Na-moo Hwang left the captain's room like a rocket, and started pelting Gina with questions as if seconds before he wasn’t petrified, facing the beautiful woman who would be his “partner” in the coming months.

When he was warned that a new forensic professional would be assigned to the Longino Police Department to aid in solving this case, he didn’t imagine that fate would bring that woman to him. Mrs. Hwang had mentioned that the woman he would meet was a recent graduate in psychology, but although they both lived in a small town, it never crossed his mind that his almost-date-killer would be his new co-worker. Just when Na-moo thought he could forget the worst date he ever had in his life…

To his misfortune, while he was selecting the files requested by the captain so that Miss Zhou could familiarize herself with the case, and Gina was clarifying the call received from the patrol sent to the crime scene, Hector approached him discreetly.

“Should I worry about the animosity between the two of you?” Hector asked. Everyone else was absorbed listening to the redhead's words. “The tension is palpable, you know. I just couldn't identify if it’s a sexual tension from being dumped, or, I don't know, I can't think of anything else.” He shrugged with a smirk. “How about telling me?”

Na-moo pressed his lips holding a sigh and stared at his friend with a murderous look before throwing the file folder on the table where Amélie Zhou would sit ─ by luck next to Detective Brown.

“That woman was my terrible night.”

Hector frowned.

“How can anyone have a terrible night with her?” The detective looked at the doctor discreetly, from head to toe. With her slim fingers, she placed a wavy lock of her hair behind her ear while looking at the file dumped by Na-moo. The tip of the girl's ear was red, as were her cheeks. Her posture became shy when she snooped the two detectives over the light brown briefcase.

Na-moo hated to admit it, Hector was right. Amélie Zhou was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, with curves where any man would wish to get lost. If the man in question hadn't caught fire because of her, literally, of course. It wasn’t in a good way. However, if he told his partner that Amélie set him on fire, he would probably create a misunderstanding, and they had no time to lose at that moment. So he took the address of the crime scene with Gina and stuck it in his pocket.

“Welcome to the team, Dr. Zhou.” Brown turned around and extended his hand, giving up getting answers from his friend per hour. “You can just call me Hector, no formalities, since we'll be partners.” He thought about adding that maybe she was already familiar with Hwang, but he refrained when he saw the warning on his partner's threatening face.

Amélie shook Brown's hand with a trembling smile before turning her attention to Na-moo. He saw her outstretched hand and stuck his own hands in his trouser pocket, tilting his head to the side.

“So, you're the new forensic psychologist, huh? I hope you know that the Violent Crimes Department always has work to do, and it's never as pleasant as sitting behind a desk in a clean office.”

“I know, I studied many cases during my specialization and could observe that…”

“So, you know that we don't have time to waste. We need to leave now. Any formality can wait. Read the rest of the case information on the way”.

Amélie opened her mouth, but seemed unable to utter anything, her face was even more red. Na-moo passed by her taking exaggerated care to not touch her as he walked out of the department in heavy strides; the heart resounding in his ribs and his brain hammering him with distracting thoughts. He needed to focus on the case he had in hand, he had no time to ask himself why he was so hostile or why seeing her made him so uncomfortable.

Na-moo could hear Hector apologizing for his antipathy, justifying the partner's behavior by using the pressure that the department suffered from superiors for not finding any clues to follow up with a potential suspect. Whoever the killer was, he was a professional. And the fact that the victims had no connection with each other, apart from being Longino residents killed with members of their own family, there was nothing to lead them to a proper investigation; something that Amélie would conclude on her own when she finished analyzing the documents she had at hand. So, Hector was right, in part.

The case itself made Na-moo sensitive, not just for the six unsolved deaths, or because two more unanswered deaths would cause the media to massacre them for their incompetence. It was the similarity between those cases that turned the detective's stomach…

…because it brought back memories of a past that the Hwang family struggled to forget.

✛✛

Five police vehicles surrounded the medium-sized warehouse on a dead-end street, long empty because of the number of closed factories and beggars living in the region. Another place free of security cameras, great for committing a crime without traces.

