The case of the False Report about the cat thought to be dead wasn’t something the police would normally pay much attention to.
At the Capital Region Police Station, where incidents happened at all hours, a cat lying as if dead and then waking up didn’t even make for a story.
Of course, Team 4 of the Capital Region Police Station, where Lee Jaehyun belonged, couldn’t help but be a little more concerned than the others.
After all, Kim Junho’s beloved PoSoon had recently died, and now they were called out over a cat again.
But that didn’t mean it was something they let distract them from their duties.
Still, Lee Jaehyun couldn’t help but be bothered by the cat that had seemed to be sleeping as if dead… He forced himself to focus on the tasks in front of him.
It left him with a vague sense of unease, but other than a “bad feeling,” there wasn’t a solid reason to worry.
And so, another day passed.
“You all did well today. See you tomorrow.”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
The weekend was approaching.
Of course, for the police at the Capital Region Police Station, weekends hardly existed.
Still, they rotated so people could take weekends off when possible, but this weekend, Lee Jaehyun was on duty.
He’d work the night shifts for both Saturday and Sunday, rest on Monday, then return for a day shift on Tuesday.
The day the Child Kidnapping Case would occur was Tuesday.
Lee Jaehyun couldn’t sleep easily, plagued by anxiety.
Only three days left now.
A child might be kidnapped and lose their life, but he had no solution.
He hadn’t found a way to prevent the case, either.
He worried, looked around the area, but Lee Jaehyun hadn’t been able to actually influence anything… It was truly a frustrating situation.
No wonder he couldn’t fall asleep.
In the end, after tossing and turning, he headed in for his shift.
Even during the night shift, he spent his time flipping open his notebook and pondering over and over.
The only cases that came up during that time were the usual ones—just drunk and disorderly calls.
Park Daehyung noticed how distracted Lee Jaehyun was and poked at him.
“Are you sleepy? Want to take a break?”
“Ah, no, I’m fine.”
At Park Daehyung’s words, Lee Jaehyun shook his head immediately.
He wasn’t sleepy.
Physically, he was a bit tired and his body felt heavy, but mentally, he was sharper than ever.
Park Daehyung clicked his tongue and continued.
“But why are you so out of it? Something wrong?”
“No, it’s just… something’s bothering me.”
“What is?”
“The cat case. Officer Kim Junho’s PoSoon had just died, and then right after, we get a report about a dead cat. Even though it turned out to be a misunderstanding this time, something about it feels off.”
Lee Jaehyun blurted it out.
His biggest concern was the child kidnapping and murder case, but that hadn’t happened yet.
He couldn’t say that was on his mind, so he brought up something that had already occurred.
And, in fact, the cat case was bothering him more than the others.
Not because of Kim Junho, but because Lee Jaehyun’s instincts kept nagging at him about the cat.
“It’s not unusual for cats to act strangely. It’s not even weird if one dies from eating something bad.”
“…That’s true.”
Honestly, Lee Jaehyun couldn’t refute Park Daehyung’s words.
Complaints or cases about stray cats were rarely out of the ordinary.
Park Daehyung watched Lee Jaehyun for a moment, then stood up and moved behind him.
He lifted his hands and began massaging Lee Jaehyun’s shoulders.
“Officer Park?”
“Just stay still. You’ve been weird lately. You caught a string of felons, nabbed a scammer who’d been on the run, and now you’re all out of sorts. You don’t need to be so tense, man. You’re only hurting yourself by stressing out.”
The sudden shoulder massage from Sergeant Park Daehyung startled Lee Jaehyun, but at the same time, it felt oddly reassuring.
There had been times before, after working cases together, when Park Daehyung would do something familiar like this.
“Jaehyun.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Don’t be so tense, and don’t worry about performance. What you’ve accomplished already is amazing. Even if you do nothing for the next year, nobody will complain.”
It seemed Park Daehyung thought Jaehyun was feeling pressured by police work.
Jaehyun shook his head lightly.
“I’m not nervous or feeling pressured.”
“Really? Then is it because you feel your achievements haven’t been recognized enough?”
“It’s not that… It’s just, I really have a bad feeling. Like a big case is about to break out.”
Lee Jaehyun watched Park Daehyung out of the corner of his eye as he dropped a hint.
At Jaehyun’s words about his unshakable bad feeling, Park Daehyung pursed his lips and flopped back into his seat with a thud.
He took a deep breath and spoke.
“If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t think twice, but if it’s you, I get a little worried.”
“Maybe we should go out on patrol, you know, just in case…”
“Where?”
“How about we patrol around where the cat report came in?”
Lee Jaehyun suggested.
The place where the False Report about the dead cat had come in was very close to the Playground, which was one of the likely crime scenes.
The other suspected crime scenes, the Alley and Mart Backlot, were next to the Capital Region Police Station’s jurisdiction, but strictly speaking, those belonged to a different area.
