Chapter 45 – Who incited the murder?

“Wow, what kind of autumn rain pours down like this?”

Detective Kang Woo-cheol came in with a leather jacket on.

Woo-jin replied, “I know,” then went to the window and looked outside.

Amid this autumn rain, Hansol was thinking about the insider and his father, the Prosecution, the Police, Kim Daehyun’s case, which ended recently, and the CIF team, which has no new cases.

The apparent people he knew to be in on this were Kim Soo-hyeon and the other lawyer. And if he considered the prosecution chief and the deputy chief, five people could be confirmed. But it was bigger than he expected.

“Dr. Im? What are you thinking? We’ve been calling, but you were not answering.”

“…Ah, you called?”

He looked up to see Inspector Jung Yu-mi standing next to him. She came to ask about the case of Kim Daehyun, which was the stalking and murder case held in the morning.

“How did the appeal go?”

“I strongly feel that the public defender was forced to take the case. Just a speculation, but the sentence time was increased to 25 years.”

“Hmm. I wonder if Kim Daehyun would appeal again?”

“He might do that. We can find reporters of the top 3 news agencies already waiting for that to happen.”

“When you say it like that, you sound like the PR for the Police team… anyway… I am happy with the prison time.”

Team Leader Woo-jin, who wore the padded jacket, stepped back from the window, saying it was cold, and talked to them.

“25 years of prison for him?”

“Yes, team leader. It is 25.”

“Hah. Good. What’s with the judge?”

“He seems to be a person who strongly responds to the punishment of such crimes. I heard that he had said that the punishments of opposite sex crimes of our nation are too weak.”

“Ah… then that’s good. But our team has been too quiet these days, right?”

Kang Woo-cheol intervened.

“Ahhh… things have been a mess all this while. There’s nothing wrong with staying silent for a couple of days. What can you even get if you want to go to a scene of an accident in this rain, flooding, and all?”

Even seniors would fail against a grouchy person like Kang Woo-cheol. A true detective would participate in the investigation, whether in the rain, snow, or cold waves, until they get a taste of it.

“Seniors. Even though I look like this, I am in good shape. After graduating from the police academy, I was a ranker when I took the exam.”

“Right. Brat. You should be in good shape.”

As they were speaking, Hansol thought of his father again.

It’s been two months since the last Hanged Man card murder case.

He didn’t think his father would be this quiet. The next goal was clear, and the countdown had started.

Everyone was watching the TV in the corner of their office.

It spoke about this being the first time that the autumn rain had increased the water level in the Han river and that the dam would be opened up.

“No, what kind of autumn rain pours like this? Isn’t this messed up weather?”

“It would be nice if there is no one field duty. I really don’t want it, team leader.”

“Kang Woo-cheol! Enough. Didn’t you hear what your seniors were saying? At times like this, a detective needs to run around.”

“Ah, we are the special investigation team, so we only need to work on the case we are given.”

Kang Woo-cheol grumbled. He wasn’t wrong.

They really didn’t get any case, so Hansol wondered what mess his father was creating. Team Leader Woo-jin’s mobile rang, and his face went stiff after answering it.

Then, he looked at Kang Woo-heol.

“Kang Woo-cheol, your words were right. A case is coming in.”

“No!… team leader. Don’t you have some kind of authority? Tell them we won’t.”

“Enough of that, Kang Woo-cheol. Even in the floods, we need to investigate.”

“Don’t tell me… is it a murder case?”

“Aren’t that the most cases we deal with? That is why the CIF team was created. CIF doesn’t do anything else. Oh, and for some reason, after a long time, we got the call from Prosecutor Kim Soo-hyeon. The location is the Soyanggang Dam. We leave now.”

“Wait, the Soyanggang Dam isn’t our area. Why will we go there?”

“We are the only team which takes the bizarre cases. Well, first of all, all our Police have duties, what more can we do? The investigation is being led by the Prosecution too.”

And Team Leader Woo-jin was the first to put on his jacket.

A body was found near the Soyanggang Dam.

A police line was already drawn on the scene. As soon as the CIF team arrived, they took pictures and everything that could serve as evidence.

Team Leader Woo-jin found the body and asked the police officer who contacted the Police Office, “And the preservation of the scene?”

“That… It is raining too much, and even if we try… well… we are fortunate that the body was found before the dam gates were opened.”

“Tell me about the situation the body was found.”

The police stuttered and said, “T-that… as we turned around to patrol, we got a phone call from a public booth. The body was found, and they wanted us to hurry.”

“And when you came to the scene, was that person here? Was the witness here?”

“When we came to the site, it was just the body. It was raining, so there weren’t many cars going around… no trace of the eyewitness either.”

“Is there any CCTV installed? Secure the CCTV of the road. How long did the body appear to be dead?”

