Ring
Ring
Ring—I'm sorry the number you are trying to reach is currently unavailab-
The dial tone ended its prerecorded message as Yi Jeong hung up in frustration. That was the third time they'd ignored his call this morning. What the fuck are they doing? The phone got stuffed once more in his pocket as Yi Jeong studied the door in front of him impatiently. Her own family didn't care that she was missing. In danger. Hurting somewhere all alone. Or maybe...A bitter pain spread its way through his chest. Snapping out of the horrible train of thought, Yi Jeong began pacing the dimly lit hall once more. If looks could kill, there'd be more than a few casualties in the police office, but, as it were, the hallway was empty and thus no one was present to die under his dark glare.
He hadn't been able to get in touch with any of Ga Eul's family since her disappearance—something that was both exasperating and worrying. Her family—if you could call them that—lived in the States and rarely kept in touch. Still, they were her only relatives and he couldn't shake the hope that they had been contacted by someone—perhaps a ransomer—with details of her whereabouts. Yet, it was a vague hope that even Yi Jeong knew was a long shot.
They weren't the most involved family in the best of times, and Yi Jeong had only met them a handful of times over the past two years that he'd been with Ga Eul, but that was enough to see their lack of real care for their adopted daughter. Though vague, Yi Jeong had detected hints of disdain and neglect towards her—something he was well acquainted with in his own life—and had never liked them since. If their failure to see Ga Eul during her long recovery from her burn injuries had aroused these suspicions, their actions over the last few days had confirmed them.
Fishing his phone out, Yi Jeong listed to the voicemail left two days ago, seething again to hear the nonchalant tone cutting through the static.
"I'm sure she's fine-you may not know Ga Eul as well as we do, but she's been flighty in the past-never likes to stay in one place too long if you know wh—I mean—she doesn't always alert others-of-er whereabouts.
Let me know when you find her and we're all—ave a good laugh—probably buried her nose in a book somewhere—
maybe we ca—catch up later—"
Idiots what part of "been gone for days" or "filed missing person's report" did they not understand?! Biting back the disgust he felt for the people who were supposed to be her family, Yi Jeong's mind wondered to Ga Eul's painful past as he twigged the edge of his shirt impatiently, once again settling in front of the evidence room's door.
Like himself, childhood trauma had painted much of Ga Eul's life. The uncle who had adopted Ga Eul when she was a little girl had later remarried in the States and, from there, it was a strained relationship as Ga Eul grew up in a household that was considerably less of a home and more of a penitentiary.
They hadn't intended to be intentionally cruel, but a child just blossoming into their teenage years has enough turmoil to navigate without the added realization that she was unwanted by the people who were supposed to love her. And, likewise, the adults in Ga Eul's life had reached the end of their rope trying to understand how the sweet little girl they had taken in, had turned into a rebellious teenager consumed with anger and rule-breaking.
So, as Ga Eul had so lightly put it, she had moved back to S. Korea to finish her high school years and pursue her artistic endeavors on her own. A foreign exchange experience with her school had given her a taste of freedom and, in the end, it had taken very little persuasion to gain permission from her uncle and the family had sent her off with well-wishes, hope that the trip would "fix" her "rebellious tendencies," and more than one sigh of relief that life could perhaps resume a tinge of normalcy. A normalcy that hadn't been seen since the "incident" that had forced them to take on the charge family obligations insisted they must.
Though Ga Eul rarely spoke of her family, many a sleepless night had been spent pouring over the events that had shaped their lives, some happy, some bitter, but most, sad. Yi Jeong now knew why Ga Eul had been so withdrawn and afraid of closeness at the beginning of their relationship when she refused to let him even lift a finger to help her. Why she never liked to ask for help. Why she always tried to carry her burdens alone. Why she feared depending on anyone. They had come a long way from those days but the thought of her in pain again was almost too much to bear. When he got his hands on the culprit responsible he'd wish he'd never been born.
The door opened and Ga Eul was ready. Like a cat, she lunged forward off her heels, barreling towards one of the men who had just entered and swiping madly at his face with the glass in her hand. A deep red line gushed with blood as the man dropped the arm he'd grabbed, recoiling in pain. Turning on the other who had yet to recover from the shock of what she'd just done, Ga Eul sliced along his knee from where she had stumbled in the tussle. It cut deep and sticky blood stained her hands as she pushed forward, past the two goons now grabbing bloodied body parts, and into the other room from whist they came.
