The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 30

“No, it’s a relief that at least the surname is unique. Thank you for your time.”

I rose from my seat, following Prosecutor Joo. I don’t know what his intention was, but the senior chased me all the way to the 1st-floor exit to say goodbye, and then grabbed my shoulder as I was about to follow behind Prosecutor Joo. I checked the back of Prosecutor Joo, who was already some distance ahead, and slapped the senior’s hand away.

“What do you think you’re doing? Trying to start another weird rumor?”

“Chaeha, it’s not like that….”

“Every time you grab my shoulder, the next day, other people think I touched you first. Because of you, I pull my hand away whenever anyone even touches me now. So don’t pretend we’re close.”

“You were such a gentle kid, I wondered how you’d even survive as a police officer, but look at you…. Why have you changed so much? ‘Don’t pretend.’ Why are you talking so rudely?”

“I haven’t become rude; I’ve just learned how to distinguish bad people. And wasn’t being rude your specialty, Senior?”

My voice trembled slightly, but I hit back with all the strength I’d cultivated through the trials and tribulations I’d experienced over the years, then turned and walked away. Rumors were already bad enough among my Police University classmates, so I had nothing to fear from even worse stories spreading. The senior’s face, caught in the corner of my eye, looked dumbfounded. That was only natural, as he must only remember the Lee Chaeha from university days.

I saw Prosecutor Joo standing in front of his Mercedes, waiting. I hurried my steps. His face, which looked even more handsome outside, scrutinized me intently.

“Your face has turned bright red, Officer Lee.”

“It’s because of the cold wind.”

“…You really are a terrible liar.”

“It’s the truth.”

“Taepyeong Villa is close to here; why don’t we walk there?”

“That sounds good.”

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my heart, which had started to pound rapidly. I thought I was fine, but the anger quietly rising inside me was a deeper red than my flushed cheeks. As we left the police station together, Prosecutor Joo scanned me, lips pressed tightly together, and sighed.

“It’s that bastard, isn’t it? The one who spread rumors about you.”

“…No.”

“‘No,’ my foot. I’m a veteran prosecutor. I can tell just by looking at someone’s eyes.”

“…”

“What did you say that bastard’s name was? You mentioned it earlier, but I forgot. I didn’t feel the need to remember it.”

“Baek Young-jun. It doesn’t matter now since we work in different places.”

Prosecutor Joo even stopped walking to glare at the Danhyeon Police Station door before continuing on his way.

Walking around in a suit, coat, and dress shoes made my body get cold quickly. Because it was minus 10 degrees, white puffs of steam leaked out from between my lips. I toyed with the heat pack in my pocket, then unwrapped the remaining one and held it out to Prosecutor Joo.

“You should use this too, Prosecutor. It’s very cold today.”

He took the heat pack, but instead of putting it in his own clothes, he tucked it back into my coat pocket.

“You use both, Officer Lee.”

“One is plenty.”

“Just take it quietly. Chief Song Haneul isn’t the only one who knows you’re sensitive to the cold. You sit in the office covered by a knee blanket all by yourself, while even Officer No, who is in her 50s, walks around just fine.”

“…Thank you. I will use both.”

Overwhelmed by his nagging, I didn’t refuse further and held the heat packs in both hands.

The murder site was an alleyway in front of Taepyeong Park, a short distance from Taepyeong Villa. It wasn’t as desolate a place as I had thought. Since the time of the crime was around 10 PM, there wouldn’t have been many people, but during the day, quite a few pedestrians walked by.

After assessing the scene, we entered a small supermarket nearby. This was where the police had obtained the alleyway CCTV footage, but since they had only received the file for the day of the incident, I planned to ask for additional footage.

In the supermarket, an elderly man was sitting with a blanket draped over him, just like me, warming himself by a heater. It was a shabby, old-fashioned supermarket with a small room attached to the back—a rare sight these days, but still common in Danhyeon City. After all, it was a city where fields and farmland occupied a larger portion than the downtown area and apartments.

Prosecutor Joo took out his identification and greeted him first.

“Hello, sir. We’re from the prosecutor’s office.”

“Oh, does that mean you’re a Prosecutor?”

