Knock knock knock

A series of soft knocks sounded on the old wooden door.

Scuffling footsteps could be heard and the person inside the unit was muttering anxiously," Inspector Kim, you are here finally. I have been waiting for you for a long time."

The door creaked open and Professor Cho was shocked at the person standing outside but he composed himself.

"Excuse me, who are you looking for?" Professor Cho thought that Dongwan was outside.

"You." While speaking, the person pushed the unsuspecting Professor Cho onto the floor.

The elderly professor could not withstand such a harsh fall and he yelped in pain while crawling on the floor, trying to get away from the stranger. At the same time, he was trying to get on his feet again.

Seizing this opportunity, he came into the unit and quickly locked the wooden door. He scrutinized the whole place and was satisfied that there was no one around except for Professor Cho. This saved him a lot of hassle.

He advanced slowly towards Professor Cho and took out the knife hidden behind.

"Why.... Why did you want to kill me?" Professor Cho did not manage to stand out and he was shivering in fear upon seeing the intruder with a cold shiny blade. He retreated on his feet and hands," Was.... Was it Eric who wanted to kill me? I was right! Eric was the one who murder Jihoon and...."

"And me right? You speak too much." He interrupted Professor Cho," And you know too much. I see that you are not being old and foggy till you guess my identity correctly."

"Oh my god!" Professor Cho took a deep breathe and his limbs went limp. There was no way for escape for him as he eyed the intruder. Out of fear, Professor Cho just try to grab something to throw at him.

He managed to dodge the items that were thrown at him and they were smashed all over the place. There was broken glasses, porcelain and scattered books.

Though he avoided being hit but he stepped onto the broken glasses and porcelain. The sharp bits pierced through his sneakers and he groaned in pain. He lifted his foot and plucked off the piece of porcelain on the sole.

"Damn it." He cursed.

Professor Cho quickly crawled to the side and came towards the door.

He cursed once again when he saw Professor Cho escaping. "Damn it!" He could not be bothered with his injuries and limped a bit towards Professor Cho. Blood seeped out from his injuries and stained the floor.

"Help! Help!" Professor Cho screamed while his hands were on the door knob. However due to his frightened state, he could not open the door.

"I just realized that your unit is sound proof." Within the blink of an eye, he raised his cold shiny blade.

Professor Cho's legs gave way and before he could say anything, the blade pierced from his back to his heart.

The sheer strength was strong as could be seen from the fact that the blade pierced out from the chest. Crimson liquid trickled down from the tip of the blade and flowed onto the floor.

Just a few seconds, Professor Cho let out a weak struggle and his eyes went white; his body slumped onto the floor.

"Old made me go through all this!" He retracted the blade and glanced at the motionless body. He raised his blade once again and aimed for Professor Cho's left eye. When he pulled out the blade, Professor Cho's left eye ball came up together.

He smirked upon seeing the eye ball," The eye balls are the most trustworthy and honest organ of human! The liar could control their heart beat but not the dilation of the iris, isn't it so?"

He returned to his expressionless face when he looked at Profesdor Cho again. He plucked off the eye ball and stared at its iris," Damn it! Now I have to vex over how to dispose off your body. Death is something that can't be taken lightly."

He threw the eye ball on the floor and went to search for the cleaning equipment and chemical. He was humming a tune while he in search of the items.

Dongwan raised his hand and was about to knock on the door when his hand frozen in midair. Given his years of experience, he suspected something amiss. Immediately, Dongwan was in alert mode and he hoisted up his gun, pushing the door slightly.

The door creaked open and as what Dongwan suspected, it was unlocked plus not close properly.

Dongwan held his breathe and pushed again, opening up the door. He quickly slipped inside when the door opened and hid in a corner.

Dongwan's breathing  quickened due to his heart beat.

The unit was silent. Faint sunlight entered the unit from the curtained windows. Although the lighting was not strong, it was sufficient for Dongwan to skim through the whole place. The door let out a high pitched creaking noise and it was stuck halfway while closing.

