Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 204

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Growing Wings (3)
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The next day, I headed back to the police box. The Young Police Officer handed me a memory card containing the CCTV footage he’d investigated.
“I reviewed all the surrounding CCTV cameras from 8:50 to 10 o’clock.”
The missing person didn’t appear in any of them, but something suspicious caught my attention.
“The alley where the missing person entered with her ex-boyfriend—this is one of the exit routes.”
A black van was parked there.
A vehicle blocking the passage.
It didn’t capture what happened inside the alley.
“The license plate is obscured with mud.”
I bit my lip while watching the footage.
Whether intentional or coincidental, the plate was obscured. And the van started its engine right when the missing person parted ways with her ex-boyfriend, then drove away.
“Where did this vehicle go?”
“I tracked it….”
The Young Police Officer had combed through road CCTV footage, tracing the van’s route.
It left Seongnam, entered the Songpa Interchange, used the Outer Ring Road, and escaped toward Incheon.
“That’s where it ends. After that, I couldn’t locate the van with the mud-covered license plate.”
There were too many similar-looking vans. If they’d wiped off the mud after entering the city, it would be impossible to identify.
“Incheon….”
I bit my lip again.
An ominous premonition began to creep in. My mind conjured various scenarios.
The missing person’s cries, the criminals’ sinister laughter.
‘Damn….’
Finding the perpetrator without evidence at the scene was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
But I was determined to flip through every grain of sand to find them.
“What about Kim Eun-beom?”
“Ah, here it is.”
The Young Police Officer handed me the personal information on Kim Eun-beom, the ex-boyfriend.
‘School violence in high school, one year in juvenile detention….’
He’d completed high school through the GED and entered university after repeating his senior year.
Since leaving juvenile detention, he hadn’t caused any particular trouble.
I flipped through the documents and recalled the image of Kim Eun-beom I’d met yesterday.
He was dressed head to toe in luxury brands and drove a car worth tens of millions of won.
‘But… his family isn’t wealthy enough to afford such an expensive foreign car.’
His father was an ordinary office worker, his mother a housewife, and the neighborhood where they lived was equally ordinary.
I tapped the documents with my finger and shifted my gaze toward the Young Police Officer.
“One more favor. Can you find the inmates who were in juvenile detention during the same period as Kim Eun-beom? Specifically, those who shared a cell with him?”
“Yes.”
As the young police officer turned toward the computer, the Police Station Chief approached Seo Jin and whispered softly.
“Do you see any signs of resolution?”
The Police Station Chief desperately wanted this case to be solved.
An assignment from above—success could even mean a promotion.
Seo Jin nodded.
“Even without signs, I have to solve it. No matter how difficult, I must.”
Just then, the police box door burst open and the sound of footsteps echoed loudly.
Seo Jin’s gaze shifted toward the entrance.
I thought it might be a civilian visitor, but….
“Hello? I’m Lee Seok-woo, Chief Prosecutor from Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office…. Huh? Seo Jin?”
Seven prosecutors were assigned to the Special Missing Person Investigation Team. Leading them as team leader was Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo, now entering.
Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo—a man with no real ability, but skilled at flattery and riding the wave of success.
Yet a prosecutor without the capability to solve this case.
Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo’s face twisted upon seeing Seo Jin.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to verify something.”
“Why would someone from the Anti-Corruption Division visit a police box?”
Despite his lack of skill and ability, Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo had spent over a decade in this field—he instantly grasped why Seo Jin was here.
Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo approached Seo Jin with heavy footsteps and whispered in a low voice.
“This is my rice bowl. Let me eat too.”
“…!”
“Look at that expression. What? Upset? Going to run crying to the Prosecutor General?”
Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo continued speaking while patting Seo Jin’s arm.
“But here’s the thing—this is a special directive from the Prosecutor General. The Special Missing Person Investigation Team.”
“….”
“I’m the team leader, and you’re not part of our team. The Prosecutor General and the Prosecutor General’s office ordered us to proceed without new team members. You understand what I’m saying?”
Get lost—that’s what he meant. Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo’s expression was smug.
The confidence of being directly chosen by Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun was plainly visible in his eyes.
Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo brushed past Seo Jin and instructed another prosecutor.
“Someone see Seo Jin out.”
At those words, a prosecutor approached Seo Jin and spoke.
“Leave.”
Seo Jin didn’t answer. I shifted my gaze briefly to look at Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo.
Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo paid no attention to Seo Jin and stood before the Police Station Chief, firing off questions.
Questions about the report and the investigation process, and so on.
After watching him for a moment, I nodded.
“Yes, I’ll go.”
Where would territorial disputes over a case matter? Regardless of incompetence, he was still a prosecutor.
With more investigative personnel, finding the criminal would certainly become easier.
Thinking this, I followed the senior prosecutor out of the police box.
And inside the police box after Seo Jin left.
Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo chewed his lip and muttered to himself.
“Arrogant bastard.”
To Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo, Seo Jin was someone he disliked for no particular reason.
A case of success through fortunate parentage.
Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo belittled every achievement Seo Jin had accomplished. He believed none of it would have been possible without the support of Prosecutor General Kim Young-jun. And Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo thought to himself.
‘That bastard won’t let go of his spoon.’
Seo Jin’s detective work was well-known.
The sight of him visiting crime scenes during the day and handling backlogged cases at night was irritating enough for fellow prosecutors to resent.
Such a Seo Jin seemed unlikely to follow a chief prosecutor’s orders.
No—with the Prosecutor General backing him, he wouldn’t follow the orders of a mere chief prosecutor, or so he thought.
“Was there a police officer who supported Prosecutor Seo Jin?”
“Pardon?”
At Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo’s sudden question, the Police Station Chief blinked. And without realizing it, his eyes shifted to look at the Young Police Officer.
The Young Police Officer, meeting the Police Station Chief’s gaze, stood up awkwardly and answered.
“I provided support.”
“Step back now.”
“Pardon?”
“I said step back.”
Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo’s gaze swept across the police box. His eyes settled on a police officer sitting in the corner.
The one who had asked “You don’t have a boyfriend?” when the missing person’s father came looking.
His expression clearly showed exhaustion from a life spinning like a hamster wheel.
Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo walked toward him and opened his mouth.
“I know Prosecutor Seo Jin well. He’s the type who won’t give up on a case and will pursue it to the end. However, his youth is the problem. He’s full of vigor. He often charges in recklessly and causes accidents. So, Sergeant, would you be able to monitor Prosecutor Seo Jin for me?”
Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo tore off a memo, wrote his phone number on it, and placed it before the Sergeant.
If Seo Jin found the criminal, he could intercept him midway. If Seo Jin failed to find the criminal and moved about clumsily, he could criticize him for obstructing the investigation.
Either way, there was nothing to lose.
Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo smiled with a friendly face and continued.
“I’m counting on you.”
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And after Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo left, the Sergeant rose and approached the Young Police Officer.
“Officer Park, you heard that?”
“…Yes?”
“If Prosecutor Seo Jin calls, don’t answer. You’re out now. And hand everything over to me.”
The Sergeant, who had shown no interest in the missing person case until now.
But he was beginning to take active steps.
With the Prosecution Service having formed a special investigation team, he thought rewards would come his way if he accumulated merit.
The Sergeant tapped the Young Police Officer’s shoulder with a greasy smile. And looking at the juvenile detention center list the Young Police Officer had pulled out, he snickered.
“Hey, you won’t catch the culprit doing things like this. So stop wasting time and get out on patrol. Leave your phone behind.”
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-That’s the vehicle 0820 you mentioned. It’s a leased car.
I sat in the coffee shop, speaking with investigator Lee Dong-young over the phone.
Before leaving the police box, I’d requested an investigation into the vehicle that Kim Eun-beom drove, and Lee Dong-young had delivered the answer quickly.
-But there’s no record of highway toll usage.
Highway toll records are stored in the road authority’s database for thirty days.
But there was no record of his usage.
Either he didn’t use the highway toll system or he never took the expressway.
‘Yet…’
Looking at his vehicle information, he’d paid speeding fines in provincial areas several times.
In other words, he had used the expressway.
‘Driving a car worth hundreds of millions of won, yet not using the highway toll system?’
