House of Cards

Chapter 13

Looking at the spread of photographs in front of him, Namjoon felt strangely cold and distant. He knew that he needed to explain himself, to start talking and let the others know what he was thinking about and yet he couldn't seem to do that. The photographs should have been tacked up on one of the boards across the room, pins placed in the map so that the case could start being developed and connected, but all that he could do right now was stare at Hoseok's desk; still and silent. It was the photograph of Woo that he couldn't seem to take his eyes off. This was a man that had been in The Boy's presence not that long ago, before Taehyung had been brought in to seemingly take his position. What did that mean for Taehyung exactly? Was this a mistake? Had Woo been caught up and murdered in a hit because Jungkook was supposed to have been present at the alleged transaction, with him or on his own? It could very much be a failed attempt on The Boy's life and there was no denying it right now. None of them had any evidence to prove otherwise, and Namjoon felt that it was the only explanation for the slaughter. That meant that Taehyung could have been one of those bullet-riddled corpses, should have been one of them.

Namjoon could have been looking at photographs of him with more holes in him than a target sheet at a gun range. His torso packed pumped with lead or missing a nice section of his head from taking a blast from a shotgun. That was what scared him, what made him feel a little faint. Namjoon wasn't stupid, he hadn't forgotten the fact that Taehyung was in danger but all this time he had not thought of it reaching such a high level. The most obvious danger that Taehyung could have gotten himself into before this discovery had been pissing another Haedogje Pa man off or having his cover blown. But Taehyung was smart and knew his men, wouldn't have possibly have made such an elementary mistake. But this wasn't an elementary mistake.

This was a trap, a big fucking trap.

"What do you mean by that?" Sungah asked to break the momentary silence that had fallen on the office. Her voice brought Namjoon out of his thoughts and he dragged his eyes away from the photograph of Woo to look up at her. "Who's stepping onto the chessboard?"

"I have no doubts in my mind that this is the work of Kim," Namjoon said as he tapped his fingers on the desk. "Kim Jinwoo, not his father, it's got his name all over it."

The department went silent again at his words, a heaviness setting in the air like a blanket of fog. Clearly they had all been taken aback by his reply, had not been expecting it at all. Namjoon knew that the rest of the team worked in their own departments, that they didn't have full knowledge but rather select areas that they all teamed together to make a bigger picture with. Taehyung was by far the most knowledgeable but he wasn't here right now, meaning that the responsibility to figure things out had now been left with him. He wondered if Taehyung even had a clue about any of this and thought that the answer was likely no, not yet.

"Why do you think it's Kim?" Hoseok asked, breaking the silence for the rest of the team. He moved to fold his arms on the desk, right beside the photographs, clearly finding the position more comfortable for his recovering stomach. "That's a pretty big accusation to make, you know? It could be so many other men so what makes you think that this is Kim?"

"Well, without getting into any complicated connections, I'm assuming from my gut instinct when I saw the photographs. I've seen a lot of dead men since working for this desk and I know it sounds pretty strange but every man has their own method, yes? Like how we know The Boy from Jeon, Jeon from some tight street dealer that offs a rival." Namjoon collected the photographs off the desk and moved over to the board. There was a free section on the other side of the map and so he sorted through to find the ones that would go on the board. "Looking at these photographs my first thought was: Kim Jinwoo."