The Stone Hollow That Hid the Body
Yeong-ga went into the woods.
Beyond the trees, a river spread out like the sea. On the black hillside, where darkness had fallen thicker than ink, a roe deer startled by the lantern bolted through the scrub and vanished. Yeong-ga, walking ahead, suddenly stopped. They had reached a boulder near the villa.
Whuff.
This time it was a wild boar. It emerged atop the rock, bristling and snorting, its blue eyes flashing. Team Leader Jin drew his pistol, but Kang-to stopped him. The boar had taken its position beside Yeong-ga.
The beast sensed Kang-to’s spiritual energy. It broke off its glare, turned away, and fled. Yeong-ga descended from the rock as quietly as a feather settling to earth.
The standing stone at the foot of the mountain path was one of several large boulders. A great rock stood at the center, with smaller stones fanned out beneath it.
Yeong-ga lay down beneath the big boulder. It was a sign that the body was there.
Kang-to took a pinch of rice and scattered it into the air.
“......?”
Team Leader Jin and the detectives all stared, eyes wide. On the rock where the grains fell, illuminated by the lantern’s beam, the dead man’s name was spelled out.
Kim Woo-jin
“The body is here.”
Kang-to delivered his final gongsu.
“Not... by the river?”
“This is the place.”
Kang-to did not change his oracle. Team Leader Jin looked back toward the villa. It was close. Too close. Since it was right where the mountain path began, and because the rocks drew no attention, it was not the kind of place anyone would naturally suspect. Besides, more rocks continued down beneath it, making it unsuitable for a hidden burial.
That was why the investigators had assumed the body had been dumped near the breakwater or in the river. The AI prediction test had agreed. Even among the AI’s projected concealment points, this place had not been included.
And yet.
Team Leader Jin had brought Kang-to here because he trusted him.
Crunch.
He climbed onto the rock.
“Take one step back, please.”
Kang-to marked the spot for him. Beneath Team Leader Jin’s feet, Yeong-ga was still lying there.
“No way...”
“Team Leader.”
The detectives tilted their heads. At a glance, it was nothing but rock. It did not look like a place where a body could be buried.
But then.
“......?”
As Team Leader Jin tested the thick layer of fallen leaves on the sloping rock, his expression changed. Something beneath the leaves had been pressed down irregularly.
“What the hell?”
He crouched and swept the leaves aside.
“Team Leader.”
“If you’ve got time to talk, help me clear it.”
At his order, two detectives joined in.
And then...
“......?”
As they brushed away branches and sediment, a stone wedge lodged in a crack between the rocks came into view. When they pulled it free, a hole appeared—just large enough for a small child to fit through.
“Lantern.”
When Team Leader Jin held out his hand, one of the detectives placed a lantern in it.
“Ugh.”
The moment he shone the light downward, Team Leader Jin flinched.
“Team Leader.”
“Wait a second.”
He lay flat across the rock, then reached his hand into the gap. Pushing aside leaves and debris, he felt something under his fingers.
“......”
As the object emerged, tension in the detectives shot to its peak. It was hard to see in the dark, but it was no branch.
“Damn it.”
Wiping the foreign matter off with a cloth, Team Leader Jin felt a cold shiver run through him again. It was a deteriorated shinbone.
“......?”
His hand went back in, and another bone came out.
“This is it. Call the forensics team.”
There was new force in Team Leader Jin’s voice.
A landscape made of rock.
The woman knew this terrain well. She had been coming here since she was young.
When she came to play during elementary school vacation, she had discovered this hidden space. A crack at the base of the rocks, barely big enough for a small child to squeeze into. The section below it dropped a little deeper, so it was a space where even an adult body could be dumped.
More than ten years ago, the villa caretaker used a stone wedge to seal the entrance. It had been a precaution, in case the woman might ever fall through. Because of that, no one else knew about it.
As the years passed, leaves and sediment piled into the crack, making it even more invisible.
But in the woman’s memory, it was still there. Once the leaves and sediment were cleared away and the wedge stone pulled free, the crack welcomed the woman back. Flesh and bones from the body, evidence from the crime, and the weapon had all been shoved inside and hidden again.
An endoscope was inserted into the opening.
“I can see the head.”
One by one, Team Leader Jin’s thirst for certainty was being quenched.
And then...
“I can also see a scalpel, the murder weapon, and something that looks like a book.”
The book was one of the old volumes in the villa—a newspaper article written by reporters about the perfect crime. That was what he had copied from, which was why there had been no murder-related search terms on either the phone or the laptop.
