The beginning

These visions, they're a repeated phenomenon, especially for me and I'm not sure whether to trust them or not. They feel so vivid and realistic like they're unfolding right in front of me. There's a strange connection to the people in these visions like they're part of my life. It's as if I'm witnessing flashes of another reality. The dream featuring Mohan and his father hit me hard, stirring a whirlwind of emotions. I felt a deep sadness, a sense of being unjustly deprived of such cherished moments. It looked like they had the most wonderful time together and how I wish I had the same cherished moments with my father. But, soon, questions started flooding my mind.

I often wondered if things would be the same if my dad were here. Would we share the same joy? Could he have become my closest friend, the comforting presence I need when life gets tough and I feel lost? These questions clung to me, never leaving me, whether it was daytime or nighttime. They followed me everywhere, and on some nights, I couldn't help but think about how life might have turned out differently.

As I lay there, staring at the ceiling, the "what ifs" kept swirling in my mind. What if my dad had said things like, "I'm proud of you," "You've grown into a fine young man," or "Your mother seems happy"? It felt like I was losing the memories I had with him. Was I forgetting him completely? This thought haunted me in the quiet of the night.

I can't really measure it, but one thing is for sure: nothing can make me forget my father. I'm determined not to forget about him.

Tears welled up in my eyes, and the longing for my father consumed me. I really missed my mother and wanted her to be here, but her delay added to the sense of loneliness that ate me alive internally. Sure, I had been separated from my mother many times due to my work, but that day was different. It felt suffocating, and I honestly wished she was here with me. Despite having wonderful friends and caring colleagues, I still felt an unexplainable need for closure.

Closure for what, though? What was I searching for exactly? Why was I plagued by these thoughts? Once again, I found myself trapped in a cycle of questions, as the vacant ceiling gazed back, offering no answers.

As I lay there, I reflected on the deeper emotions that had surfaced. It wasn't just about missing my mother; it was about missing the sense of security and unconditional love she provided. Her presence was my refuge in times of distress, and her absence left me feeling vulnerable.

Perhaps I was also searching for closure in my relationship with my late father. His memory lingered, and I longed for the unspoken words and missed opportunities to connect with him. The combination of these complex emotions created a turbulent storm within me.

Loneliness can be a profound emotion, even in the presence of those who care about you. It's a yearning for a connection that transcends physical proximity, a desire for emotional completeness. The questions that haunted me were a manifestation of this internal struggle, a quest for understanding and reconciliation with my past, my family, and my own sense of self. It was a journey toward finding solace, not only in the presence of loved ones but within my own heart.

Would words provide me solace? If so, who would say them? It felt as though I couldn't confide in anyone. Life unfolds in the most unexpected ways for different people, and I was left like an unsolved puzzle with these unanswered questions. Thousands of thoughts and countless "what ifs" couldn't provide the clarity I sought. I struggled to sleep, and eventually, after a few hours, I succumbed to the darkness and slept. The following morning, I awoke with a heavy head and an aching heart, but as they say, "the show must go on."

I headed to work, and as promised, Taeri had coffee ready for us. Having experienced the bliss of her coffee once, I knew what a delight it was to start the day with it. Since that day, none of us had the luxury of rest. We had a pile of cases awaiting our attention, demanding to be read, analyzed, and linked together. We couldn't forget the fact that we had not one, but two killers on the loose.

We delved into our very first case, the one involving a woman who took lives for financial gain. Our prior strategizing had streamlined our approach, making the process more efficient. We could analyze our cases with greater speed and accuracy. Each of us took a copy of the case home, thoroughly studied it, and prepared to present our insights. But before diving into the cases, we made a unanimous decision to get ourselves a coffee machine to fuel the marathons of work that lay ahead.

"good morning guys, I hope you have your analysis done...do I sound like a school teacher now?" I asked.

everyone chuckled at my statement and nodded their heads as if they were ready. 

"So Austin the stage is all yours," I said and sat on the chair.

Austin went to the whiteboard and started writing the details of the criminal. He took a deep breath and started talking looking at us:

"So the criminal, her name Min Ha Ri, was pressed charges for four murders. She was arrested after the fourth murder and rumors say that although she had a selfish motive, unknowingly she became an inspiration for a lot of other criminals and some of them might have helped her get out of prison. she escaped the prison and was never found again."

"What are the reasons for four murders?" Aman asked.

"Money."

everyone very intrigued looked at him anticipating his next words.

"Okay, let me give you a detailed explanation and then please raise questions. I know I am the youngest but, please do not steal my thunder"

Everyone laughed and told him to continue.

