The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 100

I hurriedly moved with steps quickened by excitement, mulling over the countless things I wanted to say to Prosecutor Joo. The sentences I wanted to convey were so tangled up in my head that it was overwhelming, but when I finally went up to the prosecutor’s office and saw him sitting at his desk, only one thing came to mind.

“Prosecutor, thank you.”

I bowed my head in greeting. Prosecutor Joo looked up at me while sliding a blue rubber thimble onto his finger.

“I’ve done the thing I despise most in the world, yet hearing your appreciation, Officer Lee, makes me feel no regret.”

Of course he wouldn’t. Given Prosecutor Joo’s character, he wasn’t the type of person who would solicit investigative favors from another prosecutor while living his life as one.

“…I know. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not as if you asked for it, Officer Lee, so what are you sorry for? It was me being swayed by my own emotions. I just told them to investigate it as it is.”

“I know.”

I caught my breath for a moment before answering.

“That should be enough.”

“I’ve done something I never usually do, so it had better be.”

…Something he never usually does.

Suddenly, a remark of his I had forgotten—one I hadn’t been able to interpret at the time—popped into my head:

“Well. You make me do things I don’t usually do from time to time.”

I gripped my fingers, which were hanging helplessly in the air, tightly.

Prosecutor Joo’s eyes, which had been fixed on me, turned toward the monitor. He flinched for a moment and then gestured.

“The results are in.”

I approached him immediately, thinking it would be better to check together before Chief Song and Officer No, who were away, returned. I rested my hands on the desk and peered at the monitor with him.

He opened the email sent from the National Forensic Service and opened the attached analysis reports one by one. As I read through the contents, goosebumps rose along my arms and neck.

The results could be summarized as follows:

— The methamphetamine found at the motel matched the methamphetamine component found in Oh Jahyeon’s blood. It is safe to consider them the same drug.

— DNA was discovered as a result of slicing the glove and examining the cut surface.

— The DNA was not found in the ex-convict database.

His black eyes, beginning to glow with heat, looked up at me.

“It’s certain that Koryo-in Mr. Kim and Oh Jahyeon had a deal. He must have siphoned off the drugs.”

“Judging by the circumstances, that seems certain. Otherwise, there would be no reason for him to hide them at the Yonggung Motel, which is on the opposite side of the casino.”

“She wouldn’t have stayed still, given Oh Jahyeon’s personality. If the glove was used by an accomplice who helped abandon the body, it will be helpful when we narrow down the suspects. I’ll request a Y-STR test.”

“The result will only come if the surname is rare…. I really hope it does.”

“Prosecutor Yoon Gyuho will proceed with the request for the search and seizure warrant and the arrest warrant for Oh Jahyeon.”

“Prosecutor Yoon?”

“Connect the dots with Lee Gilyoung in the middle. If we make a slight mistake, Officer Lee could become an interested party. I think it’s better to proceed in cooperation with Prosecutor Yoon.”

“Prosecutor Yoon, but isn’t his younger sister… Prosecutor Yoon Soyeon?”

“That’s right. Where did you hear that?”

“Just….”

“‘Just,’ you say. You must have looked into it, Officer Lee. That’s why Prosecutor Yoon has the motivation to dig into people like those from Osong, just like us, and at the same time, he isn’t an interested party. He’s perfect to be a chess piece in this case.”

A chess piece. It was a rather cold-sounding metaphor. Even if that hadn’t been Prosecutor Joo’s intention.

Suddenly, a small question sprouted: was I, too, nothing more than a chess piece to Prosecutor Joo? I had only briefly thought that I might just be a chess piece, but other words I couldn’t say to him surged up, pushing against my chest bones and the inside of my throat.

‘You said you didn’t have feelings for me, that I’m someone you shouldn’t be good to, so why did you want to take revenge in my place?’

It was a question I couldn’t ask, fearing he might distance himself from me. At times, I was captivated by the hope that I had won his heart, but then I would collapse again whenever I thought about his attitude when we had sex. I was confused about the feelings Joo Taeson held for me.

I habitually swallowed the abrasive words and asked something completely different.

“Then, what happens after the warrant request?”

