My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 126

The Natural Born Profiler – 126

# Someone Unhappy

Fire devours everything, especially wildfires, which consume mountains and all life within them.

“It’s burned a lot.”

The mountain was now turned black.

Looking at it, Park Do-joon surveyed the scene.

“There’s nothing left.”

“I guess not. What would even be up on these ridges?”

Shin Cheol-kwang said, sounding annoyed.

Park Do-joon frowned at his words and went to the trunk of his car.

“What are you doing?”

“Going up.”

“Where? There?”

Shin Cheol-kwang looked at the mountain covered in black ash, dumbfounded. “Aren’t you coming? You said you wanted to see the site?”

“This is the site. This is the mountain where it started.”

“Yes, this is the mountain where it started, not *the* site [the specific location where the fire was ignited].”

It was true that the fire started on this mountain. But according to the testimonies at the time, the blaze originated from the valley inside. This wasn’t a valley; it was the roadside.

“Ah, damn… how much is this worth?” [referring to the value of his clothes which are about to be ruined]

“What more is there to see than ash?”

“Still, we should go.”

As Park Do-joon grabbed his sneakers and a mask, Shin Cheol-kwang approached him, resigned. Park Do-joon handed Shin Cheol-kwang an extra mask.

“You don’t have appropriate shoes.”

Of course. Masks were disposable, so it was reasonable to carry a few, but no one carried spare shoes of different sizes.

“I know. Give it to me, you brat.”

Shin Cheol-kwang put on the mask and stepped forward as if taking the lead, but he soon started grumbling.

“Ah, damn it, how much is this worth?”

Everywhere was covered in ash, and the ground crumbled with the slightest step, making it difficult to walk without getting dirty.

Naturally, he frowned when ash got on his pants.

*‘Well done.’*

Looking at Shin Cheol-kwang now, he was wearing a nice suit and expensive shoes. A proper investigator would never dress like that.

Of course, profilers weren’t typically field workers, so it didn’t matter if they wore suits. It was a bit strange that Park Do-joon was even going to the site.

Just look at the shoes. Shin Cheol-kwang was wearing expensive dress shoes. Detectives usually preferred shoes with rubber soles that were good for running, even if they wore dress shoes. Usually, they wore sneakers, just in case they encountered a wanted criminal.

*‘Those clothes and those shoes…….’*

It wasn’t just that he was an office worker; it was that he had no intention of ever going into the field as a police officer.

*‘Those can’t be cheap clothes.’*

It was obvious without looking closely. He was the kind of guy who manipulated profiles for money, so he must have found a way to line his pockets somewhere.

“If you’re tired, would you like to go to the refugee camp in the nearby village and listen to testimonies?”

“Oh, should I? Okay. I’ll go and counsel the victims; you go ahead.”

Shin Cheol-kwang subtly backed away at Park Do-joon’s words.

*‘What a load of crap.’*

Unlike other cases, the victims’ testimonies weren’t a significant factor in arson cases. It usually ended with them saying they saw the blaze from afar. In fact, even in the data he checked before coming, the only testimony was that they saw the blaze and reported it.

“It’s better to have no one around.”

Park Do-joon, clicking his tongue at Shin Cheol-kwang running away from the mountain, looked around and headed into the mountain where the blaze had started.

It was still full of dust, but it didn’t take long to walk.

“Huff, huff!”

But after that short time, the mask was full of black ash. After walking like that for a while, he arrived at a valley with a small stream.

Park Do-joon arrived there and looked around. According to the report, the biggest fire was first confirmed here.

“It takes 15 minutes to come up… It’ll be a bit easier to go down, so about 10 minutes. If you’re skilled, it’ll take 8 minutes.”

Wiping away sweat, Park Do-joon looked around. The surroundings were a typical valley: a little water flowing on the bottom, rocks and stones all around, and a typical small mountain with lots of trees on top.

“The water isn’t abundant.”

It was a valley, but the water wasn’t abundant. Even at its deepest, it was only about shin-deep.

“Of course, there’s nothing to do around here.”

People usually think that many people come to play in valleys, but surprisingly, such valleys are not common. First of all, to be a valley where people can enjoy themselves, it needs to have at least a certain amount of water.

In fact, most valleys don’t become resorts because they lack water like this one.

“Hmm.”

Park Do-joon looked around. Of course, he didn’t expect to find any evidence here. He wasn’t a forensic investigator, and even if he were, he wouldn’t be able to find traces in a place like this. The fire would have erased everything.

What Park Do-joon considered was something else.

“It’s probably around here. I don’t think they’d go any deeper.”

Turning his head, he noticed the valley suddenly became steeper at a certain point.

“Of course, they’d want to avoid people, but…”

If the culprit was an arsonist, it was natural to avoid people, but that didn’t mean they’d go deep inside.

“If we assume it’s around here…….”

