Investigation

Chapter 17

Jihyun

"Gather around, guys," Seokjin said, telling all three of us to approach his desk. "Chaeyeon and I found something incredibly groundbreaking last night."

"Min Yoongi has an alias, which is why he's hard to catch," she said. "After Seokjin and I went through "Min Yoongi's" apartment, we discovered the teeth of the victims, the murder tools, and a lot of other things including his alias, which is Choi Jinyoung, the witness of Song Minyoung's murder."

I widened my eyes as I didn't expect that would be new evidence that they both found.

"Ah, that's why he refused to take off his scarf that day," Taehyung said.

"Okay, so let's do a recap to summarize the details of our man, Choi Jinyoung, or Min Yoongi, or whoever his name actually is," he said.

"I'll do it," I said, opening the files I got on my hand. "Choi Jinyoung, a 55 year old man. He worked as a dental surgeon for fifteen years before changing his career to a college professor. He and his wife, Choi Ryujin, who is also a dentist, were supposedly the witnesses of Song Minyoung's murder before we found out that he was the killer. The teeth of all the victims were kept perfectly in their house."

"So she's an accessory to the murder?"

"Not necessarily," Seokjin said. "She wasn't particularly involved in the killings, but she did know about it and she didn't tell us anything."

I saw Taehyung raise an eyebrow. "Why would he do it though? Like, what's the motive behind the killings and especially behind the teeth removals?"

Chaeyeon then turned to me and asked, "Jihyun, was Park Jimin also a dentistry student? And also the other victims from ten years ago?"

I nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"Okay, I see a connection now," she said. "I read the past cases and all of the victims were dentistry students who interned with Mr. Choi."

"Okay, but how about the current victims? Not all of them were dentistry students," Seokjin said.

Taehyung nodded. "Yeah and not that it matters, but all of them went to different dental clinics in the city based on their dental record."

I pursed my lips. "Have any of you guys checked where Mr. Choi worked when he was a dentist?"

"Yes, I checked it," Chaeyeon said. "He worked in a dental clinic down the road called Sageumpyeol Dental Care."

"Okay, how about Mrs. Choi?"

All three of them suddenly looked at each other while widening their eyes, then they immediately opened her case file to look into her profile.

"Um, she has been working in different places for the last ten years. I don't think there's-"

Chaeyeon's words trailed off when she read every dental care that was written on the file.

"What? What did you find?"

"All current victims were patients at each dental care that Mrs. Choi worked at," she said, causing me, Taehyung, and Seokjin to surprise. Well, more like feeling stupid because we didn't check it before.

"But what's the connection between the past victims and the current ones?" Taehyung asked. "They all went to different schools, different majors, different families, different dental cares. What connected them?"

His question made us wonder. What could possibly the reason?

Not long after that, I came up with a possibility. "The teeth," I said, causing them to turn to me. "If you see the examination of every teeth that you found in their house, you can see how perfect those teeth are. They target victims with perfect and healthy teeth."

"That's possible," Seokjin said, "but why would they remove it only for them to be kept in a small, packed basement? What's the reason behind that?"

Taehyung suddenly turned around to grab a case file and opened it. He then took out a bunch of pictures from it. "Here are the pictures of Mr. Choi that my CI sent me," he said before pointing to some certain marks on the photos. "Do you guys see these bruises on his neck?"

I was quite surprised to see the amount of bruises that were there. We nodded, then Taehyung proceeded to take out another picture. This time was a photo of Mrs. Choi.

"Now, do you see her knuckles?" he asked, causing me to widen my eyes.

"Domestic abuse?" I asked and he nodded. "Wow, I didn't expect that coming."

"That can be the reason why he kept the teeth with him," Taehyung said, "as a symbol of victory, as a prize, as something that he can pride about to his wife."

Chaeyeon looked at the pictures and pursed her lips. "Is it possible that the motive behind the killings, other than that he's a crazy person, also that he wants to prove to his wife that he is a man, a strong and manly man?" she asked. "I've seen so many cases regarding domestic abuse that are like this. I'm just guessing though."

Without us realizing, a woman approached us and stood behind all of us. "You're right, dear."

We were shocked as we found out that the woman was Choi Ryujin.