Prosecutor Kim Seo-Jin - Chapter 64

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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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An Unsolvable Problem (6)
Seo Jin immediately checked the messages.
But there was nothing remarkable.
The photos and videos were the same.
There were only a few selfies pretending to look pretty.
The Team Leader was watching this unfold.
Suddenly anxious, he chain-smoked cigarette after cigarette.
‘This bastard… said there wasn’t one!’
The Team Leader had sought out Seo Dong-seok first after Shin Ji-min’s death.
“Where’s Shin Ji-min’s phone? Not that one—the burner phone!”
“There isn’t one. I’m serious.”
“Tell me before I arrest you for soliciting prostitution!”
“I’m telling the truth. There really isn’t one.”
The Team Leader’s reason for searching for the burner phone was simple.
He was terrified his contact information might be on it.
He couldn’t even remember what messages they’d exchanged.
But he believed that if those messages were discovered, it could spiral into the worst-case scenario.
The Team Leader had threatened her and begged to meet.
‘I could be mistaken for the perpetrator. I have to stop this.’
While the Team Leader was lost in thought, Seo Jin was speaking with Lee So-hee.
“Would you mind doing one more thing for me?”
“Anything.”
Lee So-hee answered readily, despite having her own work to handle.
Seo Jin pointed to the documents on the table and spoke.
“I’m going to request phone data recovery, so while I’m doing that, find out why these people were excluded from the suspect list.”
“Got it.”
Lee So-hee rolled up her sleeves, and Seo Jin was about to head to the Information and Communications Division.
But the Team Leader suddenly interjected.
“Prosecutor, forgive me for saying this out of caution, but I don’t think anything will come up even if you recover it. It’s a waste of time.”
“….”
“Think about it. The perpetrator planned a perfect crime. If they sent a message to Shin Ji-min’s phone, what would they have done first? Destroyed it, obviously.”
“….”
“And that phone doesn’t even have call recording. There won’t be anything even if you examine it.”
“….”
“Based on my long experience as a detective, this case ends here. It’ll be filed as unsolved.”
In that moment, the Team Leader sensed something strange.
Seo Jin’s expression was changing.
Then he walked over with heavy, deliberate steps.
He placed both hands on the desk and slowly leaned forward, bringing his face close to the Team Leader’s.
Then Seo Jin spoke in a voice so chilling it raised every hair on his skin.
“Why are you acting like that?”
“Pardon?”
“There’s something else bothering you, isn’t there?”
“That, that’s not….”
“Your expression says otherwise.”
The Team Leader’s face contorted.
Flustered, he blurted out loudly.
“What are you talking about! I said it was just an abundance of caution!”
The Team Leader regretted it immediately.
Like a thief whose feet itched, he’d let slip something unnecessary.
But the milk was already spilled.
Now he had no choice but to play dumb and deny everything.
“It’s just caution, pure caution!”
But Seo Jin’s expression remained unchanged.
No—if anything, it had grown colder.
And Seo Jin recited verbatim what he’d heard through psychometry—the words the Team Leader had spoken to Shin Ji-min.
Quietly, so only the Team Leader could hear.
“Hey, I know you’re sneaking Ji-min out without President Choi knowing. But try not to do it if you can help it. Even the Police Chief can’t stop what comes after that.”
In that instant, the Team Leader’s face split wide open, and his pupils trembled as though he’d glimpsed a horrifying specter.
And unbidden, the Team Leader’s mind dredged up the past.
He’d known that Shin Ji-min earned money through compensated dating.
And he’d discovered that Seo Dong-seok was the one arranging it.
A mere allowance seemed too meager an opportunity to pass up.
So he’d raked his eyes up and down her body and spoken.
“Is this some kind of family-like company? Should I tell President Choi? That you two are running this little scheme together?”
Adult prostitution and child prostitution were fundamentally different concepts.
If the boss found out, all hell would break loose.
It wouldn’t end with just a beating or two.
“I might let you slide, but Seo Dong-seok? I won’t be so lenient. Looks like he’d lose a limb or two. What do you think?”
Shin Ji-min ultimately….
“Understood. When should we meet?”
