Chapter 264
Lee Jeongchan was dead, and I was being fingered as his killer? Had I heard that right?
"Could you say that one more time? What exactly happened?"
—You're the prime suspect in Lee Jeongchan's murder. Right now.
"That's not true."
Shock could wait. First, this man—a deputy chief prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office—owed me at least a basic explanation. As soon as I gave my clear denial, Park Younggi let out a heavy sigh.
—Kang's losing his mind over there, yelling that it's not true, and he went to pick you up. He should be there by now. Get out here quick. We have to avoid an arrest. No matter what.
I turned to Lee Se-hwa. She stared back at me, her face stricken with the same shock. She'd clearly heard the news too.
I thought it over for a moment, then grabbed my briefcase and stood.
Lee Se-hwa watched me with troubled eyes.
"Understood. I'll head out now."
The moment I hung up, I turned to her, still clutching her phone.
"President Lee, I'm sorry, but lunch will have to wait. Something urgent came up—I have to go."
"...Cha."
"I know it must be confusing, especially since you believed in me. Whatever you just heard, it's not true."
"Cha, wait."
Only then did Lee Se-hwa stand, as if trying to set things straight. Her expression suggested she wanted to apologize for looking at me like she suspected me or something.
But I didn't care what she thought after hearing the news. Whoever she'd been talking to, they'd probably told her—with word of my connection to Lee Jeongchan—that bringing me onto her campaign team was absolutely out of the question.
I got it. A hundred percent. Even if I'd been her advisor, I wouldn't have let someone like that anywhere near the campaign.
Besides, even if she begged me to stay—and that wasn't happening—I had no desire to stick around for her sake, forcing myself to linger.
No, scratch that. With an investigation and possible arrest looming, did I really have the luxury to hang around playing cheerleader for someone else's political ambitions?
"Ah, Lawyer Cha!"
As I slipped out of the private room with Lee Se-hwa, the Free Justice Party officials I'd been scheduled to meet came swarming in.
"Where are you going? Come join us."
"Something urgent came up."
I pushed through them and kept walking. I felt several sharp stares boring into the back of my head, but now wasn't the time to worry about that.
"Lawyer!"
Outside, Kang Minjae was waiting. Parked beside him wasn't his usual foreign luxury sedan, but something else.
"It's Su-il hyung's car. Just in case. Hop in quick."
I slid into the passenger seat. Kang Minjae climbed into the driver's side and rested his hand on the gearshift.
But I hadn't gotten in to go somewhere with him. The outside wasn't private enough for this talk, so I'd just needed a sealed space for now.
I gripped his hand firmly on the gearshift and spoke.
"Kang."
"You must've been shocked, right? You okay?"
"I'm fine. But with me labeled a murder suspect right now, riding around with you puts you in danger too. Deputy Chief Park sounded so frantic on the phone that I got in the car, but we should split up here."
I ran through the scenarios that might make them suspect me of killing Lee Jeongchan.
A quick check of a portal site as I left the restaurant showed no articles on his death yet. So the exact cause or time of death was unknown, but it nagged at me that he hadn't shown up at Hwagun Reservoir.
Lee Jeongchan, holed up at home ahead of his trial, had suddenly made an appointment to meet—and it was with me.
If the National Forensic Service pinned the time of death to then, they'd likely assume I'd met him at Hwagun Reservoir and killed him.
That would drag Kang Minjae down too, since he'd been with me.
"So where will you be, Lawyer?"
"At my place."
"What if they come arrest you there? Didn't the deputy chief say we have to avoid an arrest warrant?"
He had said that, clearly. But I hadn't killed Lee Jeongchan.
I could prove it with the time I'd spent at the reservoir that day, and more. We'd driven Kang's car, so there were toll receipts. We'd stopped at a gukbap house and a convenience store—receipts there too.
I hadn't stayed long, and Lee Jeongchan never showed. Hell, after that day, I'd sent him multiple texts saying our meetup fell through and suggesting we reschedule.
With evidence like that, it was ridiculous to suspect me. I might not clear my name completely, but I could dodge arrest.
"It's an operation," he said.
"What?"
"Deputy Chief Park thinks Wooshin is dead set on taking you down right now. Once you're arrested, they'll twist it to make you the killer for sure."
