In a tiny shadowy office that was equivalent to a cubby hole, Shawn sat on the leather chair as the man opposite him stood with his head bowed and hands clasped behind his back. The reason he had them behind his back was that he was worried that the man might just order them to be cut off. After all he had failed in his mission.
Shawn picked up the small knife he had placed on the table and started to play with the blade as he asked in a lethal voice, "Are you telling me that you have failed to find the whereabouts of a mere woman and a small child. Detective Hyo,I told you when you took on this mission that of you failed, you would have to face fire consequences. And you were the one who assured me that you were the best in your field. Yet, here we are. If you have failed in such a simple mission, I guess you need to leave the place of the best for someone else, don't you?"
Detective Hyo controlled the shiver of fright that ran through him and said, "Sir, it has been two years since Miss Xue has gone missing and I have started investigating the case only three months ago. The leads have gone cold or have been tangled by previous investigators. I would request you to please give me some more time! I firmly believe that we will be able to catch them soon. Please sir."
Shawn raised an eyebrow, impressed at the man who was still able to speak so eloquently when under threat. Stopping his knife play, he smiled a sinister smile," Detective Hyo, I am not an unreasonable man. Since you have plead for time, I will give you that . But let me tell you, I hate liars. If in fifteen days you have not handed me the information I need, I will cut your tongue out and hand it to you. Fifteen days."
His warning given, Shawn walked out of the office. Once outside, he lighted a cigarette and took out a cell phone. Dragging in some smoke, he blew it out while he waited for the other person to answer the call. Once the phone was answered, without any greeting, he ordered into the phone. "Kill the woman. And make it so horrible that all the national news channels and media must cover it. You already have the things that you need to implicate the person. I want this done tomorrow."
The other party gave a curt, "Yes." and disconnected the call.
Walking to his car, Shawn took out a white handkerchief and placed the cell phone on it before spraying it with some Alcohol spray, and then threw the phone and the handkerchief into a near-by bin and then drove away.
That night:
A woman was walking through the dark streets towards her home. With a happy smile and a spring in her step, she looked forward to the date tonight. Her boy friend of two years was going to propose to her tonight. Of course he was not the one who had told her but his friend and her co worker had mistakenly let the cat out of the bag.
She had a habit of leaving a small light in her bedroom switched on but tonight it was turned off. Under normal circumstances, Heng Ci would not have dared to go inside and would have rather waited for someone to accompany her but this time, she ignored any misgivings and entered the building to go to her apartment.
Ringing the bell, she moved onto the balls of her heels and waited for the door to be opened. The door opened and in front of her stood a man whose face was not visible as he held a big bouquet of red roses in front of him. Squealing in excitement, Heng Ci walked into her apartment and held the bouquet of roses into her arms and sniffed happily. But the moment she sniffed, a distinctively unpleasant smell invaded her senses making her head spin. She looked up to ask her boyfriend where he had got the roses but she realized she could not speak. She felt herself lose control of her body and stared in horror at the man who stood grinning in front of her even as she fell face first onto the floor.
The man shook his head and started to speak. Finally, the boss has finished off my punishment. Listening to your silly chatter for two years has been enough for me Heng Ci, even though you are a good lay. Now, since you can hear me, let me tell you that tonight you are going to die. And I am sure that you are wondering why you have this fate, correct? Well, you see you have offended someone you shouldn't have and the only reason you still lived was because you had some use. But now you have lost that use and now we need to fish out the real prey. You will be used as a bait so you don't have to worry that your death will be in vain. You should not have helped Xue Qian escape with Xue Min. When you went against Shawn, your timer of death started to run and now it has come to an end. But since you have given me many nights of pleasure, I will not hit you and beat you. But I am sorry to say that since you have burnt my ears with incessant chatter, I will let you feel the burns. Goodbye Heng Ci."
The next morning, every newspaper was filled with the details of a woman who had been battered and burnt to death in her sleep.