Something felt increasingly suspicious.
‘I need to check again…’
I decided to revisit the scene where the missing person’s last trace had been recorded.
‘Before that…’
I brought the phone to my ear, calling Jang Seok-min, who had been Kim Yun-hwan’s friend.
“Is the detective agency business going well?”
-It’s basically ruining people’s homes. I can’t believe how many affairs there are. Ha ha.
“I need to ask you for one favor.”
I sent Jang Seok-min Kim Eun-beom’s photo, address, and vehicle number, requesting that he keep watch on him.
Kim Eun-beom might not be the culprit. But I couldn’t leave something that felt off unexamined.
After finishing everything, I twisted my wrist to check the time.
I was supposed to meet the young police officer at 3 PM.
Thirty minutes had passed, and the young police officer still hadn’t arrived.
As I shifted my gaze to my phone to consider calling, the coffee shop door opened and a sergeant walked in.
“You were here?”
“Where’s Officer Park?”
The sergeant smiled awkwardly and sat across from me.
“You know how our work is, right? Something suddenly comes up and we get deployed. Officer Park is busy with something else right now, so I came instead. And this…”
The sergeant placed documents in front of me.
Those who had been in the juvenile detention center with Kim Eun-beom, as investigated by the young police officer.
I held the documents in my hand and turned through them, page by page.
Their residential areas, their current occupations.
Watching me examine them, the sergeant’s lips twisted.
‘What’s he expecting to find from that?’
The sergeant had heard from the young police officer about the investigation process from yesterday.
Meeting with the missing person’s friend and her ex-boyfriend, Kim Eun-beom.
And asking him to investigate the ex-boyfriend.
‘It’s obvious—they fought over relationship issues and she ran away. By now she’s probably at the beach, acting out some melodrama about heartbreak.’
The Sergeant couldn’t care less whether the case was solved or not.
The number of runaway and missing person reports filed each year was staggering.
Several incidents occurring consecutively over months was nothing but coincidence—like a crow flying away and a pear falling.
After briefing Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo on my movements, the Sergeant figured he might as well attend a gut ritual and eat some rice cakes.
But then my eyes darkened as I flipped through the documents.
Through psychometry, I saw the past contained within those papers.
What Chief Prosecutor Lee Seok-woo had done, why a Sergeant came here instead of a young police officer.
‘This…’
I was growing increasingly displeased.
Kim Young-jun squandering prosecutorial resources as he pleased, that Chief Prosecutor fighting over rice bowls, and the Sergeant’s attitude on top of it all.
My willingness to cooperate and catch the criminal evaporated in an instant.
Then my phone vibrated.
The caller was Jang Seok-min.
I held the phone to my ear and spoke flatly.
“Yeah, talk.”
-I had someone nearby, so I sent them over. They’re saying he’s moving now. Should I tell them to follow?
My eyes sharpened.
Multiple scenarios flickered through my mind, appearing and disappearing in rapid succession.
If Kim Eun-beom really was the culprit, or rather, if he was part of their gang…
‘They could have kidnapped the missing person together, then returned to their friends to establish an alibi.’
If my hypothesis was correct, now that the Prosecution and Police were looking elsewhere, there was a high probability they’d move to that location to check on the missing person’s condition.
I stood up and spoke to the Sergeant.
“The suspect is moving toward Northern Gyeonggi. Will you come with me?”
“Pardon?”
The Sergeant’s eyes widened in surprise.
A suspect out of nowhere, and heading to Northern Gyeonggi no less.
If he reported this to the Chief Prosecutor, it would be a jackpot.
“Ah, I’ll follow you. I brought my own car.”
“Then I’ll send you the address as we go. Just take the Outer Ring Road north for now.”
“Ah, yes.”
The Sergeant stood up and hurriedly left the coffee shop.
He’d contact the Chief Prosecutor and head toward Northern Gyeonggi.
But that was a lie.
I still didn’t know his actual route.
I couldn’t work with those trying to reap rewards without effort.
With sharp eyes, I turned my body, thinking about giving both the Chief Prosecutor and the Sergeant the middle finger.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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