Chapter 15
I had no intention whatsoever of letting the culprit get away after committing his crimes and taunting everyone along the way.
So for the first time in a while, I was going to show exactly how I’d become a lightning-fast senior at Continent Law Firm.
Crack.
I rolled my neck, stretching it loose, then stood before the whiteboard and began laying out the timeline of the case.
October 1, 10:40 p.m.
Gangnam club Nine Room. Home by 9:00.
October 14, 7:10 a.m.
Gogae Park. Awake after 9:00.
October 27, 11:30 p.m.
Teheran-ro bar alley. Home by 10:00.
November 8, 11:00 p.m.
Victim’s home. Home by 10:30.
Arrested on November 10.
Once I’d written down the documents I needed to request as evidence and the issues I needed to pin down beneath the time windows, something felt off.
“The crime times and Lee Seon-dong’s alibis are just a little out of sync.”
It was almost as if someone had placed Lee Seon-dong on a board and was watching where he moved.
Every single one of them was a location and time slot where, if Lee Seon-dong had been moving in a panic, a crime could have been committed.
Unable to shake the unease, I reviewed the materials Madam had organized once more, line by line.
“First, I need to find the eyewitness to the first incident the police and prosecutors missed.”
According to the materials Madam had compiled, there had been an employee who tried to cover up what happened in the club’s VIP room.
It had fallen apart when the victim woke up and called the police right away.
But I didn’t believe that employee had acted alone in burying the case.
“If it was club Nine Room, it was probably a money-laundering front for the underworld, which means they likely moved as an organization. In that case, I’ll need a private investigator’s office that can guarantee the client’s confidentiality completely, right?”
It was the kind of place where they charged whatever they wanted per case, but for the sake of security, that was only natural.
“If I ask whether the person in this video was a visitor, and whether he had any unusual habits, that should do it.”
I left a message on Telegram.
Then I turned to the second incident.
“I’m planning to visit Lee Seon-dong’s home tomorrow, so I can stop by there beforehand.”
There was a good chance the police line had already been removed, so I filed a request to inspect the scene as a way of laying the groundwork.
As for the third incident, the video I sent to the Forensic Gait Analysis Expert Council would be enough to prove Lee Seon-dong wasn’t the culprit.
“That leaves Lee Seon-dong’s home.”
I toyed with the business card of the cleaning company owner who said they cleaned Lee Seon-dong’s house on a regular basis.
“It’s late, but this case is on a deadline, so I’ll just send a text asking him to call tomorrow.”
But before even a few minutes had passed, the owner of the cleaning company called me back.
“Are you the one who sent that text about Seocho Readers, Building 2104, Unit 2903?”
“Hello, sir. Sorry to bother you so late at night.”
“...Is something wrong?”
“Ah, nothing serious. I just had a question, so I left a text.”
“...A question?”
“Yes. How many people clean Unit 2903 when you go there?”
“Ah. Our Miso Cleaning works in teams, and that unit is staffed by four people. The same person always goes there on a regular basis.”
The same person on a regular basis?
“If it’s not too much trouble, could you tell me the general age range and gender of the staff?”
“It’s made up of four Koreans: one man in his twenties, and three women in their thirties to fifties with very capable hands. There isn’t really anything wrong, is there?”
“Of course not.”
“Haha, we take great care with that house.”
“I see.”
“It’s Madam’s son, after all. Naturally.”
An old connection.
“Then, sir, may I ask just one more thing?”
“Of course!”
“How do you handle the trash that comes out during cleaning?”
A brief silence followed.
“Haah... Lawyer, could you maybe not say it like last time? I mean, just speak a little more casually.”
“……?”
I didn’t understand what he meant, but there was something in his voice, a tightly suppressed mix of resentment and irritation.
Sounds like something happened before.
I thought carefully about what to say.
If I asked directly whether they were checking the alibi because the owner of the house had been wrongfully accused, that would end the matter. But I couldn’t do that.
On the Gangnam side of town, confidentiality was the most important thing of all.
More than that, if the owner had no choice but to answer because of Madam’s question, I didn’t want even a speck of the blame landing on me.
“Sir, I have no hidden intent at all. I’m just confirming the process. I’ve only just taken over the case, and I don’t know much about cleaning procedures.”
The owner let out a long sigh.
“You’re sure? Lawyer, Madam isn’t thinking of switching to another company, is she?”
“I’m not sure about that, but I doubt it. This isn’t a lawsuit or a complaint.”
“Well... I suppose that’s a relief.”
“Sir, I should have told you why I was calling as soon as you picked up, and I’m really sorry.”
“Lawyer, we’ve been in the cleaning business in Gangnam for over twenty years. When we first started, we didn’t know anything and charged in headfirst. We got slapped around, had to pay material compensation, emotional damages, the whole lot.”
Once you’ve seen every ugly side of people, you end up shutting your ears and closing your mouth.
All for the sake of surviving.
My mother did the same as a single parent, too.
It left a bitter taste in my mouth.
“For the meticulous madams who want to throw out the family’s dirty laundry, do you think we’d handle it carelessly? The maids throw it out.”
“Right.”
