Fire & Silk

5. An Early Morning Discovery

   BZZZ! BZZZ! BZZZ!

   Jeongyeon was startled awake from her phone vibrating on her beside table. Clumsily, she reached over and checked the time before answering the call. "여보세요 (hello)? This is Yoo Jeongyeon." She croaked out, putting the phone on speaker and laying on her back.

   "Jeongyeon! I'm sorry to call you so early but we've got a big day." Nayeon could be heard on the other side of the phone, panting as she spoke from running back and forth in the office.

   Jeongyeon groaned and propped herself up, turning the lamp on. "Is it so urgent that it can't wait until at least 7am when I get in for work? Does it have to be at 3:30 am?" She yawned and reluctantly pulled the covers off herself, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed.

   Nayeon sighed and collected a few more papers she needed then headed back to the open office space she and Jeongyeon now shared. "I promise that I wouldn't be calling you if it wasn't this urgent. Just come into work and I'll explain everything later." Before Jengyeon could argue, Nayeon had already hung up.

   Jeongyeon sighed and rubbed her eyes, trying to find the willpower to get out of bed. Eventually, she shuffled into the bathroom and turned the sink on, washing her face and brushing her teeth. Once she had finished in the bathroom and made it into the kitchen, she was much more awake. It only took her 15 minutes to get ready and head out of the door. She was thankful the buses ran so early. She closed her eyes for a minute, trying to catch even a second more of sleep before she had to go into the office.

   It was 4am and the moment Jeongyeon got off on the 9th floor, she was met with Nayeon frantically ushering her into their room. Jeongyeon was a little startled by this but quickly followed the older woman. Nayeon pulled out a chair for Jeongyeon and pulled her laptop out, plugging it into the projector. As quickly as she could, she pulled up a short case file. Jeongyeon briefly read the names on the case but still didn't understand what she was looking at, so she turned to Nayeon for any clarification.

   "I know you're looking at this like it's just another case, but it's something bigger than you or I have ever dealt with." Nayeon was a little out of breath from how much she had already moved this morning. She took a red whiteboard marker and underlined a few sentences in the file and Jeongyeon's mouth dropped open.

   "Are you telling me we're dealing with a man who committed triple homicide and there are people who are trying to say he's innocent?" Jeongyeon read the few highlighted lines over and over again, trying to wrap her head around what she was seeing.

   Nayeon just silently nodded and scrolled further down the case file, erasing the marks she had made, and underlined a few more sentences. "We've dealt with people like this before but every case we've had has always been clear. This one though is a little blurred. Despite the amount of evidence there is against him, there's a piece that doesn't add up to the suspect's story and the story of one of the witnesses."

   "Witness testimony is really hard to go off of though, isn't it?" Even though Jeongyeon was a little nervous dealing with her first serious case, she was excited that she was finally getting to use what she learned in school. Before this, all the cases she had looked through and dealt with were either made up for a class exercise, petty theft, or minor crimes.

   Nayeon nodded but sighed, turning her laptop to Jeongyeon and unplugging it from the projector. "Exactly, but since the evidence isn't as clear cut as it should be, witness testimony is something that has to heavily be taken into account this time." Nayeon slid her laptop over so Jeongyeon could read the whole case file. She let the other woman read as she went out to make two coffees in the break room.