim ology.

“Onew’s on his way in with more articles.” Minho said dropping the stack of papers onto the desk next to Taemin. He sat down in the empty seat beside him and started sorting through the white sheets of paper and newspaper photographs.

“Here Key, I have details written down about MO on that yellow notepad sitting beside you there.” Taemin said, gesturing with his chin.

“Thanks.” Key said as he read through the notebook and made jot notes on the screen. Jonghyun stared at the screen trying to piece all of the information together. Why Taemin? Why now?

“This article is useless. It passes off the killings as mishaps of people caught between gang shootings.” Minho said, rolling his eyes, “As if people killed in a gang shooting would have a single shot to the head with ligature marks on their wrists.”

“No, that’s actually quite interesting. The details suggested that there was a cluster of shots on the victim’s back, almost as if he’d been shot more than once.” Jonghyun said, recalling the details he’d read earlier.

“Yeah, except the fact that it was completely made up. The other articles from the city suggested the MO of our unsub, this was the only article that mentioned a cluster of bullet wounds.” Minho clarified and Jonghyun snorted in agreement. They could not too easily trust the content of the articles.

“A 20-year-old man is shot dead after being shot in the back of the head. The local police department found his body near a dumpster near strewn pieces of newspaper from another city.” Key read aloud and SHINee listened intently. “It was strange, one of the police officers had said, there were purplish blue markings on his wrists as if they had been bruised. They are currently investigating into the case and have not yet established any leads.”

“Bruising on the wrists?” Minho asked, scrunching his nose up, “Sounds like ligature marks to me. It’s hard to determine what constraint method the unsub used without photos of the victim.” The photos they got from the reports had been largely blurred and Minho, could not for the life of him, see the man’s arms clearly.

“The body was found near a dumpster right?” Jonghyun asked and Key nodded as he confirmed the information from the article, “That could mean the unsub is trying to say that the person he killed was like trash to him and it shows a lack of remorse.”

“There isn’t any proof though that he’s killing for a ual release though.” Key said frowning, “The quick execution would prevent the unsub from enjoying the deed.”

“The ligature marks suggests that the unsub had been tortured to some extent though. We don’t know though, we don’t have the proper reports.” Onew suggested and then sighed. “If the victims are being tortured, we can’t deny the possibility that torture is his method of release.”

“He’s made his MO pretty clear though.” Taemin piped up, “A single shot to the back of the head, execution style with ligature marks on the limbs suggesting torture.”

“You know, we have missed another thing.” Minho said as he pointed to the board, “At each one of the crime sense, it says that either newspapers were strewn around or there was a newspaper there.”

“That’s true.” Jonghyun said, “Taemin, can you try to find us a picture of the newspaper?”

“Sure.” Taemin said typing in a few keystrokes and then bringing up the newspaper on the screen. SHINee stared at the paper confused while Taemin paled.

“The Seoul Star, have you even heard of this newspaper?” Key asked Jonghyun who shook his head vehemently. In the ten years he’d lived in Seoul, he had never heard of this newspaper before.

“On the front page…” Taemin began, “The front page article is of the robbery at the bank and that man caught leaving the building was Jinon.”

“So this is related to a specific event in your life?” Jonghyun asked as he started to piece together Taemin’s intentions in solving the case.

“Well…” Taemin trailed off, not knowing how to explain himself. The Seoul Star wasn’t a real newspaper at all; it was a newsletter his community handed out once a month back when he was little. He remembered his father through the flimsy sheets back when they still received it. The problem was the Seoul Star never printed that article. In all the years they’d received the newsletter that article never existed and Taemin was almost certain the newsletter shut its doors when its last editor went to University.

“Look, whatever it is, you need to tell us everything you know.” Jonghyun said, looking at Taemin solemnly. What else was he hiding?

“What should we do now?” Taemin asked, looking up at them.

“You have a date with a sketch artist.” Minho said, nodding over at Key who stood up. Taemin looked over at Key confused.

“I took a few courses back when I was still training with the academy.” Key said as he shrugged nonchalantly.

“Onew, you should go with them.” Jonghyun said and Onew nodded. Jonghyun noticed that Taemin always seemed more at ease when their team leader was with him. Perhaps it was Onew’s calming aura, or the fact that he provided the strong father figure Taemin lacked. Either way, Jonghyun knew they needed to get to the bottom of this and Onew would provide them with the best chances of doing so. Minho watched as the three of them exited the room and he turned to Jonghyun.

“So, where does that leave us?” Minho asked.

“We,” Jonghyun said as he marched towards Taemin’s computer, “look into Taemin’s past.” He said, cracking his knuckles and sitting down.