milk & honey • jensoo one-shots

63. The Case of the Red Dress

It was a beautiful Monday morning, and the sun was shining brightly over the city. Yet the atmosphere was different at the law firm of Kim & Co.

The lawyers were all huddled around in the conference room yet again, staring intently at the evidence on the table. Their best lawyer, Jennie Kim, had been struggling with the high-profile case, The Case of the Missing Red Dress, for weeks, and it was starting to take a toll on her.

Jennie had always been a fiercely independent lawyer, known for her hard work and dedication to her clients. She had a reputation for never backing down from a challenge, but the current high-profile case she was working on was proving to be more difficult than she had anticipated.

Despite her best efforts, Jennie was struggling to piece together the clues and evidence needed to solve the case. As she failed to see anything of use, she felt the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Jennie had been holed up in her office for hours, poring over files and documents, trying to find any leads that could help her crack the case.

The lawyer went back to her desk after an unsuccessful discussion. She stared at the piece of evidence for the umpteenth time, Bobby popped his head into her office. "Hey, you okay in here?"

Jennie sighed and shook her head. "I can't seem to make sense of any of this. It's like the more I look, the less I understand."

Bobby walked over to her desk and peered at the evidence which only consisted of snaps from a blurry CCTV footage. "Maybe it's time to call in some reinforcements."

"What do you mean?"

"How about a detective?"

"I don't need one of those." Jennie hissed, fully offended.

"I know you don't." Bobby said, sitting down in the chair across from her. "But sometimes, it's the only way to get things done. You're the best lawyer I know but even you need help sometimes."

"Absolutely not. The day I call a detective for help, is the day I retire." Jennie grumbled stubbornly.

Instead of accepting his ridiculous suggestion, she stayed until midnight, still working hard.

The case involved a stolen painting from a prestigious art museum and the lawyer was representing the museum. The painting was worth millions of dollars, its theft caused a media frenzy. The lawyer was struggling to find any leads and the pressure was mounting from the museum's board of directors to solve the case quickly.

The painting was a rare and valuable masterpiece from a renowned artist. It was a portrait of a red dress that was lying on a field of grass, the owner of the dress seemingly vanished into thin air from the way the dress was splayed on the grass.

Its value is estimated to be around $10 million. The museum had been showcasing the painting as part of a special exhibit and it was stolen in the middle of the night, without any witnesses or alarms being triggered. The thief covered every camera.

The only one that they failed to cover was a hidden one in a potted plant. However the video quality from it isn't great. It was only supposed to give them another angle but now it's all they had. A short, blurry clip of the thief grabbing the frame of the painting and stealing it.

The reason the lawyer was struggling to find any leads was because there are no obvious suspects or clues left behind at the scene. The security footage from the museum was all they had, it showed the shadowy figure grabbing the painting but their face was obscured and they appeared to be wearing gloves and a mask. From the body stature they assume it was a man.