The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 103

Apart from Lee Chaeha, individuals who could properly understand what was being said were thoroughly rare. Although he too would occasionally say something oblivious outside of work, his understanding when it came to tasks was sharp and precise.

Sighing deeply, I snatched the documents he was holding, tossed them onto the table with a thud, and sat down on the sofa. Prosecutor Yoon followed my lead and planted his hips on the opposite side.

“I have no interest in promotions. Since I don’t care about that, I care even less about other people’s advancement in life.”

“Then….”

“What I want is revenge. That’s why I’m letting Prosecutor Yoon in on this.”

“…Just with this? If it’s a charge of violating the Narcotics Control Act and abandoning a body against Oh Jahyeon, the sentencing won’t come out very large at the court of first instance. It won’t even be ten years.”

“I told you. I haven’t revealed all my cards yet. Leave the interrogation to me. I have the confidence to smash her to pieces at the end.”

Because Yoon Gyuho did not know the full context of the suspicions that Lee Chaeha and I shared, he seemed to look upon my assurance with somewhat a lack of trust. He detested Oh Jahyeon, but he remained in a state of not knowing the circumstances indicating that she might have committed serial murders.

I turned the topic elsewhere. This time, there was information I needed to extract.

“That person outside, he’s the president of World Laundromat, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Is the investigation going well? Anything strange?”

Normally, one doesn’t share information regarding an investigation, but Yoon Gyuho was a person who was somewhat far from observing principles. That was probably why the late Prosecutor Yoon Soyeon had opened up about her worries to me instead of her twin brother. Whether it was because of that memory, or because Lee Chaeha had asked on the rooftop whether he was a person who could really be trusted, such a trait of Yoon Gyuho’s bothered me anew.

Prosecutor Yoon crossed his legs and rubbed his chin, lost in thought for a moment, before maintaining a reasonably cautious expression and parting his lips.

“There are all too many points of suspicion. The materials to prove them are sufficient as well. Even though it’s done in a slipshod manner, it’s to the extent that I wonder how he could have embezzled money like that. There are also circumstances of pocketing money from employees’ wages, so if we gather all the remaining offenses and indict him, I think we can still demand up to five years.”

“Any strange points besides the points of suspicion? The case tied up with the casino.”

“Unexpectedly, nothing much is coming up with the casino. Rather, it’s only filled with lobbying other clients and making unfair bids.”

Lobbying every client while remaining clean with the casino, which was the biggest customer—it did not make sense.

As that point was exceedingly strange, I kept a separate light bulb turned on in my head.

“By the way, isn’t Lee Chaeha the name of the investigator in Pro Joo’s prosecutor’s office?”

Surprised by the unexpected name, I pulled my back away from where it was leaning against the sofa. In the brief moment I suspected whether he had committed some strange act under Lee Chaeha’s name, my heart pulsed hugely, striking my breastbone hard. The heart is an organ whose presence or absence can normally hardly be felt, at least by me, but lately the times I confirmed its existence were becoming noticeably frequent.

The starting point for all of it is Lee Chaeha.

“Why. Is there some circumstance where Officer Lee is involved?”

“No, it’s not like that. Traces of depositing money into the bank account kept appearing, so when I checked, it was his nephew. The amount isn’t to a degree that would become a problem. But the investigator recognized that the investigator’s name was the name of the investigator in Pro Joo’s prosecutor’s office.”

“Keep your mouth shut.”

“He’s a tight-lipped person.”

“Don’t trust people.”

“Because I’m not a cold-blooded person like you.”

“Send the transaction details to me. Let me check the deposit history.”

“What are you going to do by checking that. Are you two close?”

“…Close, indeed.”

“You didn’t happen to receive a request for investigation and delegate it to me, did you? It’s strange from the start that you asked me to investigate a relative of the investigator you keep under you. I know Prosecutor Joo never moves even if the higher-ups order a targeted investigation. Even though it’s said to be a large laundry company, the owner of such a small company….”

Unable to let the misunderstanding sit, I raised my hand and cut off Pro Yoon’s words.

“While listening to the story, I happened to capture a strange point and initiated a proactive investigation. Since I can’t investigate my investigator’s family, I handed it over to Pro Yoon.”

“True. You’re someone who would completely investigate even the family of the investigator you keep under you.”

“Since I am that kind of person just as Pro Yoon said, don’t engage in useless imaginations.”

“I heard Investigator Lee Chaeha is from the police university. Does he do his work well?”

