The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 26

As I attempted to stand up, he grabbed my thigh from under the desk. I flinched, but this time, I didn’t pull my leg away in a panic. I was confused as to whether the intimacy I felt from his hand, which gripped my thigh with a bit more pressure, was just an illusion or a sensation born from my own personal feelings.

His broad shoulders tilted toward me, and his hot breath brushed against my ear. My heart pounded violently.

“Don’t stand up. You shouldn’t make yourself look too easy.”

“Ah… yes, Prosecutor.”

His lips were so close they nearly touched the fine hairs on my ear.

“You take the lead on the investigation, Officer Lee. I’ll assist you.”

“Understood.”

My mind raced. We had both read the materials, so the fact that Prosecutor Joo was “assisting” rather than me meant that there were now two people in the interrogation room judging me: the suspect and Prosecutor Joo.

The perpetrator entered in his prison uniform, accompanied by a prison guard. True to his past as a gangster, his expression was relaxed as he entered the room, and he easily agreed to have the session recorded on video. Prosecutor Joo flicked his fingers, pointing to the chair opposite us. In the interrogation room, rudeness is also a strategy.

“Sit.”

“Good afternoon, Prosecutor.”

The heavy-set perpetrator gave Prosecutor Joo a sharp, 90-degree bow and bowed his head the same way toward me.

“Good afternoon, Investigator. I’m sorry for getting into trouble again. I’ve been trying to live a decent life, but it’s not easy.”

Although I had been working at the prosecutor’s office for barely two weeks, he was the first person to properly address me by the title of “Investigator.”

Contrary to popular belief, gangsters are incredibly cooperative during prosecutor investigations. They are usually uncooperative only when dealing with the police. They were the type of people who knew very well that their sentencing depended on the attitude they showed at the prosecutor’s office.

Mindful of Prosecutor Joo, I started with light questions on purpose.

“How did you know I was an investigator?”

“I asked the prison guard before I came in. It’s our first time meeting, but I had to greet you properly.”

Despite his rough appearance, he had a rather meticulous personality.

I dove into the real questions.

“State your name and date of birth.”

“Choi Jin-cheol, born August 5th, 1978, from Myeon-uri, Gyeongsangbuk-do. I have a middle school education, and I am currently unemployed.”

The former gangster rattled off his personal information smoothly. Even though I hadn’t asked any follow-up questions, he blurted out his current employment status and family relationships without hesitation. He had been interrogated so many times that he knew exactly what went into the first part of a prosecutor’s report.

“As for work, I used to be in a syndicate, but after the older brother I served passed away, that fell through, and I’m unemployed now. I’m looking into opening a small shop. Family-wise, my mother left home when I was in elementary school, my father passed away when I was in middle school, and I have one older Noona. We’ve cut ties.”

I organized the former gangster’s words as he spoke and asked the fundamental question.

“First, tell me your own account of the case overview.”

The suspect bowed his head as if apologizing and began his statement.

“Prosecutor, Investigator. First of all, I really was wrong. The time was around 10 PM on Thursday. I was coming out of a street stall in Taepyeong Park, quite tipsy, and the other party was completely wasted, too. We were passing by when our shoulders bumped—thud. I felt offended and told him to apologize, and this guy glared at me. We started cursing at each other and got into an argument, and at that moment, a discarded knife caught my eye, so in a fit of rage, I picked it up and stabbed him.”

The former gangster’s statement was orderly and without superfluous details. He didn’t let the story wander. He was, quite literally, a statement expert.

While summarizing the suspect’s statement, I kept glancing at the pen Prosecutor Joo was twirling. I had felt it when he grabbed my thigh, but perhaps because he was tall, his hands were truly large. He seemed to be listening intently to the former gangster’s statement, yet he also seemed to be letting every word wash over him.

I continued the interrogation.

“What time did you start drinking, and how much did you have?”

“From 9 PM, I had about a bottle of soju.”

“Tell me in detail how you acquired the weapon.”

“As luck would have it, a knife someone had discarded right under a streetlamp caught my eye. If I hadn’t seen that knife, I really wouldn’t have gone that far.”

