Sari’s mind was still running about even as she had a good night's sleep and was able to finish taking notes with regards to her job and other things related to her father. However, what she found the other night was stirring her mind with thoughts and speculations.
'How did Dad come in possession of those pictures, anyway?' Then again, it was something she could only ask herself as the person who should be giving her those answers wasn't here at all.
And so she went to the only place who might have the answer to some of her questions. To the precinct where the only officer she knew was stationed.
Detective Seo Jinho — Sejin’s fiance.
xxxxxx
Sarina definitely had to thank Sejin for giving Detective Seo Jinho a heads up about her arrival at the police station. She didn't want to go there and realized that the person she intended to see wasn't there for some reason.
It didn't take long before an officer told her where to go when she asked for the intended officer.
So she made her way over to his desk. She noticed that Detective Seo had a file on him when he looked up from his laptop.
"Oh, hello," Detective Seo smiled kindly but Sari noticed a hint of surprise. She was sure this was just because of the unusual appearance of someone he'd never seen before. "Sejin already told me you'd be coming here. But I didn't realize that you'd arrive here at night."
"I'm sorry. Did I bother you?"
He smiled and shook his head. "It's not that. Don't worry." He then gestured for her to sit down.
She sat down across from him, noticing he'd placed the picture on the corner of his desk and had moved on to looking through some papers.
"So, how can I help you?" His voice was kind enough but also a little curious.
She cleared her throat nervously before speaking.
"There was a file sent to me several days ago. They contained a few old sketchbooks that my father owned. But I found out soon after that there was a hidden pocket inside the expanding envelope. They contained these pictures," Sari said while pulling out photos from her pocket.
Detective Seo took them gently when he got a look at the first picture but frowned immediately once he saw more.
"How come these photos were sent to you?"
But Sari shook her head fast and sighed frustratingly. "I have no idea. My father's been missing for five years now and I would randomly receive items that once belonged to him since then."
Soon after, she raised her head and faced Detective Seo. "I have no idea how my father got a hold of them. But I know he'd long intended to find out the truth about my mother's death."
Detective Seo nodded thoughtfully, "That does make sense. It seems like your father really wanted to know what happened for your mother to end up like that."
She saw him looking at the photos again, rather carefully this time. She soon saw him frown again.
"What's your mother's name?"
Sari looked confused until Detective Seo repeated his question.
"...What do you mean?" She questioned, trying to remember if she heard that correctly.
"If your mother was killed brutally like this and there was still no answer about her killer, then there must be a file about her death in our archives. Perhaps in one of our cold cases," the officer explained, possibly to dissipate the confusion she was feeling.
She nodded and exhaled. "Norina. Yoon Norina. That's her married name, though. She was a foreigner and my father was staying overseas when they met and got married."
Once he heard that, Detective Seo looked surprised. "Yoon Norina? The one brutally killed in the woods 26 years ago?"
Sari nodded. "Yes."
He shook his head. "I had no idea. I mean... I had no idea about the case. But I'm familiar with it. In fact..." he paused, seemingly hesitating. But continued to speak soon after. "Your mother was not the only one killed in the same brutal manner. Even Professor Kang Soohoon’s mother, Mr. Kang's first wife was killed the same way. And in the same place, as well."
The words struck Sari’s heart like a blow and she gasped. A wave of sorrow washed over her and she couldn't believe that such awful murders had occurred and yet the culprits weren't identified.
'Professor Soohoon did tell me one time that the visions about his past lives started haunting him after witnessing his mother's death.'
She looked up to face Detective Seo. "Professor Soohoon mentioned that he saw his mother get killed. Does that mean he was in the forest at the time it happened?"
To her confusion, he shook his head. "No, he wasn't in the forest. But he wasn't lying when he said he witnessed his mother's death. That's because Mrs. Kang was hacked with a machete once when she was about to leave the house at the time. She lost consciousness after that. And based on the report that was gathered, Soohoon was saying goodbye to his mother by the gate when it happened. He probably assumed that his mother was already dead at that time when in fact, she died 45 minutes after that."
"But for a kid to witness something brutal like that..." she murmured and shook her head, still trying to process the information given to her at the moment.