Of course, for the police, jurisdiction didn’t really matter—when something happened, you went wherever you were needed.
But that was only once an incident had occurred.
Naturally, if there was a request for support or dispatch and someone from the Capital Region Police Station was nearby, they’d go regardless of jurisdiction, but in normal circumstances, it was a bit ambiguous.
“Well… Sure. Let’s go.”
Park Daehyung shrugged his shoulders and agreed.
***
In the end, they went out on patrol.
“Feels like the weather’s finally cooling off,” Park Daehyung remarked as he stepped out of the patrol car.
“Yeah, it does,” Lee Jaehyun nodded.
With the heat fading, autumn had arrived in full.
Before long, winter would be here.
Park Daehyung yawned as he walked, but Lee Jaehyun was tense, scanning his surroundings.
He paid special attention to spots like bushes or under benches where cats might be.
It might sound odd, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that the case of the cat sleeping as if dead was connected to the child kidnapping.
“It’s possible.”
Lee Jaehyun, who knew the future, thought if he pieced things together, he might be able to prevent the worst.
Usually, in child kidnapping cases, the perpetrator is someone familiar to the victim.
The reason is simple: it’s much easier for someone known to the child to approach, whether the victim is a child or an adult.
Often, the victim doesn’t even realize they’re being kidnapped by someone they “trust.”
Even if they don’t think that way, children generally aren’t on their guard, so it’s easier to approach them.
But in the child kidnapping and murder case Lee Jaehyun was trying to prevent, the kidnapper wasn’t a familiar face.
He wasn’t even from the same neighborhood, and the culprit, Park Yech’an, wasn’t someone who frequented the area, so there were still many mysteries even after he was caught.
But what if, after putting the child to sleep, he abducted him?
It wouldn’t be difficult to kidnap an eleven-year-old boy who couldn’t resist.
If the kidnapper carried the child naturally, he might avoid suspicion.
Even if he wasn’t familiar, it was entirely possible.
He didn’t know how the child was put to sleep, but as long as there was a chance, he couldn’t let down his guard.
“Hey, Jaehyun. Shine your flashlight over there.”
Because it was dark, they were patrolling with their flashlights, and as Park Daehyung tapped Lee Jaehyun’s shoulder, he pointed to a spot.
Lee Jaehyun shone his light where Park Daehyung indicated.
“A tuna can?”
There, a tuna can that someone had obviously left on purpose was lying.
“Looks like cat food, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, well, any way you look at it, it’s for cats. But it’s already empty?”
Park Daehyung nodded as he checked the can.
To an ordinary person, the completely empty tuna can might not seem suspicious.
But to Lee Jaehyun, it was different.
After all, they’d come here because he was suspicious about the cat case.
The very presence of the tuna can was suspicious.
“If it’s the same as last time, then surely…”
There’d be a cat nearby, sleeping as if dead.
Lee Jaehyun swept his sharp gaze around.
Thanks to his detective experience, he was always confident in spotting anything unusual.
He hadn’t gone far before he found the collapsed cat.
Next to the steps leading up to the Playground, in the bushes.
It was so close to the expected crime scene, his suspicions only grew.
Lee Jaehyun carefully touched the collapsed cat.
It didn’t move at all.
But when he touched it, it was warm.
“Looks like it’s just asleep, same as before.”
“Again? That’s pretty weird. Maybe it’s sleeping pills?”
“Probably.”
“Whoever it is, they’ve got a nasty hobby. Feeding a cat sleeping pills…”
Park Daehyung clicked his tongue.
Now, not only had Jaehyun mentioned a “bad feeling,” but this was the second time they’d found a cat sleeping as if dead.
Someone had left a tuna can, and nearby, there was a cat sleeping like it was dead.
Even if you weren’t a detective, you’d think this was suspicious.
“Did someone have a grudge against cats?”
While Park Daehyung muttered under his breath, Lee Jaehyun, face stiff, scanned the area.
If this really was connected to the child kidnapping and murder, then the criminal, Park Yech’an, might be nearby.
But no matter how carefully he watched, there was no one around.
It was just quiet.
“What would they want with putting these cats to sleep? Planning to kill them?”
“If that was their goal, wouldn’t they have used rat poison or Tylenol instead of sleeping pills?”
If you were trying to kill the cats, it’d be easier just to use poison rather than sleeping pills.
Unless you were some lunatic who liked watching them suffer.
As far as Lee Jaehyun knew, Park Yech’an, the perpetrator of the Child Kidnapping Case, wasn’t that kind of maniac.
Back then, his motive was money, and the murder was impulsive—that was what the investigators had concluded.
If it wasn’t the perpetrator from the child kidnapping and murder case, then maybe it was some other… truly “crazy bastard.”
Or, if not that—
“It could be practice.”
“For what?”
“For a crime.”
Perhaps, this was a rehearsal before kidnapping a child.
At Park Daehyung’s puzzled look, Lee Jaehyun answered with a hard voice.