• Under pressure • [ Taekook ]

4. Grave

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On rainy days like this, some nostalgia washed over his mind. It was clear that he didn't like the rain.

Rain awakened in him a sense of loneliness, his soul breathed in suffering like the sea in its tides and ebbs. In such hours his soul and body were as empty as shell.

It was like a dry well. And then the image of Taehyung was in front of his eyes. And at the bottom of the well, the clear water gurgled again.

- Gets into the car! - Tae growled the moment Jungkook was ready to enter the station.

- W-what? - he didn't even have time to protest when he felt large bony fingers wrapped around his tiny wrist.

Jungkook was pulled into the passenger seat.

The rain was still pouring and clouding the view, but the older detective didn't mind. Without waiting for anyone else, he started his engine, accompanied by the police car, heading to the suspect's place.

The grace of forgetting and the cruelty of memory lay beyond Jungkook's control. Without merit and through no fault of his he was their slave.

The young slowly turned his head to the left while his eyes immediately fell on the angry pursed lips and the look from sparks of sharpness flew. Before he could gather his senses, he heard a voice.

- Where have you been? - asked Taehyung.

Jungkook was just silent. He had a weakness for that deep raspy voice, which robs emotion of the exuberance of emotional excess and every rhetorical pedal, the tension deepened with every second of silence.

- I asked you, Jungkook!

Flinching, he gently shook his head and blinked several times.

- I was in a café... having breakfast. - he looked back in front of him. There was no reason for him to look at that being of extraordinary beauty anymore. He was no longer his.

- Alone?

Jungkook had to admit to himself that the question caught him a little off guard, but the younger man knew the mechanics of pain very well. He learned to categorize any unpreparedness quickly into suffering and pain, so he was ready for another mental blow from the elder.

- Yes...

- You lie, Jeon. I saw you with Jung at that place. - he continued to look in front of him.

- Hoseok came later. I was alone before him. Why are you asking, Tae?

The elder tried to push away the jealousy that had come over him. Jungkook was food for his eyes, his heart.

- You should have come to the station right away but you were going on a date!

- It wasn't a date! Why do you think that, Tae?

But he didn't answer. He left him to drown in his forebodings, as the elder struggled with all the sufferings of this whole world.

The passing of slippery silver strands of rain pounded against the wet concrete beneath them. In the open yard, dozens of policemen were standing next to the boat.

The boat was attached to the trailer of the car, which clearly indicated Lee's intention.

Both detectives got out of the car with a soft door slam.
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- Don't move! - Taehyung said loudly when both of them walked unnoticed into the man's yard.

It seems that he interrupted some of his actions, because the man shook himself and jumped backwards while instinctively raising his hands. The rain washed every emotion from his pale face.

- Nice boat, Mr. Lee, are you leaving town? - Jungkook asked while holding the gun in front of him.

The younger man didn't take his eyes off that suspicious man. He couldn't risk the thief doing something stupid and Tae remaining unprotected. Tae had a gun, but If he had to, Jungkook would have jumped in front of him in the same second.

Some primal fuse seems to have lit up in the young detective. Something stirred in him and he just simply wanted Tae to stay protected. Even though he was much more experienced than him in this.

- I'm moving, and a boat is certainly cheaper than an apartment or a house. - muttered the suspect quietly.

- I would also leave the city if the murder happened in my neighborhood. - answered Jungkook with a mocking smile on his face.

- Your DNA was on the victim's bag. - Taehyung finally spoke up. It wasn't a question or a statement, it was a hundred percent fact. And his voice matched it.

At that moment, some strange feeling ran through Jungkook's body. Something caught his attention, and for a moment he gave himself a chance to look over the shoulder of the man in front of him. He could only swallow, when he saw the grave dug up behind him.

At that moment, the man started talking, and his eyes returned to the opportunity in front of him.

- I didn't kill him! I just took his lap top. And I immediately sold it on the same day. - he admitted because he was cornered by the stern look of the older detective.

- Why don't I believe you?

- I happened to be passing through my yard, which looks directly at his garden. I noticed a man lying down. I realized that he had been dead for a long time, because he smelled abnormally. I jumped over the fence, the door was unlocked. I took the lap top from the bag. - he said in a calm tone.

Jungkook thought he wasn't lying.

- And you didn't call the police? - Tae asked, but there was no answer.

The man was silent the whole time. The older detective nodded towards the policemen who were standing a little further away. It was a sign that they could take the man into custody.

- Wait... - Jungkook stopped, as he took a stance in front of them. Tae looked at him curiously.

- Did you want to bury him when you came back to steal lap top, but we ruined your plans? - Jungkook asked, alluding to the excavated grave behind, which Tae had just then seen.

- If I had killed him, I would have buried him immediately. I certainly wouldn't let him stink up the neighborhood for 4 days. - said the man furiously.

- 4 days? Very precisely.

- I heard on the news.

- Then why did you dig? - Taehyung assumed the role of questioner.

- The pipe broke, I had to fix it.

There was no repentance or hesitation in those words. Or lies, if Jungkook was wondering.

Both of them looked at each other and approached the dug hole in silence. Tae lowered himself to get a better look in front of him. Something caught his attention. Jungkook noticed his body language and then crouched himself.

The elder quickly put on a glove and touched one corner of the hole with his fingers.

- It's a milky substance... something like... wax? - the younger mumbled quietly, trying to discern what something like that would do in the hole where the pipe allegedly broke.

- Adipocere, a soap formed from the decomposition of human fats. We are lucky that the rain didn't wash it away. Call the others to build these canopy over the grave. Here is the evidence. - Tae was clear.

And it was clear to him too. Another look followed between the detectives. Tae continued.

- It takes months for this to form. And judging by that, there's no way it's from the murdered city councilor.

- If this grave was not for our victim... who is it for? - the young man was confused.

- That's the million dollar question. Kookie.
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...to be continued...