Incident room

The department is buzzing with activity as Ouk walks in. The chief and his ancillaries would have come in early because of the murder in the wee hours of the morning.

Ouk makes a point of walking in later, past 8:30, so that people see him arrive.

He goes first for coffee, ignoring the pods, he puts on half a pot of drip coffee.

The ground coffee in the tin over the coffee pot is far from fresh, and the coffee tastes the same, but it takes a few minutes to drip. This makes it more likely that Ouk will run in to the desk clerk, Doh, while waiting for the coffee. She usually comes in for coffee at about this time. Ouk has some conversation about last night's dramas prepared. But she doesn't come in.

The chief comes in as the coffee is brewing. "Detective Ouk," he says, "You were at the scene last night." It's a question and it isn't.

"Yeah, for a bit."

"It's your case then," again, it is a half question.

"Yeah. The victim, a Yu-seok Park, lived alone, and has no living family. We're canvassing the neighbours, and Hwak has gone to his office to find out about him."

"We're?" says the chief, he looks like he is about to say something about Ouk having just arrived, but thinks better of it. "Keep me appraised," he says, walking out.

Ouk goes to the front desk. "Had your coffee yet?" he asks Doh.

She smiles, and picks up the cup on her desk in response. "Good morning, Inspector. Last night's incident is in Incident Room One."

"Ah. Thanks," says Ouk, his prepared drama talk seeming inappropriate now.

Ouk walks into the incident room where a young officer is laying out photos on his desk, and making labels for them.

"What have we got officer?" he asks.

"Oh, Detective Ouk. Good morning sir. Detective Hwak asked me to set up a pin board for the evidence."

"Like on TV?"

"Yeah, pins and strings and stuff. He says it's the best way to figure out who did it."

"Kang. Do you have string?"

"I don't, but, well, we don't have a pin board either. I though we could just use the white board. Magnets instead of pins. Markers instead of string."

Ouk, scratches his chin, looking at the white board. It's covered with the names and a list of motives from a 6 month old case that has gone stale.

"You think his husband might have killed him?"

"Um," Kang looks up. "No. I think that was another case."

"Better erase the board then, I guess," says Ouk.

"I will sir."

"Have we found anyone that knew the victim yet?"

"The family in the floor above him knew him in passing. He's gone up to ask them to keep the noise down." Kang flashes a brief frown, clearly thinking about interactions he has had with his neighbours. "They say he was pleasant, but that they don't know much about him. They didn't hear anything last night. But they go to bed early. Before 10, they said."

"Mmm. Anything from work?"

"Not yet. He works at H___ University. Classes don't start until 9:00, and people don't seem to get in much before that."

"What's this?" Ouk says, picking up a picture.

"Ah. CCTV. That guy left the building at about 12:30. Detective Hwak thinks it could be relevant."

"Do we know who he is?"

"No."

"He looks like you."

"Not really, sir."

"Yeah, Kang," says Ouk fixing the picture to the white board with a magnet. He writes 'Hyon-su Kang?' below it. "Where were you last night at about 12am?"

"He looks nothing like me, sir."

"Don't deflect, Kang. We aren't letting you off just because you make good coffee. This is a murder." He writes 'Motive?' under where he wrote the name.

"I don't make coffee."

"Do you like almonds?"

"What?"

"Get some pins up here, Kang, and some strings." say Ouk, "And erase this other stuff off the board. You'll probably need one of those spray bottles. I'll go see if Ms. Doh has any."

"There is some--"

"And quit trying to sneak your own pictures onto the case board, Kang." Ouk says as he walks out to the front desk, "Getting nabbed for murder is no way to get attention."