You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 136

You Have Been Defended – Episode 136

The director turned his head to where I was looking.

“Ah, that thing?”

“It looks like there used to be a CCTV camera.”

“No. That’s where a light was.”

[False]

I smiled faintly.

Should I press him for more details?

Just because it wasn’t a light doesn’t necessarily mean it was a CCTV camera.

“No matter how I look at it, it really seems like there used to be a CCTV camera there. It looks like the scene of the incident would have been recorded.”

“Haha. I wish it were, but it’s not.”

[False]

His attempt at maintaining a neutral expression wasn’t bad, but he chose the wrong person to try and deceive.

I smiled faintly, looking at the words floating above the director’s head [a reference to the protagonist’s ability to discern truth].

So, there *is* a CCTV recording of the incident scene.

If I can find it, it will be easy to turn the situation around.

It seems certain that the director took the money, so I should be careful what I say in front of him.

“I see. I must have been mistaken.”

“That’s right.”

“I’ve seen enough. Thank you for showing me around.”

I headed towards the workers’ cafeteria with the director.

There, I found Kang Min-jae naturally mingling with the workers, chatting amiably.

He even had rice on his plate.

“Attorney! This place is really delicious. Have a meal, Attorney!”

Kang Min-jae waved his spoon at me.

“That attorney is quite sociable.”

“That’s right.”

Before long, Kang Min-jae finished his plate and said goodbye to the workers.

Having grown fond of him in the short time, the workers even told him to come visit again.

“Did you find out anything?”

As we headed back to where we had parked, Kang Min-jae shook his head.

“There were only people who saw the attendant carrying Go Yoon-sung out. No one said they saw Oh Sang-hyun.”

“Doesn’t sound like they’re lying?”

“There were twenty people in that cafeteria, and all twenty said they didn’t see him. So, I gave them my business card and asked them to ask other people or those who didn’t come today.”

We can’t rule out the possibility that Wooshin bribed them, but they wouldn’t have bribed *all* the workers.

It’s not difficult to bribe and control a few witnesses, but it becomes much more difficult to manage as the number of people increases.

It would be more troublesome if word got out that Wooshin was handing out money.

“If no one really saw him, they might have moved Oh Sang-hyun another way.”

“Another way? The place where the materials were piled up in the back?”

“It’s been over a month and a half since the incident, so there might not have been any materials there at the time. We need to go back and look there again.”

We turned around again.

I thought about asking the director for guidance again, but since it seemed certain that he had taken money from someone higher up, I didn’t bother to let him know what we were doing.

Even if it’s discovered later, we can just say that we thought he was busy, so we looked around ourselves.

“Kang.”

“Yes?”

“Take a picture of the tangled wires on the wall over there.”

“What’s this?”

“There used to be a CCTV camera here.”

“Yes?”

Kang Min-jae exclaimed, stopping the camera zoom.

“Does that mean there’s CCTV footage of the scene?”

“The director says it was where a light was, but I think it’s a CCTV camera. They must have taken it down on purpose.”

“Then the prosecution must have the scene footage?”

“Wooshin might have gotten rid of it before it was handed over to the prosecution, but there must have been CCTV footage at some point.”

I turned away from him, who was focused on taking pictures, and headed into the alley.

It was a place I had passed by earlier because the materials were piled high.

If no one witnessed Oh Sang-hyun leaving, as Kang Min-jae’s investigation suggests, then this is the only other possibility.

It’s blocked by materials now, but it might have been open at the time of the incident.

I squeezed into the gap.

“Attorney, what are you doing?”

Kang Min-jae approached me.

“Take a picture here too.”

It was an extremely narrow space.

Even considering that I’m a large guy, if the materials were piled up this much, Oh Sang-hyun wouldn’t have been able to go this way either.

He was unconscious at the time, so one of the attendants must have carried him on their back.

Considering that Oh Sang-hyun is also large, and considering the physique of the attendant who carried him, there wouldn’t be enough space to maneuver.

