My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 271

“There’s oil here.”

“It’s probably kerosene, so it’s not easy to extract and use for setting fires.”

The setup isn’t designed for easy oil extraction.

“The incident was planned, but we don’t know exactly when it will happen.”

Everyone’s attention turned to Park Do-joon’s words.

“Detective Park, what do you mean?”

“Considering this place is for training dogs, you wouldn’t know when they’ll be needed. So, what would you do?”

Park Do-joon tapped the oil drum.

“You’d keep the oil drum full, of course.”

“Right?”

“Then, how would they keep the oil drum full here?”

“Huh?”

Only then did a few profilers’ eyes light up. If this plan has been in preparation for at least four years, someone must be continuously managing the dogs here, never knowing when or how they’ll be used.

But would someone like that enjoy this place, where they can’t freely use electricity or water? No, would someone accustomed to modern conveniences even want to live here in the first place?

“Even if they somehow get water from the nearby stream, electricity is a different story.”

You can’t live like it’s the Stone Age, so the generator must be running constantly, and the oil must be continuously refilled.

“But how did they bring the oil? Delivery? Unlikely.”

This area isn’t easily accessible by vehicles. It’s difficult for a large gasoline delivery truck to come all the way here. Even the feed delivery truck barely made it.

Motorcycle? These days, gas stations don’t typically deliver by motorcycle. And criminals generally avoid attracting attention with people going in and out.

“Most gas stations probably have CCTV, right?”

It’s said that gas stations handle a lot of cash. Nowadays, most people use cards, but in the past, cash was used frequently. Moreover, oil is a dangerous substance.

Of course, all gas stations have CCTV.

“They wouldn’t go far. And very few people buy gasoline in person these days.”

Upon hearing Park Do-joon’s words, the commissioner, who had been observing from behind, exclaimed:

“Hey, what are you all doing! Search the gas stations! Find the person who bought gasoline in person!”

At the commissioner’s command, the police rushed out as if their feet were on fire, and Park Do-joon chuckled.

“This is what profiling is about.”

Providing information to guide the police. If they go to the gas station, they can check the vehicle number.

Even if the vehicle is stolen, they might get lucky and secure a photo of the suspect’s face.

“It would be nice if there was something more.”

Other police officers muttered behind him. After all, if the face is covered and the vehicle is stolen, the pursuit will be difficult.

“Always complaining, even while acknowledging its usefulness.”

The team leader smiled wryly at their audible complaints. It’s typical for police officers to have mixed feelings about profilers, appreciating the information they provide but not necessarily liking the profilers themselves.

“Well, we have to look around.”

“Look? You think there’s something more here?”

“Reading human behavior patterns isn’t that difficult.”

Park Do-joon said as he continued to walk around. The police officers followed him with hopeful anticipation.

After walking for a while, Park Do-joon stopped and smiled.

“It would be good to search this place thoroughly.”

“There’s nothing here?”

There was only ash, just like everywhere else. That’s why no one had paid attention to it.

“No. This place is a bit different.”

“Different?”

“This is a pit. Someone deliberately dug it. It’s not a naturally formed depression.”

“……?”

The others exchanged confused glances, unsure of what he meant. Seeing their confusion, Park Do-joon slowly explained.

“These pits usually prevent fire from spreading. If you look around, there are no traces of fire damage beyond this area, right?”

“Yes, so?”

“Because the purpose of this pit is to contain the fire.”

Park Do-joon said, vigorously poking around inside the pit with the stick in his hand.

“This isn’t terrain where you can easily dispose of trash. Trash trucks don’t come here, and they wouldn’t bother taking the trash out and putting it in garbage bags. So, how would they get rid of the trash?”

“Ah, so this is a garbage dump?”

“That’s right.”

Digging a pit and incinerating trash is a common practice in the countryside or the military. Of course, it’s illegal, but you can’t go around finding and punishing everyone.

“But it looks like it’s all burned already? It looks like they already set it on fire and threw it in.”

They didn’t just throw the trash here; they set fire to it to ensure it was completely destroyed.

In fact, the inside was filled with only black ash.

“Of course, that’s how it looks. But that’s only on the surface.”

“Only on the surface?”

“Fire rises upwards. It rarely goes downwards.”

“Huh?”

At that moment, with a thud, Park Do-joon pulled out a large lump, revealing a surprisingly large amount of trash underneath that was relatively intact.

“How?”

“Do you know what the most common type of trash is in modern society?”

“What is it?”

“Plastic. And plastic melts when it meets fire.”

