The Ultimate Inspector, Kang Ji-hyeok - Chapter 81



Only Noblemtl

A scene of a young man in his 20s committing suicide was broadcast.

It was not long after the news broke that he had committed suicide by arson in his car.

Two incidents occurred in succession, shaking South Korea.

[What are the police and prosecutors doing?]

[Suicide but murder. We are now driving a young man to death.]

The media started to do business with articles with sensational headlines to increase the number of clicks.

Of course it got noisy.

“Those damn broadcasting station guys didn’t even apologize for the last broadcast that went wrong and now they’re doing this again······.”

I banged my fist against the wall several times in anger.

“Hyunnam-ah. I’m sorry. My brother should have found you first······.”

The two investigators spoke to me in a soothing tone, even though I was very angry.

“Prosecutor, Mr. Oh Hyeon-nam committed suicide. You don’t have to take responsibility for that.”

“That’s right, Inspector. How can we take responsibility for suicide?”

“Suicide? You think so? Both incidents were suicides?”

I questioned the TV screen.

“Then who took that video?”

“···okay.”

“Besides, why did you enlarge the video? If it was really suicide, you could have just shown the entire screen from a distance!”

“Now that I think about it, the video was of the face······. Do you think this was murder now, sir?”

“No. I’m saying that we shouldn’t conclude that it was suicide. If someone had filmed the video, they could have stopped Oh Hyun-nam, and if they had expanded it, that means someone could have pushed him from behind.”

While the two clerks were silent, I picked up the office phone.

I immediately called Chief Prosecutor Lee Cheol-jung.

“Chief Inspector. I have something to tell you.”

– Is this a story about two suicides?

“It’s not a suicide case. I’ll go up and report on the results of the investigation.”

– Okay. Come to my room right now.

I reported the first arson suicide to Chief Prosecutor Lee Cheol-jung.

“···Is there a designer?”

“Yes, Chief Inspector.”

Following this, there was also a report on the recent suicide incident on the roof of a building in Gangnam.

“I see. The person I thought was the victim of the first incident is the victim of this incident?”

“Yes. I think there was definitely a designer who was picking a fight with our prosecutors and police.”

“You came to pick a fight······.”

“I know who the next victim will be. We have to find him. And to do that, we have to warn the designer.”

“A warning?”

“We know you. So we have to tell you not to act rashly. We need time. If we make the incident public, we can at least buy some time, or if we’re lucky, it won’t happen again.”

Chief Prosecutor Lee Cheol-jung spoke with a serious face.

“Okay. I’ll go ahead and do it myself.”

He decided to calm public opinion by briefing the incident.

“This isn’t something that the special forces should be involved in. No, it’s not something that the special forces would find interesting.”

“That’s right. This is an incident where even if you do it well, you won’t even get your initial investment back.”

“It happened anyway, and in a suicide case, the victim is the culprit, so there is no problem with the right to prosecute.”

“But we still have to resolve this, Chief Prosecutor. As a prosecutor in the Republic of Korea, isn’t it my duty to catch the culprit and bring him to court?”

“Yes. That’s why I’m going to step forward. And I have to tell you about the revival of the Western District Prosecutor’s Office Ace because of this incident.”

It was an announcement that they would bring back to the forefront the day that had been put on the back burner for a while due to the Lee Hyun-joo case, which committed suicide during the investigation of a suspect.

“Okay, I’ll take care of both of these cases.”

So the press conference was held.

The lobby of the Western District Attorney’s Office was packed with reporters.

“That’s Chief Prosecutor Lee Cheol-jung over there.”

“Huh? Is that prosecutor Kang Ji-hyeok next to me?”

“Is this the return of the Western District Prosecutor’s Office ace since something like this has happened?”

“If it’s Kang Ji-hyeok… I wonder if he’d be qualified to investigate the case?”

“Nice. If it’s Kang Ji-hyeok, wouldn’t it be the best for basic view count bread?”

