Chapter 7: Chapter 6: Information about the seven victims

August returned to the station around eleven. As his subordinates greeted the young inspector, they also frowned in confusion. Who was the young man carrying his bag and following the inspector?

“Has Lieutenant Khem returned yet?”

“Not yet, Inspector.”

“If you come back, please inform me.”

"Understood."

August walked to his own office. When he sat down at the table, the young man following him also sat down on the sofa. How many times did Thup yawn? He still didn't sleep, and in addition, all morning, he was dragged everywhere, having to face several terrifying events. His body began to feel exhausted, and he wasn't going to be able to take it anymore.

“Inspector, can I sleep here, in front of you?”

"Do what you want."

“Thank you,” Thup bowed his head before leaning back on the couch. He lay on his side and turned to look at whoever was working with a serious expression, flipping through papers and staring at the computer screen. He just looked at it for about half an hour, until his eyelids slowly closed.

Singha heard steady breathing, looked up and saw the problem child sleeping peacefully. A pair of sharp eyes turned around. Looking again at the document in his hand and the email sent from the cloud, he tried to compare the similarities and differences in the patterns of the cases between ten years ago, five years ago, and the case happening now. If I were to only think about the killer choosing his victims based on their religion, he would have to be careful across the country so that the victims were not his target. August looked back at the young man lying on the sofa with a soft gaze.

Previously, Thup had said that as a child, he had seen spirits that resembled the murder victims. If true, a case like this may have happened before.

As much as another ten years ago, or not?

He picked up the black phone and called Mek again, after a while, he heard the voice at the end of the line.

[Now what do you need?]

“Has something like this happened before?”

[What are you talking about?]

“The seven murders, have you ever had a case like this before?”

[Wait a moment.] He heard the sound of the keyboard and after a while, the voice on the other end of the line rang again once. [There was a similar case fifteen years ago, but that time the criminal was captured.]

Singha was surprised. “Where did the incident occur that time? And who was the culprit?”

[It happened in Phuket, the culprit was a fisherman. His DNA was found on one of the deceased's fingernails. There was also DNA that matched the rope used in the murder. When the incident occurred five years later, investigators concluded it was a copycat. But the culprit has not been caught yet.] Singha frowned until they almost came together into a bun. The more he thought about it, the stranger the whole thing seemed to him.

“Send me all the details. It may all be related to this case.”

[Maybe, but you better be careful. In both cases there were officers who died in unexpected accidents. And since the case was not closed, no one dared to continue investigating.]

“Um, just send me the information.” Then he asked the name of the prison where the criminal from fifteen years ago was.

[Okay, I will inform the commander.]

"Thank you." August hung up the phone before looking at the photo again. “Murder, imitation.”

The young inspector muttered to himself. He looked at all the information he had before letting out a sigh. All information currently available is offline. A murder from fifteen years ago was investigated by police to its conclusion. But the boy said he saw a similar spirit when he was just a child.

Murders occur every five years.

The crime scene changes every five years.

The inspector immediately got up and woke up the young man who was sleeping on the couch.

“Thup, hey Thup.” A strong hand hit the young man's arm without restraint. Thup woke up.

"Yes Yes."

“You said you saw the ghost of a woman in your childhood. “At what age was that?”

“I remember it since I can remember. I was probably five years old. Inspector, why do you ask?”

At five years old, I was five years old...

Singha spoke in circles making Thup have to listen carefully.

And where was he then?

“Krisaket.” When he received August's response, he returned to his desk. Once again, he took all the papers out of the folder and printer before putting them away, and began to organize them. Thup sat and watched the young inspector begin to paste everything on a large whiteboard. He looked with wide, shining eyes, because now it was something different from anything he had ever known.

“Newborn in the central region. Five years ago, the North. Ten years ago, the southern region. It is speculated that there may have been previous incidents in the Northeast region. The detained criminal continues to serve his sentence in prison until now. Previously, the murders happened in Phuket. He never moved anywhere. He has no history of traveling anywhere else, including transportation. Planes and railways.”

Suddenly, Singha stopped talking before muttering what he thought: “Then he might not be the first to cause the crime.”

The young inspector went to get his own coat and tried to leave the room, but was grabbed by the arm by the young man who was sitting there.

“Inspector, where are you going? Sir, can I come with you?”

"Stay here."