Dongwan took another deep breathe. Something was definitely not right. He felt his scalp itched and the smell that lingered was all too familiar to him. Being in this field for a decade, he knew that different scene emitted different bloody smell. Dongwan screamed in his heart!

Though there was a possibility that the murderer could still be here, Dongwan could not care much because he was afraid that Professor Cho had met with mishap. Dongwan tightened his grip  on his gun and went towards the source of the smell.

Jusy when Dongwan moved a few steps, he felt stickiness on the floor and he lowered his eyes. To Dongwan's horror, he saw straight bloody line from the kitchen and living room merged at his feet. The blood trail extended till a almost hidden door. Dongwan's heart had turned cold when he saw the blood trail. His fear was affirmed that Professor Cho was dead.

Dongwan fixed his gaze at the door and moved cautionly. He inched closer to the door and before he could turn the handle, he breathing stopped.

A bloody eye ball was stuck at the handle!

The blood veins of the eye ball was dripping droplet of blood and the iris was lifeless. There was a cut on the eye ball and one look, confirmed that it was caused by a knife.

Dongwan raised his face upwards to prevent the feeling of vomiting. He tore his sleeves and wrapped it over the eye ball. He turned the handle and kicked open the door, entered into the room while avoiding the puddle of blood.

A cold breeze came into the room through the small window. The window was not shut?

Dongwan quickly scanned the room and his sight landed at the corner.

"F***!" Dongwan cursed.

It was no doubt that Professor Cho was dead.

"Son of b****!" Dongwan gritted his teeth. If not for the fact that he had to preserve the scene for the forensic officers to examine, Dongwan would have stomped his feet at the chair near him.

Looking at the corpse handing at the wardrobe, Dongwan fished out his mobile phone and dialled. " Minwoo? Bring your team over. Professor Cho is murdered and his death was similar to Dr Jihoon but there is no trace of burnt here. The location is......"

Less than half an hour later, Professor Cho's unit was sealed off. Dongwan was smoking outside of the cordoned area while Minwoo and a few forensic officers were inside the crime scene.

After another half an hour or so, Minwoo emerged from the unit and joined Dongwan.

"The fatal wound was one at the left eye. It was so forceful that the knife not only pierce through the left eye and also into the left brain. Of course the other fatal blow was the one on the back."

Dongwan raised his head at Minwoo and he stumped out his cigarette before putting it into an ash pouch. "Is this the primary scene?"

"Based on the preliminary examination, this is the primary scene." Minwoo removed the latex gloves.

 "The murderer cleaned up the scene?" Bevause there should splatter of blood in the unit judging from the stab wounds on the eye ball and back. However only the neat blood trail was seen in the unit.

"I would say yes." Minwoo nodded.

"F***!" Dongwan kicked the lamp post angrily.

" You mentioned that you receive a call from Professor Cho? And you rushed here?" Minwoo could understand Dongwan's feeling now. Every time when there was new leads into the case, the murderer would alway be a step ahead. Causing the investigation to come to a dead end. It seemed as though the murderer was playing with the Authority.

"I reached here within 30 minutes after the call." Dongwan kicked the lamp post again. "If only I did not stop along the way to refuel."

Minwoo was looking at the footprints on the lamp post," From the way that Professor Cho was murdered till the scene was cleaned up, you might still be late even if you do not refuel along the way."

"Bastard!" Dongwan cracked his knuckles till a cracking sound was heard.

"What was Professor Cho calling you for?" Minwoo frowned.

"To talk about Dr Jihoon." Dongwan blurted out. Maybe Professor Cho discover crucial evidence to Dr Jihoon's case and so he called me, to speak with me.

"Jihoon..." Minwoo recounted the similarities. The deceased ' s left eye was severely damaged." If we assume it was the inhumane way of the murderer to dig out the left eye ball; the only difference between Professor Cho and Jihoon was that Professor Cho's body was in perfect condition whereas Jihoon's body was burnt. Do you think that the murderer had no time to burn Professor Cho's body or he had other motive?"

