5 Days-Day One
5 Days-Day One
I'LL GIVE A MASS RELEASE IF I CAN GET 500 COINS BY THIS MONTH. PLEASE SUPPORT ME!
..........
Minho barged into the hospital where Kanji was waiting for him. The latter was ash faced in worry and he was clutching a paper in his hands. He looked up to see Minho, looking disheveled as he dashed towards Kanji.
"What happened?" he demanded. "How did the CCK manage to kidnap Mina from the hospital?"
"I don't know," Kanji replied. His usually cherry voice was hollow and blank, devoid of any emotions. "The only thing I found was this."
He handed Minho the paper he was holding. Minho glanced at the paper which looked like someone's medical report.
"It was strewn across the floor," Kanji went on. "Mina was reading it last. Minho, you know her habit right?" Whenever she's shocked, she throws the things in her hands on the ground. Something about this report must have frightened her!"
"Doctor Shin was the one who signed this report," Minho said, pointing at the bottom of the page where the doctor's signature was visible. "Maybe we should ask him?"
"Let's go," Kanji agreed. They hurried out of Mina's office and dashed towards Doctor Shin's office. Minho knocked on the door.
"Come in," a soft voice came from the other end. They entered the office of the elderly doctor who was looking at an x-ray. He frowned upon seeing the two men.
"How may I help you?" he frowned.
Minho handed him the papers and asked, "My sister, Doctor Mina was reading this report before she went missing. What does this report say?"
A strange look came over Doctor Shin's face as he saw the reports in Minho's hand but he quickly composed himself. "I'm sorry but I cannot divulge the medical condition of another patient to people who are not related to her," he said firmly. "You'll have to get a police warrant for that."
Minho slammed his hands on the table, looking at the doctor with his steely eyes. He did not have the time for bureaucracies when his sister's life hung by a needle.
"My sister is out there somewhere, alone and scared," he hissed. "CCK will not just kill her! He will cut out her heart and…"
He could not bear to go on. Even till that day, the thought of CCK's actions brought him nothing but disgust and fear. The monster they had tried to leave behind would not let them go and Mina was once again in his clutches. It was going to be another uphill battle and he had only five days to find her.
"I understand your feelings," Doctor Shin said in a sympathetic tone. "But you will have to get the warrant in order to know this information. I really can't help you. However, I can tell you that report belongs to Doctor Dohyun. You can ask her directly what she has been...er...eating."
"Eating what do you-" Minho began before it struck him. He glanced at the reports again while Kanji, too, realized what the doctor implied.
"Minho, we should head down to the precinct and let the coroner see this," Kanji exclaimed. "They might give us a quicker answer."
Minho nodded and together, they ran off towards the police station.
...
Gayoon stood there in shock. Junwan's words seemed to be final and she was devastated by that decision.
"Sir," she began. "My team worked day and night to gather evidence! We were the ones who unlocked that the CCK is a cannibal and that he was shot twice! We were the ones who discovered that the real CCK is lying on a hospital bed and the current one might be a copycat! We're this close to apprehending him and now you're-"
"You have failed to protect the victim and now she's been kidnapped once again!" Junwan snapped. "You were sent to Hwang Minho's house to protect his family but now I'm hearing that you were dating Hwang Minho even before this case was entrusted to you. You've mixed in your personal and professional commitments. Any officer who does that cannot be seen as a reliable person to handle a case this big!"
"But sir-"
"No more excuses Gayoon," Junwan said flatly. "I don't care whether you keep living with your boyfriend or not but you are officially off this case. Hand over all your files to Taejoon."
With that, he dismissed Gayoon. She swallowed her pride and turned around to leave. Hurt and disappointed, she felt the eyes of her other fellow officers staring at her. Some of them were sympathetic while the others were jeering at her for her failure.
Junwan was right. She did fail to protect Mina and now her friend was facing the consequences of Gayoon's inability to protect her. Dejected, she slumped onto her chair and lay her head on her hands.
Gayoon tried her best to not burst out and cry. As a police officer, she should not be showing her emotions out in the public but it was very hard to hold herself together. She could not even face Minho and Jina in that state.
I failed, she thought. I simply failed. She could not even defend herself in her thoughts out of guilt.
"Detective Jeon?"
She looked up to see one of the rookie officers standing next to her desk.
"Someone left this note for you," he said.
Gayoon frowned and took the note. Opening it, she read the contents. The letter was printed out but there was no signature.
"Look for a black van with a large cold storage in the back," she read. "It belongs to one of the doctors at the hospital. And the shadow is neither living nor dead…"
Her frown deepened as she kept reading until the last line which completely shocked her.
"Yumi's heart is inside CCK!"
Gayoon's mouth fell in shock. Whoever wrote this letter knew the CCK was a cannibal killer but that was not possible! That part was not publicized to the media and only the few people involved with the case knew about it.
She studied the letter back and forth, trying to find the sender's name but there was none.
"How did you find this letter? Who gave it to you?" she demanded of the rookie.
"I don't know," he said. "We found it stuck on the precinct's door with a chewing gum."
Gayoon groaned in annoyance. Taking out the CCTV footage would take hours and she did not have time to waste.
Just then, Minho and Kanji barged into the precinct. They looked very worried and scared as they approached her.
"We might know who the new CCK is!" Minho exclaimed as soon as he reached her.
"Your coroner can confirm if the contents found in this doctor's stomach is a human heart or not," Kanji added.
Minho held up the reports for her to read. To his surprise, she also held up a paper.
"And I might know how he's been hiding," she revealed. "But before that, you'll have to do me a favor."
Minho and Kanji frowned at her. "What do you want us to do?" Minho asked.
Gayoon gave them a cryptic smile and said, "Hire me."