Find the shadow. (3)

Shin Hyuk calmly opened his mouth, clearing his dry throat.

“Why didn’t you keep your promise to your daughter?”

“Yeah? What do you mean?”

“You stated that you fought because you didn’t buy me a cat.”

Most fights take place in mutual confrontation.

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Kim Bit-na must have had a reason to fight with her mother.

If you ask for a cat and get turned down, it’s unlikely that an argument will ignite.

Bitna’s mother’s eyes went up to the left and then down to the left.

It is to recall memories and images of the past.

Shin Hyuk asked again.

“Has your daughter ever harmed herself?”

She sighed as if to say something.

“Go to sleep. My daughter is not like that.”

“Then why did you fight?”

Bitna’s mother pondered for a moment before speaking up.

“Well… I promised to buy a cat when my grades go up, but the kid played a joke on his report card and brought it to me. I knew the day we fought. Why do you do things you wouldn’t do when puberty comes?”

Shin Hyuk nodded slightly.

A cat I wanted even after falsifying grades.

This is the part that shows Kim Bit-na’s tendency.

‘When puberty comes, they do things they wouldn’t normally do, right?’

My mother makes up excuses so that such a shine will look bad to others.

It is usually a natural protective instinct in parents.

“Was there a cat breed your daughter wanted?”

“Yeah. Russian Blue. Doesn’t the detective think that I ran away because I didn’t buy a cat? I really am not that kind of kid.”

Shin Hyuk nodded positively.

“Yeah. I don’t think so. Were there any things that your daughter used to say out of habit? Food is what I like and want to be in the future, anything is good.”

She dried her face and closed her eyes.

My daughter is gone, what is your favorite food…

It feels like a pun.

It seems to be shining and shimmering in the dark vision.

Where are you shining…

At that time, Shin Hyuk’s low-pitched voice calmly flowed into her ears.

“It will help you find your daughter.”

Taking a deep breath, she nodded.

If I could find my daughter, what would I not be able to say or show?

Shin Hyuk looked at her mouth.

“I liked noodles. He said he wanted to become an adult soon. He also said he wanted to get married quickly.”

The desire to become an adult quickly is a common denominator common among minors.

‘He said he wanted to get married quickly.’

However, this part is a little different from normal.

There may be family discord, or you may not like your current family relationships.

It is highly likely that he was drawing his own ideal family relationship that shined.

“You don’t seem to have weighed much at the time of your disappearance, was that your original body shape?”

“Suddenly going on a diet… haa…”

“How are your other children’s grades?”

“Everyone gets good grades because they study hard.”

“Are you the type of person who often quarrels with your husband?”

she let out a deep sigh.

“no. I was reconciled. My daughter, heuk, heuk, until the light disappears, heuk…”

Eventually, tears fell from her eyes.

Nevertheless, Shin Hyuk did not stop observing.

Her appearance as a subject was a natural phenomenon.

“Didn’t Shinya write a diary or something?”

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and shook her head.

“Yeah. I didn’t write it. I looked for it, but couldn’t find it.”

“Can I see your daughter’s room?”

She wiped away tears and turned around.

“Yeah. Come on in.”

* * *

After escaping, Shin-hyeok turned around and looked at the apartment.

Bitna’s room was tidy.

‘I don’t know when I’ll be back, so I’m cleaning it so it doesn’t accumulate dust.’

He took good care of his shining younger brother and had frequent quarrels with his older brother, but no major problems were found.

Jo Gyeong-chan looked at Shin-hyeok, who was still deep in thought, with a slightly absurd expression.

When talking to Bitna’s mother, there was no micro expression on Shinhyuk’s face.

It is almost impossible to hide the subtle facial expression because it shows emotions subconsciously.

Everyone has this fine expression, and it is difficult to hide even serial killers and psychopaths who lack human emotions.

However, not a single fine wrinkle could be found on Lee Shin-hyeok’s face.

Wearing a sleek mask, it feels like nothing has changed.

It was to the point of giving goosebumps whether it was a face a person could have.

There was no expression.

White skin can feel cold.

But now it is different.

He looks at me with a smile enough to slap the ears of the actors who say he’s handsome.

“How did you look?”

“It didn’t seem like he was lying.”

“Have you seen Micro Expression too?”

Looking at the facial expressions that appeared and disappeared in 0.2 seconds absolutely required time and effort.

Shin Hyuk smiled awkwardly.