Dongwan closed his eyes," I suspect that the murderer had for eye balls. As for the burning part, Dr Jihoon suffered it because of betrayal. Professor Yoon's left hand was burnt because he was trying to reach out for something or he could have touch something. The only explanation for Professor Cho was that he did not know the murderer."

" I had similar thought as well." Minwoo patted Dongwan's shoulder.

Before Dongwan could respond, an officer emerged from the unit. He ran towards Dongwan in shock.

" Sunbae. Look at this." The officer handed over a notepad to Dongwan and Minwoo.

"What is this Jinnie?" Dongwan saw that the notepad had a few pages being torn off. Junjin took a pencil a rubbed on the notepad, revealing a contact number.

"We do not know what was the content on the torn pages. But seemed like the deceased exert more force when he wrote numbers and so the numbers could be seen despite the pages were torn off."

"You are saying... Professor Cho could have written something relating to the murderer. Hence when he killed Professor Cho, the pages were torn off?" Minwoo questioned.

Dongwan frowned," Have you trace the number?"

"Jongwoon is working on it." When Junjin finished, another officer ran out of the unit.

"Sir." Jongwoon was panting as he ran out.

"What is the result?" Dongwan wanted to know whom the numbers was traced to.

"The subscriber is Mr Eric Mun." Jongwoon reported.

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"What is it that you have to meet me so suddenly?" Hyesung emerged from the subway station and approached Dongwan. The latter was leaning against a pillar at the entrance of the station.

"Get into the vehicle first, then we will talk." Dongwan grabbed Hyesung's elbow and walked towards his vehicle.

"Yah!" Hyesung felt pain when he was grabbed by Dongwan.

 Dongwan parked his vehicle at a lot in the opposite street. After they crossed over the road and reached the vehicle, Dongwan released Hyesung. "Get in." Dongwan fished out the key and unlocked the vehicle.

Hyesung was grumbling and ignored Dongwan. He was checking on his arm.

"Yah! Get in!" Dongwan was already sitting on the driver seat and he peeped his head out to call for Hyesung.

Hyesung cradle his arm and gave Dongwan a dirty look. Hyesung was not going to comply with what Dongwan said.

The two of them started a staring competition. The fury glowing in Dongwan's eyes were scary and deadly. Another victim appeared before the series murder cases was solved and the modus operandi of the murderer was almost insane. All these made the impatient Dongwan having all his frustration pent up to the dangerous level and anytime, he could snap.

As for Hyesung, he was feeling that he was in a thick mist and he just could not figure his way out after searching for a long time.

After a low growl, Hyesung stared at Dongwan again before he walked off.

"Yah! Where do you think you are going!" Dongwan shouted from his vehicle.

Hyesung continued walking.

Dongwan quickly started the engine and drove off the lot slowly. He was driving near to Hyesung," Yah, get in quickly. I have a very important thing to tell you for me to call you out."

Hyesung just regarded Dongwan as a lunatic who was talking to himself. He continued walking and ignored Dongwan.

"Yah! Shin Hyesung!" Dongwan was cursing Hyesung as a b******.

It was unknown if the shouting was effective or Hyesung was pissed off to the max because Hyesung stopped walking. However, Hyesung turned around with his hands on his hips and shot deadly glances at Dongwan.

"Do you know you are a weirdo! Rude, y attitude, unreasonable...." Hyesung wanted to curse more at Dongwan but a sudden word from Dongwan made him stop.

"Professor Cho is dead."

"What!" Hyesung was stunned and it took him a few seconds to react.

"I am saying that Professor Cho is dead." Dongwan repeated slowly as he looked at Hyesung.

Hyesung continued to be shocked till he shook his head,"Stop joking and this is not funny!"

Hyesung just met Professor Cho earlier in the morning. No, in actual fact Hyesung and Eric met Professor Cho a few hours ago.

"How can I joke about something like this!" Dongwan clenched his fist and slammed at his steering wheel.

The smile on Hyesung's face frozen and he slapped his hand over his mouth, his face paled," You are saying... It's real?"

