-A few days later-

“Still the same cause of death. Suffocation with traces around the neck and the signature signed with socks tied into a bow around the neck. Must have got quite a bunch of time in his hand. Seriously, I can’t believe it’s already the fifth victim now.” Wendy, one of the forensic officers, said as she passed an autopsy report to Yuri.

“Thanks.” Yuri received it from Wendy with a slight nod.

**

The police station was in hectic chaos. Phones ringing from the media, feet shuffling from table to table in hopes of getting clues of catching the criminal. After the first victim, more had followed. Even more outrageous was as if the criminal was proud of his masterpieces and creating more.

The only shreds of evidence they got were that the murderer was male since he managed to tackle his victims without much struggle and the absolute evidence of a ual assault. Although there was DNA from his ion of , the only database they had were the criminal records, yet it held no identity to the culprit as the culprit was not in it. A first-timer. Which means, a first-timer. An amateur. Yuri thought.

Meanwhile, Taeyeon was Taeyeon (calm). She showed no indifference with her affection towards Jonghyun. Although she had pure siblings-like affection for him, Jonghyun had not felt the same. All this evident to the staff at the police station. No one said anything. Just because they are too good of a pair to be judged.

Hmm... These locations of the attacks are all spread out but...

Jonghyun broke Taeyeon's thoughts and said, “All in the same neighborhood. That narrows down our search, doesn’t it?”

“Nope. Who knows the criminal has a grudge with females in this neighborhood. The location doesn’t help at all.” Taeyeon replied.

“But perhaps we could know how the girls were related to him?” Jonghyun suggested.

“Not how. Why he chose them.” Taeyeon corrected Jonghyun.

**

Yuri was frustrated over the scarce clues she got from each murder. I am the best detective. No one messes with me and gets away with it.

She went back to the crime scene where the third victim was; the one where she was first called in, and search all over the house again.

The pipes. It was tampered with, most likely caused by the murderer himself. Perhaps I should look for clues outside of the house instead. Where would be the most suitable hiding spot?

Stepping on the garden tiles outside of the house, she turned her head from left to right.

Fence. Trees. House 1. Street 1. House 2. House 3. Street 2. Trees.

The trees completely block out the view of what’s behind it at night. In broad daylight, it’s hard not to spot anyone along the streets as well. Whoever that might be, he’s good at disguising to achieve his goal.

**

At the police station, Jonghyun muttered aloud, “Wonder who those girls were to be targeted at.”

“Let’s just find out before all the females are dead in that neighborhood.” Taeyeon simply stated.

Jonghyun spread out the file records of the victims, with all the faces visible, and basic details not overlapped. “The first victim, Lee Si Young, aged 32. Occupation, shopkeeper. Marital status, married. No criminal records or blacklisting. Husband Lee Tae Sung also has no records, nor grudges, nor any bad habits. Just a typical businessman. He reported to the police that he was out on a business trip to Japan before that, and when he came home, he just found his wife in that state. The dead body was already left on his bed for about two days. He is currently in the care of counseling.”

Taeyeon nodded, signaling Jonghyun to move on as she sipped on a carton of banana milk. She did not like reading, and hence, have her assistant summarise for her.

Jonghyun continued, “The second victim, Lee Chae Young, aged 9. An only child in the family. Both parents had no issues with anyone. The parents left the child at home alone for work. When they came back from work, they found the corpse in the child’s bedroom.”

Taeyeon whispered loud enough for just herself to hear, “Even a child…”

Jonghyun then paused, and said, “The third victim, the one which we were then called upon to is Yoon Soojung, aged 25. Occupation, a medical student. Marital status, single. An orphan. Shim Bora, the neighbor, found her when she was delivering lunch for Yoon Soojung. The time when she was discovered was around 12:30 pm and the time of death was around 10:30 am. This killer got the patience to carefully plan the murder when these victims were alone.”

Taeyeon then smiled and simply said, “Yeah, which will give us more clues about why he chose those girls. They were easy targets when they are alone at home.”