“Yeah.”

Jo Gyeong-chan couldn’t help but make a puzzled expression.

This made me wonder if the Commissioner of Police had taken off his heavy weight and found Shin Hyuk.

There was only laughter.

“Yeah, what do you think?”

“I don’t know yet.”

But I did find one piece of the puzzle.

Jo Kyung-chan nodded and nodded.

“It could really be a runaway. Maybe not.”

The mother’s statement gave the probability that she might be a runaway, but the probability is 50% because no clear clue has yet been given.

Runaway cases increase in spring and fall.

I also saw the point where Lightna disappeared, but she disappeared while wearing her school uniform.

Most runaways wear clothes and go out, but do not disappear in school uniform.

“I think you should meet the investigator who was in charge of the Bitna case.”

Time was running out.

It happened three years ago, but the light has to move as if it disappeared today.

Jo Gyeong-chan actively reflected Shin Hyuk’s opinion.

But the bitter smile could not be erased.

It was like entering a realm where only people who hated them gathered.

It was also something Shin Hyuk had to go through in the future, so it was good to be beaten quickly in my experience.

“Let’s go.”

The two hailed a taxi and headed straight to the police station.

His eyes glanced at the two people walking down the aisle in suits.

Seeing if there were any police officials who recognized Shin Hyuk, he stopped for a moment and did not take his eyes off his back.

Before long, I was able to find the position of the detective who was in charge of Bitna’s case.

“Detective Yoo Sang-jin?”

Detective Yoo Sang-jin, who was sitting down and making a phone call somewhere, turned his head.

Jo Kyung-chan said with a smile.

“This is Cho Kyung-chan who called.”

“Ah yes.”

Putting down the receiver, he stood up and shook hands with Jo Gyeong-chan.

He appeared to be in his late thirties.

There was a smile on his face, but he couldn’t hide even the shy expression.

Yoo Sang-jin looked at Shin-hyeok for a moment and bowed his head as if to say hello.

And he let out a sigh.

“You’ve come a long way, but I don’t have much to show you. I searched all the CCTVs and black boxes at the time, but nothing came out.”

Shin Hyuk looked at Yoo Sang Jin in awe.

For them, CCTV or black box is just one means to rationalize themselves.

If we were to live on the people’s blood, sweat and taxes, we should have moved with blood and sweat.

“Even if it’s something to drink…”

Yoo Sang-jin’s words were cut off by Shin-hyeok.

“Fine. Can I see the history of the phone call with Bitna Kim at the time? It is because the data requested by the wide-area profiler team are too poor.”

“Ah… didn’t I send you along?”

“Missing flyers, statements, phone numbers of ties. That was it.”

“Wait.”

As he disappeared somewhere, the detectives’ eyes turned to him.

“Ah f*ck… This case never ends. will cease.”

A certain detective banged the head of the person in front of him with a file folder! screamed and screamed

“Hey! Aren’t you talking straight?”

It sounded like a call to listen to the two of them.

Shin Hyuk stared at those scenes.

And I thought.

If someone hates you, give them a clear reason why they hate you.

Shin Hyuk quickly erased that thought.

Now is not the time for that.

How to make them hate it later, it is possible enough with a few words.

“Here you go.”

Yoo Sang-jin reappeared and held out the file.

Shin-hyeok took it and passed it over.

The phone number that Bitna Kim frequently called at the time was underlined.

It was the phone numbers of my friends Park Mi-young and Yoo Ha-yul.

There were no records from 15:30 on May 7th.

Matches the time of the last CCTV picture taken by Kim Bit-na.

“It’s like a kidnapping.”

At Yoo Sang-jin’s sudden remark, Shin-hyeok turned his gaze and looked at him.

“Why do you think so?”

“Don’t you know a profiler well? Most runaways are tracked, but as you can see, we lost contact after that. Kids these days, even if they live without their parents, they can’t live without their cell phones.”

“So?”

“Yeah?”

“Didn’t you just say it was like a kidnapping?”

“Yeah.”

Yoo Sang-jin frowned and looked at Shin-hyeok, who was quiet as he looked into his eyes.

At that time, Yoo Sang-jin raised his voice involuntarily.

“We did everything we could. Opening up CCTV and black box videos, walking around, interrogating, and searching the river. Missing flyers are also being redistributed.”

Shin Hyuk swallowed the words that were trying to squeeze through his fangs.

