What Happened at Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (1)
"No! This is seriously not okay!?"
From first thing in the morning, a shout rang through the office of Violent Crimes Team 1.
"What is he, some shared piece of office equipment that gets passed around? How long has it been since he was sent to the Northern Police Agency, and now you’re shipping him off to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency again!?"
Lee Joo-seok, his face flushed bright red, jabbed a finger at Song Tan.
Team Leader Han Byung-woo, looking troubled, took off his glasses and pressed the heels of his palms against his eyelids.
"Joo-ttol. I don’t want to send him either. But the people above told me to, so what do you want me to do?"
"You could’ve blocked it at least. Said we were busy or something."
"You think I didn’t!? But even then, they said they absolutely needed him sent over. So what the hell am I supposed to do!?"
"What, does the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency not have any detectives!? Why do they have to drag up some kid from Annam!?"
"How the hell should I know!? They specifically said it had to be Song Tan from Violent Crimes Team 1 in Annam. Haaah. Even I’ve never seen a case like this before, damn it."
With a small sigh, Han Byung-woo looked at Song Tan, who was standing there with a blank expression.
"You got any idea what this is about? Why would the Crime Analysis Team at Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency call you out of nowhere?"
Song Tan scratched his head, looking mildly perplexed.
"There was a profiler who came from Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency during the Kim Chungo'n case, but..."
"Well, there you go. Looks like that’s where it got tangled up. This is driving me crazy."
Han Byung-woo stood up, glanced out the window for a moment, then turned back.
"Man, I’ve been put through all kinds of crap because I’ve got such a star employee..."
"Excuse me?"
"Just talking to myself. Anyway, Song Tan, starting tomorrow you’re reporting to Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency for the time being."
"Team Leader!"
"It’s only about two weeks at most. Just think of it as going for a bit of training and coming back."
"Agh! This damn police force. I should just quit already."
Realizing there was no room for reversal, Lee Joo-seok grabbed his coat and stormed out.
Song Tan gave the team leader a slight nod of respect, then quietly followed after him.
Bang!
Watching the door slam hard enough to look like it might break, Han Byung-woo clicked his tongue.
"I’m scared too, you bastard. Just thinking about what you’ll do without Tan here, running around like a lunatic."
***
"They just do whatever the hell they want. Seriously, what are we, their damn neighborhood mutt? Go if they tell you to go, come if they tell you to come."
Lee Joo-seok scowled and blew out a cloud of hazy cigarette smoke.
"Why are you so worked up? I’m the one leaving."
"If you go, we can’t do our job properly! We’re already busy enough to die from it."
Still grumbling, Lee Joo-seok flicked a glance at Song Tan.
"That woman, right? That Do-something inspector who came a few days ago. This is her doing, isn’t it?"
"Probably."
"Hah. So what if she’s an inspector? How dare she yank a detective around however she likes and pull this crap. I hated her the second I saw her. She looks like a witch."
Watching his mentor hurl abuse at Do Se-lin, Song Tan let out a quiet snort of laughter.
It felt like watching a child panic over having a treasured belonging snatched away.
"I’ll be back before you know it. Don’t worry too much."
"Worry? What, do you think you’re a kid?"
Lee Joo-seok pouted and muttered something offhandedly.
"You... don’t let them sweet-talk you over there, no matter what."
"Excuse me?"
"If they start spouting bullshit about quitting detective work and coming over to their side, just ignore it all. You belong here in Annam. Where the hell do they think they’re taking you?"
"You were the one saying you’d send me to the Special Forces team someday."
"That’s two or three years from now, idiot. Until then, you and I are going to keep grinding away in this godforsaken hellhole of Annam. Got it?"
Even as he said it, there was no confidence in Lee Joo-seok’s eyes.
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency—especially the Criminal Investigation Division—was a golden lifeline any police officer would find hard to let go of.
Who among the active-duty detectives could possibly toss away a line like that?
But Song Tan nodded without the slightest hesitation.
"That won’t happen, but even if such an offer did come in, I’d remain a detective in Violent Crimes."
"Tch. Damn right you would."
