The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 72

“Wait, what are you saying? Where in our prosecutor’s office would you find someone as active as me?”

At Chief Song’s retort, Officer No glanced at Prosecutor Joo and said.

“I think the Prosecutor is the one who exercises the most.”

Prosecutor Joo usually chooses to ignore things when Chief Song and I are talking, but since he respects his elders, he replied faithfully to what Officer No said.

“I only exercise.”

“That is being active.”

“I don’t meet anyone. …Ah, one person has appeared.”

It was shocking news to Officer No, and a bombshell statement to me. My face turned uncontrollably bright red, but the excited Officer No did not notice my change.

“Prosecutor, did you get a girlfriend?”

“No. It’s a man.”

The beating of my heart was transmitted to the tips of my fingers. Both Chief Song and Officer No failed to notice the implications in his words and simultaneously wore expressions of disappointment. Officer No, the only one among us who could say unpleasant things to Prosecutor Joo, complained.

“Hey, what is this? Why are you saying things so confusingly? You could have just said you met a friend. You’ve ruined the mood.”

“It would be faster for Officer No’s sons to hold their weddings than for me to do that. Or how about you, Chief Song?”

“I think that’s wrong for me too, Prosecutor.”

Chief Song replied playfully and looked at me. Thinking my face might still be red, I lowered my eyes slowly without any sign of rushing as much as possible and put the thimble on my finger.

I hated that I was overly self-conscious about what Prosecutor Joo had just said. Even though I had ended up as a mere convenient sex partner rather than a lover, a result of not being able to control my emotions. Yet, in the end, I was the one playing the role of showing it at the office, and it felt as if Prosecutor Joo had become the one cracking relaxed jokes. My heart sank.

Someone knocked on the door of the prosecutor’s office, where intimate conversations were taking place without me. The person who opened the door was the personnel officer in charge of assignments, who delivers case files every morning.

“Prosecutor Joo Taeson, hello. A case where the suspect has been sent over has just been assigned to Room 512.”

When a suspect is referred by the police, all investigations of cases in progress are temporarily suspended. Cases where the suspect was detained and sent over were always the top priority. Even if additional evidence could be reinforced later, one had to establish a large framework early on when scanning the case and taking statements.

Since I had a lot of work, I secretly hoped he would give it to Chief Song, but since Chief Song had handled a detention investigation case last week, I thought it might be my turn this time. It was an unspoken rule in our office to take turns handling detention investigations.

After the officer left and Prosecutor Joo checked the referral opinion, he chose me as expected.

“Officer Lee and I will handle this case. Since it’s a case that has already hit the media once, it would be good to pay attention. It was reported quite heavily in the Danhyeon Newspaper. It’s a local paper, but since there is room for it to be reported even more widely, we must be careful. Since the suspect agreed to be interrogated in the video recording room, please check the schedule for the interrogation room.”

“Yes, Prosecutor.”

“Since you’ve already confirmed the place of purchase for the tape in the case you’re currently looking at, and there’s nothing left to do but wait for the National Forensic Service’s tape cut edge analysis results, let’s focus on this case. When the National Forensic Service contacts us, you just need to send the analysis report additionally. You wrote the statement contents and the indictment opinion well, so there is nothing to touch; don’t edit it further.”

I was recognized for the first time in a while. I lowered my head briefly and answered.

“Understood.”

“Review the documents with me.”

“Yes.”

We went into the inner office together and sat with the documents between us. His long fingertips pushed the referral opinion toward me. He said while taking out other investigative materials.

“Officer Lee is good at lying.”

“What do you mean by….”

“You said your lips were chapped because it was cold. I was surprised because you said it without a moment’s hesitation.”

“It’s not a lie…. Can’t an adult at least make up an excuse for that much?”

“You have an unexpectedly brazen side to you.”

I pressed my lips together tightly, but he didn’t seem to care.