In the end, Team Leader Jin secured the decisive evidence as well.
“Commissioner.”
Only then did he call Woo Chung-gyun, the commissioner of police.
“Oh, Team Leader Jin. What’s this about?”
“Deputy Commissioner, thanks to you, we found the body in the doctor murder case. And the tools used in the crime too.”
“How?”
“The island beopsa you recommended, sir—using his spiritual abilities...”
“Good heavens.”
“Thank you. Because of you, I might even get some decent sleep tonight.”
“No, how is that thanks to me? It’s because of your own enthusiasm for accepting advice other people would have brushed off.”
“In any case, please consider it that way. I’ll give you the full report later.”
“Where was the body found? By the river?”
“No. In the rocky outcrop near the villa.”
“Not the riverbank?”
“It looks like the woman knew how to use the villa’s geography to her advantage.”
“You should hold a press conference, then.”
“Not a bad idea.”
“I’ll have it prepared. Announce it together with the head of the riot investigation unit.”
“Understood.”
Team Leader Jin ended the call.
“Ah, right—back to the island.”
When his eyes met Kang-to’s, his thoughts finally snapped back into place.
“Beopsa-nim, you have to head back, right?”
“Yes...”
“Honestly, if it were up to me, I’d want to team up with you and dig into every unsolved case where the bodies were never found. Going further than that, I’d even want your help with recovering remains for the South Korean military or the U.S. Forces, and so on.”
“Recovering remains?”
“From the Korean War and beyond, there are still so many missing-person murders and unsolved cases on the police side too. I’m ashamed we ever dismissed someone like you as superstitious.”
“It’s fine.”
“Officer Oh, escort our Beopsa-nim back to the island as quickly as possible.”
With his thanks, Team Leader Jin issued the order.
The rotating lights flashed again. Just as before, the speedboat sliced through the night sea at full speed.
He was tired, but he felt clean inside. Guiding Yeong-ga’s resentment to rest was, after all, one of the first duties Kang-to had received from the guardian deity of Gyeongsin as a possessor.
Exorcising a wandering ghost—guiding Yeong-ga to the other side.
Having accomplished it with a pure heart, he felt deeply rewarded.
Recovering remains.
As Chilui Island drew closer, Team Leader Jin’s words drifted through his mind.
Yeong-ga was unscientific, but recovering remains was empirical. Like today, once the remains were found, the method itself no longer mattered.
Remains.
Unsolved murders or the recovery of war dead from the Korean War?
One powerful inspiration swept through Kang-to’s mind.
Sol-bi could not wait for Kang-to any longer.
“It was past nine, and after making little yawns and asking why Daddy still wasn’t home...”
His great-aunt pointed toward the bed. Sol-bi was sprawled out in a big starfish shape. She pulled the blanket over her.
I’m sorry.
Still, you’ll understand me, won’t you?
Chu.
The kiss he pressed to her forehead carried Kang-to’s apology for being late.
Sleep well.
The light in Sol-bi’s room went out.
He shut his eyes for a moment, then rose and turned to cultivation. A disciple of the divine path was, after all, both seeker and priest. He had received the Supreme Heavenly Deity, but Kang-to’s own experience still lagged behind it. The only way to catch up was through practice and discipline.
He drew talismans and buried himself in scripture. Fortunately, it was easy to focus. Kang-to had always been quick-witted to begin with.
The only flaw had been that, because of his feverish illness, he had been unable to concentrate. Now that it was gone, there was no reason for cultivation not to feel like joy.
“......”
In the midst of empty-minded stillness, one strand was caught. On the side of his biological father. It was probably news about Song Ji-na. The feeling was good, so it did not seem to be bad news.
The morning cultivation ended with Sol-bi’s cry.
“Daddy.”
She came out of her room rubbing tears from her eyes.
“You’re awake?”
Kang-to hugged Sol-bi.
“I had a dream. Daddy was bitten by a huge snake and went up to the sky...”
His great-aunt laughed.
“Really?”
“Yeah, Daddy, you can’t leave Sol-bi behind.”
“Of course not. But... wasn’t your dream actually a good one?”
“No! Do you know how scary that big snake was? It even had horns on its head.”
“Then that was a dragon.”
“A dragon?”
“Our Sol-bi dreamed up a dragon dream for Daddy?”
“Is that a good thing?”
“Wow, if I’d known that, I would’ve bought the dream and used it to pick lottery numbers.”
His great-aunt played along.
“Hehe, then I’ll sell it to Daddy.”
Sol-bi’s tears stopped.
