“She smells lavender,” thought DooSan, smelling deep inside his being the scent of SolHi’s hair. She’s with her back to him, staring at the indicator, which shows the speed with which the elevator is climbing, while DooSan is wondering about what she’s thinking about right now, when both are together, only two of them, in this small space of the elevator, after all that happened last night.

“Are you fine now?” he finally asked, trying to chase away the awkwardness that was surrounding them, but SolHi didn’t turn to watch him. She just nodded approvingly and mumbled a simple “Aga!”

When the doors of the elevator opened, she sprung outside, because what she thought all the time, while the elevator was climbing, was about the hot kiss they had yesterday night and she thought that if DooSan finds out about it, she will be lost forever.

“I’m really dumb,” she mumbled, while climbing the stairs toward the 15th floor where their office was, because she deliberately pressed button 10, to get out from there as soon as possible. “How the hell to think about what happened with such an interest, SolHi? Are you an idiot? That man tried to strangle you. He wants you dead, but … ah,” she yelled in the end, making the emptiness of the staircase space echo around.

“But he still helped me to get out of that warehouse and he was so sexy … that idiot. But, how to fall so down, SolHi? Why the hell are you kissing him? Even if it was for your safety, why exactly a kiss?”

And she remembered again the moment when DooSan touched her back and pushed her to his chest and that he was the one who kissed her so passionately, while SolHi was only pretending.

“So, I didn’t imagine this. It was real and he kissed me,” she said, stopping in place and sitting down on the cold stairs. “If so then he can’t claim anything from me. He also kissed me, so we are both on this.”

“Are you talking alone?” SolHi heard behind her and, jumping, she stood up and looked as frozen at Kan, who was descending the stairs. “I thought that you might be here since I saw you and Han DooSan entering the same elevator.”

“You saw us, aaa,” SolHi stuttered while glancing elsewhere and trying this way to avoid Kan’s piercing glance.

“Where did you go last night? And not alone you were, but with your fierce enemy, Han DooSan and don’t even dare to lie to me, because I clearly heard that he saved you from somewhere, after a passionate kiss. So?”

SolHi grinned … “Damn, this man is a zombie if he knows and hears everything,” she thought and while staring at him and smiling she tried to run from that place, but Kan grabbed the hood of her parka, forcing her to stop and, approaching her ear, he whispered: “if you try to run, then something smells stinky, Ian SolHi. Follow me!” and without releasing her, he forced her to climb the stairs, behind him.

***

“What? An abandoned warehouse? Are you sure?” Kan asked SolHi, while the two were on the roof of the Prosecution building.

“Yes. And there is a lavender field too, sombe. I don’t know why, but I have the feeling that what happened to me and Han YuSan wasn’t in the place where you found us, but in the other place.”

“And what makes you think about this?”

“The hole in the floor. Do you still remember that I told you about this the last time you interrogated me before the trial?”

“Yes. You said something about a scent of mold and a kind of pylon in the middle, but we didn’t find something like this at the crime place.”

“And because of this everybody thought that I’m lying, especially Yun Marie, who started the trial because of this, but I’m sure that there is more than the simple fact of killing a prosecutor to stop a case. I think that it’s about revenge.”

“I understand your position, SolHi, but from what I know you and Han YuSan didn’t have anything in common. The only thing that related you two was the case which he was investigating and you were a witness.”

“Maybe, but yesterday I again had an asthma attack there and while I was raving, I remembered a sentence that my attacker told me then: “you should die and he must suffer,” or something like this.

Kan turned his back to her and approached the edge of the roof more and as if in trance, he repeated SolHi’s words: “you should die and he must suffer.”

“Yes,” she said and approached him, while staring at Kan, waiting for an answer.

“This sounds me more than the attacker thought that you are Han YuSan’s woman, but it doesn’t make sense, because that child wasn’t his or he was, SolHi?”

“No, my baby wasn’t his, sombe and even if I still don’t remember who the father of my baby was, I’m sure that Han YuSan hadn’t anything to do in this, because … I asked him about this.”

“What?” Kan yelled, staring at her with his eyes exiting from its orbits. “Did you ask Han YuSan if he didn’t spend the night with you?”

“Yes, because he told me something that made me think that he could be. He asked me about my baby and if he’s ok.”

Like a perfect dump and staring at SolHi, Kan finally shook his head, trying to recover his normal flow of thoughts. “And, what he said?”

“That he isn’t and that he spent that night in his home. He showed me the evidence about this: the navigator of his car and it really showed the location of his house.”

“But it could have been only a strategy to make you think differently.”

“He hadn’t reason to lie to me, sombe, because … I don’t know … it can be only a feeling I have, but he gave me the feeling that if he was my baby’s father, he wouldn’t have run and would have accepted him.”

“So, we must find out then if your suspicions are real.”

“Yeah, but the question is how.”

“Let’s turn back to that warehouse. If anything, really happened we'll find out.”

Hearing this, SolHi shuddered, because she was afraid of that lavender field already, especially after the last night, but she also trusts Kan’s instinct, because he isn’t only a perfect police dog, with a nice smell for such things, but he also knows how to find out the traces that will lead them toward the success.

***

The lavender flowers are slowly shaking their small being, touching SolHi’s and Kan’s feet, with their spiky head, and it produces in the woman’s soul a strange sensation, while she remembers about the last night, she crossed the same field and the feeling of suffocation she had then.