"It's a memory that changed his life in more ways than one. That I can tell you..." Detective Seo sighed after that and looked at the photos once more. Sari could only look at him doing so in silence, unable to think of what to say or what to do next.
It was then that she saw him frown.
"Is there something wrong?" she couldn't help asking as curiosity started to creep up in her.
It took a while before she got an answer from the officer. He raised his head and faced her. "Have you checked these photos before you showed them to me?"
This time, it was her turn to frown. "What do you mean?"
He placed down the photos on his desk and took only three from them to show it to her. "It seems you haven't read the notes that your father had left here for you."
Sari quickly took them from his hand and began reading through them.
"You see this part here?" Detective Seo pointed at the bottom corner on the back right page. Sari nodded slowly and looked back up.
"Most of them were faded, but you can still see traces of what was written on them. And I can see your name written in each of them. So it's obvious that they're messages meant for you."
She bit her lip nervously, her eyes wide.
"Are you implying that my father wanted to pass his message to me?"
He nodded his head. "I believe so. If that's the case, then I'm afraid the most important thing now is to find out who he wanted to find for him to decide to disappear from your life like that. There's a possibility that the person may be your mother and also Soohoon's mother's murderer. I don't doubt that she was murdered, but considering how much effort it took to hide these photos and keep the secret, I'd assume your father was very determined to make sure he finds out about the murderer personally. Perhaps done so for your sake."
"But why use crime scene photos for this?" Each time, Sari felt getting more confused from all the conclusions that she and Detective Seo would come up with.
To be honest, she didn't know how her mind would still keep up from all the information overload.
"We can't say about his reasons at the moment, considering that he kept them even from you all this time. But forgive me for asking you this. Where were you at the time that your mother was murdered?"
Sari didn't know how to respond to that at first as the question surprised her. But she sighed and spoke after a few moments. "At a family home we once owned near the town border, having a mini picnic with my father by the gardens. I was 6 at the time. I was following her to the main gates since a helper said that she had someone looking for her. By the time I reached the gates, I saw... a hooded man raising a machete and hacking my mom with it. Twice."
"What did you do after seeing that?" Detective Seo asked, seemingly doing so carefully.
But Sari frowned, thinking of that memory that also changed her life and what made her realize that she and Professor Soohoon were similar in terms of experiencing life-changing events.
"I can only recall screaming ㅡ one that I would describe as blood-curdling ㅡ and then I fainted. Next thing I knew, I was in a hospital room with a searing wound on my left arm and learning that the killer tried to kill me, as well, but my father was able to take me away from him at the time. Hence, the searing wound on my arm at the time. Later on, my mother was found dead in the woods, hacked multiple times that made her body parts look like they would fall off." She took a deep but ragged breath. "At least, I only learned about the state of her corpse when I turned 16 because I kept asking my father about it."
When she was finally done explaining what had happened, she noticed that the officer hadn't reacted to everything she'd just told him. He looked somewhat shocked. Then again, it was understandable.
After a short pause in which he didn't seem to know what to say, Detective Seo cleared his throat and said, "Well, let us hope that you'll find some answers soon."
As she nodded, he eyed the three photos again and handed them to her. "Read the message that your father left here for you."
Sari did as he said. At some point, she had to squint her eyes just to read the fading words properly.
'Sari, entrust these photos to someone who you know could be trusted with solving your mother's case again.'
Well, she was able to do the first note. Now Detective Seo was holding them. It was still a question if he'd actually accept the task or not, though. She took the second photo and tried reading the note there.
'Sari, when you manage to find Kang Chulsoo, tell him that his first wife's killer could be related to the same killer from his son's past life.'
His son's past life? Does that mean... her father knew about Professor Soohoon's past life? And the killer he was talking about... She knew about it, because she'd seen it in one of those visions.
"How did he know that fact about Soohoon?" she heard Detective Seo ask to himself, but she didn't say anything about it.
He had no idea about her ability, after all.
After taking a deep breath, Sari took the third photo and read the note there. Compared to the other two photos, the note written on this third one was clearer.
'When you find your mother's killer, you'll be able to know who you really are. Both to this lifetime and to his past life.'
She frowned once more after reading that. His past life? Who was the 'he' that her father was talking about?
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