“How was the knife positioned?”

“The handle was sticking out from a garbage bag. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Being a guy who used knives, I saw it. I ran over, pulled the knife out of the garbage bag, and stabbed his thigh a bit to scare him. I didn’t intend to kill him.”

“How did you stab him?”

“I’m ambidextrous, so I stabbed twice on the left, switched hands, and stabbed once on the right. I never imagined he would die from stabbing his thigh.”

Prosecutor Joo, who had been listening quietly, finally uncrossed his legs and pulled his chair closer. He set down the pen he was holding, stroked his jaw, and asked in an indifferent tone.

“You really didn’t know he would die?”

As soon as he opened his mouth, a heavy, serious tension filled the interrogation room. He was a person with an aura and weight fundamentally different from my own. The former gangster flinched slightly, but soon nodded obediently.

“Yes, Prosecutor.”

“A gangster stabs a thigh and claims he didn’t know the victim would die. You’re arguing for injury resulting in death, right? And you’re even claiming the injury itself was accidental?”

“It’s injury resulting in death, Prosecutor. Because I really had no intention of killing him. Why would I have a reason to kill someone I don’t even know?”

“I don’t know what your reason for killing him was, but gangsters stabbing thighs and killing people through excessive blood loss, only to claim injury resulting in death to get a lighter sentence—that’s such a cliché tactic.”

Prosecutor Joo’s attack was sharp.

When a person is stabbed in the thigh, the probability of death is significantly higher than people think. If the femoral artery is severed, there is a high risk of going into shock and dying from excessive blood loss. That was why experienced gangsters would stab thighs to commit murder while avoiding high sentences by claiming injury resulting in death.

Former gangster Choi writhed at Prosecutor Joo’s words like an innocent lamb who knew nothing.

“Oh, Prosecutor! You’re saying such scary things. I’ve never served time for murder, and not everyone who has been in an organization goes around ‘sinking’ people.”

Prosecutor Joo picked up the pen he had let go of earlier. After a deep sigh, he tapped the desk lightly with the tip of the pen. Tap, tap, tap—at a slightly quick pace.

“It’s hard to believe that a knife just happened to be in that spot…. If you picked up the weapon, even if I indict you for murder, it’s not premeditated murder but impulsive murder, so the sentence would only be 15 years at most. That’s too cheap a price for killing a human being.”

“15 years, Prosecutor! If I had an intention to kill, I would say I did. I really didn’t. It’s injury resulting in death!”

“I don’t believe you. Gangsters are crime experts and pros who commit crimes for money. So, I absolutely cannot believe the absurd story that a man who wouldn’t kill without a purpose just killed someone because he was enraged while walking down the street.”

“…”

Prosecutor Joo’s gaze turned toward me this time. It was the timing for me to do something.

I pushed the materials I had prepared toward the suspect. I decided to use the organizational chart of the crime syndicate he had been a member of as a tool of persuasion.

“Mr. Choi Jin-cheol, you’re not someone who was just in a group of petty thugs that only call themselves gangsters. If you were part of the Danhyeon Shikgu-pa, that’s an organization that deserves to be on the gangster family tree. A gangster of your caliber doesn’t kill people without a reason. You’re not a petty thug who kills people just because of a petty fight.”

I, too, didn’t believe the suspect’s story about killing a passerby over a petty fight. So, to find the motive, I intentionally puffed up his reputation as a gangster. Being called a “petty thug” was the one thing former gangsters hated hearing most, and in reality, gangsters rarely committed murder without a financial purpose. Although they used violence frequently, of course.

The former gangster’s brow twitched at my words, but he soon replied without wavering.

“…I guess I became a petty thug after I left the organization.”

“There is only one thing that motivates gangsters. Money.”

Prosecutor Joo took my cue and pressured the suspect with a follow-up question.

“Let’s assume you really did kill him because of a fight. Why didn’t you take the victim’s gold ring and wallet? Since you killed him anyway, you could have taken his money. Were you planning to gain something else?”