AN: I really hope everyone's enjoying this story! I just want to apologize for the last few chapters being so wordy! I'm actually not usually great at writing dialogue (Especially with six main characters!) I just want to get all my Ideas across properly, and describe everything in detail. I hope that it doesn't get too boring reading about every little discovery ... Let me know what you think!
The hotel of twenty five floors has yellow tape all over the front revolving doors, the tape extends to the awning above and over the bushes leading up to the parking lot. No one would think of coming near the area. It's a grand place, the most renowned hotel in Korea, so the question is why would he show up in broad daylight under such circumstances.
Yoongi is the first to approach and talk to him. "Hello, sir. We meet again."
The bellhop smiles and his dimples show magnificently. "That's right! I bet you're here to look at the crime scene aren't you?"
Taehyung answers with nervous anticipation. "Yes. This place should be evacuated, because all work here has been suspended."
Not wavering in smiling creepily at everyone, the guys voice is smooth, "You're wondering why I'm here, right? It's because I take pride in my line of work. I live for the people who stay here."
Jungkook nods brooding on the character. He looks at Jimin to see what he's picking up on the guy, and Jungkook sees the frown in the corner of his coworkers mouth. He sees Jimin's tight smile and awkward stance, like he wants to run away from the situation. He can tell that this guy puts Jimin on edge, and that sets him off too. He's known Jimin for so long, but this strong reaction is something he's never observed before.
Jungkook takes his badge out of his pocket. "I am a police from here and I'm issuing a citation for you, because you're standing on a 'no pass' zone. If you get caught here again, punishment will be taken."
"I wouldn't come back here if it were my last dying breath," The suspicious character says while snatching the citation out of Jungkook's hand.
He stomps away visibly pissed off, but Hoseok grabs him arm to stop him. He jerks his arm out of his grasp. "What do you want?"
"What's your name?" Such a simple question that none of them has asked, and yet the most important. If he fails to give a name, it almost cements his suspicion. The angry man glares at Hoseok before smiling again completely aware of showing his teeth. "They call me, Rap Monster."
As soon as Rap Monster turns his back to them, they share looks of either amusement or fear, because giving an alias also counts as not giving a real name. Yoongi opens the hotel door for the others and they rush up to the twelfth floor.
"It's obvious he didn't use hospital tools to sever her limbs, the trajectory that it sprayed ..." Jungkook trails off.
Besides staring in horror at the body, Jimin begins to scope out the place. He goes into her bedroom to look first, typical profiler, always checking the most personal space.
Hoseok moves the opposite way hoping to stay away from anything that might frighten him. He's an FBI, but he doesn't think so anymore. He's too afraid of everything and that's why he's in this predicament.
The rest spread out and search the house for anything that might be missing, or placed. For instance, more Wara Ningyo, maybe two of them.
"Guys!" Hoseok calls from the other room. "Guy come here quick! Ah!"
Yoongi rushes into the bathroom first, and sees the entire bathtub filled with blood and floating on top is the left leg. He's become so numb to seeing these images recently, but he's not entirely convinced that this particular image won't show up in his nightmares.
"That bastard. What the hell! Why would someone do this?" Yoongi rants. He paces the living room around where the dead body would be. "He's a psychopath!"
Jimin appears to be staring very hard at the chalk outline on the floor. The most unassuming part of the house, because the space where her body should be is spotless. Just like with the other crime scenes, if it wasn't necessary for mess, then the murderer would come back and wipe everything down.
Yoongi takes control of his team members. "Alright, we've found some body parts, but we shouldn't leave this time until we figure out something else. Rip the wallpaper if you must, but find the Wara Ningyo."
Taehyung speaks firmly, "The puzzle of this crime scene, is the body itself, which is not here. At all the other crime scenes, the bodies were not so messy, and we're allowed to stay. Here, the murderer must have been aware of his mess, he must have known the body would be taken away. It was deliberate. Everything this murderer does is deliberate. This is his canvas."
"So basically, why is the body missing? Why were the limbs cut off?" Taehyung summarizes.
Five minutes later Jungkook breaks the silence. "Maybe there was something on the arm that the killer didn't want anyone to see?"
That takes Yoongi aback. "Like what? A puncture wound?"
