Uncover

10.

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Murdered? Doyoung, didn't you say it was a car accident?" Jisung asked with a frown.

"That's exactly why Taeyong asked me to bring Jungwoo here. He wanted to explain things to Jieun, Jisung and Jungwoo. This case is not as simple as it looks." Jaehyun said.

"Not as simple as it looks? Why-" Jieun's father raised his hand to stop Jaemin from saying anything further. "Patience child. I know all of this sounds very confusing, but let them explain first."

Taeyong glanced at Jieun for a brief second and then started speaking. "So this girl...  uh woman actually, she is... 23?" Taeyong looked at Doyoung. 

Doyoung nodded. "Our hacker had already tracked her location and we were about to-"

Chenle raised his hand. "Sorry to interrupt, but how did you manage to pinpoint her location? I mean I know you guys are the Neo City Police but-"

Taeyong cleared his throat. "She's quite familiar to us, so we knew where to look for her."

"How?" Renjun met Taeyong's gaze. Taeyong looked at Jieun's dad. "Teach, should I tell them?"

Jieun's dad pondered about telling them the truth. He looked at Jieun, Jisung and Jungwoo's faces and took a deep breath. He then addressed everyone present in the room.

"Most of you know me, but for those who don't, I am Kim Jongin. Jungwoo, Jisung and Jieun's dad. I am a retired detective of the violent crime division." Jongin gestured to Taeyong, Jaehyun and Doyoung. "They are my students. And so was she."

Jongin paused and sighed. Jieun put her hand over her dad's and gave a small smile. "It's okay dad, you don't have to tell us if you don't want to."

Jongin shook his head. "No dear, you all deserve to know it. During their rookie days, I was their mentor. Before she..." He looked at Taeyong sadly.

Taeyong nodded and gave a sad smile. "Bae Joohyun. She was our senior and Teach's student.  We all were very close. We all called her Irene. She was one of the best detectives in Neo City Police. But last year, while hunting down a criminal, she went missing." 

Jaehyun slowly spoke up. "Teach, was telling us about one of his old cases which never got solved and she wanted to investigate it. Teach warned her several times to leave the case and forget about it, but she was fixated on finding a clue. Then one evening, she suddenly announced that she had found a clue about the killer and that she was going to investigate it."

Jongin closed his eyes and recalled the painful incident. "I asked her several times to tell me what the clue was or atleast let me accompany her.... but she stubbornly refused saying I'm going to find him on my own and make you proud Teach! She left and didn't come back. I spent weeks trying to search for her... nothing. She was gone."

Everybody looked down, imagining how painful it must've been for Jongin and the others to see someone so close, disappear. Jieun caressed her dad's hand comfortingly. 

Jongin opened his eyes. "She did come back... but she was not the Irene we knew."

Doyoung sat down and ruefully spoke. "Jieun you remember hitting a woman with a pan at Jungwoo's graduation party?" Jieun silently nodded. "It was then. She had returned, but she had lost all her memories. She didn't recognise any one of us; not even Teach. In fact she got very upset on seeing Teach. She kept saying, I'll take revenge."

"Teach figured there was something or someone because of which, she was mad at him. And to get to him, she had tried to poison Jungwoo and Jisung. But Teach didn't want to hurt her, so he let her go. She once again disappeared. This time Teach, had determined to find her at all costs. So he retired and continued on with his search." Taeyong further explained.

"And then all this happened." Jaehyun added.

Jieun looked at her dad with concerned eyes. "So all this time, the work you were busy with... the reason you would suddenly leave for Busan, Ilsan and other places....was because you were searching for her?" She carefully asked, since she did not want to cause her dad more pain than he already was feeling by recalling the incident.

Jongin looked into his daughter's brown eyes. "Yes dear. I'm sorry for not telling you this sooner... I am sorry to all of you." He said looking at Jungwoo and Jisung.

"Uncle Jongin." Chenle called out and Jongin hummed, waiting for him to continue. "If Irene was involved in an accident, what makes you think she was murdered?"

Jaehyun stepped forward to answer. "We had her location and we were ready to go and apprehend her. But before we could even step out of the station, a call came in reporting about a car accident."

Doyoung sat up straight. "When we reached there, we found the victim to be her. We almost ruled it as an unfortunate car accident."

"Almost?" Bomin asked. 

"Yes almost. When we asked around for witnesses, and checked the CCTV footage, we found that there was a blackout in that area, around the time of the accident. " Taeyong explained.

"That doesn't say much about why it's a murder." Jungwoo commented wryly.

"Of course, it doesn't. But you do realise that we thus have no evidence of the actual accident taking place. We all initially did think Irene sunbae's car crashed because of negligible visibility." Doyoung said crossing his arms.

"Then why...?" Jisoo asked with furrowed brows.

Jongin started to explain. "Something felt wrong to me...... It did not feel like a simple car accident. Her skin had turned slightly blue, and there was vomit-like froth near her mouth..... I instantly knew there was something suspicious. We also saw white discoloration on all of her nails. Leukonychia. It is common to have it due to some injury but having them on all the nails, is very rare. It mostly happens in cases of-" 

"Arsenic poisoning." Renjun finished for Jongin.

Everybody in the room stared at Renjun. Taeyong looked at him with suspicious eyes, whereas Jongin looked at him impressed. "Well said young man. How do you know this?"

Jieun looked at Renjun. His face showed no emotion and yet this time, she could see a faraway look on his face. His eyes looked stormy and distant. His lips were pursed. It's as if he is recalling something he doesn't want to.

Renjun looked at Jaehyun, before simply saying two words. 

"My Dad."