Shaved Punishment

'’I'll be there in five.’’

Baekhyun cut the line and sighed, his tired eyes searched for the first opportunity in the busy street to turn his car. His older brother-slash-colleague just had to call him in- it hadn’t even been half an hour since Baekhyun clocked out.

A new murder case? Baekhyun automatically stopped for the bright, red light without registering what he was doing. He didn’t understand why he- of all people, had to visit the crime scene. He already had enough work to do, just this morning did he get a new missing person case, and on top of that he had two domestic violence cases waiting for him on his desk.

He didn’t know if it was his luck for being two streets away from the scene. The sooner he got there, the sooner he could leave-right? Baekhyun bit his lip; he had been so excited to go home when he left the station. I’ll get back at him for calling me in.

Baekhyun turned the engine off and he unfastened his seatbelt. He definitely wasn’t in the mood, he could handle the gore, that wasn’t the problem. Baekhyun couldn’t cope with everything around it, the grieving family, working together with five, rivalling, different units, not knowing which higher up to report to?

Not to think about the paper work. Baekhyun rolled his eyes. He really wasn’t in the mood.

Baekhyun could barely muster enough energy to run his hand through his black hair. He wondered how many hours he slept the past week. It surely wasn’t much, perhaps three or four a night- on the lucky days. He eyed the sunglasses on the passenger seat, it had almost become a habit to wear them in Fall. Baekhyun checked his face in the rear mirror. A pair of bloodshot eyes glanced back at him; he looked like Tao with those huge eye bags. At least, unlike Tao, the eye bags suit me, he thought.

Baekhyun decided against wearing the unneeded glasses. He would probably get heat for looking like a douchebag. He stepped out of his expensive car, and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Of course, his brother would not spare him a second to breathe.

‘’What took you so long, man? Hurry up.’’ His brother hit Baekhyun on his shoulder and pulled him towards the group people waiting on the street.

Baekhyun nodded and jogged after his taller brother. Some policemen made way for him without granting him a glance. Baekhyun frowned when he reached the yellow no-trespassing banners.

He saw a white cloth hiding the corpse from sight- which was a common thing to do. This wasn’t what made Baekhyun frown, no, the fact that that the killing had occurred outside- in the open, in the victims own yard was the reason. That’s strange.  He bit his bottom lip as he searched for anyone who could explain what had happened.

‘’Baekhyun, I’m relieved to see you here so soon.’’

An old man made his way to Baekhyun. His eyes looked troubled, yet he wore a smirk. ‘’Did you sleep well?’’ he jokingly asked. Baekhyun glared and took the coffee the older man offered. The said man was known for his addiction to coffee so it didn’t surprise Baekhyun he had an extra cup.

‘’Looks like I'm the last to arrive. What happened here?’’

The older man lost his smirk as he turned around to the house.  ‘’It’s insane, really.’’

‘’Ghazal Hafa, or Umm Rayan as her family and neighbors called her, was a mother of four. Sixty-four years old. Brutally slaughtered. Every limb of her body was torn off…here are the pictures.’’

Baekhyun reluctantly took the folder from the old man’s assistant.

‘’It appears she was killed in the front yard. Her neck is twisted. It also seems like every bone in her body is broken, oh, and her feet are missing. We found one of her arms over there.’

Baekhyun turned his head in the said direction. He saw a small white cloth next to a yellow board, with the number 8 on it.

‘’So, why am I here?’’ Baekhyun