My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 343

“That’s the problem.”

Song Pil-man spoke with a sense of despair.

“You said before that the culprit was drunk and accidentally threw it away.”

“Yes.”

“And is keeping the body.”

“That’s right.”

“It’s a detached house.”

“Correct.”

“Detective Park Do-joon, this is Cheongdam.”

Cheongdam-dong. One of the most expensive neighborhoods in Korea.

“Moreover, they need a separate space for a refrigerator and meat processing equipment. Apartments and villas can’t install such things.”

“Exactly. Do you know how many houses like that are in this area?”

“I don’t.”

“Less than 30.”

That’s based on a 10-minute walk. 30 houses. It’s definitely not a large number, and finding a woman living alone in that small number? That’s not difficult either.

“In some ways, it might be the easiest case ever.”

Assuming the profiling is correct, there can’t be many houses like that around here.

“To add a bit more, they probably don’t use a housekeeper and live quite quietly. They might have changed their appearance through plastic surgery, and they probably don’t think their actions are normal.”

“No, that’s not the problem, Detective. This is Cheongdam! Cheongdam!”

A rich house within 10 minutes of the scene. The average size of such a detached house is 300 pyeong [approximately 10,764 square feet]. And the price per pyeong in that area is at least 100 million won [approximately $75,000 USD]. That means each house costs 30 billion won [approximately $22.5 million USD].

“In that sense, it might be the most difficult case ever.”

Park Do-joon sighed as he said that.

Sometimes there are cases like this. If you get the direction right, it’s easier than you think to identify the other party, so you can easily identify the culprit.

The more precisely you identify the culprit, the easier it is to find them. The problem is that sometimes arresting them is almost impossible.

In reality, the profiler’s analysis has no coercive power or evidentiary value, so in order to arrest the culprit, other physical evidence is needed.

“I think it’s best to identify them first.”

That’s the only way, and once we identify who the culprit is, we can make a judgment about it.

“I wonder if we can catch this person…”

Song Pil-man couldn’t help but look genuinely troubled.

“Nam Yeon-hwa?”

“Yes.”

“This is driving me crazy.”

Nam Yeon-hwa. A fairly famous person. And the only woman in her 20s living in a house in that area. To be exact, she is a woman in her late 20s and an incredibly wealthy person with over 100 billion won [approximately $75 million USD] in personal assets. That’s excluding the house.

“Isn’t Nam Yeon-hwa the daughter of Haengsil Confectionery, famous for her abuse of power?”

“That’s right. Should we call her the former chairman’s granddaughter now?”

“Yes.”

“She’s been involved with drugs a couple of times, too, right?”

Lee Ji-soo couldn’t help but ask worriedly this time.

“Detective, is that the person?”

“The possibility is high, based on the profiling.”

There can never be 100% certainty. I’m not a god.

‘But looking at the situation, I don’t think I solved this either.’

I have no memory at all. Then it’s likely that I didn’t even recognize the case itself. Well, if it was before the regression, it wouldn’t have come to the profiler at the point when it was passed on as an unsolved case, so it would have ended up as an abandoned case.

“What does a person like that lack that they would kill someone?”

“They don’t kill because they lack something. It’s a mental illness. Rather, mental illnesses are more likely to develop in affluent situations.”

“Is that what they call the affluenza thing in America?”

Park Do-joon shook his head at that. In fact, in the United States, a rich man’s son killed someone in a drunk driving accident, and they released him on the pretext of an unrecognized mental illness called affluenza.

Of course, there must have been a hefty bribe behind it. It’s just that there’s no way to prove it. But Park Do-joon wasn’t saying that.

“It’s not that, it’s a matter of discrimination and comfort.”

“Discrimination and comfort?”

“Yes, you said it, right? A woman’s appearance is power.”

“That’s right.”

“But what happens if a rich person is considered ugly?”

“Huh? Uh, um…”

At that, Lee Ji-soo pondered for a moment and realized what Park Do-joon was saying. Then she let out a long sigh.

“Well, on the surface, they’ll fawn over them because they’re rich, but behind their backs, they’ll laugh at them a lot.”

If they were people of similar status, they could say self-deprecatingly, ‘Modern science and technology will prevail,’ but if the ugly one is very ugly or has some kind of problem, even those who call themselves friends can’t easily speak up.

Conversation requires at least a similar level. One of the things people misunderstand is that they think they can have a conversation just because they speak the same language.

But speaking the same language and having a conversation are completely different issues.

“What would you do if you had a woman like that nearby?”

“I’d cut ties.”

That’s because Haengsil Confectionery’s terrible personality isn’t exactly a secret. Haengsil Confectionery was once a large company that ranked 4th in the Korean confectionery industry. It’s never easy to rank 4th with confectionery alone, without being a large corporation. But after the abuse of power incident broke out, and even a suicide occurred in connection with the incident, and on top of that, a company that sells confectionery products to children was found to be unfairly dismissing employees who applied for childcare leave, it eventually fell to the bottom. But that wasn’t the end of it.