She’d agreed to his demands.
And a few days later.
Shin Ji-min stood before the Team Leader.
A checkered miniskirt, a brown cardigan—anyone would’ve pegged her as a college student.
And a strikingly innocent one at that.
Seeing her like that, the Team Leader licked his parched lips.
“It’s damn hard just looking at your face.”
“There won’t be any pestering from now on. Otherwise, I’ll really tell Uncle Police Chief.”
“I said I understand. Don’t you trust people?”
The two of them walked through the Entertainment District.
They were planning to have a drink first.
Then Shin Ji-min’s phone rang.
Shin Ji-min frowned at the caller ID before answering.
“Customer? If you’ve run out of money, stop calling me. Should I report you for sexual assault? There’s CCTV at the motel anyway.”
The Team Leader’s gaze shifted to Shin Ji-min at her ice-cold tone.
He didn’t know the exact details, but he could follow the thread of the conversation.
—Shin Ji-min had pulled a honeypot scheme, and the sucker had run out of money.
He thought that much was understandable.
Given how recklessly Shin Ji-min played around.
But then something strange came out of Shin Ji-min’s mouth.
“…Are you watching me?”
The Team Leader’s hair stood on end at those words.
They were clearly not on familiar terms.
So when Shin Ji-min looked around, the Team Leader scanned the surroundings as well.
But there was nothing to see.
It was just the sucker’s bluff.
Shin Ji-min let out a laugh and opened her mouth.
“Run away if you want. This oppa is a scary person. And do whatever you like. You and this oppa are different. He’s someone I truly love.”
With those words, Shin Ji-min giggled.
And then.
“Crazy bastard.”
Shin Ji-min ended the call, and the Team Leader, unable to shake off an uneasy feeling, asked.
“What? What was that call about?”
“Pretend to be my boyfriend.”
“Huh?”
Shin Ji-min clung to the Team Leader’s arm.
Seo Jin appeared before the Team Leader’s eyes once more.
He had thought of him as a young prosecutor brimming with passion.
But not anymore.
A worn and weathered imoogi.
That imoogi smiled quietly and opened his mouth.
“You killed them, didn’t you?”
“What?”
The Team Leader blinked at the sudden words.
But Seo Jin continued as if he truly believed it.
“That’s why you’re sensitive about burner phones, right? I’m curious—what would we find if we recovered this?”
“…!”
Seo Jin knows the Team Leader is not the perpetrator.
Because his build and voice are different.
But looking at his eyes now, it’s clear he’s hiding something.
So I pressed him without mercy.
“A message? Evidence of his bragging all this time? Or blackmail?”
A cornered rat bites the cat, and a man on the cliff’s edge grasps at straws.
“No! It’s not! God, I’m losing my mind! I just…!”
Bang!
I slammed my hand down on the table.
And I glared at the Team Leader as if I could devour him.
“No, it’s you.”
“Ah! We did meet before. But that’s right! Yes! I just remembered. I got a strange call back then.”
“A call?”
“Yeah, that bastard must be the Serial Killer. That’s him!”
The Team Leader’s voice was urgent.
And he relayed the contents of Shin Ji-min’s conversation.
I don’t know if that’s the perpetrator.
Because Shin Ji-min has more than one mark who holds a grudge against her.
But the Team Leader, desperate to escape, spilled everything eagerly.
“Shin Ji-min even played the seductress. She must have bitten a mark. But that mark kept stalking her. So she said he loved her and asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend. Really!”
The Team Leader’s story was disjointed.
He was spouting whatever came out of his mouth.
But I felt the pieces fitting together.
When I first saw the psychometry at the crime scene, the words the perpetrator had spoken.
“Con artist.”
“Now you finally want to look at me?”
“You’re cheating? How much money have I poured into you?”
“You’re next after her. Let’s see if you’re happy in hell too. You bastards.”
Remembering those words, they matched what the Team Leader was saying now.
Then the perpetrator’s next target is the Team Leader.
I let out a hollow laugh.
I couldn’t tell if the Team Leader being brought in here was good luck or bad luck.
But the Team Leader felt unease at my incomprehensible laughter.
