My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 280

“He seemed to have a lot on his mind.”

“He would.”

Just as a psychopath can never truly understand a normal person, no matter how hard they try, a normal person can never truly understand a psychopath, no matter how hard they try.

And in the current situation, Hong Geun-jong has every reason to be deeply troubled. If both his father and younger sibling are psychopaths, his very life is in danger, not to mention his future.

“Well, that’s not something I should get involved in.”

“That’s true. That’s something they need to figure out on their own.”

As he said that, the team leader handed Park Do-joon a file with a thud.

“Assigned case.”

“Ugh, I’m already swamped.”

“That’s true. But this case is a bit urgent.”

“Urgent?”

“It’s a missing person case. But from my perspective, it looks like a series of disappearances.”

Park Do-joon’s face hardened at the team leader’s words. This was almost inevitable, because missing person cases are often linked to serial killings.

The problem is that if the police properly investigate it as a series of disappearances from the start, they have a better chance of finding out about the case early and tracking it down. But instead, they often treat it as a general missing person case, which tends to delay the investigation considerably.

“A series of disappearances? Who are the victims?”

“Runaway teenagers. No, in this case, it should be runaway girls.”

At those words, Park Do-joon took the file and began to read it intently. As he read, he frowned.

“The girl presumed to be the victim is 16 years old?”

“Yeah, right in the midst of her rebellious phase. And as you’ll see later, her family situation is a mess. Well, most runaway teenagers are like that.”

Her father was an alcoholic, and her mother had run away from home. Originally, her grandmother had been her protector, but she died when the victim was 13 years old.

After that, the child began to go astray, suffering abuse from her father and running away from home as if it were a daily routine. And she ran away for the last time two months ago. After that, she disappeared.

“It’s a typical situation where the police don’t investigate thoroughly.”

“That’s right. Moreover, no one reported her missing.”

The alcoholic father didn’t care whether his child left or not, and the school, seeing that the child, who didn’t study and only disrupted the academic atmosphere, didn’t come, saw it as an opportunity and expelled her without even reporting her missing. She had no friends, and so one girl simply vanished.

“She’s a pretty girl.”

Park Do-joon clicked his tongue as he looked at the attached photo. If she had been in a normal family, she would have received a lot of love, but her unfortunate circumstances had cornered her in reality.

“But how was the disappearance recognized?”

“A ‘paem’ [a Korean term for a group or gang, often used by runaway teenagers] was caught.”

“A ‘paem’?”

“A runaway family. Ah, you don’t know about it?”

“I know. It’s when runaway children form gangs for their safety and survival, and they usually call it a ‘paem’.”

“Yeah, is there anything you don’t know?”

The team leader cleared his throat and explained the situation.

“A runaway ‘paem’ was caught this time. They were caught for prostitution.”

“Which side?”

“It seems they were only involved in prostitution. A juvenile affairs police officer, acting on rumors, approached them disguised as a customer and caught them.”

“Well, it would be easier to catch them that way.”

One of the ways these runaway teenagers earn money is through prostitution. They threaten or coax runaway girls who don’t know any better into prostitution and use that money to live among themselves. In short, the ‘paem’ becomes a pimp.

From the girl’s perspective, it’s not easy to escape from them because they believe that they are protecting her.

However, the more vicious ones extort money by prostituting them and then accusing the customers of raping a minor.

If they succeed, they can easily earn tens of millions of won [tens of thousands of US dollars], so only the most vicious guys in the ‘paem’ do this.

“Anyway, the story came out while investigating those guys.”

That this child had disappeared from among the members who were together two months ago.

“But they wouldn’t have reported it.”

“That’s right.”

The ‘paem’ is an abbreviation for family, but in reality, it’s all a lie. It’s just a relationship where they exploit each other, and there’s no trust or belief between them. Moreover, the members of these so-called ‘paem’s change periodically.

There are quite a few cases where they quietly leave when they realize they are being exploited. Especially in the case of girls, there are many cases where they quietly leave the ‘paem’ when they realize that they are prostituting themselves and the men are taking all the money, feeling disgusted.

Then those guys find new runaway girls and exploit them again.

Naturally, a missing person report is unlikely to be filed in such a situation.

“But why did you say it was a series of disappearances?”

“You know how ‘paem’s often interact with each other, right?”

“I know.”

If the power is weak, they merge, or if they grow too large, they split up. And the area where these ‘paem’ organizations can operate is limited.

First of all, these guys tend to gather near entertainment districts because they need men to take the bait.

In particular, one of the reasons why they naturally gather in one place is because of accommodation. Realistically, there’s no way that guys who live day by day as pimps can find a decent house.

Moreover, most of them are minors. Therefore, they cannot rent a house or anything like that.

So, one of the places they go to is a shabby inn. Originally, it is illegal for minors to stay together in an inn, but those places that are so shabby that they seem to be on the verge of collapse accept such guests because they are desperate.

