"No, no, no, please don't misunderstand. We can't offer any guarantees. After all, everyone is responsible for their own actions."
The heavily made-up Korean woman waved her hands in fear. "What do you want to know? I won't hide anything, absolutely nothing."
The Korean Peninsula is primarily composed of mountains and hills, with relatively few plains. The overall terrain is high in the northeast and low in the southwest. Compared to its northern neighbor, the cosmic superpower has slightly more flat land, but only slightly.
Precisely because of this topography, the Korean Peninsula has historically been a barren land. After all, with so little arable land, it's difficult to grow much food.
This poverty is reflected in every aspect of life, including food, clothing, housing, and transportation. Take, for example, the modern replica of a Korean house that Aubrey and Alice rented to experience local culture.
It's a miniature courtyard house, with green tiles and white walls reminiscent of the ancient architecture of Jiangnan, China. Several small bedrooms feature small couches barely knee-high, with mattresses placed on top to serve as beds.
Jack could only be thankful they weren't renting a traditional Korean house, but a modern imitation of a guesthouse. Remember, in a traditional Korean house, people sleep on the floor.
Aubrey and Alice had set up the open main hall as a conference room. A portable LCD screen sat on a TV stand, its replacement, the TV, relegated to a corner against the wall.
In the center of the hall stood a small square table, an electric hot pot plugged in, bubbling with army stew. The aroma of kimchi and soybean paste filled the courtyard.
Honestly, Spam and instant noodles were a pleasant treat every now and then. It reminded him of the time in his college life when he rode the green-skinned train and someone's instant noodles filled the train with a fragrant aroma.
Jack wasn't so mean as to ask his companions about the origins of army stew. Seoul was, after all, the capital of a nation, a major global power whose economy was primarily based on foreign trade.
While recent economic downturns had hindered urban development, there was still plenty of international cuisine, especially authentic Asian fare.
When they have some free time later, we'll go for a walk around the streets. He'll lead everyone to enjoy East Asian cuisine just by smell.
Of course, if Jiejie and Hannah want to try Korean traditional attire, Jack absolutely recommends the authentic "Chigori" style. (Good boy, don't search.)
Unfortunately, the partitions in this Korean house are made of thin wooden planks, so the soundproofing is terrible. Even a fart in your room can be heard by the neighbors next door. I guess I'll have to wait until the case is closed and move to a high-end hotel to experience this Korean atmosphere again.
Jubal and his three companions headed to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency almost at the same time as Jack and his group. After a long day of work, everyone was already starving, and the room was filled with the sound of slurping noodles.
After filling their stomachs, Jack brewed some Pu'er tea for everyone to help with the greasiness. This is the most readily available Chinese tea in Korea.
In contrast, so-called Korean "traditional tea" is so bizarre that it practically contains everything except tea leaves, from traditional Chinese medicines like pine needles, schisandra chinensis, mugwort strips, and kudzu root to nearly every kind of fruit and even corn silk. It could easily be enjoyed as a dessert or sweet drink.
Alice unloaded her laptop and placed it on the cleared table. Everyone began discussing the case information they'd gathered that day. Clay first recounted the findings from the autopsy room. Jubal sighed and placed a file on the table.
"Jack's previous diagnosis was correct. This is indeed the work of a serial killer. Two weeks ago, the body of a young British woman named Barbara Walker was found in a garbage dump outside Seoul."
"Blonde hair, 24 years old. Although the body was severely decomposed, the autopsy report did mention signs of facial trauma." Jiejie raised her hand to slightly shield her eyes, forcing herself to ignore the gruesome photos of the scene.
Jack casually flipped through the report, focusing on the police investigation. They suspected the garbage dump wasn't the primary site of the body dump, and the garbage truck's route happened to include several garbage collection points near Itaewon.
"Why didn't the Korean police connect these two cases?" Aubrey found it inconceivable.
If these cases occurred in two different states in the United States, it would be perfectly normal for them not to be linked without alerting the FBI.
But Seoul, the capital of South Korea, had two similar murders of foreigners occurred in quick succession, and no one in the Korean police had noticed the similarities. How could this be?
"Perhaps it's because the two cases were handled by different prosecutors, and these two prosecutors don't communicate with each other." Jack briefly explained South Korea's bizarre prosecutorial system to everyone.
He then provided Alice with a name and asked her to look up information about him. This was what they had learned from the foreign teacher agency this afternoon.
"According to Mrs. Thomas, Jessica Townsend usually keeps a low profile, but she recently filed a formal complaint against a man named Grayson Faber.
They had been dating briefly, but after they broke up, Grayson Faber continued to pursue her, and Jessica Townsend requested that he be transferred to another school.
Mrs. Thomas took a conciliatory approach, saying she personally spoke with Grayson Faber and issued a very stern warning."
Regardless of Aubrey and Alice's taste in choosing their accommodation, they did meet Jubal's requirements: the internet speed here is quite good.
A photo soon appeared on the screen, and the sharp-eyed Hannah recognized it instantly. "Isn't that the guy who harassed Jessica at the nightclub?"
Alice's fingers tapped away at the keyboard, a dizzying array of windows popping up. "It must be him. I just hacked into the Dawnland server and confirmed that Jessica Townsend and Grayson Faber do teach at the same school.
But a month ago, Jessica blocked him on all her social media accounts and deleted a lot of content, including photos of the two of them together."
"What nationality is this Grayson Faber? Can we look up his background information?" Jubal asked quickly.
"American. Give me ten minutes. Connecting to the domestic database here is a bit troublesome," Alice replied, her eyes fixed on the screen.
Everyone took this opportunity to clear the tableware and the remaining army stew. Honestly, the smell was a bit nauseating after a full meal.
After clearing the table, Alice's background check was complete.
"Grayson Faber, 25, from Tallahassee, Florida. No criminal record, but there's a police record showing he was questioned for assaulting his girlfriend with a gun handle, but he wasn't arrested."
"Sounds like he has a motive, and a criminal record. Any idea how to find him?" Clay said, eager to try.
"He still teaches at that school, and here's his rental address."
Clay, gripping his iPhone with a new SIM card, looked troubled. The address Alice had sent him was in Korean, and besides the Arabic numerals, he couldn't recognize anything.
He copied it directly into Google Maps, and the barrage of similar results made him even more confused.
"Looks like we need a local guide," Jack said. Kim Junho clearly had no plans to lead the way himself.
After receiving Jubal's call, he said someone would contact them early the next morning.
It was getting late, and everyone had been on the transport plane for most of the day. The cabin was noisy, and they hadn't gotten enough rest due to the jet lag, so Jack suggested they go to bed early.
The next morning, Jubal's phone rang. A deep, deep voice introduced himself as a detective from the Wide Area Investigation Team. He and the FBI had arranged to meet at Exit 2 of Noksapyeong Station on Seoul Subway Line 6.
(End of this chapter)