The Bodyless Murder Case
"...?"
Inside the reception room, Kang-to’s brows knit slightly. It was because of Team Leader Jin’s explanation.
“You said it was a murder case with no body?”
“That’s right.”
Team Leader Jin drew a breath and went on. Four months earlier, his mobile detective unit had arrested an unusually cunning killer: a woman who had murdered the doctor she was engaged to. The problem came in two parts. First, there was no way to find the body. Second, the woman had denied the crime after the killing and was refusing to say another word.
“We found tiny traces of the doctor’s blood at the villa belonging to the woman’s parents, where the two of them had stayed. We also found some evidence suggesting an attempt to conceal the crime scene. But the body was decisive...”
It was still nowhere to be seen.
That was the police’s headache.
“The doctor came from a family whose father had served as governor of Gyeonggi Province, then as ambassador to China and minister of unification. On the woman’s side, her family owns a second-tier financial firm, so they’re extremely wealthy. The lawyers on both sides are something else entirely, and the pressure’s been murderous. We sent in as many as three thousand officers to search the area around the villa and the river, but we still haven’t found a thing. It’s enough to make you think even a ghost would be wailing in frustration, and then Vice Commissioner Woo, who’d come to encourage the investigation, recommended you, sir.”
“Vice Commissioner Woo? You mean Woo Chung-gyun?” Kang-to asked. If the name was right, then the man was a contact of Chairman Jo’s.
“That’s him. Vice Commissioner Woo said not long ago that he thought the brutal murder case might already be over, and it really did turn out that way. When I asked how he’d known, he told me about you. In this age of forensic science, shamans—sorry, I know it doesn’t exactly fit—still aren’t an obvious match, but I came because I’m at my wits’ end.”
“What do you make of the ending to the brutal murder case?”
“Vice Commissioner Woo said a close acquaintance—someone very well known in business circles—held a rite for the dead at great expense. He donated three billion won to pay for the recovery of bodies from a mine submerged underwater, returned honor that had been wrongly conferred on him, and so on... So the wandering spirits tied to that matter were supposedly sent on to the next world.”
“You don’t believe that, do you?”
“If I’m honest, no.”
“Then why did you come to me?”
“Because I’m a police officer who has to solve cases. We still aim for forensic science now, but in the past a lot of investigations relied on a detective’s instincts. I have a senior who retired two years ago, and when I asked him for advice because I was so frustrated, he scolded me. If you’re truly a police officer for the people, then even if it’s a ghost, you should go up against it. That’s a hundred times better than sitting in a chair and waiting around for tips.”
“Your senior has a fine mindset.”
“He also said that in the past he’d caught criminals through fortune-tellers too. The goal of an investigation is to secure evidence; there’s no need to obsess over whether something is scientific or unscientific...”
“...”
“And the victim’s mother has also been hospitalized from the shock.”
“Do you have a photo of the victim?”
“Here...”
The team leader opened his phone.
The doctor, who was in the middle of training as a resident and preparing to open a practice, was almost idol-level beautiful. On top of that, she came from a powerful business family, and her profession was medicine. It was the kind of woman anyone would take an interest in.
But Kang-to’s attention was elsewhere. The moment he saw the photo, he entered a trance, and the bodhisattva message that came through his body washed over him.
Lying Water Death Gaze.
It was a fatal pattern lodged in the doctor’s fate.
If they had come to him sooner, that precious life might not have been lost. But there was no living qi left to be saved now, so death was certain.
Lying Water Death Gaze referred to a harmful fate brought on by water or a deep hole. It meant injury or death.
If that had been all, it might have ended with only an injury. Unfortunately, Flame-Mud Death Gaze had been attached as well. That too was an inauspicious pattern of water and fire, and the bad luck had stacked on top of itself, creating a vicious synergy.
“The death is certain.”
“Could we still find the body? We searched the hill behind the house and the riverbank for two months.”
“Where’s the villa?”
“Near Asan Bay.”
“That’s not far.”
“If you’ll help us, I’ll have a police speedboat ready right away.”
“Can you bring me back late tonight? I have a lot of clients booked for tomorrow morning.”
“I heard it on the way over. Most of the ferry passengers were apparently people coming to see you for a reading. People speak of your gifts in almost reverent tones.”
