My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 118

“Huh? A crazy bastard to my senior? Are you calling me a crazy bastard?”

“Yeah, you crazy bastard! You think I didn’t call the police because I didn’t think of it?”

“A bastard who doesn’t even have the connections to call the police…”

“What nonsense! It has nothing to do with that!”

This isn’t just any issue; it’s about the Samhan Group. When they hear about it, what prosecutor wouldn’t issue a warrant, and what judge wouldn’t grant it?

They’d grant it just to look good. Even Park Do-joon knows that.

But Park Do-joon had something he absolutely had to prioritize, so he was trying to approach it quietly first.

“You shouldn’t bark like that just because you lost, you young punk.”

“You idiot, don’t you know what you’ve done? Seriously! Ah, this is driving me crazy.”

“What the hell is going on!”

As the two raised their voices, the team leader, who was coming in from outside, shouted.

“Stop fighting, you bastards.”

“Team Leader, we’re in big trouble. This crazy bastard set off a bomb.”

“What bomb?”

“The food poisoning case. He raided a suspicious place with the police.”

“Well, good job. So you caught the culprit, right?”

“The culprit hasn’t been identified.”

At those words, the team leader’s face hardened.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a major distributor. There are twelve guys working there, and we don’t know which one is the culprit.”

“And you raided it?”

“Yes.”

“You crazy…”

The team leader, realizing the situation, turned pale. But Han Sung-gi was still very confident.

“We’ll find the culprit if we investigate anyway.”

“No, we don’t even know if there’s one or two culprits!”

“We’ll find the accomplice if we investigate.”

“You crazy bastard! Seriously…!”

Since the team leader rarely panicked like this, Han Sung-gi seemed to sense that he was screwed and spoke cautiously.

“Don’t worry. The investigation will be over soon. People without any suspicion should be released by now.”

“That’s the problem, you crazy bastard.”

Park Do-joon gritted his teeth as he spoke.

“Once this investigation is over… by now…”

At that moment, Park Do-joon’s phone started ringing like crazy. Park Do-joon hurriedly opened his phone and checked the caller.

An unfamiliar number. But he seemed to know roughly where it was from.

Instead of answering the call, Park Do-joon frantically searched for news online. And he realized that the worst-case scenario had happened.

“Shit, we’re screwed.”

“What? You caught the culprit, so what’s screwed?”

Instead of answering, Park Do-joon held out his phone and showed Han Sung-gi the news that had just been posted. And Han Sung-gi’s face turned pale as he looked at it.

-Breaking News. Samhan Group receives a poison threat. Traces of poison have been found in at least 4 products.

“Uh… uh?”

“Crazy bastard.”

Park Do-joon and the team leader could only grit their teeth.

***

“Hoo…”

The inside of Samhan Group was a complete disaster. The stock price plummeted so much that a circuit breaker [a temporary halt to trading to curb panic selling] was triggered. And reporters swarmed the company, and there was an enormous flood of requests to return food from within Samhan Group.

“Ah…”

Kim Sung-han was trembling with anger, and none other than the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner was at a loss, hanging his head low.

“I’m… I’m sorry.”

“Leave.”

“Chairman.”

“I said leave.”

At the firm words, the Commissioner had no choice but to leave.

“Stupid bastard.”

It wasn’t that Park Do-joon couldn’t cooperate with the police or that he didn’t have the ability, or that he didn’t have connections with prosecutors or the court, that he was trying to handle things quietly.

This was an incident that would be a critical blow to Samhan Group if it leaked out. Knowing that, he wanted to identify the culprit first to prevent information from leaking to the outside, minimize contact with other employees or suspects, and then negotiate with those who had inevitably been in contact after the arrest.

But the police raided the store with a warrant without any warning, and of course, they couldn’t identify who the culprit was because there was no proper evidence.

It was an incident where five police cars were dispatched, and the twelve employees there were chattering excitedly, so it was only natural that it would leak to the media. The media excitedly started reporting the Samhan Group’s poisoning incident as breaking news.

The prosecutors and judges had issued the warrant to look good to Samhan Group, but instead, they had driven Samhan Group into a crisis.

“I’m going crazy.”

Kim Sung-han looked devastated. Still, he thought it would be easily resolved. He thought it would be caught soon because Park Do-joon tracked the flow of crime too easily.

But an unexpected, stupid cop ruined everything.

The stock price was plummeting, but there was no way to solve this problem.

“What’s the solution in this situation?”

“The best way is to catch the culprit as soon as possible.”

“So, is there a way?”

“That’s…”

The board members couldn’t speak. What’s the point of raiding the scene if they couldn’t even identify who the culprit was?

“Is there no solution?”

“We are currently trying to persuade the media as much as possible.”

‘Persuade’ is a nice way of saying they’re paying them to keep their mouths shut. But that’s only to a certain extent. If it hadn’t been made public, it might have been possible, but once it’s been made public, there’s no way the hyenas called reporters would easily let this go.

“Okay, we need to catch the culprit first.”