“Zoom in and focus on Kang Ji-hyeok! Send it out as a breaking news story. That’s prosecutor Kang Ji-hyeok, the ratings killer!”

The voices of reporters and camera operators were heard.

‘Views? Ratings? Do they find this kind of incident so interesting?’

After Chief Prosecutor Lee Cheol-joong announced that the two cases were related, he instructed me to brief him on the rest of the case.

“Prosecutor Kang Ji-hyeok, who has been investigating this case assuming that it was not a suicide, will be in charge. Prosecutor Kang will be holding the briefing afterwards.”

Chief Prosecutor Lee Cheol-jung said so and stepped back.

As I stepped into the center, flashes went off here and there.

“I am Kang Ji-hyeok of the Western District Prosecutors’ Office. I am in charge of the murder and arson case that occurred recently, as well as the murder case on the roof of the building that occurred this morning.”

Charalarara.

It was as expected.

When we talked about the incident without mentioning the word ‘suicide’, the reporters’ pupils dilated. They looked for TV cameras and glared at them as they spoke.

“This incident is not a coincidence. There is a designer. It is not yet at the stage of being revealed, but the outline is being drawn. We plan to catch the culprit and bring him to court soon.”

It was a lie.

The outlines had not been decided yet.

But I thought that by proclaiming it like that, I might make the actual designers cringe.

“Why are you so sure it wasn’t suicide, sir?”

“Why are you so sure it was suicide?”

“Yes? That was already broadcast······.”

“The provocative images shown on TV are proof that there is a designer. There is no mention of suicide anywhere.”

I said, waving the two photos I was holding.

“As you can see here, the two USB envelopes that were delivered via Quick were written ‘Suicide Case Report.’ Even the victim’s name in the first case was different.”

It was received from Detective Na Gook-hyun.

It was a photo of a quick service envelope that was sent to the broadcasting station.

“So both incidents were broadcast as suicides from the beginning. There is no evidence of suicide from there.”

I looked into the eyes of each and every reporter who was standing there with speechless faces and spoke.

“Please. I understand your desire for a scoop, but please refrain from doing so in this case. I am a former prosecutor. It is my job to bring criminals to court and have them receive the appropriate punishment.”

The red light from the camera was visible straight ahead.

Maybe my face was zoomed in on TV.

“They say South Korea has the highest suicide rate in the world, but I don’t think so.”

“Then what do you think?”

“I think there are many murder cases that are concluded before it is confirmed whether it is suicide or murder. Are there any such cases among the cases that reporters have covered?”

Clang.

It gave me another headline.

“The prosecution is not a legislative body. I wish they would make a law that would allow funerals without an autopsy before confirming suicide or homicide, but that is not my job.”

widely.

I spoke, lightly hitting the platform in front of me with my fist.

“But in this case, I intend to catch the culprit. I will definitely uncover the truth about this unjust death. Just because he is disabled! Just because he went through hardships and became mentally exhausted! I will not leave him as a pitiful person who committed suicide.”

As the determination expressed in the firm tone was conveyed, the press conference room became quiet.

The TV camera was spinning with a red light.

“Please wait a moment. The police and prosecutors will definitely catch the culprit of this case. We will show the majority of ordinary citizens that if you commit a crime, you will definitely be punished. The law is on the side of the victim.”

The press conference ended there.

‘You saw it right? From now on, I’m going to make you regret challenging our prosecutors and police. Wait a minute. You son of a bitch who designed it.’

I came back to the office and started the meeting right away.

“CCTV review is complete.”

It was because detective Na Gook-hyun came to see me.

* * *

It wasn’t a complete lie that the designer had outlined the plan.

“We have identified the route of the quick service suspect wearing a black jumper with an eagle emblem.”

Perhaps because he had been staring at the CCTV for several days, there was a dark, tired look under Detective Na Gook-hyun’s eyes when he came to the office.

“At least have some coffee.”

“thank you.”

