The Flower Shop Murder

Gale Jung

Gale has her back on the wall, fighting off her tears as she scrolls through photos on her phone. Most of them are pictures of the three of them, Sandy, her and Aster. They were the family she never had.

But Sandy was gone.

And it was slowly breaking her heart. He was a good man and a great big brother. He genuinely loved her like a sister and she felt that.

Losing him was like losing a part of her too, and she knows that Aster felt the same way, maybe even more.

She knows that her sister is in pain.

So much pain that she is willing to walk back through the dredges of hell that she tried so hard to escape from just to find the person who took Sandy away from them.

Sighing, she turned off her phone and put it away in her back pocket and stares at the oblivious policewoman who's trying to follow her.

Assistant Inspector Diana Ahn kept looking around the vicinity. The subject of her surveillance, Gale Jung, was just there a few minutes ago, buying coffee. She calls Inspector Kim to give her an update but her phone just kept ringing. She decides to radio in her status instead, hoping she can get instructions on how to proceed.

Insp. Ahn: Inspector, I lost the target. Please advise.

There was no response.

She cranes her neck again at the coffee shop, noting the cute guy who was still sitting out front, drinking his coffee, but the person she really needs to be looking at is nowhere to be found and Inspector Kim has yet to reply to her, which is weird.

Insp. Ahn: Damn, that girl is fast!

Gale: Yes. Or you're just too slow because you keep ogling that guy drinking his iced latte.

She jumped back and by reflex reached for her gun but Gale stands her ground, looking at the surprised Inspector with a raised eyebrow.

Gale: You gonna shoot me, inspector?

Diana was caught off guard at how nonchalant this girl was, she didn't look like she was armed but if what the Superintendent says is true, she's dangerous even without the firearms.

She slowly takes her hand away from her holster.

Gale: Good choice. If I were you, I'd stop wasting time following me and my sister around. Aside from the fact that stealth is obviously not your strong suit, you'll never find anything interesting about us.

Insp. Ahn: I'm just doing my job.

Gale: Oh? I thought your job was to find the flower shop killer? Am I wrong?

Insp. Ahn: I don't need to explain to you how I do my job.

Gale: I'm not asking you to. I don't really care. But what I do care about is how your job suddenly includes following me and my sister around like we're the criminals.

Insp. Ahn: Well, aren't you?

The look of hatred that passed through Gale's eyes was there and gone in an instant, but even so, Diana knows she touched a nerve.

Gale: Listen, Assistant Inspector Ahn, do your job. Find Sandy Lee's killer. And stop following us around before I prove to you just how much of a criminal I truly am.

The threat in her low and quiet voice sent shivers down Diana's spine. The girl definitely knew when to be intimidating and she was definitely that.

Intimidating.

From experience, she knows that the only people who can sound as scary as that without raising their voice are people who can follow through with their threats. And with the way the small woman snuck up on her earlier, she can't help but feel thankful that she's still alive.

She disappeared just as quietly as she arrived. In the blink of an eye, Gale Jung was gone. She was really fast.

The shrill sound of her phone ringing and seeing her immediate supervisor's name on the screen snaps her back to reality.

Insp. Ahn: Ahn, KNP.

Insp. Kim: Di, We've got 6 bodies here at Jumong's Palace. Gunshot wounds to the head. It looks to have been a gunfight. Come here to assist.

Insp. Ahn: On it.

She places her phone back in her pocket and thought to herself, "Jumong's Palace. Isn't that where the sisters just came from?", the question stays on her mind as she pulls up at the Resto bar's parking lot.

When she enters at the crime scene, it was busy as hell. Their forensic's team is knee-deep in blood samples, fingerprints and bullet casings.

Inspector Helena Kim is looking at the bullets that they collected, sorted by assuming which gun they came from.

Insp. Kim: Glad you could join us.

Insp. Ahn: Sorry, I was caught up in something. So what do we have here, inspector?

Insp. Kim: One shooter, all head-shot wounds. One bullet per target only. Forensic techs collected 7 bullet casings, though. So there might be a survivor somewhere.

Diana pauses and looks at the c*****e of blood and chalk on the floor. The dead bodies have been removed and are now on gurneys, ready to be taken to the morgue for an autopsy.

Insp. Ahn: Could have been deliberate.

Insp. Kim: What do you mean?

Insp. Ahn: I don't think our shooter misses. All head-shot wounds, see? This means they're that good. If someone survived, I bet they're meant to survive.

Her tone didn't reveal her admiration though. Her gut feeling tells her this is Gale Jung's handiwork, and if she's right, then the small woman she met earlier was really dangerous. The body count itself spoke volumes. The fact that she only needed one bullet for each of her kills was short of amazing.

Not to be conceited herself, but Assistant Inspector Diana Ahn is pretty good with firearms. Her field of expertise is not shooting though, but ballistics.

So in her acute observation, whoever this shooter is, whether it was Gale Jung or not, he or she is pretty good. They don't miss. All the shots were in the middle of the forehead. And as someone who has been handling guns for a few years now, she knows that this shot is extremely hard to pull off, especially if you're being shot at from different angles.

You'd have to have an equal amount of speed, aim, and accuracy.

Insp. Kim: You're right. Let's put out a BOLO for the survivor.

She nods and radioed to dispatch, ordering a BOLO for a gunshot wound survivor.

Looking around the crime scene, she wonders if a 22-year-old woman who just graduated from university with a degree in psychology can truly be capable of such damage.

Gale came home after a few hours, she's been busy all day looking for clues and figuring out which people would be best to get their information from.

Her day ended on a good note, though. She found out something that her sister would definitely appreciate.

She finds her older sister in the kitchen, cooking dinner.

For the longest time, this was their routine. Aster would always be the first one to leave the shop because she cooks dinner for them and they would all gather here at their house to eat together and talk about their day.

It's been a week since conversation at the dinner table died. It died along with Sandy. But tonight, there is an actual need to talk.

Aster: How was your day?

Gale: Took care of that blue. And then I found something interesting about what's happening back home.

Aster: How interesting?

Gale: Interesting enough for someone to have Oppa killed. But I'm having second thoughts about who might have ordered the hit.

Aster: Who ordered the hit can wait, I'm pretty sure I won't be surprised to know who's behind it. What I want right now is to find the one who actually killed him.

Gale: And when we find him?

Aster: Then he'll wish he were dead instead of dealing with me.

There was a hint of menace in what she said, but like Gale, she never raises her voice. She keeps it low and modulated, making her words even scarier because you never know what she means by them.

She puts a plate of food in front of Gale and the younger girl rolls her eyes while picking up her fork.

Aster: Don't roll your eyes at me and eat your vegetables you brat.

Gale groans again and pouts at her older sister.

Gale: But unnieeee...

Aster: Eat. Your. Vegetables.