The Dahlias (12)

Gayoon rushed towards the police car with Taejoon in tow. "Slow down!" he complained.

"No time!" she snapped. "That idiot!"

She wanted to curse at Hwang Minho for making this so hard for them. Why the hell did he buy the property? What was his purpose?

"Slow down!" Taejoon exclaimed, grabbing her wrist whilst slightly brushing her palm. Gayoon froze and turned back to face him.

"We need to think this through!" he reasoned. "Remember, Hwang Minho is the owner of the villa now. He can do whatever he wants with it. Our team had already packed up and we can't do anything about it."

"We should still try to stop him," Gayoon insisted. "Let's go!"

"Fine, but we have to be careful," he cautioned. "Do not lose your temper with him. Alright?"

"I won't," she replied, getting into the driver's seat of the police car. She took out her phone and typed a message while Taejoon got into the seat next to hers.

"Who're you texting?" he asked.

"The Chief," she replied. "He needs to know this but he's in a meeting with the commissioner. Hope he'll get it."

Putting her phone away, she sped away. An hour later, they pulled up in front of the villa to find that Minho's diggers were already there. Minho was standing in the middle of the garden, overseeing the work at the Dahlia bed.

"Dig it up well," he ordered. "Don't leave a single area untouched."

"What are you doing?" Gayoon demanded. "This is a crime scene!"

"If I'm not wrong, your team has already packed up," Minho commented offhandedly, his focus on the excavation.

"Why did you buy this house?" she asked.

"None of your concern," he shot back. Taejoon had caught up to them, witnessing their back and forth bickering.

"Mr. Minho, you need to tell your workers to stop," he stated. "We may have left the place but it's still a crime scene and we may need to reinvestigate for further clues-"

"If you left behind a clue then it's simply your negligence," Minho said. "This property happened to be very valuable and I'm planning to renovate this garden to suit my taste."

He absentmindedly typed on his phone, not paying any attention to the detectives. Gayoon was infuriated.

"You have to stop this," she gritted. If the money was hidden inside the garden, then the spirit would find out and endanger someone else. If the spirit escaped its current host, then it would be very difficult to catch him and Junho will not be able to exorcise it. She needed it in one place.

"Listen-"

"Sir!" one of the workers cried out. "We've found something!"

Minho smirked, feeling triumphant. The workers dragged out two large bags from the dahlia bed. Gayoon and Taejoon watched in shock as the workers brought the bags to them.

"Open it," Minho ordered. One of them stooped low to unchain the bags to reveal dozens of gold bars. The other bag also had gold bars in them. Gayoon and Taejoon were astonished at the gold biscuits

"What-"

"I investigated Kim Joon through my private detectives," Minho revealed. "That's when I found out that Kim Joon had visited a jeweller shortly before his death. But the day before he was to flee, the bags were stolen by Shawn's men. So Kim Joon came here to look for them and in the process, got killed. Probably."

"But why did you carry out the digging?" Gayoon frowned.

"You see, your supervisor was having a hard time to get permission from the senior officials to carry out a full excavation of this garden," Minho stated. "This property technically belongs to the Board of Directors of HM Traders and they were refusing to cooperate. So he requested for my help and since I owed him a favor, I bought the property along with the firm. Once it came to my hands, I was able to clear the permission for the digging."

"Unbelievable," Taejoon marveled. "This pretty much solves the case for us."

Not yet, Gayoon added in her mind. Turning to Minho, she said out loud, "We need to confiscate these bags. These are evidence of the murder."

"Suit yourself," Minho shrugged. He took out a file from his long coat and handed it to Gayoon.

"This contains the details on Kim Joon and Lee Shawn," he said. "Even more details than you guys have so far. Probably."

He leaned in closer to her ear. "There's also the address to a plastic surgeon's clinic," he muttered so low that only she could hear. "Hope that'll explain more."

He did not need to tell her the rest because the pieces were falling into place. She understood what had transpired next. Gayoon groaned and took the file. The guy made them look like incompetent fools!

"I'll call the chief," she said to Taejoon. "Then we'll take the bags back to the precinct."

"Sure," Taejoon said. He turned to face Minho.

"Thank you for your help," he said, extending his hand. Minho shook it and immediately frowned.

"You were a great help to us," Taejoon went on.

"Yes," Minho shrugged. "I should get going. I have wasted too much time here and it's time for me to attend an investor's meeting. If you need to reach me, then please contact my secretary. Ms. Gayoon already has his number."

He nodded and turned to leave. Gayoon just got off the phone.

"The Chief wants us to bring the bags to him," she said to Taejoon. "Let's go."

"I'll carry them," he offered. Gayoon nodded and handed the bags to him before heading towards the car. Their work there was done.

….

Jongin was next to his limo, waiting for him. He noticed the slightly confused expression on his boss' face.

"Boss, is anything wrong?" Jongin asked. Minho did not reply at first but turned to observe Gayoon and Taejoon who were approaching their police car. They got in it and drove off.

"Nothing really," he said. "It's just…"

His eyes were carefully monitoring Taejoon. "That guy has really cold hands," he finally said.