The Flower Shop Murder

The Moon Family

KNP Headquarters (Later that day...)

Insp. Kim: I can't believe they pulled us out of that case.

The brown-haired inspector says to her partner as she lowers her head on her table in defeat.

Insp. Ahn: The flower shop murder?

Assistant Inspector Diana Ahn asks while pulling her drawers open, looking for that instant pick me up she needs. She's been doing a lot of shifts at the police station lately, so she's been stocking up on ready to drink coffee.

Diana graduated from the police academy almost 3 years ago. She walked the streets of Seoul with other patrolling officers until she was promoted last month.

Now she's a probie detective and Inspector Kim's new partner.

She's young, hot-headed, hot-blooded and doesn't give a lot of s**t about the rules.

Insp. Kim: Yeah. Don't you find it weird? Us being pulled from that case by the higher-ups?

Insp. Ahn: It is, yeah. But what can we do, right? Orders are orders.

The probie shrugs her shoulders and opens up a can of black coffee, she's getting sleepy but she has to take the graveyard shift, they were short on men.

Insp. Kim: I know but Di, why would they be interested in the flower shop murder?

The pretty Inspector stood up from her chair, lost in thought and starts pacing the floor while talking, making Diana dizzy having to follow her with her eyes.

Insp. Ahn: Well, it was pretty gruesome. The guy looked like he was tortured for a long time. Punctured lungs, broken ribs, all his fingers are broken...

Insp. Kim: Okay already, I got it. He was tortured badly. So are they treating this as a high profile case?

Supt. Sung: It is a high profile case.

Surprised at the sudden appearance of the superintendent, both women stand at attention and Diana accidentally spills her coffee, making her groan out loud.

Insp. Kim: Sir.

Supt. Sung: The both of you, in my office.

Diana stares at her spilled black coffee, a little miffed that she wasn't able to enjoy it. She was, however, wide awake now. She turns her head and finds that Inspector Kim has already gone ahead to the Superintendent's office without waiting for her and she rushes to catch up.

Insp. Kim: Superintendent, why is this a high profile case? Who's the victim?

The superintendent looked at her and raised his eyebrow.

Supt. Sung: I'm surprised you haven't been digging into this more. That's so unlike you.

Insp. Kim: I was about to.

The superintendent shakes his head at the stubborn detective. They've had this conversation many times before because detective Kim can't seem to keep her nose out of every case that piques her interest.

Insp. Ahn: Sir, I don't mean to interrupt your disapproving stare on Inspector Kim but why is this a High profile case?

The question caught both senior officers off-guard. Diana has always had a knack to just ask questions, the really important ones. But sometimes, she forgets hierarchy and etiquette, and just lets her mouth say whatever she wanted.

The superintendent slowly moved to stand in front of a board and looked at the young female officers in front of him. There was excitement in his eyes but the tone of his voice remained calm and even. Diana thinks this is their commanding officer's best trait. He never reveals any of his real emotions. He doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve, so to speak.

The senior officer in the room suddenly looked at Inspector Kim and addressed her.

Supt. Sung: Hmm. Inspector Kim, you were part of the Devil task force that got dissolved because you can't get any evidence on your target, Maximus Moon, correct?

Insp. Kim: Yes, sir. Is this somehow connected with that?

Supt. Sung: In the preliminary investigation, we found out that Maximus Moon has 2 kids. A son who is his second in command and a daughter that disappeared a few years ago. No one could give any information on her whereabouts and everyone assumed she's dead.

The superintendent then turns around and rotates the board to show a detailed graph of everything about Maximus Moon, the crime boss that they were investigating a year ago.

The board was short of amazing. It was very, very detailed with information about who Maximus Moon was associated with, what his businesses are, his family, his whereabouts. From Diana's point of view, Superintendent Sung could either be very focused on the details or he was just plain obsessed.

As the young officer was thinking this, the superintendent spoke again.

Supt. Sung: There are no pictures or records of Maximus Moon's daughter anywhere and we're not exactly sure why that is. All we know is that his daughter disappeared without a trace.

He then points to a blurry photograph of who they believed to have been Maximus Moon's daughter.

Insp. Kim: And after she disappeared, no one ever talked about her again.

Supt. Sung: Yes. Everyone in the criminal underworld went shush with her disappearance. Asking about her became taboo. No one was willing to talk. Especially not dear old dad. But today, we finally know where she is.

The superintendent knocked on the woman's blurry photo and Inspector Kim stared at the image trying to make out where she's seen her before. And once the realization hit her, her eyes lit up with surprise.

Insp. Kim: That girl from the flower shop!

Supt. Sung: Yes, the owner of the flower shop. Aster Moon. She's the daughter of Maximus Moon and Sandy Lee, the victim, is the eldest son of Hyun Lee, Maximus Moon's long time associate.