Jungkook shakes his head. "Like a wedding ring or something. I once solved a case where the killer cut off the left ring finger, because the wedding ring was stuck on the body." He offers his bit of intel and then leaves the room to look for more clues.
Jimin cringes. "There's no reason to take a whole arm for a wedding ring. The killer would find that tedious."
Taehyung mutters to himself. "Something that was taken that was there before, something that's missing now."
"Found them!" Jungkook says with a loud voice. "The Wara Ningyo are here, nailed to the table! There are two of them."
Yoongi goes after him with his dslr and takes a few pictures. Then returns into the living room with Jungkook.
"AH! I think I have a theory," Taehyung practically yells. He bounds across the room to the bathroom door. "Did anyone think it weird that the leg in the bathroom, still had it's sock and shoe on? I did. Most killers would take the clothes off ..." He shot Jimin a look, because he should have picked up on that fact. "Which means, what if the arm was also wearing something?"
"The arm? You mean an armband, or watch?" Yoongi asks unsure of himself.
"A Watch! A clue to something that was here in the crime scene, but taken and now missing. A watch might be a clue ..."
Hoseok asks, "How are we supposed to be one hundred percent sure."
Taehyung shakes his head. "Rap Monster left something at the second crime scene, he must have left something here. Besides the Wara Ningyo"
Jimin nods his head in agreement. Hoseok looks down at the floor.
"We shouldn't make quick assumptions about who the killer is just yet, he is only a suspect." Yoongi looks nervous telling Taehyung to calm down. He doesn't look very offended by the statement he just shrugs his shoulders.
"I'm about 98% sure it's him ..." He sighs. "Hoseok, could you do a favor?"
He looks at Taehyung with weary caution. "Yeah? What is it?"
"Could you lay down on the floor in the chalk outline?"
The team members stare at him in disbelief.
"You want him to play dead," Yoongi asks with a serious expression.
"Yes. I know it's a weird request, but the point of this crime scene is that the body is missing, but not the body parts. Which means he's trying to tell us something about the body, but it's not here and we need to imagine that it is."
Hoseok lays down on the floor in the chalk outline, two of his limbs still attached protrude past the lines cutoff. It's easier to imagine his limbs are missing, than to imagine a whole body laying there. He stalks around Hoseok's body thinking very deeply while the others watch him. He seems to be intent on something.
"It's about the pose. Something about this pose seems unnatural."
Now that Hoseok's laying in the outline you can see what Taehyung's talking about. With the legs spread way apart, and one arm tilted slightly east of north, it did look weird.
"It's itching in my mind what this looks like, I can't be sure, but the limbs were cutoff and the pose is unnatural. This is a pose with deliberate purpose," Taehyung says. He's stopped circling Hoseok and now he's closing his eyes in frustration.
Yoongi doesn't think about anything. His mind is clear, and maybe that's what triggered the epiphany in the first place.
"I've got it! He's a clock! The killer made the victim look like a clock!"
Taehyung smiles immediately processing his exclamation. "You're right!"
"Huh?" Jimin asks Hoseok, but the boy shrugs his shoulders and asks, "Can I get back up now?"
"Just a minute. Look, don't you see it. He looks like an analogue clock with his arm pointing to the "2" position, and his leg pointing to the "8" position. That's why the killer severed the other limbs, because he only needed two 'hands' for his clock." Yoongi beams with pride.
Taehyung slaps him on the back with glee. His smile pulls up at the corners and his true, beautiful smile shines through. Jungkook steps forward, always the practical one and asks an important question.
"What does 2:40 even mean?"
The group stay quiet again not having a reason for the time. Jimin breaks the silence saying, "It must be the time of the next crime ... there are two wara ningyo here which means, there's one more murder."
Jungkook's face brightens. "We're ahead of the murderer then! We can beat him to the next crime scene!"
Taehyung shakes his head, and his hair sways side to side in his eyes. "We don't know the location, just the time."
"Do you think the murderer has left a clue about the place as well?" Hoseok swallows. He gets up from the floor and moves towards the door. "I think it's okay to take a break ..."
The six boys pile into Jin's range rover and head back to Yoongi's place. He goes straight into his kitchen to make some lunch. The others lounge around the living room, playing video games and reading books. Taehyung lays on the couch with his head hanging over the edge of the cushion with his feet on he back.
