The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 149

Prosecutor Joo and I began our action immediately in the morning. We requested search and seizure warrants for Chief Tak and Oh Jahyeon and began our field work. Our first item on the agenda was to visit the evidence locker of the other district office where Chief Tak had previously worked.

The path to the evidence locker was beautiful, in a way that didn’t match our purpose. Every time the wind blew, cherry blossom petals fell like a spring rain. The cherry blossoms were at their absolute end.

While driving, Prosecutor Joo called Detective Dan Hyeonseo, who was staking out in front of Chief Tak’s house.

“How is the stakeout going?”

— We are checking all the trash coming out of the house, but no weapon has been found. We are also tailing him, but he hasn’t shown any particularly suspicious behavior.

“Yes, I understand. Keep up the good work.”

— Yes, Prosecutor.

I glanced at him once I confirmed the call had ended.

“Do you think they are checking properly?”

“He’s a veteran detective who hasn’t been assigned to the Dan Hyeon Police Station for long, so we have to trust him. Since he hasn’t been working there for a long time, it should be fine.”

“Yes.”

I nodded lightly. Since he was someone Prosecutor Joo had specially selected, it was okay to trust him. Because people with ties to Oh Jahyeon were scattered all over the Dan Hyeon District Office and the police station, he had agonized for several days to select a detective for the stakeout.

“You’ve packed the incident list well, right?”

For the past few weeks, we had been looking into Chief Tak’s past cases and narrowing down those where there was a high possibility that evidence had been lost. Of course, whether the evidence for the cases we suspected was properly stored was a gamble.

“Yes, Prosecutor. I shared it this morning before we left.”

“Good job.”

“…Thank you.”

“Why that reaction?”

“It just feels like it’s been a while since I received a compliment from you, Prosecutor.”

“I always praise you, Chief Investigator Lee Chaeha. It’s just that I also give you a lot of criticism.”

Now that I heard Prosecutor Joo say that, it seemed true, so I nodded obediently. Since I had been distracted working from early in the morning, he belatedly checked on how I was doing.

“You seemed to sleep well yesterday. I thought you would be uncomfortable since it was the first day.”

“I thought so too, but it was very comfortable.”

I wanted to add, “It was because you were by my side, Prosecutor,” but I still didn’t know how to say those simple words naturally.

Upon arrival, we immediately submitted our IDs and entered the evidence locker. A tedious process followed of finding the case numbers handled by Chief Tak and comparing the listed evidence with the remaining items. Both of us skipped lunch and checked a staggering amount of items until the afternoon.

Because there was a lot of dust, my throat felt scratchy, and my eyes ached from trying to peer at small print in the dim light. Prosecutor Joo was the first to find an odd case.

“Officer Lee.”

Hearing him call, I went across to his side. I asked while approaching hurriedly.

“What case is this?”

“A doctor’s professional negligence case. Anesthetic drugs are missing.”

“It was a case handled as non-indictment, so I wondered… then, the person who procured the drugs for Oh Jahyeon to kill her husband was Chief Tak. Not the old female doctor who died.”

“Exactly. This is why we shouldn’t keep covering up mistakes just because we are family at the same workplace. If they had investigated properly when the evidence went missing, Oh Jahyeon’s husband and the obstetrician might not have died.”

Bitterness overflowed from his eyes, which were usually devoid of any disturbance.

We documented the empty evidence container with videos and photos. We also checked who had accessed the evidence last.

Tak Seong-ung. It was the name we had expected.

Prosecutor Joo stared at that name for quite a while, but he didn’t say anything to me. It was hard to dare guess how devastated he must feel every time he confirmed the truth with his own eyes. For his sake, I pretended not to notice and searched for the contact information of the medical examiner I had saved in my phone.

“I will make an appointment with the medical examiner right away. Oh Jahyeon’s husband didn’t have an autopsy, but it would be good to meet at least the person who examined the body. I know they are still working near the main office.”

“Yes. And while we’re at the main office, it would be good to look at the evidence for the old female doctor’s murder by awl as well.”

“Yes.”

Since the incidents occurred around the same time, it was at least fortunate that the evidence was concentrated in one place. We could save a lot of time.

