The Prosecutor’s Office’s Proposal Chapter 74

“Officer Lee, do you just grab hands whenever Ahn Dongjin asks for a handshake? You know that until the trial results are out, you are not supposed to have physical contact with anyone—suspect, victim, or witness.”

Prosecutor Joo scolded me in a low, composed voice. For a moment, I realized my mistake. I silently rubbed my empty palm with my fingertips and bowed my head slightly toward Prosecutor Joo. I had to acknowledge my fault.

“…I apologize.”

“It’s fortunate there were no witnesses. If Lee Hyunsu’s attorney finds out about this, it could become an issue they use against us. Try using your head before you act, instead of thinking about being friendly.”

“…Yes, I will correct that.”

“And don’t react emotionally to the statements just because they are the victims’ parents. Don’t try to console them, either. Your priority is to focus on finding anything strange in their statements. It hasn’t been definitively concluded who the culprit is yet. Even the lie detector results came out opposite to the physical evidence. Don’t get complacent just because the evidence seems certain.”

“I am aware.”

“Are you? I thought Officer Lee didn’t know.”

The reason his scolding felt a bit more hurtful than usual must be because I had slept with Prosecutor Joo.

He kissed me and touched my skin all weekend as if he wouldn’t let me go, and then told me to meet him on Wednesday because he couldn’t wait. He seemed cold, as if he only felt desire for my body and didn’t care about my emotions. I suppose that is what a relationship like this—a sex partner—is. A relationship where you resolve each other’s desires without sharing emotions.

I was just working as usual, but I felt a tightness in my chest and a lump in my throat for no reason, so I struggled to swallow and quietly gathered the documents. I had been worried he would make it obvious that he was meeting me, but the only person who had truly changed was me.

I should have expected it sooner. I was the one who had respected and given my heart to Prosecutor Joo for a long time, and I knew that once we formed a relationship, the tilt of the scales would only become steeper.

There’s no need to feel hurt; in the end, we aren’t anything to each other.

I tried hard to think that way, but I couldn’t sincerely admit that a relationship where we could kiss and have sex meant nothing.

There was no particular physical contact with him while heading to the interrogation room. Our hands brushed lightly while walking side by side in the hallway, but that was it. I touched my mouth, where it had torn and healed, and Prosecutor Joo looked as if his mind was completely filled with the case.

I spend all day just watching his mood. I was slightly disappointed in myself for being unprofessional. The breakwater that had collapsed because it couldn’t withstand the flooding waves still hadn’t been restored.

After checking the equipment settings in the interrogation room, he immediately began by asking about interrogation strategy.

“Tell me what you’ve thought of for our interrogation strategy.”

Although I was feeling hurt inside, I didn’t show it on the outside and looked up to meet his eyes. It was time to focus straight on work again. Because there was nothing as important as suspect interrogation.

Even if I make mistakes, I do my assigned work properly. That was the pride that sustained me.

I answered him calmly.

“I was thinking, perhaps we could start by yelling and pushing him hard.”

“Good. I’ll take that role. Even if Officer Lee gets angry, you’re not scary at all.”

It was true, but my lips puffed out slightly. Prosecutor Joo then asked another question.

“What was it that bothered you in the statements from Ahn Dongjin and Han Sujin earlier?”

“I couldn’t find any trace of mourning for their children in Ahn Dongjin.”

“Anything else besides that?”

“…”

“Nothing?”

His voice as he asked back was dry. When I chewed over the two people’s statements coldly, there were indeed points that bothered me, but they felt like mere speculation. I was curious about Prosecutor Joo’s judgment.

“How many did you find, Prosecutor?”

“Four.”

Four.

I only had two.

“I had two.”

“You seemed so eager to console them, but it seems some strange parts still grazed your ears. What was strange?”

“First, the time Ahn Dongjin left for the construction site. If we assume he committed the murder quickly and left for the construction site, the father’s alibi is broken.”

“Next.”