Jonghyun then coughed slightly, “The fourth victim, isn’t a girl anymore. Nam Yoon Jung, aged 58. Occupation retired. She was ually assaulted and strangled by her scarf, and the bow was the scarf used to suffocate her and tied around the neck. Her children found the body when they were back home from work. Her husband was dead 20 years ago, so I doubt he could be resurrected and killed her.”

“The murder made such a scene so that we would know that the person behind it is not someone in the family. That helps us.” Taeyeon chuckled to herself.

Jonghyun continued, “And here comes our fifth victim. Patricia Bissette. Aged 19. She’s a tourist traveling alone. She was found inside her room in an inn and killed with her bathrobe belt. The murderer left the bow around her neck with the bathrobe belt as well. The hotel housekeeper staff found the body. Despite her being in an inn, no CCTV caught the guy. It seems like some of the CCTVs were just for display, but not in real use to save cost.”

Taeyeon then made a laugh again. “Ha! He even knows the inn doesn’t use all the CCTVs and managed to avoid those in use.”

Jonghyun curiously asked, “Does that even mean anything?”

Taeyeon laughed louder again and explained, “He’s someone working in the inn, or somehow got in as a staff, he’ll leave some clues. A criminal can always run, but can never hide.”

Jonghyun nodded, “So where do we start to find him?”

Taeyeon smiled, “We start from the girls’ daily routine. To catch a criminal, we need to be a criminal.”

Jonghyun corrected, “Females. Not just girls.”

Taeyeon turned to Jonghyun and said, “Yes. Females.”

**

“Yuri~” Siwon called out at his childhood friend.

“Yeah?” Yuri continued to observe, ignoring Siwon.

“Why are you starting from the third victim’s house, not the first?”

“Just because.”

“What?”

“I found some clues last time I came. Didn’t I?”

“You mean the pipes?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“The man disguised as a plumber to fix his own doing, allowing himself to come into the house inviting. And knowing the victim would be alone in the house and undisturbed for quite some time, he assaulted our third victim.”

“Bravo! And so, our Mr. Killer is?”

“I only manage to trace his pattern, but not to his identity yet, Siwon. I’m not Ms. Voila.”

“Okay okay… Anyways, your coffee. Americano with no sugar.” Siwon handed Yuri a takeaway cup.

“Thanks.” Yuri sipped a little of the coffee and walked away to her car.

“You’re done here already?”

“Not quite. Just going to have a drive around the neighborhood and see where else we can see the victim’s house.”

**

“Let’s gather all the information we can get on the victims,” Taeyeon said.

“Yes, Madam!” Jonghyun saluted half-jokingly.

Taeyeon then approached him and pinched his cheeks. “As lovable as ever!”

-7 hours later-

“Here’s everything we got.” Lay handed Taeyeon the documents he gathered from the acquaintances and families of the victims, including workplaces, and schools or in one special case, kindergarten.

“So… where do we begin with?” Lay asked Taeyeon. Doubting Taeyeon’s method of solving the case without even leaving a step out of the police station.

The first step, look for any patterns in the victims. Their names don’t match, nor do their appearances. Their preference for clothes perhaps? Something in their appearance, or something that can be observed… All of the victims were murdered when they were alone at home. That’s the starting point.

“Start from their daily routines. The murderer knew that they were going to be alone at times of death. Sort them according to the time slots, and we’ll also get some idea about the murderer.” Taeyeon said as she began writing days and times of the week, as well as the names of the victims on a big whiteboard in the meeting room.

The three then set out to look through the timetables they have of the victims, the testimonies of those who know the victims, and the habits of their victims. Even when a tiny habit of morning jog of Lee Si Young became a vital clue as to what their criminal might be planning for her.

**

Seated at a table in a small café, Yuri and Siwon were taking a break and also thinking of all other possibilities that could help in solving the case.

“Tomorrow morning at 8? Sure. Call me when you’ve arrived.” A customer was talking into the phone while queuing for her order.

Just then, Yuri and Siwon looked at each other. A café?

Knowing Taeyeon’s way of solving cases mostly in the police station instead of stepping out, Yuri knew she had no choice but to contact Taeyeon.

