Hide N Seek

10. Investigation

"Here. These are all the information you wanted me to collect." Dome slammed a bunch of files on the table.

"So many?" Key looked at the files in surprise.

"I think you guys just opened a Pandora box when you asked me to look into your houseowner's background." Dome snorted as he sat down opposite the two detectives. "Even I had a hard time getting all this information out."

A few days ago, Ryan had contacted him to look into the information of Shawn, the house owner of the apartment in which they currently lived. 

As Ryan and Key had already assumed their identities as  Dawn and Grey, it was not normal for them to reach out to him like that. He then later received orders from the headquarters to assist both of them technically.

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked with a frown. He had felt that there was something fishy about Shawn after having a talk with Seff the other day. That was why he had gotten Dome to look into Shawn's details.

"Things aren't as it seemed on the surface. I had to put in a lot of effort to trace the information. And guess what? The new information that I found is quite contradictory to the one I found last time. Most of the old data seems to be fabricated. It is as if someone was deliberately trying to hide the information from us." Dome took a huge bite of his cheeseburger.

"In addition, I also looked into your other flatmates. But they didn't have anything out of the ordinary." He added with a mouthful of food.

"Swallow your food before you speak. You are splattering your saliva all over my face." Key said in disdain as he wiped his face with a tissue.

"Sorry," Dome said awkwardly. He wasn't really close to this colleague of his.

Key looked through the first file that contained the information about Shawn's personal life including his family, friends and achievements "What did you find so odd in this? "

Dome picked up a tissue and wiped off the extra sauce from his lips. "Let me explain."

He opened another file on the table and placed it in front of Ryan and Key. "This man is Paul Pitiphong, Shawn's Por. Do you remember the Zone A expansion project?"

"Isn't that the one that had a lot of issues with the old residents in that area? The whole petition thing to suspend the project because most of them were unwilling to move?" Key still remembered the case as it had been in the headlines of the news for almost a whole year.

"Yes. That's the one. Khun Paul was the manager of the team that was assigned to the project. He was the one who had sided with the residents back then and helped them reach out to the media outlets to get support for their protest." Dome explained.

"Why would he support the residents if he is in charge of the project? Isn't supposed to be on the same side as his company?" Ryan didn't actually have any idea about the news as he was in training in the military camp at that time. He was really puzzled by what Dome had just said.

"A huge part of Zone A used to be a slum, Ryan. The people living there were poor and actually didn't have any proper documentation about their property. So they wouldn't get any compensation even if they moved away. Most of them had been living in the slums for generations and had nowhere else to go. It's said that Khun Paul was a nice man and he understood the predicament of those people which was why he helped them."

Ryan nodded somewhat understanding the situation. "Then, what happened?"

"What was to happen? He triggered some people while he was siding with people from the slums. He ended up paying the price with his life. He was found dead in his house." Dome took out another file "The police concluded it as a suicide even without looking into it."

Key looked at the file and asked "He hung himself? Why would he do that?"

"The media reports say that he hung himself because he lost his job and he had a lot of pressure from the higher-ups, but I do find his death suspicious," Dome answered.

"It was Shawn who found his father dead?" Ryan read the detailed police report.

"Yes. Back then Shawn was in the final year of his university. He found his father hanging from the ceiling of the master's bedroom when he came home to stay for the weekend." Dome had already gone through the details of the case, even the ones that were not on the police report.

"Wasn't anyone else home then?"

"Apparently, no one other than Khun Paul was home. His wife had taken Shane to her hometown almost a week ago."

"Dome, I don't understand why you brought the whole thing up here." Key did feel that there was something fishy about the suicide case but he still couldn't connect it to the case they were investigating.

"I brought it up because I finally found the connection between all those victims in the case. Each and every victim who died at the hands of the serial killer was among the ones who benefitted greatly from the accomplishment of the Zone A project. They had reaped millions with the project alone!" 

Dome quickly opened his laptop and typed something, before turning it towards the two detectives as he continued to explain the connection of each victim to the project. 

"Let's continue digging in this direction now. We can't just jump to conclusions based on instincts. We need to find substantial proof" Key said as Dome finished the explanation. 

"Dome, what about those young masters that died at the bar?" Ryan asked.

"Those kids actually have nothing to do with the project but one of their parents does." Dome typed something on his laptop and showed it to Ryan. "This kid, Oat, is the leader of the group. His father, Leister is a university professor and one of the most well-known architects of the country. He was the one who designed the development plan of the Zone A Project.

Last week two days after Oat died. Khun Leister was also found dead in his vacation house. The autopsy said that someone had inserted a huge glass bottle through his anus and had blasted it within him. Those glass pieces pierced through his internal organs and caused death."

"Why hasn't anyone paid attention to the old whip marks on the body?" Ryan was reading the autopsy report.

"It's said that Khun Leister was into BDSM and would often hire young toy boys. There were also cases of him trying to molest a few of his male students but it got covered up by the university even before it got anyone's attention." Dome answered.

"That means that Khun Leister is simply not just a professor. He had someone supporting him." Key concluded.

"Yes. That is why I am planning on using him as a starting point for our investigation. I am sure that I will be able to find some kind of pattern to which who the serial killer's next prey would be." Dome said confidently.