The Unexpected (Namkook)

Part 10

The call history of all the phones in Lee residence have been checked thoroughly by the customer support services of the connections, both landline and cell phones. Excluding the official calls to employees of Kun-woo's company and to legalised vendors and customers, no noteworthy call was made to anyone outside the household. Mostly his manager, housemaids and conversations between Byeol and him were found.

"There's absolutely nothing! The identities of all the callers and recipients have been verified and none of them seem missing or suspicious." Sung-ho threw the file carrying call list details on the table and plopped on his chair.
"Do you think it's one among the known people?" Jungkook asked rubbing his fingers on the stone paper weight.
"Are you talking about the manager?" Sung-ho and Jungkook's relation has improved over the days. Although they aren't friends, there hasn't been any argument in particular either.

"What if I am?" Jungkook took the chance.
"I don't think so, Jeon. That man has a family with two kids and a wife. Moreover, he came to the precinct for bailing out Byeol but she rejected. If he was her secret lover then she wouldn't cry saying she misses him." Sung-ho's theory made sense as Jungkook nodded in agreement.

"There's no one at the house right now. The maids have been dismissed, right?" The younger asked referring to the information he had.
"Yeah, but we asked them to take our approval before leaving the city."
"Shall I go and check once? I mean I'll go in my personal car and in civil dress."
"It's 8, Jeon! Don't you have home to be?" Sung-ho asked surprisingly.
"Bachelor life you know!" Sung-ho scoffed playfully as he was a married to a dominating woman and reaching home in time was one of her conditions while she married him.

"Okay, go but don't tell this to Inspector sir. If you find something then only we will include him else let's just keep it between us that I allowed you in the crime scene alone at this hour." Sung-ho said while taking out the spare key of Lee residence from the locked drawer.
"I promise you won't regret this, Sung-ho shi." Jungkook smiled showing his famous teeth making the supposed rival of his grin.
"I better not."

********

The house was quite expansive with classy aesthetics. The garden in front and a small pool at the backyard elevated the beauty of the place. The house being situated in one of the posh areas in Seoul, would easily have a high evaluation of several millions in Korean Won.

Jungkook parked the car at a few meters distance from the house, not catching any attention from the neighbourhood. He turned off the headlights of his car and stepped out taking only his phone and a small torch light along with the key Sung-ho gave him.

He walked along the sidewalk with as guided by the street lights. Once he reached front of the gate, an eerie silence started bugging him like it is holding some unimaginable truth that has the potential to turn the case upside down. Realising that the gate was also locked, Jungkook climbed it reaching to the other side as there was he didn't have key to the iron gate lock. From the rustling sound beneath his shoes he understood that the dry leaves in the garden weren't brushed away for last few days. This certainly broke the silence but what came next made him scream out.

Few more steps near the door and a furry object almost pounced on his shoulder that he jerked off while screaming loudly. He quickly lit the torch to find a small kitten staring at him with his glowing fluorescent eyes in that darkness. Taking few deep breaths, he shooed it away and proceeded towards the door.

The key fitted perfectly in the door lock as the house number lock system was disabled due to police investigations. A large space with wooden shoe cabinet and an empty flower vase placed on top of it. There were few wall hangings too that appeared to be photographs of the couple and some sceneries under the light of his torch.

Searching through the house, there was no sign of anything remotely resembling an evidence. On his way back to the main door, his eyes fell on one of the frames again. Jungkook took a closer look this time and found it was a painted scenery and not a photographed one. There was a signature in faint blue ink spelling 'Daichi Takahashi, March 1982' at the bottom right corner of the painting. It looked too realistic to be a painting but cross checking the dried brush stroke impression on the paper, Jungkook could confirm it to be an artistic work.

He slipped on his gloves and took the frame in his hands while holding the torch with his mouth. He turned the back of it where a label was stuck, the paper of which didn't seem to be from the 80s. Vintage Art Collection named gallery was mentioned in it along with a serial number. There was a portion of the papers scratched out which could be vaguely guessed as the price.

Not analysing much on the art frame, Jungkook brought it to his car and wrapped it up in some old newspaper gently so that no fingerprint is wiped off it. It will be submitted to the forensic after discussing with Bin and Sung-ho to dig deep into Byeol's case.

He buckled the seatbelt and took out his phone to check the time. It was almost 10:30 and a sweet message from Namjoon was waiting for him wishing 'good night'. He has started enjoying these small moments of happiness without caring about what future holds for his unpredictable life.