My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 609

‘If only I had that money.’

He’d have to give some to Jo Han-seop, but 10 billion [Korean currency, roughly $7.5 million USD] would be enough. Jo Han-seop would kiss his feet and gratefully accept the money.

‘I don’t like that bitch Jo Ah-min, though.’

But he had no choice. He needed Jo Han-seop’s help to cover up the incident and prevent further investigation. The police wouldn’t have investigated without a warrant from the court.

He held the powerful authority of non-prosecution. So, without doing anything, he would gain 850 billion won [Korean currency, roughly $640 million USD].

‘But those Moonlight bastards are still bothering me.’

Moonlight Law Firm was gathering victims and poking around to recover the money. Of course, they wouldn’t know where the money was.

Even he hadn’t expected where it was hidden; there was no way they could find it.

‘Should I recover it now?’

No, he couldn’t. He was already under suspicion.

‘Annoying.’

He wasn’t being openly investigated, and no warrants had been issued. But recently, he had many more visitors to his house. Of course, he always had people visiting him, but these recent guests were different.

They were obviously sent by higher-ups, with watchful eyes. They came, subtly looked around the house, and gave him glances that asked if he had taken any money.

‘I have to be patient for now.’

Park Tae-woon thought so and tried to turn his attention back to his work. But then, one of his subordinate prosecutors came to him with strange news.

“Chief Prosecutor Park.”

“What is it?”

“We’ve received some new information.”

“New information?”

“About the house of Yoo Joon-seung’s wife’s family in that rural area.”

At that moment, Park Tae-woon flinched.

“What about that house?”

“Moonlight Law Firm is buying it.”

“What!”

Park Tae-woon jumped up from his seat at those words.

“What are you talking about!”

“They said they’re buying the place to search every inch of it to find the money, so they asked the children to sell it.”

“Crazy? Would they even agree to sell it?”

“They are selling it.”

“What? Why?”

“They’re offering 600 million won [Korean currency, roughly $450,000 USD].”

“600 million?”

“Their situation isn’t great either, you know?”

From Yoo Joon-seung’s children’s perspective, their uncle’s hospital bills were enormous, and any assets even remotely related to their father had been seized.

Even their apartment was subject to dozens of lawsuits demanding the return of money their father had helped with.

To survive in that situation, they needed money that had nothing to do with their father. But there was no way to get it.

Because their father’s sins were passed down to them, they were treated like scammers wherever they went.

“Moonlight must be desperate too. They have a lot of clients who commissioned them.”

They had to find the money somehow. Or at least leave a trace of effort.

“So they’re buying it to tear it apart?”

“That’s the only place they haven’t touched.”

The prosecution had also suspected that place. But the person in question died before they could request a search warrant.

‘Damn it, this isn’t good!’

Park Tae-woon had intuitively known there was something there when he saw Yoo Joon-seung’s extreme stress whenever the house was mentioned during the interrogation.

And when he died of a cerebral hemorrhage, he secretly rummaged through his belongings and took out a notebook. The notebook contained an unidentifiable password.

As a prosecutor, he had seen Bitcoin passwords a few times, so he was convinced there was Bitcoin there. He spent the weekend searching every inch of the place and found it.

But he couldn’t bring it with him.

‘But they’re buying that place?’

If they were tearing apart the house to search it, they would likely dig up the land as well. And in that case, the Bitcoin hidden underground might be found. No, it would be found. That’s how desperately they were searching.

Hiding money in the ground was actually a common occurrence. In fact, hundreds of millions of won had been found in a garlic field before.

“No!”

“Yes?”

The subordinate prosecutor flinched at Park Tae-woon’s sudden shout.

“No, I was thinking about something else. So they’re buying that place?”

“Yes.”

“But legally, that land belongs to someone else!”

“Legally, the nephews and nieces are the legal representatives.”

In reality, the mother who had been the legal representative had passed away a long time ago, and the disabled uncle had never married, so the nephews and nieces were indeed the legal representatives.

“It wouldn’t be a problem if it were a lease.”

They needed money to care for the mentally disabled uncle in the hospital. But any money or assets received from their father were subject to lawsuits.

The company was on the verge of bankruptcy due to rumors, and even that was subject to seizure of shares because it was started with support from their father.

“But that house isn’t.”

Since it was clearly a house that had been passed down from the maternal side, even from their maternal grandfather’s generation, it could not be subject to asset seizure.

They wanted to sell it to use the money for hospital bills and for themselves.

“I see.”

Park Tae-woon’s face was sullen.

“Alright. You may go.”

“Yes, Chief Prosecutor.”

After the subordinate prosecutor left, Park Tae-woon bit his lip.

“This is dangerous. I need to secure it quickly.”

Of course, there was a high possibility that he would be tracked. That’s why he hadn’t recovered it and left it there. But he couldn’t just stand by while they were digging up the land.

“I need to find it and take it to my in-laws’ place.”