"Let's delve into the profile of the criminal, Ha Ri, and the series of murders she committed. Ha Ri, at the time of her arrest, was 39 years old. She had perpetrated four crimes, all following a similar pattern, and the primary motive behind these acts was financial gain. To understand her actions, it is essential to explore her troubled upbringing.

Ha Ri's childhood was marked by extreme poverty, and her family struggled to afford even two meals a day. Malnourishment and illiteracy characterized her early years, leaving her with a sense of deprivation. Her peers, the other girls, enjoyed the privilege of makeup and education, something Ha Ri could only dream of. Her envy and resentment toward those who had more fueled a deep-seated desire for a better life.

Fate seemed to offer a glimmer of hope when a wealthy man took an interest in her. He proposed marriage, and her parents, burdened by financial difficulties, readily agreed, hoping for a better future. At the tender age of 16, Ha Ri found herself in an arranged marriage she had never envisioned. The circumstances of her union, while offering an escape from poverty, did not bring the happiness or fulfillment she had hoped for.

Ha Ri's journey from a destitute childhood to an arranged marriage sheds light on the complex web of circumstances that might have influenced her later actions. While it doesn't excuse her crimes, it provides a backdrop for understanding the depths of her desperation and the choices she made. Ha Ri's story serves as a reminder of the significance of addressing underlying societal issues such as poverty, access to education, and the plight of vulnerable individuals to prevent such tragic outcomes"

he took a sip of coffee.

"Initially hesitant, Ha Ri found herself gradually swayed by the lavish gifts her husband showered upon her. At the tender age of 18, their world was shattered when her husband's company went bankrupt, leaving them facing the prospect of a return to a life of poverty. 

Desperate to avoid such a fate, Ha Ri discovered the existence of a substantial insurance policy that she would receive in the event of her husband's death. Driven by her fear of returning to a meager existence, she resorted to a sinister plan. She wanted to mix a lethal dose of strong alcohol into his food and she did, leading to his untimely demise. In doing so, she secured both her financial future and her newfound taste for luxury, but at a grave and morally devastating cost."

"As time passed, Ha Ri's life took a remarkable turn. She invested the insurance money she received wisely, learning to dress up and apply makeup, which enhanced her charm and attractiveness. By the age of 20, she had transformed into a striking and confident young woman.

Ha Ri's marriage at this stage was to a wealthy heir of a prominent company. During their wedding, the groom's parents transferred all their assets to him, signifying a substantial shift in wealth. However, their wedded bliss soon gave way to discord as the son found himself entangled in conflicts with his parents. In a surprising twist, the parents demanded the return of the inherited property.

Unbeknownst to them, Ha Ri had other, more sinister plans. She resorted to the same method she had used in the past, spiking her husband's food. As a result, she became the sole inheritor of the vast fortune, effectively cutting ties between the son and his parents.

The fate of the groom's parents remains shrouded in mystery, leaving those who knew the couple to wonder about their ultimate destiny. HaRi's story takes a darker turn at this juncture, showcasing the lengths to which she was willing to go to secure her financial future and the haunting question of what truly happened to those who opposed her ambitions."

He takes another sip of his coffee.

"HaRi's allure was so captivating that it would be inconceivable for anyone to believe she was capable of such heinous acts, even if she were to confess them herself. With a sinister pattern emerging in her life, she set her sights on a more ambitious target, the royal heir line.

Her marriage to the prince of a province initially appeared to be stable, but trouble arose when he expressed a desire to have children. Ha Ri had never contemplated starting a family, and this unexpected turn in her life triggered a deep-seated fear and resentment within her. In response, she resorted to a chilling act of treachery.

Determined to maintain her childless existence and the accompanying privileges, Ha Ri poisoned both her husband and his mother. The prince and his mother's deaths marked a gruesome and calculated turning point in her life. She was just 24 years old at the time, and her insatiable quest for self-preservation had led her down a path of darkness and malevolence, leaving a trail of tragedy and betrayal in her wake."

"In an attempt to escape the relentless media scrutiny, Ha Ri sought refuge in a distant location, where she chose to stay at a luxurious hotel. During her stay, she became infatuated with the hotel chain's owner, and their romance blossomed. Eventually, they tied the knot and welcomed a baby into their lives when Ha Ri was 27, seemingly forming a content and loving family.

However, the shadow of her dark past loomed ominously. Her husband somehow uncovered the chilling truth about her heinous murders and confronted her. Unwilling to face the consequences of her actions, Ha Ri resorted to the same deadly methods that had allowed her to maintain her ill-gotten prosperity in the past.

