His Obsession ➸ Taekook ✓

- Twenty-third -

When Namjoon got out of his car, he was tense. He had received a call early in the morning, waking him from a deep sleep, to tell him that his notorious killer had killed again. And this time, it apparently seemed pretty bad.

On arriving at the place, he saw that the entire street had been blocked off, and that a good number of passers-by and journalists had gathered in front of the yellow banners, contained by the few police officers who had been assigned to guard them. As he approached, Namjoon was jostled by another officer who was running from the scene, and as he followed him, he saw him turn the corner and didn't wait long before hearing him vomit.

Namjoon frowned. He hadn't been given any details on the phone, he'd simply been asked to come as soon as possible. But the fact that the whole street had been blocked off, and the reaction of that policeman... He was beginning to have more and more doubts about this case.

He made his way through the crowds of passers-by, eventually reaching the security tape, and quickly took out his badge, which he showed to one of the policemen, and after a quick salute, let him through. Namjoon didn't have to wait long before Soobin, a young policeman who had been assigned to the investigation a few days earlier, joined him. And he looked livid, which worried his superior.

"Are you all right, Soobin?" Namjoon asked in a gentle voice.

"Not really, but you'll understand when you see the body."

Namjoon wanted to ask him more, but the young policeman wouldn't let him, telling him to follow him.

"Why did block off the whole street?" Namjoon asked. "The media won't leave us alone with that."

"We had no choice, boss. The body was left outside."

Namjoon stopped dead in his tracks, drawing the attention of his colleague.

"Outside?"

Soobin nodded. Namjoon was even more confused. Until now, the bodies had always been left where the killer had tortured them. There had always been a certain amount of staging, but the decor had never been a factor. So why had he changed his method? Did the killer want to draw attention to himself? But why?

"It's strange..." muttered Namjoon.

"And yet, you're far from having seen everything."

They walked again, crossing the entire street, which had been completely evacuated. Around fifty policemen had gathered, not counting the forensic doctors and firemen. That so many people had been brought together, the crime scene must have been impressive...

"The body was discovered this morning by garbage collectors." Soobin continued to explain.

"They didn't see anyone drop it off?"

"No. But we're interviewing the neighbours. They may have seen or heard something. Although I have my doubts."

They eventually arrived at their destination, and Soobin hastened to look away, refusing to lay eyes on the corpse again. And when Namjoon saw it, he understood immediately, because he almost vomited the doughnut he had swallowed a few minutes earlier.

The body had been cut up, each limb separated from the main part, and reassembled in the manner of a Picasso. The head was in the centre, held by the arms, while the legs were on top, on either side like a rabbit's ears. The middle was underneath, but the head had been separated from it. The whole thing was decorated with red roses, and Namjoon had to move closer to realise that they were in fact white, soaked in the victim's blood.

He turned round to stop himself vomiting, but it took him a good five minutes to calm down.

Such violence. He had no words to describe it. It was disgusting, repulsive. It showed such hatred, such madness.

"I warned you it would be horrible." Soobin told him, still not daring to look at the corpse.

"How could anyone do such a thing?"

Soobin didn't answer, because like him, he didn't have the answer. Honestly, there was no justification for such violence. On top of the murder, the killer hadn't even respected the body. It was so inhuman!

"Wow, it's really impressive!" suddenly exclaimed a voice behind them. "It's almost art!"

The two policemen turned in unison, outraged by such a comment, and came face to face with a man in his thirties, perhaps slightly older. He was dressed rather smartly, with a long coat over straight trousers and a dark green polo shirt. It matched the colour of his long brown hair, which he had let fall back over his face without any gel. He really was handsome, there was no denying it, with his full lips and his charming, almost provocative smile. He was smiling broadly, and his smile widened when he saw Namjoon sigh at the sight of him.

"What are you doing here?" asked the inspector, with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

The newcomer turned around for a moment, pointing to the security tapes a little further on.

"I snuck in." he confessed proudly.

"You've got no right to be here."

"If nobody stopped me, I'm still within my rights."

"Nobody stopped you because you made sure nobody noticed you."

The stranger ignored this last remark and approached the body, inspecting it without an ounce of disgust in his eyes.

"Can I ask who it is?" Soobin asked his superior, without taking his eyes off the man.

"Kim Seokjin. A private detective."

"The best of them all!" Seokjin added, without taking his eyes off the corpse.

Namjoon let out another sigh.

"Anyway, ignore him, Soobin. We won't be able to stop him anyway. Let's carry on as if he wasn't there."

Soobin nodded sceptically. Namjoon, for his part, took a deep breath and turned to the corpse, trying to ignore the macabre staging.

"Do we know the identity of the victim?" he asked his assistant, who shook his head.

"No, as no clothing was found near the victim, we haven't been able to find his name."

Seokjin was listening discreetly, and took advantage of the fact that Namjoon was turned towards Soobin to take out his phone and take a photo of the dead man's face.

"Jang Hajoon."

The two policemen turned to him, frowning.

"What?"

"The victim's name is Jang Hajoon."

"How do you know that?" asked Namjoon, who had a bad feeling about this.

Seokjin nonchalantly showed him his phone.

"Facial recognition. I took a photo of him and Google gave me his Instagram account."

"You took a photo of the corpse?!" Namjoon shouted indignantly.

"Hey, image rights don't apply to dead people!" Seokjin defended himself.

Namjoon felt like banging his head against a wall. Seokjin was a good detective, really, and it was a great loss to the police that he'd decided to go independent, but... his character was really something. He was impossible to deal with, and strangely enough, it always fell on Namjoon.

"Do you intend to investigate this case?" he asked the detective.

"I started a while ago. The only thing is, I've never been to a crime scene before, otherwise I knew you'd kick me out."

"So why did you come today?"

Seokjin finally took his eyes off the corpse and turned to Namjoon, smiling.

"Because your investigation isn't going anywhere. And I know things you don't."

~🥀~

I'm not sure about this translation🤔 I hope it was understandable...
See you soon💕