It takes 15 minutes to come up, 10 minutes to go down. As he checked on the way, there were no people or CCTV cameras on the roadside. Decisively, there were many agricultural canals, making it easy to park the car while avoiding the eyes of passersby.

“Looking at the structure, it’s not a place where lightning would strike.”

There was a possibility that a tree was struck by lightning and caught fire, but that usually happens on the top of a mountain. The possibility of that happening near a valley like this was very low.

“There are no power lines around either.”

Another possibility: sparks from power lines causing a fire. Such fires actually happen, so you can’t ignore them. For example, if someone used to live in the mountains and no one lives there anymore, the power lines going there are not managed, and a fire may start from there.

“But there’s nothing like that here.”

There were no people living in the mountains and no old villages either.

“All that’s left is accidental fire.”

In other words, it wasn’t impossible for someone to throw a cigarette butt while hiking and cause a fire.

Accidental fires don’t just happen around official hiking trails.

In the case of small mountains, there may be small paths used by villagers besides the official hiking trails.

“But there’s none here. Well, there’s an owner of this mountain.”

Not all mountains are national property, and this area had a separate mountain owner.

Of course, you can’t enter as you please, and you can’t cut down trees or take forest products at will. In other words, you can’t freely pick herbs or mushrooms.

The possibility of someone coming in and wandering around regularly in such a place was not high.

A path is created when people walk on it.

“Hmm…….”

Of course, it’s not that there are no guys who secretly come in and stay overnight in a place like this. But looking at the surrounding terrain, there was no space to stay overnight. The surrounding slopes were surprisingly steep.

“The possibility of arson is increasing.”

The reason Park Do-joon came here was simple: to think about what an arsonist would do and to consider the possibility of accidental fire.

In the first place, even if you take pictures, the possibility of capturing utility poles or other relevant details in this wide mountain was not high.

“It’s a very good terrain for arson.”

First of all, there was no equipment to monitor the area. There were no CCTVs on the roads coming or going in this rural area. Even if there were, there were many small paths, so it wasn’t difficult to detour.

“There are hardly any local residents either.”

The area itself was underdeveloped, so there weren’t many local residents. If it was arson that happened late at night, the possibility of someone seeing it nearby was not high.

“No one would go to the mountains at that time.”

It’s common sense that going into the mountains late at night is dangerous. Naturally, no one goes in at night. In other words, it’s easy to enter while avoiding people’s eyes.

“Hmm. If it’s at night, it might be late, but if the moon was bright that day…….”

You could buy enough time to set the fire and escape.

“Besides, there are such clear signposts.”

If you run away in a hurry in the mountains, you may accidentally get lost. If that happens, you may end up being burned to death by the fire you started.

Naturally, to prevent that, you need to know the way for sure, but that’s impossible in a place you’ve never been before.

“But if it’s a valley, it’s a different story.”

If it’s a valley, you just have to follow the water path at the bottom. In most cases, the valley meets a bridge or a small path on the way down, so it’s not difficult to get out of there.

“It takes surprisingly long for a forest fire to grow. 15 minutes is enough to escape. Even if you give it plenty of time, it’ll take 30 minutes to become dangerous, right?”

That’s because the mountain is alive, so it doesn’t catch fire easily. It’s common sense that trees burn well, but that’s only based on well-dried wood. Most of the wood that people use as firewood is fully dried wood.

But the trees in the mountains are not dried. To set fire to such trees, you need more firepower than you think.

Naturally, that happens while burning the fallen leaves and bushes below. The problem is that the bushes are also alive and have moisture, so they don’t burn very quickly.

“If you set a fire and run away…….”

You would have gone straight down the valley. Even if the fire rises from behind, there will be some time.

“Hmm…….”

Park Do-joon thought like a criminal and ran down the valley in great strides. After going down for about 10 minutes, sure enough, a small bridge was visible in the middle of the valley.

“They would have gone up from here. Maybe they parked their car here.”

There was a bridge, but it wasn’t difficult to go up from under it.

“Going up and running away…….”

Park Do-joon thought so and looked around.

There were no people and no cars passing by.

“There doesn’t seem to be a village around. It certainly seems easy to set a fire.”

Park Do-joon said that and scratched his head.

Then he trudged back to his car. When he came back and arrived at the village again, Shin Cheol-kwang had already heard the story roughly from the villagers.

“Hey. I think we did something useless.”

“Useless?”

“They didn’t see anything. They said it was just a natural forest fire?”

Shin Cheol-kwang’s face was full of annoyance. A profiler should be able to hide their emotions. Some criminals try to control themselves while watching the police.

Naturally, if such thoughts are visible to the outside, it is easy to be dominated by the other party.

*‘That’s the problem.’*

It’s not that they really know how to do it properly, but they just pick them based on their scores in Korean, English, and Math like they’re hiring civil servants, so these substandard profilers come out.

The Natural Born Profiler