“But the police are a bit…”

Since this situation was all caused by the police, the directors’ faces were full of dissatisfaction.

“There’s no other way. At least one person predicted the situation and tried to stop it, so we should call that person.”

“Are you talking about Detective Park Do-joon?”

“Actually, if it hadn’t been for that stupid bastard, it would have been an easy problem to solve.”

The situation escalated because Han Sung-gi did something incredibly stupid.

“Bring Detective Park Do-joon.”

Kim Sung-han gritted his teeth and said, as Park Do-joon was the only one he could trust.

***

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know Han Sung-gi would do something like that.”

No matter how good Park Do-joon is, he can’t predict everything. He thought that even if Han Sung-gi had a strong inferiority complex, he would be able to make at least a minimal judgment.

But this wasn’t the time for Han Sung-gi to do that. He was blinded by ambition and greed, and eventually, he set off a super-sized bomb.

“It’s not your fault, so you don’t need to apologize. But I want to solve this problem quickly. What do you think?”

“First of all, the best way in this situation is to catch the culprit quickly.”

“I know that. But you don’t know who the culprit is, do you? Can you identify them?”

“No, it’s impossible.”

Park Do-joon shook his head from side to side.

“Why?”

“Because the culprit won’t budge. As I said last time, to identify the culprit, we need to make them move. But those guys aren’t stupid, so they won’t move.”

The reason they quietly threatened was that the threat would be meaningless if it went outside. Now that it’s all been revealed and people aren’t eating it, what good is threatening?

“Now that it’s blown up, threats and everything else are meaningless?”

“That’s right. In the current situation, the best they can do is quietly disappear and disappear.”

“Kkeueung…”

And it’s impossible to track that.

“So, what do you think we should be careful about now?”

“First of all, someone’s death.”

“Someone’s death? But you said the culprits wouldn’t do anything?”

Kim Sung-han, who was on edge, asked sharply. Because what he said earlier and what he said now didn’t match.

“Of course, these guys won’t do anything. But the problem is that the media doesn’t want that to happen.”

“Does the media want them to actually commit murder?”

“No, it’s not that, but they’ll link it to any incident.”

“What?”

“If someone dies, they’ll definitely link it to Samhan Group.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

At Kim Sung-han’s words, Park Do-joon unconsciously rubbed his forehead.

‘Was my explanation difficult?’

Well, it could be. The other person isn’t a profiler like him.

“Do you know what the most dangerous substance in the world is?”

“What is it?”

“Water.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Water is something that 100% of murderers and criminals consume. And 100% of the world’s deaths are from drinking water. At the same time, water is also a major ingredient in poisons. It can also be divided into oxygen and hydrogen through chemical treatment and exploded.”

As he listened to those words, Kim Sung-han’s face hardened. That’s when he realized what Park Do-joon was worried about.

“If a record is found that a deceased person consumed food we made, they’ll link it to us?”

“That’s right.”

Water is an essential component for humans. Of course, the explanation above makes it seem like an extremely harmful substance, but it’s essential, so it’s natural.

“If someone consumes a Samhan Group product and then dies for any reason, the media will link it to this incident and start talking about suspicion.”

“Crazy…”

“Furthermore, the red bean rice cake, sponge cake red bean flavor, and ice flakes that were found last time are popular products among the elderly.”

Of course, the elderly can die anytime, anywhere, and in any way. And Samhan Group’s food isn’t just snacks or cakes. There are countless instant foods, convenience foods, frozen foods, and even chain stores under its brand.

“You can’t know where they’ll eat what.”

They ate something and died? Even when cleaning up the house of an old man who died alone, a Samhan food product came out.

You can’t know what they ate yesterday or this morning.

Of course, the media will excitedly start saying, ‘Samhan Food is presumed to be the cause.’

Naturally, the bereaved family will demand an autopsy, and it will take a considerable amount of time for the truth to be revealed through the autopsy.

“Even if the truth is revealed,” he said. “The public won’t believe it.”

“Why?”

“Because they already think Samhan Group tried to cover it up once.”

The four contaminated products. It’s impossible to reveal that, so of course, it was covered up. However, in the eyes of the public, they will think that the autopsy results after death can also be covered up.

“Han Sung-gi did something stupid.”

He didn’t just cause a minor problem.

“What does that guy say?”

“He doesn’t come to work.”

“What?”

“The National Police Agency has issued a disciplinary measure. The disciplinary committee is currently being convened…”

The important thing is that the situation has already occurred and other methods are needed to prevent it.

“In the end, the only way is to recall all the food.”

That’s the only way to reduce public anxiety.

“Of course, catching the culprit will relieve anxiety.”

“That’s the problem. If the culprit was motivated by money, as you said? If there’s no way now, won’t they show up?”

“These kinds of incidents are basically about the purpose of the threat itself. In fact, they probably didn’t really kill anyone.”

If they actually kill someone, then the situation becomes really complicated. The fact that poison can be mixed into food is important, but it was bound to be burdensome to actually play with people’s lives. Because the difference in punishment between threats and murder is enormous.”