So he flinched when I leaned my body toward him.
‘Why again!’
The Team Leader was on the verge of losing his mind.
I was even frightening to him.
At that moment, I opened my mouth.
“When?”
“Pardon?”
“When did the two of you meet separately?”
“I don’t remember the exact time. But the date….”
*
*
*
It wasn’t until the following afternoon that the mobile phone data was fully recovered.
“This is going to be quite difficult, isn’t it?”
The technician shook his head.
The photos and videos hadn’t changed much.
The problem was that the men she’d been in contact with were, quite literally, a truckload.
But Seo Jin’s interest lay in only one thing.
The number she’d received a call from on the day the Team Leader was on a date—at the estimated time.
‘Thirteen numbers in total.’
Excluding the Team Leader, they were all just one among her numerous boyfriends.
Seo Jin scrolled through the messages quickly.
‘But…’
Among them was a soldier.
A non-commissioned officer, a sergeant—Nam Taek-hyun.
When Shin Ji-min’s missing person report came in, he’d been excluded from suspicion because he was in training.
But something about it felt off, impossible to simply overlook.
‘What is it?’
Seo Jin’s eyes narrowed, and a thought flashed through my mind in that instant.
—A perfect alibi. A perfect crime.
Seo Jin stroked my chin thoughtfully.
Even during training, one could slip away at night.
While duty rosters existed, most soldiers were too exhausted to do more than kill time.
And if he was an officer, he had a free pass.
Seo Jin picked up my phone.
And I dialed Nam Taek-hyun’s number deliberately.
The call connected.
—Hello?
Seo Jin closed my eyes and quietly recalled the man’s voice.
‘Similar.’
Seo Jin said nothing and ended the call.
Leaving the Information and Communications Division, I immediately contacted Investigator Lee Dong-young.
“Investigator? Could you step out for a moment? And could you contact the Artillery Battalion to confirm whether Sergeant Nam Taek-hyun is currently on base?”
Word that Seo Jin was pursuing a soldier spread throughout the District Prosecutor’s Office.
“Isn’t he someone the police already investigated?”
“They’re looking down on the police.”
“But if we catch what the police missed, wouldn’t that be a real jackpot?”
“Hey, no matter how corrupt they are, they’re still the police. A rookie prosecutor doesn’t have the intelligence network to dismiss them.”
As Seo Jin brought in the Police Chief and the Violent Crimes Team Leader, the District Prosecutor’s Office was in an uproar.
Some attribute it to the blessings of their ancestors, dismissing it as mere luck.
But what if the police apprehended someone they’d once let slip through their fingers, and he turned out to be the real perpetrator?
The prosecutors exhaled heavily, their gazes drifting toward the window.
‘Surely not….’
*
*
*
At that moment, Seo Jin climbed into the car with Investigator Lee Dong-young.
Investigator Lee Dong-young turned the ignition and spoke.
“He’s on leave and staying home. Ah, don’t worry. He didn’t go back to his hometown….”
The bastard had rented a place near the base and lived alone.
Despite being on leave, he was holed up in his apartment.
Investigator Lee Dong-young continued.
“But apparently his violent tendencies are quite severe. Things had quieted down, but they’ve flared up again, and there’s talk of a dishonorable discharge.”
A dark room with curtains drawn across the windows.
Nam Taek-hyun sat there.
He held a notebook, scribbling something down.
Then Nam Taek-hyun’s phone vibrated with a buzz.
The caller was a junior from the base.
Nam Taek-hyun answered with an annoyed expression.
“Yeah. What?”
-Squad leader, is something wrong?
“What?”
-The Prosecutor’s Office called, apparently?
Nam Taek-hyun’s eyes widened.
That was when it happened.
The doorbell rang with a ding-dong, followed by the sound of knocking on the door.
“Nam Taek-hyun? We know you’re in there! Nam Taek-hyun?”
Nam Taek-hyun’s face twisted in fury.
‘Damn it!’
He rushed toward the balcony.
Second floor.
He could easily jump and escape.
He yanked the balcony door open.
But then.
‘Huh?’
A stranger was waving at him.
It was Seo Jin.

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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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