The Ultimate Inspector, Kang Ji-hyeok - Chapter 72



Only Noblemtl

“Kang Ji-hyeok. Who the hell are you?”

“Prosecutor of the Republic of Korea.”

Lee Han-soo got up from his seat with a face like he had chewed shit.

I looked at him and asked.

“Isn’t this a favor you came to ask? Should I also hand over the cash I brought in my bosom?”

“···My brother is innocent.”

“That is a matter for the judge to decide.”

“This kid······.”

“If you’re going to talk like that, then go back.”

He stared out the window and smiled bitterly.

“It looks like you have no intention of changing your decision······.”

“Criminals should be completely isolated from society. That’s my belief.”

“completely?”

“Yes. I plan on hitting him for at least 26 years, and depending on the results of the investigation, I’m considering life imprisonment. Make sure to have a meal with your little brother and say hello to him.”

Kwak.

Lee Han-soo clenched his fist.

So strong that you can see the veins.

“When your name comes up in court, I’ll conduct a proper investigation. For now, don’t worry and just take care of your little brother.”

Lee Han-soo closed his eyes at my words and left the examination room.

I came back and sat down only after checking his back as he left.

I took a sip of the remaining coffee.

“Thank you for the coffee, you son of a bitch. It woke me up.”

The door opened and Hyuna came in.

He said, handing over the documents.

“Your Honor, the trial date has been set. It’s in a month.”

“okay.”

The trial date has finally been set.

Now Lee Hyun-joo will be exposed in court.

Afterwards, Hyejin passed on the information she received from the National Forensic Service.

“The cause of death was gas intoxication and propofol overdose.”

“It’s the same as the incident report.”

My eyes stopped moving as I was looking at the National Institute of Scientific Investigation data.

“There’s a wound on your shoulder?”

“I asked him too, and he said it might have been because the seat belt was too tight.”

“Seat belt?”

“Yes. They say that the marks on the neck and shoulders were a bit of flesh stuck from the seat belt.”

This was something that wasn’t in the previous report.

This was the result of asking for a recheck of the car used in the incident.

“At first, they thought it was a suicide, so they thought it was nothing serious, saying it was just a scratch from the seat belt as the person trying to escape.”

“I see. People who are trying to commit suicide sometimes escape like that.”

“It’s probably a sign that Ji-in-hu got caught in the seat belt while moving too quickly.”

I picked up the cell phone.

“Detective Kim. Where are you?”

– I’m exploring the area and heading to the office. I’ll be there in 10 minutes.

“Good. Call me when you get there. We’ll leave right away.”

– Where are you leaving from?

“Going to the scene.”

A month before the trial, I decided to go to the scene.

The scene speaks for itself.

It was my style to have to see the beginning and the end of a crime.

– Okay, sir.

* * *

In a forest in Chungcheong Province.

“This road doesn’t even show up on the navigation system.”

“It’s not a road. It’s a place where you have to force yourself to go up the mountain.”

It was a narrow, bumpy mountain path that went up with difficulty.

There was still a police line with no trespassing signs.

Although it was torn apart by the wind here and there, it was rumored to be a place where people died, so the townspeople avoided it.

“Stop the car and walk from here.”

Ji-cheol parked his car about 100 meters away from the scene of the incident.

“You’re not even a detective, so why are you so obsessed with the scene?”

“I’ve been saying this since my days as a military prosecutor. Everything starts in the field.”

“I guess it’s a little different this time?”

“For this case, I’m going to input the information in my head and then check it out on site.”

Damn it.

Damn it.

The forest was eerie and deserted when no one was there.

It was a quiet place, although the occasional chirping of birds could be heard.

‘How did Lee Hyun-joo know about a place like this?’

The tire tracks of the car were visible.

Fortunately, it hasn’t rained since the incident, so the area has been dry enough to warrant a forest fire risk notice.

Thanks to this, the scene of the incident was preserved with almost no damage.

“It moved here.”

I squatted down and checked the tire tracks. This was a photo that was already in the incident report.

“It’s dug pretty deep.”

