My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 125

“So, arson in the forest isn’t easy to track down.”

“Then it’s not arson?”

“It’s not that it’s not arson, it’s just not easy to track down.”

Park Do-joon frowned.

“But if this really is arson, we can’t ignore it.”

“Why is that?”

“Arsonists have a kind of mental illness. It’s a crime they can never stop committing on their own. In terms of the possibility of recurrence, it’s almost at the top, along with sex crimes.”

“Crazy!”

“Yeah. And this case is so big.”

Three people died. The fire is spreading uncontrollably.

“If this is arson, it means they may have started fires in the past and killed someone. Or they could start fires in the future and kill someone.”

Park Do-joon rubbed his chin and said,

“I think we should investigate this.”

“Ah, can *you* investigate it, Detective?”

“Either way, someone died. If there’s suspicion, we can’t ignore it.”

“Even without evidence?”

“Finding that is what profilers do. And the intuition of someone working in the field is surprisingly reliable.”

It is said that even police officers with a lot of experience do profiling in an instinctive area. In fact, there are quite a few cases where firefighters gain experience and then study further to become professional fire investigators.

That means that what you learn in the field is definitely not insignificant.

“If those people suspect arson, then there’s a high possibility that it is arson.”

If that’s the case, we can’t just ignore it.

“I’ll talk to the team leader first.”

***

“Arson?”

“Yes, what do you think, Team Leader?”

“If it’s real, we can’t ignore it. Moreover, if you look at the investigation records of simple arsonists in Korea…”

Arson can be divided into several categories, but broadly speaking, it can be divided into simple arson and arson against buildings. Generally, arson against buildings is punished more severely. That’s because most buildings in Korea are inhabited.

As a result, police investigations also focus on arson against such buildings.

“In other words, simple arson is often neglected.”

“Yeah, that’s right. Especially in the case of forest fires, most of them are treated as simple accidents.”

Due to the limitations of tracking, there’s no other way. Even if the fire department suspects arson, firefighters don’t have the authority to investigate.

Of course, they report their suspicions to the police, but in this case, the police prioritize these simple arsonists way down the list.

“Then, if they don’t have enough time, they just cover it up as a simple accidental fire or accident.”

There are few people who can be called victims, or even if there are, they mostly recognize it as a kind of natural disaster, so the victims don’t protest.

As police officers are busy, they often don’t try to track it down.

“If there were at least some CCTV [closed-circuit television] footage, we could catch them.”

“That’s completely up to luck.”

How many CCTVs can you install around the mountains? Of course, in most cases, you have to dig without such things, and it’s not easy to find witnesses to testify, so it just fizzles out.

“Three people died this time, right?”

“Yes.”

“If three people died, it’s practically murder…”

“What do you think?”

“We definitely need to investigate.”

The team leader nodded. Even he thought this was not something to ignore.

“So, am I going alone?”

“Ah… I don’t think so.”

“Yes?”

Park Do-joon tilted his head at the words. Because there’s no one to go with him.

“Don’t tell me you want me to go with that Han Sung-gi?”

“Would that work? And that Han Sung-gi bastard, he submitted his resignation and ran away.”

“Resignation?”

“I don’t know if he thought he was screwed, but as soon as the disciplinary committee decided to transfer him to Jeollanam-do, he wrote his resignation and ran away.”

Park Do-joon frowned at the words.

‘Han Sung-gi gives up this easily? No way…’

Han Sung-gi is an extremely persistent person. There’s no way he’d write his resignation and run away just because he lost to me a few times.

‘I’ll have to look into it later. Judging from what the team leader said, the resignation itself seems to be true for now.’

Perhaps the police were desperately hoping that he would resign. In that situation, if he submitted his resignation, it would naturally be processed.

“Well, the Jeollanam-do profiling team is saying something… but what can we do? I kind of expected it.”

“I guess so. Then who am I going with?”

“Someone new will come tomorrow.”

“New? Now?”

“Yeah. Originally, that kid from Jeollanam-do and Han Sung-gi were supposed to be exchanged, but the transfer itself has already been decided, so he’ll come tomorrow. Go with him when he comes.”

Park Do-joon frowned at the words. It was a situation that made him sigh involuntarily.

“Haa…”

“What again?”

“No, no matter how I look at it, isn’t this just swapping bombs? Is the Jeollanam-do profiling team crazy enough to send an ace while taking this bomb? Of course, they’ll send a bomb.”

“That’s true.”

“What can we do? Otherwise, we won’t have enough people.”

“Still, he won’t be as bad as Han Sung-gi, right?”

“Yeah, we have to hope he’s not as bad as Han Sung-gi.”

The team leader could only smile bitterly.

***

‘No, I’ve heard that a shitty car goes and a Benz comes, but I’ve never heard of a shitty car going and a garbage truck coming? This is like food waste!’

Park Do-joon tried hard to suppress the anger boiling inside as he looked at the man who had come to the office.

‘But should I really put up with this? This is too much, isn’t it?’

