Chapter 46 – You don’t have to worry about me

Since the witness’ actions were suspicious, the CIF team decided to listen to what the witness said on the phone.

Questions like ‘Why did he report and then disappear?’, ‘How did he come to find this body while it takes 30 minutes to walk to a public booth?’ and ‘Why did he leave without waiting for the police to arrive?’ were on their minds.

Having secured the file, the team played the audio.

[T-there is a corpse here near the Soyanggang Dam… I think you should hurry up and come here…. The location is…]

The voice was far too low and calm for someone who had discovered a corpse. The corpse of a drowned person had bloated, and there was cement on the leg. It would have been in dreadful condition, but the voice of the witness was calm, as if he was just talking about mundane matters.

Detective Kang Woo-cheol, who heard it, tilted his head.

“Did we hear this voice from somewhere? It sounds familiar.”

At that, Hansol opened his mouth.

This was a voice very familiar to him. There was no way he could forget whose voice this was.

“Professor Im Jaemin.”

“…! Im Jaemin?”

The expressions of CIF team members were all frowning at the mention of the unexpected name. This man, who was already being pursued for directing murder, had reported this?

“Im Jaemin always walks away so proudly… no, I cannot erase the suspicion that Im Jaemin was in this case as well. Shall we contact Seo and see if he is still after Im Jaemin?”

The Hwajong Police Station was in charge of Im Jaemin’s case. The case wasn’t under CIF authority, so they could have identified the man and captured his location if they were onto him.

“Are they letting this man go without even trying to catch him? Frankly, Im Jaemin… no, sorry. Dr. Im.”

At the apology from the team leader, Hansol shook his head.

“Criminals are criminals, even if that criminal is my father. I cut all ties with him from the moment he committed the crime of murdering my mother, so feel free to speak however you want.”

He spoke respectfully and said they could call Im Jaemin or whatever they wanted. It was implied that he didn’t care whatever names they wanted to call his ‘father.’

Actually, Hansol called his father, Im Jaemin, ‘father’ because he was taught to do so. However, it had been a while since he stopped regarding him as one from the moment he learned that his mother’s murder was planned by his father ten years ago…. and from the moment when domestic violence was hidden under the word ‘education.’

Even though he had an antisocial personality disorder, there was no way he couldn’t be unaware of what domestic violence was. He just didn’t speak of it. Team leader Woo-jin and the other members were still unsure of Hansol’s blunt words, but they tilted the direction of the investigation to find Im Jaemin, a strong suspect.

“Let’s contact the Hwajong Police Station and find out the location of Im Jaemin.”

Hansol wanted to say that he met Im Jaemin when he followed Kim Hee-seob, but he couldn’t as that would put him at a disadvantage.

“And since we have arrived at the National Forensic Service… Doctor Im and I will go see the body. The rest can head back to the office. The reporters around the dam should be waiting for something, so just say they will be contacted once the suspect has been identified.”

“Yes! Understood!”

The other team members left Woo-jin and Hansol.

“Dr. Im, how can you be cool-headed in this case? In the past… well, even if Dr. Im did calmly lead the investigation analysis, the body was directly discovered by the suspect this time….”

Hansol shook his head.

“Team leader, you don’t have to worry about me. My position is the same as before. A criminal is a criminal, and I don’t care if I share blood with them. Shouldn’t the ones who have done something wrong be punished?”

“… Um. Right. I will not ask about this further.”

“If you think I am stealing the information from the inside and handing it over to Im Jaemin, you can exclude me from the CIF investigation. I also have a reason to pursue Im Jaemin on my own.”

At the words of Hansol, who sounded confident, team leader Woo-jin touched the cigarette in his hand and went to check the body.

This time, a person other than J was there near the body.

“You came earlier than expected. I was about to do the autopsy when you called and asked us to postpone it, so I kept it like this.”

“How was the condition of the body when it was discovered?”

The man showed them a few photos.

“First, it is estimated that it had been in the water for at least three days. And see the knot there? How tightly the knot was tied… If it had been in the water much longer, I imagine the left leg would have been cut off due to swelling, and the fishes would have started to feast on it.”

“Another thing. How much was the weight of the cement tied to the leg?”

“First of all, the body is thought to be around 80 kilograms. And if the moisture is all gone, the cement’s weight must be around 15 kilograms. Only one leg was tied down with cement, so it is possible to have the other leg floating up.”

“It seems like the body had been discovered nearby because of the water flow rate near the Soyanggang Dam. Is there any chance of it coming up?”

The pathologist nodded.

