Sweet Case

Chapter 3

Slow jazz music can be heard in the dim office, lingering in every corner, emitting a nearly mysterious softness in my mind as if to ease the tenderness like a relaxing massage. Inhale. Exhale. A single refreshing breath, oxygen floating down into my lungs like icy water on a hot summer day. With my thoughts cleared I glanced around taking in every part of the room ever so familiar to me. I never found the opportunity to actually decorate it. Just necessary furniture and lots of papers. No carpet, no paintings, no statues. Only my desk, chairs, our white board, a small fridge, a few cabinets and drawers - and hey, we recently got curtains too, colored in a royal shade of blue.

They shift open and closed every now and then with help of a paranoid Jungkook who couldn't help to check for secret agents luring around the buildings. "Calm down already. The other houses ain't running away if you don't stare at them for some hours. Or you're perhaps waiting for some lady?", I commented once the boy reached to open the curtains for the sixth time. "Oh c'mon, Hyung. You know very well why I do this. What if they figure we're still investigating? What if they already know!? WHAT IF THEY DECIDE TO SCAN OUR OFFICE!?!?!? WHAT IF THEY-" "JUNGKOOK!", I shouted, stopping his high pitched screams. "Stop this crap. We have important work waiting for us and thanks to the ANSP it isn't getting easier for us to investigate. So if we don't get our shit together, well, then we also could just give up instead of acting like paranoid teenie girls-"

The sound of my ringtone interrupted my speech, causing both of us to flinch; the only visible proof for tension within my body.

"Park?"

"Do you know, what date today is?? Do you even know what time it is??", she barked at me, as if it was me calling her and not the opposite. Wondering what gotten into her I checked my clock. "It's uh two in the mor-" "CORRECT! IT'S TWO IN THE FUCKING MORNING!! MEANS, IT IS ALREADY THE THIRD! HOW DARE THEY?!". The last sentence ended with a barely suppressed heartbreaking sob. For a second I just stared at the device in my hand. Park Melissa was not only known to be colder than any of her corpses but also the person with the strongest composure I have ever met - two very necessary traits for working in such a branch. So her sudden outburst surprised me in every way. "Park, are you... okay? Are you- did you drink?", I asked slowly, still unsure what to think of any of this. A bad mistake. "'DID YOU DRINK'?!?! SERIOUSLY? I THOUGHT AT LEAST YOU WOULD TAKE ME SERIOUS!". Helplessly I glimpsed at Jungkook, who could hear her tantrums through the whole office. I was never good with all this sentimental stuff, not to mention that I didn't even know, what sentimental stuff was actually going on. The boy only shrugged at me to indicate he was as overwhelmed as me.

"Park, listen. I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to insult you, but if you want anything else from me except confusion I advise you to tell me, what's wrong." I held my breath and waited for a reaction. At first, there was a moment of silence. Right when I was about to call her name she breathed in and whispered a short "you don't know it yet". Obviously not, I wished to say. "No, I have no idea", is what I did say. "Do you- do you want me to come over? Then you can tell me, what happened, yeah?" Park wasn't someone I would consider a friend, not really. But we were colleagues and she was always ready to help, even though she never said it out loud. Even when I was new to my profession, she was harsh but always ready to help - sometimes illegally, when the law threw rocks in my way. 

A barely audible "okay" granted the permission and I immediately headed towards Park's flat. I left Jungkook with a few research tasks at the office - someone needed to be there in case Jungkook's fear of agents confiscating our work would come true. Yes, even though I didn't show it, I was just as worried as my assistant was. Worried to the extent I began to think about a second office extra for this case. My thoughts trailed off to every house that was now empty because their owners got taken out of life brutally by all those criminals - criminals like the one I was after now. "Aish!", I cursed once I realized I just drove straight past my destination. 

_

Park looked terrible. Her hair was messy and she wore still a pajama, along with her lab coat. Her face was all wet from weeping and her eyes were red and swollen. "Kim" Even her voice was nearly gone. "Tell me everything", is all I said. Without another word she led me to a low table, a weak movement of her hand gesturing me to have a closer look on the only item placed on the white surface of the table. With a surprise I realized what Park just gave me: a file about another victim of the murderer I was after. I studied the pictures of the new corpse. It was a male, mutilated the same way as the corpse that was found at Becky's. "Okay, it definitely was the same murderer"

"Read his background"

Skipping to his personal information, I did as she told me. The first thing I noticed was the date of his birthday - it was today. Again, this couldn't be it. Park would never cry over a victim she didn't know just because-

I stopped dead in my tracks. "Park Jonathan", I read out the file. "Sibling(s): Park Melissa"

"When they called me for work, I already had a bad feeling. When they told me the location, I knew it", she said, sniffing. Without thinking I took her in, arms holding her softly to giver her room to step out of them if she felt uncomfortable. The woman in front of me didn't move at first, eventually raising her arms as well. It wasn't until then that she let out her pain, crying and screaming over the loss of her beloved one. 

Anger started to take over me. The police really had the nerve to call her to inspect her own brother's corpse. Not to mention in what state she had to see Jonathan. One of the reasons why I left the police and became a private investigator. I could do my work the fuck I want - except a few rules of course - and didn't need to work with these assholes. 

"Did you give the work to another forensic pathologist?" She shook  her head. "I had to do it myself. I couldn't just let someone else do it" And after a short pause she added "I don't know how all the other families handled this. Knowing that a total stranger would c-cut open their family member... I can't even stand the mere thought of it"

I was an only child and had lost any contact with my family. Only for a card for Christmas and our birthdays. That's all I had. I had no idea how I'd react if one of my parents was dead. Would I cry? Would I break down? I knew, I would be mourn for some time, but after years of living apart, any emotion I used to have for them died with every day. On my better days I considered Jungkook as a close friend - or even a younger brother -, but other than that I was quite the lone wolf. Most nights were spend sitting around and drinking my sorrows away with cheap whiskey. Being a private investigator gave me the opportunity to work whenever sleep wouldn't find me, so rather lived to work instead of working to live - and just the thought of Park becoming just like me made me sad, so I wanted to help her, no matter whether we were even friends or not. Maybe finding her brothers murderer would prevent her from losing her purpose in life. Maybe...

"Alright, Jungkook and I are on it", I said, holding her gaze, determined. She did the same, her eyes still red and puffy from weeping.