Tragically, she murdered her husband, severing the bond that had once brought them happiness. Under normal circumstances, the property would have passed to their son as the heir, but he was a minor at the time of his father's death. Thus, the ownership of the vast estate fell into the hands of his guardian, who, incredibly, was none other than Ha Ri herself. This macabre twist of fate enabled her to retain her grip on the fortune and continue her life of deception and criminality."

"What happened to the boy?" Taeri asked with concern.

"She after inheriting the properties, left him at an orphanage" Aman blurted out and instantly regretted his words.

Taeri's emotional outburst had left the meeting room in a somber mood. She had left the room in tears, unable to control her emotions, and it was only Aman's prompt that made me realize I should go after her. When I found her, Taeri had already managed to regain her composure. Her tear-streaked face showed hints of vulnerability, a stark contrast to the usually strong and composed woman I knew. She turned to me, her eyes filled with unspoken questions.

"Could my mother be...?" Taeri began but couldn't bring herself to finish the question.

I met her gaze with a reassuring smile. "I am sure it would not be the case. Seeing how kind-hearted you are, I am sure she was just like you," I assured her.

Her eyes softened, appreciating the support. "Let us go, I am fine," she said, and together we returned to the meeting room.

Taeri stood before the team, her emotions still visible in her eyes. "I am so sorry, guys. I know it is very inappropriate of me to leave the meeting room. I also know that we should not bring our emotions into the work, but this hit that raw spot in my heart." She bowed to apologize to everyone.

Woo Shik Hyung, the most senior member of our team, spoke up with understanding. "It's okay, we are humans after all. We do have rough patches that we hide from the world, and no matter how strong we are, there are times when we cannot control it."

We all nodded in agreement, offering our support to Taeri, knowing that such cases often touched personal nerves, no matter how professional we aimed to be.

Aman picked up the thread of the investigation. "The details of the victims were kept hidden because all the victims they happened to deal with came from prestigious families. They didn't want their reputation to be tarnished because of one lady, and that was her strength. She knew people back then cared about nothing more than their reputation, and she cared about nothing more than money. Not even her family, husband, or her son."

"The autopsy reports for all the victims were the same," Aman continued, "they were all given the same poison, which happened to be Isopropanol."

Kang Woo, always detail-oriented, questioned further, "What percentage of Isopropanol?"

Aman replied, "One hundred percent, except for the last victim. All the other three, including the royal heir's mother, were alcoholics. It was easy to kill them on the first try because they were already addicted to or used to alcohol. However, the man she loved and married had no bad habits. So she used to spike his food. He would black out, and she would act as if she was extremely concerned about him. She would often tell him that he exhausted himself working too much, and he would believe it because he wouldn't remember what had happened, thanks to the strong alcohol. He was very healthy, and he took his last breath on the fourth attempt."

My mind reeled with the cruelty of her methods, and the calculated nature of her actions chilled me to the core. This woman's relentless pursuit of wealth had driven her to commit such heinous crimes, even against her own husband.

Aman continued, "There were no pictures of the victims because they did not want to jeopardize their reputation, just like Taeri said. These were high-profile individuals, so the police could not take pictures of the victims. The pictures that were taken only included the crime scene."

As the pieces of the puzzle started coming together, it became evident that this case was more than just a series of murders. It was a reflection of a society where wealth and reputation often overshadowed justice. Taeri's personal connection to the case added an emotional layer to our pursuit of the truth, as we delved deeper into unraveling the complex web of this ruthless criminal's actions and motivations.

"Did you find anything odd?" I asked.

"Unfortunately, the pictures that were sent to us were very old and by the time they started uploading the pictures and files in the system, they were distorted, and by distorted they were ninety percent gone."

"One possible theory is that she knew exactly what she was doing. Given her impoverished background and early struggles with malnourishment, her transformation into a woman of luxury and privilege could have been a powerful motivator. The wealth and opulence she experienced gave her a sense of power that had been absent in her formative years. However, her insatiable desire for material wealth and the fear of sharing it with others might have driven her to commit the murders, eliminating any potential threats to her newfound affluence. This theory suggests a calculated and ruthless individual, determined to protect her newfound status at any cost."

"What is the other?" Austin asked.

"The psychotic behavior exhibited in individuals like her often lacks any trace of remorse or guilt. Their dominant characteristic is the pursuit of pleasure, in her case, an insatiable lust for money. This obsession makes them blind to the harm they inflict on their own family, the victims, their families, and even their own offspring. Such individuals prioritize their desires above all else, showing a disturbing lack of empathy and a capacity for extreme cruelty, driven solely by their selfish pursuits."

"What do you think, she would be capable of doing in the future?"

"She would commit crimes of the same sort or hire someone to do such things and share the profit. She would do crimes or odd jobs or make someone do them who would give her money."

