The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 67

“No, I haven’t.”

“It doesn’t matter even if you sleep.”

The phone returned to my hand along with his indifferent voice. I finished sending my reply and quietly put some sushi into my mouth.

I immediately realized a problem had arisen. Now that we had been intimate, the range of wounds that Mr. Joo’s words and actions could inflict had expanded. It felt as though an uncharted territory within me, which had never been bruised before in my life, was reacting.

Having discovered the only weakness of the shell I was wrapped in, I felt quietly flustered. I couldn’t come up with a witty retort or a proper reply like I usually would. It was only after I moistened my throat once more that I managed to part my lips.

“We are just colleagues.”

“What did you do with Chief Song today?”

“We had lunch and watched a movie. A movie that’s number one in ticket sales these days. Was the title ‘Stowaway’?”

“I see.”

“…Do you really not care?”

I asked, staring straight at Mr. Joo. Mr. Joo did not answer this time and ate his sushi in silence.

We finished the meal, which had become a bit awkward toward the end, and while I was cleaning up, Mr. Joo took an ice cream out of the bag and handed it to me. It was milk-flavored ice cream. I took it with both hands and bowed my head.

“Thank you.”

“I thought things would change after we had sex, but your greeting is so polite. And your tone of voice is just the same now that the fucking is over.”

When it came to sex, his language was truly vulgar. And considering he had insisted that we were just sex partners, how else was I supposed to behave?

It was safer to think that in every aspect except for the fact that we occasionally had sex, everything remained the same as before. Even if it was ridiculous to look for a way to play it safe when we had already invaded each other’s territories.

I tried to react nonchalantly. I had to struggle a bit more than usual to keep up appearances.

“Prosecutor, you don’t usually use swear words in everyday life, so why do you choose to use only those kinds of terms?”

“What? Fucking?”

“Many others besides that.”

“Get used to it. You know better than anyone now—my sexual preferences are dirty.”

I put the ice cream—which was half-melted from not being put in the refrigerator—into a cup and drank it like a milkshake. The snack he had bought me was sweet.

With the dessert nearly finished, I didn’t know what to do in Mr. Joo’s house, and since I had just woken up, I figured it would be hard to fall asleep even if I took a sleep aid, so I decided I should at least do some work.

“I’d like to see the case files.”

“I only said that to tease you.”

“I’m bored. You were going to show me the Lee Gilyoung case files back then.”

“…Isn’t that a bit strange?”

Mr. Joo reacted by furrowing his brows slightly.

“He’s your own father, yet you call him ‘Lee Gilyoung, Lee Gilyoung’ quite easily.”

It was a normal occurrence for me, but I realized it might sound strange to Mr. Joo’s ears. I swallowed a chunk of sweet ice cream and replied.

“That’s to create distance. If I call him by his name, it feels like someone else’s business, and it also lowers the probability of people finding out that I’m his son. People around me also disliked it when I called him ‘Dad.’ So, it became a habit since I was in middle school.”

“You called him by his name because other people disliked it? It was obviously that uncle of yours who disliked it.”

It was a correct guess, so I didn’t feel much like responding.

“You live such a tiring life. The fact that you struggled to get into the violent crimes unit, and the fact that you insisted on coming back to the Prosecutor’s Office.”

“If you hadn’t suggested we re-examine the Lee Gilyoung case, I would have lived more comfortably than I do now.”

“That’s true.”

For some reason, Mr. Joo readily agreed.

“Then let’s go to the study. I’ll show you.”

I thought to myself that I might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire, but I had long since prepared my mind to look into the case. Ever since the moment I told Mr. Joo that I would join in the conspiracy.

Now, I was genuinely curious.

Did Oh Jahyeon incite my father to kill President Kang Woosung?

Did Grandma Park, who was said to be Oh Jahyeon’s personal doctor, help her murder her husband by disguising it as a heart attack, only to be murdered herself three days later to keep her quiet?

Did Oh Jahyeon really purchase philopon from the Koryo-in, Mr. Kim?

