Newly promoted, Senior Lieutenant Kim Young-hoon, massaged his neck as he plodded down to the basement level of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA). He yawned and scratched his head as he made his way down to his new office. After much public outcry over the thousands of unsolved cases, he and his team were tasked to solve them or at least reinvestigate those cases. Lieutenant Kim sighed as he unlocked the door to the dingy, musty, and dim room filled with junk that the agency had discarded in the storage room. He took out his phone and texted his subordinates to come and help him clean out their new office. The lieutenant saw several missed calls and voicemails from the same number yet again. He rolled his eyes. These news reporters were seriously getting on his nerves—just how in the world did they find out so quickly? He coughed as he slapped away the dusty cobwebs that had formed around the room. It was disgusting.

Dusting off one of the metal chairs, he sat and stared at the list of cases he had written down on his phone. At the very top of the list was of the homicide case of Lee Jae-Kyung, the first wife of GK Group’s Choi Min-woo. He tapped his fingers on his lap. It was an infamous case as there were no traceable evidence to the suspect. It was as if the murderer had just vanished into thin air, never to be seen again. With yet another sigh, the new team leader of the Special Homicide and Missing Persons Taskforce (SHMP) walked around the office, picking up scraps of metal and paper when he noticed a plastic bag tucked underneath one of the metal cabinets.

Curious, Lieutenant Kim bent down and with a handkerchief took it out. It was an evidence bag that contained multiple shards of porcelain that were stained with… blood? He frowned as he carefully placed it on a nearby table. What was this piece of evidence doing here in this storage room? He took a picture of it as his subordinates arrived to help him clean the place up. He looked up as he motioned for them to come over.

“Hey, rookie, go send this to the NFS right now to have it be analyzed. The rest of you, look for any other evidence that may have been stashed in here along with all this junk. Let’s get a move on, eh?”, he demanded as he clapped his hands.

For the next two hours, the team had managed to uncover over 15 pieces of various evidence hidden around the whole room, as they cleaned out the place. Lieutenant Kim had made sure to take pictures of where the objects were located in before he took them out. The detective scoffed as he looked at the mound of evidence they had found—clearly, someone had been tampering with evidence from multiple cases. He sighed as he whipped out his phone and called the rookie officer he had sent to the NFS earlier. The young man still hadn’t come back yet.

“Hey, where are you?”

“Sir, I’m still at the NFS… They say it’s going to take a while to analyze as much of the DNA on the porcelain has been damaged over the years… But they did say the results will be out in another hour or two…”

“All right come back as soon as you get the results.”, Lieutenant Kim said as he hung up the phone.

“Everyone, in the next one to two hours we’re going to get this place all cleaned up, you hear me? It’s gonna have to sparkle around here! Eun-byul, go inform the head of the Internal Affairs Department and tell them that I found some work for them. I’ll send them the pictures we took earlier right now.”, he said as he sent a series of photos to the head of the Internal Affairs. Eun-byul nodded as she ran out of the room, leaving the other three detectives with the team leader to clean out their new office.

After about two hours of scrubbing the floors and organizing lost documents, the rookie came back with the forensic report in his hands as well as the evidence. Lieutenant Kim took out the report from its envelope and read it, his eyes growing wide in astonishment. The forensics scientists had found that there were a total of three DNA evidence found on the shards of porcelain—the fingerprints of Cha Min-woo, an unidentified fingerprint, and the blood of Lee Jae-kyung. Everyone was still as they glanced at each other, not knowing what to do or say. Team Leader Kim* quickly walked to his desk and took out two reports from his bag. He looked at the autopsy report and the police report that had been filed over 20 years ago. They were very different. While the autopsy had reported that two separate objects seemed to have contributed to major blood loss and trauma to the brain, the police reported a cracked neck due to an accidental fall to be the cause of death.

He sighed— this was going to be a very long and complex case. Team Leader Kim turned to his team and informed them that he will be stepping out to inform his superior, Superintendent Lee, of their findings. The team leader instructed his subordinates to ask the prosecutors’ office to reopen the cold case of Lee Jae-kyung and issue a warrant for Chairman Cha of GK Group.

“Sir, should we start investigating the police that were involved in this case as well? I mean, if they neglected to submit compelling evidence and lied about the cause of death… Then isn’t it likely there’s some kind of corruption that took place…?”, one of his subordinates asked.

“… Let’s start with bringing the prime suspect in for questioning. Come on, let’s get a move on!”

The detectives of the Special Homicide and Missing Persons Taskforce nodded their heads as they busily started to make calls to the prosecutors’ office. Lieutenant Kim rushed out of their basement office, to inform his superior of their findings. Finally, after 20 years, they would hopefully be able to find out the truth of that night. Reaching the fourth floor of the building, he was about to knock on Superintendent Lee’s door when he heard yelling from the inside. He paused, listening carefully to what was being said in the closed office.

“… You think I’m joking?! How dare you make such a task force without telling me, the Commissioner General?!”, a voice yelled.

Lieutenant Kim was stunned. Why was the Commissioner General so against his new team? Surely if he wanted to calm the public, shouldn’t he be thrilled that such a task force was made? The team leader shook his head in disbelief and was about to knock on the door when the Commissioner’s next words made him freeze in shock.

“Shut down the reopening of Lee Jae-kyung’s case! Do you not realize how detrimental it will be for our agency if the truth were to be found out?! If that child is found to be alive, we’re all going to lose our jobs! Do you want that to happen?!”, the Commissioner roared as he flipped over, what Lieutenant Kim presumed, the coffee table.

Before the Commissioner General could storm out of the office, Lieutenant Kim quickly left the area, his mind racing as he ran down the hallway to his friend’s team, the Missing Persons Unit. If what the Commissioner General had said was true, then it was highly likely that the child he was referring to was none other than the missing heiress of GK Group! His heart thumped against his chest loudly. Just what in the world was the Commissioner General trying to hide…? The Team Leader clenched his teeth as he ran inside the Missing Persons Unit, opening the door with a loud bang, while everyone stared at him in confusion. He knew one thing for certain…

“I need your help in finding the missing heiress of GK Group—Cha Soo-hyun!”

SIDE NOTE:

*: I will be using Lieutenant Kim and Team Leader Kim interchangeably! :)

**NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.**