Prosecutor Credibility (2)
"I wonder, are they just not responding?"
"Well, that is true. Let's see, then..."
Yoon-gi pulled another set of photos from his briefcase. These were photos of other National Assembly members. There were nearly 300 of them, but Yoon-gi patiently continued to show them to the vengeful spirit. This was, after all, a charnel house for the unclaimed. Public charnel houses had only begun to appear in the late 80s, and at the time, they hadn't received much of a positive response from the general public. If that was the case for ordinary charnel houses with surviving relatives, it went without saying for one filled only with the remains of those who had no one to claim them. In a word, there were zero visitors. Therefore, no one found Yoon-gi's behavior strange in the slightest. Right now, even the staff member was holed up in the office, watching a baseball broadcast and cheering for the Eagles.
"Are they not among the assembly members...?"
Yoon-gi took more photos out of his briefcase. This time, they were high-ranking officials from the executive branch. This was also a significant number, but the spirit showed no reaction here either.
'Then, perhaps?'
This time, it was high-ranking officials from the judiciary. But again, the spirit remained unresponsive.
"Hmm..."
Yoon-gi finally unlocked the second briefcase. It contained photos of the 'previous administration's' power brokers.
'If a former power broker is involved, the one with the deepest connection would be...'
Yoon-gi pulled out a photo of the former Prosecutor General and showed it to the spirit. Tears streamed from the spirit's eyes. Furthermore, the spirit was waving its hands in the air, trying to touch the photo by any means necessary.
"The situation is becoming clear."
Former Prosecutor General Kim Young-woon had hit the victim, Park Dong-hoon, with his car while driving. After instructing his direct subordinate to cover up the incident, Kim Young-woon immediately fled the scene, and a prosecution investigator set out to bury the case. At the same time, by coincidence, Assemblyman Kim Ki-sang was driving on the same road as the investigator, and through a series of overlapping coincidences, he had hit something animal-like near the accident site. The prosecution investigator had instantly formulated a plan to frame Assemblyman Kim Ki-sang for the incident upon seeing the situation.
Choi Deok-bae also thought Yoon-gi's deduction was plausible. It was truly a product of incredible coincidence.
"Well then, we should go and confirm if this deduction is correct, shouldn't we?"
Yoon-gi left the charnel house.
Prosecution investigator Lee Yeon-oh was immediately arrested and seated in an interrogation room at the Songpa Police Station. Then, two men entered the room.
"Please, do as you please. I will just observe."
The man who heard this nodded.
"Thank you for your cooperation."
The man who replied looked at Lee Yeon-oh.
"You know better than anyone why you were brought here."
Lee Yeon-oh looked at the man speaking. He had a sturdy build and sharp, slit-like eyes. As those eyes narrowed further, Lee Yeon-oh felt an inexplicable sense of terror. Lee Yeon-oh also had a fairly powerful background as a prosecution investigator. Furthermore, he had learned how to exert intimidation while interrogating quite a few criminals until now. However, the man in front of him was exuding a level of intimidation that was in a different league from his own.
"W-what is this. Are you really police?"
"Me? No. I'm an agent from the ANSP. Or, to put it more simply, I'm a former KCIA agent."
"W-what? A-ANSP? No, this is a police station. Why is an ANSP agent here!"
The ANSP agent shone the light hanging from the ceiling by a wire directly at Lee Yeon-oh.
"Where are you glaring? You're not in a situation to be making expressions like that, are you?"
The reason Lee Yeon-oh was brought in was very simple. It was because Lee Yeon-oh had drafted the documents related to the victim, Park Dong-hoon.
"You know the Park Dong-hoon case from three years ago well. And it was you who handled that case. You were also the one who drafted the prosecution's secret files."
Lee Yeon-oh gulped at the ANSP agent's words.
"Surely a guy who's a prosecution investigator wouldn't say something like 'Do you have evidence?' would he?"
Lee Yeon-oh began to rack his brain desperately.
"I don't know what you're talking about. What case, and why on earth did you bring me in?"
"Wow, look at this bastard? It's a hassle, should I just drag him to Namyeong-dong?"
Of course, he had no real intention of dragging him there. However, it was also true that the words of a former KCIA agent did not sound like a lie at all. Shin Ho-jun had strictly forbidden torture for the current ANSP agents deployed for such tasks. Of course, it would be a different story if the opponent were a North Korean spy or an agent sent by another country, but Lee Yeon-oh was not such a target.
"Ah, what a pain. No need to go to Namyeong-dong anyway. Excuse me, could you step outside for a moment?"
At the ANSP agent's words, the police officer rose from his seat.
"Oh, shall I?"
Then, the ANSP agent noticed Lee Yeon-oh's legs trembling uncontrollably.
"Yes, please. For about... three hours, please come back in."
At the mention of three hours, Lee Yeon-oh's head snapped up.
"T-three hours?"
Then the ANSP agent smiled brightly.
"Yeah, I think we need to be alone for that long for us to have a good conversation. How about it, sounds good, right?"
Lee Yeon-oh's body began to tremble even more violently. And the police officer, as if it were nothing, got up from his seat and headed for the door to leave.
"W-wait a minute! I-I'll tell you everything, so don't leave us alone!"
During the military regime, it was very common for people to spill everything before they were even tortured when being interrogated by KCIA agents. In the first place, the few who could endure torture were the exceptional ones; for most people, it was normal to wet themselves just by looking at the torture instruments. In that respect, Lee Yeon-oh was just an ordinary person.