The female detective is slowly piecing the puzzles together and is getting more interested.

Supt. Sung: Both of them, along with the family assassin, Gale Jung, left the family 5 years ago and has since then been living right under everyone's noses here in Seoul.

Insp. Kim: How has no one ever found them? The Moon Family operates primarily here in Seoul. And if she's the daughter of Seoul's biggest crime boss, then it would be nearly impossible to miss her.

Supt. Sung: Yeah. That's the million dollar question isn't it? How did they manage to stay under the radar and why hasn't anyone come for them?

Insp. Kim: Well, until last night. Something wrong must have happened. Someone must have been protecting them and now they don't have that protection anymore because someone found them. Are they targets now? Is someone trying to take over Seoul from Maximus Moon?

The superintendent sighed deeply and started massaging his temples.

Supt. Sung: We don't know. In fact, we have no idea about anything that's going on. What I can tell you is, that girl is going to be targeted, for what reason, we don't know yet. Someone might be targeting them to hurt her family or it just might be Maximus trying to send a message to his daughter asking her to come home.

Insp. Kim: But killing his daughter's best friend? That's just messed up. We should get them on protective custody.

Supt. Sung: Oh she doesn't need protective custody, I can assure you. No. We're not doing that. She's the key to finally nailing her scumbag of a father. We need to keep a close eye on her, in case she's the next target. Maximus Moon is the lowest of lowly criminals. There isn't anything he's opposed to doing if it means getting what he wants.

Insp. Kim: But if this is Maximus Moon's handiwork, what does he even want?

Supt. Sung: I really don't know. I honestly don't know how this criminal's mind works.

Inspector Diana Ahn quietly listened to their conversation. The task force they were talking about was before her time as a detective but she knows who Maximus Moon is. She's patrolled the streets of Seoul long enough to recognize the biggest players of the criminal underworld.

What she really wants to know is not on that board.

Insp. Ahn: Uhm Sir, you said they ran away with the family assassin right?

Supt. Sung: Ah yes, Gale Jung, the youngest assassin in their family. She was trained when she was just about 13 years old. At 17, she's had a confirmed kill of 42 people. 18 of them being high profile targets.

Insp. Ahn: 17?

Supt. Sung: Yes. From my intel, she was trained after Maximus Moon's wife died. Why that's significant, I don't know. But she's only 22 now and she hasn't been active since they left the family.

Insp. Ahn: There's a lot we don't know, huh?

Insp. Kim: Sir, with all due respect, how do you know all these things? Some of the information you're giving out were never discovered in the investigation from when the task force was active. You even have names we've never heard of before.

Sighing, he looks at the young detective and nods slowly.

Supt. Sung: I had a source. A reliable one.

Insp. Kim: What? Then that's great! What else does this source know about Maximus?

Insp. Ahn: Can we interview this source, sir?

Supt. Sung: Not anymore. The source is in a body bag down at the morgue.

Insp. Kim: Sandy Lee was your source?

She asked incredulously, never expecting their victim to be their only source into Maximus Moon too.

Supt. Sung: Yes. He gave us a lot of information that we can use but he wasn't willing to go all out.

Insp. Kim: So, what do we do now, sir? Are we still building a case against Maximus Moon?

Her tone was subdued, disappointed even.

Supt. Sung: If Sandy Lee's information is truly reliable, then Aster Moon will lead us straight to her father and the evidence we need to finally put him behind bars.

Insp. Ahn: How are we so sure that this Aster Moon is indeed Maximus Moon's daughter and how is she going to lead us to him?

Supt. Sung: Because Mr. Lee sent me this message.

He walks to his table and plays an audio file from his computer. In a few seconds, the dead man's voice is playing on the speakers.

Sandy: If anything happens to me or Gale, promise me that you'll look after Aster.

The clip ended there.

Insp. Ahn: But that doesn't prove anything. It surely doesn't prove that Maximus Moon is the one who had him killed or that he had anything to do with the flower shop murder.

Supt. Sung: I know that. And we're not out to prove anything just yet. We need to look for Sandy's murderer. So, for now, I want you to put Aster Moon and Gale Jung under surveillance. Just keep a watch on them and do not interfere. Let her lead you down the rabbit hole of South Korea's underworld. Understand?

Insp. Kim: How do you know she's going down that rabbit hole Superintendent?

Supt. Sung: It's just a feeling. She's still Maximus Moon's daughter after all, and dealing with criminals is second nature to her. So watch her closely, in case she goes looking for whoever killed her friend. Understood?

Insp. Ahn & Insp. Kim: Yes, sir.

Supt. Sung: Dismissed.

A few minutes after the detectives left his office, he remains standing in front of the crime board, staring at Maximus Moon's photo.