But just because plastic melts doesn’t mean it seeps away like water. It spreads like a thick paste, and the fire spreads over it.

“Ah, I see. Sometimes when you burn plastic, the fire doesn’t spread downwards.”

People who haven’t done it wouldn’t know, but those who have often see that happen.

That phenomenon occurs not only with plastic but also with various other objects.

“But looking at these guys’ traces, they ran away in a hurry.”

After setting the fire, the criminals fled without looking back. That’s why the dogs’ corpses were hardly burned, and only the hut where the gasoline was heavily sprayed burned completely.

“If they had enough time, they would have burned this place thoroughly.”

So, when you burn something, you have to keep stirring it from the side.

But instead, the criminals chose to flee.

“It’s really intact?”

What was under the plastic lump that Park Do-joon took out was more intact than expected. Some items were scorched, and some were partially burned, but some came out almost untouched.

“There’s this much trash?”

“It wouldn’t have been easy to burn it completely.”

If a fire broke out in the mountains, someone would come to investigate. So, they couldn’t set fires and burn things often. However, it wouldn’t have been easy to burn it little by little without producing smoke.

“So, they piled it up like this and set it on fire all at once.”

Since there’s a high possibility that firefighters would be alerted if they set a fire anyway.

‘But they didn’t come after all.’

Well, that can’t be helped. It’s impossible to monitor the entire country 24 hours a day.

“But it’s just trash, right? What can you salvage from there?”

One of the police officers said bluntly. The fact that it was thrown away here means that the criminals had no further use for it. Park Do-joon looked at the officer and chuckled.

“It seems like you haven’t been a police officer for very long.”

“Ah, that…….”

The man’s face turned red. He was a rookie who hadn’t even been appointed for a year yet.

“You fool, don’t you even know the saying ‘타산지석’ [tasan jiseok – learning from others’ mistakes]?”

A veteran police officer sneered at him.

“What’s ‘타산지석’?”

“What? You really don’t know?”

“We don’t use such old-fashioned words these days.”

“It’s not an old-fashioned word; it’s a four-character idiom [a traditional Korean expression]. Wow, I really feel the generation gap.”

At the police officer’s dumbfounded expression, Park Do-joon explained instead.

“It means that even though it’s a useless stone on someone else’s mountain, if you bring it, you can use it as a stone to support the pillars of your house. In simple terms, it’s useless to others, but it’s useful to me.”

“Trash?”

“Well, you can use it like this.”

Trash is something that the person throwing it away has absolutely no use for. That’s why no one pays attention to it.

But the police officers extract various information from it. In particular, profilers can figure out the approximate characteristics of the criminals just by looking at the objects inside.

“There are hardly any documents in the trash. There are some receipts, but even those are payment records made in cash.”

“What does that mean?”

“It suggests that the criminal is either very meticulous, only making payments in cash, or their identity is so unstable that they can’t get a credit card. But looking at the surrounding situation, it doesn’t seem like they’re meticulous.”

If they were meticulous, they wouldn’t have left behind trash that was only partially burned, and they wouldn’t have piled up the dogs’ corpses and set them on fire.

If they had called a dog butcher, they could have disposed of them neatly.

“So, considering the situation, we can assume it’s the latter. And there are no documents here at all.”

“What kind of documents does a criminal need?”

“Not needing documents isn’t just about work. Most modern violent organizations have become legitimate businesses. In other words, most work is processed with documents. But there are no such documents here at all, not even A4 paper? Then these guys are the type who typically use their bodies. Usually, this type is at the bottom of the organization.”

It means that they only do what they’re told and have no ability to do any independent work. And that naturally allows you to infer their lack of education.

“Their education is likely to be high school graduate or below, and their age is likely to be in their 20s. They’ll have a record of being punished for acts such as school violence. They’ve probably lived disconnected from their family. They probably didn’t go to the military, and there’s a high possibility that they’re wanted in connection with it.”

“Wow?”

Only trash came out. But as he watched Park Do-joon identify the criminals, the rookie police officer unknowingly gaped.

“But they’re probably the type who follow the rules of the organization well. Their home life is likely to be abnormal, and they probably weren’t properly supervised in school either.”

“How do you know that?”

“This isn’t a place where a man in his 20s with raging hormones would want to live. There’s no computer or TV. They have a cell phone, but well? A burner phone is meant to hide yourself. Of course, they wouldn’t have it set up with unlimited internet.”

“That’s true.”

“But the fact that they endured being bitten by dogs here for several years isn’t just about money. It’s about loyalty to the organization.”

A Natural-Born Profiler