My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 32

A group like that has its own gathering place. And if they’re meeting in the countryside, where would be the most likely spot?

“Ah! You’re right. The village hall must be their territory.”

“That’s right. It’s highly likely.”

If they’re the kind of guys who cause trouble, commit violence, and assault the villagers, people would avoid them, and it wouldn’t be hard for the village hall to become their territory.

“There’s no way those guys would keep the village hall stocked with side dishes.”

So, when they actually needed side dishes, they would have had to go home to get them.

“But isn’t it a bit much to be suspicious based on that alone?”

“There’s more. Look at the timing. It’s the farming season right now.”

In the middle of the busy farming season, they’re leisurely catching fish in the stream and boiling them to eat?

While other people are working their butts off?

“They could be taking a day off.”

“Yeah, they could be. But if they were, they’d be with the other villagers. If that were the case, do you think only five people would have died?

Probably dozens would have died. Because they would have caught fish in the stream and eaten them with the villagers.”

“Well, close friends can be separate. Even if the population is ninety, not everyone can come.”

“That’s true. But the decisive reason I’m suspicious is the atmosphere at the scene.”

“The atmosphere at the scene?”

“Yeah. It was really strange there.”

The reason Park Do-joon observed the scene without interfering when Han Sung-gi was talking to the police was because of that strange atmosphere.

It was clear that rumors would have spread since five people had died and the police had been dispatched.

“But I didn’t see any sadness on people’s faces.”

Even if they weren’t family, they were people who had lived together in the same village for a long time.

Even though they died all at once, there wasn’t a single person crying among the onlookers.

“Considering the communal nature of rural areas, it’s absurd.”

However, the villagers were gossiping like detached observers and seemed concerned, but they weren’t really sad or anything.

“In other words, those nine people either have no presence in the village at all, or they are hostile targets.”

If the village population is around ninety, that’s 10%, but there’s no way they could have no presence, so what’s left is that they are hostile targets.

“Oh, that could be true.”

“And they threatened Kim Woo-chang to give them money. But it’s rare for people to continuously demand money like that.”

Of course, there are quite a few cases where people who return to their hometowns suffer from local bullying and move again.

But according to Kim Woo-chang, it was those nine people who threatened him to give them money.

“He said the rest of the people weren’t involved.”

“Then?”

“Yeah, those nine people are probably local thugs.”

They were trying to extort money from Kim Woo-chang, who came from outside, and the villagers didn’t want to get involved with them.

“Uh…? Doesn’t this mean the whole village is a suspect in the murder?”

“I guess so.”

Park Do-joon said while driving.

“And the police want to avoid that situation. Because it becomes difficult to investigate.”

Jung Yi-yeon couldn’t say anything to that.

***

When they arrived at the village, there were no police officers.

Other than the police tape at the scene, nothing much had changed, so Park Do-joon was able to find people skillfully.

“Police?”

Park Do-joon smiled wryly to himself as he looked at the villagers who were regarding him with hostility.

‘It’s as expected.’

A murder has occurred, and the perpetrator hasn’t been found yet.

I know that people have bad feelings towards the police.

How many screw-ups have the police committed so far? But in this situation, people end up relying on the police.

Nevertheless, being hostile means they don’t trust the police as much as I imagined.

‘And the cause is probably them.’

They probably colluded with the police and did all sorts of crazy things. And the police pretended not to know.

“Were you acquainted with the deceased?”

“The village chief’s gang?”

“Yes.”

“What do you want to know that for?”

The answer is obvious from the moment the word ‘gang’ came out.

“I’m a police officer from Seoul. It seems like the local cops aren’t investigating the case properly.”

In this case, if you take their side, they tend to open up.

In fact, most local police officers know each other’s names and faces.

“You’re from Seoul?”

“Yes.”

Park Do-joon handed over his ID, and the farmer seemed to believe him a little more.

“No matter how I look at it, it seems like there’s something about the deceased that the police aren’t investigating. But was he the village chief?”

“Ah, he’s the village chief. But we didn’t elect him.”

The village chief is elected by vote, but the regional chief also appoints them.

And in this case, it seemed to be the latter.

“Is that so? But you don’t seem very close.”

“Those bastards? They’re complete assholes. I didn’t want to get involved with them.”

Listening to his story, they were more vicious than farmers usually are. They used the petty power of the village chief to harass the residents and demand money.

Even if they called the police, they sided with the village chief, who knew the mayor.

Not only that, but if there were loans for farmers, they would take care of it all themselves.

“They even took the farming equipment.”

“Farming equipment?”

“You need farming equipment to farm.”

I’m not talking about shovels or hoes. From rice transplanters to seeders, you need surprisingly large equipment to farm properly.