“All right. Do you keep the phone numbers of Kim Bit-na, Park Mi-young and Yu Ha-yul, who were friends?”

Yoo Sang-jin answered while shaking his head.

“Is that so?”

Cho Kyung-chan said.

“Let’s go. Thanks for your cooperation.”

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

As the two of them passed through the hallway, Sangjin Yoo put on a puzzled expression.

“You’re a blue-eyed young guy… I’m really dumbfounded.”

But the young man’s eyes seemed familiar.

It looks like the eyes I saw during my life as a detective, that’s right.

It was.

It was a man-eating gaze.

* * *

He said to Shin-hyeok, who had escaped, with an expression on his face as if he was asking about Jo Kyung-chan.

“When you go to work, you will go through a lot of situations like this. Information is lacking and the way they look at us is not nice.”

Shin Hyuk smiled lightly.

“I will try to fight.”

“It’s a good mindset. very good.”

“Is it okay if I call Park Mi-young and Yoo Ha-yul?”

“No, why do you even get permission for something like that? Who do you want to call first?”

“I’ll call Miyoung first.”

“OK. Then I guess I can call Ha Yul. Go over there.”

Shin Hyuk and Jo Gyeong-chan headed to the bench under the tree.

Jo Gyeong-chan lit a cigarette and brought the phone to his ear.

But didn’t receive it.

“Did you go to an academy…”

“Is this Park Mi-young’s phone?”

Jo Kyung-chan laughed at the sight of Shin-hyeok talking on the phone.

The low-pitched voice, as if calling a girlfriend, couldn’t be heard so softly even if a man listened to it.

Jo Gyeong-chan exhaled smoke and watched Shin Hyuk.

“How was the weather that day?”

Jo Gyeong-chan coughed as if he had smoke.

Jo Gyeong-chan looked back at Shin Hyuk with a reddened face.

Doing and doing and now I am even doing legal hypnosis.

It was a work that reminded me of fog-like memories hidden in time one by one.

What was the weather like, how many kids were in your class, and so on.

As the call time passed, Shin Hyuk nodded slowly.

“Right. Did you think he looked good? yes.”

So, the call lasted another 10 minutes.

“yes. thanks. Uncle will definitely shine and look for it.”

After the phone call, Shin Hyuk could feel his thirst slightly quenched.

Cho Gyeong-chan approached Shin-hyeok.

“Did you get anything?”

“Yeah. It seems so.”

“What?”

“It is said that Bitna showed him several pictures of men. I thought it was like an adult. He’s not a celebrity, he’s handsome.”

Through the statement of a friend, I was able to get a glimpse of Bitna Kim’s desire.

Cho Kyung-chan rubbed his chin.

“She ran away with that man…”

“I used to say that I wish I could become an adult soon.”

“No matter how stupidly they investigate, there’s no way the police will miss your phone number.”

“There is also voice chat.”

“It’s a calculated action, so if you have any points to point out, keep talking.”

“If you go to the man, it’s pretty methodical, shining. I wore my school uniform as if I was kidnapped and threw away my phone, but my homeroom teacher’s statement said that my grades were rather low.”

Cho Kyung-chan snapped his fingers.

“There is a possibility that the man induced the action.”

The gears that ate oil naturally mesh and turn.

“Whether it’s Shining or that guy, it seems certain that it’s systematic.”

Jo Kyung-chan let out a long puff of cigarette smoke.

Since the police’s investigation was not successful and they couldn’t find it, we have to turn our gaze in a different direction and investigate.

If you look at the case objectively and doubt it, you must listen unconditionally.

the problem is.

“Where should I go to find that man…”

Shin Hyuk organized it in his head.

– I knew an adult man.

– I did a diet that I didn’t do.

– Disappeared while wearing a school uniform, along with his cell phone.

– I want to become an adult soon and want to get married.

“Senior, given that it is quite systematic, I think there is a possibility that even the family register has been changed.”

“Changing the family register? Middle school students identity laundering? Is it possible…”

At that moment, as if something suddenly came to mind, Jo Gyeong-chan’s eyes widened.

Shin Hyuk replied.

“Yeah.”

Because I wanted to become an adult as soon as possible.

The final destination of the wish to become an adult is marriage.

“Senior, between May and December three years ago, can you confirm the fact that an unknown woman recovered her identity at the age of nineteen? Orphanages, shelters, nurseries. in these three places. It must be for a while.”