My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 298

“Why do you think so?”

“Well, the debt isn’t that significant.”

“The weight of debt varies from person to person. It might not be a lot of money for someone, but it could be a huge sum for another.”

For some, 2 million won [approximately $1,500 USD] is less than a night’s drinking money, but for others, it’s enough to secure a 2 million won deposit for a studio apartment.

When that point was made, Ji Sang-hwan stated firmly,

“That’s why I’m saying this. Other cops don’t know the situation, so they can say that. I’ve been close to that guy since elementary school. So, I know his family situation well.”

“Does his family live well?”

“His family is just so-so. If they had assets, other cops would know.”

“Yes? Why is that?”

“Actually, Sung-hoon has an older brother, and he won the lottery three months before the accident.”

“The lottery?”

“Yes, I found out after the accident.”

He drunkenly cried about why Sung-hoon would commit suicide over just 200 million won [approximately $150,000 USD], and sobbed that if he had told him, he would have paid off the 200 million won.

“And Sung-hoon apparently knew about it.”

Park Do-joon’s eyes widened at that.

200 million won.

It’s definitely a lot of money, but not an amount that a lottery winner couldn’t pay off.

“The winnings might have been small, right?”

“It was 2.8 billion won [approximately $2.1 million USD]. Before taxes.”

“Not a small amount.”

“Back then, there weren’t many duplicate winners. Besides, the two were very close.”

Even if siblings bicker, their brotherly love was so strong that if he had just told him the situation, he would have paid off the money.

“And he actually bought him a car after winning the lottery.”

“Really?”

“Yes, the car involved in the accident.”

“What? That was a car he bought for him?”

“Yes.”

At that, Park Do-joon checked the vehicle. Since it was bought after winning the lottery, it meant the car was almost new.

“Isn’t this a Benz? [Mercedes-Benz]”

“Exactly. Even selling it used would pay off half the debt.”

A Benz. An S-Class, no less.

Selling it used would definitely cover about half the debt. Moreover, being only three months old, it was practically a new car.

“Then why did he die?”

“Then why did the restaurant fail?”

“He ran a pork belly restaurant. But then swine fever hit this area.”

“Ah!”

When swine fever starts, the government implements a culling policy [the systematic killing of animals]. And during those times, people drastically reduce their pork consumption.

Especially in this area. Even in the city, pork consumption drops sharply when swine fever hits, but who would comfortably eat pork belly when culling is happening right next door?

“No grudges or anything like that?”

“There was nothing like that at all. How could someone who lived in this neighborhood his whole life have any grudges?”

He didn’t have any peculiar tendencies, nor did he fight fiercely with anyone. He was a moderately ordinary friend, so there was no reason for him to hold a grudge against anyone.

“So, when I tell people that there’s no way he would commit suicide, everyone says it’s obviously suicide and tells me to accept it.”

“Hmm.”

Park Do-joon rubbed his chin at that.

‘There’s definitely something to that.’

Whether it’s because the police don’t want to work or not, when an incident appears to be a suicide, the investigation is directed toward suicide. Naturally, when the direction is set that way, the conclusion is suicide.

In reality, there are numerous suspicious deaths, but the police often close most of them as suicides, citing that the victims chose suicide as the method.

“Then do you think it was an accident rather than suicide?”

Lee Ji-soo tilted her head and asked.

“If it was an accident, they wouldn’t have called a profiler. He definitely died.”

“Died?”

“Yes, he was killed by someone.”

“But they say the car plunged into the reservoir?”

The car plunged into a reservoir without guardrails, resulting in everyone drowning. That was the conclusion of this case.

“That’s why it doesn’t make sense. There’s no reason to commit suicide, and even if he did, there’s no reason to go all the way there. There’s an even bigger reservoir on the way.”

In other words, there’s no reason to commit suicide, and no reason to be killed by someone.

“It’s an ambiguous case…”

Park Do-joon grabbed his head.

“Can we go there once?”

At Park Do-joon’s words, Ji Sang-hwan nodded. He was willing to do anything to uncover his friend’s unjust death.

“The location is a bit strange.”

Park Do-joon said after checking the surrounding area. Seeing that, Lee Ji-soo tilted her head and asked.

“You say it’s strange here? Why?”

“There’s no course for a plunge.”

“A plunge?”

“Um, you haven’t been trained in suicide investigations, have you?”

“No, well…”

“Haa!”

Well, it’s not a problem that’s just started today, so Park Do-joon scratched his head.

“Basically, when a person is determined to die, especially when using a car to commit suicide, they minimize control factors.”

“What do you mean by minimizing control factors?”

“Simply put, they close their eyes, grip the steering wheel tightly, and just step on the gas.”

They give up control and commit suicide with continuous movement.

That’s a common pattern found in suicides using cars.

“Ah, you mean going straight.”

“That’s right.”

