My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 665

But if the lung is punctured, you can’t even scream. With modern medicine, it’s almost impossible to save someone with a hole in their lung.

“What about outside?”

“Three people were stabbed to death, and four were killed with their heads smashed. Two were stabbed in the back, and one was stabbed in the front.”

“Hmm….”

Park Do-joon glanced around the office at those words. Then he quietly said,

“It seems like something went wrong. Seeing that they were ambushed from behind, they must have been attacked inside first. The other party wasn’t targeting them from the start; something went wrong in the middle.”

“Really? How do you know?”

Seo Joo-won asked, looking amazed. He could figure out the cause of death, but not the situation. Moreover, the evidence analysis hasn’t even come out yet. There are objects that appear to be weapons, but they are mixed with ash, making them hard to distinguish, and some are completely burned.

“First, the location.”

“The location?”

“Yes, the direction the bodies are clustered in. Isn’t it all towards the office entrance?”

“That’s right.”

“If they came to fight from the outside, they wouldn’t be here.”

To fight the enemy, the entrance is the best place. Because the entrance is narrow, they can be attacked from all sides as soon as they enter.

It’s almost impossible for gangsters to break down the entrance and rush in at once. Even if they are numerically superior, only one can enter through the entrance at a time.

The reason why movies and dramas show them being pushed back instantly, with heads being smashed as they enter one by one, is because it’s not thrilling enough.

“But they had the office behind them. Looking at that, they didn’t stop the other party from entering. Especially since three people died inside? Then that means it’s not a fight, at least. If they were ambushed in the office, they would have run out immediately.”

“Ah, I see what you mean.”

In other words, it’s not a fight. So, the purpose of entering was conversation, which means they knew each other at least.

“But what went wrong that led to murder like this?”

“Who knows? I don’t know either.”

Park Do-joon said, continuing to examine the surroundings.

“The incident probably started from inside the office.”

“Why, Detective Park?”

“There’s someone with a knife in their back, facing away from the office, right? And you said the cause of death inside was stabbing?”

Then we should assume they came out from the inside and stabbed.

“There are probably other guys outside.”

Park Do-joon stood inside the office, looking around as he spoke.

“We can assume they prevented anyone from entering even if they heard noises inside. But the guy who was attacked inside won, contrary to what they thought. Looking at that situation, the Hellfire guys must have betrayed them first.”

Because it’s their office. They would have planned and set a trap. But it must have failed.

“Well, if there weren’t other people outside, they would have rushed into the office the moment they heard screams, or they would have just done their own thing, right?”

“Probably.”

A force trying to enter and a force trying to stop them. We should assume that two groups clashed, and a guy who quietly took care of things inside came out and backstabbed them.

“Were there many guys with numbers involved?”

“That’s probably not it. Usually, when negotiating, the one in a superior position or in their own territory tries to reduce the number of the other party. Especially if they are already planning to backstab them. Looking at that, we should assume the guy who counterattacked had a different weapon.”

Park Do-joon glanced at the fallen bodies. White cloths spread out in the room. There are bodies under them. And that white cloth contrasted subtly with the black burned office, giving it a bizarrely strange feeling.

“There’s no possibility of bringing a long-reach weapon during the negotiation process… In the end, it’s a short-reach weapon.”

“A knife?”

“Who knows? It’s hard to subdue someone with a knife.”

No matter how skilled someone is with a knife, it’s hard to subdue someone with just a knife. Moreover, the other party is a Chinese violent organization that doesn’t hesitate to kill.

“Rather, we should look at it the other way around. Probably a gas gun. If you get hit properly, resistance is virtually impossible.”

Then, they take the knife, kill, and change the tide of the battle by ambushing from behind. That was Park Do-joon’s prediction.

“And the guys who came probably weren’t armed. They probably didn’t have any other purpose than negotiation. But they were betrayed by the Hellfire guys.”

“How do you know?”

“If you were armed, wouldn’t they keep you in check?”

“I guess.”

Going to a violent organization armed is like saying, ‘Let’s fight.’ The guys who have an office might have weapons they usually keep there, but otherwise, it’s standard to go unarmed when visiting the other party’s organization.

“And there aren’t enough weapons.”

“Yes?”

“Look over there.”

Iron pipes and knives piled up in one corner.

“It’s not just a coincidence. They incinerated and disposed of them all at once with the intention of eliminating the evidence.”

Seo Joo-won nodded at Park Do-joon’s words.

“That’s right. That seems to be the point of ignition. We’ll have to investigate further, but.”

“Probably nothing will come out even if you investigate that.”

“I guess so.”

It’s not just burning. They piled up the objects and gathered everything that could burn, from paper, all at once and burned it.

“The fingerprints will disappear due to the heat, the chemical substances will disappear, and if you burn it like that, the traces will be covered by the ashes.”

