The Dahlias (11)

Gayoon was stunned for a few seconds before exclaiming, "What?"

"Yes," Jaein replied. "It belongs to Lee Shawn. Come down here and I'll explain everything."

She hung up the phone. Gayoon was too shocked by the revelation. The corpse belonged to Lee Shawn? Then who was in their custody? The case was starting to confuse her.

Turning to Jina, she saw that the girl was still shaken up. She leaned down and gently said, "Jina, I'm sorry but you'll have to go home for today. Lady Cop has to work on a case."

Jina was still speechless by what she had seen at the interrogation room. The spirit and the man in the room looked the same. They were identical and it really confused her. Furthermore, the spirit she had encountered was the usually friendly ones around her. This one, however, was an evil being which almost reached out to her.

"Do you have your car?" Gayoon asked. Jina nodded.

"Good," Gayoon said. "Let's take you to your car."

She held the little girl's hand and escorted her till the car. As Jina was about to get into the car, she hugged Gayoon around the waist very tightly.

"Be careful," Jina whispered. "Don't let the bad man harm you."

She's probably talking about the man locked up in the room, Gayoon thought. Did he say something to her? What could he have possibly done to scare her this much?

"I'll be fine," she assured Jina. "You should go home and rest. Alright?"

She turned to Driver Jang. "Make sure she doesn't go anywhere else today," Gayoon instructed him. The driver was slightly taken aback by the fact that a total stranger was giving him orders but seeing that she was a cop, he had no other option but to obey.

Jina got into the car and Gayoon waved her goodbye. She watched until the car disappeared from sight. Making a mental note to text Jina that night, she went back inside to meet Jaein.

The forensic room smelled faintly like a mixture of rotten flesh and antiseptic. When Gayoon had first joined the squad, she used to throw up everytime she entered the room. It used to scare her to be around so many dead bodies, afraid that a spirit would turn up. Sometimes, she would feel some of them nearby, watching her or trying to get her attention but with time, she managed to ignore them and they also gave up in their efforts to communicate with her. After working on cases for so many years, she finally got used to the smell and unusual presence in the room.

Jaein was stooping over the skeletal remains, examining it.

"What is this plot twist?" Gayoon demanded. "This is Lee Shawn?"

"Well after seeing that this skeleton did not match with Kim Joon's DNA, I thought of taking samples of hair from the man we have arrested," Jaein explained. "That's when I discovered something shocking."

She headed towards a desk and spun her computer to show the results on it to Gayoon.

"The man we have arrested," Jaein went on. "His DNA matches Kim Joon's."

"Wait," Gayoon said. "So you're saying that he's…"

"Kim Joon," Jaein confirmed. "If I'm not wrong, he did a full face plastic surgery. Took the skin off this corpse and took on his identity. Probably paid a private surgeon to carry this out. After all, our country is the top one when it comes to cosmetic surgeries."

"So when I found that Kim Joon and our criminal's DNA is a match, I ran a scan on our skeleton friend as well," she continued. "Lee Shawn's DNA was hard to come by but luckily, according to his medical records, he had donated blood to a hospital a year ago due to his company's CSR policies. I contacted the hospital and requested for a sample of his DNA. And voila! It's a match!"

"Wow," Gayoon said. "That is one hell of an elaborate hoax. To think, he could have gotten away if the skeleton wasn't identified."

"Why did Kim Joon stick around though?" Jaein wondered. "He had plastic surgery. Could have just left the country."

"Probably to find the money," Gayoon suggested. "The one he stole from the businessmen. Maybe Lee Shawn took it and Kim Joon killed him for it. But if he's still here, that means that he didn't find the money."

"It's probably hidden somewhere," Jaein said thoughtfully.

But Gayoon's head was already working out the details. It was now clear to her why the spirit lingered behind. He did not care about his murder; he wanted his money! Once he got hold of that money, he would leave Kim Joon's body and find another host!

"Thanks Jaein," she said. "I'll go and reinvestigate the villa. Maybe we'll get some more clues from there."

"Best of luck," Jaein wished her.

….

Gayoon made a stopover at her house before going to the crime scene. Her grandmother was not home but the person she wanted to meet was Junho.

"Ahjusshi!" she called knocking on the door. "Are you in there?"

The door slowly opened and Junho peered out. "Gayoon?" he asked in surprise. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

"Ahjusshi, I need your help," she said urgently, going inside the house.

"What is it?"

Gayoon filled him in the details about Kim Joon and Lee Shawn. Junho listened carefully to her words.

"I'm afraid Shawn's ghost is gonna possess someone else once he gets his hands on the money," Gayoon concluded. "He even told me to 'dig further'! I don't know what he meant."

"Dig further…" Junho trailed off. "Maybe he led you to his corpse for a reason. There must be something more in there other than the skeleton you found. Did you guys check any further?"

"Other than the corpse?" Gayoon asked. "No. We did the usual procedures and left. The garden has been sealed."

"I could have exorcised him but the guy is locked up," Junho sighed. Over the years, he had accumulated knowledge over different methods of exorcism in case he ran into his wife's murderer.

"We'll have to lure the spirit away," Gayoon said. "But how?"

Just then, her phone rang up. It was Taejoon.

"Yes, Taejoon?" she said. "Found any clues?"

"No," Taejoon replied. "But your friend just bought Lee Shawn's villa and is excavating the site."

"Friend?" Gayoon frowned. "Who?

"Hwang Minho," Taejoon answered. "He is excavating the garden. I'm right outside your house. Come out quickly!"