“Second, Han Sujin did not perform CPR on her second daughter. Since her occupation is a nursing assistant, she should know how to do CPR, and there are countless parents who beg doctors to perform CPR even on children who have been dead for hours, so it was strange that she gave up as soon as she judged they were dead. Moreover, the second child died of suffocation, so there were no external wounds.”

“Because of the electric blanket, the body would have still been warm. As if they were alive and body heat remained.”

“That’s why it’s even stranger. However, since she found the first child, who was stabbed to death, first, she might have given up on the second one quickly.”

“Do you want to know the other two now?”

No matter how long I thought about it, no other suspicious points came to mind.

“Could you please tell me, Prosecutor?”

“Look for them yourself after reading Ahn Dongjin and Han Sujin’s statements later. You’re going to work overtime at night anyway, so you have plenty of time to work.”

He smiled, pulling at the corners of his mouth.

I have no luck with bosses.

Now I wasn’t just hurt; I was slightly angry.

What does it matter if he is a good boss to Chief Song and Officer No, when he isn’t to me?

Since he is a capable and efficient person, he might not be a “bad” boss, but it was a fact that he was exceptionally cold only to me, so I couldn’t see him as good, either. The area around my heart felt like it was boiling hot, but I suppressed the heat as I had been taught my whole life. He looked at my sulky face, chuckled, and lightly ruffled my hair.

What if someone sees us?

I grumbled to myself, but I didn’t feel like avoiding it. I barely held onto my heart, which tried to float up like hair standing on end for a moment.

We sat side by side and met the suspect brought in by the correctional officer. Since the suspect was a high school classmate of the victims’ parents, he was the same age, in his mid-40s.

As soon as the interrogation started and I finished confirming his personal information, the suspect vehemently expressed his injustice.

“Prosecutor! I didn’t do it. Please, believe me.”

Prosecutor Joo, as planned, gave him no room and countered immediately.

“A cigarette butt with your saliva was found in the front yard, and a knife with the first child’s blood was collected from your house, Lee Hyunsu. Since you have a criminal record for robbery, you already know it will be hard to overturn this physical evidence, and you know well that the more you deny it, the more your sentence will increase.”

“Ah, seriously….”

“If you have even a little bit of regret toward your friend’s couple, just confess now. You killed young children—do you have no shred of guilt?”

Both his expression while questioning and his voice were as cold as ice, but Lee Hyunsu did not back down.

“No! It’s not me, please, just investigate the children’s father. Ahn Dongjin has a lot of debt, you know. He killed them clearly to use the children’s insurance money and framed me! He even asked me if I didn’t want to steal again with him!”

The suspect insisted, pouring out his resentment. Prosecutor Joo’s and my eyes were busy scrutinizing every single one of the suspect’s facial muscles, complexion, eye movements, and hand gestures, searching for traces of lies.

I handed over the statements of people who had witnessed the children’s father. Ahn Dongjin’s alibi had plenty of room to be broken because of the electric blanket, but there was no need to let the suspect know that fact.

“Lee Hyunsu, Ahn Dongjin worked an overnight shift at a construction site in Chungcheong Province that day. There are more than five witnesses. He left home right before the estimated time of the children’s death.”

“Ahn Dongjin must have done something. Or, or it must be some other robber! I do minor theft, but I don’t kill people. Really. Even when I was punished for robbery in the past, it was because the guy I was robbing a house with suddenly pulled out a knife, so I was unfairly charged with robbery. I was even cut by the knife while trying to stop him. And I know that family’s situation clearly. Ahn Dongjin, that bastard, doesn’t have money, so why would I break into that house to rob it and even commit murder? I know better than anyone that Dongjin and Sujin are penniless.”

“Han Sujin had an income because she is a nursing assistant.”

“How much does a nursing assistant make! I am really being treated unfairly. Can’t my cigarette butt be in that house because we are friends? I don’t remember well, but I think I smoked with Dongjin in the yard once in the past.”

“Is the first child’s blood on your knife because he is your friend’s son, too?”