Black, Blue, and Gold (Book 2)

The Murder in Jeju (Part 2)

The small room is quiet save for the occasional sounds of typing, computer mouse clicking or papers being shuffled.

Three women are seated at the table amidst a pile of papers and a laptop the local force has lent them. They've been given a tiny windowless room at the corner of the police station where they could work, catching up on the investigation.

Sooyoung is still at the medical examiner's office but she has relayed and confirmed what's been found so far.

Contrary to what the police had suspected when they found the victim, the cause of death is blunt force trauma to the head, not stabbing.

It's a brutal murder with the man being beaten and stabbed multiple times. But it was the blow to the head that killed him. The murderer stabbed his torso afterwards, probably to make sure he was dead.

The man was found wearing a hotel bathrobe and there was no sign of forced entry on the room door which leads them to believe that he knew his attacker. The occupants of the rooms adjacent to his didn't hear any screaming or loud noises so he was probably caught off guard by the attacker and died before he could fight back or shout for help.

There were blood spatters everywhere, consistent with the multiple beatings and stabbings but the most interesting and important fact, said Sooyoung, was what the medical examiner found after examining the skull.

She told them that the wound had ragged and star-shaped edges which was usually found in exit wounds caused by bullets or close contact wounds. Since there's no indication that the victim had been shot, the M.E was able to conclude that it was a close contact wound and, by sheer luck, it looked extremely similar to one Sooyoung had seen before. That previous wound was caused by a hammer so the woman was quite certain that a hammer had caused this wound too.

Because of this, the local police are now back at the hotel, checking the staff and their tools, and going through security camera recordings.

Jennie is using the laptop to find more information about both the victim and the suspect by looking into social media posts made by them and other conference participants while Jisoo and Lisa are going through paper records including witness interview notes and the suspect's surveillance result from internal affairs.

Lieutenant Park has given out the order to pull the victim's phone and financial records. He has also sent his men out on a manhunt, searching the island for the suspect who hasn't been seen since he was questioned by the police at the hotel as just another conference participant.

Lisa, Jisoo and Jennie look up when they hear the door opening. In walk Sooyoung and the lieutenant who's looking grim.

"Any updates?" asks Jisoo.

"Our men have found every hammer and knife in the hotel but none of them shows any traces of blood. So we're waiting on the trash inspection now. I hope one of those huge dumpsters has a bloody hammer or knife in it," says the lieutenant.

"What about the security camera recordings?" asks Lisa. "Found anything suspicious? A man carrying a hammer up to his floor maybe? Or a man covered in blood going down the elevator?"

Lieutenant Park shakes his head. "We saw several people going to and leaving that floor but none of them was covered in blood or carrying a hammer. Too bad the security camera on his floor broke days ago. The murderer got lucky."

"Or it could be premeditated, timed perfectly with the broken camera," Sooyoung says. "Or maybe a robbery gone bad? His watch and credit card are missing, right?"

"I find that less likely," Jennie replies. "Judging from the amount of beating and stabbing, it was literally an overkill. No robber would bother wasting extra time and effort to beat and stab someone who's already dead. Their main goal would be to get in, get the goods and get out. I think this one is an unplanned crime of passion. It's someone the victim knew who had something to settle with him, who hated him probably," she says. "It's statistically proven too. Premeditated murders are usually more methodical and much less messy. The missing watch and credit card could just be an attempt to mislead us. He was wearing a gold ring and he had cash in his wallet. Why not take those too if the motive was indeed robbery?"