The room that met her eyes was dark and littered with old furniture but she gave this little notice as her panic eyes focused on the door just ahead-freedom.
She was almost there!
Stumbling forward all was a blur as adrenaline pulsed through her veins, giving her strength she didn't know she had after being couped up in the dark for so long. Reaching the threshold to the open world outside, she bolted forward as an electric pain shot through her body-"Oh no ya don't."
A zap buzzed through her body shocking her to the ground.
All went black…
Stuffing the phone back in his pocket, Yi Jeong crossed the hall as he finally spotted an officer entering the opposite door.
"No non-personnel allowed in the evidence room." The sour-faced officer Yi Jeong had had the misfortune of bumping into more than once in the past few days brushed past him gruffly, barely missing him with the large black briefcase he was towing. Seeing Yi Jeong was about to argue, the officer held up a hand,
"Just regulations," he scanned himself in,
"no offense," the door slammed shut.
Through the half window of the door, Yi Jeong watched as the officer walked over to the glass barrier taking up the entire left side of the room and plunked down his briefcase before pulling out fistfuls of little twisted up baggies—drugs no doubt.
Another swarm of officers passed down the short hall, most hardly sparing the outsider a glance before disappearing into doors opening on either side of the corridor. It seemed the station was filled with officers today and more than a few resented his presence Yi Jeong noted, though he would be lying if he said he didn't know why.
He hadn't exactly made any friends using connections to get in and then pulling rank through the DA's office to gain access to the criminal database they were currently scanning, legal loopholes were also something of a specialty for the So family lawyers so the fact that some friendly blackmail had been used didn't help matters. He couldn't very well fault them for their fierce loyalty to their department and the natural competitiveness that came with such work, but Yi Jeong was beyond caring at this point. Arrogant bastards the fact that he had to even use such underhanded methods was infuriating. A poor defenseless girl had been kidnapped and all they seemed to care about was regulations and lunch breaks.
Given he was on such thin ice with the department, it wouldn't do to cause a scene, not today when so much was at stake, so Yi Jeong was left to wait, leaning against the opposite wall once more, hands in pockets, scowl on face.
"Not very friendly, huh."
The voice had come from down the hall, and, as Yi Jeong turned, he recognized the tall willowy Officer Yoon making his way over, hauling his own briefcase of equipment. Finally.
"About time"
"Hey, didn't know you planned on coming before," the gangly man checked his watch, "7am."
"Never actually left the station last night,"
Officer Yoon cocked an eyebrow noting the dark lines around the young man's eyes and nodded in understanding. Without another word, the officer flashed a disarming smile and scanned them both in, easily greeting two officers on their way out as if he owned the place-though, he might as well have given his reputation in the office. Officer Yoon was something of a genius in his division and if what Yi Jeong had heard was true, the very man they needed to crack this case.
"He's with me Shin," Yoon nodded to the officer who had just barred Yi Jeong at the door. The man bristled but didn't make any other comment, clearly outranked and more than likely irritated by the fact as he turned back to the task in front of him. Moving towards the center of the room, Yi Jeong saw the plastic baggies were now scattered across the long white table behind the glass barrier and, further back, a gloved officer seemed to be busy inputting the new drug bust while the officer in front of the glass was filling out forms, signing off on the evidence he had just brought in, and pointedly ignoring the pair who had just entered. Not very friendly indeed.
In the middle of the room were two long wooden tables with computers and microscopes paired two by two. This was where Officer Yoon settled. At first, the trace fingerprints found on Ga Eul's phone hadn't turned up anything significant in the forensic report, but Woo Bin had called in a personal favor with Officer Yoon, a "buddy" of his who also happened to be an expert at fingerprint analysis. And, now as the man carefully prepared his slide and placed it under the microscope, Yi Jeong leaned against the wall watching the process with bated breath.