“But…” the figure looked towards the door, remembering the previous event that had happened. Not even a day had passed and the door hadn't even been replaced.

It will happen no matter what.

August turned to look at the door, and this time he saw a shadow pass by. The shadow became lighter and lighter, until the footprints were seen. Thup's hand tightened on Singha's arm, squeezing without realizing it.

Knock Knock knock.

“Inspector, I'm back.”

Lieutenant Khem's voice came from the other side of the door, causing the two to sigh together. Singha broke free of the young man's grip, before opening the door with an annoyed expression on his face.

“We already have all the information about the victims, we are ready to give you a report.”

Singha left the room without looking back. As for Thup himself, he looked at his broad back with melancholy eyes.

"Come with me."

"I can go?"

“Let's hear all the information now,” Singha said, motioning to Lieutenant Khem, as he called to Thup to walk together.

The investigation team met in front of a board to give the report to the lieutenant, who was in charge. On the board there were photographs of the deceased and various published information. The atmosphere became more serious and they quickly began to summarize all the documents so that the inspector could listen to them.

“Would you like to start now, Sergeant?”

"Yes sir. The first house we went to was that of the eighteen-year-old male victim. His name was Ji Rayu or James. He lived with his family of four, father, mother, older sister. He was the youngest. The house functions as a flower shop. He disappeared last week. The last time the family saw him. He told them he was going to a friend's birthday party. After that, he didn't come back. “A missing person report has already been filed.” Lieutenant Khem was the one who began telling the story of the first victim.

“The second case is a fifteen-year-old male. His name is Field Marshal, he lived with his grandmother. The young man had part-time jobs that he did after school. Normally, he was hired to wash dishes or for general work. The last time they saw him was six days ago. “He told grandma that he was hired by a garland seller.”

“The third is Mr. Phakaphong, Inspector.” Singha nodded before recounting the information he gathered.

“Age: thirty years. Name: Mr. Phakphong or Min. She was a transgender person, she worked as a car salesperson. I lived alone. He had been renting the house for six months. Her neighbor said she had last seen her a day before finding her body. “The deceased reported that he was going to the temple before going to work, but he never returned home.” Singha summarized all the information before handing over to the next person to speak.

“The next victim is a fifteen-year-old woman named Orawan or On. She is the most beloved daughter of the family. His parents said he had disappeared from home after announcing that he was going to visit friends, as he did regularly. The last time they saw her alive was five days ago.”

“The next one is a man, nineteen years old, named Mr. Chanin. When we went to ask about him, his father told us that he was a naughty child and often went to a friend's house and did not return home for weeks, so he did not pay attention to his disappearance, because he himself was rarely there. at home because of his job as a truck driver. When I asked a neighbor, he said the last time he saw him was when he picked up some things and came out with a bag. “That was four days ago.”

“The fifth victim is a thirty-year-old man named Thanakorn Tee, who currently lives alone in Ban Suan. We already informed his family abroad, when we asked the neighbors, they said that the deceased went to the temple every day to do merits for his wife and that he did not talk much. The neighbor had not seen him for three days.”

"Latest. The ten-year-old female victim and Nong Kotchakorn or Kaew. He lives with his mother, who owns a religious goods store. The family reported that their daughter disappeared two days ago. “A missing person report has also been filed.”

“And the killer released the bodies seven days later,” Singha said.

"As?" Lieutenant Khem turned suspiciously because he didn't know what the leader was referring to. "What are you talking about?"

“The murderer worked a total of seven days.”

"Hey!"

The four police officers who were sitting began frantically flipping through the documents in their notebooks, while Singha stood up and walked to stand in front of the board.

“James has been missing for seven days. Field disappeared six days ago. On was gone five days ago, Chain was gone four days ago, Tee three days ago. Kaew disappeared two days ago. And Min disappeared yesterday. It is possible that each person was murdered on the day they disappeared, and only yesterday the bodies were taken to be hung at the site. Thus, the crime was completed in a total of eight days.”

August used the ending to slap his cheek and vent the frustration in his heart. Before turning around and slamming both hands on the table, causing a loud noise to echo throughout the room . “Eight days in which no one cared. Eight… and the police couldn't do anything.”

Everyone was silent. Not because they are being scolded, but because they think so too. How can a criminal commit a crime day after day without anyone bothering to investigate?