“Being gifted doesn’t mean you can solve everything.”
“Please.”
“How long will it take for the speedboat to get here?”
“A little over an hour, I’d say.”
“Then call it.”
“You’ll come?”
“I haven’t been long without my mother either. I understand what parents feel when they can’t find their son’s body.”
He accepted Team Leader Jin’s call for help. This was something only a true disciple could do. Kang-to had chosen to send wandering spirits on their way as one of his duties, so it would have been hard to turn away anyway.
Looking back later, that decision would prove to be a stroke of genius for Kang-to.
“Is there anything else we should prepare?”
“I’ll just take a few handfuls of rice, and print out a few copies of that photo.”
“Understood.”
Team Leader Jin took out his phone again.
“Come in when you’re done with the call. You should stay for dinner.”
“No need. I’ll eat over at the guesthouse restaurant down below.”
“Our grandmother’s cooking is better than theirs. I should also ask my daughter for permission, but if I tell her I’m helping the police, I think that’ll go smoothly.”
“Then, with no shame at all, I’ll accept your hospitality.”
Team Leader Jin turned away. There was already new energy in his voice as he took the call.
Dinner was rockfish soup with grilled seaweed. There were also stir-fried cockles with minari and pan-fried cockles and sea clams.
Cooking ran in the family. His grandmother, who had been a manshin, had it, and so did his mother.
“Wow.”
Team Leader Jin let out an exclamation. It was an island-village table. Rough around the edges, but every dish was clean and unpretentious. The seaweed grilled over charcoal had that same quality, and the cockle pancakes were impossible to resist.
“This is really better than a hotel.”
Team Leader Jin gave a thumbs-up.
“But, sir, are you really a police officer?”
Sol-bi, who had been eyeing him all this time, finally moved in for verification.
“Here’s my ID.”
Team Leader Jin laid out his police identification card.
“Then do you have a gun too?”
Sol-bi was not going to be won over easily today.
“...”
“Why wouldn’t a police officer have a gun?”
“I do.”
Team Leader Jin quietly lifted his jacket to show it.
“...”
Bold little Sol-bi did not shrink even in front of a pistol.
“Then why are you taking my dad with you?”
“Well... there’s a bad woman who did something wrong, and she’s sick in her heart. We’re going because he’s treating that sickness.”
The answer had been coached by Kang-to.
“My dad is busy...”
“I’ll take him there in a very fast boat and bring him right back. The waves aren’t high, so we can get there quickly.”
“A helicopter’s faster than a boat.”
“Sol-bi.”
Team Leader Jin was already starting to lose ground to Sol-bi’s assault, so Kang-to had no choice but to step in and save the day.
“All right. You have to be back before Sol-bi goes to bed.”
Sol-bi held out her pinky finger. At moments like this, even Kang-to felt a twinge of conscience.
Sol-bi went to sleep early. If he held firm, it was only nine o’clock. But looking at the case, getting back by then seemed unlikely.
“Lawyer Kang-to.”
The speedboat had arrived. As he climbed aboard, the village fishing association head, who had been preparing for night fishing, called out to him.
“Heading out?”
“Where to?”
The man’s eyes widened. Last time, a helicopter had come. But today it was a police speedboat. Anyone could tell he was being collected, and that piqued his curiosity.
“I’ve got something to help the police with.”
“...”
“Then catch lots of fish and come back.”
With Kang-to’s greeting, the speedboat picked up speed.
“Well, I’ll be. That’s a police boat, isn’t it?”
Mr. Chilguk, who had been helping the fishing association head, clicked his tongue.
“Looks like it.”
“First the Seoul chaebol kept showing up, and now the police are taking him off in a speedboat... If you touch Kang-to wrong, I guess you won’t even have bones left to complain about.”
“Seems that way.”
“Still, that family really does have good bloodlines. Didn’t his grandmother save this island’s people more times than anyone could count?”
“...”
The fishing association head did not argue.
In the old days, he would have thundered that some shaman couldn’t possibly save anyone. But looking at the changes lately, he couldn’t say that anymore.
With Kang-to alone, the island was changing. People who came for readings spent money on lodging and goods on the island, and the number kept growing.