Quiet for once, Officer Yoon was busying himself with the one area he excelled at and had now surrounded his station with bits of paper, slide dye, and other instruments for his work. Ga Eul's phone was taken out of a plastic evidence bag, a sample taken, and another slide prepared. This process would be repeated multiple times as officer Yoon seemed unsatisfied with each sample and the pile of rejects steadily grew beside his workstation. Completely in the zone, officer Yoon was unaware of the time passing, but Yi Jeong couldn't help the sickening feeling that washed over him as the minutes passed, the sight of her phone being dusted for fingerprints causing a pain to burn in his throat. The warm familiarity of the slightly worn Van Gogh case contrasted starkly in the sterile evidence room…
Completely unaware of the time ticking by, Officer Yoon hardly noticed when the young man ducked out of the room. It was a tricky business, but a suspicion had been itching at him ever since he saw the first results of these particular fingerprints. Hoping to get a better look at things, he'd agreed to help Woo Bin as any good friend would, but the detective in him also relished at getting his hands on a case that had baffled many and could very well be the pinnacle of his career if the results matched his suspicion…there was something oddly familiar about the prints even if the official analysis showed no match…
Alone in the computer lab, Yi Jeong poured over the tapes recorded from the day Ga Eul had gone missing, replaying every scene, analyzing every angle. Finding nothing helpful once again, he switched to footage taken from where they had found her phone cursing once he realized this proved even less helpful.
The area this footage was taken in was rundown and he discovered with frustration that 7 of the 20 security cameras in the area were busted while the other 13 were either cracked or yielded images so fuzzy you could hardly make out a shadow from a man. Giving up for the time being, Yi Jeong headed back to the room over where he was surprised to find Officer Yoon just getting up from the seat he had been planted in for the past two hours. Searching his face for answers, he found the serious expression was gone and, in its place, a hint of excitement gleamed,
"I just called for the chief, think we got something." Officer Yoon sounded cautiously optimistic, but this didn't stop the hope that had suddenly coursed through Yi Jeong's veins. Did they finally have a lead? Before Yi Jeong could voice one of the many questions flooding his mind, the door beeped its loud alert that someone had accessed the scanner and a stalky man entered the room. Although he looked unassuming with his oversized, coffee-stained coat and unkempt hair, the room stiffened visibly when he entered.
"Chief Park," Officer Yoon motioned the man over, "think we might have found a match."
Chief Park didn't say much as he took in his subordinate and the young man standing beside him but grabbed the report, comparing it to a case file in his hand, a dark furrow forming on his brow as he examined the fingerprint analysis.
"He's our man."
"I don't know nothin-"
Sploosh, the thug's head was thrust none too kindly back into the rain barrel from whist it came. A few seconds and the man was ready to talk, tapping urgently at the sides as he spluttered for breath.
"Alight alright," he spit a gush of dirty water from his dirtier mouth, "don't have ta get nasty," the man, more waterlogged than injured, nodded towards the unpaved street where a pile of construction wood had been stacked. "I'll talk."
A tall man stood up lazily from his seat on the wood boards opposite the trio who had just so politely dunked the dirty thug's head in water, barely sparing him more than a bored look as the lowlife stumbled over his words, anxious to avoid another head dunking.
"they tuk er South, down that road a ittle ways before disapearin. I swear that's all I know!"
For a moment the thug feared it wouldn't be enough, although dressed like a young gentleman, for some reason he feared the man more than the gangsters who had just tried to drown him. The man who had instilled such fear, at last, sauntered over, casually rolling up his white shirt sleeves, "Now, wasn't that easier? No need to put up a fight when we all know I'll get the answers eventually."
Deciding to capitalized on the young gentleman's apparent good mood, the thug chattered on nervously,
"like ah' said, I don't know the men who took er, but I'dah intervened if I knew she was your girl. I mean no one in their right senses would-its only right to to-"
Woo Bin had ceased listening to the man's stuttering long ago but the last words caught his attention,
"I swear, I knew nothing about it and if you ever find them-"
"They'll pay" was the dark rejoinder as Woo Bin motioned for his men to dunk him once more. The thug was a known child abuser and it wouldn't hurt to install a fear in the scum.
Leaving the boring sight to his men, Woo Bin grabbed his keys. Right now, he had more important things to do...
"I want you to have a look at something."
"What is this?" Yi Jeong took a look around the small room Chief Park had just opened. It looked like a storage room of sorts, completely littered with odds and ends which seemed to have no connection to each other besides the fact they could have belonged in a scrapyard. Jagged pieces of rusty metal, a cable, some cloth.
"Evidence."
Catching, Yi Jeong's eye, Chief Park let the young man filled in the blank,
"Murder weapons."
Seeing Yi Jeong didn't need any explanation, the police chief went on, pausing so the weight of his words had full effect "Yes, murder weapons tied to a string of cases we believe were caused by the same man." Hesitating slightly, the man shifted to study Yi Jeong's face as he threw the last gantlet, "these all had the same fingerprints we found on Ga Eul's phone."
