My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 133

“Hmm… if that’s the case, we might be able to unexpectedly find evidence through Shin Cheol-gwang.”

“Yes.”

The fact that he gave Shin Cheol-gwang money to cover up the incident is, in itself, a piece of evidence.

“Did you anticipate Shin Cheol-gwang acting this way from the start?”

“I won’t deny it.”

“Ugh… what am I going to do with you?”

The team leader shook his head, exasperated.

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t do this if a decent person came along.”

“I have to believe that. But that’s all well and good. How are you going to control Shin Cheol-gwang? There’s no way he’ll just hand over the evidence, right?”

“There are ways.”

Park Do-joon’s eyes sparkled.

“Shin Cheol-gwang has his own weaknesses right now.”

And now it was time to find them.

# Another Victim

I know that Shin Cheol-gwang covered up a case, but the problem is I don’t remember exactly what it was. Randomly digging into cases from other regions is out of the question; it’s too broad.

However, there is a way.

“Detective! Wow, you’re all dressed up like you’re going on a date.”

Park Do-joon frowned, looking at Jung I-yeon, who looked noticeably different from usual.

“How does ‘let’s meet for a bit’ turn into a date application?”

“That’s exactly what it is.”

Park Do-joon shook his head, as if fed up with her high energy.

“Why are you so interested in me?”

“It’s my preference. Please acknowledge it.”

“No, why would I… no, never mind.”

“Anyway, why did you call me?”

“Could you look into a case for me?”

“A case?”

“Yeah. It’s like a cold case, but it seems like the investigation went in the wrong direction.”

“The direction went wrong?”

“The case is being covered up, but I can’t figure out the specifics. I know who’s involved, though.”

“Ah….”

Jung I-yeon nodded as if she understood Park Do-joon’s words.

“You mean you can’t be specific about it?”

“Right.”

The problem is that if I dig into it officially, it’ll be recorded, which will cause trouble. But if it’s an outsider, especially a lawyer, it’s not impossible. No, rather, a law firm the size of Jung I-yeon’s probably has that kind of capability.

“And what’s the treat for me?”

“Huh?”

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch, Detective.”

Park Do-joon smiled awkwardly, looking at Jung I-yeon, who was grinning.

“I’ll go on a date… with you.”

***

Two days after Park Do-joon asked Jung I-yeon for a favor.

The response came faster than expected.

-Detective, there is one suspicious case.

“Oh, really?”

-But there’s already a culprit.

“What? What are you talking about?”

-The culprit has already been caught. The murdered woman’s ex-boyfriend has been arrested.

“What?”

Park Do-joon’s eyes widened. This was something he really didn’t expect.

‘No. It’s possible. It’s a case the police covered up internally.’

The fact that the police covered it up internally means it wasn’t revealed externally. If someone took the blame, the police wouldn’t clear their name for the sake of their own reputation.

‘It shouldn’t be like that, but there are more than a few cases like that.’

His memory was uncertain, but that was only regarding the case details. In this case, he vaguely remembered hearing that something like this had happened when the case came down.

But there was no story about someone being wrongly accused behind it.

-What’s wrong, Detective?

“No, it’s just… But what’s suspicious about it? Besides the fact that Shin Cheol-gwang is involved, I mean.”

-Ah, that. The person who was arrested as the culprit says he’s not the culprit.

“I’ve never seen a murderer admit to being the culprit.”

-I know. But it’s rare for someone to directly mention the person they suspect, right?

“Directly mention?”

-Yes, he’s claiming that a person named Woo Joo-chan is the culprit.

“That’s it?”

-No, there’s more. Shin Cheol-gwang said that Woo Joo-chan wasn’t the culprit.

“What does that mean?”

-Woo Joo-chan was also summoned for questioning, and there’s testimony that Shin Cheol-gwang said that Woo Joo-chan wasn’t the culprit based on profiling.

Park Do-joon frowned. A profiler shouldn’t say such things easily.

Profiling is a technique that magically reads and analyzes the criminal’s psychology and identifies them, but it’s not magic.

The basics are statistics and psychology.

Of course, there are always exceptions.

The name of the swan came from the stereotype that ‘this bird is white,’ but it was later revealed that there are actually black swans with extremely low probability.

Also, the medical community announced that humans cannot move their two eyeballs separately, but there are two people in the world who can do that.

Basically, it’s statistics, so it’s a high probability, but the word ‘absolute’ doesn’t work among profilers.

“He said absolutely not?”

-Yes, according to the testimony, that’s what he said.

“Hmm.”

Of course, he could be unskilled and have no pride as a profiler, so he might have done that.

“It’s definitely suspicious, but it’s hard to be sure with just that, right?”

-Well, stay tuned! Coming soon!

“‘Coming soon’? How do you even know that phrase?”

-How do you know it, Detective? How old do you think I am?

“Ah… well, I hear all sorts of things on the job.”

Park Do-joon clicked his tongue at the phrase ‘coming soon,’ which isn’t used much these days, and then asked.

