There are horrors, and then there are tragedies...

It took me only fifteen minutes to reach the address I had gotten from Sungyeol earlier.

Parking my car at a suitable spot, I walked towards the crowd. They were gathered around the mouth of a wide alleyway, flanked on both sides by creaky buildings that were used as storage spaces. Since it was still early, the crowd was pretty thin, consisting of a few early risers and joggers. There were police cars parked here and there and I saw a uniformed policeman speaking into his radio beside one of them. I made my way through the crowd, pushing a few people in the process.

When I reached the yellow tape, always an ominous sign, that was keeping the curious onlookers at bay, I ducked underneath it, ignoring the disbelieving look the man next to me was sending my way, as if he expected the police to shoo me away any moment, as they had done to him, no doubt.

I however strode on unchallenged, nodding in response to the salutes from the busy policemen. When I reached almost midway of the alley, I found a group of non-uniformed people hunched over what undoubtedly was the victim. I went up to a tall man in a grey overcoat and tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to twist around. When he saw me, his scowling face wore a smile of relief and he shoved the man next to him, making him and the rest of the people around the victim aware of my presence.

“Morning,” Sungyeol said happily, the professional tone from earlier in the morning disappearing.

“How’s it going?” The man next to him, Dongwoo, nodded at me with a grin.

“Not bad,” I said, as I stepped closer and they parted to make room for me. “What do we have here?”

I was afforded a view of the victim, sprawled on the concrete. His eyes were closed and there was a dark hole at the center of his forehead, the circumference of which was matted with blood. His mouth was agape. It was quite a handsome face, and I thought I spied traces of smudged dark eyeliner. His hair was light brown, no doubt dyed, since his features were oriental. But I couldn’t be too sure. He was well dressed in a black designer T-shirt, with spikes protruding from his shoulders, complete with matching pants and converse. Definitely taller than me, he looked well-built and despite his paleness, he seemed fit.

Two photographers were earnestly taking pictures of the victim from every angle. I was surprised to find them there – it had been at least forty-five minutes since Sungyeol called me; usually the photographers finished their job early.

I looked at Sungyeol questioningly, who shook his head wearily.

“Jiyoon-ssi dropped by, claiming this was under her jurisdiction. She halted our work for at least forty minutes, arguing about it. Finally, I had to call the Captain. Then she left, giving me filthy looks. We just started working about ten minutes ago.”

Sungyeol rolled his eyes and now I realized why he had talked so formally with me over the phone. Yoo Jiyoon was an excellent detective, but anyone who knew her personally called her ‘crazy-lady’. It was rude, but not too far from the truth. Impulsive and stubborn, even more so than Sungyeol, it was every detective’s worst nightmare to have Jiyoon interfere in their cases. She was very difficult to be gotten rid of, and impossible to work with.

I congratulated Sungyeol on getting rid of Jiyoon and stood back, allowing the photographers, Junhong and Yonghwa to finish their jobs. Dongwoo, the forensic pathologist, was waiting for his turn at the body. He was an amiable man with closely cropped dark hair. He was shorter than me at least by a head but what he lacked in height more than made up in his amicable nature.

“You look like you haven’t slept well,” Dongwoo commented, the smile never leaving his face.

Sungyeol’s attention was immediately on us, eager for the gossip. At a height of 6 feet, Sungyeol commanded an impressive figure and a handsome face. However, whatever blessing he had gotten on his appearance seemed to have been discounted from his personality. He was usually good-natured but his greatest fault lied in his whining and often whimsical personality. When something attracted his attention, he would be deeply immersed in it but sadly, his interested didn’t last very long and before long, he would be complaining about how difficult his life was. Aside from that, he was intent on the gossip and was extremely nosy. All in all, he was an amusing, albeit a bit tedious to deal with at times, person to work with.

“On the contrary, I slept really well. Do you know who he is?” I asked Sungyeol.

“Preliminary search didn’t yield any ID, but one of the constables here,” he motioned towards the uniformed police, “identified him as Kris, a model, apparently. She didn’t know his real name though.”

Model seemed like a believable occupation for the victim, going by his looks and clothes. My mind was instantly transported to three years ago, when I had been a junior detective. There was a case where a female model had been killed by her employer because she was getting old too quickly and terminating the contract early would have caused her employer to lose a lot of money. The primary suspect though had been her boyfriend. He wondered if Kris was also another model who had gained weight or lost popularity and thus had been slaughtered, like cattle.

