“The higher-ups’ stance was simple. We must prevent any further damage to the police’s image. Seeing as there’s been no activity for 6 months, he might really be dead or captured. This is a necessary measure for maintaining social order…”
Detective Baron thought the command from the higher-ups was rational. Perhaps for this society, that was indeed the right path.
However, his heart did not beat that way.
“I refused that order.”
Of course, Detective Baron had his excuses.
If the police announced they had finally caught the criminal, only for the perpetrator to resume his activities later?
Catching the culprit would become even more remote, and the honor of the police would be damaged more than if they had simply stayed quiet.
“But my true intention was a stubborn insistence that I had to catch him with my own hands.”
While investigating the Taylor John case, Detective Baron had witnessed countless deaths. He wanted to fulfill his responsibility to those deaths by arresting the culprit.
He also had a certain conviction.
He was certain that Taylor John was not someone who would simply stop here, and that he would resume his activities before long.
But he was wrong.
“No new incidents occurred after that.”
There were no additional cases, nor were there any new clues.
Time passed without any results.
Detective Baron was criticized for his stubbornness that tarnished the police’s honor. Later, he was laughed at as an outdated old man, and eventually, he was forgotten.
“Others in the Taylor John investigation team, including Inspector Serret, moved to different desks long ago. Everyone thought it was a waste of time to track a killer who hadn’t shown his face in more than 3 years.”
The once-bustling office gradually dwindled in numbers until, finally, only he remained.
Detective Baron also had several opportunities to transfer teams, but he simply could not give up on the Taylor John case. Perhaps it really was just stubbornness.
Considering the impact of the case, the police allowed the shell of the Taylor John investigation team to remain, but they no longer expected anything from Detective Baron.
He would sit blankly in the empty office until a call came, and then he would be sent out to field duty, taking over the menial tasks of other teams.
Given his years of service, it was an unthinkable level of mistreatment.
“I felt powerless, but I wasn’t resentful. It was my fault.”
It was all his fault — both for failing to catch the killer and for being unable to eventually give up. Detective Baron finally admitted that he had lost Taylor John.
Ironically, it was at that very moment that the situation turned.
“Earlier this year, Taylor John resumed his activities.”
“…!”
The pattern of targeting only beautiful, high-status women as primary targets, the specific shape of the stab wounds on the bodies. The time, place, and tools of the crime.
Everything was exactly as it had been in the past. After a long hiatus, Taylor John had returned.
Detective Baron immediately requested additional data on the case from his superiors, but he was rejected.
Even though Taylor John had returned, the only member of the Taylor John investigation team was being excluded from the investigation.
“Why on earth is this not allowed?”
Detective Baron shouted, slamming his hand on the table.
“You know that I haven’t been able to let go of the Taylor John case for the past 5 years!”
“That is exactly why it is not allowed,” the Chief said, fiddling with his mustache. “We have concluded that this case is the work of a copycat.”
“That’s — ! But the similarities in the cases…!”
“A copycat can mimic that level of similarity. Isn’t a copycat more persuasive than a killer who suddenly resurrects after years of no activity?”
Above all, the Chief dragged out his words.
“The pattern of occurrence is different. In the past, the killing spree continued steadily, but this copycat stays quiet for 2 or 3 months at a time and then strikes once, claiming one or two victims at most.”
How could he use a phrase like “at most” when referring to the number of victims? Detective Baron suppressed his rising anger and continued calmly.
“… I understand there is a possibility it’s a copycat. Even so, if a copycat is imitating Taylor John, wouldn’t my investigation materials be useful?”
“Hand the materials over to the new investigation team. You stay out of it. If the former person in charge of the investigation gets involved in this case, wouldn’t some people have strange misunderstandings?”
“Misunderstandings?”
“The misunderstanding that Taylor John has been resurrected!”
“What… is that more important than solving the case?”
“Of course it’s important!” the Chief shouted. “Such a misunderstanding would only add to Taylor John’s notoriety! It would tarnish the honor of the police! And then more copycats like this one will appear!”
The Chief glared at Detective Baron.
“If you think about it, isn’t this all your fault?”
“… What?”
“I’m saying that if you had caught Taylor John in the past, or if you had at least announced that you caught him, a copycat wouldn’t have appeared today!”
Detective Baron stared at the Chief with a blank face. Looking at him again, that face was the same one that had suggested the fake arrest of Taylor John to him years ago.
“Because of you, that criminal became deified! Because the police couldn’t catch him, he gained notoriety as a serial killer who vanished like a ghost! If a worshiper who admired that notoriety appeared and went around committing the same crimes, who should be blamed?”
Detective Baron felt his speech stutter at those words. He wanted to argue that it wasn’t his fault, but he felt doubt within himself.
As the Chief said, if he had announced that he’d arrested the culprit, no one would have feared Taylor John anymore. Would there have been no copycat then?
Then is this truly his fault?
Because of his lingering regret about wanting to catch the criminal with his own hands, and because of his incompetence in failing to catch him, were more victims being produced?
“…”
Seventeen. The ghosts of seventeen victims always floated in Detective Baron’s mind.
Among those familiar faces that hadn’t left his side for a single moment over the past years, other faces he didn’t know were now trying to emerge.
Other victims who would resent him, who might have died because of him.
“Ugh…!”
He couldn’t stand it anymore. Detective Baron left the office in a hurry like a criminal. Since that day, nothing had changed, yet everything had changed.
The detective still performed the menial tasks of other teams. He went out on field duty that others didn’t want to do.
But the detective was now fanatically obsessed with arresting criminals. The moments of arresting a criminal were the only times Detective Baron seemed to be alive.