“Let’s get out of here.”

As we came back to the entrance, the director, who seemed to have finished his meal, was picking his teeth with a toothpick and spotted us.

“Oh, Attorneys, you haven’t left yet?”

“Yes. I dropped my cell phone back there.”

“I see. I didn’t see it. I should have looked.”

“It’s okay. Oh, now that I think about it, there’s something I forgot to ask.”

“What is it?”

“That narrow space behind the incident scene. The one where the materials were piled up.”

“Ah, yes. What about it?”

“Where does it lead?”

“It connects to the underground parking lot entrance that’s being built way over there.”

It’s in the opposite direction from the construction site entrance.

Then it makes sense that the workers didn’t see it.

If there were no materials piled up there at the time of the incident, Oh Sang-hyun must have been secretly moved that way to avoid being seen.

“Are there CCTV cameras there too?”

“Yes, there are.”

Then Oh Sang-hyun’s appearance being moved there might have been recorded.

“Can we check it?”

“The police took all the CCTV footage from that day.”

“Even the one in front of the underground parking lot?”

“They just took the entire storage device containing the CCTV footage from the entire construction site that day.”

This is troublesome.

“Just one more question. There were a lot of materials piled up there, when did that start?”

“From the beginning. Many workers were getting lost after going that way, so we deliberately piled up materials there to block it off.”

[Truth]

This is an unexpected result.

I thought it would be a lie, but it’s the truth.

The only way for Oh Sang-hyun to get out without being seen is through there.

There was definitely no other way.

“I’ve seen enough.”

We eventually returned to the car.

“Where on earth did Oh Sang-hyun go? I still think the director is lying.”

I wish the director’s words were a lie too, but unfortunately, it’s the truth.

“It’s difficult because Oh Sang-hyun himself doesn’t remember.”

“Then we should consider that there was no gain today.”

Kang Min-jae’s voice was dejected.

“We found out that there was a CCTV camera at the scene. It’s not like there was no gain.”

“That’s true, but they took the entire storage device. It seems difficult for us to secure it. The information disclosure request will be rejected unconditionally.”

“Even if we prove that there used to be a CCTV camera there, they’ll just say that it was already broken at the time and didn’t record the scene.”

“That’s right.”

“Let’s keep looking into it. We’ll find a way.”

The car started, and I took out the cell phone I had put in my inside pocket.

There was a missed call from Secretary Oh.

“Secretary Oh, it’s me. I had a missed call.”

-Ah, Attorney. About our request to inspect and copy the case records.

“Ah, yes.”

-It was denied. So, I called the prosecutor’s office, and they said that the attorney must come in person to apply and copy it with the prosecutor’s office copier. When I said that I, the secretary, would go, they cut me off, saying that the attorney himself had to come.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Denials of inspection and copying are common, but this absurd condition…

It’s the first time that a secretary is not allowed and the attorney has to come in person to copy it.

Not allowing the secretary… is this retaliation against Secretary Oh, who left the prosecution and came to work for me?

Still, when I contacted him during the Kim Hyung-joon case, he treated me like a senior, but time is so cruel.

“Wow. It seems like our junior wants to see my face for the first time in a while. I didn’t know he would try to see me even with abuse of authority.”

-I’m thinking of filing a complaint. This is too rude.

“No, there’s no need to do that. Doesn’t that mean they’ll let me copy it anyway if I go in person?”

-That’s true, but…

“I’ll stop by the prosecutor’s office on the way back to the office.”

I hung up and briefly shared the contents of the call with Kang Min-jae.

“Is Senior Yang crazy? Ha, that’s why I definitely want to prove Oh Sang-hyun’s innocence and break his not-so-high nose.”

Secretary Oh soon sent the location of Yang Han-seok’s prosecutor’s office by text.

I got a visitor’s pass on the first floor and got on the elevator.

Kang Min-jae still looked upset.

He usually smiles brightly, but he seemed quite upset because he thought he was being slighted.