I couldn't verify if Park Younggi was telling the truth—it was just his guess. But I didn't dismiss the possibility outright.
Still, hiding to avoid arrest would only piss off the investigators. And if I got nabbed later, they could claim flight risk and deny bail.
Run away blindly like this?
"No, that doesn't add up. I'll get out here, so you—"
Before I could finish, Kang Minjae floored it.
I hadn't buckled up yet, so my body slammed back against the seat.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"No contact from the cops yet, right?"
"Right, nothing."
"Then for now, riding with me is fine. Just think of it as you innocently heading out with a lawyer from the same office, clueless about any of this. Not fleeing yet."
He had a point, but investigators wouldn't buy it. They knew I was a lawyer with ties to Park Younggi—they'd assume I'd gotten a heads-up.
Once they tracked my movements after Lee Jeongchan's death, it wouldn't just hit Kang Minjae. Park Younggi and Kang Gwanung could get dragged in too.
"Tell your grandfather and the deputy chief to come over so we can talk it out."
Kang Minjae added it like he'd read my mind.
I had no plans to leap from a moving car anyway.
"We'll switch cars up ahead."
He pointed to a luxury villa on the main road.
"What's that?"
"Su-il hyung's place. We'll swap there for my car."
Kang Minjae's tone was firmer than ever, like a warning not to try anything.
"When we switch, don't think about bolting. The parking shutter comes down, and you need a keycard for the building. You're stuck in the garage either way."
In the end, I followed his lead. No running. I got into Kang Minjae's car waiting in the villa garage.
"You haven't heard any details?"
On the way to his place, I asked. I'd been checking portal sites nonstop on my phone, but no word on Lee Jeongchan's death yet.
Kang Minjae drummed the wheel and sighed deeply.
"Not much. But they found his body at Hwagun Reservoir."
Hwagun Reservoir, as expected.
"Only place they can link me to him is there, so yeah."
"Isn't it insane? How do they even dream this up..."
Kang Minjae spat out his frustration.
"If Wooshin set this up, they probably killed Lee Jeongchan too."
"That's what I think. He told you he had stuff on Wooshin to hand over, right? Kill him to stop that, take out the nosy lawyer in the process—two birds, one stone."
Entirely plausible. If it worked perfectly, Wooshin sacrificed one pawn but removed two thorns.
"After failing to frame you as a tax evader and speculator last time, they pulled this."
Kang Minjae ground his teeth as he muttered.
Being framed for murder—especially Lee Jeongchan's, once a top presidential contender—was infuriating, no doubt.
But I'd been through this before. In my past life, Wooshin tried everything to bury me. Even when I was up for deputy chief, they nearly tanked it with competence smears.
First time as a killer suspect, though.
"Plenty of people grinding their teeth over me. Should've been more low-key."
Take Go Sangjun: I'd jailed his precious youngest son, crushed his paid-in-capital hike, derailed his card market takeover. Minghwa Pharma? Delisted.
Government bigwigs too. Superintendent of Education, Food and Drug Safety Minister—maybe even a future president.
From their view, I'd toppled them. Truth was, they'd tripped over their own crimes.
"You're joking right now?"
"It's the truth."
If Wooshin orchestrated this, they'd have every angle covered to paint me as the killer.
To fight back, I needed countermeasures. But with their cards hidden, I had no clue where to start.
Still, basic prep: gather what I could.
"You have the toll, convenience store, and gukbap house receipts from Hwagun Reservoir?"
"Yeah, you said they were for expense proofs, so I kept them all."
"Hold onto them tight."
"Got it."
"We spent about an hour there looking for Lee Jeongchan, right?"
"Yep."
"Fishermen around might've seen us—check that angle. See if the store or tackle shops have CCTV. Round up anyone who fished that time and remembers seeing me—or him. Don't do it yourself. Ask Taesik, the office manager, or Reporter Choi."
"I wanna handle it personally."
"...First, make sure you're safe. Then move."
Even Wooshin wouldn't touch the grandson of a former president still revered in legal circles—but better safe.
"Get out, Lawyer. You barely ate—come up, have some dinner first."
We'd arrived at Kang Gwanung's residence. Kang Minjae pulled into the garage.
The engine cut, and I leaned back against the seat, exhaling deeply.
Things were about to get brutally exhausting again.