“The same goes for Unit 2903. The maid sent by Madam takes care of it. Not us.”
So it’s not the son, but a maid sent by Madam who throws it out? There’s no maid in the son’s house?
I’d just picked up an unexpected piece of information.
“Sir, has that answered my question?”
“Sir, could I get the phone number of the team member in charge?”
“...There really isn’t something wrong, is there? You’re not planning to take someone away or anything, are you?”
“Absolutely not.”
The moment I said it flatly, the owner reluctantly gave me the number.
“Please send my regards to Madam, and tell her we’ll be in her care again next year.”
“Yes, I’ll pass that on. Thank you very much for calling so late.”
Click.
I took a moment to breathe, then sent a message to the team member’s number just as I had to the owner.
After that, I went straight into KakaoTalk and synced my friend list.
Among the newly added profiles, I tapped the one belonging to the young male employee in his twenties.
The broad-shouldered man wasn’t the bastard from the video.
“Well, he did say the maid throws out the trash.”
The theory that a cleaning company employee had stolen Lee Seon-dong’s DNA and used it was ruled out.
* * *
The next day.
Before visiting Lee Seon-dong’s home in Seocho-dong, I stopped by the scene of the incident near the house.
“This is it.”
Destination: Gogae Park.
Saturday, October 14, 7:10 a.m.
The place where the second incident occurred.
“It’s only been less than a month, and they’ve already taken down the police line.”
That might make it look as though filing for a scene inspection had been pointless, but I couldn’t leave even the slightest opening for someone to sneer that I’d gone sneaking around to erase traces of the crime.
Either way, it was a relief to be able to walk around the scene at my own pace.
But...
“There isn’t a single person exercising anywhere in this park.”
They’d said the paths were well maintained and the exercise equipment made it a popular place for early-morning workouts, but I couldn’t find even a shadow of a person.
I’d wanted to identify the routes people most often used, but that plan had failed.
“No choice. I’ll have to follow the paths with CCTV coverage.”
On the day of the incident, the park’s CCTV footage had been badly blurred by thick fog. I’d been told that was why they hadn’t found the object the criminal had thrown away.
“According to the detective in charge, the culprit did throw something away. And if you look at the man’s behavior, maybe he didn’t just dump one thing—maybe he threw away whatever he was carrying, too. Could even have been a stone he’d stuffed into his pocket.”
If you were twisted enough to commit a crime and then wave at the camera afterward, there was a high chance you’d do something that stupid, too.
And people like that always came back to the crime scene.
“To mock the police, he probably tossed out something he’d worn during the crime.”
Or it could have been one of Lee Seon-dong’s belongings.
You might say that sounded far-fetched, but when I was on the Continent Law Firm’s senior criminal team, I’d seen worse people than this plenty of times.
Anyway.
“Let’s keep walking the areas I haven’t checked yet. If there’s any trash, I’ll pick that up too.”
After covering every branching path in the park, I circled back near the scene and looked around the bench area.
“The culprit knew this place well.”
Behind that bench, the view was completely blocked by towering pine trees, putting it entirely outside the CCTV blind spot.
They’d said he’d gone down a slope that wasn’t even really a path, a steep one at that.
It looked dangerous, but I stepped down the incline anyway.
“Whoa?!”
It tilted far more sharply than I’d expected, and my body lurched forward.
Scrambling to keep from falling, I ran down the slope, and before long a gentler rise appeared beneath my feet.
“……”
I straightened my back, which had instinctively bent with the momentum, and scanned the area.
“No wonder the culprit was willing to risk his neck coming down here.”
It wasn’t even on the park map.
An out-of-the-way stone-wall path came into view, one that couldn’t be caught by any other CCTV either.
Unless you lived around here, this was the kind of thing you’d have to survey over and over again to know.
“So after committing the crime, he ran off in this direction.”
That much was clear now.
The culprit hadn’t committed the crime on impulse.
It had been a carefully planned act, intended to pin the crime on Lee Seon-dong.
And he knew Lee Seon-dong.
Still, crimes like this—those deliberate, methodical acts—had a way of leaving clues behind.
When the culprit was tense during the act, habits ingrained deep in the subconscious would surface, or they’d leave behind the weapon or object they’d used.
“Does he have an obsessive personality? He waved at the CCTV and started this planned crime with absolute confidence that no one would ever find him. But if he didn’t have all the victim’s information, then in his haste he must have left behind some clue.”
So far, the police and prosecutors had failed to find anything beyond Lee Seon-dong’s DNA at the second scene and the object used during the crime.
That was why I’d suspected the culprit might have come back later to throw away the item he’d used.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t found it.
“Still, a planned crime. Guess I’m lucky to have pulled out even that much.”
I brushed the dirt from my clothes and headed toward Lee Seon-dong’s Seocho-dong home.
“Hm?”
At the end of the stone-wall path.
Inside a wire-framed trash bin.
There was a bundle of trash tied tightly with string.
“No way.”
I didn’t know whether the spirit of the second victim, who had died by suicide earlier that morning, had guided me here to this piece of evidence.
But I carefully pulled the trash out and used my psychometry ability.
“…You insane bastard.”