the naked face || bts

ten

They were sitting in the living-room of Yoongi's apartment, talking, Seokjin's enormous body spilling over the large couch. Seokjin had carefully put the pieces of the already defused bomb in the trunk of his own car. 'Shouldn't you have left it there so the police could have examined it?' Yoongi asked.

'I always say that the most confusing thing in the world is too much information.'

'But it would have proved to Lieutenant Jungkook that I've been telling the truth.'

'Would it?'

Yoongi saw his point. As far as Jungkook was concerned, Yoongi could have placed it there himself. Still, it seemed odd to him that a private detective would withhold evidence from the police. He had a feeling that Seokjin was like an enormous iceberg. Most of the man was concealed under the surface, under that facade of gentle humor. But now, as he listened to Seokjin talking, he was filled with elation. He was not insane and the world had not suddenly become filled with wild coincidences. There was an assassin on the loose. A flesh-and-blood assassin. And for some reason he had chosen Yoongi as his target. My God, thought Yoongi, how easily out egos are destroyed. A few minutes ago he had been ready to believe that he was paranoiac. He owed Seokjin an incalculable debt.

'...you're the doctor,' Seokjin was saying. 'I always say when you want honey, go to a beehive.'
Yoongi was beginning to understand Seokjin's babble.

'You want my opinion about the kind of man, or men, we're looking for.'

'That's it,' beamed Seokjin. 'Are we dealing with some homicidal maniac who broke out of a mental institution or have we got something deeper going on here?'

'Something deeper,' said Yoongi instantly.

'What makes you think so, Yoongs?'

'First of all, two men broke into my office last night. I might swallow the theory of one lunatic, but two lunatics working together is too much.'

Seokjin nodded approvingly. 'Gotcha. Go on.'

'Secondly, a deranged mind may have an obsession, but it works in a definite pattern. I don't know why Taehyung and Ara were killed, but unless I'm wrong, I'm scheduled to be the third and last victim.'

'What makes you think you're the last?' asked Seokjin curiously.

'Because,' replied Yoongi, 'if there were going to be other murders, then the first time they failed to kill me, they would have gone on to get whoever else was on their list. But instead of that, they've been concentrating on trying to kill me.'

'You know,' said Seokjin approvingly, 'you have the natural-born makings of a detective.'

Yoongi was frowning. 'There are several things that make no sense.'

'Such as?'

'First, the motive,' said Yoongi. 'I don't know anyone who-'

'We'll come back to that. What else?'

'If someone really was that anxious to kill me, when the car knocked me down, all the driver had to do was to back up and run over me. I was unconscious.'

'Ah! That's where Mr. Benson comes in.' Yoongi looked at him blankly. 'Mr Benson is the witness to your accident,' explained Seokjin benevolently. 'I got his name from the police report and went to see him after you left my office. That'll be three-fifty for taxis. Okay?' Yoongi nodded, speechless. 'Mr. Benson- he's a furrier, by the way. Beautiful stuff. If you ever want to buy anything for your girlfriend- or boyfriend, I don't really know yet- I can get you a discount.

'Anyway, Tuesday, the night of the accident, he was coming out of an office building where his sister-in-law works. He dropped some pills off because his brother, who's a Bible salesman, had the flu and she was going to take the pills home to him.' Yoongi controlled his impatience. If Kim Seokjin had felt like sitting there and reciting the entire Bill of Rights, he was going to listen.

'So Mr. Benson dropped off these pills and was coming out of the building when he saw this limousine heading towards you. Of course, he didn't know it was you at the time.' Yoongi nodded. 'The car was kinda drifting sideways, and from Benson's angle, it looked like it was in a skid. When he saw it hit you, he started running over to see if he could help. The limousine backed up to make another run at you. He saw Mr Benson and got out of there like a bat out of hell.'

Yoongi swallowed. 'So if Mr. Benson hadn't happened along...'

'Yeah,' said Seokjin mildly. You might say you and me wouldn't have met. These guys ain't playing games. They're out to get you, Yoongs.'

'What about the attack in my office? Why didn't they break the door down?'

Seokjin was silent for a moment, thinking. 'That's a puzzler. They could have broken in and killed you and whoever was with you and got away without anybody seeing them. But when they thought you weren't alone, they left. It doesn't fit in with the rest.' He sat there worrying his lower lip. 'Unless...' he said. 'Unless what?' A speculative look came over Seokjin's face. 'I wonder...' he breathed.

'What?'

'It'll keep for the time being. I got a little idea, but it doesn't make sense until we find a motive.'

Yoongi shrugged helplessly. 'I don't know of anyone who has a motive for killing me.'