After being targeted by the public and a boycott broke out, they tried all sorts of tricks, and eventually decided to sell Haengsil Confectionery to another company. They even signed the contract and received the down payment, but suddenly the representative of Haengsil Confectionery, Nam Yeon-hwa’s grandfather, started to insist that he couldn’t give up the shares, and he wasn’t even giving back the down payment and damages.

Eventually, after losing the shares through a lawsuit, they almost fled to the United States.

“What if Nam Yeon-hwa was a friend?”

“I wouldn’t care. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to get involved.”

That’s because Nam Yeon-hwa has already been arrested three times for drug use. Thanks to the power of Haengsil Confectionery, she avoided imprisonment all three times, but the rumors of her dirty personality and drug addiction have already spread widely.

“There’s no benefit to getting involved with someone like that.”

She’s even been caught having an orgy while on drugs. Getting help from someone like that? Judging from the actions of the infamous Haengsil Confectionery family, it’s hard to expect anything.

Instead of help, you might get tricked into doing drugs and ruin your life. The only people left around her would be drug addicts, and they’d be tempting you to do drugs and have orgies with them.

“How would the rich treat Nam Yeon-hwa?”

“Would they treat her like a person? Of course… Ah, isolation.”

“Do you understand now?”

“Isolation has nothing to do with money, is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes, it doesn’t make sense to say that you don’t feel isolated just because you have money.”

Rather, Nam Yeon-hwa is more likely to feel more isolated because she has money. Just showing off? There are people around who can tolerate that much. Even if they show off, as long as there’s a feeling of friendship, they’ll help when things are tough, and if they have the ability, it won’t be burdensome.

“But that’s not the case here.”

It’s hard to see Nam Yeon-hwa as having the personality to help others. A drug addict is too busy doing drugs with their money; they wouldn’t help others with that money.

Moreover, judging from the family’s traditions, that’s unlikely.

“From the perspective of a lower-class person, there’s no reason to be next to her.”

What else would being next to Nam Yeon-hwa be other than a garbage can for emotions and a drug addict?

“Moreover, her family is all in the United States.”

“That’s right.”

After being publicly humiliated in Korea, the other family members all fled to the United States. They were once a leading chaebol [family-owned conglomerate] in Korea, but after being boycotted and later desperately trying not to have their shares taken away, they were even deprived of that, so people of similar status wouldn’t even treat them like people.

In that situation, they’re likely to leave Korea out of shame. After all, they won’t receive proper treatment in Korea.

“The problem is Nam Yeon-hwa.”

Nam Yeon-hwa can’t go to the United States. That’s because she has a history of being punished for drug use. No matter how much Haengsil Confectionery blocked her imprisonment with money, it’s impossible to erase her record as a drug offender, and the United States never allows criminals to enter the country.

Even if they’re a Korean chaebol.

“She’s isolated from her family, too.”

The people she once thought were friends have disappeared, and her family has disappeared.

“From a psychological point of view, it wouldn’t be strange for a mental illness to develop.”

She has a lot of money, but that money doesn’t prevent mental illness.

“Isolation, disregard from those around her, and drugs weaken her mental defenses.”

In fact, studies have shown that drug use lowers IQ.

“Is it really Nam Yeon-hwa?”

Song Pil-man said worriedly.

“Ah, of course, Haengsil Confectionery has been sold now, and most of them are in the United States, but you know, right?”

Just because they’re in the United States doesn’t mean their political power has disappeared. One phone call can stop most cases, even the investigation itself.

In fact, one of the three drug cases Nam Yeon-hwa caused occurred when her whole family was in the United States, but she was released on probation.

“The moment I even mention a warrant, my head will fly off.”

Even those three drug cases weren’t investigated with Nam Yeon-hwa as the target. She got involved while investigating other people.

But in this situation, if we dig into investigating her? Song Pil-man will probably be transferred to some island that day.

“First, we need to find someone who knows about her.”

As is the case with most chaebols, they don’t know anything about the Haengsil Confectionery family or Nam Yeon-hwa. As a result, we need to find someone who knows about them and get even a little information.

“And there’s someone who knows a lot about that.”

“Why do you always come to me when there’s a rich person’s case?”

“Because you’re rich?”

“I admit that.”

“And I thought you’d know a lot about Nam Yeon-hwa. It was quite noisy.”

“I admit that too. It would be strange if I didn’t know. There’s no need to investigate that.”

Jung Yi-yeon shrugged and began to tell what she knew.

“The drug case? It’s a waste of breath to talk about it, right?”

“I’m a cop, so I know that.”

“Well, the abuse of power case is known nationwide, so pass.”

“What’s the atmosphere like among the family members?”

“People who eat together.”