"Hoho, if what you say is a lie, or if you waste time for no reason, it won't be very fun. Because we already know, we're just asking to confirm, not because we don't know anything at all."
Lee Yeon-oh was well aware of this interrogation style used by the ANSP agent, as it was a method he used often himself. However, knowing it well didn't mean he wouldn't be affected by it. If he made the wrong choice right now, he might end up losing all his fingernails. In such a situation, one couldn't exactly argue theory, could one? People talk about theory when they aren't the ones being affected, but they don't value theory when they are the ones in the hot seat.
"A-ask me. And p-please, close the door and tell that person to sit down. I beg you."
At Lee Yeon-oh's words, the ANSP agent looked at the police officer. The officer smirked and went to sit on the iron chair in the corner of the interrogation room where he had been sitting originally.
"Well then, shall we start? The real culprit that day was former Prosecutor General Kim Young-woon, right?"
Lee Yeon-oh's eyes widened in an instant.
"H-how did you..."
Kim Young-woon's name was not written anywhere in the report. But because the other party identified the culprit so accurately, Lee Yeon-oh found himself affirming the ANSP agent's words without realizing it. However, the ANSP agent deliberately ignored Lee Yeon-oh's words and continued.
"So I have one thing I want to ask you. That day, who was the one who received instructions from Kim Young-woon and then gave the instructions to you?"
For a moment, Lee Yeon-oh was struck dumb. It wasn't that he didn't know who it was. But the consequences that would follow the moment he spoke were too terrifying.
"I guarantee you, the guy you're going to name has already been removed from his post and won't have the capacity to harm you. So don't worry and just say it. But, if you don't talk? Then there's only one way."
Lee Yeon-oh thought of the word 'torture' and trembled even more.
"We'll just link you and the Prosecutor General. Then, you become an 'accomplice' to a murder case. You can either keep that loyalty you love so much and get life imprisonment or the death penalty, or you can talk honestly and get your sentence reduced, even if just a little. Choose freely."
Two choices. It goes without saying, but humans are selfish beings. Therefore, Lee Yeon-oh chose the option that would benefit him more.
"I-it's the Deputy Prosecutor General..."
"That bastard isn't the Deputy Prosecutor General anymore."
Even while saying that, the ANSP agent was smiling.
To reach the level of Deputy Prosecutor General, one basically needs political acumen. Just looking at the fact that less than 30 percent of ordinary prosecutors ever reach the rank of Deputy Chief Prosecutor before retiring, political skill is the absolute fundamental for a prosecutor. In that respect, the Deputy Prosecutor General belonged to a class of interrogation difficulty that couldn't even be compared to Lee Yeon-oh.
Then, who should do the interrogation? The answer was already decided.
"It's been a while."
Square-rimmed glasses, a thin build, and an eerily chilling gaze. It was none other than Shin Ho-jun, the Director of the ANSP, who was directly facing the Deputy Prosecutor General.
"...!"
The Deputy Prosecutor General looked at Shin Ho-jun with a face that had literally frozen over. Seeing that, Shin Ho-jun did what he had to do.
"Speak."
"W-what?"
"About the incident caused by former Prosecutor General Kim Young-woon."
Shin Ho-jun adjusted his glasses with his right thumb and index finger and sat across from the Deputy Prosecutor General. The interrogation room of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. At the Deputy Prosecutor General's action of struggling to adjust his seat, the iron chair filled the room with a chilling, creaking sound.
"I-I don't know anything."
Even while saying this, the look of anxiety did not fade from the Deputy Prosecutor General's face. Shin Ho-jun had been a close aide to JSD. Considering the power JSD wielded at the time, even a Deputy Prosecutor General could never act arrogantly in front of Shin Ho-jun. However, that didn't mean he could admit everything right now. To this resistance from the Deputy Prosecutor General, Shin Ho-jun opened his mouth with a calm expression.
"I am going to make you out to be a pro-Japanese traitor."
"W-what?"
The Deputy Prosecutor General's reaction was one of extreme bewilderment. However, Shin Ho-jun remained perfectly calm.
"And I will make your family out to be a pro-Japanese traitor family as well. Your grandfather will become a person who exploited the Joseon people after being granted a mine during the Japanese colonial period, and your father will be made into a post-liberation pro-Japanese traitor who profited from the war special demand in Japan during the Korean War. And I intend to make you out to be a vicious prosecutor who received a massive amount of money as a bribe from Himura this time."
"W-what are you talking about! I-I never did such a thing! My father, my grandfather, they never did either!"
"I know."
"W-w-w-what?"
Deep down, the Deputy Prosecutor General understood what Shin Ho-jun was saying. But the moment he understood it, he felt as if he would fall into a terrible abyss of fear, so his brain was desperately refusing to comprehend it.
"If you don't tell me the whole story, I will make what I just said an absolute historical fact. That is my area of expertise. So, you can choose. You can keep your loyalty to the former Prosecutor General and make your family a historically recognized pro-Japanese traitor family, or you can tell the truth and just pay the price for the crimes you actually committed."
Of course, Shin Ho-jun had no intention of actually carrying out such things even if the Deputy Prosecutor General didn't talk. However, a message basically changes its persuasiveness depending on who the messenger is. It was a situation that clearly revealed who the ANSP agent who dealt with Lee Yeon-oh had been trained by.
'Chairman Choi Yoon-gi said that before the trial of Himura and his group begins, we must put former Prosecutor General Kim Young-woon behind bars. If so, I have no choice but to do so.'
Unexpectedly, the events currently unfolding were related to the punishment of Himura and the pro-Japanese traitors.