Even with all his years on the field, Police chief Park found it hard to read the stoic man in front of him, he had expected panic or a violent outburst, but he got neither so he continued. If Yi Jeong was surprised, he was doing a good job of hiding it, besides the pale shade of gray his face had taken, there was no other outward expression as the chief laid out more details of the case.
"It became sort of his m.o., leaving traces of evidence. Guess it's his way of taunting my men. Cant rightly say we've discovered any other type of pattern. the weapons used in each assault are different, random objects at hand if ya asked me. But fingerprints. There's always a fingerprint and the fact he purposefully left them on the girl's phone doesn't bode well for her."
"What else do you know of him"
"Him? Well, at this point we can't even be sure it is a him, we've set up several stakeouts but the scum's managed to slip away each time."
"What of the victims. Survivors." Too numb to process the way his heart had plummeted at the chief's recent revelation, Yi Jeong just kept shooting out questions robotically. He was going through the motions now, the pain was gone and in its place was nothing but cold determination.
"His victims? All dead, unfortunately. Well, all except one who managed to crawl away, but she won't be of much help to ya I'm afraid. Been in a mental institute ever since the assault and it's against regulations to give you the name-even if I saw fit to provide you such information."
Yi Jeong spread his hands wide, waiting for the chief's terms, accurately surmising the man would not have shared this much unless he had an angle to push.
Police Chief Park continued stubbornly, "This is a case we've been working on for years and I need not mention the powerful people I have breathing down my neck to close it."
Here they were trying to save Ga Eul from a unquestionable monster and they were worried about office politics, Yi Jeong could have killed the idiots but chief Park surprised him as he continued in a quiet, understanding tone,
"but I know it's of little use asking you to wait, so all I ask is you alert the department or Officer Yoon if you are going to make a move. For protection."
Yi Jeong knew what that "protection" likely meant but he didn't care. Nodding in agreement he let chief Park think he'd give the criminal over to their bureau all while knowing full well he would obliterate the vagrant himself the minute Ga Eul was safe.
Satisfied, the officer continued, "Once you reach the girl, my boys can handle the rest. We have a full unit ready to go at all times. One call is all we need."
they shook hands. Agreed, Yi Jeong thought darkly, perhaps he'd let them have a shot with the monster...
So Yoon-Hee slowly lumbered his way across the polished mahogany floor, his joints creaking as he made his way towards the dim light of the study his grandson frequented of late. Peering in, he saw him once more hunched over the coffee table in the center of the room, little had changed since that morning, only now there were pictures where papers once had been.
Yoon-Hee knew the pain that drove Yi Jeong on his relentless search, it had been weighing heavily on his mind too...How had this happened? The beam of sunshine that had suddenly entered their lives, vanished. Without a trace. Gone.
Though he did not deserve it for the coldness with which he had pushed his grandson aside during the most vulnerable years of his life, Ga Eul had shown him nothing but warmth and kindness. Often visiting him in his garden, chatting with him like the granddaughter he had always wanted, and treating him like a friend instead of a dotty old man. He'd grown fond of their little tea parties and showing her pieces of Yi Jeong's work from when he was a child and her absence had left a stark hole in his life. Indeed, he didn't know how their family had survived before the warm-hearted girl had melted their ice. Yi Jeong had even eased his chilly presence around him too. They had actually felt like a family again...and now he'd be damned if someone wanted to snatch that away from him.
"any leads?"
Yi Jeong nodded, continuing to scan the pictures before him, stopping only to swing back some black coffee.
The old gentleman sunk slowly into the seat opposite his grandson. Leaning back into the overstuffed chair he brushing a hand over his white beard tiredly, "I know how much she means to you Yi Jeong." He hesitated, if only he could reach his grandson but words seemed too little too late, "I understand the pain you are in."
Yi Jeong, at last, looked up at his grandfather and his usual cynical nature when dealing with the man left him at the sight. if Yi Jeong had looked exhausted, Yoon-Hee had aged another 10 years, the usual pepper in his steely gaze so like Yi Jeong's was gone and in its place shone concern and, could it be, fear?
Exhaling Yi Jeong passed him several photos, "these are pictures of the person who took Ga Eul, well, the best we got at least."
"and they're not good at that, are they? he likes red though doesn't he?" Hesun allowed his eyes to scan the other photos on the table, surely the police department could provide better evidence than this...
Suddenly leaning forward he picked up one of the pictures scattered across the table. "This man!"
Yi Jeong looked at him startled, "do you recognize him?"
"I need to call an old friend…"
