Detour

16

Haein

I shouldn't be scrambling going back to Jeju in less than twenty four hours. It's my parents' death anniversary, but seeing the results of the report generated from the software of SMPA made me thrilled to go back immediately. Or maybe it was just an alibi. It's less than twenty four hours and I already missed her nagging presence.

It's like her face is popping up anywhere I turned my head in Seoul, and even on random places in Jeju, a lot of things remind me of her.

I sounded so lovesick. I've got no saving in me.

I had two serious relationships before, and few hook ups, but she's making me feel things I've never been for the past years. It feels comfortable to be with her, all my goofiness and humor just come out naturally because of her, and if my team would see me how I am to her, they would say this is an entire different me. Far from the introvert Haein that I was before. She brought a different side of me I never thought I had.

Yesterday, I almost confessed.

Damn that box of skittles.

***

Friday, and I picked her up again to her apartment. No initial signs of war between us as we went to the police station. I set up a meeting for the entire team an hour after we arrived. Including Superintendent Jang and Senior Sup Song.

I laid down the information SMPA software obtained from Jeju's digital forensics.

"So we now found the common ground among the three killings apart from the pattern of killing itself and the nature of their identity, is that right?" Senior Sup Song asked. He's sitting in the middle of the conference room, and we were now discussing our next action plans.

"Yes Sir. Based on all the findings we had on the three separate crime scenes, no force of entry happened at all crimes meaning the victims knew the killer. All CCTV footages we captured showing the customers of the business, nor any personal interaction with them, there's no common person that could be associated with the three crimes." I pinpoint.

"So we requested digital forensics to review the business side, and Senior Inspector Jung had those details run on a software wherein we can filter out duplicate users, messages and all online interactions among the three. And yup there is one." Kim explained. She flipped the presentation on the next slide.

"User Thanatos." She probed.

Thanatos - the personification of death.

"The killer left several messages on all the social media pages of the three male victims, inquiring about their services. Our IT team is still drilling if we could get hold of any private messages, but then a huge possibility that in between these inquiries and the date of death, they met online via zoom or google meetings, thus the familiarity. No one would actually suspect about the user ID since its character is widely used to some famous gaming apps."

"Do you think its connected to Smith?"

"We will need to check the connection Sir if any." I answered. "Our team is also working on getting hold of his Knife Collection. I received a late report last night from our sources that the Knife Collection he had in the office are knives he obtained working with some of the famous chef we have here in Korea, so I don't think he would use that to butcher someone. But then, he also said Smith had another set of collection at home. Apparently, he has some obsessions collecting knives. Those were customized knives he requested to a personal Bladesmith."

"Bladesmith?" Song asked.

"Yes Sir. The ones creating customized knives. As a chef, I think there's this specific grip that you had on knives depending on the food you are going to prepare, so you could ask for a specific Bladesmith to customize blades, grips and handles depending on your hand placements too. Namjun and Insub, have you already worked on the thing we've requested from the autopsy department?"