Chapter Text
“Hey baby, that's a fine looking ass ya got there. How much ya chargin'?” A man yells behind her, his voice rough and scratchy. Most likely from years of smoking, sucking in nicotine and shrivelling up his lungs to sad, cancerous lumps in his chest. She can almost see the scratchy 5 o'clock shadow covering his wrinkled chin. An old man judging by the old speech patterns. And experienced with this type of thing based on the forth coming nature of his request.
She rolls her eyes. “Nice try, old man. But if you knew us well enough you'd know all the good girls get off at 4.” She yells back. The only thing lighting the street around her is the dim headlights of his rumbly old car. She should be scared, a lady as small as her at half past 4 in the morning, walking home alone in the dark with a sketchy old man hitting on her. But she's been in this business long enough to handle herself.
“That so?” He chuckles, a small wheeze and a cough coming out at the end. “Well how about you help an ol' fart like me get off at 4, too?”
She snorts. “I made my money tonight. Maybe come back tomorrow and see if I'm still around, yeah?”
The sound of a car door shutting and footsteps echo from behind her. Before she knows it there's a big hairy hand grasping her wrist and flinging her back towards him. He grabs a hold of her and spins her around, keeping her held against his belly tightly with one hand on her ass. She can smell the alcohol on his breath from this close. It doesn't surprise her really, with such a big beer gut he probably wakes up and fills his morning cup of joe with vodka shots.
“Come on, sugar, I gotta lotta money” He sing songs, words slurred slightly. She pushes herself off him.
“I may be a hooker but I'm still a lady, ya old bag of lard! Treat me with respect or you ain't getting shit!” He's obviously taken aback by her surprising strength for a moment and re-evaluates his plan. She mentally thanks herself for all the hours she spends at the gym for moments like these.
“Alright, I'm sahrry.” He says, waving his hands around. “I just want a quick blow. I'll give you three fifty for it, since it's late and yer already off work and all. Consider it a personal favour.”
“I don't do personal favours.” She says. “But for $350... I can give you one quick blow, alright? I'm tired after working for so long.”
He grins. “I knew you couldn't resist the big bulge of cash.”
~roughly 30 minutes later~
She wipes her mouth and shoves her chest back in the skimpy dress she's got on. “That good enough for ya?” She says, stepping form the car and spitting on the ground.
The man laughs and wheezes, a heavy sigh coming from him. His pants still down, he starts the car. “It was perfect, doll. Keep the tip.” And he speeds off, tires screeching through the night.
She begins counting and smiles to herself. “Damn, the guy gave me a whole $400... and he wasn't even that dirty down there. Hopefully he comes back tomorrow and I can get another couple hundred off him.”
She begins walking home again and as soon as she turns the corner to her block her phone rings.
“Hello?” She answers. “Honey, I'm on my way home now, okay? Mommy's at the end of the street. She'll be another 10 minutes, don't worry. Okay. Mommy loves you. Bye bye.”
She sighs. “Fuck...” She curses to herself, inhaling deeply, only to exhale abruptly. “What the fuck is that smell?”
A heavy metallic stench fills her nostrils. She walks further, covering her nose. Eventually she reaches an alleyway 3 buildings from her apartment and the smell gets too intense. She vomits at the corner behind the building, hiding herself from view of her apartment in case her daughter is watching through the windows for her.
“At least it got that old cunts cum taste out of my mouth.” She muses to herself. But as she looks into the alley she sees something on the ground. It looks like someone laying on the ground. “Fuck, did another druggy OD?” She whispers.
Approaching slowly, she takes out her phone and turns on her flashlight. Her heels splash as they hit some sort of sewage on the ground. Only when she turns on her phone's flashlight she realizes it's not sewage. It's a crimson, syrup, covering the ends of her stilettos.
Blood.
She follows the trail up to a body lying on the ground ahead of her. 2 large gashes in the persons back, lying face down in a pool of their own blood and old cigarette butts.
“Holy shit...”