Dongwan nodded," Get in and I have something that I want to talk to you."

Hyesung was no longer being hard headed and quickly entered the vehicle. Hyesung was muttering," How could this happen? I just met Professor Cho this morning."

Dongwan tilted his head and looked at Hyesung. He could see that tears were forming in Hyesung's dark eyes," Professor Cho called me today. He mentioned that he needed to see me regardin an important matter and it was related to Dr Jihoon."

"Related to Jihoon hyung?" Hyesung raised his head.

Dongwan nodded," But by the time I reached, Professor Cho has been murdered. We found this at the crime scene."

Dongwan held onto the steering wheel with a hand and drove off from the parking lot while he reached to his shirt pocket and fished out a piece of paper. He passed it to Dongwan.

"A mobile number?" Hyesung spoke after he looked at the paper.

"Yes."

"Whose?"

"The murderer." Dongwan spoke plainly.

"Murderer?" Hyesung stared at the string of numbers again.

"My man, Jongwoon, checked and the subscriber of this number is Eric Mun." Dongwan stared at Hyeding for a while before he finished his sentence.

"You said.... Eric?" Hyesung was shocked and his mouth was gasping wide open.

"From what we both know, we knew one person with that name."

Hyesung gazed at Dongwan in a confused expression and after a short while, shook his head," You are saying that Eric is the murderer? So he murder Professor Cho? And Jihoon hyung was also killed by Eric?"

Dongwan's face turned grim and he nodded.

Hyesung let out a snort," Eric can never be the murderer!"

Dongwan was furious after hearing that," Why are you still defending him? Why can't you wake up to your sense till now?"

Hyesung did not wish to argue further," I can't stop you if you think this way. I just want to know the time that Professor Cho was murdered?"

"Minwoo mentioned that it was about half an hour before I arrived at Professor Cho's place."

"Because I was with Eric since morning before you call me out. If you said that Eric is the culprit for murdering Professor Cho, then I am the accomplice because I am the alibi to prove that Eric is not the murderer."

"You...." Dongwan gritted his teeth and cursed in his breathe. Eric Mun was the prime suspect but Dongwan would not believe that Hyesung was the accomplice.

"Eric and me visited Profesdor Cho's place today. I brought him there to talk to Professor Cho." Hyesung did not reveal the part about Eric's sleep walking because it was Eric's private matter which it was not wise to reveal to a third party.

"Talk to Professor Cho?" Dongwan raised his eyebrow, feeling weird on what they could talk about.

"Yes, Eric was feeling tremendous stress and since Professor Cho is a renounced expert in this area."

Dongwan rubbed his chin before he spoke again," The murderer tore away some pages from Professor Cho's note pad. I suspect that Professor Cho wrote something very crucial and maybe some clues for the series murder cases like the identity of the murderer. Else why did the murderer has to tear away the pages."

"Your deductions are sound and logical but what does it got to do with Eric's mobile number?" Hyesung lowered his head and stared at the numbers again.

"Because the piece of paper that you are holding was from the notepad too. The next page from those pages that were torn off. We shaded it and knew that Eric Mun's mobile number was on the pages that were torn away which was part of the crucial content."

Hyesung was speechless after hearing Dongwan and started to ask," Could it be a coincident?"

"Coincident?" Dongwan snorted.

"Professor Cho and Eric chatted. Maybe Professor Cho happen to scribble down Eric's mobile number so as to contact him in future." Hyesung believed that it was a logical explanation.

"So you mention that the two of them chatted. So there should a record of the conversation between a psychiatrist and patient?" Dongwan suspected that the murderer torn away the content of their conversation.

The most important point was : What was Professor Cho wanting to speak to Dongwan about. Just what was the thing that was so urgent for Professor to call Dongwan suddenly?

"Of course." Hyesung realized that something was amiss," No matter what you said, I am sticking to my view! Eric can never be the murdrrer!"

No! It could not be! Hyesung was repeating silently to himself but unknowingly his confidence was starting to shake.