The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 162

These days, he rarely calls me by my rank on weekends, so the fact that he pointedly called me “Officer Lee” meant it was definitely a complaint related to work.

“You like it when I work hard.”

“You’ll receive the disciplinary notice after working through this week, so I think you’re overexerting yourself for no reason. You still have to spend the remaining five days finding that awl and scouring all sorts of places with a warrant; what are you going to do if you’re too exhausted? You also need to finish the materials to send to the trial prosecutor.”

I stopped in my tracks at his unexpected worry. Flustered, I rounded my eyes and looked up at him.

“That is a very strange concern coming from someone who makes me work overtime until midnight every day. You even called me out frequently on Saturdays to make me work.”

“…Back then, I also had a desire to tease you a bit.”

Prosecutor Joo confessed honestly.

“Anyway.”

“If it were usual, I would have had you pinned down for the entire two days.”

“Prosecutor!”

I looked around in surprise, but fortunately, there were few people around, so there were no listening ears. Contrary to his usual self, Prosecutor Joo continued without concern, as if telling whoever was there to listen if they wanted to.

“I ruined my weekend because I didn’t get to hear Lee Chaeha’s cries enough.”

“Y-you can do it at night.”

“If we do it at night, Lee Chaeha passes out too quickly. It ends just as it starts to get good.”

That is not something someone who easily fills two rounds as a basic minimum, and often three or four, at night should say. I covered my reddened face with the glow of the sunset and barely managed to climb into the car, pretending to be calm.

However, after the weekend passed, it turned out that Prosecutor Joo Taeson’s judgment was correct. Having spent the two days running around the orphanages and the weekdays executing warrants, I was already exhausted by Wednesday. My body felt as heavy as leaves soaked in rainwater, and I couldn’t pull myself together.

On Thursday, I visited the memorial park where Chief Tak’s family tomb is located. The work of digging around the burial mound with Chief Song was so strenuous that I even got blisters on my little toes. Police officers came to support and help, but the area was quite large, so it was not easy.

“Are you okay?”

Perhaps my exhaustion was visible, as Chief Song worriedly took a chocolate bar out of his pocket and handed it to me.

“Officer Lee, eat this at least. You look tired.”

“Thank you.”

I tore open the small packaging and popped the chocolate bar into my mouth in one go. Chief Song looked around and said.

“By the way, it seems like this is a waste of time too, right?”

“Yes. There’s nowhere else to look now…. And we’ve already raided his house once more.”

Standing by the grave, I used my shovel as a cane along with Chief Song. Two police officers were busily digging under a pine tree, as if the metal detector had sounded again.

Perhaps Chief Song was tired too, as he sighed deeply and asked.

“How is the work of finding Chief Tak’s son going? I heard you had a hard time over the weekend.”

“I received a late phone call saying they got in touch with someone who used to work at one of the orphanages, but there hasn’t been any news since then. I think it will be hard to find him like this.”

It felt sinful to suspect Chief Song of being a mole, but because of the possibility, I didn’t speak about it in any more detail than that. Putting my guilt behind me, I put the empty candy wrapper in my pocket and approached the police officer.

“Did anything come up?”

“It’s just trash.”

The officer pointed with the tip of his shovel to the trash that had come out of the ground in disappointment.

I had a bad feeling. It’s not a job where one works by feeling, but people have intuition. Even though I thought it would be a wasted effort, I asked just in case.

“Can you also do the area above the metal detector? The soil quality is different up there.”

“Yes, Investigator.”

I climbed up with the police officer and dug up the entire embankment, but no significant results appeared until the sun went down. Since we had scoured every place where Chief Tak and Oh Jahyeon might have hidden the weapon, it was distressing as there were no more places to get a warrant.

If it comes to this, unless a witness comes forward, the case of the stabbing murders of President Kang Woosung and the elderly doctor will not be able to proceed to trial due to lack of physical evidence. It was impossible for the prosecution side to win. Even if we insisted on filing an indictment, the trial prosecutor side would refuse. The case of Oh Jahyeon’s husband’s death was ruled out early on because it was impossible from the start to prove it was murder other than through the culprit’s confession.