~The next morning~
His shoes slap on the ground as he steps from the old car he's been driving since college. Wiping the sweat from his brow he takes a look around him. Police tape covering the area and officers surrounding the area, writing notes and taking pictures for evidence later.
His partner steps from the passengers seat, heels clacking loudly and hair bouncy in a pony tail.
“Fuck, the weather today is ridiculous.” She says. “How are you wearing a shirt and tie with an under shirt right now?”
“I honestly don't know. Probably a bad decision on my part.” He responds.
“You should text your fiance to bring you a change of clothes when we're done here.” She grins, poking him in his side. “I still can't get over the fact that you proposed. Adorable. I've been waiting for this for years and you finally got the guts.”
“Shut up, noona!” His skin goes strawberry. “I was afraid he would say 'no'.”
“Oh my god, Jungkook.” Dawon rolls her eyes. “It's Hoseok, for god's sake! He's nuts about you, he would have said yes in his sleep if you had asked him.”
“He seemed distant for a while, I couldn't be sure!” Jungkook defends himself.
“Because he was trying to hide the fact that he was searching for a ring for you!”
“I know that now.”
“Detectives! Enough about Jeon's love life. We've got a corpse here just waiting to be assessed.” A tall man yells from the alleyway to them. They walk through to the body laying in the shade created between the buildings on either side. A man in his late 30's lies on the ground, clothes ripped and soaked in blood. His body is contorted, with one arm held pinned underneath his chest. 2 large gashes in his upper back that stopped leaking blood hours ago.
“He's been dead a while.” Jungkook states, crouching down and feeling a patch of non bloodied skin. “Ice cold.”
“No decay as far as I can tell, though.” Dawon points out.
“Forensics put time of death between 12 and 14 hours ago.” Jungkook and Dawon's boss Seungmin says. He stands at a towering height of over 6 feet tall. The height alone intimidates most of their coworkers, but with him being able to bench press Dawon even while drunk(as he's demonstrated before) he rates as possibly the scariest man on the team. No one would guess he's actually a teddy bear in disguise had they not seen it happen with their own two eyes.
“Did they state cause?” Jungkook asks, despite the clear answer.
“Uh, did you even look around?” Dawon asks, gesturing to the blood covering the alleyway around them. “I'm gonna guess blood loss, probably from the massive gashes on his back.”
Seungmin sighs, shaking his bald head. “I regret promoting you.” He speaks, his voice a deep baritone. “You're too sarcastic.”
“No you don't, abeoji.” Dawon grins. “You love me!”
“I'm not your father, detective.” He protests, despite the involuntary curl of his lips.
“You're somebody's father. 3 somebody's to be exact.”
“Well look here we've got a smarty pants.” Seungmin chuckles. “But not the smartest clearly, as blood loss is not cause of death.”
“What?” Dawon asks.
“Ha.” Jungkook teases, sticking his tongue out. “One to nothing.”
“Shut up you little rat.” Dawon growls.
“Cause of death is a puncture wound in the back of the skull. Very small, but it severed the brain stem.” Seungmin says. “I'm leaving the rest of this up to you. It's your third case now together, you should be able to handle this one without my constant supervision, right? I have to get stuff ready for my daughters birthday party tonight.”
“We got it, boss.” Jungkook nods.
“Alright, good.” He smiles, patting Jungkook's shoulder. “And congratulations on your engagement, Jungkook.”
“Thanks.” Jungkook smiles.
Seungmin was a part time assistant teacher for Jungkook's class on criminal psychology in his final year of university. He remembered the man as being Dawon's boss from the case that happened a few years prior in which he was involved. It was that case that made him want to pursue a career in criminal science. Dawon was close to him since she got along well with his oldest daughter who had wandered into the precinct one day looking for her dad to remind him to buy milk on the way home. He treated Dawon like his own after her parents were killed. It was through Seungmin and Dawon that Jungkook got a job here actually. He started as a criminal profiler and desk jocky, but slowly worked his way up through ranks throughout the years until he eventually landed a spot next to Dawon as an official homicide detective filling Seungmin's place when he got promoted to chief.