Only after hearing that firm answer did Lee Joo-seok’s mood ease, and he said nothing more about the dispatch.
***
That day, Song Tan went to work not in Annam, but at Gyeongbokgung Station in Seoul.
Whoooosh—
As the automatic doors opened, the warm indoor air brushed across his face.
As befitting the largest police agency in the country, the main building was bustling from early morning onward.
Every time an elevator door opened, police officers in uniforms and plainclothes alike flowed in and out without pause.
Song Tan stopped on the floor he had been directed to.
Forensic Science Division, Crime Analysis Team
The scene beyond the glass doors was quite different from the Violent Crimes Team office.
Instead of the now-familiar ring of telephones and shouted voices, only the steady tapping of keyboards echoed in a low rhythm.
The furnishings were so spotless and new-looking that for a moment he could have mistaken the place for an IT company rather than a police agency.
When he pushed the door open and stepped inside, a few people lifted their heads, then immediately dropped their eyes back to their monitors.
Then, from farther away, someone came walking toward him.
It was Do Se-lin, her hair tied back neatly and dressed in a crisp shirt.
With her usual calm gaze, she held out her hand.
"I told you we’d be seeing each other again."
Song Tan took her hand.
"I didn’t expect it to be this soon."
"Heh. Come with me."
Do Se-lin led Song Tan into a meeting room.
On the desk were a laptop and several files arranged neatly in place.
As Song Tan sat across from her, he got straight to the point.
"Why did you call me in?"
Do Se-lin, who had been sorting materials, paused and looked into his eyes.
"Profiling is ultimately based on theory and analysis. Statistics, behavioral patterns, psychological structure. It all moves atop data."
She drew a quiet breath and continued.
"The problem is that the field doesn’t always move according to theory. Investigations are full of variables, aren’t they? You can’t predict human emotion or randomness. Because of that, cases very rarely unfold the way the research says they should."
She slid one of the files toward Song Tan.
"The cases I’m handling right now are exactly like that. No matter how much I rack my brain, they just won’t move forward."
Song Tan stared at the file folder for a moment, then lifted his head and looked at her.
"I understand why you need a detective. But why me, of all people? I’m still inexperienced. I’m more in the position of someone who has plenty to learn."
"Of course, there are plenty of experienced veteran detectives here too. But none of them give me that... feeling you do."
"Feeling?"
"I got a hunch when I saw you pull Kim Chungo'n’s confession out of him with absurd ease."
"As I told you, that was only because the situation happened to line up favorably..."
"I know. That it was luck. Even so, Officer Song, you still have enough qualifications, don’t you? A next-generation ace detective who made two consecutive special promotions?"
Wiping the smile from her face, Do Se-lin turned serious and lowered her voice.
"There’s a suspect I absolutely want to catch. But I can’t read his intentions at all. That’s why I need your help, Officer Song."
Song Tan’s brow lifted slightly.
He could feel the sincerity in her words, at least to some extent.
With a short sigh, he took the file into his hands.
"I can’t promise I’ll be helpful, but I did come on dispatch, so I suppose I should do my job."
Only then did Do Se-lin let a small smile bloom across her face.
"Thank you. I won’t pressure you, so please take a look at the case first."
Song Tan opened the file and scanned the case materials with his eyes.
As if explaining alongside him, she went on.
"It’s a murder case that happened at Gaeunsan in Seongbuk District. A hiking couple found a nearby high school girl stabbed to death."
At the mention of a case taking place near his family home in Seoul, the corner of Song Tan’s eye twitched.
"The body was found in the woods, about thirty meters off the walking trail. As you can see in the photos, the corpse was found leaning back against a tree. What’s strange is that there’s too little blood around the scene, and no signs of a struggle. So it’s unclear whether the killing happened there or whether the body was dumped."
Song Tan’s eyes moved busily as he flipped through the pages one by one.
"The victim was a girl with good grades and a healthy social life. In other words, there was no obvious reason for anyone to bear a grudge against her."
"This kid..."
After confirming the victim’s face, Song Tan swallowed a low murmur.
She looked like the sort of child he might occasionally run into around the neighborhood.