It was only after the closing time that I arrived at the prosecutor’s office. Chief Song Haneul also remained at his desk, saying he had to work late due to the backlog of work from the consecutive field trips, and as soon as I returned, I confirmed that news of my disciplinary action had spread. Not only was there a notice on the prosecutor’s portal, but there were several messages each from prosecutor colleagues I keep in touch with occasionally.

What happened? Is it because you were targeted because of that case that’s been rumored everywhere lately?

It was difficult to reply. If I answered honestly, word that I had said such things could get out. Like a person who has suffered from ostracism and rumors their whole life, I exercised caution and replied.

That’s not it, it seems there was room for misunderstanding from the perspective of the Ethics Committee. I’ll have to be more careful in the future.

While I was sending a series of similar texts, Prosecutor Joo, who had finished his meeting, opened the door and entered. Prosecutor Joo glanced at Chief Song, who was sitting at his desk, and asked only him, looking puzzled.

“Why are you not leaving? You’ve worked hard executing warrants all week, so go in and rest.”

Before, I felt so hurt because it seemed like he only treated Chief Song like a human being, but now that I’m comfortable working with him alone, I didn’t feel any dissatisfaction at all. Chief Song shook his head.

“No, it’s fine. I have things to organize, so I’ll look at them for one more hour and then go in. The work is too backed up.”

“Then do that. Officer Lee, I heard the results of the cell phone forensics are out, so go and get the documents.”

“Yes, Prosecutor.”

There had been too many cell phones requested for forensics recently, so I wondered which phone’s results had come out. When I went to the forensic team, an employee with a tired complexion greeted me. Our team had requested a large amount of forensic analysis, so she must have been suffering from working overtime for several weeks.

She handed the USB to me.

“About half of the requests have been completed.”

“Thank you.”

As soon as I left the office, I returned straight to the prosecutor’s office. In case we couldn’t find the awl in the end, we needed to have evidence that could be used for indictment from the cell phones.

As soon as I entered the prosecutor’s office, I grabbed a steel chair and went to sit next to Prosecutor Joo. I glanced at Chief Song to see what he was doing, but it was at an angle where I couldn’t see his monitor. Prosecutor Joo leaned his body toward me as I sat beside him and asked.

“What does the forensic team say?”

“They said about half is done. The results are on the USB, so I haven’t been able to check the details accurately yet.”

“Let’s take a look.”

He opened the USB file immediately. Prosecutor Joo rested his chin on his hand, scrolled with the mouse wheel, and let out a sigh.

“There are too many conversations between the two, so we’ll have to look at them separately. We’ll cross-check later.”

“Then I will look at the first two folders.”

“Do that. I’ll transfer them to you.”

I stared at his neat lips, from which formal language flowed naturally, without realizing it, before slowly looking away.

“Then I’ll return to my desk.”

“Officer Lee, what about dinner?”

“Not yet….”

“Then Chief Song must not have eaten either. Chief Song, would you like to eat delivery food?”

Chief Song straightened his back, smiled, and shook his head.

“No. I have a dinner appointment, so I’ll head out in 30 minutes.”

“I see. Officer Lee, what do you want to eat?”

Prosecutor Joo asked, holding his cell phone.

“Prosecutor, what would you like to eat?”

“Well. Shall we order from a Chinese restaurant?”

“That’s good.”

“Jajangmyeon or Jjamppong?”

“Jjamppong.”

While waiting for dinner, I speed-read the files for a short time. If I tried to read everything thoroughly, there would be no end to it, so I had to select dates and words that were particularly important to look at.

Most of the conversations between Chief Tak and Oh Jahyeon had been restored, but the contents from the time when President Kang Woosung or the elderly doctor were murdered were barely salvaged even by the forensic team. It seemed Chief Tak had worked carefully on that.

“This is a disaster….”

The moment I bit my lip and muttered softly, my cell phone rang. It was an unfamiliar phone number.

“Hello. Yes…, the orphanage?”

The moment I mentioned the orphanage, Prosecutor Joo looked at me. Without being conscious of his gaze, I listened carefully to what the other person was saying and wrote the date and time they called out on a Post-it note.

“Yes, I understand. Thank you.”

As soon as I hung up the phone, Prosecutor Joo leaned his back against his chair.