The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 132

The choice of the word “father” seemed to surprise the other person somewhat. He twitched his thick eyebrows fiercely and pointed at me rudely with the tip of his chin.

“Is it okay to call him Father while an investigator is listening?”

“They’re someone who knows everything. They’re a trustworthy investigator, so you can speak honestly.”

“…I see you even told them that you changed your surname.”

“I know that too.”

“If you were going to go around blabbing to everyone that you’re a Kang, why did you even bother getting adopted?”

The sarcastic tone was unmistakably that of Joo Taeson’s younger brother. Despite Joo Wooseon’s twisted reaction, Prosecutor Joo did not outwardly show much agitation. Though a slight look of annoyance appeared, he quickly smoothed out his furrowed brow, as an older brother is still an older brother. He replied in a softened tone, as if soothing his younger brother.

“Only Officer Lee knows. No one else does.”

“So, Investigator, what are you curious about?”

I have talked countless times with witnesses who did not want to testify. Talking to someone who acts blunt and annoyed wasn’t exactly pleasant, but my experience wasn’t so short that I would leave it to Prosecutor Joo and back down. I pulled my chair closer and took out my phone.

“May I record this?”

“Yes.”

Unexpectedly, Joo Wooseon agreed readily. However, he immediately attached another condition.

“Please ask the questions yourself, Investigator. I don’t really want to talk to that great Prosecutor.”

I turned my head toward Prosecutor Joo; he sighed and nodded slightly as a sign of affirmation. I pressed the record button. Since a large glass wall was right next to the table, the clear sunlight passing through the glass poured over Joo Wooseon’s body.

They look alike, really.

I stared, as if possessed, at the person who had eyes that were so similar yet so different from Prosecutor Joo Taeson, before finally opening my mouth.

“I would like to ask about that night….”

The gaze of Prosecutor Joo flowing along my side profile was sharper than the sunlight.

“What were you doing when you heard the sounds at the time?”

“I was asleep. I already answered everything 15 years ago. You can just look at the police files.”

“Of course, I have checked all the police files. But there are some things I would like to ask in more detail. You were in your first year of high school at the time—did you usually wake up easily to small sounds?”

“Yes, I’m a light sleeper. But the only sounds I heard were the ones from the entryway. My father’s room is a distance away from the entryway, and it’s quite soundproof, so I couldn’t even hear the noise of a physical struggle. I was only half-awake, so I fell back asleep immediately.”

“Did you hear the sound of the password being entered when the door first opened?”

“I did. That’s how I knew my father was dead drunk. My father usually used an electronic key. It only made the beeping sound of the password being entered when the chauffeur brought him home while he was too drunk. Lee Gilyoung, you know him, right? That murderous bastard.”

The familiar modifier that frequently followed my father suddenly popped out of the stranger’s mouth.

“Yes, I am aware.”

I answered without any particular agitation. It was a criticism I had heard so many times that it was nothing to be surprised about from my perspective, but Prosecutor Joo, who was sitting next to me, kept his gaze on my cheek for a long time again. He flicked the fingertips of the hand resting on his thigh several times, as if the situation bothered him. He seemed anxious.

“What about when the sound occurred next?”

“I dozed off for a moment, and then I woke up slightly at that time too.”

“Did you hear the sound of the password being entered then, too?”

“No. Lee Gilyoung was the one leaving, so I didn’t hear any sound like that.”

“Then what about the third time the sound occurred? When Lee Gilyoung returned to the house.”

Joo Wooseon stroked his cheek and lifted his gaze toward the ceiling for a moment. It seemed as if he was tracing the situation at that time.

“Hmm, the police certainly didn’t ask in this much detail. The third time was….”

Joo Wooseon traced his past memories for a long time. I bit down on my dry lower lip without realizing it.

If the police records were truly accurate—if the culprit had entered by typing the password when they returned—the situation was one that could only mean that my father had received a murder order. A tightness formed around my chest from the tension.