“Ask for a search warrant for the flower shop, and for each victim's home. Also for the houses of their friends whom they frequented. “I want search warrants for everyone.”

“Understood sir.”

“Have the autopsy results arrived yet?”

“Inspector, Dr. Say said that since there are seven victims, he will need more time.”

“Okay, when they are ready, give them to me. Now, everyone get back to work.”

The group dispersed. Singha turned his back on the table and looked at the board in front of him. Another thing similar to the murder that occurred five years ago was the time period of the crime. It took seven days to kill the victims. And then one day camouflaging, anyway.

"Inspector." Thup, who had been listening and watching everything from the corner of the room, stood up, and walked over, standing next to August, feeling tense. “What about the temple?”

"What's wrong with it?" Singha asked, without turning to look at him.

“Well, the shop where Film goes to sell garlands is probably near the temple, the temple where I used to live with Luang Pu also has a shop like that. Khun Min said he would go to the temple before going to work. Khun Thee was always going to make merits for his wife. It must be in the temple, right? And Nong Kaew, his house is a shop that sells offerings for monks, so it's probably close to the temple too.” The young man said pointing to the photos of each victim and August looked at them.

He then took the investigation report file and looked at it again before taking a pen from the whiteboard and writing down each location. His sharp eyebrows knitted together, and then he walked to the computer and typed in the location of each victim, while letting the system process, Singha raised his head and looked at Thop with a calm look. Previously, when he reviewed the images from the CCTV camera of the condominium, the place where the young man lives, he found that last week, he had only gone out to buy incense sticks once, on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. and returned to the condominium. Another day, he took a taxi at 3:00 p.m. In addition, he sometimes saw him taking out the trash, and only once did he see him go downstairs to receive an item from a delivery. The last image was from yesterday, when he left the condominium, just as he said when giving his statement. According to circumstantial evidence, no matter how you look at it, he definitely had not committed any crime. Singha looked at the computer screen again before standing up, grabbing him by his shirt and dragging him out of the room. The young man was trying to keep up with him, and opened his mouth to ask the other person.

“Mr. Inspector, where are we going?”

"To home."

"Yeah?"

“I'll go back and change cars. Do you want to wait for me here or will we go together?” August asked, and walked away still dragging him by the collar of his shirt.

“If you want to go with me, then shut up and keep up.” Thup nodded nervously even though the person in front of him wasn't looking at him.

The two approached the same motorcycle. This time, the young man put on the helmet alone. He did everything quickly so as not to be scolded. August was wearing a completely black helmet, and he did not take his eyes off the young man. Even though the boy in front of him seemed shy, short-tempered and sometimes annoying, he already considered him a quick learner and no less observant. If I didn't tell the story of seeing ghosts, what benefit would there be? I would just wait to receive the results of the forensic pathology fingerprint examination, and let him go.

The large motorcycle crossed the town, until it parked in front of a large white detached house. Singha pressed the remote control, and the garage door opened.

"Wait here." After entering the house, Thup secretly observed very carefully. The inspector's house was as expected. I didn't see ghosts there.

There were two cars parked in the area in front of the house. There were no trees or bushes, just a cement floor. Looking at it, it was clear that the young inspector probably didn't have time to deal with it, so he simply poured concrete. Walking a little deeper into the house, he discovered that the interior was decorated like a model home. There was a floor lamp that still had the plastic covering it.

“Why are you looking inside my house like that?” August came out with the car keys in his hand.

“Come on, get in the car.”

"Which?"

"The black."

The completely black BMW 14 is August's vehicle of choice at that time, instead of the motorcycle he usually uses. The young man climbed into the passenger seat, and was slightly startled when the car started moving.

When they left the house, Singha drove directly to the intended location. Thup tried to strike up a conversation even though he knew what he would get in return could be a glare, a glare, or a sarcastic comment.

“Inspector, do you know where we need to go?”

“Mmm,” Singha replied.

"Where? Can I ask?"

"You will see."

“Oh, weren't we going to the temple? Because what we just passed was a temple.” Singha glanced at Thup from the corner of his eye. But when he saw that the boy sitting next to him was looking at him with innocent eyes, he chose to swallow all the insults that rose up in his throat.

“All the victims, before the seven disappeared, were located in the same area. And in that area there was only one temple.”

“When we get there, can I wait in the car?”

"Because?"

Well, no matter that it was a temple, there were not always auspicious things there.