“Is there a possibility that the criminals took the weapons with them?”

“Who would do such a crazy thing?”

Knives and iron pipes are the most commonly available weapons. There’s no reason to carry them around preciously.

“Rather, carrying a weapon covered in blood would be conspicuous.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“So, if they brought weapons, they would have burned them all there. But looking at the numbers, there aren’t enough to be weapons from the outside, right?”

“You mean they killed them with those weapons after subduing them.”

“Yes. But think about it. How can a small number subdue a large number?”

“That’s true.”

Of course, it might be possible if they are good at fighting or have learned martial arts. But generally, that’s impossible.

“The ones inside would be a small number too, and the ones waiting outside would probably be fewer than here. They would have been unarmed.”

If the guys who came were numerous or armed, they would have tried to reduce the numbers by striking first the moment a fight broke out.

But there’s no trace of that. Of course, the guys who came might have taken their attacked comrades with them.

“But there’s no sign of a chaotic fight.”

They were all gathered and subdued at once, and apart from a certain area, they weren’t particularly scattered.

“That means there’s a high possibility that the other party wasn’t threatening.”

“Hmm….”

“And I said earlier? The criminal would have a weapon.”

A gas gun is a weapon that can subdue the other party in an instant if used well. The concentration of the chemicals and the firing speed are completely different from the pepper spray that people generally think of as a gas gun.

However, the reason they say to run away is because attacking from the point of incapacitation becomes excessive defense from that moment on, but it’s not like they can’t kill if they try to kill.

“It’s easy to subdue the other party with a gas gun and overturn them with numbers. Probably the two people stabbed with a knife were the first to be attacked.”

And after that, they subdue about two people with a gas gun, and stab one person in the front who is panicking with a knife.

“After that, it’s easy.”

They had numerical superiority and weapons in their hands.

“After that… it’s revenge.”

“Hmm….”

Lee Ji-soo looked around at those words, trying to analyze the scene in her own way. Scene analysis is one of the most important abilities for a profiler.

“Then, looking at those various situations, we should assume that the criminals set fire here and ran away. We should assume that the criminals have experience in murder or evidence destruction.”

“That’s right. Furthermore.”

Park Do-joon looked around and said with certainty.

“There’s probably someone who knows the investigation process well.”

“How do you know that? It’s more common than you think for criminals to set fires to hide their crimes.”

Seo Joo-won tilted his head at Park Do-joon’s words. He hadn’t confirmed everything yet, but that didn’t mean that evidence for what Park Do-joon was saying had come out either.

“They gathered the weapons and burned them, right? That means they know that we will try to collect fingerprints during the investigation process.”

In fact, even if you set a fire, fingerprints often come out on neglected objects. And that becomes decisive evidence in catching the criminal.

“But gathering the weapons means preparing for any possible situation. Probably the weapons have all been wiped of fingerprints.”

Park Do-joon said, pointing to a bundle of cloths placed in the space where the weapons were piled up.

“What does this look like?”

“This is… um, isn’t it a wet wipe?”

“That’s right. It’s a wet wipe. And these wet wipes often remain in this form at fire scenes.”

First of all, wet wipes basically contain moisture, so they don’t burn well. And the outer packaging is often made of vinyl.

If a fire breaks out, the outside immediately catches fire, but at the same time, the moisture inside suppresses the fire from entering, and the vinyl melts down, so it naturally acts as a kind of fire barrier.

“But as you can see here, this is not the place for wet wipes to be.”

Usually, wet wipes are placed in the corner of their table or in one corner of the office and brought when needed.

But now, this wet wipe was on the corner of the desk right next to where the weapons were piled up.

“Because there’s no one who puts wet wipes here and uses them.”

“That means?”

“They wiped the weapons here.”

“That’s definitely true. It’s an ambiguous place to put them.”

No one usually puts wet wipes in a place where they can’t help but fall if they accidentally bump into them.

“Then these weapons?”

“Yes, there’s a high possibility that nothing will come out even if you investigate the fingerprints.”

“Ugh! This is a bit serious.”

Seo Joo-won’s face became bitter at Park Do-joon’s words. It’s not just a matter of fingerprints, but if what Park Do-joon said is true, the criminal knows the police’s investigation techniques, and that means there’s a high possibility that they’ve blocked all places where other evidence might come out.

“Other hairs or things like that would have already been completely burned due to the fire.”

In fact, tracking is impossible.

“Who could it be? Another organization again?”

“Who knows? But….”

Park Do-joon glanced outside.

“People make mistakes when they try to prepare for everything.”

“Yes?”

“First, please give me the autopsy records later.”

Park Do-joon greeted Seo Joo-won and came outside. Then he headed to the entrance of the alley. He saw a crushed car on one side at the entrance.

“Is this the car?”

“Yes?”

“Is this the car that was blocking the entrance to the alley?”