“But if you’re saying that, there must be something definitely suspicious, right? Did you find any evidence that he investigated as requested by the police?”

-Not really.

The case itself is that Shin Cheol-gwang guided the police investigation to bring in the victim’s ex-boyfriend and half-tortured him, suspecting him.

Furthermore, the ex-boyfriend isn’t a very good person, and they actually broke up because of him.

-But the woman wasn’t a very good woman either.

“Was she a bar hostess?”

-Huh? How did you know?

“Generally, bar men and bar women have bad images. If you say that, there’s a high probability that’s the case. And I don’t know much about the case, but if it’s a murder victim, women working in bars or entertainment are more vulnerable to criminals.”

The reason why people working in bars are vulnerable to these crimes is that they meet relatively many people.

Most people have various experiences and meet various people, but there is still a set pattern, and at least within that, they move based on a certain order of etiquette and common sense.

For example, if you meet someone at a company or religious organization, they continue the meeting within the bounds of etiquette and rules.

However, in the case of bars, there are many cases outside that line, and especially many people think that they can do anything because they paid money at the bar.

“And bar women know how to seduce men. That also implies the possibility of a man becoming obsessed.”

-You’re so right, Detective. We just think, ‘Oh, she’s a bar woman, so that’s that.’

“You can’t be a profiler if you think like that. But what does that have to do with being suspicious? You don’t mean the dead woman is pitiful, or… something like that, right?”

-Of course not. It has nothing to do with being pitiful.

“That’s right.”

Humans are quite reluctant to touch the dead. When someone really dies, they try to say good things about that person. If you get cursed even after death, you’re a real scoundrel.

-That suspicious culprit, you know.

“Yeah.”

-Do you know who it is?

“I’m trying to find out, that’s why I’m digging.”

He should remember, but he doesn’t. It’s not surprising. Whether it’s a side effect of the regression, all memories related to the case are blurry.

-He’s the Emperor of the Night, I hear.

“What? Is someone filming a movie or something?”

He thought a name would come out, but suddenly it’s the Emperor of the Night?

“That’s quite a 19+ movie title-like name, isn’t it?”

-I’m not kidding. He’s famous in Jeollanam-do [a province in southwestern Korea]. He’s a big shot named Park Geo-seok who runs over 40 room salons [private hostess bars] in the area.

“In Jeollanam-do?”

-Yes.

Well, the most famous entertainment district is Gangnam [a wealthy district in Seoul], but not everyone from all over the country flocks to Gangnam. Each region has its own entertainment district.

There was a guy called the Emperor of the Night in Seoul, and he owned over 20 buildings and had thousands of women working under him.

Eventually, he was caught for tax evasion while running a bar, and the amount of tax evasion at that time was about 13 billion won [approximately $10 million USD].

But considering that room salons mostly deal in cash due to the nature of the business, the revenue is said to be at least 10 times that amount, right?

-He’s quite famous in this area. They say that if you get on his bad side, you can’t work in the industry.

“I understand that, but I don’t understand why that makes him suspicious?”

There are such people in every city. It’s just that the scale is different. Just because they make money through illegal activities doesn’t mean they’re all serial killers.

In other words, in order to properly dig, there must be clear testimony that he is suspicious.

-There’s a strange story among the ex-boyfriend’s stories. He apparently meets women privately.

“Who doesn’t?”

If you’re in that position and surrounded by pretty women, and your morality is much lower than the average person, you won’t hesitate to meet this woman and that woman.

‘If you go to a chaebol [family-owned conglomerate] family, you’ll be amazed, really.’

If you look at the children of chaebol families who pretend to be clean, it’s common for them to have sex partners in the tens.

-But among the people he met, quite a few go to Seoul, I hear?

“Seoul?”

-Yes, Seoul is where the money is, after all.

“That’s true. Honestly, in terms of customers and market size, Gangnam in Seoul is where the money is.”

Park Do-joon agreed. He could understand that much. He’s probably meeting pretty women and dating them. And if he thinks this woman will work in Seoul, he sends her to his store in Seoul. If he has that much wealth, having a store in Seoul is nothing.

“But that’s not a suspicious story, is it?”

-It’s not that, it’s that his girlfriend. No, his ex-girlfriend has no reason to go to Seoul.

“Why? Does she love him too much? They already broke up, right?”

-No, it’s not that, her home is in Seoul.

“What?”

Park Do-joon asked back. And he asked as if to confirm.

“So, the deceased woman’s home is in Seoul?”

-Yes, her home is in Seoul, so she said she had no intention of going to Seoul. Well, it was after they broke up. That’s what she said before he dumped her and she started dating Park Geo-seok.

“Her family home is in Seoul, right?”

-Yes, that’s right.

“She definitely has no reason to go to Seoul.”

-Exactly. Isn’t it strange?

“It’s strange. The fact that a Seoul woman would go all the way down to Jeollanam-do to do that kind of work means she wants to hide herself.”

But he seduces her and sends her to Seoul? There’s no reason to do that.

-But in the police investigation, they said that the fight escalated to murder while trying to stop the woman from going to Seoul.