Just then, Yuri’s phone rang. Yuri knowing who it might be, quickly received the call.

“Some of the victims were in Miracles café frequently? What relation does it have?” Yuri asked the caller.

“Alright, I got it. Can you check the usual routes of the other victims as well? They might pass by the café and became targets just innocently like that.” Yuri continued to say.

Yuri got up her seat and gestured Siwon to get up as well, signaling for them to go somewhere else.

Sitting in her driver seat, Yuri got out a town map from the compartment of the side door. Miracles café... Where is it... By overhearing people’s conversations and just basic observations… The murderer would be able to know of the victims’ whereabouts just from the uniforms of the victims, and overhearing conversations of the victims with their colleagues or from phone calls with their family and friends… All the information just comes right into his hand without him stalking outside their house every single day before he strikes.

Siwon sitting in the passenger seat pointed right at where the café is. Yuri quickly scanned through the route she will take and kept the map. Putting on their seatbelts, they were headed off to the location.

**

Back in the police station, Taeyeon was giving out instructions. “Mark each victim with a different color. Each map for each day of the week. Do not make any mistakes. I’ll take the first and second victims. Jonghyun, take the third and fourth. Lay, take the fifth. Now let’s get to work.”

It was time-consuming trying to find out which are the serial killer would target next. He was clever and cunning. Even though the victims might not follow their usual routines towards their destinations, the culprit knew where they would be at a certain time of a day. It did not matter which route they took, because the victim was bound to be at their schedule without special circumstances.

**

To keep his victim at home even when there is a schedule, all he had to do was temper with the utilities, just like the third victim. Then disguising himself as a repairman, he easily gains access into the house when the victim is surely alone.

Yuri thought to herself as they stepped into Miracles Café. The café was loaded with people as it was around time for high tea. People were chatting, gossiping, some were still doing work on laptops with a cup of coffee but eyes never off the screen when they sip a mouthful of the caffeinated drink.

In that case, only a small portion of the information is enough for him to plan everything out. But why did he do this? Just to them out of desire? Without aiming for beautiful and young girls out there, he was just aiming for any girl or perhaps… girls who are staying close to him. But so far, the locations of deaths are all more than 5 km away from each other.

When there were finally no customers, Yuri stood up, signaling Siwon to follow her to the cashier to continue their investigation.

“Excuse me, I am Kwon Yuri, a private detective involved in solving a murder case with the police.” Yuri showed her official document to the waitress at the cashier. “A serial murder,” Yuri added casually.

“Y-yes?” The waitress was a bit startled by her identity and purpose.

“I would like to ask for the CCTV footage here in your shop for the past 4 weeks,” Yuri said while pointing to the security cameras on the ceiling.

“S-sorry de-detective, the cameras are fake. Our boss put it there for a display to save cost.”

“You got to be kidding me. A café of such a good reputation with so many customers but no surveillance cameras?” Siwon said a bit loudly. Fortunately, there were no customers in the shop to overhear the conversation.

“In that case, can you ask all of the workers here whether they remember seeing these females or not?” Yuri handed a set of photos of the victims to the waitress. Those were photos of the victims in a good shape, not of those when they were first discovered to be dead.

**

Taeyeon then suddenly realized something. They were totally on a different track.

Why was I even trying to predict the next victim when I can just track him down with the trails he left from the past victims?! Perhaps there would be a pattern in his routes that he passed by. Perhaps getting a license plate would make it even easier!

“Lay, get me CCTV footages of the roads 20 km radius of the locations of each victims’ houses on the day of their deaths.”

Without asking for the purpose, Lay quickly moved out of Taeyeon’s office. Although there were no CCTVs in the residential areas, he knew there were CCTVs on the bigger roads of the city and went to search for those.

**

Yuri and Siwon waited for that waitress to call the other workers at the café and watched them circling, discussing with whispers and sometimes, gasps.

After some time, they seemed to have come with a conclusion as one of the workers stepped in front of Yuri and Siwon. Wearing short sleeves and long pants with ragged hands, the worker with ponytail hair seemed to be a cleaner of the café with a nametag ALICE pinned to her shirt.