"But why would she leave her son?" Aman asked.

Taeri's words shed a glimmer of insight into the mysterious psyche of the criminal we were investigating. It was possible that, as a mother herself, she refrained from involving her own son in her heinous crimes, sparing him from the horrors she inflicted on her victims. Her pleasure might have been derived from money, her primary motive, but it appeared that a sliver of maternal instinct might have still lingered within her. She could have abandoned him at an orphanage, not out of concern for his well-being, but perhaps as an attempt to shield him from the darkness of her own life. The complexities of her character only deepened the mystery, leaving us with more questions than answers in our quest to uncover the truth.

Now all eyes were on me and I was lost in thoughts. They tapped the table in front of me, Austin started dancing in front of me, and they tried calling my name but apparently, nothing worked until Kang Woo made his hot burning coffee contact with my skin.

"Why are you always lost in thoughts?" Austin asked.

"Who? Me? You've got to be kidding me" I scoffed and looked at everyone for backup.

All of them, literally every single one of them stood there crossing their arms and looking at me with a deathly stare confirming Austin's argument.

"Okay I give up, maybe I was lost in thoughts, but once you hear you will actually appreciate me"

All looked at me with their eyebrows raised still crossing their arms.

"Okay, so what does the file say?" I asked.

"but isn't that for later?" Taeri asked.

"Yes, but I need to know about it now, particularly for this case"

"They arrested her saying she was in her right mind while doing them...Says the reports" Austin claimed.

"Wrong, the reports were wrong"

"What do you mean the reports were wrong? Do you think the other alternative is true?" Aman asked.

"It is actually both"

everyone was curious to know what I was about to say.

"the reports stated the partial truth..."

"Partial truth? where are you going with this?" Kang Woo asked

"Think about it, look at the file carefully, (I stood from my chair and walked towards the board where Austin wrote the details of the case and rounded Illiterate and Isopropanol) It says she was an illiterate right? She used isopropanol that too 100% pure. It says in the reports that she gave exactly 8 ounces in the first three cases but for the fourth, she gave 2 each every time."

"What?" everyone claimed together.

my revelation prompted a collective nod among the team as I began my explanation. "Let me explain," she continued, "we are discussing the 1890s, right? (everyone nods in agreement) and we can all concur that there was no internet during that era, correct? (another unanimous nod) So, how would an illiterate individual have acquired the knowledge of what and how much to administer to kill someone? It's not as simple as walking into a pharmacy and requesting poison; it just doesn't happen. Even if, by some chance, someone supplied her with poison, how could she possibly have known the precise quantity necessary to be lethal to a human body?"

The shock on our faces grew as we realized the weight of her words. They knew I was right; the intricacies of administering poison, especially in a time before accessible information, seemed beyond the capabilities of someone like her. Her actions suggested she had more than a basic understanding of toxic substances.

Continuing my compelling argument, I stated, "For the fourth case, she consistently gave 2 ounces each time, which implies that she not only knew what she was doing, but she derived a sinister pleasure from it. Killing, alongside her insatiable lust for money, became a source of gratification for her. It's plausible to consider that when she was arrested, the person who had been associated with her might have encouraged others to commit crimes and perhaps even helped orchestrate her release. As Hyung mentioned, they could have established a cult, a dark society where individuals who derived pleasure from killing collaborated and passed on their twisted legacy to future generations."

With that, I concluded my explanation, leaving the room in stunned silence. My theory had unveiled a horrifying possibility, one that could have ramifications far beyond our understanding. We were left with more questions than answers, contemplating the existence of a sinister group that perpetuated a culture of murder and mayhem. It was a chilling perspective that would continue to haunt our investigation as we sought to uncover the truth behind this twisted narrative.

"No, now when I think of it, what you said might be true, because there were rumors about cult killing back then in the 1920s and who knows how many more? what if one of the murderers or both of them are a part of the same cult? I can dig deeper" Austin claimed.

"No need, the 1920s, the 1960s, and the 1980s murders are linked to the same group, by their patterns. you will know once we get our hands on them" I said.

And then I received another anonymous note that said "I am not who you think I am, I can be your flashlight...contact me"

We stood there in silence, the mysterious note in our hands. Questions raced through our minds like a whirlwind: Who was this person, and what were their intentions? The unknown left us utterly shocked and curious, our thoughts spiraling into the depths of uncertainty. The enigmatic message hinted at a future full of intrigue and danger, casting a foreboding shadow over our investigation. The anticipation of what lay ahead was both thrilling and unsettling, as we grappled with the realization that our quest for the truth had taken an even darker and more complex turn.