Ice: Thaw the Frozen Heart [EDITING]

Chapter 53

"The cameras what?!"

"All the cameras were dead within the time you told us to check, sir."

Chanyeol cursed under his breath and gritted his teeth. The setup was premeditated thoroughly. And to think that it was just to create a stupid rumor!

"But we did get something from the CCTV outside. The one near the back alley," the guard continued and turned his chair around to click on the keyboard. "But it's grainy and in black and white, sir."

Both Chanyeol and Suho immediately came close to the sides of the guard's seat; their eyes focused on the screen before them. Upon seeing a man in all black getting out of the back door and mounting a motorbike parked at the alley, Chanyeol knew right away that it was the same man he saw last night. But no matter how hard they tried to get a look on his face, they couldn't.

Suho sighed. "This doesn't help."

"Wait. Rewind," Chanyeol suddenly instructed. "There! Paused there! Zoom in!"

They all leaned closer to the screen, narrowing their eyes.

"Do you see that, Hyung?" Chanyeol turned to Suho whose eyes were still focused on the screen.

"Yeah." The older one gave a nod. "I think that's some kind of tattoo on his neck." He sighed. "But it's grainy."

"It looks like a star," the guard commented. "A squarish one."

A star? Chanyeol knitted his brows. Now that the guard mentioned it, the tattoo did look like a star. A queer looking one. And somehow he felt familiar seeing it. Yet, he couldn't put his finger on where he saw it before.

"Print this picture," Suho instructed. "I'll give it to my private investigator."

"Yes, sir." The guard nodded. "Oh! And awhile ago," he added looking troubled, "our IT reported that there were traces of hacker in the system just last night. But it didn't last long and it's different form the sudden shut down of the surveillance cameras. This one is believed to only copy this same recording." He pointed at the screen. "But our IT guaranteed that this video isn't corrupted."

Suho and Chanyeol looked at each other with deep frown. They knew they were thinking of the same thing. Someone else was trying to find this evidence. Or cover it.

They hoped it was the former.

__________

Sehun pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against when he saw Tao's motorbike appearing from a distance. Coming to a stop in front of his house, Tao unmounted his bike.

"Here." With a frown, he tossed Sehun a brown envelope.

"Thanks." Sehun bobbed his head to his friend before opening the envelope.

"It's grainy though. It can't prove anything."

Unaware of how cold his friend was being, Sehun's eyes scanned the screenshots from the surveillance camera. He pursed his lips as he examined them. "This will be good enough. Thanks again."

Tao rolled his eyes. "I don't know why you're getting yourself involved with a married girl, but this better be the last time you tell me to go against Xiu. I don't like it if he hurt you, but I don't like doing something like this either. This may jeopardize him."

"He jeopardize my life, Tao," Sehun deadpanned.

Tao shrugged. "With what? Stupid rumors? You got yourself into that, Hun. He was just using it against you." Running a hand through his hair,  he continued, "I'm not justifying his action. It's wrong, I know. But you have a part in it yourself. And if it get any worse, I really don't want to be the one putting him behind bars. Anyway, I hope you will use that information wisely." He turned away.