My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 489

However, within that old downtown area, Amsang-dong is my turf, so committing a crime there would likely lead to getting caught. So, excluding that area, that leaves Bunghwa-dong.

“Then things will be easier, right?”

“Huh? Why?”

Jeong I-yeon tilted her head, puzzled by Park Do-joon’s words.

“Isn’t it obvious? Why can’t we ask the local police for help?”

“The local police chief despises profilers so much that even his officers can’t ask for help. So, what about the police chief in charge of Amsang-dong?”

“And usually, people with such strong pride often have a kind of inferiority complex.”

“Inferiority complex? Well, there’s something to that.”

“Right, and in such cases, they often don’t get along well with those around them.”

“Because they constantly react defensively to those around them due to their inferiority complex.”

“I wonder what the other police officers will say? Hehehe.”

The police chief in charge of Amsang-dong, like the chief in charge of Bunghwa-dong, was from the Police University and followed the elite track. But he was definitely different. First of all, there was a significant difference in their graduating class years.

“That guy? Well, if it’s him, he’d do his job…sort of.”

Chief Seo Jun-ha nodded, as if he understood.

“He’s a senior, but he doesn’t act like one.”

“Do you know something about him?”

“Ah, I guess you don’t know. That chief is eight classes ahead of me.”

“Yes? Eight classes?”

Since they were from the same Police University, I assumed they were just senior and junior. But I never imagined he’d be eight classes ahead. It’s almost unheard of for chiefs to be eight classes apart. Even if Seo Jun-ha was talented and became a chief quickly, a senior who is about eight classes ahead should be a superintendent general, the deputy chief of the local police agency.

But the chief is a senior superintendent, one rank below that. No matter how bad the promotion bottleneck is, an eight-year difference indicates a serious problem.

“You know that the chief there is Do Go-bong, right?”

“I know. Although he didn’t even bother to meet with me.”

“That guy’s career is practically over as a chief.”

“Why is that?”

“He had a bad run-in with a profiler. Well, mostly his fault, though.”

In the past, Do Go-bong had a major conflict with a profiler during the promotion process. After that, he developed a prejudice against profilers without even realizing it.

“I know there are many police officers like that.”

“Yes, it would be fortunate if his personal prejudice ended there. But he was once passed over for a promotion to chief.”

“Really?”

“That’s right.”

It just so happened that a profiler became the chief, surpassing him. There’s no rule that a profiler can’t become a chief. Police University graduates are preferred, but there’s no law stating only they can become chiefs.

“That’s when Do Go-bong got a little twisted.”

He already harbored a grudge against profilers, so he started to hate them even more, and then he happened to work with a profiler again, and the profiler failed to solve the case.

“Profilers aren’t fortune tellers.”

Profiling is a science. It’s about setting standards and making judgments based on those standards. Of course, there will inevitably be variables, even if the probability is low.

“But Do Go-bong interpreted that as he pleased.”

“I know what you mean.”

It’s like saying, ‘You’re so bad at the game,’ when you lose ninety-nine times and win once. I don’t know if the profiler was unskilled or if the criminal had too many variables, but he started spreading rumors that profilers were scammers because of that.

The accumulated animosity piled up.

“Then he botched the Song Won-nam case.”

“Song Won-nam? What case is that?”

“The current Chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection. It was about 16 years ago.”

Park Do-joon was surprised by those words. He botched a case involving the current Chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection. But thinking about it, he wouldn’t have been the chairman 16 years ago.

“It was a long time ago. But what kind of case did he botch that he’s facing retaliation?”

Of course, even if it was 16 years ago, he would have likely been involved in politics at that time to become the current Chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection. But unlike Park Do-joon’s expectations, he wasn’t a politician back then.

“To be exact, he wasn’t a politician then. He entered politics because of that case. Retaliation… Well? I don’t know if Chairman Song Won-nam will personally retaliate. But wouldn’t the higher-ups take care of it?”

Park Do-joon nodded. Certainly, in that situation, the police higher-ups would intervene, and if it was a case that changed Song Won-nam’s life, there’s a high possibility they would try to sideline Do Go-bong.

“What kind of case was it?”

Seo Jun-ha shook his head sadly at Lee Ji-soo’s words.

“His granddaughter disappeared.”

“His granddaughter?”

“Yes. His granddaughter, who was a newborn at the time, disappeared, and Do Go-bong was in charge of the case.”

He wasn’t in charge alone, but he formed a team and led it. Since a newborn can’t run away from home, the police assumed it was a child abduction and did their best.

“But Do Go-bong completely ignored the profiler’s input at the time. Well, I only heard rumors, so I don’t know the full story.”

“Ignored?”

“Yes.”

Sixteen years ago was definitely a time when profilers were actively used. And child abduction cases are definitely high-profile cases that profilers are dispatched to.

“But he ignored the profiler’s opinion entirely due to his personal bias and investigated the case as he saw fit.”