“They've got the woman who found the scene just down the street. She's been questioned partially but I told them to leave the bulk to you two.” Seungmin comments as he walks away. “Good luck.”
“We should probably question the girl.” Jungkook notes. “My least favourite part.”
“You can do it alone, I want to ask the officers about some crime scene stuff.” Dawon waves her hand dismissively, looking around the crime scene.
Jungkook scoffs. “You just want to leave it to me because I hate it.”
“I would lie and say no, but that's 100% correct.” Dawon grins up at him, eyes squinting shut against the bright sky. “Plus the heat is making me dizzy and I don't want to stand up and black out.”
“Bitch.” Jungkook grumbles under his breath as he walks away.
“I heard that!” She calls to him.
“And you know it's true!” He calls back, not turning around.
She clicks her tongue. “What a rude dongsaeng... he's perfect for Hobi.”
Jungkook approaches the shifty girl standing next to an officer in the sunlight. Her hair is damp with sweat and she squints past the sun rays. Jungkook nods at the officer watching her and he walks off. Pulling out his paper and pen, Jungkook clears his throat to get he attention.
“Hello, Ma'am. I'm detective Jeon, I just have a few questions for you.” He speaks. Just as rehearsed.
“My name is Ahn Choora, I'm 29, and I work at a bar a couple blocks from here.” She speaks quickly.
Jungkook raises a brow as he scratches the information down quickly. “That was quick. You deal with police a lot?”
She nods. “You learn to get to the point when you live in a shady neighbourhood. A lot of people have a lot of places to be. Better to be quick.”
“Fair point.” Jungkook acknowledges. “Let's start simple, when did you stumble upon the scene of the crime?”
“Sometime after 5 this morning.”
“What were you doing out at 5 in the morning?”
She shifts her weight, looking around. “Got off my shift at the bar late.”
Jungkook looks her up and down. She's wearing a short, skimpy dress and 6 inch stilettos, a faux fur scarf draped over her neck and a clutch in one hand. Her body is held tightly together, arms hugging herself and slightly hunched over. Her make up is messy, almost all traces of lipstick gone, and her hair is a mess as if someone had been pulling it. “That so?” Jungkook asks, unconvinced.
She glances at him and scowls. “Yeah. People get rowdy sometimes and make a mess. Someone has to clean it up, right?”
“Right.” He sighs, writing on his paper pad. “What brought you into the alley while you were walking home from...work?”
“The stench. I threw up and I had to know what was causing a smell so bad even I couldn't handle it. I've got a kid ya know, and if a single mother can't handle something ya know it's gotta be gross.” She shivers.
“Oh yeah? How old's your kid?”
“She's 6. So beautiful, such a smart kid. Got a lot ahead of her in life.” She smiles. “She's gonna be better than me that's for sure.”
“Right.” Jungkook sighs, upset by the sad atmosphere. “Well, I think that's all I need to know for now, thank you for your time.”
“No problem. Can I go home now? My daughter is waiting for me.”
“Yes, you can leave now.”
She walks away briskly and immediately starts making a call. Jungkook hears a muted 'mommy' but he doesn't stick around to hear the rest of whatever depressing talk is about to come from that woman and her phone. He heads back over to Dawon who's inspecting the body closely, poking around with a glove on one hand.
She looks up as he approaches. “What'd you get from the girl?” She asks, peeling the glove off her hand.
“Nothing.” Jungkook sighs. “She's a prostitute. Probably on her way home from her last appointment when she smelled the blood. She said she threw up but all I got is that this area of town is shady.”
“If someone's body could be dumped here without anyone noticing at some point around 8 pm last night this place has got to be shady.” Dawon points out. “I'm sure somebody around here saw something. Maybe a dealer or another working girl?”