Seokjin thought about this a moment. 'Yoongs, could you have any secret that you shared with this patient of yours, Taehyung, and Ara? Something maybe only the three of you knew about?'

Yoongi shook his head. 'The only secrets I have are professional secrets about my patients. And there's not one single thing in any of their case histories that would justify murder. None of my patients is a secret agent, or a foreign spy, or an escaped convict. They're just ordinary people- housewives, professional men, bank clerks- who have problems they can't cope with.'

Seokjin looked at him guilelessly. 'And you're sure that you're not harboring a homicidal maniac in your little group?'

Yoongi's voice was firm. 'Positive. Yesterday I might not have been sure. To tell you the truth, I was beginning to think that I was suffering from paranoia and that you were humoring me.'

Seokjin smiled at him. The thought had crossed my mind,' he said. 'After you phoned me for an appointment, I did some checking up on you. I called a couple of pretty good doctor friends of mine. You got quite a reputation.'

'If we go to the police now,' Yoongi said, 'with what we know, we can at least get them to start looking for whoever's behind all this.'

Seokjin looked at him in mild surprise. 'You think so? We don't really have much to go on yet, do we, Yoongs?'

It was true. 'I wouldn't be discouraged,' Seokjin said. 'I think we're making real progress. We've narrowed it down nicely.'

A note of frustration crept into Yoongi's voice. 'Sure. It could be anyone in the entirety of South Korea.'

Seokjin sat there a moment, contemplating the ceiling. Finally, he shook his head. 'Families,' he sighed.

'Families?'

'I believe you when you say you know your patients inside out. If you tell me they couldn't do anything like this, I have to go along with you. It's your beehive and you're the keeper of the honey.' He leaned forward on the couch. 'But tell me something. When you take on a patient, do you interview his family?'

'No. Sometimes the family isn't even aware that the patient is undergoing psychoanalysis.'
Seokjin leaned back, satisfied. 'There you are,' he said.

Yoongi looked at him. 'You think that some member of a patient's family is trying to kill me?'

'Could be.'

'They'd have no more motive than the patient. Less, probably.'

Seokjin painfully pushed himself to his feet. 'You never know, do you, Yoongs? Tell you what I'd like you to do. Get me a list of all the patients you've seen in the last four or five weeks. Can you do that?'

Yoongi hesitated. 'No,' he said, finally.

'That's confidential patient-doctor business? I think maybe it's time to bend that a little. Your life's at stake.'

'I think you're on the wrong track. What's been happening has nothing to do with my patients or their families. If there had been any insanity in their families, it would have come out in the psychoanalysis. He shook his head. 'I'm sorry, Seokjin. I have to protect my patients.'

'You said there was nothing in the files that was important.'

'Nothing that's important to us.' He thought of some of the material in the files. Taehyung picking up bartenders in gay bars. Shin Teri making love to the boys in the band. Fourteen-year-old Evelyn, the resident prostitute in the ninth grade... 'I'm sorry,' he said again. 'I can't show you the files.' 

Seokjin shrugged. 'Okay,' he said. 'Okay. Then you're gonna have to do part of my job for me.'

'What do you want me to do?'

'Take out the tapes on everybody you've had on your couch for the last month. Listen real careful to each one. Only this time don't listen like a doctor- listen like a detective- look for anything the least bit offbeat.'

'I do that anyway. That's my job.'

'Do it again. And keep your eyes open. I don't want to lose you till we solve this case.' He picked up his coat and struggled into it. Tall men are supposed to be graceful, thought Yoongi, but that does not include Seokjin. 'Do you know the most peculiar thing about this whole charade?' queried Seokjin thoughtfully.

'What?'

'You put your finger on it before, when you said there were two men. Maybe one man might have a burning itch to kill you off, but why two?'

'I don't know.'

Seokjin studied him a moment, speculatively. 'Holy shit,' he finally said.

'What is it?'

'I just might have a brainstorm. If I'm right, there could be more than two men out to kill you.'

Yoongi stared at him incredulously. 'You mean there's a whole group of maniacs after me? That doesn't make sense.'

There was a look of growing excitement on Seokjin"s face. 'Hon, I've got an idea who the umpire in this ballgame might be.' He looked at Yoongi, his eyes bright. 'I don't know how yet, or why- but it could be I know- who.'

'Who?'

Seokjin shook his head. 'You'd have me sent to a cracker factory if I told you. I always say if you're gonna shoot off your mouth, make sure it's loaded first. Let me do a little target practice. If I'm on the right track, I'll tell you.'

'I hope you are,' Yoongi said earnestly.

Seokjin looked at him a moment. 'No, Yoongs. If you value your life worth a damn, pray I'm wrong.' And Seokjin was gone..