Accused

11:16 AM Friday, December 15

A good detective never rests until their case is solved. And two cups of coffee later, I'm still stuck.

The only progress I've made is attempting to create an approximate timeline for the night of the murder. According to the autopsy, Seokjin died at around 6:30 PM Wednesday night, and his body was about five long blocks away from the supermarket and two long blocks from his apartment building. He would probably take around 20 minutes to walk to his position, meaning he had to have left the market around 6:10 PM. Jungkook says he left the house at around 5:00 PM, and probably reached the bottom floor before 5:10 PM. Since he had to walk 7 long blocks instead of 5, he probably took about 25 minutes to reach the market, putting his arrival time at 5:35 PM, and he spent around 35 minutes shopping before leaving. I circle 5:10 PM, 5:35 PM, and 6:10 PM on my board. CCTV of the street block can confirm Seokjin leaving the building at the first time, and CCTV of the supermarket can confirm his entrance and exit times. These times are only estimates until I get my hands on the CCTV footage for exact times.

Meanwhile, I had requested background information on Seokjin's roommates and Lee Taemin. There was nothing of particular interest in the roommates; all of them have clean records and are in some sort of arts profession, attending university, or both. It is confirmed that Lee Taemin is a medical assistant who works at a hospital and works until around 5 PM, which means he could have been free to commit the crime.

The street camera footage is exactly what I need to prove Lee Taemin is the murderer, I think excitedly, my blood rushing with adrenaline.

"Detective, I have the CCTV footage you requested."

My head snaps towards the room door, Officer Yang standing there with another manila envelope. "Is everything okay, Detective?" he asks, genuine concern spreading across his round face as he places the envelope on my desk.

"Yes, I'm fine, just a bit stuck is all," I answer, capping the marker he caught me chewing on. "Thank you for getting this to me quickly. It's the last piece I need to make an arrest."

A gummy smile appears on his face. "So that means this case will be over soon?" he questions perkily.

I chuckle at his cuteness. "Hopefully, yes." I walk towards the manila envelope, but I pause when I'm about to open it. I'm suddenly afraid of what I may find in here. Taemin being the murderer just doesn't sit well with me for some reason. I shake the brief thought away and open it up, frowning at its contents. "There's only one CD in here," I state, not bothering to hide the disappointment in my voice.

Officer Yang scratches behind his neck. "That's the the thing, Detective. It seems that there weren't any cameras installed on that street."

I almost kick myself for not checking the street in the first place. "What an unfortunate coincidence," I retort dryly. The one solid piece of evidence I need has slipped through my fingers. "Fine then, I'll just have to make do with this. Thank you anyway."

Yoseob bows and makes his exit.

I take my seat at my desk, making a point to slump. How could I have been so stupid to not check the street if there were cameras in the first place? Now I'll have to depend on circumstantial evidence. Pushing my disappointment aside, I take out the supermarket camera CD. At least I have this. I pull up the camera footage, scrolling through to Wednesday evening. Since Seokjin left his apartment building at around 5:10 PM, I start watching the front entrance of the store from that time, fast forwarding through each minute. I spot a tall figure with a navy blue parka walk through at about 5:37 PM. A glance at the man's face reveals itself to be Seokjin, so I note down the time in my notepad and follow his next actions, slowly turning the dial to advance the video. He pauses at the door to peel off his gloves and tuck them in each of his jacket pockets before grabbing a cart and strolling towards the produce section. Seeing this man with the light in his eyes makes me realize why his roommates love him; he practically exudes a calm exterior, and judging by the amount of groceries he has, he must really care about feeding his roommates as much as he can. I dart my eyes to the other cameras briefly, searching for suspicious figures.