“I recognize this customer. She’s the most regular customer here, and quite polite too. I haven’t seen her for quite a while. Is…. Is… she dead?” Alice asked while trying to keep herself calm from the news.

“Yes, actually, for a week already,” Siwon stated casually.

“Ah- Ah, I see…” Alice lowered her head and said a silent prayer.

“So, can you tell us more about Lee Siyoung?” Yuri asked.

Alice raised her head to meet Yuri’s eyes and said, “She would always order some cranberry muffins and a cup of latte. Then she would always sit at that window seat over there.” Alice pointed at a window seat in the café, which was facing parallel with the roads outside.

“Then, she would be reading the newspapers for about an hour before she leaves.”

Yuri nodded, and asked, “Does she always come alone?”

“No, she comes with some colleagues of hers, not the same number of people every time, so I can’t remember who they are. And how many.”

“Does she talk aloud?”

“No.”

“So, she speaks softly?”

“No, she speaks just right.”

Pondering, Yuri requested Alice to talk in the tone Lee Siyoung would, to confirm the softness of the voice. “Thank you, Alice. One last question, was there anyone suspicious in the café in the last few weeks before her death?”

“No…. I don’t think so.”

“How about any customers who always sit close to her? I’m sure there are quite many regular customers in your café.”

**

A man stood in front of a mirror and admired his looks. No doubt, he’s charming. He smirked. Lucky to have this look indeed. Girls just come right into my hand… Literally.

After putting on clothes, he stepped out of the bathroom. Funny how the police haven’t even caught me yet. But one day without being caught, one other day I get to f*** another one. Ah, the work of makes life interesting.

He hunched over a notebook placed on a tabletop and scanned through his scribble. Everything is in place for my next work of art.

**

“Sorry, I am not sure, hundreds of customers come and go every day, we can’t possibly know the details.” Alice dropped her head.

“True…” Yuri murmured.

Yuri thanked Alice for her assistance and left the café, heading towards Siyoung’s company to look for Siyoung’s colleagues.

**

The mysterious man took his toolbox and car keys, wore his plumber company’s hat, and left the place.

Initiating the engine, he hummed along with the song playing on the radio in his car and left his house.

**

Siwon barged through the office doors and went over to the receptionist. “We are looking for Lee Siyoung’s colleagues.”

Yuri walked over and pushed Siwon aside. “Pardon me, we are private investigators for Lee Siyoung’s case.”

Showing her documentation, the receptionist nodded and regained attention on both of them. “Every worker here is a colleague of Lee Siyoung, so… it might take some time to gather everyone…”

Yuri shook her head and quickly said, “Not all the colleagues. The colleagues she is- was close to. Thank you.”

“Ah…” The receptionist nodded and dialed some numbers on her telephone next to her. “Can the two of you please wait in the meeting room? It’s straight in and on your left.”

“Sure.” The two of them left the reception desk and sat down comfortably in the meeting room.

“How can we be sure that those colleagues know anyone about Lee Siyoung’s case when even her husband doesn’t know?” Siwon asked Yuri questioningly.

“How can you be sure that Lee Siyoung would tell her husband every trivial little thing that went on in her life?” Yuri argued.

“Well, when WE get married, I want YOU to tell me every single happening in your life,” Siwon smirked.

“First off, who said we are going to get married? Aish…” Yuri turned away from Siwon.

**

A plumber’s job is to repair the broken pipes, check and confirm they are fixed and leave. However, Lee Jongsuk wasn’t just a plumber; risking his identity on his name card and time on work shifts, he could not fight against his desire and arousal but to violate females’ bodies.

His ual drives were simply from influence since young. His father was a drunkard. He had a stable job, but stress fought him out and he began drinking. The alcohol intake caused his father to be abusive to his mother. Physically torturing his mother who he thought looked like a witch, bringing es to the house and taught him right in front of his eyes. His childhood was filled with memories of his father’s ion and the es’ gasping in . His mother died from the abuse his father inflicted, but his father was not sentenced to imprisonment, just because he had planned for it to look like it was an accident, and made him gave false testimonials. However, after his father died of old age, he had wanted to inherit something from his father; his father had left him no money or property. Thus, the only belonging he still had, was the memories of , , and more .

