The Ultimate Inspector, Kang Ji-hyeok - Chapter 56



Only Noblemtl

Episode 56

A prosecutor’s daily life is surprisingly a series of insignificant incidents.

But the victims of those insignificant incidents are in a different situation.

This incident was an ambiguous one.

The female victim, who was rushing up to the entrance for an interview, bumped into the male assailant who was running down and rolled down.

He suffered compound fractures of his collarbone (also known as his clavicle), left knee, and right shoulder blade.

His face was also hit by the stairs, his nose was broken, and five teeth were broken.

This alone was a serious injury that would require more than 18 weeks of recovery.

In addition, he hit the back of his head at the end and has not regained consciousness yet.

“Mr. Jincheol Choi. Do you admit to causing this incident around noon two days ago?”

Most people admit it, but there are bound to be those who complain, saying it is unfair.

Choi Jin-cheol, the unfortunate protagonist of today’s incident, was exactly like that.

“Inspector, I feel really wronged. I just bumped into something while coming down in a hurry.”

“Why did you come down so quickly?”

“I’m afraid I’ll miss the subway.”

Gunja subway station.

As it was a transfer station between lines 5 and 7, he was in a hurry to get off the subway so as not to miss it, but he bumped into the victim, Ha Su-yeon, who was coming up.

“The victim is Ha Su-yeon. She graduated from college this year and was on her way up for an interview.”

He looks at him and says he is without sin.

This is a face that really shows resentment.

He kept repeating that he just happened to bump into her.

Dalgrak.

The pen in front of me fell down.

“Inspector, I’m truly innocent. I didn’t even hit you on purpose······.”

Swish.

I quickly lowered my head and picked up the pen.

‘Huh? Look at this kid.’

At that moment, I saw that his right foot was shaking.

He had his hands in his pockets as soon as he entered the interrogation room.

“It’s unfair, Inspector. It’s really unfair······.”

“Mr. Jincheol Choi. Please put both hands on the table.”

“Why are you doing that?”

When I interrupted him and seriously asked him to place his hands on the table, Choi Jin-cheol’s voice changed.

Slightly thin and tapered.

During my time as a detective, I developed a ‘feel’ for investigating numerous people.

Most people tend to become polite when they enter an interrogation room.

But this guy wasn’t like that.

His face was shaking as if he was being treated unfairly.

It didn’t make sense.

My insight clearly sent a signal.

‘He’s a dangerous guy. We need to investigate him properly from now on.’

And he was sitting there with his hands in his pockets. It was obvious that he was trying to hide something.

“Raise both hands.”

Choi Jin-cheol suddenly shut his mouth.

The guy who was whining and complaining just a moment ago has become heavy.

“Is it okay to upload it like this?”

‘Is it okay to raise it like this? It’s just a matter of raising your hand······.’

chuck.

He raised both hands, making fists and showing the backs of his hands.

Kwak.

I took his hand and pressed it between my thumb and index finger.

“Ah, it hurts.”

“If you open your hand, it won’t hurt, right?”

He spread his hands with a pained look on his face.

Quaak.

I turned my hand around and placed it on the table with my palm facing up.

“You have tattoos on both wrists.”

He didn’t answer.

On the left wrist is a strong black and white SY.

On her right hand was a flower tattoo with a pink tint.

It looked quite detailed and pretty.

“Did you get this tattoo done at a hospital?”

“Who gets tattoos in a hospital? I got them done in Thailand a year ago.”

“In Thailand?”

“yes.”

“What’s the name of the store?”

“I don’t know. How do I know? I just did it while hanging out with my friends.”

He raised his hand so that it was clearly visible on the screen while he was recording.

“What is this flower on your right wrist?”

“Zenithia.”

“You mean the zinnia?”

The tattoo on his right hand was of a pink flower, but after hearing the story, I realized it was a zinnia.

grasp.

He quickly put his hand back down.

“Why did you get a tattoo?”

He glared at me with his mouth shut.

“Mr. Jin-cheol Choi. We are currently investigating the case. Please answer. Why did you get the tattoo?”

Squeak.

The chair he was sitting on moved backwards with a noise.

chuck.

I crossed my legs and folded my arms over my head.

‘What, all of a sudden? This pose is a strong will to not talk······.’

Jincheol Choi spoke seriously, his eyebrows furrowed.

“I will exercise my right to remain silent. Please call a lawyer.”

“suddenly?”