At least Han Sung-gi had the minimum skills as a profiler. That’s because the Metropolitan Profiling Team itself was originally created to support national cases, so they mainly selected people with good skills.

Park Do-joon was actually assigned here after placing first in the exam.

However, in Han Sung-gi’s case, his inferiority complex was eating away at his skills.

If Han Sung-gi didn’t have an inferiority complex, he would have had skills just below the team leader level, even if he wasn’t as good as Park Do-joon. Objectively speaking. But the newly arrived guy was someone Park Do-joon knew.

To be exact, he was someone he knew before the regression.

“I’m Shin Cheol-gwang, newly appointed!”

Detective Shin Cheol-gwang said loudly.

‘I’m screwed.’

The reason Park Do-joon said this was simple. Shin Cheol-gwang is a profiler, but he’s not a *real* profiler.

“Oh, yeah. I’ve heard a lot about you. I heard you’re a talented person from the Jeollanam-do profiling team?”

“Hahaha, no.”

‘Yeah, no. You bomb!’

Park Do-joon was burning up inside.

‘I never thought I’d miss that crazy Han Sung-gi.’

At least Han Sung-gi is selfish, full of inferiority complexes, and acts up without skills, but at least he is aware that he is a profiler.

However, the problem was that he used it for his own benefit and wrong beliefs.

On the other hand, Shin Cheol-gwang is different. Shin Cheol-gwang doesn’t have an inferiority complex. Is that a good thing?

No. He doesn’t have an inferiority complex, but instead, he doesn’t care about anyone else.

It’s not like Park Do-joon is nobly protecting some kind of belief.

He was a man with an artistic talent for overturning cases if he was paid.

‘Come to think of it, what was that case before? Ah, damn it, I have to look into that too? What was it? It should have happened around this time…’

The reason Park Do-joon knows Shin Cheol-gwang is simple. He’s going to jail for a huge case later. Corrupt police cases happen often, but it was the first time a profiler had taken a bribe and overturned a case, and Shin Cheol-gwang ended up in jail later when that was revealed.

‘I don’t remember who it was.’

It happened when Park Do-joon was a young rookie, so the timing is definitely around this time. However, it will explode in about 5 years.

Someone committed a crime, and Shin Cheol-gwang received money from the target and twisted the direction of the case, completely deviating from the core of the case, resulting in the case being blamed on the wrong person.

In return, Shin Cheol-gwang received a whopping 1 billion won [approximately $750,000 USD], I remember.

However, I remember that the truth was revealed to the media after the person who was blamed in that case was released and filed a proper lawsuit.

‘5 years after release… then what is it?’

“This is Park Do-joon, your partner.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Shin Cheol-gwang. Hahaha.”

Park Do-joon smiled awkwardly at Shin Cheol-gwang’s hearty laugh.

“I’m Park Do-joon.”

“Let’s say hello while we go. I’m sorry as soon as I get to work, but there’s a lot of work to do. There’s a suspicious case that’s been received this time, so go with Detective Park Do-joon here and solve it together.”

“What is it? Is it murder? Or kidnapping?”

“Arson?”

“Arson? Which building did it happen in? How many deaths?”

“There’s nothing like that. They just said that a forest fire is suspected of being arson.”

The moment he said that, it was obvious that Shin Cheol-gwang’s face, which had been showing interest, lost interest.

‘Well, he wouldn’t do that if there was nothing to receive [no potential for a bribe].’

To be exact, there *are* deaths, but it’s impossible to know if this is real arson, so he said there weren’t any.

Because these minor details can change the profiling.

For example, if the information that there are deaths comes in first, the direction is likely to be arson for murder.

However, looking at the current situation, it is a death caused by an uncontrolled fire rather than intentional murder, so it should be said that there was no intention in the cause of death, so he said there was none.

“Okay. Well, I’ll go and check it out. It won’t be too difficult.”

“Go right away.”

“Yes. Hey, let’s go.”

“Yes.”

Park Do-joon was burning up inside as he watched Shin Cheol-gwang, who was speaking informally to Park Do-joon, even though he was a senior. Of course, if he’s a senior, he *can* do that. But he’s meeting this person for the first time now. But informal speech. But that wasn’t the only frustrating thing.

“I heard you had a big fight with Han Sung-gi?”

“How do you know that?”

“I heard you stood up to Sung-gi? Don’t even think about doing that to me.”

“What do you mean? What is that?”

“I heard everything, you bastard. If you think I’m as easy as Han Sung-gi, you’re mistaken.”

Park Do-joon frowned at the words. It seemed that he knew Han Sung-gi. So, Han Sung-gi must have told Shin Cheol-gwang about him as a kind of warning.

“Know your place. If you don’t want to die? If you think of me like a Seoul scholar, you’re going to die. Got it?”

“……”

“Hey, and I heard you have a nice car? Bring it over. Let’s take a ride.”

Park Do-joon had a headache as he watched Shin Cheol-gwang grinning and going outside.

“Why are there only unnecessary guys everywhere?”

Park Do-joon felt a sense of skepticism about his regression.