Joo Wooseon, who had been lost in thought, slowly parted his lips.

“The third time… Lee Gilyoung knocked on the door.”

That short answer fell over my head as coldly as a waterfall.

Prosecutor Joo and I shuddered at the same time. The police investigation records were different.

As I opened my mouth, a trembling voice leaked out.

“But the police records stated that the sound of the password being entered was heard twice.”

“I just said I heard the sound of the password being entered. It seems they recorded it as they pleased.”

There was a possibility. Since the police were certain that Lee Gilyoung was the culprit, they must have naturally concluded that he had typed the password when he entered the second time.

I felt the gaze of the person sitting next to me and turned my head belatedly. Our secret gazes met.

Prosecutor Joo must have discovered the faint light of excitement hovering in my pupils. The hope that my father might be innocent. If the person knocked to call him out, it meant it was an acquaintance who did not know the password. In other words, it was not Lee Gilyoung.

I moved my stiff throat with difficulty and swallowed. Then, I looked at Joo Wooseon again.

“Does that mean President Kang Woosung went out and opened the door himself?”

“Hmm…, I hadn’t thought about that part in detail, but… it seems like it. After the knocking, there was a sound of the door opening after a while.”

“What about the fourth time?”

“That was Lee Gilyoung leaving from inside to the outside, so there was no sound. Other than the sound of the door opening and closing.”

“You said there was a knocking sound the third time, but that means he didn’t ring the doorbell, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember how loud the knocking was?”

“Uh…, I think it was quiet.”

“If it was quiet, how did you hear it and wake up from your sleep?”

Joo Wooseon crossed his arms. On the face of a witness tracing a shocking moment, neither sadness nor feelings of anger flowed. It seemed that 15 years of time had diluted the painful past. Joo Wooseon opened his mouth cautiously.

“…I think I woke up because it was repeated several times.”

“Quietly, several times.”

“Because my father opened the door late. I think it was because he was drunk. It must have taken time for him to walk.”

“Lee Gilyoung knew the password, so why would he knock on the door?”

“…I don’t know.”

“Didn’t you find it strange?”

“No. How would I know what’s inside that crazy murderer’s head?”

“That’s true.”

I nodded lightly in agreement, then opened the brown leather crossbody bag I had brought with me to take out the photographic materials. My fingertips trembled slightly. The excitement of having secured a decisive witness testimony that my father might be innocent had not yet faded. There is no way someone who knew the password would knock on the door.

Careful not to show my feelings, I pushed the photos toward Joo Wooseon. They were photos of the awl that had been stuck in President Kang Woosung’s body.

“Do you happen to remember this awl?”

“Yes.”

Prosecutor Joo was surprised this time by the answer without hesitation. For the first time, he spoke up instead of me.

“Wooseon, you know it? There was no statement about it in the police files.”

“Because there was no one who showed me a picture of the awl and asked me. You never asked either, Hyung. This is my first time seeing it too. I only heard it was an awl; I didn’t know it was this one.”

“It’s been 15 years, how do you remember what kind of awl it was?”

“Can’t I just be questioned by the Investigator now?”

“Wooseon.”

“Honestly, it’s annoying to be asked about Father now, so I’d like Hyung to just stay quiet. He’s a dead, gone murderous bastard, and it’s not like we can dig him out of the grave to send him to prison again; I’m sick of this waste of time. I’m only putting up with it because the Investigator said they came for work.”

“Prosecutor.”

I grabbed his thick wrist slightly and let go without realizing it. It was too important a meeting to let it fall apart like this. His neatly ironed white shirt sleeve brushed against my fingertips and fell away.

I conveyed the message through silence to him, with whom I had locked eyes again, that I would continue. Prosecutor Joo sighed while resting his chin on his hand, then turned his gaze entirely beyond the glass wall.

In the yard, several carefully tended bonsai pine trees were planted, though they were short. I turned my eyes away from the bonsai and Prosecutor Joo to look at Joo Wooseon. I had to ask the witness an important question.