An honest lie | Kim Taehyung (editing*)

- Just a gut feeling -

VI

"What?" Asked Taehyung shocked through the microphone of his car.

"Yeah, I talked to her dance instructor, and he said some things that led me to that idea. Though he wasn't sure about it either, the signs were there." Jungkook explained on the other line.

"Palazzi said nothing about it. Could this be another thing that he hasn't told us about, or maybe he doesn't know it himself?" Questioned Taehyung, and after a moment of silence, he continued. "Let's not risk anything, we'll keep quiet for now."

"Alright, I'll try to look for more witnesses. How's it going with the address?"

"I'm heading there right now. I'll call once I'm done." And with that Taehyung hung up. He stopped at the red light and left the steering wheel for a moment dropping his right hand on his thigh while the other rested on the open window and run his thingers through his hair. Thoughts, doubts, and a diverse flow of feelings were running through the detective's mind, indulging him into a confused state.

What if she really did run away? And if she did, was it because of her father in law, or Mr. Palazzi himself?

He let himself fall into, yet another deep state of unfocused evaluation on this case, that made him almost miss the green light.

Sudden horn sounds of cars halted behind his, bringing him back to reality as he immediately grabbed the steering wheel and moved the car again.

~

Once he arrived at the address, he stopped just near a small garden in front of a tall habituated building. He got out of his car while fixing his brown leather jacket and noticed some of the apartment windows open and others shut with a faint reflection of curtains inside, barely visible through the see-through glass.

As his eyes moved to every single detail of the balconies, he saw, that one of them had a sign attached to the silver-colored bars, that exclaimed it for sale. He walked to the front gate and took the small piece of paper out of his pocket. He read the number of the apartment and looked for it on the bell ring device just next to the entrance as his finger traced from the top number towards the bottom one.

3, that's the one.

He saw a name written next to it. "Mario Blackeroni..".

He pushed the button next to the name and waited for a response. He pushed it again but no answer came back from the small speaker. He backed off to look up at the balconies in case he could spot someone, but there was no one. He looked around, but the neighborhood was pretty much empty. He then thought it could be because of the lunch hour and people were probably inside their habitats concentrated on enjoying the most important meal of the day.

Or was it breakfast?

Either way, he knew this wasn't the right time to disturb innocent neighbors on his account, so he made up his mind that it would be his last resort for later that afternoon.

After ringing the bell one last time, he gave up and decided to come back later after paying a visit to an old friend that just happens to be close to that area.

He crossed the road and took a turn to where a small, well-decorated pub was, still slightly visible from the suspicious building and the garden next to it. He entered inside the empty bar, the bell on the door informing his presence to a tall man standing behind a wooden counter.

Taehyung smiled. He walked towards him while putting his hands in his pockets and adapting a smug look. As he finally reached the counter, he sat on one of the tall chairs in front of it and smirked.