“It’s deeper than it looks in the picture.”

I took pictures of the tire tracks and checked their depth. I reached the tree where the car was stuck.

They drove the three trees deep enough to bend sideways.

“It dug in hard between the three trees.”

“That’s right. I guess you moved quite meticulously.”

The side of the tree was badly scratched.

It was evidence that the car had been forced into the hole.

“He attempted suicide by sitting in the front seat, so this is the front seat.”

Broken glass was scattered on the floor.

“According to the report, when Hyunju woke up, she took off her high heels and hit the glass with them.”

There were footprints of high heels all around.

That’s to be expected, since these are high heels with very long heels.

“She definitely came out wearing high heels and walked somewhere.”

Following the trail of high heels, we headed toward the empty lot where our car was parked.

Staggering.

“Be careful. It’s a slippery, soft downhill slope, and dangerous.”

“Detective Kim, be careful.”

The way down was harder because it was a downhill slope. Ji-cheol and I went down carefully, almost falling.

“The one who reported it to 119 was Lee Hyeon-ju, and did she report it right here?”

I realized that another piece of evidence was missing.

I called Kim Hye-jin right away.

“Get the audio file of Lee Hyun-joo’s report to 119 at the time of the incident.”

– Okay. Wasn’t that in the investigative report?

“Yeah. It wasn’t in any of the evidence. I missed it too.”

– Okay, sir.

Finally, I looked around the scene of the incident.

In a dense forest.

Even the way up was a dirt road.

I noticed where our car was parked.

“It’s a good place to park your car.”

“That’s right.”

The ground was moderately and firmly leveled, making it better for parking than other places.

“It’s amazing that there’s such a perfect place to park in the middle of a forest like this.”

widely.

widely.

I step on the floor.

I looked around again.

“Come to think of it. There are some areas around this incident where there are no grass, right?”

“okay.”

Thud thud.

I looked around and checked.

Then I discovered a few places that seemed strangely uncomfortable.

“There are traces of the ground having been dug up and turned over not long ago.”

“I see. It’s similar to what the military does when they build a fort and cover it with dirt.”

“Yeah. The soil underneath is raised, so the color is a bit different. It’s exactly the same feeling.”

I took a picture.

There were several lands like that.

I called Hyuna on my cell phone.

“This officer. I’m at the scene of the crime right now. Get a copy of the registry around here. Within a 1km radius of the scene of the crime.”

– Okay, sir.

“Please provide me with all transaction data for the past 10 years.”

After talking to Hyun-ah, Ji-cheol asked me with a bewildered face.

“Why do you suddenly want a copy of the land register?”

“I have a feeling it’ll be expensive since it’s an abandoned land in a mountainous area.”

“yes?”

“I thought it was probably land that people from Seoul had invested in.”

Ji-cheol had a puzzled look on his face.

Bam.

He said this while patting Ji-cheol on the shoulder.

“Let’s go back to the office.”

“All right.”

“I had to go out and see for myself.”

“Is that so?”

We got back in the car and headed back to Seoul.

* * *

All investigative materials for the case were reviewed and a report was prepared.

Fortunately, Hajin was recognized for his contributions, and CCTV footage showed the hacker aiming for Hajin’s partner’s neck with a mountaineering knife.

[Revealed to have shot a hacker who was trying to kill his partner]

[The police are internally promoting Senior Superintendent Kim Ha-jin by one rank]

[Appears to have attempted to hack into police internal criminal records to revise criminal records]

[It was also shocking to find out that the Russian mafia was changed to a normal foreign student]

[The hacker’s hidden crime was revealed during the investigation. It was shocking to find out that he had hacked the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives and embezzled 800 million won]

The atmosphere has changed.

The black dark storm was committing numerous crimes.

This incident has changed our perception of hacking, which can occur as systems transition to digital.

“We promise to strengthen the security of important domestic information, including that of the National Police Agency.”

Eventually, the Prime Minister came forward, acknowledged the problems caused by this incident, and announced that security would be strengthened quickly.

