Chapter 5 – Dr. Im is a little unreliable, right?

Detective /dəˈtektiv/ noun

a person, especially a police officer, whose occupation is to investigate and solve crimes.1
Rustle, rustle.

“You, jerk. Kang Woo-cheol! Are you going to keep sleeping while the rest of us are working here?” a senior detective asked, seeing Kang Woo-cheol buried in papers.

Kang Woo-cheol turned to his senior.

“Ah, senior! Why are you hitting my head just for being sleepy? Huh? If you keep doing this, I’ll report you.”

“Idiot. The results are out.”

“Already? Is Dr. Im the culprit?”

“That… at the time the murder took place, Dr. Im was at home. It would be right to put Dr. Im on the suspect list for the time being. We need to go and secure the CCTV footage around the building Dr. Im lives.”

“… and the warrant?”

“Since he wouldn’t escape, we don’t have to request for an arrest warrant. Let’s head over to the building he lives in while going over the data.”

As he spoke, the senior detective walked towards a familiar car. Kang Woo-cheol sat next to him and took out the data.

[Estimated time of death is around 23:03. The cause of death was confirmed to be excessive blood loss from the aorta in the neck. Other than that, there seemed to be no damage to the body in any form of sexual assault. Absence of food in the body’s stomach. Estimated to have been abducted three days before death. The neck was twisted.]

“… hmmm. It might be difficult to catch the culprit, right senior?”

“How is the data?”

“Well, the body wasn’t touched nor raped. No other damage. The neck is said to be twisted… I think there is a possibility that the neck was snapped and then the knife was used.”

“Oh… Kang Woo-cheol. You’re already a small detective. You did a little studying, huh?”

“An interesting point is… no fingerprints or marks were found anywhere in the crime scene. Not even a strand of hair. For such a perfect murder scene to be created….”

As Kang Woo-cheol hesitated, his senior glanced at him. “What is your guess?”

“It’s likely someone well aware of the murder investigation process had done this.”

“… and the culprit is Dr. Im?”

“I believe so. Honestly, doesn’t Dr. Im seem unreliable?”

“Yah! Hold it. He is Korea’s Genius Profiler! Watch what you say.”

“He doesn’t display any kinds of emotions. He analyzes criminals like some kind of machine. Such a person would be able to kill someone without batting an eye.”

“Kang Woo-cheol, stop it. Discard those prejudices first. We only put his name on the suspect list so he would help us find the culprit, and only after looking into the CCTVs will we confirm him as a suspect.”

His senior’s words were indeed correct, but Kang Woo-cheol couldn’t remove his doubts about Hansol.

‘The place where the neck was cut was on her left and she was stabbed from the front, so it must’ve been a right-handed person. What is Dr. Im’s dominant hand?’

At the same time…

Hansol, who returned after being investigated as a suspect, wondered if he had to head to the crime scene again. However, there would be a police line at the crime scene, and an investigation team would be there on guard.

An autopsy must have already taken place, and the time of death must have been revealed. Hansol couldn’t hold back his desire to see the crime scene.

‘Just one more look.’

He wanted to analyze the criminal’s behavior pattern. Or… if he could get the autopsy result of the body…

Hansol was on the brink of going crazy when he called someone.

“… ugh, it’s me. I have a favor to ask.”

The person on the other side wasn’t too happy to receive the call.

[You?]

“Some stranger’s body must have come in along with the Hwajong Police’s men. The autopsy result must be out. Please get me the data.”

[Do you have a conscience or not? What will happen to me if I get caught retrieving the data?]

“… please.. send it to my email address. Do it within 10 minutes or I will go to the scene.”

[Phew… you crazy bastard.]

Hansol recalled the crime scene.

The body’s head was turned towards the right. Normal humans have the tendency to hide the wounds to attempt to lessen the pain. That being said, the body was likely stabbed on the left side of the neck. Based on the bizarrely twisted head, it could be implied that there was a bone fracture caused by the killer acting too roughly before killing her. Variables.

He remembered a thing or two about cases where victims had gotten stabbed in their necks. If the killer had stabbed a woman who had already fainted, he could have stabbed from either front or back.

Then, based on that possibility, which hand the killer had used cannot be determined. Was he left-handed or right-handed? Or ambidextrous?

The body was clean, aside from the blood that had seeped out. It was definite that the killer was a skilled one, and this wasn’t his first or second murder.

In other words, it wasn’t an impulsive murder. If murder was instigated on impulse by a quarrel or the like, cuts and bone fractures would be more visible. And the state of the body wouldn’t be as neat as it is now.

However, the body was in good condition, aside from the fact that it was lying in its own pool of blood. At that moment, Hansol received the email with the examination records from the National Forensic Lab.

‘Well… as expected, she was stabbed from the back. Clean wound and the culprit is left handed.’

Hansol wrote it down in blue in his notebook.

‘There are no signs of sexual assault. Besides the neck being twisted the body was intact… It seems like the killer was acquainted with the person before her death. That could be the only reason why she would enter a redevelopment area. And another thing… The killer definitely knows what happened ten years ago.’

