Detective Oh had just returned to her apartment after a long day of work. The house was quiet and dark. There had been another blackout, yet another during the summer. She had no desire to cook. In such hot weather, she would have preferred to skip dinner.
"I'll just have some fruit," she thought, heading toward the refrigerator. She grabbed two peaches, washed them under running water, and then sat down on the couch. At that moment, she turned on the television.
The news was summarizing the day's main stories: politics, a new company going public, and a scandal involving an actress caught with a man other than her husband. Detective Oh listened to the news with little interest, biting into the juicy fruit with her perfect teeth.
When her cell phone began to vibrate, she lowered the volume of the TV and answered on speakerphone—her finger left a damp imprint on the screen.
"Hello?"
It was the police station.
"Detective Oh, we know you just got home, but we received a report, and... it's important that you come right away."
Detective Oh squinted her eyes, her lips moved to form a curse, but no sound came out.
"Sure, I'll be there soon," she said instead.
She finished eating one of the peaches, put the other one back, washed her hands, splashed her face with water, and looked at her reflection in the mirror.
When she left the house, she noticed a tall figure of a man disappearing around a corner in the dark hallway. She thought she must have imagined it because she had only seen it out of the corner of her eye, but she had heard no sound.
The door closed behind her, and the locking jingle echoed in the hallway.
"I've worked for 12 hours straight; I must be losing my mind," she thought as she walked toward the elevator.
Detective Oh pressed the metal button, and the elevator arrived, its metal doors opening. She pressed the button to go to the parking garage where her car was parked.
"If someone had been there," she thought, "I would have heard the elevator and the 'ding' of the doors closing. It must have been a dream," and decided to stop worrying about it.
As she walked through the parking garage, her footsteps echoed in the quiet space. The electricity was out except for the elevator and essential services. Fortunately, there were very few cars in the garage at that time of year. All the families in the condominium had already gone on vacation, and Detective Oh was the only one still there, except for a family living on the first floor.
Her car was large and metallic, the seats were comfortable, and she slid into them easily. She glanced briefly at her reflection in the rearview mirror. Then she put the keys into the ignition and started the engine. She felt a persistent sense of being watched. To shake off the thought, she turned on the music, and the rumble of the car broke the silence in the garage. Soon, she was out of the parking lot.
Detective Oh drove to the police station. Fortunately, there was no traffic at that hour, so she arrived quickly. She parked, got out of the car, and scanned her badge, still hanging around her neck, at the reader. The large glass doors opened, allowing her entry. She greeted the receptionist, who responded with an awkward smile. He seemed absorbed in a somewhat boring conversation with the phone wedged between his ear and shoulder. Detective Oh walked with determination toward her office, knowing she would find her superior, Detective Park, there.
"Let's discuss the case now," said Detective Oh. Detective Park pointed his finger at his temples, looking thoughtful. It seemed as though he didn't want to say out loud what he was really thinking. His expression grew serious, then he sighed.
"A child has gone missing."
Detective Oh was stunned. Of all cases, those involving the disappearance of a minor were the worst. She had been involved in a case in the past that had deeply shocked her, so the thought of being in a similar situation frightened her greatly. She knew she had to get the job done, and backing out was out of the question.
"What happened?" Detective Oh asked. Detective Park pulled out a folder filled with documents. He started flipping through them and then pointed to a few photos. The photos showed a woman and a man.
"They are the child's parents," Detective Park said. "They reported the disappearance. The child was at a swimming lesson and was supposed to come home for dinner. There was about a 30-minute delay, and they got worried. They called the child, but the phone was strangely off. So, they contacted the swimming school. A secretary answered and said that the child had left regularly with the others and had not returned. At that point, the father got alarmed and left the house, while the mother, anxious, stayed behind hoping the child would eventually come to the door. However, the child did not return. The father did not find him along the short route between their home and the swimming school. He drove around the gym several times. He checked vehicles and nearby streets. He asked around, but no one seemed to have seen the child. Absurdly, the child seemed to have vanished into thin air, as if someone had erased him from a photograph."
"The child has just disappeared," Detective Oh said. "Usually, the investigation team isn't mobilized so quickly. They should be looking for the child first and mobilizing the search team."
Detective Park’s face grew even darker. He mentioned that, in fact, something had been found. It was the elastic band that the child always wore on his wrist.
"The elastic band was quite tight around the child's wrist, so it couldn't have fallen off by accident. It seems the child might have taken it off deliberately to leave a trace," Detective Park explained. "This led us to think that the child could have been kidnapped."
Detective Oh was shocked by this. She could imagine the scenario: the child leaving the gym, someone approaching and taking him away. In a moment of clarity, the child takes off the elastic band from his wrist and lets it fall to the ground, hoping someone would find it, notice it, and lead him back to the child.
Detective Oh took a moment of silence and then put her hands to her head. She felt that the case was going to be far from simple and that reconstructing the events would be much more complicated than even Detective Park anticipated.
They spent a long time in the office discussing the best strategy to find the child. Eventually, as the clock approached 2 a.m., they shook hands and said goodbye, and Detective Oh headed back to her apartment. This time she carried with her a stack of documents containing information about the child, his family, classmates, and all the people around them who might be involved in the case.
She got into her car, placed the stack of documents on the passenger seat, feeling tired with only a few hours left before she had to return to the police station. She started the car, glanced in the rearview mirror, and saw a figure of a man a few meters behind. His face was hidden by the brim of a cap, but his height and build reminded her of the figure she had seen in the hallway of her apartment. For a moment, her blood ran cold, then she reacted by opening the door, ready to ask him who he was, what he wanted, and what he was doing in the police parking lot.
But when she opened the door, the man had vanished. Once again, Detective Oh wondered if her fatigue had played a trick on her and if she had imagined the man.
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