“Yes. Suddenly. The inspector will be held responsible for the violent action of grabbing my wrist and turning me around.”

Sigh.

Jincheol Choi took out a business card from his bosom and placed it on the table.

“···You say it’s unfair? Didn’t you say that it wasn’t something you did on purpose, but that it was an accident that happened when you were in a hurry to get off the subway because you thought you might miss it?”

Jincheol Choi kept his mouth shut and tapped the business card with his finger.

“I won’t answer. Please call a lawyer.”

“Mr. Jin-cheol Choi. I think this is a bad choice. If I start investigating this case, you will definitely be punished by the law.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Didn’t you say you would exercise your right to remain silent? Shut your mouth.”

Jincheol Choi looked a little surprised.

I put down my phone and picked up the business card on the table.

“Call me. Call a lawyer. Jincheol Choi.”

The main character of the business card was Kim & Joe Law Firm.

Jincheol Choi called the young lawyer from Kim & Joe.

The investigation was conducted again with the presence of a lawyer he had called, but he continued to protest his innocence to the end.

“Go.”

“yes?”

“You can just go.”

The lawyer looks at me.

It seemed like he was checking if it was really okay to go.

widely.

I slapped the table with my palm and told him exactly what I was talking about.

“Jincheol Choi. The prosecution will now begin a formal investigation. Any subsequent legal action will be taken through your lawyer.”

He said, holding up a business card.

[Attorney Hyun-gyu Kim of Kim & Joe Law Firm]

Attorney Kim Hyeon-gyu was a neat-looking man in his early 30s.

I’ve known him since his days as a detective.

Unlike Cheon Je-gu, he was not a great lawyer.

He is now a true rookie who has just finished working as a prosecutor at Chuncheon District Public Prosecutors’ Office for two years and joined Kim & Joe Law Firm one year later.

“Attorney Kim Hyeon-gyu.”

“yes?”

“Please defend yourself properly. I intend to do everything in my power to tie up Mr. Choi Jin-cheol with the charge of intentional murder.”

He flinched slightly, but took Choi Jin-cheol out without saying anything.

“What crime did you commit, Choi Jin-cheol?”

I thought it was nothing special.

I thought it was just an ‘unlucky incident’ that happened when I accidentally bumped into someone on the subway stairs.

But I still don’t believe in coincidences.

We have seen countless times that crime is more difficult to commit by accident.

There may be no reason, but you can’t accidentally stab someone with a knife, and you can’t accidentally start an arson.

“The presumption of innocence is difficult.”

If a crime has occurred, someone has been harmed.

Punishing the perpetrator with the sword of ‘law’ for the sake of the victim.

That’s why I became a prosecutor.

* * *

I started by extracting information about Jincheol Choi.

After a long time, his name and photo were placed in the center of the whiteboard.

A red thread was connected and attached to the subway station.

[Jincheol Choi: 29 years old. Preparing to become a tax official after graduating from college]

[One room near Yeoksam Station]

[Gunja Station: Coming down from the scene of the incident]

[Ha Su-yeon: Victim, 29 years old]

“Detective Kim Ji-cheol. Gather CCTV footage from around Gunja Station.”

“All right.”

Kim Ji-cheol went out to secure CCTV footage of the incident scene.

Then I looked at Kim Hye-jin and said.

“Ask around Choi Jin-cheol and Ha Su-yeon. Focus on his friends······. There will probably be some friends who overlap with them. Check with those people too.”

“Overlapping? Why is that?”

“We both graduated from the same university.”

I marked the university he graduated from in red on Jincheol Choi’s profile.

“Geonjin University?”

“Choi Jin-cheol graduated from the Department of Business Administration at Konkuk University, and Ha Su-yeon graduated from the Department of Urban Studies. If you look into the teaching assistants of the two departments, you’ll definitely find some overlap.”

I wrote the name of the university between the two on the whiteboard.

[Geonjin University]

And then I drew a blue line towards the two people.

“Let’s start by digging into the common denominator between the victim and the perpetrator.”

Kim Hye-jin nodded.

“All right.”

“Please.”

She went out carrying a small, pen-shaped recorder.

“A pen-shaped recorder in a notebook······. Hyejin is becoming a pretty good detective, isn’t she?”

I smiled and muttered while looking at her back.

widely.

I glared at the whiteboard, tapping my fingers.

“You say you happened to bump into each other while going down? There’s such a clear commonality, so it couldn’t have been a coincidence.”