Na-moo resisted the impulse to curse.

Why did the mayor think only of covering the wealthiest neighborhoods with security cameras? Even the humblest neighborhoods rarely had the security of the cameras ─ it was a sacrifice to get the footage of vehicles parked inside and outside the houses in cases of robberies or murder attempts in these regions. He should not be surprised that an abandoned region didn't have any surveillance.

The detective crossed the yellow stripes, which kept some curious passers-by away from the shed, and at long steps walked the high lawn with Brown and Zhou  behind him. As far as the eyes of the detective could see at the scene, only police officers were there. No reporters… yet.

Everything, from the way the six victims (who they knew until that moment) were abandoned with the bleeding on their foreheads mixed with the blood of the dead animal nailed over them with their bellies torn, confirmed the suspicions that it was not just any murder.

The killer followed a pattern… and if there was a pattern…

Na-moo took a deep breath, pressing his eyelids, while Hector asked for a certain rush in the analysis of the remains found at the site for the team that was there. However, the detective had no expectation regarding the remains left by the killer. Nothing but the DNA of the victims themselves, and the moldy dirt from the places where they were killed, had been found during previous analyses.

Not even the necropsy of the corpses had brought anything new to the case… nothing that would scare away the suspicions that the detective was trying to repress.

“Yura said that the forensics team found chloroform evidence as soon as they arrived. It was sent for analysis for confirmation, but since the scenario here is like what we found in the other two cases…” Hector scratched his eyebrow and wrinkled his nose in a disgruntled face. “Looks like we really have a pattern, huh? I miss when we only had cases of assaults and wives trying to kill their husbands for cheating.”

“What are the chances we're not dealing with a…”

“Serial killer?” Na-moo almost jumped when he saw that Amélie was standing next to him. She cleared her throat when the two detectives laid eyes on her. Her brown skin was pale. “If the scene is similar to the one found in the other cases, it’s clear that we have a modus operandi.”

“Better not say anything before we know for sure.” Na-moo warned her by folding his arms before he faced his partner again. “Where is the third victim, the one who survived?”

“She's a young woman, in her 20s. She was taken to the general hospital minutes before we got here. It seems she was shaken and didn't talk much.” Hector explained.

“I think it's my time to act, uh?” Amélie straightened up her posture, looking forward to getting out of there. “I'll go straight to the police station after I talk to her.”

“I'll go with you.” Two pairs of eyes stared at Hwang. “What? It's my duty to take the testimony of the only witness.”

“I'm part of the team too, why does it feel like I always get the worst part?” Hector snorted, putting his hands on his waist. “I want to make it clear that I'm not going back in a cab.”

Damn it, Hec! Na-moo fought the urge to turn the eyeballs when his friend extended his hand. Reluctantly, the brown-haired took the keys to the car out of his jacket pocket and placed them in his partner's hands.

“It’s okay to give my partner a ride, Dr. Zhou?” A fancy smile separated Hector’s lips as he laid his hands on Na-moo’ shoulders.

“O-Of course.” She stammered, wringing her hands with a nervous laugh. “No problem.”

Na-moo threw a scathing look at his friend, who gave him back with a bold wink.

“Oh, you’re free after work, Zhou? We should go to Yohan’s bar and welcome the newcomer, don’t you think, Na-moo?”

“Thank you?” Amélie seemed as uncomfortable with the idea as Na-moo, which only encouraged Brown to invite the other colleagues at the crime scene to welcome her.

“Take a friend, if you want!” Hector shouted as they both left the shed.

✛✛

“Can you drive?” Amélie looked at Na-moo with her eyes clenched. The sunlight chastised them until they reached the car parked a few meters from the old building. “I want to take a look at the reports you gave me… compare some things.”

“Yeah.” Na-moo took the trident keychain from the outstretched hands. “It's safer for me to drive, I like to preserve my life, you know.”

Amélie averted her sights, her face blushing. Before she could say anything, the detective got into the car.

