My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 370

“No criminal would let the police into their house, so they probably came outside, right?”

Lee Ji-soo said, her voice laced with worry. The victim likely got dressed and came out of the house at the request of someone posing as a police officer, got into what they thought was a police car, and was naturally taken away.

“Doesn’t this make searching the house pointless?”

“It is pointless.”

“Then did you come because of the terrain?”

“No. This is about luring the target from the internet, so there’s no geographical influence either.”

In fact, the popularization of the internet presented a complex problem for profilers. Now, rules have been established to some extent, and profiling is completed accordingly, but in the early days of the internet, there was no reliable way to track the selection of victims online.

“I’ve already checked the CCTV. No, there’s nothing left in the first place.”

The CCTV footage from the time of the disappearance is no longer available.

Therefore, it’s impossible to track the criminal using that.

“Then why did you come here? It’s pointless, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. There are no witnesses either.”

“It’s not meaningless.”

Park Do-joon said, looking around the area. Then he added quietly, “The place where those people lived is a studio apartment.”

“Other people are already living there, right?”

Since they didn’t pay the rent, the landlord kicked them out and rented the place to other tenants. Even if we go inside now, there’s nothing to find.

“Could they have bought something to eat around here?”

Lee Ji-soo held onto a sliver of hope. Criminals sometimes make such mistakes, and they are often identified and tracked down because of them.

“I don’t think so.”

“Ugh.”

Even if they paid, they probably paid in cash, not by card.

At that, Lee Ji-soo grabbed her head in frustration. No matter how she looked at it, it didn’t seem like she could find any traces here.

“There’s something I often say to the police.”

“What is it?”

“Ask the right questions.”

Neither Lee Ji-soo nor Kim Si-deok seemed to understand what that meant. Lee Ji-soo was still a rookie, and Kim Si-deok, due to the nature of IT [Information Technology] police work, rarely had reason to go out and question people directly.

“To be exact, we should consider that the target we’ve been tracking is wrong.”

“Why?”

“You’ll know when you see it.”

Park Do-joon said, still looking around. Then he headed to a convenience store on one side of the street. He showed his ID to the employee there and said, “Excuse me. I’m a police officer.”

“What’s going on?”

The convenience store employee flinched slightly at the word “police.”

“It’s nothing much, but have the police been around here recently?”

At Park Do-joon’s words, the two people behind him frowned.

It hadn’t been 30 minutes since he’d suggested that a plainclothes police officer might be the criminal, and now he was asking if the police had come here?

“I don’t know. Well, they patrol often, but…”

As expected, the convenience store employee seemed clueless. Park Do-joon calmly pressed on, “Didn’t they show a police ID and ask about the man living in the studio apartment across the street?”

“Police ID?”

“Yes, it would have been about 8 to 9 months ago.”

Considering the time of the disappearance, it was exactly around that time.

At those words, the convenience store employee searched his memory and nodded slowly. “Ah, one person did come. They asked if the person living in front often comes here.”

“Huh?”

“Yes?”

The two were surprised by this unexpected statement.

“So what did you say?”

“I said I didn’t know. The police showed me a picture. Well, he was a customer who came often… but I can’t really see him from here, you know.”

Saying that, the convenience store employee pointed out the window.

Because the government legally prohibits cigarettes from being visible, the convenience store windows were covered with opaque film so they couldn’t be seen through.

“Didn’t they ask about when he usually comes?”

“Oh, it seems like they asked something like that…”

“Do you remember the name of that police officer?”

“No.”

Park Do-joon nodded. It would be strange to remember that.

“Then is there anything you want to tell me about that police officer?”

“Oh, well… Ah, that’s right. It was a woman.”

“A woman?”

Kim Si-deok’s voice sounded strange.

“How did you know?”

“We think someone in the police identified the criminal, right?”

“That’s right.”

“But you know what? We know the address, but we don’t know when that person comes home, right?”

“Huh?”

“The criminal is a police officer. Then they’ll act like a police officer.”

At those words, Kim Si-deok seemed to understand why Park Do-joon had come all the way here.

“Is it because they’re a police officer? Well, if they’re a police officer, they’ll check the route first.”

They need to know when the victim comes home in order to kidnap them at the right time. They can’t just show up randomly without knowing when they’ll be there. Being seen too often would be a dangerous act.

“That’s right.”

“The question was wrong.”

Other police officers probably asked, ‘Have you seen anyone suspicious?’ or ‘Have you heard any screams?’ because it’s a kidnapping case.

In fact, Park Do-joon was the only one who suspected that there might be a police officer among the criminals.

“There’s a difference between a criminal and a police officer in terms of confidence. A criminal can’t ask openly. Traces may remain.”

But not the police. Apart from social perception, the police have a mission to protect people, so if they ask these questions, most people will readily tell them what they know.

“In order to kidnap them on time, they need to know when the person is at home.”

“That’s true.”

Just because they live alone doesn’t mean they don’t work.

“I never thought of that,” Kim Si-deok admitted.

Kim Si-deok had a strange expression. He hadn’t expected that their efforts would yield results so quickly.