My stomach squirmed as the photographers cleared out and Dongwoo pushed forward to do his job. I bent down as well, with Sungyeol by my side.

“Time of death?”

Dongwoo was busy examining the corpse and we waited patiently for him to be done. In the meantime, I donned on the gloves Sungyeol had passed me. Together, we searched Kris methodically.

Just as the first, the second search produced no wallet, no identification, no cellphone.

“Between 1 and 4 am I’d say,” Dongwoo finally answered. “I’ll probably be able to narrow it down once I get to the lab.”

“He was found around 5 am by a storage worker,” Sungyeol supplied.

“I see,” I said, biting my lips.

It wouldn’t be too difficult to identify him – if he was indeed a model, he would be all over the internet. What was bothering me though was the lack of blood at the site. I crouched down close to the ground, to check behind the body but was met with grey concrete and no blood.

“Do you think he was killed here?”

Dongwoo whistled.

“Nope. Blood is almost nonexistent and he had received two fatal injuries.”

“Obviously he has been dragged here after the murder,” a new voice chimed in, followed by a tall order of Americano shoved in front of my face.

“Coffee?” I twisted around to find my partner, Woohyun, beaming at me. He was holding his own Americano in the other hand.

“Dragged?” I asked, accepting the coffee. Dragging a person as tall and well-built as Kris couldn’t have been an easy task.

Woohyun silently pointed to the hem of Kris’ jeans, which were threadbare and clinging onto dirt.

“He has post-mortem injuries around his heels and calves too to prove that he had been dragged, and not too gently,” Dongwoo agreed.

Woohyun had arrived just now and within a second he had made an important observation – my admiration for him couldn’t have been greater. He was a senior detective, and when I had been assigned as his partner, I had expected to deal with a large ego, despite me knowing him beforehand. However, once I started working together, I found Woohyun to be a pleasant person, albeit greasy at times; but I honestly enjoyed his company and his brilliance. He singlehandedly had taught me most of the things I had learned about homicide investigation and never bullied me for my lack of experience.

“Then the murder site can’t be too far away,” I observed, trying not to disappoint my mentor and my partner. “It’s not easy to drag a dead weight from one place to another.”

Woohyun sent an approving smile my way, before crouching down beside me. Sungyeol however, looked sour.

“You know I love Americano, and yet you never bring one for me,” he said accusingly, staring straight at Woohyun, who was looking at the victim.

“Didn’t your doctor tell you not to have coffee anymore? You still have those heart problems, right?”

That shut up Sungyeol, who gaped and then dropped his eyes to the victim.

“It could be a case of robbery,” I told Woohyun. “All his valuables are missing.”

“Not all his valuables – look at that.”

Woohyun pointed towards Kris’ right fingers and I saw what I had missed the first time – a plain silver ring with a small stone in the middle gleamed in the early morning sunlight.

Sungyeol didn’t look too impressed though.

“Could be a knock-off, he’s a model after all.”

“I’ve done enough ring shopping to know a knock-off from a real diamond.”

With a jolt I remembered that Woohyun had almost got married; he’d know all about wedding rings.

“So not a robbery, but it was made to look like it,” I mused out loud.

“Possibly,” Woohyun replied, shrugging. “And we’re probably looking for a jacket or coat too.”

When Sungyeol looked at him quizzically, he added, “It was extremely cold last night, I don’t want to believe he had gone out wearing just a flimsy T-shirt.”

“As much as I love detectives at work, can we take him away now?” Dongwoo asked impatiently. “He had been out here for too long. All I can tell you for now is that he had been shot on the forehead and also hit behind the head with, most probably, a blunt instrument. I don’t know which one killed him.”

I looked at Woohyun, who nodded, so I told them that they could take him away. We backed away from the body, Sungyeol extricating his notebook and pen from the pocket of his overcoat, while a few people wearing blue overalls that claimed ‘Morgue Staff’ came forward to take our place.

“Sungyeol, we need to ID him positively. And get hold of family and friends, and also his workplace. Find everything you can about him. And get a canvas out around this place for witnesses, although it’s unlikely you’ll find one.”

I looked at Woohyun to see if he’d add any other instructions but he shook his head and dismissed Sungyeol, who stalked off, his overcoat billowing in the cold wind.

“That’s a new overcoat he’s gotten,” Woohyun observed as he sipped his coffee. “Expensive, fashionable. Is he trying to impress someone? Maybe it was a gift.”

