6:50 p.m.

Min-young sat in front of one of the tables in XX cafe, finishing his coffee. He had a somewhat disappointed look on his face. He had gotten a call from Ji-Eun ten minutes ago.

"Hey...I'm very sorry. I can't come. I have an emergency...Can we meet another time?" Ji-Eun asked apologetically.

"...Yeah. No problem." Min-young answered with a heavy sigh. 

Min-young put his cup into the trashcan and rose from the table. He stood at the front of the café and stared at the street before him. Suddenly his phone vibrated in his pocket. 

Nam-gil: Call me as soon as you see this. We have a new case.

Min-young frowned. He immediately called Nam-gil.

"Hello?"

"What type of case is it this time?" Min-young asked.

"A murder. I'll send you the address by text."

"Are you at the scene?"

"We all are. Come quickly." Nam-gil hung up. 

Min-young scratched his head. This day couldn't get any worse. He then took a look at the address Nam-gil sent. It was a residential area. It turned out that the place was not too far from here. It was just a five-minute walk.

...

Nam-gil turned and stared at the body lying on the ground. It was quite a gruesome scene. Dae-jung ran inside. "Alright, I've taken care of the media-" Just as his eyes fell on the body, his blood drained from his face. His expression turned to that of fear. "What in the world-" 

The killer left behind an especially gory scene. The victim's body was chopped into pieces. The way the parts were cut seemed a bit shabby. Nam-gil faced Chae-yeol who was examining the body. 

Just then Min-young barged in and noticed Ji-Won who was puking in a dustbin. It's that bad eh? He looked around and found a few officers including Nam-gil surrounding the body. "Ah, Nam-gil! There you are." 

"Ahem!"

"...Captain...Nam-gil."

"You should get used to calling me that you know. It could take some time until you're promoted again," Nam-gil let out a laugh. 

"Just fill me in on what happened."

"Come and take a look."

As Min-young set his eyes on the gory scene, his body froze for a second. "No wonder Ji-Won was like that."

"The victim was a middle-aged man. His name is John Williams. He's a foreigner who settled here." Nam-gil then turned to face Chae-yeol and asked, "Time of death?"

"Three hours ago...that's...around 4 o'clock," Chae-yeol sighed. "If you look at it normally, it would seem that he died due to his body being chopped...But that's not the case." Chae-yeol pointed at the victim's head. A part of the forehead was caved in. "The cause of death was due to an impact of a blunt object. Possibly a mallet." 

Nam-gil stared at the body in deep thought. "Since his body was chopped into pieces...he must have bled a lot...But there's no blood here." He looked at Do-yun and Hwan who stood next to him. "You guys searched the house properly, right? Did you find any traces of blood anywhere?"

"Nope," said Do-yun. 

"Then that means..."

"This is not the crime scene," Min-young claimed. He observed the body for a few seconds. The forensic team had tried their best to restore the body to its original form. He was quite a fat man. "Was the body just lying there when you guys found it?" If this was the crime scene then there should have been a lot of blood on the floor. So, it seemed that the body was shifted here.

"Well, no." Hwan pointed at one of the corners of the room. There was a huge black plastic bag lying on the floor. "We found him in that." 

"Uh-huh...And who reported it?"

"The victim's daughter."

"He has a daughter? And where is she right now?" 

Nam-gil sighed. "Outside. She passed out when we arrived." Just then an officer entered the room and exclaimed. "Captain!... We found a lot of blood!" The statement contradicted the information Hwan had given. Min-young raised an eyebrow at Hwan. "Didn't you say that there was no blood?

"There isn't. You can search the house yourself!" Hwan said with a straight face. It didn't seem like he was lying. Min-young asked the officer, "Where?"

"Outside."

"I told you!" Hwan exclaimed. Min-young and Nam-gil followed the officer outside. 

...

A few members of the forensic team were collecting samples of the blood that was splattered on the ground. The location was just behind the house. 

"His body was chopped here?" Nam-gil scratched his head. The place was a bit weird to do something like that. There were no signs of any murder weapon at the scene.

Min-young rubbed his chin. "That seems to be the case." 

"So, if the body was cut into pieces over here. Then why did the killer carry it back to the victim's own house?" Nam-gil asked. The blood was splattered in a manner such that a part of it was on the wall surrounding the house. However, the blood on the wall looked far less messy than the blood on the ground.

Min-young looked around the area."Well, no one would want to leave a dead body in a place for the public to see. Carrying the severed pieces back to the house must have been a hard task for the murderer. If I remember correctly, there were more pieces of the victim's body than one could carry. So if he were to carry all of them to the house, he would only be able to carry a few of them at a time. Plus he would have to hurry...But the problem is...the surroundings look a bit too clean." 

Nam-gil couldn't understand Min-young's last statement. Although he was right for the most part. The killer would definitely have to work fast to get all the pieces inside the house. He looked at the area surrounding the blood. And just as Min-young said, it was indeed very clean. "...Okay, so the area is clean. But what's the problem?"

Min-young gave Nam-gil a displeased look. "...There's no blood on the way back to the house. If the killer did carry the pieces to the house, there must have been some amount of blood dripping from those pieces."

Nam-gil ran his hand through his hair. "So you're saying that the killer didn't carry the severed pieces back to the house?"

"NO...He definitely carried them back to the house...The question is...how?" The killer couldn't have waited for the blood to dry as that would take too long. Even now the blood hasn't dried completely. Hence, this possibility was out of the question. 

However, it could be possible that there was more than one person involved. They could have used a container to carry the pieces back to the house. The two exchanged a few words before returning.

There was no trace of blood in the entire house. Several questions kept accumulating in everyone's mind. But before they could be answered, they needed to handle the situation at hand first. 

Min-young stared at one of the police cars parked outside. A young girl was sitting inside. Her tears would not stop. She was the victim's daughter. Looking at her condition, Min-young felt a bit sad for her. It reminded him of himself. 

He then turned and walked back inside the house. We'll have to question her when we get back to the police station.