“Yes, I am Prosecutor Joo Taeson from the Criminal Division 1 of the Danhyeon Branch Office. You know about the murder case that happened in front of here last week, right? We need more CCTV footage because of that case. Could we take a look?”

“Of course. Take a look. A person died, so I should help.”

“Thank you.”

I looked around discreetly, then brought two packs of the cigarettes Prosecutor Joo frequently smoked and paid for them. Prosecutor Joo looked as if to ask why I was going that far, but the elderly man’s face brightened.

“The pretty young man is kind-hearted, too. Those rude bastards didn’t buy a thing.”

“Who?”

“Who else? The police, of course. I installed the CCTV because there’s a construction material warehouse behind the supermarket. Petty thieves keep breaking into it, but the police can’t catch them. I wish a Prosecutor would give them a stern talking-to.”

A construction material warehouse. I finally understood why there was a privately-funded CCTV installed in front of this shabby supermarket.

“Those days are long gone.”

Prosecutor Joo replied somewhat coldly, opened the laptop where the CCTV footage was stored, and we sat side-by-side on the small wooden floor in the room to look through the footage.

The supermarket had more customers than I expected. Every time a customer came in, a biting wind blew through, making my legs ache. I thought of the blanket I had left at the office but clutched the heat pack in silence.

The customers glanced once or twice at the two men crumpled in the corner. Prosecutor Joo’s appearance seemed to draw even more attention. As I was fast-forwarding through the footage from the day before the incident, I spotted a familiar sight and pressed the spacebar to freeze the screen.

“Prosecutor, do you see that line of white light at the bottom of the camera? It’s been visible since 30 minutes ago.”

He narrowed his eyes and looked closely at the spot I pointed out.

“You’re right. It’s faint, but there is a light.”

“This was also captured by the camera on the day of the incident.”

Prosecutor Joo took his eyes off the monitor and looked at me. His gaze was so intense it was almost intimidating, but I nodded as a sign of affirmation and parted my lips.

“If the former gangster was really hired to commit murder, he would have waited in ambush every day to look for the right opportunity. But the fact that the light is just a faint line bothers me a bit. If he had waited for the victim in a car, we would see two lines of headlight beams and the light would be much brighter… Could it be a flashlight?”

We thought about it for a long time. After a long silence, it was Prosecutor Joo who offered the first solution.

“Could it be a motorcycle or a bicycle with a headlight? That would produce a single line of light. And it would be relatively less bright, too.”

He was right. Those were the only two modes of transportation that would produce a single beam of light. I was deeply impressed inside by his plausible deduction.

“As you said, Prosecutor, it must be one of those two.”

“Since the police already confirmed the alibis of all the vehicles that passed through the scene on the day of the incident, it is reasonable to assume it was a motorcycle or a bicycle.”

“That’s true. They usually focus on cars, after all.”

“You discovered it well, Officer Lee. It was so faint, it would have been easy to miss.”

“Thank you.”

I replayed the CCTV footage I had reviewed several times last night in my mind, trying to recall if I had seen any bicycles or motorcycles. Then, I remembered a white bicycle that had been captured by a CCTV camera one block away. It had looked like a different person because the clothing was different from the perpetrator’s, but if it was a premeditated murder, I had to consider the possibility that he changed clothes in a blind spot.

“Now that I think about it, there was a bicycle captured on other CCTV footage yesterday. It had passed by on other days, too. Every time between 9 PM and 11 PM. It was too dark to see properly, but it had a light.”

“Let’s consider that bicycle a suspect, then.”

Prosecutor Joo thought deeply, then added.

“But Officer Lee, the weather has been cold lately. If he was ambushing because of a murder-for-hire, he would have had to wait for the victim for a long time, so if he traveled by bicycle…”

We simultaneously turned to look at the elderly man. The man, who had been eating a snack while draped in his blanket, widened his eyes. I asked first.

“Sir, you gave a witness statement to the police that you saw the perpetrator on the day of the incident, right?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Have you seen the perpetrator before that?”

“Yes, often. He came and warmed himself by the heater a few times. He even bought hot drinks. I have a good memory.”

Prosecutor Joo made a request before I could.