“Did you eat lunch? You went to the stationery store during lunchtime, didn’t you?”

“There was a snack bar next door, so I bought and ate some rice cake skewers.”

“Can that be lunch? Eat something hearty. You’re too thin.”

It was nagging, and I didn’t know if it was out of concern or a scolding. It didn’t seem like the kind of worry to come from someone who had forced me to work overtime without giving me time to eat.

I didn’t want to be emotionally swayed, so I lowered my head and quickly scanned the referral opinion. A 12-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl. It was a case where two siblings were murdered. The culprit was a friend of the children’s father and a person with a criminal record for robbery. A case where children died is particularly heavier on the heart.

“They are so young.”

“They are at an age too young to be murdered, and too young to die.”

We read the materials in silence. The father had gone on a business trip to a construction site in the provinces, and the mother had returned late at night after visiting her older sister’s house for the first time in a while, only to discover the bodies.

“Aren’t the kids too young for both parents to be away from home in the evening?”

Prosecutor Joo asked. Even though I don’t have siblings, I had many memories of falling asleep alone around that time, so I didn’t think it was such an strange thing. It’s a matter that changes depending on the home environment and atmosphere.

“Since the oldest is in the 5th grade of elementary school, it seems possible. The kids might have even been excited that their parents came home late. It’s an age where they can sufficiently prepare their own meals.”

“Is that so. Well, it’s not like the parents stayed out overnight.”

“The culprit hasn’t confessed. Even though the physical evidence is this clear.”

“The police used a lie detector, but… the suspect denying the crime came out as a truthful reaction. Could he be a psychopath?”

Psychopaths can deceive lie detectors.

“The design of the lie detector questions might have been poor, too.”

“We must get a confession no matter what. If this person is indeed the culprit.”

Physical evidence, confession, motive for the crime.

The more meticulously one prepares these three elements, the higher the prosecution’s chances of winning in court.

There are cases where a guilty verdict is reached even if physical evidence is insufficient if the motive is clear, and if the physical evidence is perfect, guilt is recognized even without a confession. However, trials were always unpredictable, and there were many strange judges who had lost their sense of reality, so it was best to prepare the three as perfectly as possible. If one wants to prevent the culprit from being released into society. That is why Prosecutor Joo secured the physical evidence himself this morning, telling me to compare the tape cut edges.

“But the method of murdering the siblings is different. The first son was killed with a knife, and the second daughter was suffocated by a pillow. They even turned on the electric blanket.”

“The temperature of the electric blanket was set to 50 degrees, but it seems the culprit did this on purpose. To interfere with finding the estimated time of death. In fact, the estimated time of death came out with too wide a range.”

“But why on earth did he use different ways to kill the children? Usually, they kill using the same method.”

“That’s right. Why did he kill the first and the second differently? There must be a reason.”

We were lost in thought for a moment, but we couldn’t find the answer in that brief time.

“It seems like an important factor to understand the case properly.”

“I agree. The traces of searching are also clumsy. To the point where I wonder if the robbery motive was really true.”

“The police referred it with an opinion of robbery and murder, but….”

“It might not be.”

We scrutinized the clumsy search traces where items were just scattered and the two different murder methods. It was strange that the search traces of a person with a criminal record for robbery were this awkward.

Just then, along with a knock, Officer No poked his face through the gap in the door.

“The parents of the victim in the case you are looking at now are here. Should I tell them to come back next time?”

Prosecutor Joo shook his head.

“No. Tell them to come in.”

Prosecutor Joo and I returned the materials we had almost finished reviewing to the envelope, stood up, and greeted the victim’s parents. The husband was supporting his wife, who was unable to steady herself while shedding tears, as they entered the attached office.

I knew from looking at the materials that the couple was a couple of the same age in their mid-40s, but the husband, Ahn Dong-jin, who worked at a construction site, looked much older. He looked to be in his mid-50s, and his fingernails and the back of his neck were dirty with black grime.