Chapter Text
Kim Seungmin’s death is a freak accident. That’s what the news says, anyway.
Seo Changbin stares at the headline, willing it to change. They were so close too. A day ago, late at night, the boy had finally requested his one phone call the detective specifically granted him. Only one number could be called; his.
Another sleepless night, happy to be saved from the images of his nieces disfigured body, his sister’s screams at her closed casket funeral the very next day — Chaeyoung couldn’t bear the thought of her daughter being poked and prodded in autopsy — he stayed on the phone with the resigned kid who’d said only one thing: ‘Tomorrow. As early as you can manage. i’ll take that deal’.
It was the only thing that wasn’t darkness Seo Changbin had felt in the six days after Minji’s murder. He felt like he had to share it, prove that he was making progress, wasn’t just idling around. So Lee Minho was on his next phone call and he was clinging to the man’s words of praise like he always did. Like a fucking lapdog.
In the dark crevices of the night, his mind conjured ruthless depictions of his sister’s face twisted in accusation, his niece’s mouth contorted in a permanent scream, dead eyes staring up at him and asking why. Why? Why had he wasted so much time? Why had he been too late? Why didn’t he save her?
They’d had a simple request. Erase Kim Seungmin’s data from the system and return with physicals files and a drive with all his information as proof to be burned. He’d been given a time limit but it wasn’t nearly enough — they didn’t know what they were asking. An entire database, including autopsy and forensic reports. It would take days on a normal day but with his niece’s life on the line, it’d taken nine hours.
Four hours too late.
Finding her, his Minji, like that…it broke something in him. So. Vigor renewed, he pursued the case Kim Seungmin case with everything he had. The kid was unrelenting, he’d give it to him but one week in custody and another seven days in a federal prison tended to be a scare.
He wanted to talk and, all of a sudden, he’s dead. That doesn’t just happen. Some desperate people and foul play, not a good mix.
Autopsy countered his suspicions. Apparently, there was no indication anything was wrong. He was just alive one minute, and dead the next — possibly out of fear and stress. Like sudden infant death syndrome, it happened. Apparently.
Seo Changbin wasn’t fooled. After the cyanide incident, he studied his poisons. Knew them well. Knew that there were a couple of untraceable toxins, fathers of poisons and one of them, he happened to be more familiar with than most.
Thoughts for later, though. Because Yang Jeongin was walking into his office with a parcel marked with his name.
‘Cell guard said he left this for you, sir.’ The kid hands him the poorly wrapped nylon of items which he eyes wearily — last incident with an unknown package fresh in mind. ‘Kim Seungmin, I mean. I was on corpse retrieving duty today.’
He hums and motions to the desk. ‘Sit. Let’s see what we have, huh?’
He carefully unwraps it to reveal a flurry of papers. About ten to fifteen. Scraggly writing that indicates haste.
‘Seems we’ve been provided a written account.’ He nods at the younger man, astonished.
Jeongin looks up from a piece of paper he’d skimmed through. ‘You think he knew he was going to die?’
A shrug. ‘Most likely. A long way people would go to keep things under the carpet.’
They continue to read in silence. Then, ‘he seems to mention one name a lot. Some Hwang Hyunjin? Even narrowed down his age and address.’ The kid mentions thoughtfully. ‘Matches the address of the Hyunjin we have in custody currently, serving out a week for collision and impact?’
Seo Changbin pauses. ‘You’re not joking, kid?’
He smiles then, pleased. ‘No, sir. Brought him in and wrote down all the info myself.’
For the first time in a week, he smiles back. The detective dismisses the rookie with a pat on his back and goes back to reading through the extensive report. Kim Seungmin details every murder and every location involving him and this Hwang Hyunjin. He hints at more names but doesn’t mention any. Possible that he didn’t know he was going to die and was simply waiting for the detective to meet him halfway. It didn’t matter now.
With their key suspect rotting on an autopsy table somewhere (Seo Changbin had insisted they do another test), the mantle had been transferred to this Hyunjin. Hyunjin who was currently in custody for a hit and run. Suspicious. Good things like this don’t just happen.
Still. Eyes stop once they get to the final page. Outlines of what was his last moments, most likely and the kid is smart, he’s give him that because he speaks feeling something being injected into him while he slept and suspecting the prison guard.
He speaks, also, of suspecting the poison: Ricin, given his symptoms two days after the incident. The detective pauses, contemplative. Jogging his memory, he knows this would definitely be a plausible cause.
But Ricin wasn’t just found in any pharmaceutical store. Infact, there was only one legal place in town it was and he worked in it.
The realization came swiftly and taking a quick check to inventory solidified it. Whoever had delivered the lethal poison to be injected into Kim Seungmin in the prison, worked here.
In the police station.