The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 11

That night, even after taking a sleeping pill, sleep did not come. It was because I had spent the whole night ruminating on the autopsy report in my head, thinking I needed to present a plausible deduction to Prosecutor Joo Taeson.

I left work on time for the first time in a while to do the homework Prosecutor Joo had assigned me. I boarded a swaying bus and headed toward the casino. This was because the alley where the unidentified body was discovered was near a market a little ways away from the casino.

Going to the crime scene in person to check what kind of place it was—that was a basic rule of investigation I had learned during my police days. Clutching the brown leather bag on my lap tightly, I vowed to myself that, for this evening, I would absolutely not think about my father.

The area in front of the casino, which I hadn’t visited in a long time, was far more bustling and flashy than the sight that remained in my memory. The streets were teeming with gambling addicts who had lost their money and transient guests, and the lights from the shops shone brightly overhead, having forgotten the night.

I lifted my head and looked up at the casino located on the hill, staring blankly. The impossible resolve not to think about my father, even if I saw that building, collapsed spectacularly as soon as I stood in front of the casino.

The father who killed his friend, President Kang Woosung, and committed suicide before the trial. The person who made me an orphan living with my uncle’s family. The very person who made me be pointed at as a murderer’s son throughout my school days. And yet, my beloved father.

Looking at the dense, narrow windows of the casino from a distance, I moved my feet with a heavy, dragging gait.

The market was in a more secluded place than I had thought, and its scale was extremely small. It made me question if it was even appropriate to call such a place a market. Furthermore, it was so far from downtown that it was more reasonable to view it as being near rice paddies rather than the casino.

If I hadn’t pinned the location where the body was found on my phone beforehand, I never would have been able to find the scene of the crime. After scouring every nook and cranny between a small side dish shop and a dried fish store, I finally arrived at the gloomy, dirty back alley.

The black ground, where I stood in my dress shoes, felt unpleasantly sticky. The dead-end alley where the body was discovered did not receive the light of the streetlamps, so it looked pitch-black like a pupil when viewed from the outside. Since the police report photos had been taken with a flash, I hadn’t realized it would be as dark as a sewer like this. If a drunk person hadn’t entered to throw up, the body wouldn’t have been discovered until morning.

“It really is dark. How on earth did the Koryo-in know about this place and come here?”

After seeing the scene in person, I became even more puzzled.

I wandered around the area for a moment and carefully checked to see if there was any CCTV the police had missed, but I couldn’t find anything. The police must have thoroughly swept the ground a little while ago, but the inside of the alley was again dirty with scattered trash.

“The Koryo-in bought drugs in the market alley, injected them, and died.”

I ruminated on the hypothesis for a moment, but soon shook my head and looked at the rice cake shop behind my back. The owner was constantly looking outside to receive customers and even glancing at me as I lingered, and people occasionally passed by, inspecting the rice cakes.

Since the shop was right in front of the alley, there were eyes watching until the market closed, and since he would have secured lodging after entering the country, there was no reason to do drugs outside. Even the location was too hellish for a foreigner who had come to Korea for the first time to conduct a drug deal. It was a place that was difficult for even me, a native of Danhyeon City, to find in the first place.

I tried a different deduction.

“He bought drugs elsewhere, injected them, and died. The other party, not wanting to get involved with the police, dumped the body in the back alley of the market…. Seeing as he succeeded in buying the drugs on the very day, the purpose of entering the country itself must have been drugs. Then that means the seller told him the location of the CCTV before he entered the country, but….”

I stared blankly at the alley and then shook my head for the second time. Was there any need for the seller to go through the trouble of telling the buyer the location of the CCTV in advance?

Above all, there is no reason for a Russian citizen to come all the way to Korea to buy drugs. Korea’s public security is more airtight than Russia’s. No matter how loosely the Danhyeon Police Station handles their work, the conclusion is the same.

Furthermore, the needle marks left on the Koryo-in’s forearm were marks that had accumulated from a very long time ago. Since he had been doing drugs for a long time, he would have known the routes for buying drugs in Russia well. Why necessarily in Korea? I would understand it if he had entered the country for a different criminal purpose, but…

“Contract killing?”

