Fire & Silk

12. Mistake 1

Mina shot up in bed in a cold sweat. She quickly turned her lamp on and looked at her phone. It was 3:00 am. She looked down and gently pet Ray who was fast asleep. This had been happening for at least three nights since she had gotten back from the group retreat. Ever since she told Jeongyeon the truth about what happened that night, every bad memory that she had buried for years was resurfacing. She didn't regret telling Jeongyeon the truth but she wished that she could stop thinking about it. As usual, her apartment was quiet other than Ray's soft snoring. Mina knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep so she slipped her robe on and walked into the living room. She turned on and dimmed the overhead light, grabbing a glass of water before she sat down at the kitchen counter.

The only good thing about not being able to sleep the past few nights meant that she could work on the case more. Since she started working with Jeongyeon, this case consumed her every waking moment. Other than taking care of Ray, eating and working on this case, Mina wasn't doing anything else. Normally she'd be bothered by work taking up every second of her day, but there was something about this case that was different. It was something that she'd never seen before and it was the challenge of a lifetime. Every case she had worked before at J.Y Park Law dealt with minor crimes. The most exciting one before the Copy Cat was some guy who was robbing little old ladies at gun point.

Mina was three glasses of water, a glass of tea, and two choco pies in before she got a call from Jeongyeon. Little did she know that her coworker was having trouble sleeping as well. Jeongyeon had been awake since 4:00 am. Although, Jeongyeon was awake for a different reason. Ever since President Park put the security detail with Sana, Jihyo was attached to the woman at the hip. She was only at the apartment three out of seven days of the week and when she was there, she was constantly checking in on Sana. Jeongyeon didn't mind it but she was worried that Jihyo being with the woman so much was going to endanger her housemate as well.

Jeongyeon groaned as laid her head back on the couch. She was sitting on the living room floor, files and photos of the case scattered aimlessly around. It was starting to get frustrating that the Copy Cat wasn't making any moves. It's not that they wanted him to do anything, but the trail was cold. That meant that the evidence they had was it. There was nothing new to add and help solve this extremely complicated puzzle. She was about to crawl back in bed to try and get at least an hour of sleep before she had to get ready for work, but when she moved her foot, she kicked one of the photos across the room. She sighed and leaned forward to pick it up, noticing a sticky note on the back in her handwriting.

Jeongyeon peeled the note off and read it aloud. "Right shoe. Blonde, brunette. Off." She raised an eyebrow in confusion and read it again. "What the hell does that mean? Did I write this when I was drunk?" Jeongyeon looked over the pictures that were in the file and set the sticky note down. She looked over the photos for a minute before she got an idea. She rearranged all the photos of the victims in chronological order. As her eyes scanned over the photos again, her brain started to work at two times the speed it was working a second ago. She immediately picked up her phone and called Mina.

"Hello? Jeongyeon? Why are you awake so early?" Mina picked up quickly and shuffled through the papers she had spread across the table, highlighting a few lines she had read through before she lost them.

"It doesn't matter that I'm awake right now. What matters right now is that this guy made a mistake." Jeongyeon said this almost too quickly but Mina was able to piece together what she said. She was still confused and asked her for any kind of clarity. "You have the same exact file as me. Put the pictures in chronological order. I found a sticky note attached to the back of one of the pictures that I must have written half asleep, but I think that the Copy Cat messed up with the victims. The last woman he murdered was a blonde and Sana's not a brunette!"

Mina put the photos in order as Jeongyeon spoke, understanding what she was saying, but still not quite understanding the point she was trying to make. "I get that Sana is a blonde and he wasn't consistent, but what does this have to do with him making a mistake?" She stretched and looked closely at the photos, trying to pull more information than they had to offer.

Jeongyeon stood up and paced around the living room, eyes never leaving the photos on the floor. "I mean he made a mistake. If he wanted to kill Sana, he could have just waited for her to come home. He knew that she was going to be gone at the party. How else would he have been at her apartment and then gone right when she came back? He must have realized his mistake and gotten frustrated. He tore through the apartment but he still wanted a trophy so he took the shoes."

Mina fully understood now and was standing, excitedly holding a few of the photos. Jeongyeon was right. "The rooms in all of these pictures and the locations he killed these women are also all pristine. President Park said that every crime scene was practically untouched. The Copy Cat would kill whoever he was targeting, take their shoe, and then leave. He probably tore through her apartment as punishment for Sana not being a blonde, but he couldn't kill her because it would have ruined the pattern."

As Mina spoke, Jeongyeon's excitement dwindled. She realized that even though Sana's life was spared that night, it might not be the case soon. "Wait. This just means that he's got one more person to kill and if he doesn't get stopped there, then he's going after Sana. There's no way he would want someone to survive and now he's really got a target."

Mina groaned and sat down. Not only was Sana not in the clear, they were working against time to try and stop the Copy Cat before he killed yet another innocent woman. "How are we supposed to get this guy before he kills another woman, though? All signs point to him knowing or at least having had one interaction with Sana before since he knew where she lived and her general schedule, but we know nothing about the woman he's going to target next."

The line went quiet for a few minutes as both women tried to come up with a solution. They knew it was going to be next to impossible for them to figure out who the next victim was going to be. Without anything other than his mode of operating and the pattern of women he targeted, there wasn't much else they had.

Jeongyeon was the first to break the silence, hesitantly speaking. "I don't think we have much of a choice but to really publicize the case. It's going to be a huge risk for us and for women in Seoul, but a warning to the general public may be what we need for the Copy Cat to come out in the public light a bit more."

The women were uncomfortable with the idea of publicizing such a risky and dangerous case, but they were right. When they got into work a few hours later, they told President Park who agreed with them. He knew that it was a risk but it was a risk that they needed to take. They were running out of time and options.

Things are really starting to come together! I know that lawyers don't ever do this much detective work, but remember that it's just a story ;)

Stay safe, happy, and healthy!

- krn