If you close your eyes and grip the steering wheel tightly, the car will naturally go straight and then go over the edge and fall into the reservoir. That’s the typical method of car suicide.

“But look at this location. It’s a two-lane road. Is there a direction to go straight here?”

The road itself is a small two-lane road, so if you put the car sideways, it completely blocks the road.

“Oh? Is that so?”

“Yeah, if it were suicide, it would be over there.”

Park Do-joon said, pointing to a place a little further away.

“There’s a corner there, and if you accelerate from this spot, you’ll fall straight into the reservoir at that corner. But deliberately turning the car around here to commit suicide is strange.”

Park Do-joon said that as he slowly headed towards the railing.

“Was there originally nothing here? There’s a guardrail?”

“There wasn’t one at the time of the accident.”

However, drivers kept filing complaints saying it was dangerous, so the city had no choice but to install a guardrail.

“The road itself wasn’t built long ago.”

“A road that wasn’t built long ago?”

“Yes, it was built for tourism purposes.”

“Ah, I see what you mean.”

People like driving along rivers or beaches. The so-called loop road.

“But this doesn’t seem like a place where a loop road would be built?”

It’s not a large lake or beach, and no matter how big it is, it’s just a reservoir.

“Well, you know how lucrative civil engineering is in our country. The county head at the time was caught and imprisoned because of that incident.”

Even if they built a road here, it wouldn’t increase traffic, nor is it a place suitable for tourism. But the county head forcibly built the road with the intention of embezzling money through civil engineering.

“Actually, this road exists, but there’s hardly any traffic.”

Moreover, the road runs right next to the reservoir, and there are no streetlights, so it’s so dangerous that they installed guardrails throughout about two years ago.

“Has anything else changed since then?”

“Nothing in particular has changed.”

“Is that so?”

Park Do-joon looked around at those words.

‘It doesn’t seem like suicide.’

The location is really ambiguous to see it as suicide. If that were the case, you could just go a few hundred meters further and there’s a corner.

“Could it be that they just slipped and went in?”

“It wouldn’t be. Because of the distance.”

“Distance?”

“The distance the car flew.”

At Park Do-joon’s words, Ji Sang-hwan gave an additional explanation.

“This area was also searched at the time of the disappearance. The car was captured on CCTV. But they couldn’t find it.”

“Why not?”

“Only foot searches and aerial searches were conducted.”

The police hadn’t considered the possibility of it falling into the water, so they searched this area.

However, an underwater search was not conducted because, as Lee Ji-soo just said, if it had accidentally gone into the water, the car would have been found quickly nearby.

“Yeah, but if you look at the photos, the location where the car was found is a bit further ahead of this cliff, right?”

That means the car had enough acceleration and flew forward to some extent. If the speed was insufficient, the car would have immediately nosedived and crashed along the slope.

“But it was found closer to the center of the lake than expected.”

“That’s right.”

Park Do-joon nodded.

“That’s why the car wasn’t found.”

Of course, it didn’t fly tens of meters, but even that short distance meant that the water depth was rapidly increasing, so it could never be found by foot or aerial search.

“We couldn’t do an underwater search of this entire area. As you can see now, the water here is quite murky.”

Even if you wanted to go into the water and check, you can’t see more than 1 meter ahead in this water. Naturally, you would have to search by groping with your hands, but there aren’t enough personnel or equipment to search this wide lake.

“So that’s why they couldn’t find it.”

“Yeah, and that means a lot. At least the victim was driving, and at a considerable speed, high-speed driving.”

That speed is impossible when entering sideways. No matter how good the car is, there’s a minimum distance required for acceleration.

Moreover, the Benz S-Class is a sedan, not a sports car. Convenience is a priority, not instantaneous acceleration.

“Then suddenly changing direction means it’s suicide after all, right?”

“Of course, it’s true that the direction was changed voluntarily. But just because they did that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s proof that the person committed suicide.”

Park Do-joon walked for a long time. A place with nothing in particular. A vacant road with no streetlights and no people.

Even though it was daytime, only one car passed by in over an hour of searching.

“There would be even fewer cars at night, right?”

“Probably?”

“Yeah.”

Saying that, when he finally arrived at the corner, Park Do-joon’s eyes changed strangely.

“Hmm?”

“What’s wrong?”

“What’s this on the ground?”

Black lines drawn on the asphalt. There were dozens of them, not just one or two.

“Aren’t those skid marks?”

“Yeah, they’re skid marks.”

Park Do-joon bent down and looked at the spot. And examined it in detail.

“Definitely skid marks.”

“Why is that important?”

“I think I know what the truth of the case is.”

Standing up and looking at the corner and the straight road, Park Do-joon said coldly.

“This isn’t suicide. It’s an accident.”

“An accident?”

“Yeah, an accident. A hidden tragedy.”

Profiler by trade