“Ugh. And things went wrong.”

I don’t know who the profiler was at the time, but child abduction cases are cases that profilers pay close attention to. Of course, there’s a high probability that their insights are correct. But if he investigated in a direction that ignored that, the investigation would have gone off course.

“That’s right. And in the end, he couldn’t find the child.”

In the end, he couldn’t find the child, and Song Won-nam lost his granddaughter like that.

“And Song Won-nam regretted it at that time.”

Song Won-nam wasn’t originally a politician, nor did he intend to become one. But as a respected sociologist, people around him kept encouraging him to enter politics. But he kept his distance from politics because of his upright personality.

‘Well, that’s why he’s the Chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection.’

It wouldn’t be enough to recommend him to other mediocre positions.

“So, I heard rumors that he entered politics because of that case.”

“That often happens.”

It would have been solved if he had power. If he had power, the police would have found his granddaughter no matter what. But because he wasn’t a politician…

Because he had no power, the police ignored him.

‘The problem is that it’s half true.’

If he were a politician, would Do Go-bong have ignored the profiler? No, wouldn’t there have been pressure from above Do Go-bong in the first place? Song Won-nam would know that. Because he was a sociologist.

“Well, he caused all sorts of problems besides that.”

“I know what you mean.”

The fact that he’s still a chief even though he graduated eight years earlier means that he’s seen as incompetent internally and hasn’t been promoted.

‘Well, there are promotion restrictions in the military.’

In the military, you’re automatically discharged if you fail to get promoted more than three times, but the police don’t have that, so you can stay. Even so, he managed to become a chief through connections because he’s from the Police University, but no matter what Song Won-nam thinks, he’s tied to the current Chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection, so it’s difficult for the National Police Agency to promote him.

“But if the criminal lives in Amsang-dong, how are you going to catch him?”

Seo Jun-ha looked very expectant. If the criminal is in Amsang-dong as Park Do-joon said, he can showcase his ability, unlike the incompetent Do Go-bong.

Furthermore, strictly speaking, the incident occurred in Bunghwa-dong, not in his jurisdiction of Amsang-dong, so he can only gain achievements without any risk.

So, he was willing to help Park Do-joon because he had nothing to lose even if he failed.

“It’s probably highly likely. I heard there’s a Chinese enclave [a distinct community or neighborhood consisting primarily of people of Chinese ethnicity] in this area.”

“That’s definitely true. In fact, Amsang-dong is an older area than Bunghwa-dong.”

To be exact, Bunghwa-dong is closer to the factory area, so more people gathered there, but as many studio apartments and villas were built, there were many new buildings, so Bunghwa-dong is an old downtown area, but not with very old buildings.

On the other hand, Amsang-dong accepted the people that Bunghwa-dong couldn’t accommodate, so there wasn’t enough financial capacity to build new buildings, and not many outside people came in. Although some new buildings were built, most of the old houses are still the norm.

“So, there must be people who came to find accommodation at a cheaper price.”

Furthermore, because of that situation, it’s more difficult to find tenants in Amsang-dong than in Bunghwa-dong, so they tend to rent to Chinese people more readily. Naturally, many Chinese people gathered.

“Even so, there must be at least 3,000 workers here, right?”

Of course, there won’t be as many Chinese people as in Ansan [a city in South Korea known for its large population of Chinese immigrants], where there are tens of thousands, but there must be at least 3,000 Chinese people, and it will never be easy to identify the criminal among them.

“It’s not like there are only one or two people who work hard every day, and it’s not a fixed company.”

Of course, there’s no attendance record of who went to work when.

“The criminal probably has strong outsider tendencies.”

“Huh, what does that mean?”

“It means he can’t easily get along with people.”

“Are you simply saying that he can’t get along with others because he’s a bad guy?”

Park Do-joon shook his head.

‘Unfortunately, prioritizing self-interest is a common trait among many Chinese people.’

Their own interests come first, and because of that, their general behavior is often similar to that of criminals.

So, the statement that he can’t get along with others because he’s a criminal doesn’t hold.

Even if the other person is a criminal, Chinese people will interact with them if it’s beneficial.

But even so, the criminal probably won’t interact much with other Chinese people.

“The criminal doesn’t drink alcohol. I don’t know if he can’t drink or doesn’t drink, but what’s certain is that he probably doesn’t enjoy alcohol very much.”

“How do you know that?”

Jeong I-yeon, who was listening quietly, tilted her head. No matter how much I thought about it, there was nothing related to alcohol at all.

“It’s simple. That guy moved by climbing the pipes like rock climbing. But realistically, no matter how skilled a person is at rock climbing, they can’t climb the pipes after drinking alcohol.”

“Ah!”

“Furthermore, he never fell while moving along the pipes.”

“That’s right.”

If that were the case, there would have been traces left below, or someone would have reported it.