“But it’s unexpected that the criminal is a woman.”

“Well, there are quite a few female police officers these days, right?”

Just because they’re a woman doesn’t mean they don’t have a sense of justice, and there’s no law that says that sense of justice shouldn’t be twisted.

“Ugh, but they can’t remember it.”

“It can’t be helped. An ID is just an ID.”

An ID is to prove one’s identity to the other person, and realistically, when they present it, there’s little chance that the convenience store employee will remember that person’s name and age.

“And in places like that, they often check the police ID.”

“Really?”

“You don’t know how many troublemakers come to convenience stores, do you?”

From drunks to violent criminals, sometimes even crazy people, the police are dispatched every time, and after being dispatched, they present their ID according to the work rules.

“So, from the convenience store employee’s point of view, it’s just a frequent occurrence.”

So they don’t really remember it.

“Still, finding out that the police officer suspected of being the criminal is a woman is a huge gain.”

Kim Si-deok had no choice but to admit it. Park Do-joon had caught something he couldn’t.

“But there are more than one or two female police officers, right?”

The problem is that there are a huge number of female police officers on the police force.

Currently, the area where the proportion of female public officials is increasing most rapidly in the public sector, except for administrative positions, is the police.

“It won’t be easy to investigate them, will it?”

“Well, realistically, that’s true.”

Investigating female police officers is a very sensitive act in itself. One of the groups that has gained significant influence in modern times is women, and they will not tolerate arresting female police officers without solid evidence.

“That’s a wrong idea, isn’t it?”

“Yes?”

“No, even if they’re not a female police officer, you shouldn’t arrest them without evidence.”

“Ah……”

At those words, Lee Ji-soo scratched her head awkwardly. That’s for sure. This is not a matter of men and women, but a matter of crime.

“I’m sorry.”

“I understand. There are many people who benefit from this conflict in Korea these days.”

As a result, they create conflict and manipulate the situation to make people fight each other.

“That’s why I told you, we need to arrest the criminal first.”

“But we don’t know who the criminal is, do we?”

Kim Si-deok said worriedly.

That’s the biggest problem. Currently, they are constantly looking for videos, but they are not leaking any information. The space is also a closed space where the outside cannot be seen, and even that is surrounded by translucent vinyl, so nothing can be seen around it.

“In dramas and movies, information pops out even from a small sound.”

“Because it’s a drama or a movie.”

That hardly ever happens in reality. These days, soundproofing is good too.

“First of all……”

As Park Do-joon was about to outline his next plan, Kim Si-deok’s phone rang.

Kim Si-deok, who checked it, sighed deeply.

“They say a new video has been found.”

“A new video?”

“Yes, two of them.”

His face was filled with anger.

“I hope something really comes out this time.”

Kim Si-deok muttered as if praying to the sky.

Park Do-joon and his group immediately returned and checked the video.

-Please save me! Please save me! Yes?

-I was wrong. If you save me, I won’t do it again. Please… sob!

The victims in the video were two women, and they eventually lost their lives under severe torture.

“Ugh!”

Lee Ji-soo looked like she was about to throw up while watching it.

“The identities of the two people have been confirmed.”

In the meantime, the police checked the criminal records as Park Do-joon had suggested, and as a result, they were able to identify the two women.

One had a record of assault, the other of theft.

“They’re not scammers?”

When another police officer voiced his doubt, Park Do-joon said with a hint of resignation, “As I said before, they are products. Appearance is important, not their criminal history.”

Park Do-joon frowned as he watched the video and picked up a piece of paper.

“I think I know the order.”

“You know the order?”

“The torture time the criminal inflicts is getting longer and longer.”

“……?”

At those words, everyone looked puzzled.

Then Park Do-joon displayed the found videos on the screen all at once and showed the end times.

“You see this time, right? It was 40 minutes at first. But now it’s over 70 minutes.”

“No, is that important? It’s an edited video anyway.”

When one of the police officers continued to voice his dissatisfaction, Kim Si-deok, who was listening intently, finally snapped. “Hey, you! Get out if you’re going to act like that!”

“Yes?”

“Are you going to investigate, or are you going to collude with the criminal? Huh? If you’re going to refute this, come up with another alternative!”

The young police officer was silenced. He kept finding fault because of his resentment towards Park Do-joon, but he didn’t have an alternative solution either.

“Get out, you. I’ll share the information with you later.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I told you to get out.”

At those words, the police officer had no choice but to leave. Seeing that, Lee Ji-soo lowered her voice and asked, “Senior, well… I understand, but isn’t that too much?”

“It’s to establish discipline.”

“Discipline?”

“He spoke informally.”

“Ah, he did.”

“If we get pushed back any further here, we’ll be ignored.”

Certainly, the police officer who just left had spoken informally to Park Do-joon. Regardless of age or experience, they were not in the same department, and they were not even acquaintances.

But speaking informally implied a desire to undermine the other person.

Kim Si-deok, realizing that if he let it go at this time, apart from solving the crime, they would keep trying to assert dominance, so he put a stop to it.