But the price of such equipment is not cheap. Of course, it’s burdensome to buy it individually.

However, since it’s so efficient, in most cases, they receive government support and buy it at the village level and take turns using it.

Just having one tractor can plow a field that would take dozens of people several days to plow in half a day.

“But those bastards ate that too.”

They bought the equipment with government support, but they wouldn’t lend it unless they paid for maintenance.

They reported it to the police, but the police didn’t listen and said it wasn’t a cause for accusation and told them to take care of it themselves.

‘Tsk tsk.’

As a result, the farmers had no choice but to use the farming equipment while being extorted every year.

Of course, it’s true that the village has to pay back the money they borrowed to buy it together.

But what the village chief’s gang demanded was 50,000 won [approximately $40 USD] per household per month as a maintenance fee, excluding that.

“Per household?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

There are ninety villagers. The total number of households is 39.

If you exclude the gang, there are 34 households.

At 50,000 won per month, that’s 1.7 million won [approximately $1360 USD] per month.

“Can’t you just not give it to them?”

“How can you not give it to them? Then they won’t let you use the farming equipment.”

The key is also managed by the village chief, and if you don’t use it, you have to hire people, but compared to the labor cost, 50,000 won per month is much cheaper.

‘The police turned a blind eye to that.’

“I see. Then there must have been a lot of people who had bad feelings towards them?”

Since it’s a murder case, they’re bound to be careful about what they say if it’s a grudge, so Park Do-joon softened his words slightly, and the farmer nodded at that.

“I didn’t even want to treat them like people. I couldn’t do anything, so I gave them money and dealt with them, but to be honest, I feel relieved that they died like that.”

‘Their atrocities must have been worse than I thought.’

For Koreans, death is a kind of absolution. When a bad guy dies, Koreans usually say, ‘But there were good parts,’ and send off the deceased.

Especially the elderly, but even those people say they feel relieved that they died, so their atrocities must have been beyond imagination.

“Is there anything else you can tell me besides that?”

“If I think about the atrocities they committed, it wouldn’t be enough to talk about it for months.”

While listening to the farmer’s words, other people started to gather one by one, and they even nodded and agreed with his words.

“Oh, don’t even talk about it! How terrible that bastard is…”

“They didn’t even allow access near the reservoir.”

“The reservoir?”

“They locked the floodgates and didn’t let anyone touch them.”

“Even the floodgates?”

A reservoir is a small lake where water is collected and made available for farming. It is usually filled with rain or snow, and when it is farming season, the floodgates are opened and water is put into the fields.

“They locked it up?”

“Don’t even talk about it. The police came and harassed Kim so much for opening it. What was it? De… De…”

“Are you talking about property damage?”

They locked the reservoir with a padlock and didn’t let anyone touch it, and one angry farmer cut the padlock with a cutter.

But the police came that day and punished him for property damage, and even tightened it up tighter, saying there was no water until they kicked that bastard out.

In the end, he broke a padlock and gave 10 million won [approximately $8,000 USD] to the gang as an apology to be forgiven.

‘There’s no answer.’ [There’s no solution.]

The police who know that and just leave it alone are also a problem, but this is too much.

“Then are there many people who could have killed him?”

“Well? I don’t think so. There are many people who have grudges, but to be honest, it’s not easy to kill people.”

“That’s right!”

Only real madmen can kill people in the heat of the moment. Moreover, listening to the story, the people in that gang are such madmen, and the other people are just ordinary villagers who hate them.

“What about that Kim guy?”

“How long has Kim been dead?”

“Four years, maybe?”

There’s no way a person who died four years ago could have committed murder, so it’s not him.

‘Hmm…’

Park Do-joon looked at the people who were excitedly talking and cursing the dead.

And he was convinced as he watched it.

‘I don’t think it’s these people.’

These people can’t be the culprits.

If they were the culprits, they wouldn’t be involved in this conversation.

No matter how relieved they are that they died, murder is illegal.

Of course, they would feel a psychological burden to be excitedly chewing on them here.

‘Then is it someone else?’

It could be. There are about ten people here.

There are still about eighty people missing.

“Thank you. Then I’ll see you later.”

Park Do-joon said goodbye and walked out of them.

The people barely acknowledged the greeting, and they were busy cursing the dead.

“Wow, I didn’t know anything about this.”

“Because that’s not what the police want to say. The key to this case is that the police condoned the illegality.”

There was an opportunity to prevent the murder.

But the police condoned it.

“But is this common in the countryside?”

“It’s not common, but it’s not like it doesn’t exist at all. Because power in rural areas is not easily replaced.”

It’s a society that is thoroughly organized around personal connections, so it’s not an area that can be fixed just because you want to fix it.”