**

The door swung open and close colleagues with Lee Siyoung came in the meeting room in a single file, all seemingly nervous to meeting Yuri and Siwon. There were four of them; three females, one male.

“Calm down guys, and girls,” Siwon winked at the female colleague and continued, “we are not suspecting you people to be the murderers,” Siwon said as he propped his leg up, making himself comfortable.

All the colleagues all released a gasp of relief and were whispering among themselves.

“But, first of all, who last saw Lee Siyoung before she was murdered?” Yuri said in a serious tone.

“All four of us.” One of the male colleagues said as he adjusted his tie. The male colleague was wearing a dark navy suit and striped blouse with black pants, a name tag “Benjamin” was pinned to his outer clothing. A typical worker.

“However, on that day, I had an important meeting to attend on that day and I left halfway eating.” The female colleague quickly stated, wanting to get out of the meeting room as soon as possible.

Yuri glanced at the male colleagues, looking at their name tags, and back to their faces, she asked, “Benjamin, Daniel, and Johnny, let’s say this was Lee Siyoung’s seat at the café.” Yuri pointed her seat, and gesturing a portion of the long table in the meeting room to be the table in the café, she questioned, “Where were you three sitting at and where was the exit of the café?”

“I was sitting here,” Benjamin moved forward and pointed an imaginary seat left to Yuri, “and the exit was directly behind me.” Daniel and Johnny then quickly pointed at two imaginary seats on Yuri’s right side.

Yuri nodded, and questioned further, “After answering this question, you three may leave. Were there anyone sitting near your tables for the whole time?”

The three guys looked at each other questioningly and were confounded. They shook their heads.

Yuri nodded and let them return to work.

After the doors closed, Hyorin widened her eyes, as if realizing something. She’s the only one in the room.

“I know you are not the murderer, I just trust females’ intuition and observation more. I guess you noticed something?” Yuri calmly asked.

“I was just thinking about the day we gathered together at the café…I don’t know if any of this is of significance…” Hyorin said while reminiscing.

“Miss Hyorin…Everything you tell us is important and it would help if you remember anything from that day…” Yuri said rather impatiently.

“I don't really- “

“Miss Hyorin… If you aren’t going to tell us everything you remembered that day… A whole lot of females in this town is going to be dead because of you… “Yuri said sounding very serious.

Noticing that Hyorin got intimidated with the comment, Siwon gave Yuri a glaring look without even talking…Siwon grabbed Yuri’s hand just before she was about to leave.

“Sit down and let me handle this…” Siwon told her calmly but still glaring at Yuri.

“She’s not going to tell us anything Oppa…It’s a waste of time…” She uttered under her breath only to let Siwon hear her.

“Just sit down and calm yourself…Like I said…I’ll handle this”

As Yuri sat back down contemplating whether it was a good choice or not, Siwon started talking to Hyorin calmly with a hint of a smile on his face.

“Miss Hyorin, I’d like you to close your eyes and calm yourself…Just listen to my voice. What do you remember about that day?”

As Hyorin was calming herself down and closing her eyes, she started picturing the café that day.

“There were a lot of people around that time, it was a lunch rush… everyone started sitting down all at once and ordering… we had our small talks along the way… I remember Siyoung talking about her house having a pipe leakage…and…” She suddenly shot her eyes open.

“And??” Yuri asked sounding interested.

“I… I… I remembered this tall and skinny but quite an attractive guy sitting just behind us… He was writing stuff on a notepad and smiling…we locked eyes with each other and he smiled back at me while resuming to write”

Siwon looked at Yuri smiling as if he’s waiting for a compliment.

“Miss Hyorin, thank you for your cooperation. We’d like you to go to the police station and give a brief description of the guy you talked about. We’ll take our leave now.”