“Isn’t it about time he retired?”
“He’s certainly reached that age. He hasn’t looked good lately, either.”
Agreeing inwardly with the whispering behind his back, the detective consciously turned his eyes away from the new Taylor John investigation.
He wanted to know as little as possible.
“It was during that time that I was assigned the Dying Message case. That’s where I met you.”
He thought the detective was similar to his past self. He didn’t seem particularly talented at deduction, yet he was full of passion — .
**[I cannot close this case like this. Please, delay the arrest!]**
A man throwing himself into a worthless obsession.
The detective didn’t believe the detective’s words at all when he said he would catch the culprit if given just one night.
There are no new clues. Nothing will change even if time is given. Even so, the reason he gave him time was simply to teach that young detective a lesson.
‘Half a day is a small price to learn how to resign oneself.’
After all, wasn’t it a truth of life that some people could only learn after paying with many years?
‘Still, I don’t intend to break him completely, so I’ll go and help him out a bit later and give him some advice not to risk his life trying to solve cases.’
He intended to give the young sprout a life lesson before retiring.
However, things did not go as he intended.
**[Assemble the witnesses. I will reveal the truth behind the case in front of everyone.]**
The detective spoke, and he truly kept his word.
He solved a case that seemed impossible and caught the true culprit, avenging the victim. It was a sight that made it seem as if the dream the detective had dreamed in the past had come true.
‘Was there a path like that…?’
The detective was soaked in deep emotion.
‘… Hm?’
Until he suddenly noticed something strange.
‘It was poisoning? Does that make sense?’
If it truly were poisoning, there was no way the police wouldn’t have realized it. Didn’t the detective himself believe that and exclude the possibility of poisoning from the beginning?
Soon, Detective Baron was certain that the medical examiner had intentionally fabricated the autopsy results.
‘Damn it, this is a disgrace to the police.’
Even then, the detective suspected that this was just the deviance of a single medical examiner.
‘That medical examiner must have taken a bribe. I should check the name and report him to the higher-ups. A guy like that should be kicked out of the force!’
But after checking the documents, the story changed. The medical examiner’s name was familiar.
‘Wait…, this person…?’
He was definitely the one who had been in charge of the autopsies for the Taylor John case victims in the past. Suddenly, a strange intuition flashed through the detective’s mind.
‘Looking back, the Taylor John case had suspiciously little data…’
The information gathered through the forensic examination was extremely scarce. Even though there were so many victims, no decisive clues that could identify the culprit ever came out. Not even a little.
Just like… in this case.
What if failing to arrest Taylor John wasn’t entirely due to his incompetence?
‘No way. It must be a coincidence.’
Even as he repeated this to himself, the detective’s hurried footsteps headed toward the police station’s archives.
“May I see the materials for the Taylor John case?”
“The new case? I understand you’ve been excluded from this investigation, Detective Baron.”
“I just want to double-check because there seems to be something wrong with the materials I handed over.”
The officer opened the door to the archives as if reluctantly. Detective Baron checked only one thing. Taylor John, who had resumed his activities after several years. Who was the medical examiner in charge of the autopsy for that case?
**[Gerald Freejin]**
It was him.
The person in charge of autopsies for the Taylor John case 10 years ago, and the person in charge of autopsies for this Dying Message case.
That man was also proudly listed as the person in charge of the new Taylor John case.
‘This is strange.’
A chill ran down his spine.
It wasn’t as if there were only one or two medical examiners at the police station, and in the meantime, their positions and duties would change as they were promoted.
Why did the same person hold the position of medical examiner in charge of a serial murder case 5 years ago and now?
The same medical examiner took charge because it’s the same case?
No. The Chief himself was leading the way in actively denying any connection between the cases.
In such a situation, why use the same medical examiner?
Especially when they had excluded him from the newly broken case simply because he was the one in charge of the previous case?
Moreover, there were even circumstances suggesting that the medical examiner had a connection to a corrupt person in power, and thus intentionally concealed the records of the case he was in charge of.
His heart was cold. Everything was so coincidental that he couldn’t possibly think it was a coincidence.
‘But… what if it’s not a coincidence?’
If so, this is no longer the deviance of a single medical examiner. This was because a medical examiner could not decide which cases they would be in charge of on their own.
‘Someone higher up is involved.’
He didn’t know.
Perhaps he was going crazy and rambling in a delusion.
But the detective witnessed his own handed-over materials piling up in the archives, gathering nothing but dust.
He also witnessed the Chief’s attitude, which seemed more concerned with maintaining the police’s face than catching Taylor John.
The detective thought of an old conspiracy theory.
The stale conspiracy theory that Taylor John’s identity was an enormous big shot, and the police were looking out for him.
What if that conspiracy theory was the truth?
‘… Maybe the police have no intention of solving this.’
If so, what should he do? Could Detective Baron solve this case by himself?
‘No.’
He had learned painfully over the past 5 years that he couldn’t. He couldn’t possibly do it alone.
He had to entrust this case to someone else, someone outside the police. Only then could he fulfill his responsibility to the deaths of the victims.
He had to bring peace to the seventeen ghosts.
‘Then, to whom?’
Someone skilled. Someone who could investigate the case without succumbing to power. Where on earth was such a person?
Before long, Detective Baron recalled the fact that there was someone who had had such thoughts one step ahead of him. And the answer that person had derived.
Detective Baron wasn’t that talented, but he wasn’t so stupid that he couldn’t even copy someone else’s answer sheet.
“You are my answer, Hayes.”
The detective had derived his own answer.