The suspicions planted by Mr. Joo ran wild in my head. Reminding myself of the three major questions, I entered the study of Prosecutor Joo Taeson, which had once been the place I had tried to escape from.

“If you have any questions while looking, ask.”

“Should I start by looking at the board?”

“Yeah. There’s also a box full of copied case files.”

To quickly read Mr. Joo’s line of thinking, it seemed better to properly look at the board where he had organized the case summary first.

Mr. Joo flipped the white board around, revealing the back, which was dense with materials and writing. The fact that he turned it over every time, even though he lived alone, seemed to prove his habitual suspiciousness.

The shock of encountering the board for the second time wasn’t as great as the first. I carefully examined the evidence unfavorable to my father first.

“There’s a lot of material suggesting it was someone familiar. There are no signs of forced entry, and the awl was something originally in the house. Who testified that the awl was an item already in the house?”

“The housekeeper who worked there.”

“Did the awl found embedded in his body match the traces of the wounds on President Kang Woosung’s body?”

“I don’t know that. I know the size of the wounds, but there’s no remaining data on the size of the awl.”

“I want to see the statement from President Kang Woosung’s son. And the autopsy report, too.”

Mr. Joo brought a box from inside the study. It was full of copied investigative materials. I swallowed a spoonful of ice cream from my cup and took out the documents. The papers were already filled with Post-it notes Mr. Joo had attached and highlighter marks he had drawn.

President Kang Woosung had two sons. The first was a senior in high school at the time, and the second was a freshman. The names of the sons were redacted in the police report. I rubbed the black marks covering the names with my fingertips, and it looked as if they had been painted over on the copy.

“Did you erase the sons’ names, Prosecutor?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“They were minor witnesses. I thought it would be better to keep them anonymous. It’s also material I took out without authorization.”

It was an understandable explanation. Human rights guidelines were trending toward being heavily reinforced these days.

While I was looking through the investigative materials, Mr. Joo told me about the situation at the time, which I hadn’t known.

“Both sons were at home when President Kang Woosung was murdered. The wife died in a car accident two years ago.”

“The second son heard something at the estimated time of death.”

“Don’t be shocked after reading it. It seems Officer Lee has firmly believed that Lee Gilyoung was innocent.”

Following his warning, as I slowly read through the report, cold sweat began to prickle on my back. The hand holding the paper began to tremble slightly, so I tried to hide it, but his dark eyes were fixed on my hand without fail.

I still wanted to believe that my father couldn’t have done it, but the report before my eyes screamed at me. That I, too, was as foolish and selfish as any other perpetrator’s family. My heart began to pound against my chest, making my body vibrate loudly.

Mr. Joo, instead of me, who couldn’t bring myself to part my lips, spoke first.

“The second son, who was a light sleeper, said he heard the door open and close while he was sleeping. Four times in total. The sound of the keypad being pressed occurred twice. In other words, the perpetrator entered by pressing the password.”

“People who knew the password besides the family were….”

“Only the driver.”

My father had no choice but to know the password to President Kang Woosung’s house. Because he frequently dropped off the drunk casino president at his home. I had seen it several times myself, and he had often bought me clothes or given me pocket money, bragging about the bonuses he received as a result.

“…So that’s why you were convinced that Lee Gilyoung was the perpetrator. A familiar person who could enter by typing in the password, who knew where the awl was in the house, and who wouldn’t struggle with President Kang Woosung.”

“That’s right. Do you know why the sound of the door opening and closing was heard four times?”

“Once when dropping President Kang Woosung off at home, once when Lee Gilyoung left, once when he decided to commit the crime and returned, and once when he exited.”

“Exactly.”

“But there’s definitely a possibility that the password was exposed to other people….”

A firm voice cut me off before I could finish speaking.

“Read the statement on the second page from the back.”

In the spot Mr. Joo kindly pointed out, it was written that Lee Gilyoung, who was practically President Kang Woosung’s personal secretary, had stopped by the house around lunchtime at President Kang Woosung’s direction to change the password on the day of the incident.