We’ve got you now Mister Serial Killer, there’ll be no more victims for you to kill and I’ll bet my life on it.

**

“We’ve run through all the footage of the CCTV and found something rather unusual… there was a car with a fake license plate… It might be him…” Jonghyun told Taeyeon.

“Let me see it…” Taeyeon walks over to Jonghyun’s table and analyzes the footage carefully.

God damn it…we’ve only got the license plate and no facial recognition… This guy knows where the cameras are located. Let’s see if she has any leads on the case.

As she dialed her number and got through… The other end was silent.

“Yuri… Have you had any leads on the case?” Taeyeon asked politely.

“…”

“Look here Yuri if you have any leads on this I need to know…” She asked feeling concerned.

“Text me the plate number… I’ll check it on my end…”

“How did you- “

“And Taeyeon… Stay out of this… It’s my case… I never agreed on working with you…” And the call ended just like that.

Still boastful as ever Kwon Yuri…

**

-A couple of hours down the road-

“So, did you find out anything?” Siwon asked while reviewing the case in the car.

“I just got a call from Taeyeon, she just got the driver's plate and some footage.”

“You know… you guys should probably make- “

“Whatever you’re going to say Oppa, you better phrase it nicely before I throw you out of the car.”

“Whatever you say, you know what… I won’t pry anymore...” Siwon sighed at the comment Yuri gave.

“Call Wendy for me, let’s see whether they got a match from the description Hyorin gave earlier.”

**

“Detective… we have a match on the description Miss Hyorin gave us earlier. He is currently working under a plumbing company by the name Lee JongSuk.” Wendy explained to Taeyeon.

“Alright, I need you to help me verify the license plate number- “

“I already got them from Miss Taeyeon earlier,” Wendy replied.

Trying to sound very calm. “Okay, I need you to look at all footage. I have a feeling that he’s going to strike real soon.”

“I’m on it already…I’ve been going through every footage from a few hours ago.”

“Alright, send me the location when you find the license plate and- “

“I found the car…Detective… He’s on the move, I’ll send you the location right now.”

“Alright, I’ll be on my way, send back up. This guy isn’t going to kill another soul…not on my watch.” Yuri hung up the phone and sped through the road.

**

“Noona, I’ve found out where he is right now… He’s on the move now.”

“Let’s move out, Jonghyun-ah,” Taeyeon replied while slurping down her milk.

We got you now, you bastard. No more killing innocent women and girls.

**

As soon as Yuri pulled over at the house, both Yuri and Siwon quietly approach the house.

“You be my backup Oppa… In case the police were to come over.” Yuri whispered.

“Are you sure you’re going to be ok??”

“Yes, I will be, that’s why I brought this.” Showing Siwon her gun that was a Colt.

“You better be careful in there…”

As she entered the dark empty house, she suddenly heard a muffled scream. They’re upstairs…This is bad…He’s going to finish her off… Yuri quickly ran up to the 2^nd floor into the room just to be shown the bed covered with blood.

“Hands in the air Lee JongSuk…” Yuri commanded.

“Finally, someone caught up with me, took you long enough.” Lee JongSuk smirked leaving the stone-cold body. “And there’s going to be 6 women now that will die in my hands” He chuckled as he turns and faces Yuri.

As he runs and tries to lunge his knife towards Yuri, a gunshot was heard from behind and Lee JongSuk was on his knees crying and wailing.

It was Taeyeon.

“Handcuff the guy and bring him outside, your backup and ambulance are here. Everything is going to be alright” Taeyeon said reassured.

As she handcuffed Lee JongSuk and brought him outside, everyone was scattered at the scene; police officers, paramedics, TV crews and the crowds surrounding the area.

**

-The next day-

After days of interrogation, Lee JongSuk was pleaded guilty of murdering 4 women, 1 child and an attempted murder a young teenager. All’s well that ends well they say.

“I hope we’ll be able to work together again someday, Yuri,” Taeyeon said with a concerned look.

“I hope not… And don’t look at me like that…” Yuri blatantly told her.

They shook hands and parted ways.