Hyuna Lee handed over the documents.

“I pulled out Attorney Kim Hyun-gyu’s data. I thought you might need it.”

“thank you.”

“But, have you not heard from Prosecutor Choi Kang-han lately?”

“Prosecutor Choi? No, he’s not here.”

“Yes. A strange current was detected from the special forces.”

I looked at HyunA with my iced Americano in my mouth. I wasn’t the type to bring up a story without a reason, so I became curious.

“What kind of atmosphere?”

“It was like a whirlpool?”

“swirl?”

“Yes. I think the Special Investigation Unit feels that there is something strange about the case being handled by the Western District Prosecutors’ Office.”

“Really? I’m sure Chief Prosecutor Lee Cheol-jung will handle it well.”

“That······. I heard from your office that Prosecutor Kang Ji-hyeok’s name is being mentioned here and there······.”

“My story?”

“Yes. I think they’re saying we need to bring Prosecutor Kang Ji-hyeok to the special unit.”

“Would the special forces want a second-year rookie?”

“The scale of the case you solved shook up South Korea, didn’t it?”

“It was originally a small incident. It got bigger as I dug deeper······.”

“That’s what special forces do.”

Huruk.

The bitter aftertaste of iced Americano left a sour taste hidden on my tongue.

“Is this coffee good?”

“Thank goodness. That’s Ethiopian coffee that my boyfriend gave me as a gift.”

“Is it delicious?”

“Right? My boyfriend knows a lot about coffee.”

I was also surprised to learn that Secretary Lee Hyeon-a had a boyfriend.

I thought he was probably a cool guy.

“Okay, I’ll take a good look at this document.”

“take care.”

The documents regarding attorney Kim Hyeon-gyu were well organized.

It was clearly organized, from the cases he solved while he was a prosecutor to the trials he won and lost.

“He was more meticulous than I thought. When he was a prosecutor, he······. Huh?”

The last case he was in charge of caught my eye.

“So it was an accident that happened while trying to hit a local construction company. Attorney Kim Hyeon-gyu······.”

Before taking off his prosecutor’s clothes, he had touched Wonju Pharmaceutical, the largest pharmaceutical company in Gangwon Province.

“It’s a pharmaceutical company located in Wonju, so why is it being investigated by the Chuncheon District Prosecutors’ Office… Wonju? That’s where Yeonsan University Hospital is located.”

‘Rebate case between Yeonsan University Hospital and Wonju Pharmaceutical’.

It was the last case he was investigating, and it was eventually closed with a ‘not guilty’ verdict without even being indicted.

“Have you given up on the investigation? Or have you been given up on······.”

I joined Kim & Joe Law Firm right after I took off my prosecutor’s uniform.

“Maybe it was a condition of turning a blind eye? Kim & Joe Law Firm······.”

I didn’t like him.

It would be natural that he could never get better as an opposing lawyer, but that wasn’t the case for Cheon Je-gu.

“Who started this rebate scandal in the first place?”

This case was a cognitive investigation.

This kickback case involved two of the greatest powers a prosecutor could have.

One is the power to conduct investigations through cognition.

Another one is the power to initiate an investigation and not prosecute.

“I know. There are no coincidences in crime. In the end, when Kim Hyun-gyu was at the Chuncheon District Prosecutors’ Office, he brought up the Wonju rebate case as a cognitive investigation and then completely covered it up with ‘no indictment’?”

Kuk.

I crumpled up Attorney Kim Hyeon-gyu’s profile document by hand.

“This guy is a real son of a bitch.”

I wanted to win this trial.

My first goal was to put Choi Jin-cheol in jail, and my second goal was to destroy Kim Hyeon-gyu.

* * *

Late at night, investigators came into the office one by one.

“We have secured CCTV footage around Gunja Station.”

Ji-cheol said as he put down the USB.

“Let’s check the CCTV near Gunja Station first. And copy one of them.”

“Understood, Inspector.”

Hyejin handed over the coffee she had brought along and put down the recorder.

“Oh. Thanks! Latte, right?”

“Yes. The detective says latte. The prosecutor says ah.”

She was drinking peach tea as always.

“There are only three of us, but none of our tastes overlap.”

“Inspector. But, is there anyone whose tastes overlap with mine?”

Hyejin put the peach tea in her mouth and said as if it was a new experience.

“The perpetrator and the victim. I heard they were known as sticklers throughout college. They were always stuck together.”