The seat of the automatic SUV was more comfortable than the seat of his old manual Chevrolet. The scent of roses impregnated the air. For a brief fraction of a second, Na-moo wondered if the smell came from the owner of the car, sitting next to him, or from some scent.

He shook his head, turning away such thoughts. He was still not comfortable with the fact that they would stay an hour in the same closed environment ─ time it would take them to get to the hospital. Thinking about what his colleague's smell might be wouldn't help him to control the beats that vibrated in his arteries while she closed the windows.

Amélie turned on the air conditioner at the same time as he, her thin fingers bumping into his. The two looked at each other and she cleared her throat.

“Do you mind if I leave the windows closed?”

“Relax, it's your car.”

Amélie nodded, fastening the seat belt as soon as he turned the key in the ignition.

“Hm… about yesterday… detective Hwang…”

“Didn't you want to look at the files?”

“Yes, but…”

“I don't discuss personal matters in the middle of an occurrence. I like to focus the attention on the case I have in hand during office hours. I hope you can do the same, Dr. Zhou.”

She shrugged her shoulders, hiding her face in the middle of the hair curtain, and opened the briefcase over her lap. Through the rearview mirror, he could see her compressing her lips in a grumpy face. An uncomfortable silence hovered between the two, and Na-moo felt bad for having cut her. Maybe he was being overly dramatic about the accident between them. Being kind wouldn't rip off a piece of him… or set his clothes on fire…

“Do you have problems with blood?”

“What? Why the question?”

“You were so pale there in the shed that for a moment I thought you were going to faint.” Na-moo replied. Blood smelled strong and unpleasant, it was always something terrible at crime scenes, and most newcomers suffered from it until they got used to it.

“Don't tell me that the horrible stench of blood mixed with God knows what else didn't bother you?” Amélie retrieved without taking her eyes off the papers she had in hand.

“I've seen worse scenes.” In films, however, she didn't need to know. “I thought you knew what you were getting into.” Na-moo added, drumming with his fingers on the steering wheel, his gaze concentrated on the traffic ahead.

Amélie snorted loud enough to make him spy on her out of the corner of his eye, just in time to see her roll her eyes and protrude her lips in a cute pout.

He bit his lip to hold back a grin.

“It says here that in previous cases, victims were found in different rooms. The ones that were shot were tied up, with…” she moistened her lips. “With a dead rat hanging over their heads and their eyes blindfolded, as we saw just now. Only the two victims, who killed themselves, were found in a room apart.”

“Yes. In the case of the abandoned factory, the man who hanged himself was found in the engine room, his children's body was in the basement. There was also an old radio fallen at the man's feet.”

“And the radio only had the fingerprints of the victim who committed suicide…” Amélie whispered, reading the report printed on her hands.

According to the medical examiner, Dr. Go, there was chloroform residue in the victims' respiratory tract. The same result had been found on the bodies of the abandoned manor on Hampshire Hill. No signs of abuse or physical torture. The radio and the open space were the only changes in the scenario of the other two cases to the current one.

Amélie's stomach turned once again as she looked at the photos. She gulped. The only ones who ended up with their guts split open in those photos were the rats. Just looking at those pictures, she smelled the pungent odor of viscous blood dripping down the victims' temples and invading their nostrils.

Na-moo watched her clenching her fists, oblivious to the fact that she was fighting the urge to pick up the perfume stored in the glove compartment of the closed car. Amélie couldn't spread the sweet smell on the car with the windows closed. She didn't want to look like a crazy person.

“It's horrible, isn't it?” He said. “Every day I wonder how people can be so cruel.” The detective had the impression of seeing her tremble, so quickly that he concluded he'd imagined it.

“I hope to be able to profile the murderer soon.” She forced a smile, fingering her wavy strands to disguise her feelings.

“Let's see what the surviving victim has to say.”

“Maybe we can get a sketch?”

It was a rhetorical question, so Na-moo didn't answer. Instead, he stepped on the gas.

A portrait of the murderer in the same case where there was a survivor would be a double hit, an oversight of a murderer who up to that point had proved to be dark and cunning. And his intuition told him that they wouldn't have two lucky coins on the same day.