Park Tae-woon gritted his teeth.

Late at night.

As he headed home, bright lights were shining from the house. But Park Tae-woon didn’t hesitate and opened the door to go inside.

He knew that the lights turned on automatically in the evening. It wasn’t a timer but a sensor that detected outside light, turning on at different times depending on the season, so it was impossible not to get the feeling that people were living there when viewed from the outside.

“Nothing has changed.”

The windows weren’t broken, and there were no signs that anyone had searched the house.

“I need to recover it quickly and leave.”

Otherwise, he would really lose everything.

Park Tae-woon hurried to the back of the house. He used a broom nearby to sweep away the dirt covering the iron plate and opened the lid.

“It’s still here.”

He looked inside and smiled broadly, taking out the piles of cloth one by one. Then, he reached under the pump and rummaged around, pulling out a tin can.

“Hehehe.”

He opened the tin can, revealing the external hard drive.

“With this much……”

With this, he would be rich. He wouldn’t need to play king in Daegu [a city in South Korea] anymore. He could advance to the central government, become a member of the National Assembly, and eventually become the President of South Korea.

If he became President, he wouldn’t have to worry about petty bribes of tens of millions of won.

He thought so and stood up to leave the pump room. At that moment, he heard applause from behind.

Clap, clap, clap!

“You’re not deviating from my expectations.”

A man slowly emerged from the darkness. Park Tae-woon turned to look at him.

“Who are you?”

“Ah, I’m Park Do-joon. I’ve been investigating the Jo Ah-min case.”

At those words, Park Tae-woon frowned. He had heard that a cop digging into that case had turned everything upside down. But he didn’t know it was him who had leaked it to the tabloids, so Park Tae-woon had no choice but to pretend he didn’t know.

“Who did you say you were?”

“Well, since it’s an unofficial investigation, I’ll be honest. I’ve been looking for that money. Give it back.”

“Money? What money?”

“What you’re holding in your hand. Isn’t that cryptocurrency? That’s what it looks like to me.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Isn’t that the money that disappeared from Unicorn Group? It needs to be returned to the victims.”

At those words, Park Tae-woon’s face hardened.

“How did you know that? For a cop?”

“Just… you find things when you look for them.”

“Sorry, but that’s not it.”

“Really? That’s something the National Forensic Service can determine.”

Park Do-joon said with a smirk. Then he added.

“Of course, you’ll have to hand over the password too, Chief Prosecutor.”

At the same time, Park Tae-woon pulled out a gun from his coat.

“Oh, my.”

But Park Do-joon didn’t seem surprised and raised his hands.

“I don’t know how you found out, but you’re a troublesome guy to leave alive.”

“So you’re going to come out like this?”

“You should have been careful with your loose tongue.”

Park Tae-woon slowly emerged from the pump room with his gun pointed. He said with a mocking expression.

“It seems you came alone out of greed, but you didn’t know that greed would kill you. No one lives around here. If I kill you and bury you, no one will know.”

Park Do-joon shook his head at Park Tae-woon’s words.

“I guess the monkey hunting method isn’t wrong after all.”

“What?”

“I’ll return those words to you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s like this.”

Park Do-joon slowly lowered his hands. But Park Tae-woon didn’t pull the trigger rashly when he saw that. It was obvious that he was lowering his hands slowly.

“You even brought a gun.”

Park Do-joon said, pushing his jacket aside. And Park Tae-woon’s face hardened when he saw what was there.

“I have a gun too.”

“You crazy bastard. I’m already aiming at you!”

“That’s right. But.”

Park Do-joon slowly placed his hand on his gun.

“Whether it’s the police or the prosecution, guns are ultimately six-shot revolvers. And the first two bullets are blanks.”

“So?”

“But what do you think I was doing while waiting for you to come here?”

At those words, Park Tae-woon’s face hardened.

“It’s not difficult to remove two blank bullets from a revolver.”

Park Do-joon said, looking at Park Tae-woon’s gun.

“The time it takes for those two blank bullets to fire is enough time for me to draw my gun and shoot you.”

“……”

At those words, Park Tae-woon looked troubled.

“And I’m quite the marksman. I even won a shooting competition recently.”

“So?”

“Where do you think I’ll jump? Left? Right? Back?”

“……”

“In contrast, the space you can move in there is limited.”

The right is the pump room in the form of a pit. The back is the wall. Jumping forward is like throwing yourself into the path of a flying bullet, so the only possible direction is the left.

“When was the last time you had shooting training at the prosecution? A year ago? Six months ago? Or did someone who is the Chief Prosecutor even bother to train? When was the last time you shot a gun? Three years ago? Five years ago?”

Since the prosecution rarely uses guns, there is almost no firearms training. Even then, high-ranking officials don’t even do the training and just skip it.

“And it’s a six-shot revolver. You have two blank bullets, and I have six live rounds.”

In other words, Park Tae-woon would be at a disadvantage in a shootout where bullets missed each other.