In this way, Hajin transformed into a hero who protected his colleagues within the police force and punished malicious hackers.

Hyejin and I said that we were glad that Hajin was doing well.

He made such great strides within the police force.

Hajin has grown more than I knew.

‘Thank goodness. I was worried that I might have leaked the PC room information to Hajin, but it turned out that leaking the information actually turned out to be a big benefit.’

I felt relieved in another sense.

My choice changed the course of history for another great evil.

Also, Hajin’s fate changed.

Wheein.

Just then, a message arrived from Hajin.

[Thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to deal with the hacker. I apologize for not contacting you for a while because I was afraid of causing unnecessary misunderstandings.]

That was fortunate.

If my former partner takes a position in the police force, I will have another collaborator in my revenge.

“Hajin-ah. Grow up more. Grow big enough to be a strength to me.”

I replied to him.

[Let’s have a glass of soju sometime soon.]

After calming down like that, I focused on the case again.

As the whiteboard filled with case evidence and key elements, the trial date approached.

[Prosecutor Kang Ji-hyeok reinvestigates the suicide case. Will he deliver justice this time too?]

[Victims’ families issue statement and request that the murderer, Lee Hyun-joo, be brought to justice]

Starting the day before the trial, several articles by legal journalists became known to the world.

This incident could have ended as a simple assisted suicide, but that is no longer the case.

[Kang Ji-hyeok. Will justice be realized this time? Or will it be a failure?]

[Prosecutor Kang Ji-hyeok, who indicted the crime of assisting suicide as premeditated murder]

[The defendant’s claim that the investigation was forced also has some merit]

[Controversy over police botched investigation grows]

The morning of the trial was filled with somewhat provocative articles.

The police, who were trying to handle this case as an assisted suicide, once again got screwed by the prosecution.

“This suicide case wouldn’t have gotten to this point if the initial investigation had been done properly.”

As I entered the courthouse, I spoke briefly to reporters.

“But how could you be sure it was a murder and not a suicide?”

“Are you confident this time too?”

The reporters continued to ask questions.

“In court, the evidence speaks for itself. It’s not that I’m certain, but the evidence and the scene had the answer.”

I said that and then expressed my opinion to the reporter with a serious face.

“Let me say this again, as a prosecutor of the Republic of Korea, I aim for a just world where no citizen is wronged and criminals are severely punished by the law.”

The reporters’ flashes went off.

Naturally, this remark was made into an article and became a hot topic on the Internet even before the trial.

* * *

Seoul Western District Court.

No. 304. 1st Criminal Division.

Unlike previous trials, the audience was quiet.

The gallery was packed with spectators, but unlike previous trials, it was not a social phenomenon.

Glance.

I found him.

And then I found Lee Han-soo sitting in the corner wearing sunglasses.

‘You’re here. Lee Han-soo.’

Lee Hyun-joo, sitting in the defendant’s seat, looked confident. I greeted her while she was talking to her lawyer.

“Ms. Lee Hyun-joo. It’s been a while. Please answer my questions when you sit down on the witness stand later.”

She just glared at me and didn’t answer.

“Prosecutor Kang. Nice to meet you. I am Attorney Jang Ji-geun.”

He stepped between us and held out his hand.

I took his hand and asked quietly.

“Attorney Jang, you mainly handled her brother’s case?”

“Why are you telling me that story?”

“I’m asking in advance because I think they’ll call my brother as a witness in the second trial.”

“···Inspector.”

“yes?”

“Is it true that you’re a bit arrogant?”

“No, you’re wrong. I’m very cocky with criminals, sir.”

Attorney Jang Ji-geun.

In most of the trials involving Lee Han-soo, he won.

Also, he was a lawyer who received the minimum sentence even if he lost.

Although he specialized in civil cases, he was a lawyer known for his meticulous arguments in criminal trials as well.

He was a more difficult opponent than the lawyers at Kim & Jo Law Firm, who charge a lot of money and solve problems based on relationships rather than ability.

bang.

bang.

The judge struck the gavel and said:

“The trial begins. Prosecution, please begin with the summary of the case.”