Chapter Text
Yunho walked into the dining room of the house and the rancid stench filled his nostrils so quickly he failed to keep from coughing. He blinked the tears out of his eyes and he didn’t need to wait for them to clear to know they were too late. A few days too late at that, if the smell was anything to go by.
The family had been sitting down to enjoy dinner before the incident occurred, except they never had the chance to take a bite. The father and children (one brother, two sisters) had been shot from behind. The forensics team said that the mother, on the other hand, had been shot in the front by one bullet which missed its mark, and then put out of her misery from behind by a different gun; the same one that had killed the other four. While the other four had looks of shock on their face, the mother had one of sympathy. She had known the offender. At the head of the table there was a second male child, who had been shot by the same gun that had brought down the mother...and everyone else for that matter.
“This kid has something to do with all of this,” Yunho remarked, trying to look for any hints he missed. “Does anyone have an I.D. on him?”
The forensics team shuffled around him while one of the men on his own team spoke up to answer his question. “That is - was - Choi Minho. The curious thing about him, though, is he was reported missing.”
“When?”
“Eight months ago. And he was never found. Until now, of course.”
Yunho sat in thought. “This is a pattern,” he said aloud after several minutes. “The Cho family also had a missing son, didn’t they? Kyuhyun?”
“Yes, sir, but Kyuhyun wasn’t found on the scene.”
Yunho rolled his eyes, “Well, of course he wasn’t. His mother only had one gunshot wound to the head. He did his job thoroughly. Minho didn’t. They were made to dispose of them, not to grant mercy, and Minho was taken care of accordingly.” He stood up straight and crossed his arms before continuing. “Kyuhyun is still out there. Has anyone heard anything about him?”
The forensics team had been listening into the conversation and were distracted from their jobs while the two cops talked between each other.
“Yes,” Yunho’s partner said quietly. “He was last seen two hours ago in a convenience store not too far from here, There was another kid with him and an unidentified man.”
“Who’s the kid?”
“Shim Changmin. He was also reported missing...six months ago.”
“And where do the Shims live?”
“About three hours from here.”
Yunho cursed under his breath. “Well, what are you still standing here for? Let’s go.”
“Sir?”
“The Shims are next, and if we don’t leave now we could have another crime scene on our hands. Let’s go.”
When they got there, the house was empty. The team searched it top to bottom, but there was nothing. On Yunho’s signal, they proceeded to the backyard, which is where they found what they were looking for.
Kyuhyun and Changmin were standing side by side, Kyuhyun had his gun trained on the Shim family, who screamed in shock. So much for a family reunion.
One of Yunho’s men shot Kyuhyun in the shoulder, and the boy let out a shout, but he dropped the gun. Changmin fled, his gun still in hand, and Yunho pursued him, being the only one who noticed. Once they were far enough away, Changmin whipped around and aimed his gun at Yunho, who stopped dead in his tracks and aimed his own gun, but for him it was an empty threat. His partner caught up with him, and Yunho held up his hand. “Don’t shoot!”
He turned his attention to Changmin and stopped aiming his gun at the boy, holding it in the air where he could see it. “It’s okay, Changmin, put the gun down. You’re home now. It’s okay. Just put it down.”
A man with a gun came up behind Changmin. “Do it,” he muttered. This must have been the unidentified man the kids were traveling with.
Changmin didn’t pull the trigger, but his gaze and aim didn’t waver.
“Changmin,” Yunho repeated, his voice bordering on pleading. He slowly went down on his knees and put his gun on the ground, kneeling there with both hands in the air. “Please. It’s okay. You’ll be okay.”
The man standing behind Changmin kept urging him on, and the Yunho’s partner fired. Yunho gasped, closing his eyes, terrified of what he’d see when he opened them. When he did, slowly but surely, Changmin was still standing, but the man behind him was not. He was on the ground, blood pooling from a gunshot wound in his should. Yunho let out a huge sigh of relief.
Yunho hopped into his car, Changmin sitting in the backseat. He didn’t buckle up or start the car. He wanted to talk to him with no one else around to interfere.
Changmin stared at him, face blank, but eyes swimming with questions. “Can I go home?” he finally asked after a few minutes.
Yunho looked at him sadly, shaking his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t think you can go home for a while.” Changmin drew his shoulders forward, as if he were trying to close in on himself. “You came here to kill your family,” Yunho continued. “That’s all the information we have, and it may be the only thing they believe.”
Tears brimmed in Changmin’s eyes, and Yunho saw them, despite the kid looking down to try and hide them. “I wasn’t going to.”
“Well,” Yunho tried to keep his voice soft, with the least amount of Scary Cop Guy in it as possible, “you’re going to have to talk to a lot of people about it. Maybe they can help you understand what you wanted to do.”
“That man you shot... He told me that they weren’t my family. That they didn’t care. He said that he had saved me from them and that he would be my family. Do you have a family?”
Yunho shook his head. “I don’t have kids, no.”
“You wouldn’t get it, then.” Changmin looked around before finally looking at Yunho again. “Can I talk to my parents?”
Yunho nodded. “Yes, but you have to talk to me first.”
Changmin sighed, but he nodded in understanding. “Where do I start?”