'Taemin's clothes?

Why were Taemin's clothes here? And why was that the correct answer to the riddle?'

Minho gritted his teeth. This didn't made any sense. He was terribly confused, and he didn't liked being confused like this. But this just didn't made any sense. How? 

Jonghyun and Key seemed to be just as confused as he was. Key was still holding on to the clothes, re-reading the name tag over and over, hoping that he read the name wrong.

"So... Should we.. call Taemin?" Jonghyun asked slowly, his eyebrows knitted together. "This really doesn't make any sense. Did someone steal his clothes..?" he grumbled.

"Why would someone steal Taemin's clothes.. That doesn't make sense either." Minho answered, still confused. 

This didn't made sense, Minho kept repeating these words over and over. How could Taemin's clothes end up in this place? As far as he knew, Taemin had no assocation with DTE. In fact, Taemin was still just a university student. 'Then, maybe.. he was here for a school assignment? That seems plausible.. but doesn't explain why he should undress and leave his clothes here. Think, Minho, think...'

"We should call him. Just to be sure."  Key sighed loudly and put down the clothes. 

"Alright." Jonghyun said, but before he could grab his phone, he was interrupted by a beep.

Minho groaned at the noise. He reached for his phone.

[ 1 new text message ] 

From: unkown number

To: Choi Minho

Wow, I can hear your brain cracking from here. Don't get distracted now, don't forget why you came here. You have a thief to catch. Ace should be at the CEO's office now, good luck. 

Minho cursed under his breath.

"It says that Ace is already here, in the CEO's office!"

No more words were needed. The detective trio immidiately ran out of the room, on their way to the CEO's office on the top floor.

The three panted  as they arrived at the top floor. Minho stopped at the door and listened. It was quiet inside the office. He softly counted to three, and then opened the door.

He was greeted by the figure of a man, probably the CEO, that was slumping over his desk. Unconcious. 

Well, damn. They were too late. 

Jonghyun hurried over to the man and checked his pulse. 

"Still alive." he sighed out of relief. 

Minho nodded and walked over to the desk. He quickly scanned the office. There were neatly aligned papers on the desk, and a pen next to it. The poor CEO was probably signing those papers before. The CEO had no visible injuries, there was no blood. The desk seemed okay. Actually, everything seemed okay. Aside from the unconcious CEO, of course. There were no traces of Ace. Rather a clean steal. 

Or that's what Minho thought.

Unkown to the three detectives, a certain person was hiding in the shadows. Silently cursing and hoping they wouldn't be seen. 'Worst day ever.' the person thought, holding their breath. 'If I'm seen now, then it would be game over.'

Minho sighed.

"There are no traces of Ace... This is the Ace we know, not leaving a trial." he mumbled.

Key hummed. "Normally he would leave little notes too, though. Haven't spotted one of these yet."

"True. I wonder why?" Minho asked. The question was more directed at himself, though. Suddenly his thoughts went back on this theory of Ace being more than one person. That theory was appealing. 'Was this another person again? Another Ace? And who's the one that's texting him? Is that 'Ace' too?'

"We should look around more, maybe he did leave something behind but we just didn't see it yet." Minho said with a slight frown, still thinking about this theory. 

"Hm, I'm still bothered by the fact of Taemin's clothes being here. While you two investigate, I'll try to call him once more. At least we will have one riddle solved then." Jonghyun said, grabbing his phone. 

Oh right. Taemin's clothes. 

Minho almost forgot about them.

"Yes, go ahead." Key said as he pulled open some drawers of the desked and checked their contents. 

Jonghyun typed in Taemin's number and dialed it.

Suddenly, a muffled noise filled the room.

Minho looked up.

'That sound..?'

Ring-ding-dong ring-ding-dong-ring-ding-dong ♪

'..A ringtone?'

Key looked up too and met Minho's eyes.

The ringtone was coming from somewhere in the room. 

Jonghyun looked surprised. He stared at the phone in his hands.

'That ringtone.. is Taemin's favourite song.... It's from somewhere in this room. this room. Does that mean... Taemin is here? In this room?'

Minho closed his eyes and followed where the sound was coming from. The left corner.

The ringtone stopped. 

But it was too late already. Minho saw it. 

Two feet sticking out from the curtain.  

A/N: RING DING DONG RING DING DONG RING DINGGY DING DINGGY DING DING DING