“Loosen up your expression. There are many eyes watching.”

Isn’t the Criminal Division 3 my old stomping ground?

Certainly, as soon as I got off the elevator, I could feel people passing by glancing at me.

We didn’t have any personal connections anymore, but we would often exchange glances.

Well, they’re just passing by now.

“Oh, Cha Joo-han? Hey, isn’t that Attorney Cha?”

Then, I ran into the deputy chief prosecutor of Criminal Division 3.

“Ah, hello.”

“It’s been a while! Who is this friend?”

“He’s my partner attorney.”

“Partner attorney?”

The deputy chief asked, looking at Kang Min-jae.

But Kang Min-jae didn’t seem to notice his scrutiny.

He was just looking at me with puppy-dog eyes.

What is that, disgusting.

“He’s the deputy chief prosecutor of Criminal Division 3. Say hello.”

I said to him in a low voice.

Then Kang Min-jae finally came to his senses and bowed deeply.

“I’m Kang Min-jae, Attorney Cha Joo-han’s partner. I’m from the 36th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute [a prestigious law school in South Korea].”

Kang Min-jae put a strange emphasis on the word “partner.”

“Oh, really? He looks smart. Attorney Cha’s partner must be a very capable friend? Nice to meet you.”

The deputy chief shook hands with Kang Min-jae and then looked at me again.

“But what brings Attorney Cha here?”

When I was in Criminal Division 3, we weren’t very close, but there were no hard feelings.

We happened to sit next to each other often at company dinners, so we often talked.

“I have a case I’m working on. I came to inspect the records.”

“Huh? Rumor has it that Secretary Oh went to Attorney Cha’s office, wasn’t he?”

“That’s right. He’s working at our office now.”

“You have a secretary, so why did Attorney Cha come in person?”

“The prosecutor told me to come in person.”

Kang Min-jae said through gritted teeth, and the deputy chief asked again as if he found it strange.

“No, you have a secretary, so you’re telling the attorney to come in person? Who’s the prosecutor in charge?”

“Prosecutor Yang Han-seok.”

“Yang Pro?”

The deputy chief smiled subtly as if he understood.

“Attorney Cha is going to have a headache.”

He didn’t say much, but I felt like I knew what he meant.

I don’t know Yang Han-seok well, but I can certainly expect that he has been sharpening his knife at me since the Kim Hyung-joon case.

The fact that he’s making me come and go with just one case record inspection today must be because he wants to mess with me.

I understand, since he was humiliated for acting cocky and saying he would cut off my winning streak in the Kim Hyung-joon case.

“I should go in now. Attorney Cha, fighting! [a Korean expression of encouragement]”

“Thank you. Go in.”

After parting with the deputy chief, Kang Min-jae and I arrived in front of Yang Han-seok’s prosecutor’s office.

Kang Min-jae knocked lightly and opened the door.

An investigator who was working busily asked in a businesslike manner.

“How can I help you?”

“I’m Oh Sang-hyun’s attorney. I’m here regarding the case records.”

When Kang Min-jae answered, the investigator scanned him up and down.

It seemed strange because he had heard that *I* would come in person, but the person who actually appeared was Kang Min-jae.

“The prosecutor is busy right now. Wait here.”

The investigator answered insincerely.

I, who was standing in the hallway, opened the door and went inside.

“Investigator.”

“…Attorney Cha. Did you come in person?”

The investigator seemed quite embarrassed by my sudden appearance.

“The prosecutor summoned me, so I had to come in person.”

Yang Han-seok was not in the main office.

However, the investigator’s gaze was strangely directed towards the rest area inside the prosecutor’s office, where the blinds were drawn.

“It seems like someone is inside.”

When I asked, the investigator rolled his eyes, looking around for no reason.

And at the same time, the door to the rest area opened.

First, I met eyes with Yang Han-seok, who was gripping the doorknob very tightly,

“……”

Then, I met eyes with Hwang Young-chan, who was leaving the rest area with a stiff expression.