“I don't know I don't think we're gonna get much from the people around here. The girl was defensive, clearly didn't wanna be talking to cops. I doubt anybody else here is gonna be any better than her.” Jungkook says. “What'd you get from the body and the officers?”
“Well he was apparently found like this. The cigarette near his face had DNA so we're going to run it for testing at the lab, but it's probably the victims. Speaking of which according to the wallet found on the person this is Kim Wooyoung, 37 year old branch manager for a local bank. We haven't found any indication about anything other than that though. He seemed like a clean dude over all. No points on his license, lived up town in an apartment, clean criminal record.”
“What was this kinda guy doing in this part of town?”
“I have a feeling that's gonna lead us to his killer.”
“My bet is on drugs.” Jungkook scrunches his face up. “These kinds of cases always end up in a drug deal gone wrong.”
“This is a pretty brutal death for a simple bad deal.” Dawon points out. “I'm gonna vote... jealousy. Maybe love.”
“Well the coroner will tell us if he had anything in his system.” Jungkook sighs, jotting down some notes on his pad. “Alright,” He calls to the officers around. “Pack it up! We're done here.”
“Good, the smell of blood is starting to make me nauseous.” Dawon grumbles.
*
Jungkook pushes through the swing door to the morgue and hikes up his jeans with one hand, phone in the other pressed firmly against his ear.
“How can we be running out of milk so fast? You're the only one in the house who drinks it.” Jungkook asks the receiver. “Wait a second... have you been feeding the stray cat outside our building?”
A short woman in scrubs turns away from the slab in front of her at the sound of Jungkook speaking. She makes eye contact and Jungkook mouths a name to her. She nods and pulls off her gloves and mask before heading into an office on the other side of the room.
Jungkook sighs. “Hyung, we can't keep him. Don't get me wrong, I want to, but our landlord said that pets have to be quiet, spayed, and vaccinated. We can't just pick up strange animals off the street, put a collar on it, and say it's ours.”
A man a few inches taller than Jungkook walks out holding a file and skimming over it before briefly glancing up at Jungkook. When he sees the phone against Jungkook's ear he grins.
Jungkook rolls his eyes. “I know, I know. Honey, listen I gotta go there's a corpse waiting for me and I think he's getting impatient. I love you, too. Bye bye.”
Jungkook puts his phone in his pocket and the head coroner smiles up at him, file in his hand completely forgotten. They have a stare down for a solid minute before the woman speaks.
“You guys gonna talk or are you just gonna eye each other up for a couple more minutes?” She asks.
“I'm waiting for it.” Jungkook mumbles.
“Waiting for what?” She asks.
“Sappy little shit.” The coroner says.
“That.” Jungkook answers.
The man runs up to him and throws an arm around his shoulders, laughing and running a hand through Jungkook's hair. “Congrats on your engagement, Kook.”
“Namjoon hyung,” Jungkook whines. “Why do you always have to mess up my hair?”
“What else would I live for other than to piss you off, just a little bit?” Namjoon grins.
“Oh I don't know, maybe the murder? You know, the case we're working on currently? The thing I came here for?” Jungkook suggests.
“Oh yeah.” Namjoon mumbles. “The dead guy.”
“Yeah, the dead guy. What did you get from the autopsy?”
“Well we confirmed cause of death as the puncture wound on the back of his skull. I had Sohee take a cast of the wound and it looks like it was some sort of small blade. We couldn't get a good idea as to the weapon exactly since whatever the killer used was moved around in the wound in an effort to obscure the type of blade used.” Namjoon says, reading the file.
“Guess they succeeded.” Jungkook comments.
“Clearly.” Sohee says, putting her mask back on as she goes back to the slab. “The cast ended up looking like some sort of morbid play dough creation.”
“But the most interesting part of the body was the slashes on his back.” Namjoon says, leading Jungkook to a body covered by a thin sheet. “2 separate strikes on his shoulder blades. They both dug in pretty deep, leaving behind most of the blood at the crime scene. Before he could bleed out his brain stem was severed.”
