Chapter 77

Chapter 77 – Doll Play #3

The thugs spread out to the orphanages all over Seoul according to Kang Han-seong’s order . Kang Han-seong yelled at those who tried to go empty-handed .

“If you just go there and ask for strange things, then they will be suspicious . Go buy a box of vitamin drinks and pretend you came for a volunteer activity . Go clean the toilets, play with the children, and gently squeeze out the information you want . ”

“Hyung-nim’s plan is truly smart!”

Kang Han-seong didn’t become of the leaders of this gang just due to his fighting skills . He also had a surprisingly good head .

The gangsters bought vitamin drinks and headed over to the orphanages . Their excuse worked well because they were high school students .

“Are you here to do volunteer work?”

“Yes . I am a student from D High School . ”

The staff member sent him a suspicious look, but nodded after seeing the student ID .

“What we need is…”

“I’m happy to do anything, I will even clean the toilets . ”

“Eh? I see . Please do so . ”

After a few moments .

“Student! You are more sincere than you look . Please eat these snacks and rest a little bit . I’ll take four hours of volunteer work . ”

“Ah! Thank you . By the way, how long has Noona been here?”

Thus, the gangsters started collecting their information . Thanks to Kang Han-seong’s plan, it was surprisingly easy to gather information . The data piled up .

“Boss . This is an interim report . ”

“Yes . Where should I look?”

Kang Han-seong laid out a map of Seoul that had been marked in advance before explaining each one .

“There are a total of 44 orphanages in Seoul . These 30 places are where the search is finished, and the rest will be finished soon . ”

“So how many people are missing?”

“That… It is a bit strange . In most orphanages, the children run away just as they are about to leave that place . I arranged the dates and that was the common point . It is the same for each of them . ”

Tae-hyuk touched his chin and thought of Kang Han-seong’s investigation .

There was one thing that caught his attention .

“Then why wasn’t it reported?”

“The reason is mostly similar: The children would leave soon anyway . The police didn’t really listen since they were just orphans . There are hundreds of children who go missing in one year . ”

The police in South Korea were only concerned with the disappearance of children who have parents . But they were orphans living in a facility .

“Then let’s wait for the rest of the reports to come in before making a conclusion . ”

“Yes, I understand . ”

After three hours, all the information from the orphanages had been gathered . In the end, the conclusion was that children disappeared from 40 of the 44 orphanages . That was a huge number, when taken as a percentage .

“There was no one who went to the orphanages to investigate the missing people?”

“It was the same person . Perhaps they didn’t investigate properly . ”

“I see . Then it is a total wipe out . ”

The gangsters found out when the children had disappeared . Tae-hyuk nodded with a satisfied expression .

They did a better job than he expected . Tae-hyuk pulled out a bundle of 50,000 won banknotes and handed it to Kang Han-seong . It was a huge five million won .

“T-This…!”

“Think of it as a reward . You did a better job than I thought . However, don’t think about taking that money alone but distribute it . I’m looking forward to your work in the future . ”

“T-Thank you . Boss!”

It might be an over-investment, but Tae-hyuk shouldn’t spare on the carrots when he was trying to attract rabbits . Now Kang Han-seong would try to accomplish whatever Tae-hyuk wanted with more effort .

Kang Han-seong got up from his seat with an impressed face and went outside . As Tae-hyuk stayed to look at the map alone, he found something strange .

“D-Don’t tell me…”

He took out a pen from his pocket and marked from the oldest one who went missing . There was an amazing result . It was a little off, but there was the shape of a circle . It was impossible to do without someone being involved .

“…They aren’t disappearances . It is a serial kidnapping of over 40 children . Obviously, one of those victims is Kim Soo-bin…”

Kim Soo-bin had been kidnapped relatively later, but if her severed arm had been found, the rest of the children… Tae-hyuk felt dizzy as he realized the ridiculous truth .

“Wake up Seo Tae-hyuk . There must be some clues . ”

Tae-hyuk slapped his cheeks with both hands . There had to be something in advance to signify such a massive kidnapping spree . He had to find out what it was .