We had started walking to where I had parked my car earlier. I found it confusing that despite the amount of attention Woohyun definitely gave Sungyeol, he treated him with a slightly cold demeanor. Coming from a generally warm person like Woohyun, it was a mystery indeed, especially since…

“You know he likes you, right?” I voiced my internal confusion as we got into the car.

Securing the belt in place, he took another long sip from the polystyrene cup, avoiding eye contact. I the ignition.

“I don’t understand, you definitely care about him, you just don’t express it in front of him. What’s stopping you?” My eyes were fixed on the road as I maneuvered around the police cars to get to the high way, my Americano cold by now. “Is it because he’s a colleague? It hasn’t stopped you before.”

Through the corner of my eyes, I saw Woohyun start. I bit my tongue, knowing that I had crossed a line. I didn’t know what had come over me; it wasn’t like me to say something like that. It wasn’t my place to speak for Sungyeol; he had never asked me to either.

The tension in the car was thick enough to be cut with a knife. Woohyun sat tight-lipped, holding his coffee cup loosely in his hands and staring out of the window. I didn’t dare take another look at him – I wondered if I should apologise.

“I’m really sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Woohyun said, turning to look at me. He had an understanding smile on his face and I was very grateful that we understood each other in a way. “How’s Sunggyu?” he added.

Now that was both a question and an answer. It meant we were not to talk about Sungyeol’s interest towards him again because…

“He’s fine. He was agitated last night though, but Sungjong got him to calm down.”

My partner sighed audibly.

“What happened?”

I shrugged.

“The usual. He threw a tantrum. I went to bed but Sungjong had to stay up late.”

He nodded, fiddling with the knobs of the sound system in my car. He the radio, heard Tell me why by TwoHeart playing, and changed the channel, settling on the news station and lowering the volume. I could tell though that he wasn’t interested in the news, he seemed to be preparing to tell me something.

“Maybe you should take a vacation you know, you and Sungjong. You have earned it, and God knows Sungjong deserves it. Caring for Sunggyu must be taking a toll on your relationship.”

I thought about what he said – between my demanding job and Sungjong caring for Sunggyu hyung, we hadn’t been able to spend quality time together. Even though my boyfriend had never complained about it, I felt bad. Sunggyu hyung was my brother, therefore my responsibility. It wasn’t fair that I expected Sungjong to care for him all day, no matter how willing he was.

A vacation sounded good – we needed some time to ourselves. But there was the question about Sunggyu hyung – Sungjong would never agree to sending him to a care facility. When I raised the issue, Woohyun started to squirm in his seat. After a moment, he said, embarrassedly, “Maybe I can look after him.”

It was a good thing that we were stuck in traffic jam, because the moment he said it, I turned towards him, forgetting to steer the wheel.

“You?”

“Yeah,” he replied nonchalantly, trying not to show how nervous he was but he was beating his finger on his knee, as his eyes roved around, not concentrating on anything particular. “Maybe – I’ve been thinking that if I spend more time with him, maybe he’ll remember, well, maybe it’ll all come back to him – about us.”

I didn’t reply directly. What had leaped to my tongue was a disappointing answer, the fact that the doctor had said Sunggyu hyung would find it difficult to remember, let alone feel the same, about his past relationships. Hyung and I lived in the same house, and yet our relationship was as vague as ever. But telling Woohyun all this didn’t seem like the right thing to do. Instead, I brought up another practical problem.

“With both of us gone from the office-”

“There still would be Sungyeol, Hana, Youngjae, and there’s supposed to be a new detective coming in today, it’ll be fine.”

I didn’t reply. I knew that even though Woohyun sounded calm, underneath he was desperate. I could sympathise with how he felt but I wasn’t sure it’d be a good idea; after all, the therapist had said that we had to be careful with Sunggyu hyung and take baby steps. I didn’t say that to Woohyun though.

“I’ll think about it, speak with Sungjong…”

Woohyun let out a long sigh.

“Tell me about the victim.”

His voice had changed to professional. It meant we were going to now focus on the work at hand. I filled him in on what little I had learned from Sungyeol.  He took in the information, draining his cup and shutting his eyes. That was what he did when he was analyzing information.

I drove on, thinking about Sunggyu hyung and Woohyun. Sunggyu was luckier, in my opinion; he didn't have to deal with his past. It was Woohyun I felt sorry for.