Black, Blue, and Gold (Book 2)

Turning Over A New Leaf (Part 4)

"Okay. So what do we know so far?" Jisoo asked the room.

They were back at the station now, some still clearly disturbed by what they had just discovered. Joonmyun was especially quiet. He kept staring at the toy car in the plastic evidence bag. Everyone noticed it but decided to leave him alone for now.

"Hong Miri, age 12," Jongin said, displaying the picture of the deceased young girl on the large screen.

Jennie flinched. She diverted her eyes, looking at Joonmyun instead. She could handle seeing dead bodies but not dead children who had turned blue after being abandoned in the cold winter.

"What have you found out about her?" Jisoo asked again.

"Her fingerprints, dental records and even DNA are in the system. She was reported missing seven years ago by her mother. She disappeared from the small restaurant her family owned. The report stated that she always spent her afternoons in the restaurant while her mother worked there. It was just another normal day when she disappeared. The mother thought the child was playing right outside but found her missing a short while later."

"How short is that short while?" Lisa asked.

"Almost half an hour. She called her, asking whether she'd want a snack but when there was no answer, she went out to check and couldn't find the girl anywhere," answered Jongin.

"Half an hour isn't short to leave a five year old alone," Chaeyoung mumbled.

"It was quite busy at the restaurant that day, according to the family."

"Trace?"

"So far we've found nothing on the girl except the clothes she was wearing and her pocket contents," Chanyeol spoke. He looked at Joonmyun. "There was a toy car and this piece of crumpled paper." He signaled for Jongin to display the picture of the evidence on the screen.

The paper was torn and a bit dirty, like it was ripped out of a book in a hurry. It had the word 'Save us' written in messy Hangul and drawings of three stick figures. One is taller than the two and had long hair while wearing what looked to be a skirt. Another had short hair and was wearing pants – indicating it to be a boy – and the third also had short hair but was wearing a skirt. The last stick figure was the shortest among the three.

"Does this mean what I think it means?" Lisa asked the room.

"Well..." Chanyeol cleared his throat. "Hyung," he gently called out to Joonmyun. There was no reaction so he called again. "Hyung." A bit louder this time.

Joonmyun finally looked up. "H-huh?"

"The toy car." Chanyeol pointed at the small object in Joonmyun's hand.

"O-oh. Right." Joonmyun straightened up in his seat. "I gave this toy car to Jaewan when he turned four. Just a few months before he disappeared." He swallowed, placing the toy on the table. "I had it customized, put his initials on the hood." He pointed at the yellow 'JW'. "Because he said he wanted to have his own race car." He smiled sadly at the memory of his cute nephew. "My friend painted this so I'm pretty sure it's one of a kind. He always carried it around with him. He had it when he was taken too. My sister confirmed it and even put it on the official report as one of the items he had on him at that time."

"Sooyoung had tested it for prints but couldn't get a clear result because there are simply too many fingerprints on that small object, overlapping each other," Jisoo said.

Joonmyun stared at the toy car. "Did she check for saliva?"

"What?"

"My nephew had a bad habit of chewing things he was holding. My sister had scolded him numerous times but every time he was bored, nervous or simply idle, he would still do it." He paused. "If he had had this with him all these years, he could've been chewing or sucking on it a lot." He looked up, meeting Jisoo's gaze.