Tae-hyuk used Voice Modulation .

[Voice Modulation has been used . ]

-You can imitate the voice of Kim Bum-soo .

Kim Bum-soo’s voice was the best for this type of thing .

Tae-hyuk called the orphanage that had the first missing person . Then the voice of a middle-aged woman was heard .

“Hello? I am a welfare officer from the Department of Health and Welfare in Gangseo-gu . ”

–Ah, thank you for your hard work . Did something happen?

The voice of the woman receiving the call was strangely flirtatious . It seemed to be due to Kim Bum-soo’s voice, who was popular among middle aged women .

“Due to a recent incident, there is a child-welfare related rebate occurring . I wanted to contact you to see if anything unusual happened on October 7th . ”

–At that time? Can you please wait a moment? I’ll find the records .

“Yes . ”

It worked really well . Kim Bum-soo acted as a king in historical dramas, as his profound voice gave a strange sense of trust .

–There were no visitors that day, but there was a health checkup at T Medical Centre on that day . Are you referring to this?

‘T Medical Centre…?’

“Yes, that’s right . Thank you for the answer . ”

–Is it something that will cause the orphanage to be damaged?

“Of course not . Don’t worry . ”

Tae-hyuk called a different orphanage . This time he just asked if they visited T Medical Centre on that day .

After he finished calling all the orphanages, Tae-hyuk sighed and leaned back in his chair .

“…All of them went missing shortly after a checkup . ”

There was no evidence but he could feel it . Tae-hyuk stood up .

“It seems like I need Big Mama’s help . ”

Only one small piece remained to reach the truth that nobody had revealed yet .

@

Kang-suk and Hyun-ho were discussing this incident .

“Well I think the killer if a very meticulous person . ”

Hyun-ho stared blankly at Kang-suk .

“Sunbae . Didn’t I say that three days ago?”

“I haven’t finished speaking yet . Listen . At any rate, we have been looking for clues or witnesses by mobilizing the media, and there has nothing so far . There was a plausible tip about a man wearing a mask that bought a saw, tarp, and plastic container . However, the payment was made in cash, and he moved in a position where he wasn’t caught on CCTV, so we can’t identify him . ”

“Hrmm . Is the store far away from the crime scene?”

“Completely different cities . ”

“That certainly sounds suspicious…”

There were no witnesses and no clues .

At that moment, Kang-suk stood up and beat on his chest .

“No matter how trivial the clue is, it is our job to squeeze out as much as possible . If the police gives up, then the case will remain forever unsolved . I want to solve this case . ”

Joo Hyun-ho’s eyes shone .

“It has been a long time since the appearance of Senses Kang-suk . ”

“There is something strange lingering in my mind . The other day, didn’t you tell me about an avant-garde performance using dolls? The artist changed the arms and legs . ”

“Did I say that?”

“You certainly did . And there was one person who said something similar . ”

“Who?”

“God of Crime . ”

“Haha…”

Joo Hyun-ho laughed bitterly at the unexpected name .

“He said that this was playing with dolls . Obviously, the police are calling it the Christmas Tree Mutilation murders . ”

“Doll play?”

The arms and legs of people were cut off and used to decorate a Christmas tree . If they switched the focus to dolls, then there was definitely someone who gave such a performance . The name of that person was…

“Yes . The doll artist you talked about the other day . I did some research on the Internet . Here . ”

Kang-suk showed him the Internet screen on his phone . There were some photos of the famous person and his work .

“Hup…”

The doll’s arms and legs were cut off and switched to create a bizarre atmosphere .

“How is it? Similar?”

“Whoa . Once again, I think that Sunbae’s senses are really great!”

“Of course, this isn’t evidence that he is the killer . It might simply be coincidence or a copycat . But isn’t it worth visiting once?”

“Do you want to go together now?”

“Well, it has been on my mind for a while . ”

Interestingly enough, the two people had been investigating together since the hippo incident . Joo Hyun-ho worked in the office to grasp the psychology of the criminal with the collected evidence, while Detective Kang-suk was the opposite .

