The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 130

Prosecutor Joo finally lowered his head without calling my name. The sigh he swallowed quietly sounded as loud to me as the sound of rough waves carving into a cliff.

I steeled myself, pretending to be unperturbed, and opened the Excel file. My fingertips, forcibly gripping the mouse, trembled. I had to track the burner phone numbers and Chief Tak’s mobile number. I tried to focus solely on the assigned task.

Once we secured the base station records, finding Chief Tak’s traces gained momentum. Spending hours staring at hundreds of thousands of numbers received from base stations until my eyes felt like they would fall out was, of course, not easy. However, our prey was clear, and the movements of the burner phone ‘1225’ overlapped with Chief Tak’s mobile phone movements for the most part.

For several days, I searched for Chief Tak’s phone number and the burner phone number one by one and marked them in fluorescent color. Then, when a reasonable amount was collected, I sent them to Prosecutor Joo. During that time, I also found another suspicious burner phone. After noticing similar numbers appearing repeatedly and running a search, I found that it was also an unidentified phone under the name of a Russian national.

“The second burner phone you found, Officer Lee, overlaps with Chief Tak’s movements more than 1225 does. Could 1225 be the secondary, and the newly found one be the main burner phone?”

Prosecutor Joo offered his opinion while reviewing the data. Since the awkwardness was less present when talking about work, I looked straight at his profile from my diagonal seat and answered.

“Yes, the second burner phone seems to be the main one rather than 1225. Both also show histories of calls with Oh Jahyeon. Oh Jahyeon also has a burner phone, though the frequency isn’t high.”

“I’ll pass this on to Prosecutor Yoon as well.”

“Yes.”

Prosecutor Joo was sharing all the information we found with Prosecutor Yoon. I organized the call record data as usual and sent it to him additionally.

It was late, but someone knocked on the prosecutor’s office door.

I wondered if it was Chief Prosecutor Tak Seong-ung. That was because we had been openly pursuing him lately.

I stood up from my seat, tense, but Prosecutor Yoon opened the door to Room 512 and walked in. As soon as I saw Prosecutor Yoon, I felt quite relieved and gave a light bow.

“Hello, Prosecutor.”

“Hello, Investigator.”

Prosecutor Yoon greeted me politely. Prosecutor Joo did not even rise from his seat to welcome him.

“What brings you here at this hour? I guess you haven’t left for home yet.”

“There is so much data being sent from Room 512 that I can’t leave. And I thought I should talk a little while Investigator Lee Chaeha is also present.”

“Come in.”

Prosecutor Yoon Gyuho naturally pulled over the chair at Chief Song’s desk and took a seat between Prosecutor Joo’s desk and mine. He crossed his legs, folded his arms, and leaned toward Prosecutor Joo. Prosecutor Yoon’s pupils busily scanned the monitor. As if looking for something. However, perhaps because there was no special data, he straightened his posture again and asked.

“Pro Joo, are you going to request a warrant for Chief Tak?”

“Yes, next week.”

“Do you think it will be issued?”

“I can’t guarantee an arrest warrant, but an search and seizure warrant and a request for account access will be more than enough to be granted. Besides 1225, I found one more suspicious burner phone. That number moved with Chief Tak’s phone more frequently than 1225, and just possessing a burner phone is illegal, so the warrant will be issued.”

“What about the Chief Prosecutor?”

“I will report to the Chief Prosecutor soon.”

“What happens after that?”

“I need to have the Deputy Prosecutor order disciplinary action against Chief Tak through the Chief Prosecutor. How can I investigate properly if we work in the same building and feel uncomfortable?”

“Do you think it’s possible? He’s one of our own. I, too, feel a bit uneasy about indicting a Chief Prosecutor.”

“For now, Chairman Osong is being cooperative. And even to the top brass, it’s a big risk to cover up murder or corpse abandonment, unlike prostitution or bribery. They won’t block it. They might even be the ones to try and strip Chief Tak of his position first.”

Both prosecutors’ words had merit. As Prosecutor Yoon Gyuho argued, it seemed likely they would cover for him as ‘one of their own,’ but as per Prosecutor Joo Taeson’s logic, it was a major crime, and since he had no backers left to protect him, it seemed likely they would cast him aside early. Oh Jahyeon was scheduled to be indicted on drug use charges, making it difficult for him to help Chief Tak.