Hoseok tilts his controller to the right and left, as if tipping the controller would help his race car turn the corners sharper. He pulls in front of Jimin's Luigi character by an inch gliding over the finish line.
"Honestly, these aren't my type of games," Jimin pouts. He hates losing. "How about we play this one?"
The door cracks open and Jin comes into the room. "Hi, did everyone miss me?"
Hoseok shakes his head and laughs. "Not really. What's up?"
"I've found something out. It's really serious ..." Jin smiles at himself proud at how adept he's become at helping solve a murder, since it isn't his expertise. Yoongi comes into the room to listen.
"... It's about the slashes on the first victims chest. When I was in the morgue, I thought about the slashes looking like certain shapes. I wasn't in the investigating team then, so I assumed they already found this piece of evidence. I checked the body out and placed him in the morgue without a second thought, but now that I know this evidence has been overlooked, I should speak up. The slashes on his chest are so aerodynamic that they could not be Japanese or Korean script. They are numbers written in archaic old symbols used by Romans. I know it, because they are used to count scenes in my acting class."
Biting his lip, Jungkook asks, "What do roman numerals mean?"
Yoongi appears in the room holding a wooden spoon. "They are used to count things, but they're outdated symbols. One would only find them in textbooks, on old buildings, or in literature."
Jin sighs. "We don't know what it means, but it's a clue."
Taehyung gets up and hugs Jin suddenly. "Great job!"
It brightens Jin's expression and he's happy to have made Taehyung, a private detective, praise him. "Are you guys playing video games?" He inquires.
Jimin nods pulling out the first person shooting game. Hoseok shakes his head, replying, "Nope. Now way! I have seen enough blood for a lifetime!"
"Truee," Jimin says. "Which game should we play then, Jungkook why don't you choose?"
The youngest smiles and sits beside Jimin on the floor. "Okay uhm, this one!" He picks up an action adventure game about zombies.
Hoseok gives his approval. "I can deal with brains."
We pop the video game in and begin the gameplay, first we must escape the two story house without attracting attention. Then we navigate through the neighborhood, ducking into school buses, and taking food from the decrepit, forgotten grocery store. After that we're almost past the first level of the game, and the very last mob of zombies come at charging at us, but Hoseok navigates his character to climb a fire escape ladder into an open window. He lands himself in an old hotel on the fourteenth floor. Inside the room, he swipes a medical kit and some weaponry, and as he opens the door to leave, Hoseok gasps out loud. Jimin thinks that a lone zombie might have killed him and ended the game, but his friend threw the controller down on the floor while his character on screen is just standing there idling with a gun in his hand.
"Why did you scream?" One of Jimin's eyebrows quirk up.
Hoseok screams again. "A hotel! That's where the next murder is going to take place!"
Everyone in the room hears and drops their current activity to stare at Hoseok.
"What? How?" Jin's eyes widen at his best friend.
"The next murder is going to take place in a hotel, that's the only place I can think of that uses roman numerals to count door numbers!" Hoseok's really worked up now, and his voice volume only continues to rise. "I wonder if the murderer is watching us, because why would he place a clue on the first victim to warn us about the fourth murder? ... He must know that we have Jin on our team."
A chill goes down the oldest one's spine.
"I was playing this game, and I happened to be in a hotel room ... look at the door. The numbers on it are written in roman numerals," Hoseok points to his frozen character on the screen.
Everyone gapes at the television screen seeing the numbers on the door.
"I've got to let my boss know right away, Hoseok, you are a genius!" Yoongi goes over and hugs the boy. He doesn't give many hugs, but this guy right here deserves one. Jimin slaps him on the back in appreciation.
"Dinner's ready!"
The boys gather around Yoongi's table and each delicious food cooked by Yoongi. After the meal they watch some television while Yoongi talks to his boss in his bedroom. After an hour, he comes out looking rather tired but very pleased with himself and sees each one of the members asleep in a different sleeping position on the furniture. Jungkook's curled into a very small ball on one side of the couch, while Jimin lays on the other side, his legs swung over Jungkook's. Taehyung is laying over the top like a lazy cat. Jin is laying in the armchair while Hoseok is laying across the ottoman. Yoongi heads to his own comfy bed.
