Investigation

Chapter 11

Taehyung

"Everyone, morning briefing starts in 5 minutes," Jungkook announced as he stood in the middle of the precinct.

Both he and I turned to Jihyun's desk only to find that seat was vacant. I raised an eyebrow as I wondered where she was. She was known as a very punctual woman. She had only been late once and that was because she was hit by a car. Yeah, it was actually funny to remember.

"Good morning, detectives and officers," Captain Kim greeted. "Is everyone here?"

"Jihyun's not here, Captain," I said.

Everyone looked around and saw no Jung Jihyun present. Captain Kim also raised an eyebrow because his favorite detective was late to the morning briefing.

"Okay, so let's start," he said. "Detective Kim Taehyung, would you like to present your case?"

I nodded, then I approached the podium and used a presentation to present my case.

"This is Song Minyoung, a 20 year old woman who was murdered around 3 AM last Tuesday with her throat cut open and her mouth sewed shut," I said. "We don't have much information right now, but the last forensics update that I received was that the killer removed all of her teeth and took those with them."

"I heard that Detective Kim Seokjin's case is suspected to be related to yours?"

"Yes, Captain," Seokjin said. "My case's victim, Go Jinpyo, also had his mouth sewed shut and teeth all gone, but unlike Song Minyoung, he was stabbed numerous times on the heart."

"Is there already a primary suspect?"

"No, Captain," I said. "Yesterday we suspected Ji Minhyuk to be the one who killed Song Minyoung since we found threats from him in her email, but his alibi checked out."

"Okay," he said. "Detective Kim Taehyung, you'll be working with Detective Kim Seokjin and Detective Park Chaeyeon. We're looking for a possible serial killer here. Solve this case before more innocent people get murdered."

We spent another 15 minutes before the briefing was done. I came back to my desk and saw Jihyun was on her seat.

"Hey," I said, patting her back, "where have you been?"

She turned around and I could see very dark circles under her eyes. "Oh, hi, sorry I missed the briefing," she said. "I was up all night."

"Detective Jung Jihyun," Captain Kim called as he approached us.

Jihyun was startled, but she immediately stood up. When she was standing up, I could now see clearly the papers and the files that were everywhere on her desk.

She was looking up Jimin's murder case and some other people who were also murdered back then. Was this the reason why she was late this morning?

"G-Good morning, Captain," she said. "I apologize for my negligence this morning. I promise I won't be late again."

Captain Kim crossed his arms on his chest. "Detective Jung, you're off the case."

She widened her eyes. "C-Captain, no, please don't do that to me," she said, begging to the captain. "I know I'm late but you can't punish me by taking me off the case. I've never been late before this and I-"

"Detective Jung," Captain Kim said, sighing, "I still remember what you told me why you wanted to be in the force in the first place."

"Yes, that's why you've got to let me be in the case, Captain!"

"Detective," he said, "I don't think you're up for this case."

I saw her furrowing. "I'm one of the best you have in this precinct. You can't take me off the case, Captain. Look," she said, pointing at her desk, "I've been doing my own research and trying to analyze the pattern from cases from ten years ago. Please, Captain, I promise I will be professional."

Captain Kim sighed. His eyes wandered around for a while, seeming to be thinking of the answer to Jihyun's request, before looking at Jihyun sharply.

"Fine. I trust that you can handle this case," he said, "but any second you let your personal feelings cloud your judgement, I will make Detective Kim Taehyung stop you from going further with the case."

She nodded. "You can trust me, Captain. I will do my best to catch the culprit."

Captain Kim formed a small smile before going back to his office. Jihyun sighed in relief, then she went back to her desk.

I stood in silence beside her, watching her clean up her desk a bit. She noticed me being all silent next to her, so she turned to me and said, "I know that you're worried about me, Tae, but I-"

"Let's catch this bastard together," I said as I cut her off with a smile.