Taking Statements

Jin's gaze first went towards the wall clock when he woke up. 

'9 AM?' He thought to himself as he pushed himself off the bed. Another knock came from the door which roused him awake from his semi-sleepy state.

'Who could it be?' This thought entered Jin's mind as he made his way towards the door. While opening the door a possibility entered his mind 'Could it be the cops?' and he was dead right. 

Two policemen in uniform with impatient expressions were staring at him as he opened up his door. Seeing this whatever little sleepiness was left in Jin sped away and he was wide awake.

"Y-yes officers..." Jin said clumsily while trying hard to hide his nervousness.

"You sure took your while didn't you," One of the two policemen huffed in irritation. 

"I'm sorry about that I'm a deep sleeper," Jin apologised.

"It's alright, don't mind him. Can I see your ID please," The other policeman said gently.

Seeing the stark difference in the two's personalities Jin thought to himself 'Are they playing good cop or a bad cop with me or what...' It was only a passing thought as he quickly replied to the policeman.

"Right away Sir!"

The two looked around his house from the doorway while Jin got hold of his wallet and took out his ID from it. 

"Here's my ID officer," Jin brought the ID to the officer with a gentle temperament and stood there as he glanced at his information.

"Jin Blaker...22 years old..." The man murmured his initial information as his eyes glanced through the rest of it before passing the ID back to Jin.

"It's just for statement purposes and is related to the recent murders so Jin, can you tell me where you were yesterday night?" The man asked.

"Well...my work shift finished between 9 to 10 PM and then I returned home by half past ten. Then I freshened up, made my dinner and went to sleep," Jane said after a brief pause at the start.

"Mhmm is that so?" The man noted down a few things and asked further, "What about the night before?"

"It was the same schedule, sir," Jin responded. He concentrated on not saying anything more than what was asked of him to reduce the likelihood of saying anything suspicious.

"I see, How about Sunday night? You surely weren't at work that day were you?" The man asked with a smirk.

Jin could only respond with a dry chuckle at his expression and said, "Yes I wasn't. I was out along with my office colleagues the whole day. We roamed around the city and then after eating out we returned back home,"

Jin wanted to hide the fact that they drank that night but the man was one step ahead and asked, "So did you all drink alcohol that night?"

Jin's heart pace increased by a beat but he maintained a strong front and responded, "Well since we all were out together it was natural to take a couple of shots," 

"Only a couple?" He further inquired.

To this Jin scratched the back of his head in an embarrassed manner as he said, "We were short on money...so we stopped at two,"

"I see," The man noted a few more things in his diary and closed it. 

"Thank you for your co-operation. We'll be going then," The man said and went away with his colleague.

Jin too thanked the two policemen and saw them going to the next house before closing the door.

"Do you find him suspicious?" The cop who came out as aggressive to Jin asked the gentler one.

"Do you think with such a scrawny build he could deal do two murders? Even if that's possible let's say...why would he still be here? This is not a case of serial murder so the killer is someone new. A new criminal is likely to be nervous and make a lot of mistakes."

"With that said, I expect the killer to run away from the area or be absent from his work for a few days...Taking all this into account, I find no reason to find him suspicious," The man finished his analysis.

'Or it could be that this guy is a pro at acting innocent...' A passing thought entered the man's mind but he shook it away.

"I see..." The other cop listened on and nodded as things made sense to him. With that, he knocked on the doors of the next house.

"Phew..." Jin leaned his sweat-covered back to the door. His heart was pounding like a drum as various thoughts entered his mind. He was able to maintain a strong face in front of those two cops but there was no one he couldn't do so anymore.

Jin raised his left hand up and could clearly see it shivering. That was how tense he was during the earlier conversation. Thankfully he held on.

"Hopefully that was enough to put them off," Jin said to himself.

Since he no longer felt sleepy Jin decided to freshen up and prepare his breakfast. While he was eating his food he was searching for a suitable job for him in his mobile app. 

He put on the location of search to the nearest city which was Bing City. Compared to the slum area where he lived, Bing City was much larger and had much more opportunities.

Jin remembered that during one Sunday outing, he had once mused over the thought of using all his saved-up money to shift from this slum area to the city in the hope of a better life. The next day the thought got buried at the back of his head like several other thoughts he had during other Sundays.

Jin searched for a while but he was able to find only one job which he was suitable for. For the others, he was unqualified. It was a job similar to his current one just the location has changed to that of a public school.