Prosecutor Yoon folded his arms and sighed, frowning in trouble.

“Pro Joo, I initially accepted this case thinking it was just a drug case.”

“…I know.”

“Requesting a warrant for Chief Tak feels a bit off. Unless the case becomes big enough to be reported in the media later, I might be labeled as someone who struck one of his own. Can’t you hold off on the warrant? You can conduct an investigation without detention.”

“I can’t do that. As Prosecutor Yoon said, he is one of our own. There is a sufficient risk of destruction of evidence.”

“Ha, this is quite… Pro Joo, you won’t change your mind, right?”

“No.”

In any case, once the warrant requests begin in earnest, the eyes of those looking at the Room 512 prosecutor’s office will not be kind. I was prepared to hear such gossip again, and Prosecutor Joo seemed to have made up his mind long ago. However, Prosecutor Yoon Gyuho did not seem ready yet.

Prosecutor Yoon nodded as if agreeing with Prosecutor Joo on the surface, but soon asked as if worried.

“But aren’t all the proofs just circumstantial evidence?”

“I have direct evidence.”

“What is it?”

Prosecutor Joo hesitated for a moment but soon chose to speak honestly.

“There is a son between Chief Tak and Oh Jahyeon. And that son’s DNA was found at the scene of the corpse abandonment.”

“…What?”

“There is no way Chief Tak didn’t go to the scene when his son went. The phone location tracking also confirmed it.”

“A son between the two of them? Huh. Then how on earth did they hide and raise that son?”

“No matter how much I dig, no information comes out.”

“Who on earth is the son?”

“If we knew that, the whole case would be solved.”

“I’m worried they might try to destroy evidence before the warrant comes out.”

“I thought so, so I had detectives stake out the place a long time ago. Any items coming out of that house are under surveillance. The same goes for Oh Jahyeon. In the meantime, Prosecutor Yoon, haven’t you found anything?”

“I have.”

“What is it?”

Prosecutor Yoon, who had been looking only at Prosecutor Joo until then, turned his gaze toward me. It was a cautious look.

“The Prosecutor Yoon Soyeon case… do you know about it, Officer Lee?”

“Yes, I am aware.”

I answered honestly. If I knew the fact that Prosecutor Yoon Gyuho and Prosecutor Yoon Soyeon were twins, it was right to assume that everyone in the Danhyeon Branch knew about it. Moreover, as I was Prosecutor Joo Taeson’s investigator, it was much more natural for me to know.

Prosecutor Yoon nodded as if he had expected this and continued calmly.

“The construction corruption case involving Oh Jahyeon and the casino has already passed its statute of limitations and is all over, but I’ve been digging into that side lately. Because Prosecutor Joo kept bringing up Oh Jahyeon’s name, my feelings of injustice resurfaced, making me distressed. But looking into it this time, the Chief who harassed Prosecutor Yoon Soyeon was an alumnus of the Judicial Research and Training Institute with Chief Prosecutor Tak Seong-ung.”

Prosecutor Joo’s eyebrows shot up ferociously.

“Is that… true?”

If I had to pick just one person who would have been as hurt by that case as Prosecutor Yoon, it would be none other than Prosecutor Joo Taeson. Needless to say, the murder case of his father, Chairman Kang Woosung, goes without saying.

Prosecutor Joo seemed to be skillfully managing his sense of betrayal, but whenever Chief Tak was directly mentioned like now, a terrible agony would pass over his dark pupils. At least, that’s how it appeared to me. So, I wondered if he was truly overcoming it inside as well as he appeared on the outside, but in our current distant state, there was no way to know.

Prosecutor Yoon sent a confirming look toward Prosecutor Joo.

“It seems Chief Tak had asked him to block Soyeon. To protect Oh Jahyeon. While doing so, I heard an interesting fact.”

“What is it?”

“Prosecutor Joo, you’ve been digging into Chief Tak’s old cases lately, right?”

“Yes.”

“A former investigator who worked under Chief Tak said that about six months before Oh Jahyeon’s husband died, evidence went missing and there was an uproar. That investigator didn’t remember the details because it wasn’t his own case, and I’ve looked into it a bit, but I couldn’t find it at all. There are no records either—as if they buried it by claiming it was a prosecutor’s mistake.”