Lately, the tourists spawned by all that were increasing too. That was because people who came for readings were posting photos on social media.
“Head, you should probably finish the inn renovation quickly. Didn’t they find a rock in there?”
“Yeah. Everything under the sun seems determined to make a nuisance of itself.”
“Maybe you should ask Lawyer Kang-to for a reading?”
“A reading?”
“Who knows? He might give you a reading that makes the stone pop right out, just like he did for Hong-seo’s father.”
“The excavator operator wants to try digging once more, so I’ll wait and see.”
The fishing association head’s gaze drifted toward the fish farm. Hong-seo’s father, whose body had not turned up no matter how hard they searched, had been brought up at once by Kang-to’s spiritual message. At the time, they had dismissed it as coincidence. But now that the whole island’s mood was turning around Kang-to, it didn’t feel like coincidence at all.
“...”
The fishing association head’s expression grew complicated. In truth, that wasn’t his only concern.
“We’re almost there.”
From the speedboat, Team Leader Jin pointed toward the mainland. Police car lights flashed along the coast. Vehicles were already waiting to go to the suspected murder site.
“Come on now, our Lawyer Kang-to. You need to be back before your daughter falls asleep, so let’s hurry.”
Once they got into the vehicle, Team Leader Jin gave the order.
There were two police cars. They raced toward the scene, one ahead of the other. After about thirty minutes, the villa in question came into view, sunk into darkness because no one had lived there since the incident.
“I’ll guide you.”
“No.”
Kang-to stopped Team Leader Jin, who was going ahead with a lantern in hand.
By then, Kang-to had already seen the spirit. He followed the path of that grief-stricken scream.
His steps stopped in front of the bathtub. The moment he touched it,
swoosh.
Steam rose with the sound of water.
Through the steam, he could see the doctor resting inside the tub. As he sharpened his attunement a little more, the scene began to come into focus.
Crackle.
Static sparked around the spirit. It was electricity.
Crackle-crackle.
As the sparks flared again, the spirit shuddered in agony.
Crackle.
The gates of hell opened for the spirit. She had been shocked to death with electric current.
Slash.
The carotid artery in the neck was cut.
Slash.
The radial artery in the wrist followed after it.
It was a scalpel.
The one the doctor had used for her first operation as a resident. The woman had taken it, the same one he had kept in the car as a memento.
The weakness of humans.
A voice like an echo drifted into Kang-to’s ears.
If you cut the artery in the neck, they die fast, right? Then the artery in the wrist after that?
The woman’s voice was faint, and the scalpel gleamed in time with it.
The bathwater soon turned the color of blood. After the electric shock, the woman had simply gone to work on the doctor while there was still breath left in her body.
Ah...
Confirming the spirit’s suffering, Kang-to’s legs began to tremble.
“Team Leader, lie down in the tub for a moment.”
Once he caught his breath, Kang-to made the request to Team Leader Jin. Without a word of protest, Jin did as he was told.
“Close your eyes.”
Giving one more command, Kang-to transferred the spirit’s message into Team Leader Jin’s senses. It was Jin, not Kang-to, who needed to know this.
“Gah.”
Team Leader Jin was forced to share what Kang-to had seen. Shaken by the cruelty of it, his whole body began to tremble. Electricity, a scalpel, and a dismemberment carried out over the course of an entire day.
The spirit’s story passed into him in full.
“Lawyer Kang-to?”
When Team Leader Jin opened his eyes again, terror had soaked through him as though his own body had been slaughtered; sweat beaded at the roots of his hair.
“The doctor died that way.”
“...”
One message was enough to leave Team Leader Jin dazed.
Electricity.
Artery.
Scalpel.
From the body to the method of murder, everything had remained a complete mystery. The police had secured only blood traces from the bathroom and a few small fragments of flesh. That was enough to confirm murder, but the entire case was riddled with questions. Kang-to’s message stripped away the mystery of the crime cleanly.
“Team Leader.”
One of the team members drew Jin’s attention. Kang-to was moving again, following the spirit’s trace out of the villa.
“Lawyer Kang-to.”
Team Leader Jin, finally pulling himself together, wiped the sweat from his forehead and hurried after Kang-to.
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