A detective whose career was in fieldwork . He judged everything through seeing it and touching it directly . Although it was a little inefficient, most of the time he had great results .

Thus, the two of them had opposite styles . Even so, they strangely worked well together .

“First of all, let’s just talk to him to get his opinion first . You can show that you suspect him of being the criminal . ”

“Aish, Sunbae . I’ve been working in the field for seven years . I won’t do that . ”

“Okay . Then shall we call a taxi?”

“We can go in my car . ”

Kang-suk shrugged .

Having a car made things much easier than he thought . If he got married then he would buy a car…

At that moment, Ha-ran’s face popped up, causing Kang-suk to cough .

@

“Is it here?”

“It seems like it . This is the workshop of the doll artist, Yoo Ho-jin . By the way . It is quite unique . ”

It was a building with a pastel roof and pink bricks . It felt like looking at a doll house . Kang-suk laughed as soon as he got out of the car and saw the name on the nameplate .

[Doll House]

It was a really fitting name, and ‘the place for my beloved dolls’ was written in fine print . The artist seemed to be living a doll-like life here .

Kang-suk carefully knocked on the door .

“Who is it?”

A cracked and barren voice, like a broken vinyl record, was heard .

“Detective Cho Kang-suk from the Gangdong Police Station . Sorry, but are you Master Yoo Ho-jin?”

“That’s right . What is going on?”

He was a thin man in his early 40s . The door opened slightly and a cracked hand, that was like bark, protruded .

“There was a bizarre incident, and I heard that Master-nim was an expert in dolls, so I was hoping to get your opinion . ”

Kang-suk pulled his police badge from his pocket and showed it . Yoo Ho-jin’s eyes peered at them from between the gap in the door .

“Did you bring a warrant?”

“I’m sorry, but not yet since I visited personally . ”

“I’m busy because of work . Can you come back later?”

At those words, Yoo Ho-jin tried to close the door . However, Kang-suk was faster . He stuck his feet in the door and then literally forced it open .

“What are you doing? The police barging into my home…”

“It will only take a short time… heok!”

Kang-suk groaned as he entered the house . There was a ridiculous scene inside .

“…D-Dolls?”

There were dozens of cut off arm and legs from dolls . There were glass beads rolling around on the work table . Looking closer, they were the eyeballs of the dolls . There was a large stainless steel saw on the ground among doll pieces .

“T-This…”

Then Yoo Ho-jin shouted with an upset face .

“Y-You entered my workshop without permission! This is obviously a home invasion!”

Joo Hyun-ho picked up one of the doll arms and said,

“Sunbae . This is a doll . ”

There was a plastic tub filled with what seemed to be doll heads . Kang-suk was confused . There was no evidence of any mutilated humans in the workshop . Was his feeling wrong?

Yoo Ho-jin’s face was red with anger,

“Master-nim . I’m sorry but could you take a look at these photos?”

“No, I mean get out of here right now… Um…?”

Yoo Ho-jin’s expression changed when Kang-suk showed him a photo of the Doll Play scene .

“What is this?”

“It is a murder scene that I am in charge of . Doesn’t it resemble your work?”

Yoo Ho-jin’s mouth twitched,

“The atmosphere is certainly quite similar . It is like what I am pursuing, and is why you can’t help but be suspicious . After seeing my workshop, do you understand that I work with dolls instead of people? Then get out right now . ”

Yoo Ho-jin’s voice had softened .

Kang-suk sighed .

Looking at the tools in the workshop, it must’ve been doll artist Yoo Ho-jin who bought the tools at the store . So was it really unrelated to dolls?

Kuuong!

At that moment, he heard a thumping sound from the ground . Kang-suk confirmed that Yoo Ho-jin’s expression instantly changed .

He remembered seeing such a look before . Criminals gave such responses after their hidden weapons were found .

Then…

Kang-suk grabbed Yoo Ho-jin’s arm and asked in a quiet voice .

“Master-nim . Do you have a basement here?”