“Just like you’d expect from my granddaughter’s daughter. Go wash up and eat.”
His great-aunt gave Sol-bi’s head a tiny flick on the forehead and went back inside.
Sol-bi’s dragon dream.
It had been an interpretation meant to comfort her, but it was roughly right.
He was sipping tea and looking over the list of reservations when a cheer rose from below the lighthouse.
“Beopsa-nim Kang-to is the best!”
A chorus followed.
What’s going on?
When Kang-to looked out from the lighthouse, applause burst up at him as well.
The reason was explained by the first young female visitor who came in.
“Beopsa-nim Kang-to.”
Section chief Seo from the reception office called for him.
The television in the reception room was showing the news. A familiar figure stood on screen: Team Leader Jin from the riot investigation unit, who had come the day before.
The reporter standing at the scene continued his explanation.
“Unable to let go of the misunderstanding, the fiancée ultimately decided to kill the doctor out of jealousy and carefully planned the murder. After killing her fiancé, she mutilated the body and used the surrounding terrain to conceal it. In the end, when the body still failed to turn up even after a large-scale search, people were beginning to worry the case might remain unsolved indefinitely—until the body was recovered with the help of a shaman’s precognitive guidance.”
Shaman’s precognitive guidance.
That was how Team Leader Jin introduced Kang-to’s role.
“According to the investigation team, late last night the young shaman from the island identified the murder site as the villa bathtub, and when investigators cleared away the fallen leaves and sediment gathered on the rocks, they found a small hole. The body was right there. What had seemed like a hopeless case was solved because they were willing to grab at even a straw.”
The broadcast image froze on the crack between the rocks.
“Beopsa-nim Kang-to...”
Section chief Seo could barely breathe from pride.
The reservation guests had been certain it was Kang-to because of the speedboat.
Last night, some guests who had gone out for an evening walk had seen Kang-to leaving on a police speedboat. Once they paired that with the island and a young shaman, it was not hard to draw the conclusion. The station bulletin board and Kang-to’s fan café only reinforced it.
[So that means Chilui Island’s lighthouse shaman, Beopsa-nim Kang-to?]
[Yep, it’s absolutely, one hundred million percent Beopsa-nim Kang-to]
The endless stream of comments glittered with certainty.
At the same time, the fan café had crashed. The server had gone down while people were checking the comments.
“That’s great.”
Kang-to smiled. When something like this happened, impulsive reservations poured in. People who merely wanted to talk through small troubles came flocking as well. If the price was the same, Kang-to would rather help those burdened by harder suffering. As he headed into the shrine office, a call came in from Chairman Jo.
“Chairman?”
“Beopsa-nim, you’re not in the middle of a reading, are you?”
“I was just about to be, but then the news came on...”
“So you saw it?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry. I’m the one who tipped off Commissioner Woo, but honestly, I had no idea it would be used like that. He called just a little while ago and asked me to pass on his thanks for helping solve such a difficult case.”
“I’m glad I could help.”
“Anyway, our Beopsa-nim Kang-to... wow, this is really...”
“......”
“Ah, you said you were in the middle of a reading. I’ll contact you later. Good work.”
The call with Chairman Jo ended. Still, Kang-to could not begin his divination right away. This time it was the villagers who came flooding in.
“Beopsa-nim Kang-to.”
Leading the charge were Grandma Hong-seo, who had already become one of Kang-to’s most ardent supporters, and Grandma Jjang-gu, who had recovered her wedding jewelry.
The youth association president, Chief Choi, and the women’s association leader were there too. Even the head of the fisheries cooperative had come. He was in work clothes from having gone out by boat, so he must have just returned to the harbor.
“My word, now even the petty thieves won’t be able to set foot on our island. With our mighty Beopsa-nim Kang-to seeing everything with his clairvoyant gongsu, how would anyone ever dare steal?”
As Grandma Hong-seo grew more animated,
“That’s right, that’s right.”
Grandma Yeong-sil chimed in.
“Thank you.”
After greeting everyone, Kang-to went into his oracle reading. A good thing happening did not mean the ferries would arrive late. If the readings ran long, it would delay the morning clients who had come for fortune-telling and needed to head back.
Fortunately, the morning gongsu ended without any major problems.
Ahh.
He stretched and stepped outside. Winter, as always. Once he came out, a bone-deep chill cut straight through his skin.
Then his phone rang.
“Lee Kang-to?”
What came through the phone was the voice of his biological father’s mother—Song Ji-na, the true power behind Cheonjo Group.
It was finally time.
The showdown was drawing near.