Hansol had three clues and decided that he would call the 3rd team but couldn’t. It was because Kang Woo-cheol and the senior detective came in.

The two had already secured the CCTV footage and said they would investigate and confirm Hansol’s alibi and that he would have to accompany them to the station once more.

Hansol changed his clothes and followed out.

“What are you doing, Doctor? You seemed like you were confident back there… but now you look like a criminal getting caught in the act.”

Hansol decided to give a different response.

“The culprit is left-handed. And the dead woman probably knew him. You should start searching for those who are acquainted with her.”

“… you, you shit!”

When Kang Woo-cheol realized that his question was avoided, he yelled at Hansol. However, Hansol’s expression remained clear as ever.

“… and also, I said the reason I visited the place was because that was where I lived, that was what I testified, but adding to that, in that house… a murder took place ten years ago. The incident left the child alone with his father, taking away his mother. The date that woman’s body was discovered was the same as the date of that murder. The killer has to be someone who remembers the incident from the past.”

The detective glanced at Hansol through the rearview mirror. As he knew that the child Hansol was talking about was none other than himself, so he could try to understand how Hansol must be feeling. Hansol, on the other hand, was speaking about his misfortune without a trace of grief. This was what stunned him and gave him a creepy sensation.

“Well? Doctor, how did you get your hands on that data? Was there some help from inside? I think you must have taken a look at the data.”

“No, I didn’t. After I reported it, I had enough time to look at the scene until the police came.”

“But we couldn’t find your fingerprints on the body… were you wearing latex gloves as you examined the body? Did you know that the crumbling building would hold a murder victim inside?”

“If you look at the site for a long time, anyone can figure out as much as I did. I was just stating the basics.”

The detectives couldn’t say anything, realizing that Hansol wouldn’t let himself get cornered.

Kang Woo-cheol tried to mess with Hansol, but he still held his calm.

Soon after arriving at the station, Hansol was retaken to the interrogation room. One of the investigation teams decided to take charge of the interrogation. However, Hansol was feeling exhausted.

“Hello. I am Lieutenant Jung Yu-mi, who is in charge of the case and investigation. I know that must be difficult for you because you were here to assist with the case during the day. After that, there was an interrogation, and you’re here for the third time now, but because you’re the only lead we have, I have to investigate you.”

“Let’s start right away.”

“Looking at the interrogation records, you answered that in the morning and the evening a week ago, you were at home. What did you do at home?”

“Exactly as I said earlier. I didn’t do anything else. I spent my time looking at the criminal investigation files and articles, which helped with their profiling.”

“When did you fall asleep?”

“Around 1 or 2 am.”

The estimated time of death of the body passed by Hansol’s head. The time of death was 23:03. It would be considered as if he was awake during the act.

“Ah, right. Ugh, would you mind writing this down?”

Lieutenant Jung Yu-mi handed him a pen and asked him to write down what happened that day.

Hansol held the pen with his usual hand and wrote it down. There was no change of expression on the inspector’s face.

“… I shortened it, but I’ve written everything down.”

“Excuse me, I would like to confiscate your phone to investigate it, could you hand it over?”

Hansol took out the cell phone from the inner pocket of his jacket and handed it to Jung Yu-mi.

“Thank you, please wait here.”

Jung Yu-mi went outside for a moment and instructed the other detectives to run a digital forensics investigation on it.

“CCTV footage has been secured, did you look into it?”

Kang Woo-cheol stood up and answered firmly, “It has been confirmed that Im Hansol didn’t go out in the morning. He said he had an appointment at 14:00 and left the house around 12:36. The alibi has been confirmed from the previous day to that day at 12:36 pm.”

“It will take time to check the evening.”

“Right! But I will check them ASAP!”

“Accuracy comes first.”

When Lieutenant Jung Yu-mi was about to enter the interrogation room, a detective rushed into the monitoring room.

“We have a problem! Murder!”

“…?”

Everyone was flustered.

Another murder case? Kang Woo-cheol was the first to open his mouth and asked, “… senior, what do you mean?”

“The same neck getting twisted and body bleeding to death, been a week now! The landlord who went in to collect rent found it!”

“Hold on. That means…”

The senior gulped before saying, “Two cases took place on the same day with the same autopsy result. There aren’t many possibilities. Either Im Hansol committed two crimes in a day, or we have a serial killer on loose.”

“We don’t have time for this. Inspector Jung Yu-mi, please take Im Hansol back to his home. I think this investigation is going to get more complicated.”

“Understood.”

Angel’s Corner

Ooohhh… Give me your theories/deduction! Who could the culprit be?

Angel’s challenge for you:

SOLVE THIS MYSTERY

A well-known chemist was found murdered in his laboratory. While investigating the crime scene, police found a note near the dead body that read ‘26-3-58/28-27-57-16.′ The police suspected that someone known would have done that. They called all the people who had visited him that day, his wife Maya, his nephew Nicolas, and his friend, Felice.

The police immediately caught the murderers based on the numbers written on the note. How? And Who are the murderers?