“We need to meet a witness. Oh Mihyeon.”

“Oh Mihyeon, you mean….”

“The current Chair of Osong and Oh Jahyeon’s older sister. They say her father, the Honorary Chair of Osong, is unable to speak properly after collapsing from a stroke, so I must call Oh Jahyeon’s sister in as a witness and ask about her sister.”

“If it’s her sister, she might know who would help Oh Jahyeon.”

“Exactly.”

Prosecutor Joo fell into thought for a moment before parting his lips.

“Officer Lee, but why is the nicotine bothering me?”

“Nicotine?”

“He wouldn’t have been able to smoke on the plane, so the fact that the levels were that high… and the needle mark on his neck, too.”

Prosecutor Joo had been bothered by the high nicotine levels from the beginning. And the needle mark. I had merely speculated that perhaps Koryo-in Mr. Kim hadn’t been able to smoke for a long time after entering the country.

“I will think about it as well.”

Prosecutor Joo stared intently at me as I answered. Just as the silence stretched to the point of feeling awkward, his firmly closed lips parted.

“Officer Lee, shall we talk on the rooftop for a moment?”

“Yes.”

“I have something to ask about Lee Gilyoung. If you don’t mind, Officer Lee.”

We had become close enough that I could tell his gaze was different from usual. For some reason, unlike his usual self, Prosecutor Joo seemed to be hesitating.

Could it be that he was going to pressure me by asking about my father? Or did he now want to criticize me again for being the child of a murderer?

Whenever my father’s name came out of someone else’s mouth, I had never once been comforted. I had simply become the punching bag in place of my dead father.

Perhaps that was why, strangely, I couldn’t think of any other possibilities.

I nodded slowly, concealing my fear, and he rose from his seat.

My doubts had begun to waver because of Lee Chaeha.

‘Isn’t it too similar to the grandmother’s stabbing case with the awl?’

When Lee Chaeha asked that, I knew what his eyes were asking me.

‘It even imitated the fact that it was a crime of grudge rather than a contract killing.’

He hadn’t stepped any further than that, so as not to hurt my feelings—at least to prevent the recreation of the situation where we had bumped into each other on the playground. Though it had been a short time, the result of working side-by-side was that Lee Chaeha was a person who was cautious, unlike his age. It was clearly a personality molded and sculpted by a difficult life.

Therefore, although Lee Chaeha hadn’t asked, I understood the question he wanted to ask perfectly:

‘Prosecutor, the murder of President Kang Woosung and the grandmother. Isn’t this the work of the same culprit, not Lee Gilyoung?’

Of course, I was prepared with an answer to that question. Whoever said what, I was the one who had thought about this case longer.

‘It is not rare for others to imitate successful murder methods. Since it was a successful job from the perpetrator’s perspective.’

I had believed that the whole time. Moreover, I had known for a long time that the perpetrator had pressed the password to enter. There was no reason to think the perpetrator could be someone else. I hadn’t known Lee Gilyoung, and I had misunderstood Lee Chaeha for several years. I had believed he was a human who, despite having such a father, held his head high and lived well without having lost a single thing.

That was why I had intentionally avoided other possibilities even while investigating the murder of Kang Woosung and collecting evidence. I hadn’t had the slightest intention of thinking in a direction favorable to Lee Gilyoung. It was the investigative method of setting the answer beforehand—the very method Lee Chaeha had criticized—but I was convinced that for the Lee Gilyoung and Oh Jahyeon cases, a certain aggressiveness—digging in with persistence and obsession—was more necessary than an impartial gaze.

Because I was the only one paying attention to those two.

One, a dead man; the other, a living, wealthy woman.

However, the more I learned about Lee Chaeha, and the more we pondered the case together, the more I couldn’t shake off the reasonable doubts surfacing in my mind. Suspicion is an essence of mine that I cannot reject.

“Officer Lee, shall we talk on the rooftop for a moment?”

A small light of concern gathered in his clear, smooth eyes as he nodded obediently. I wondered if he was worried because I often scolded him for work-related issues, but Lee Chaeha would soon realize that wasn’t the issue. Since this wasn’t the place to talk, we headed up to the rooftop of the district office together.