The police frowned. It felt like this was something he didn’t want to think about.

While observing the surroundings, Hansol continued to listen to the conversation between the police and team leader.

“That… It is believed to have sunk while stuck in a concrete slab. The body had been underwater for a long time.”

“Hmm… anything we need to know? Seems like it was in the water for long.”

“It was strange. One leg had a concrete slab attached to it, and the other was tied to the other leg with a knot on it. The right leg tied to the left.”

“…!”

“…!”

Detective Kang Woo-cheol was startled at this. He showed the shape of Hanged Man on the phone.

“Was it like this?”

The police officer was shocked.

“Yes, yes! Right! It was exactly like this. The body seemed to have drifted from water.”

Woo-jin turned to Hansol.

“Dr. Im. It is them. Those ones… I’m not sure if it is them, but it has started again.”

“We must call the National Forensic Service and ask them to stop the autopsy, and we need to head there to see the body.”

At Hansol’s words, Jung Yu-mi called the NFS. Fortunately, they haven’t started the autopsy yet.

Inspector Jung Yu-mi requested that they postpone the autopsy for a while and that the body be photographed.

Hansol went inside the police line and looked around. It didn’t matter whether his face got wet or not. He was trying to find traces of his father’s work.

Meanwhile, Woo-jin was speaking with the police.

“Any recording of the call made from the public booth?”

“Yes. We have them.”

“What do you make of the voice? Was it a man or a woman?”

“The voice sounded like a middle-aged man. But it was weird. The distance from here to the public phone is too huge. It makes no sense that despite arriving 10 minutes going here, we couldn’t find the witness who disappeared without a trace.”

“How far is the phone booth from here on foot?”

“There is a phone on the road to call in case of an emergency, and it looks like it came from that side. If we go on foot, it will take 30 minutes….”

“Did you search around for the witness?”

The police had an apologetic face. After discovering the body, he didn’t think much about looking for the witness.

Team Leader Woo-jin held himself from cursing. They were all on the same side, so he didn’t want to make enemies.

“… looks like you couldn’t find him. We cannot help it. Please help us secure the items we requested.”

“Ah… yes.”

“Ah, you know that we are the special CIF team of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency?’

When Woo-jin asked to confirm, the police nodded with a shocked expression.

“Then please do what we asked.”

Hansol made a rough guess as he heard the conversation. It takes 30 minutes to get to the nearest booth. And if the caller was Im Jaemin… he walks fast, so it would take 20 to 25 minutes. Here, the cops didn’t even bother looking for the missing witness. That being said, Im Jaemin had time and situation to safely escape from here.

With the people helping his father, getting out wouldn’t have been difficult. What caught Hansol’s eyes was the crevice of the rock. The victim’s leg was scratched against the rock as if it was rubbing again it.

“Inspector Jung. I think we should take a picture of these marks.”

Wearing the raincoat, she came over.

“There is grass lying around. I think it happened because the body had swollen and pulled things with it. Judging from the grass here, the weight of the body and the stone overlapped….”

Inspector Jung was thinking for a way, and Hansol nodded.

“The perpetrator had predicted that the body would wash up if a certain weighted rock was tied.”

At her words, Hansol nodded.

“Right. You predicted it right.”

Inspector Jung looked at Hansol, who spoke confidently.

“The weather isn’t easy to guess. And it isn’t uncommon for dams to be opened during autumn rains… it is raining only because of the sudden typhoon, so how was this predicted? When we looked at the forecast, they said it would be a light passing rain.”

“The place where the body was abandoned couldn’t have been far. It is now the 4th day after the rain has started. So the body must have been abandoned at least 4 days back.”

“Then… did the perpetrator look at the weather and hope the body would be found one day?”

“It could be that, but we must find this missing witness. There is a high chance the witness is the one we are looking for.”

Eventually, Hansol called the police again and asked for details about the voice.

“Well… usually, when one finds bodies, they often make phone calls and stutter, but he was calm like it was normal for him to see drowned bodies. In fact, we have seen drowned bodies before, but even we never get used to it. And the longer the body is in water, the harder it is for us to get used to the sight… it was as if he had no emotional reaction upon seeing the body.”

Hansol looked at Inspector Jung.

“From this moment on, it would be better to put the witness as the suspect and focus on that.”

Team Leader Woo-jin agreed to it.

“Once we all gather the evidence, we leave from here. Go to some restaurant. And thank you beforehand for preserving the site. We don’t know what will happen after the dam is opened. We cannot stop them from opening….”

At the request from Woo-jin, the policeman nodded. The man was just glad he wasn’t being yelled at for letting the witness leave.

Then Hansol thought.

‘The culprit must be a different person. Father doesn’t commit murders with his own hands. So who was the person who got instigated for the murder?’