I gnawed at my lower lip with my upper teeth and shook my head again. If contract killing had been the purpose, he would have planned that work first. It is still awkward that he came to kill someone but started by buying and injecting Philopon and died. Moreover, the amount of Philopon injected was 1,000 times the lethal dose.

There was now one hypothesis left that I hadn’t reviewed.

“The Koryo-in, Mr. Kim, didn’t enter the country to buy drugs but came to sell them. He was already in possession of the drugs when he came from Russia. He penetrated the Incheon Airport security checkpoint via some means and transported a large quantity of drugs to Danhyeon City. The reason he came all the way here was because the buyer was in Danhyeon City.”

I pondered for a moment and then further organized my thoughts.

“And the other party who bought the drugs dumped Mr. Kim, the Koryo-in who died because of the drugs. The motive for abandoning the body was… because they couldn’t let it be discovered that they had bought and distributed drugs. The reason they didn’t go to the trouble of burying the body was that they used a burner phone, so there was no chance of them being listed as a suspect.”

The final hypothesis was the most logical. Even after ruminating on it several times, there were almost no errors.

It explained everything, including the motive for someone abandoning the body and the fact that there were no signs of homicide on the corpse. If it was a large-scale drug deal, it was also understandable that the CCTV movement path had been provided in advance.

A good hypothesis always explains all the evidence.

“But how on earth did the seller die from a drug overdose? And at 1,000 times the lethal dose at that. Since the buyer wouldn’t have used expensive drugs as a means of murder, it really must be an accidental death…. But it’s too much for him to have injected it by mistake himself.”

How he brought the drugs in was also a problem.

Could it have been a method that could penetrate the airport security checkpoint, while also potentially causing an accidental death to the courier if luck was not on their side?

Suddenly, one thought flashed through my mind. Especially considering Mr. Kim’s autopsy results, only one assumption came to mind.

I called Danhyeon General Hospital and got the contact information of the medical examiner. Hurrying toward the bus stop, I interrupted the doctor, who, regrettably, seemed to be in the middle of dinner.

“Hello, Doctor. This is Chief Lee Chaeha from the Danhyeon Branch Office. The one who was on duty for the unidentified body last time…. Yes, I have something I’d like to ask you. Do you remember the unidentified Koryo-in body with Russian nationality found back then?”

— I remember. It was an accidental death, right?

“That’s correct. But I have a question. Do you remember the esophageal wounds found on the body?”

— Yes. There were marks of being pressed and scratched lightly. But that has nothing to do with the death.

“If he had swallowed vinyl bags containing powder and then vomited them up, could such marks have been created? Even if the lumps were smooth?”

— Hmm…, it’s possible. No matter how smooth it is, if it has size, it causes wounds. Of course, if he had been alive, marks wouldn’t have remained, but if he died shortly after vomiting them up, they could have formed post-mortem.

Physical pressure applied to the body right before death leaves much clearer traces than when one is alive. That is because cells no longer self-recover.

— But considering the number of marks on the esophagus, he would have had to vomit dozens of them. Let’s see. About thirty to forty?

It was an opinion that was significantly helpful.

“Thank you very much. I’m sorry to have disturbed your meal.”

— Not at all. Well then, take care.

“Goodbye.”

After hanging up the phone, a pleasant excitement I hadn’t felt in a very long time welled up inside me.

The feeling that I was doing my job well. The anticipation that I might offer a decent opinion to Prosecutor Joo and be acknowledged for it.

According to my speculation, everything is explained: the fact that more than 1,000 times the lethal dose of Philopon was detected, the timing of arriving in Danhyeon City immediately after entering the country and avoiding CCTV, and the pieces of vinyl remaining in his stomach.

Because of the autumn rainy season that had ended a few days ago, the dark roadside was full of puddles. Carefully avoiding getting my dress shoes wet, I ran and hurriedly caught a bus that was just about to leave the stop. Letting out the breath that was rising in my chest, I went to the second-to-last empty seat in the back and sat down. Without a moment to catch my breath, I logged into the prosecution service portal.