Suddenly, Kan stopped in place and turned toward her, forcing her to stop. “Will you be alright after such a walk?” he asked SolHi, who at the beginning didn’t understand what he had in mind. “I’m talking about your asthma, SolHi.”

“Aaa, don’t worry about this. I took my medicine before I came here. Nothing won’t happen.”

“I hope so because I’m too old to carry you on my back” and he continued to walk in front, while SolHi was smiling because she remembers well about Kan’s oldness and all the women that made a scandal looking for him in the police station after he stopped to visit them.

“Yes, yes, if you say so, sombe,” and she followed him, till they got to the entrance in the warehouse.

At the light of the day, the building wasn’t so scary anymore. It seemed quiet and ordinary, but SolHi wasn’t sure till the end that she saw it for the first time last night or if it was only her mind which played a prank on her.

“So, it was here where Han DooSan rescued you. And this is weird.”

“Why?”

“Because from what I remember he wanted you dead, but yesterday night he gave you a mouth-to-mouth breathing to return you back to your senses as if he likes you.”

“Don’t talk nonsense, sombe. I already regret that I told you about this,” and she entered the building, after hitting an elbow to Kan.

“I was just saying. You know, the wolf knows more not because he’s wise, but because he’s old.”

SolHi stopped and watched her partner, who was still standing in place, in front of the building. “And again, about age, sombe. I know very well what you are doing while using your … tricks and those aren’t definitely something that an old man does. Or what, should I send Ms. San our new address? I’m sure she will like it.”

“You won’t dare, Ian SolHi!”

“Try me!” and, turning her back to him, she approached the cement pylon from the middle of the first floor. “There had been somebody else before us here,” she said while looking around.

Kan approached her, but looking at the room, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. “Why do you think so?”

“Because of the smell. Don’t you feel the scent of a man’s perfume here?”

Sniffing the air, Kan nodded in negation. For him, there was only the scent of mold and old things. “And whose perfume do you smell now?” he tried to joke but noticing on SolHi’s face a trace of concern he understood that she’s not playing and he learned to trust her instincts in all these years since they are working together.

Still watching around, Kan’s glance was caught by a black stain on the cement wall, and, approaching it, he tried to figure out from what that stain was made.

SolHi approached him and looked at the same stain. “It seems to me to be blood,” she said.

“I also think so, but it doesn’t seem to be fresh. I doubt it will help us in anything.”

“If we don't give it a try then we won’t find out,” and taking a bag of evidence from her pocket she took a sample of the dried liquid. “If this is really blood, we will find out.”

“Don’t rush, SolHi. Even if we find out that it is blood, it’s possible not to find out whose this blood is and what happened here.”

“But it’s still a starting point, sombe. It had already been 7 years since I started to investigate it and this is the first time, I found a real trace.”

SolHi squatted next to the wall, trying to remember part of the memories she had the last night, but no matter how hard she tried it, she couldn’t remember anything else.

“I’m sure that it was here where that man hit me. On the second floor of this building, I can’t see his face, only the leg that is hitting my belly over and over again. And … I feel anger in his voice, but it doesn’t seem to be directly related to me because he said something about “his child.”

SolHi looked up and her glance was watching at a blind spot above, while her mind was unrolling images of the past night, while she was climbing the same stairs. “Sombe, for the first time I remembered the fear that I felt that night and that he could have killed me then. I … I …”

“Let’s not force things, SolHi. It’s real progress that you remember this, but you don’t need to rush. If your memories are returning to you, then sooner or later you will remember them all and then we will have the chance to grab that bastard.”

“I hope, sombe because I need to watch his eyes and to ask him why he did this to me.”

“If he’s the maniac I think he is, he won’t answer this question. So, we should find out by ourselves the real reason. Let’s go upstairs! Maybe there we will find more evidence.”

Just nodding in approval, SolHi followed him, but on the second floor, everything was that clean as if someone took care not to leave any trace behind him.

And SolHi again approached the hole and looked down, but there wasn’t any black cellophane, like the one she saw last night. “Did my mind play a prank on me? I clearly remember that there was cellophane there and because of this I approached the hole before DooSan grabbed my hand.”

“Cellophane? What kind of cellophane?”

“A black one, but I’m not that sure if it was there or if it was only a product of my imagination.”

“Well, there is still a trace,” Kan showed SolHi a small piece of black cellophane, stuck in one of the wires. “It seems to me that someone else is after evidence.”

“Someone else? Who?”

“We will find out soon. Let’s turn back to the office, till Han DooSan didn’t notice our absence, because it will be a real problem and give that evidence to me: it will be safer in my pocket than in yours.”

SolHi gave him the bag with the blood sample and Kan put it right away in his pocket and left the second floor, not before dragging SolHi after him because he was sure that if he leaves her there alone something bad might happen to her again if another asthma crisis starts.

***

Lying on their backs, not to be noticed by SolHi and Kan, whose car passed in front of theirs, DooSan and GhiYon could see how Kan watched toward their vehicle and it meant only one thing: he knew who was in that car.

“That old fox smelled something. I’m sure he won’t step back till won’t find out what we got here.”

“What do you think that they found there? I clearly saw a part of a bag of evidence coming out of Kan’s pocket.”

“Who knows what they got, but for sure it can’t be more important than we have,” and GhiYon threw the black cellophane on DooSan’s lap and started the engine.

Opening once again the bag, DooSan could see a pack of playing cards, well preserved despite the years that passed over it, but one which could be seen only the word “edel” but it didn't tell him anything and it means that the problems are just about to start.