“It would have been a very, very slow movement. But… since the body was found, it couldn’t have floated to the side. That is my guess. It must have flowed down the center of the high velocity of the water.”

Team leader Woo-jin asked for a clear view, and Hansol was already trying to recreate the situation.

After a few days, a human-sized doll was deliberately fixed onto that spot and thrown into the water for show. Then, a report was made.

“Ah! Of course, it is possible that the cement was too heavy, and the water pushed it to the side a little bit as the weight kept shifting. We will have to put both of them on a case-by-case basis and investigate.”

“I have a question. What is the direct cause of the death? Drowning?”

“In the case of drowning bodies, when they are discovered, foam comes out from their nose and mouth, but that wasn’t the case for this one, so the cause isn’t drowning. Since the head injury is so severe, it likely caused the death. There was cement on the foot because the culprit didn’t want the body to be found. And the biggest thing that could have been looked into this body was the fingerprints. However, all of that is gone, which makes it tough for us to identify the person.”

Head injury… it is said that this person was killed in advance, had cement brick tied, and then thrown into the water.

And the fact that the fingerprints are gone means that the body is difficult to identify.

“…are there any teeth?”

Hansol asked with anticipation. If there are teeth in there, the person can be identified with the help of dental records.

The pathologist said that all the teeth were there and were examined as soon as the body arrived.

However, the thing was, it would take some time to get the results.

“It will take a long time since we need to compare the structure of the teeth. The CIF members must also hold themselves for a while.”

If such an event occurred, it was necessary to check the dental records of those close to the deceased’s age. In other words, this is hard work.

Hansol asked another question.

“What’s the estimated time of death?”

This was the most crucial question because Hansol expected it to be around 4 am or pm.

“We will have to work on the body to know… but the victim is believed to have been dead at 4 am. In particular, do you see this part? It looks like the hands and feet are blue and bruised. This showed that the person was kidnapped and bound before being killed. After the person died and the body went stiff, the body was thrown out with free limbs. Of course, with the autopsy, we will get more detail.”

“Thank you for the information.”

Team leader Woo-jin glanced at Hansol at the time of death, being 4 am.

This was a piece of evidence that Im Jaemin was behind this.

“Then, please contact us immediately after the autopsy results are available. Oh, and contact us about the teeth structure too. I wonder who this person is. We will also head back and look at the records of missing people for the last 2 weeks.”

“Given the wrist and ankle marks, it has to be less than three weeks. It is estimated that this person was held for at least 2 weeks. Please refer to that too.”

Hansol and Woo-jin thanked him and turned around.

And Woo-jin confided his thoughts.

“Dr. Im. Honestly, who do you think is the direct culprit in the case? Is it really Im Jaemin?”

“It cannot be him. He never gets blood on his hands. The real suspect had to be there, and Im Jaemin uses him psychologically to commit these murders. Without knowing anything else, we have only the choice of thoroughly examining the records of all his patients.”

“Um…it wouldn’t be possible to review it under the Personal Information Act.”

“His clinic is closed, so getting data will be more difficult. Im Jaemin must have destroyed the data as well. Ultimately, we can all rely on the dental records and the missing reports for the past two weeks.”

“…it sounds like work for the night shift for two weeks.”

“We don’t have another choice but to find evidence. And the media shouldn’t know about this. There is no way they will stay silent without speculating about such a juicy case, so it would be better to let the articles only come out calling it a simple murder.”

“I will do that. It’s just one body found at the dam, so that is the only thing that will be reported.”

“My role starts now. ‘What the motive was, how this crime was initiated, the body of the man weighing around 80 kilograms, the feeling of the person who would have had to move a body which was heavier and stiffer…. ‘ all of this will be analyzed and reported.”

“As expected, Dr. Im does all the thinking beforehand. Wouldn’t it be great if our Kang Woo-cheol could do something like that?”

Despite being praised, Hansol’s expression didn’t change.

The fact that the real suspect in this murder had something to do with Im Jaemin and that the investigation command was from Kim Soo-hyeon were all giving out an alarm in his head.

“Team leader, can I ask you a favor?”

“What is it?”

“Ah, it’s not much. I just want to leave first.”

“Where?”

“In this situation, there is someone I need to see. Although, I don’t know if they would like to meet me.”

“It isn’t Im Jaemin or the culprit, right?”

“Yes. It’s an insider. I will meet you soon and then join the investigation.”

“Come quickly. In the meantime, we will get the data.”

“Okay.”

Hansol’s eyes gleamed at this.

The place he was heading was where Prosecutor Kim Soo-hyeon was.