I gave him the iced coffee that Hyuna Lee brought.

“After checking the CCTV inside and outside the broadcasting station, we found that both incidents involved the same motorcycle. I didn’t expect it, but they were wearing the same clothes.”

Hyejin spoke with an agitated face at Detective Na Gook-hyun’s words.

“Are we all being ignored? Does wearing the same clothes mean, look for it if you can? Something like that?”

“That’s not true. I think they thought we wouldn’t care about people who came by quick service.”

“Isn’t that more ignoring?”

“It’s exactly as Ji-cheol said. That would be ignoring us even more.”

“I really want to catch him. I want to see the face of the criminal hiding under that black helmet.”

Unlike the excited investigator, Detective Na Gook-hyun continued speaking calmly.

“We focused on investigating the motorcycle rather than the eagle-printed clothing. That’s why it took quite some time to secure all the CCTV footage near the broadcasting station.”

“I thought that if he had committed a crime, he would change his clothes but not his motorcycle.”

“The inspector is right. To be honest, I thought that a typical criminal could change his clothes. I followed the motorcycle route that was shown on the broadcasting station according to the time······.”

South of Seoul map.

Detective Na Gook-hyun pointed to the center of the most splendid city.

“It disappeared from here.”

“It’s near Samseong-dong.”

“Yes.”

One word in his speech struck me as odd.

“It disappeared?”

“Yes. It disappeared as if in a flash.”

Bam.

Detective Na Gook-hyun pasted the printed CCTV photos onto the whiteboard.

“There are hardly any gaps?”

“That’s because there were two incidents.”

I walked over to the whiteboard and looked closely at the CCTV footage.

“Is that what you meant? That it disappeared?”

“Yes. I think he went down to the basement of the building. After this CCTV, he went into the underground parking lot of a nearby building.”

“Both times?”

“yes.”

“That’s strange. If it were a formal quick service, shouldn’t there be a bunch of motorcycles gathered together?”

“Yes. I guess he went to the place where the quick service motorcycles are gathered. Usually, the quick service people gather there. They know each other well.”

I said to Hyejin while handing her a CCTV photo showing the suspect wearing a black sweatshirt with an eagle drawn on the back.

“Okay. Detective Kim Hye-jin, start questioning the quick service riders. Find out if they know the rider wearing this jacket or if there is a quick service company like that.”

“All right.”

Hyejin hurriedly left the office.

I turned my head and looked at Ji-cheol.

“Let’s search the building at the end of that CCTV.”

Detective Na Gook-hyun smiled at us.

“You seem like a veteran detective team leader. You seem to have been a detective for about 20 years, Prosecutor Kang.”

“20 years… how could that be? I’m just a rookie prosecutor who’s only been in his second year….”

I told Detective Na Gook-hyun.

“We will be in charge of the investigation from now on, so Detective Na, please send us the CCTV footage and investigation materials you have collected so far. I will choose what to use as evidence in court.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Just one more thing.”

“Go ahead.”

chuck.

I held out a picture of a girl.

“Im Soo-jung. She is a woman in her mid-20s and an aspiring writer, but she is currently missing.”

“Are you saying he is missing?”

“Find this woman by any means necessary. She’s an aspiring writer, so search every library in Seoul.”

“Are you a suspect?”

“You can be either a suspect or a victim.”

Detective Na Gook-hyun took the picture I showed him.

“I will spread it to all the police officers in Seoul.”

“Don’t expect it. The police outnumber our prosecutors, right?”

“I feel a little sad when you say it like that.”

“Then you should look for it before me.”

“Yes, sir.”

Detective Na Gook-hyun left the office, sending photos he took on his cell phone to everyone.

“Let’s go, Inspector. Let’s go find that motorcycle.”

Ji-cheol said with a hot look in his eyes.

Detective Lee Hyeon-ah smiled and gave Ji-cheol a thumbs up.

“What a wonderful look. Are you looking forward to it, Detective Kim?”