Detour

20

Haein

I must have gone totally insane tolerating what Kim had done, but I can't help but blame myself. I should have stopped her the moment she planned to go to Namwon. But instead, I watch her slowly execute her plans and to my outmost stupidity, I fell asleep inside my car, losing her under my radar. The next thing I knew, she was inside Smith's house, and if I was a little bit late, she could have been dead. I think I could never ever forgive myself if that happened.

And just like Kim tonight, I committed a lot of don'ts , to cover up her mistakes. That was a total mess..

But creating mistake to hide another mistake lived up its purpose on me, because it backfired instantly.

***

I stepped the accelerator harder as we drove off from Seogwipo back to Namwon.

Someone tried to kill Aaron Smith.

Insub's report repeatedly banged inside my head, reiterating the mistakes I have made to cover up Kim, and now it created more complicated mess.

The emergency hotline received a call at 7:52PM, it was Aaron Smith, asking for help. Someone intruded his house and almost stabbed him to death. We aren't exactly sure of what had happened yet but the culprit hurriedly left the scene, thus Smith able to make a call.

That means someone was watching when I barged in and saved her, and probably he went in after we left. It could be connected to the murder case. It could be the killer. It could be not. But I made things more complicated.

I asked Hyeyoon to wipe out the CCTV recordings for me between 6-8PM, non recoverable. If Smith called at 7:52PM, that means he was attacked in between 7:30 to 7:50, just minutes after we left.

And if I did not asked for those footages to be deleted, chances are, we could have a glimpse of the suspect, or any clue that will lead us to him.

I unconsciously punch the steering wheel and Kimmy threw me a more perplexed look. I've never been out of control like this in my entire career. But it seemed today, all the logical and rational cells inside jumped out of my body.

I tried to calm down because I knew Kim would blame herself for what happened. We thought we were an arm away from getting the killer, but with what happened to Smith, it was like we were back to square one.

But apart from that, I was more worried that the perpetrator acknowledged Kim, her life could be in danger, or the killer could reveal she trespassed Smith's residence and set her up for the crime.

This is all fucked up.

We reached Namwon General Hospital after a fifteen minute drive, and Tessa was waiting for us at the hospital's front lobby.

"Sir." She saluted to me and Kim.

"How was it?"

"He was inside the operating room. He was severely bleeding when they found him inside his house. One injury to the head, probably his head was smashed with a metal object and different stab wounds on his body."

Kim gave me a quick glance, us talking through our eyes. The injury to the head was of course courtesy of me when I hit him with my gun.

"I called Namjun and Insub immediately. Local officers secured the crime scene already, and we asked the security to provide us the CCTV details of the subdivision. Are you too around the area Sir? You two came faster than the others." Tessa asked.

I just nodded in response. I knew what will be the result already. They will not see any recordings from the security system though.

Why does it seem like the killer predicted that the footages will be deleted, thus the attack. Knowing how meticulous the killer, attacking Smith was too sudden and out of his usual pattern.