Yoon Gyuho spoke in a passing manner. Unknowingly narrowing my eyebrows, I asked him back.

“How do you know information about an investigator from another prosecutor’s office?”

“Because this and that rumor circulate within the branch office. I was a bit curious myself too.”

“What kind of rumor did you hear that makes you curious?”

“It’s strange that despite being from the police university, he quit his police post and became an 8th-grade investigator. It also bothers me that his name keeps appearing in his maternal uncle’s financial transaction details.”

I had judged him to be a person who has no interest in matters regarding others unless it was a matter related to promotions. I did not know Yoon Gyuho would pay attention to Lee Chaeha. A unpleasant noise rang out inside my head.

While I was contemplating how it would be good to answer, an even more unexpected sound came from Yoon Gyuho’s lips.

“Well, even putting various reasons aside, his appearance stands out so much that I even memorized his face from the time the new personnel rotation occurred. The female employees seemed to have quite a lot of interest as well. Pro Joo’s popularity is going to be stolen away.”

“…If you’re going to talk useless nonsense, I’ll be leaving now.”

I chose to reply as indifferently as possible. Yoon Gyuho shrugged his shoulders toward me as I did so, then leaned his back against the sofa with a peculiar smile. Suppressing the uncomfortable feeling, I rose from my seat and returned to the prosecutor’s office.

Lee Chaeha, Chief Mr. Song, Officer Ms. No were all sitting in their seats, busily turning over documents. Most of the work in a prosecutor’s office is documents. Buried in a flood of documents, we processed the overflowing letters with the dark blue thimbles fitted on our respective fingers.

Usually when it becomes afternoon, the office is noisy with investigations of defendants, victims, and references, but today it was exceptionally quiet. Briefly glancing through the documents allocated in the morning, I sorted out the cases to pass on to Chief Mr. Song and Officer Lee. I intended to send relatively simple cases to Chief Mr. Song and complex cases to Officer Lee.

Chief Mr. Song also belonged to the side that does work well when thinking of the investigators I had gone through up until now, but he could not be as meticulous as Lee Chaeha. The questioning method for investigation or the ability to interpret evidence was far superior in Lee Chaeha, who had received professional training for a long time at the police university and entered the job after passing through the police.

“Chief Mr. Song, Officer Lee, please take your respective allocations.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

I caught a glimpse of Lee Chaeha as he approached the desk. With a face that did not reveal his feelings at all as usual, he gathered the documents along with Chief Mr. Song and returned to his seat. Although he had looked somewhat agitated when we shared a conversation on the rooftop, as soon as he returned to the prosecutor’s office, as expected, he neatly tidied up his emotions. When first looking at Lee Chaeha, his pretty appearance, which anyone would see as a beauty, stood out by far, but in truth, his true value was displayed in that neat attitude.

In the meantime, a message sent by Yoon Gyuho blinked. It was a financial transaction statement under the name of Lee Chaeha’s maternal uncle.

Recently, there was a record where Lee Chaeha had remitted as much as 2 million won to his maternal uncle. Although the records deposited before that were far greater, it was a deposit record that occurred after nearly a year, so that date floated up particularly conspicuously. The information that he had sent money to the person who raised him while abusing him scraped down inside my already complicated head like a sharp rake.

“January….”

As the date was familiar to the eye, I went back up the messenger to check, and my guess was correct. It was the day I witnessed Lee Chaeha talking with his maternal aunt in front of the official residence. It was also the night he walked back to the official residence after arguing with me at the playground.

The precarious side profile of him looking down at the darkly flowing water from the railing of the bridge passing over Danhyun Stream came to mind. Because his skin receiving the moonlight was as deathly pale as a ghost, it had seemed as though he would jump off at any moment.

Deciding to confirm this matter with Lee Chaeha once the other people left work, I pulled out a case to start anew. It was a case where two men in their 20s stabbed a male restaurant owner to death with a knife in the late dawn. The money they stole was 73,000 won. The reason that amount is not surprising is because I know the fact that there are many who commit murder even for more of a pittance and for trivial reasons.

As the data sent by the police was not bad, there didn’t seem to be items to supplement much. Because it was a case with no difficulty once the suspects alone were called in to receive statements, I looked for the legal provisions to apply, attached them with Post-its, and marked the evidence that would be used importantly in the trial.

Just past the time to leave work, the internal phone rang. I picked up the receiver, and Pro Yoon’s voice was heard.

— Pro Joo.

“Yeah.”