In truth, there was only one piece of evidence we were hoping for. The old lady’s cell phone.

We wanted to confirm the circumstances of Oh Jahyeon’s husband contacting her obstetrician. However, the cell phone was not there.

Oh Jahyeon’s husband’s death was processed as a death from illness, so there was no way to check his personal effects, and relying on the old lady’s bereaved family was our last hope. Prosecutor Joo put the poorly managed evidence back in its place and asked:

“The old lady was unmarried and had no children, so is there still family left?”

I quickly scanned the case files I had read a few days ago in my head.

“There was one younger sister.”

“Your memory is good, too. I’ll have to contact them and meet them as well.”

“It’s going to be hard to return to the Prosecutor’s office on time.”

“It can’t be helped.”

Prosecutor Joo nodded.

I was in charge of the phone call this time as well. When working, we were a thorough superior and subordinate, and neither of us had any intention of blurring that boundary. As the youngest, I tried to handle menial tasks on my own without Prosecutor Joo or my senior, Chief Song, having to instruct me separately.

The old lady’s sister was reached at once. Furthermore, since she still had ties to Dan Hyeon City, I made an appointment to visit her by the evening.

We had to confirm all suspicious points as much as possible by today. Only then could we get a grip on what items to focus on when searching Chief Tak’s and Oh Jahyeon’s houses, and lead the subsequent interrogations in the right direction. If the warrant came out as expected, the date of the search and seizure would be tomorrow.

“Then let’s go.”

“Yes.”

Prosecutor Joo and I got into the car for the second time.

The office of the doctor who was still working as a medical examiner was filled with medical books and various crime-related books. The doctor’s gown smelled of the peculiar chemicals of a medical examiner.

Prosecutor Joo shook hands with the elderly doctor and took a business card out of his wallet to present it.

“I am Prosecutor Joo Taeson of the 1st Criminal Department of the Dan Hyeon District Office.”

“Nice to meet you.”

The doctor also handed over a business card, and we took seats in the center of the office where a table was placed.

The medical examiner brought a Manila file and a document envelope that had been prepared on the desk and sat opposite us. His wrinkled hands took out a pair of magnifying glasses he had tucked into his gown pocket. He raised his wrinkled forehead high and focused on peering down at the small print. It seemed he was selecting what was worth showing us.

“I looked into it after receiving your call, Investigator, and fortunately, the data remained. There are also photos that I didn’t attach to the report.”

His rough hands pushed the Manila file he was holding toward us. Prosecutor Joo briefly confirmed the contents and opened his mouth.

“I understand it was handled as a death from illness back then.”

“That is correct. We conducted a simple examination, but no drugs were found. There were no external injuries, either.”

Prosecutor Joo and I met eyes. As discussed in advance, he frankly presented our hypothesis to the medical examiner.

“The contents that can be written in a report are only confirmed facts. We want to hear from you, Doctor, about other possibilities that cannot be written in the report.”

“For instance.”

“About the possibility that a decomposable anesthetic drug was used.”

I took out my phone and showed the name of the anesthetic. It was the anesthetic that Chief Tak had lost. After checking the name of the drug, the medical examiner nodded more readily than expected.

“I see. This general anesthetic decomposes in 3 hours, so it is difficult to find it through blood tests. That is why the cause of death had to come out as heart failure.”

“Is it possible that Oh Jahyeon’s husband took this drug?”

“I cannot say it is impossible. The examination was conducted 12 hours after death. Oh Jahyeon… I remember.”

“What is your memory of her?”

“I don’t write such things in the report, but she showed a reaction quite different from typical bereaved families. To the point where I still remember it. Since I said the examination was finished….”

The medical examiner hesitated for a moment and added:

“She asked, ‘It’s clean, right?’”

It’s clean, right?

It was certainly not a typical reaction. Because it was a statement that carried no emotion.

“By any chance, if necessary, could you testify?”

“Of course. It wasn’t a normal reaction, so I even mentioned it separately to the Prosecutor in charge at the time, but since no suspicion of homicide could be found in the examination, we couldn’t proceed. Oh Jahyeon did not agree to an autopsy.”