the music box killer | bang chan

6. tension

JIYEON'S POV:

"Lee Minho? Where are you stationed at?" I ask after looking over at his badge, seeing that he could be trustworthy since he was a fellow officer.

"Oh, I'm from the town right next to yours. Surely you must have heard about Levanter?" He responds as I nod. "Now if you don't mind, can you save the rest of your questions for the drive? It's evening time and it'll surely be an hour or two before we reach Miroh."

Chan and I immediately comply, getting into the back seats of the car along with our retrieved belongings. The shotgun seat had stacks of files messily placed over it, as well as a laptop bag in the leg rest area. Minho cranks up the air conditioner and soon enough, we were surrounded by cool air. It was a refreshing change from the small, stuffy room we were placed in for hours on end.

"Are Changbin and the other men being taken to the station at Levanter or will they be joining us at Miroh?" Chan asks.

"First option," Minho replies. "Don't worry about them, we'll take care of them. You guys have been MIA for two days so you definitely need to catch a break."

Chan and I look at each other in confusion. We were out for two whole days?

"No way. That must've caused a stir at the station," I say. Minho hums.

"Quite. The only reason I even know how long it has been since anyone has seen you is because of this one resident in your town. He made headlines saying that Miroh will go in flames since you both were missing. I believe no one was supposed to find out, but somehow he did," he explains as we both intently listen. That was interesting.

"Hold on," I say, suddenly realizing something. "How do you know Changbin?"

"Good question. He's strongly linked to a criminal I've been keeping an eye on for years now, and once I finally found his whereabouts, I knew it was the perfect opportunity. Catching him wasn't the worst part, though. It's the questioning that I'm dreading. Criminals like him are tough nuts to crack," he replies.

"Good luck with that. We had our fair share of that pain while we were locked up there and I would not like to go through that again," I say with an exhausted sigh. He chuckles.

"If you don't mind me asking, who is this big criminal Changbin is affiliated with?" Chan asks as the car momentarily expereinces silence.

"Ah, about that. I'm not sure if you know him, but he's a pretty crazy guy. I saw you both cover the details of the murder that happened at your town on the news recently, and the style of killing is eerily similar to this one psycho called Han Jisung. I don't know about your suspects so far, though, this is just what I felt since I've been keeping up with his cases for a while now."

Chan and I were shocked at his statement. He could simply tell who our suspect was just by the manner of killing? And more importantly, he had his full name?

"His name is Han Jisung?" We both ask at the same time as Minho replies with an expression just as shocked as ours.

"No way— he's actually one of your suspects? I can't believe this!" He says. "And to answer your question, yes, his full name is Han Jisung."

"This is crazy," I say, still in disbelief. "How did you find out about him?"

"I have been behind this man for almost my entire career. All on my own, that too. Since no incident has occurred in Levanter due to his actions so far, none of my superiors have taken me seriously. I know it kind of doesn't fall under our jurisdiction, but his murder cases kept me up for so many nights. Some of their descriptions were also gory, so I was naturally drawn to him," Minho says, shuddering at the thought of Han, or rather, Jisung.