“Damn...” Jungkook whistles. “Alright let me see the wounds more closely.”
“Wait,” Namjoon speaks. “Before I pull back the sheet, I want to warn you.”
“Hyung, I've been looking at dead people for years, I doubt this one guy with minimal wounds considering my last case is gonna really shake me up all that much.”
“It's not the brutality of it. When he was covered in blood it was harder to see exactly what the cuts looked like but now that he's cleaned up it's much more clear. And it might... remind you of something. Something not so pleasant to be reminded of.”
“I'll be fine, hyung. Just show me the body.” Jungkook rolls his eyes.
Namjoon sighs and shakes his head. “Alright...” He pulls back the sheet revealing the body of the man Jungkook saw in the alleyway. The body lays face down, pale skin appearing dry and stiff in the lighting of the morgue.
Two deep gashes on the shoulder blades take the focal point of the image in front of Jungkook. They run vertically from equal distance away from the spinal cord about 4 inches long. The skin around is clean now and the wounds are prominent against the white surface of the back, highlighting the image Namjoon was trying to subtly hint at.
It's so close Jungkook nearly stumbles backwards. The memory surfaces, searing the image in his brain where it's been laying dormant for years. His breathing stutters and he can feel the walls close in on him. A bead of sweat rolls down his neck.
Blood covers his torso and upper thighs. His pants are soaked through and his wet shirt clings to his body. There's nothing around him anymore, all his senses have shut off. He can't hear whats happening around him, everything sounds like it's under water. He's looking around frantically, moving his eyes rapidly in all directions, but his brain isn't registering anything to see. There's people, but are there? Something is touching him. He can feel it. But he can't feel anything. He's numb, but there's pressure all over his body. He remembers eating something sweet, but there's no taste of it anymore, the only thing left is a dry desert covering his tongue and cotton balls replacing his throat. He feels sick. He feels nothing. What is that noise? Beyond the barrier, behind the water. Something is grating on his ears. He can barely hear it but it's so agonizing, so painful. It hurts.
“-ook?” Namjoon's voice pierces through, snapping Jungkook back to reality. “You okay?”
Jungkook blinks and looks at Namjoon. “Sorry, I didn't catch that. What did you say?”
Namjoon eyes him carefully, a brow furrowed. “I just went over the dimensions of the wound. I asked if it matched any type of weapon you can think of.”
“Oh.” Jungkook mumbles. “Right, uhm, I don't know. I can ask detective Jung if she knows anything. Have you gotten a cast yet?”
“Yeah.” Namjoon nods. “I just told you I had the cast setting now.” He puts down the file, covering the body with the sheet again and laying his clipboard on top. “Are you sure you're okay? You want me to get Dawon noona? Or call Hoseok?”
“No.” Jungkook barks out, too quick and too loud. “No, I'm fine. I'm just tired. I didn't sleep well last night because Hobi left the window opened and the sounds of the city kept waking me up.”
“Huh. The city sounds used to lull you to sleep when we were in college.”
Jungkook fake laughs. “I was doing a double major and a minor, what didn't lull me to sleep in college?”
Namjoon gives half a chuckle back. “Fair point.”
“Anyways, I gotta go. I have a bunch of paper work. If I run into detective Jung on the way back to my office I'll let her know to drop by later when the cast is fully set.” Jungkook says, looking at his phone for the time.
“Sohee left a couple minutes ago, you can drop the formalities here about Dawon noona.” Namjoon says. “Honestly if Sohee were here you could drop them too because they're pretty much best friends anyways.”
“Right. I'll see you later, hyung.”
“Later, Kook.”
Jungkook heads out, mind scattered in a mess of memories that are so vague they're crystal clear. He sighs and takes a step out into the fresh Seoul air. A deep inhale, a deep exhale, and he shakes his head. He can't let this shake him, hes still got the whole day ahead of him, and the full case as well.
The image of a lifeless body on the ground at his feet and blood on his shoes flashes through his mind.
It's going to be a long day.