5 Days-A Request
5 Days-A Request
......
Minho was at the precinct with Kanji, working at Gayoon's desk to gather more intel. They had set up a proxy camp there and even their men were reporting to them in the police station. Some of the officers were staring at the men disapprovingly but Minho refused to leave. What if the officers found information on Mina and decided to hide it from him?
Moreover, Junwan refused to give Gayoon and additional support for the case since according to him she went rogue by going behind his back and hence, she would only work with the CCK team as a consultant not a full fledged member.
All this annoyed Minho and he set up his camp there so that he could aid Gayoon as much as possible.
"The van disappeared somewhere on the outskirts of the city," Kanji explained, pointing at the monitor which showed the images of Dohyun's van.
"It couldn't have gone very far," Minho said. "With the out of town routes blocked by the police for the past few days, it must be hovering somewhere between the next town and this town. But where?"
"The original CCK hid in the woods," Kanji said thoughtfully. "His wife said that was his frequently visited place. He used to hunt there. This copycat must be hiding in a similar place too."
"The woods aren't his MO," Minho said, shaking his head. He got up and walked towards a white board where they had noted down all the clues they had found so far.
"His MO is the lab," he stated, circling the phrase 'lab in the woods'. "The copycat will need a place where she could build a lab."
"But Doctor Dohyun is not that rich," Kanji pointed out. "We have her bank details here. She'll need tons of money to build a lab of that size. CCK may have been a serial killer but he had the money and access to build a lab. It's not unusual for doctors to build their own lab under the pretense of research and out-patient practices. But Doctor Dohyun is still an intern. She wouldn't get the access nor resources."
"Then she's working with a makeshift lab," Minho muttered. "And it's somewhere outside the town. Somewhere she went quite often."
His phone rang up. It was Gayoon.
"Where are you?" he asked over the phone.
"I'm at Lee Dami's house and picked up some info," she replied. She was standing outside Ms. Lee's house to confirm the park theory Yumi had told her.
"Did you find out anything?"
Minho put the phone on speaker so that Kanji could hear their conversation too.
"I did," Gayoon said. "But first, tell me something. The year Mina was kidnapped, did she go to a specific place quite often. Say...a park or mall or something like that?"
"Why are you asking that?" Minho frowned.
"Just tell me!"
"I think she used to go to the children's toy store near our mansion," Minho frowned.
Toy store? Gayoon thought. "No, that can't be right," she muttered. "Think harder. Any other place she used to go to. A lot. A more public place where many adults go as well."
Minho was about to reply that perhaps she used to go to the church but Kanji beat him to it.
"She used to visit a swimming complex with my mom and I," he quipped. "We went there secretly since Minho wouldn't allow her to learn swimming at such a young age. So we sneaked her out under the pretense of going to the church."
Minho scowled at him while Gayoon got her lead. "Now this is what I want you two to do," she said. "There are tons of files on the CCK's last victims on my desk. Go through them and see if the previous victims used to go to that particular swimming complex as well."
"But there are tons of them!" Kanji protested but Minho threw a dirty glare at him.
"We'll look through them," he stated. "What else?"
"Tell some of your men to keep an eye on the bunkers around the airport," she instructed. "I've talked to the officers there and they confirmed that a strange black van had been spotted there a lot in the past few days. Maybe it's the copycat's van."
"Alright," Minho agreed. "When are you coming back?"
"I'll be back in an hour," she replied. "I have to go somewhere first. I'll meet you at the precinct."
She hung up the phone and debated with herself before dialing Junho's number. He picked up on the first dial.
"Gayoon!" he exclaimed. "I was about to call you! Where are you?"
"I'm coming over for a while," she said. "Ahjusshi, I need to ask a favor from you."
"I need to talk to you too," he stated. "I'll wait for you."
"Alright," Gayoon said, hanging up the phone. She got into her car and drove off. Her head was filled with worry and doubts. So far, they had never encountered a phenomenon like this. A shadow stuck in the middle of life and death, creating havoc in everyone's lives. It was unimaginable that something like it could even exist.
She recalled what Junho had told her many years ago. "Ghosts are mere imprints of the feelings someone had left behind," he had told her. "Their feelings were quite strong. Whether it's hatred or love, if those feelings lingered behind, then the ghost of that person is formed after he or she dies, unable to move on until their wishes are fulfilled."
Is this shadow following the same troupe? Were his menacing feelings so strong that even without dying, he created an alter ego in the form of a black shadow which could possess people?
After a while, she parked in front of her house and got out of the car. Heading straight for the flat upstairs, she knocked on the door.
"Ahjusshi!" she called, knocking on the door. It creaked open and Junho let her in.
"Ahjusshi, I need to ask you something-"
Gayoon froze mid-sentence and stared at the things he was packing into a bag. There was an ouija board along with garlic, rosary beads and a few other things which Gayoon did not know the names of but it was clear what he was going to do.
"Are you performing a seance?" she questioned him.
Junho hesitated before replying, "Yes. I'm going to perform one tonight."
"But why?"
"To find my wife's killer," he lied. Gayoon hesitated and was unsure of whether to ask him for the favor. A seance can be done only once a month because the energy required to do one spirit summoning ritual could make a person exhausted. Doing more than one seance in a month could kill the ritual performer.
Junho sensed the hesitation in her face and asked, "What happened, Gayoon? What are you thinking?"
She took a deep breath and looked at him, her eyes filled with guilt.
"Ahjusshi," she began. "Can you perform the seance to find the CCK instead?"