Moreover, these children only pay in cash, so tax evasion is easier than you think, which is why these children gather together.

As a result, ‘paem’s split up when they get too big. The number of people who can sleep in one room is limited.

“Isn’t it possible that a runaway girl could return home? Or join another unrelated runaway ‘paem’?”

“Of course, that’s possible. But if that were the case, I wouldn’t think of it as a series of disappearances.”

“Is there something else?”

“First of all, it’s certain that this child didn’t go home, and I told you earlier, there are a lot of guys who know each other. But it seems like there’s another missing person among them.”

“Another one?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm.”

Park Do-joon rubbed his chin at those words. It’s definitely strange if it’s strange, but considering the characteristics of a runaway ‘paem’, it’s not particularly strange either.

“But one person died at the time of the disappearance. That’s why I’m suspicious.”

“Died? Did they kill someone and run away?”

If the girl had died, the story of the disappearance wouldn’t have come out.

“That’s not it. But there’s something strange about what I heard.”

A girl can disappear. But disappearance and murder occur simultaneously within the same ‘paem’?

“So, I checked the records and found out that a child died in a traffic accident.”

“A traffic accident?”

“Yeah, our records say it was a hit-and-run, but there was no data, so it was passed on as an unsolved case. It was last year’s case. Ah, it should be in the file.”

At those words, Park Do-joon checked the documents. Then he frowned.

“She died of cerebral hemorrhage after a traffic accident.”

“Yeah, but the ‘paem’ guys say they went out together.”

“Went out together?”

“That’s right.”

Two people went out together, and then one died and one disappeared.

“Were they dating?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t know the details.”

“Well, I get the gist of it.”

When a girl enters a ‘paem’, the men thoroughly monitor her. If they just hold onto one girl, they can prostitute her and live very comfortably, so they do it to prevent her from leaving or running away.

“It’s a kind of surveillance role.”

“Yeah, so the police seem to have treated it as a simple disappearance.”

It just so happened that there was a traffic accident, and then the girl who was being held captive was judged to have escaped.

“Looking at the police records at the time, there’s a record of investigating the ‘paem’. But the common thought is that the child wanted to get out of the ‘paem’.”

“So, the child just ran away after the accident?”

“That’s right.”

The guy who was watching her collapsed in an accident, and then she ran away in a hurry?

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“That’s why I think it might be a kidnapping.”

“Ugh, they’re really doing a sloppy job.”

The reason why the team leader and Park Do-joon are talking like this is simple. A traffic accident? It can happen. But surveillance is an act that takes place at a very close distance. Especially if the other person is a child who wants to get out of the ‘paem’. They have to hold on to her to fill their pockets.

That means they witnessed the accident at a very close distance at the time of the accident.

If this is a real accident, the perpetrator has no reason to not report it and just run away because there is a witness. They can’t even think of it.

Even if the girl runs away in shock in that situation, the perpetrator’s existence as a witness is likely to prevent the escape.

“So, Team Leader, you think the accident was just a part of the process.”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm.”

Park Do-joon nodded at those words.

“I need to check it out first.”

“Detective Park, do you think this is really a missing person case?”

The first thing Park Do-joon did was take Lee Ji-soo to the place where the traffic accident occurred.

And he looked around there.

‘I don’t remember. I definitely don’t remember. Was it a case that the police didn’t recognize from the beginning?’

The memory of the case is vague, so everything is inaccurate. But it was rare for him to not remember this much.

“Detective?”

“Huh? Ah, what did you say? I was thinking about something else.”

“No, I’m asking if you think this is a missing person case. Considering the characteristics of runaway teenagers, they could go home or something, right? They could have gone somewhere else.”

“The police probably thought so too, so they didn’t investigate. But that’s why it could be dangerous. If this is a missing person case, it means it’s a case that the police haven’t recognized.”

“Well, that’s true, but…….”

Perhaps because the other person is a so-called delinquent teenager who runs away from home as if it were a daily routine, Lee Ji-soo didn’t seem to have confidence. Watching Lee Ji-soo like that, Park Do-joon calmly said.

“When you’re unsure, the best thing to do is to examine the scene and consider the possibilities first.”

“The best?”

“Yeah, let’s look at this scene first. Do you see this here? What do you see in this photo?”

“Uh… the fallen victim and skid marks.”

Lee Ji-soo said, looking at the photo Park Do-joon handed her. Certainly, what was visible inside was a photo of the early stages of the investigation, showing the fallen victim and skid marks.

“But the skid marks are in front of the victim, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then what are the possibilities?”

“First, the discovery was late. Isn’t that usually the case?”

“That’s right.”

In the case of not paying attention to the front and recognizing the accident due to the impact and stepping on the brakes urgently, skid marks occur in front of the point where the accident occurred based on the time of the accident.