A bright-faced high school girl who clearly looked as though she had been showered with her parents’ love.
Song Tan’s gaze sank heavier than usual.
"Her last confirmed movements were at 4:50 p.m. We’ve verified that she left school and headed in the direction opposite her home."
"Cause of death?"
"There were three stab wounds, but the direct cause was a single stab to the chest—her heart was pierced. The autopsy report says she would have died instantly."
As Song Tan, his eyes heavy with thought, turned through the case materials, he suddenly stopped moving.
The deep, gaping stab wound, the blood dried onto the skin, the numbered locations of the injuries.
Song Tan’s pupils glided slowly over the wounds in the corpse photo.
As if reading characters.
"At a glance, it might even look like a sexual crime. Her underwear had been half removed. But no DNA was found. Since fifty thousand won in cash was missing from her wallet, it might have been a robbery-murder too... but doesn’t that seem strange? If robbery was the goal, why target a high school girl who’d only have pocket money, instead of an adult woman?"
As she explained, Do Se-lin frowned between her pale brows.
"This case is full of strange points. It’s like... there are a lot of puzzle pieces laid out, but very few of them actually fit."
Song Tan slowly set the case file down.
"I can’t picture the culprit at all. Which means I can’t infer a motive either."
"That’s only natural. There wasn’t any motive to begin with."
"What?"
"The culprit just wanted to commit murder itself. Unfortunately, this student happened to wander onto his radar."
Do Se-lin fixed Song Tan with a sharp gaze.
"Why do you think that?"
Song Tan opened the autopsy photos again and pointed one by one at the stab wounds.
"Ordinary people tremble a little when they use a knife. Guilt. Inexperience with handling a blade. There are many reasons for it. But I don’t see any trace of that here."
He flipped to a closer image of the wounds and continued.
"He drove the first blade straight through the heart. After that, the wounds... no, the stab marks become shallower, as if he intentionally shook his hand or changed the angle."
Song Tan’s finger traced the injuries in the photograph in sequence.
"As you can see, there isn’t the slightest hesitation in the knife work. The speed at which the blade entered and withdrew is too consistent as well. This is a murder stripped of emotion."
"So you’re saying it was a motive-less killing?"
Song Tan slowly shook his head.
"It would be more accurate to call it an indiscriminate murder, since murder itself was the motive."
His emotionless gaze swept over the corpse photos once more.
"I don’t know who the culprit is, but at the very least, he’s someone familiar with using a knife. This isn’t something you can do by just practicing on a doll."
"Couldn’t it have been... a lucky accident? Maybe he got lucky and hit the heart on the first try."
"When he drove the blade in, he didn’t force it with brute strength. He found the exact path inward, slipping along the grain of muscle and avoiding the bone."
Song Tan drew a graceful line through the air with his hand.
Watching blankly, Do Se-lin couldn’t help asking,
"How does Officer Song... know that?"
Song Tan’s hand, still drifting through the air, froze for a moment before he replied with a perfectly casual expression.
"I’ve seen a similar case before."
"What kind of case...?"
"That isn’t the important part right now."
Song Tan cleanly cut off her question, lowering his voice with weight.
"Just from the body alone, I can tell. The bastard is itching to commit murder."
"Which means there could be another victim?"
"Absolutely. There may already have been."
Do Se-lin’s face stiffened like stone.
"This is bad. The detectives in charge are currently starting with alibi checks on people in the area who have records of sexual offenses..."
Watching the anxious way she bit at her fingernail, Song Tan asked,
"There wasn’t a single piece of evidence recovered from the scene?"
"None at all. The forensic team searched the entire area and didn’t even find a single strand of hair."
After thinking in silence for a moment, Song Tan made an unexpected suggestion.
"Could I go to the crime scene?"
"Right now?"
Without hesitation, Song Tan nodded.
At this point, the fact that the culprit would strike again was almost a foregone conclusion.
And if the man’s operating range was Seongbuk District, there was no guarantee his father wouldn’t end up as a target.
"We need to catch him quickly. This man."
That was why he could no longer afford to simply kill time and go back.