My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 639

“We’ve almost got him… but not quite.”

“Ambiguous, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

It is ambiguous. Profiling-wise, his actions align with those of a perpetrator, but are they illegal? Not necessarily. We can’t definitively label him as the culprit and request an arrest warrant based solely on our current suspicions.

“Then we need to try a different kind of bait.”

“How? We can’t directly question him, can we?”

Of course, feeding him false information is an option. But unless he’s an idiot, he won’t bother correcting us.

“Online conversations are tricky.”

In a face-to-face encounter, we could easily provoke a slip-up, but online, it’s different. He has time to think before responding, making it difficult to lead him on.

“We need to gain his trust.”

“Trust?”

“We should act wary first. No, let me handle this. Can you step aside for a moment?”

Park Do-joon sat down and began typing.

-Are you perhaps involved in the case?

-Huh? No? Why?

-My dad told me not to say anything. He said it’s confidential, but you keep asking.

-No, no. Haha, I’m just curious. I saw the case on the news too.

-Really?

-Yes.

By acting wary first, the suspect, unaware of the ruse, began to act more friendly.

“Now, we subtly drop the bait.”

“What kind?”

“The perpetrator committed the crime by throwing boxes, meaning they couldn’t have personally confirmed the results.”

“That’s right.”

“So, we feed him false information.”

-Well, that’s a relief. There’s a huge fuss because those scumbags died. They’re making a big deal out of those worthless bastards dying.

-Exactly. It’s not like the world is ending because those leeches died.

-I don’t know who killed them, but honestly, I think they did a good job. Right? They were just clinging to us like parasites, sucking up all our nutrients. They were practically parasites. Don’t you think so?

Of course, none of the victims were welfare recipients, the so-called “parasites” they were referring to. But Park Do-joon continued to feed him information to reel him in, and the suspect eagerly swallowed it all.

-That’s right. Those bastards deserve to die.

-They say a kid died too, but what would those kids have become anyway? Just more parasites.

-Exactly.

Park Do-joon was skillfully eliciting responses. The method was simple: keep ending the sentences with questions, rather than statements.

“This way, the other person has to respond because they want something from us.”

“Ah~!”

Since they want to get any information related to the investigation, they’ll want to keep the conversation going at all costs. Naturally, they’ll agree enthusiastically, which will lead to longer exchanges.

“Wow, I think we’re almost there.”

Lee Ji-soo clicked her tongue, her lips parched. Suspicion was growing, but she lacked definitive proof.

“Now, we need to draw a firm line.”

Unaware that he was being played by Park Do-joon, the suspect continued to agree and concur. Park Do-joon subtly posed a question.

-It seems they distributed it nationwide through those drinks, so there’s talk about beverage companies having to recall everything.

-Drinks? Not snacks?

-Ah, my mistake. Snacks.

“Bingo.”

“Yes!”

Lee Ji-soo clenched her fist, as if she had him for sure. The media had never once mentioned the use of snacks. If that got out, the snack companies would go bankrupt.

“He’s admitting it like this?”

“There’s a possibility of copycat crimes or confusion with other crimes. The snack is his identity, and we need to get information to track him down.”

But whether the medium was drinks or snacks is a completely different matter.

It’s an easy mistake to make, but also something only the real perpetrator would know.

“Does this mean we can get a warrant?”

“Probably.”

With that, Park Do-joon abruptly ended the chat.

-My dad’s here. Let’s talk later.

-Okay. Let’s meet up sometime.

Only then did the suspect show interest, unlike before.

Park Do-joon grinned as he looked at the chat log.

“Alright, let’s go meet who you are.”

Finally, the suspect was within reach.

# My Son Wouldn’t Do That!

The chat log created by Park Do-joon was sufficient to obtain a warrant. No matter how hostile and uncooperative Cobrian was to the police, they couldn’t conceal a terrorist act that resulted in fatalities.

Moreover, if they refused to provide information even with a police warrant, the internet site would become a terrorist site.

Therefore, obtaining member information based on that was not difficult. Of course, arresting the suspect based on that information was another matter.

“Wow, are you kidding me? How many people are there?”

The man, surrounded by a throng of lawyers, headed straight to the police chief’s office with a stiff expression. And the police couldn’t stop him. Meeting the chief isn’t illegal, at least not at this point.

“Four people… he seems to be hiding something. By the way, who’s the guy who went in?”

“Kang Gu-chan.”

“Kang Gu-chan? Never heard of him.”

“He’s the CEO of Terriam Group.”

“What do they do?”

“I’m not sure either.”

But one thing is certain: he has considerable power. Usually, the police chief avoids meeting the suspect’s father, regardless of legality. Even if they do meet, they usually find a way to meet discreetly, not so openly.

But to come with lawyers like this? That means he’s confident that he has the power to cover it up.

“I thought he’d be rich, but…”

Park Do-joon scratched his head.

“This might be harder than I thought.”

Park Do-joon muttered, watching the driver glaring at him.

Park Do-joon doesn’t know all the rich people. So, he asked Jung Yi-yeon, who knows them well, for help.

“Terriam? Oh, was that your brother’s case?”

“Huh? You know about it?”

“Of course. They came to our firm.”

“You helped us last time, but you didn’t know?”

“I wasn’t in charge. Their father asked my dad to handle it, but my dad was busy with another case, so he declined. But even if we decline, we can’t disclose the case to outsiders. Good thing.”

Park Do-joon frowned at that. Jung Yi-yeon’s father is the most famous and successful lawyer in Korea. To hire him, they must be far from ordinary.

“What exactly does Terriam do? It’s a group, so it must be a company, but I’ve never heard of it.”

“That’s probably why. They’re not an industrial company.”

“Then what?”

“They specialize in golf courses and resorts. Recently, they’ve been expanding into the entertainment industry.”

Certainly, golf courses and resorts have nothing to do with Park Do-joon. In fact, they have nothing to do with most people. Golf courses and resorts are for people with some leisure time.

Of course, it’s not just a hobby for the rich, but people usually remember the name of the resort or golf course, not the company that runs it.

“Are they large in scale?”

“Yes, they are. Of course, even as a group, they’re not in the top 100 companies. But the golf course and resort business involves a lot of interaction with the wealthy and powerful.”

“That’s true.”

Why else would the phrase ‘Nice shot, Mr. President’ be popular in Korea? It’s a meme, but it shows how much high-ranking people enjoy golf.

“Based on those connections, they’ve been investing in entertainment lately and making some profit. But I didn’t know it was the Terriam case. Then the suspect must be Kang Seok-doo.”

“You know him?”

“I don’t know him personally, but he’s on a blacklist, right?”

“Blacklist?”

“A blacklist of guys that rich people don’t want as sons-in-law.”

“Ah~!”

Certainly, you can’t say that such a thing doesn’t exist among the wealthy. Of course, it’s not circulated in documents, but at least information is shared about guys whose personalities are such that ‘we don’t trust this bastard.’

“He must be famous?”

“He is. He’s good at studying, but that’s all he’s good at.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean he’s only good at studying. He can’t manage anything. He’s probably in graduate school now. Perfect fit.”

The perpetrator is suspected of being a graduate student, so the conditions are perfect. And he’s only good at studying.

“Was he pushed out of the succession race?”

“Race? You have to be at a level where you can compete to even compete. He’s hopeless. What does it mean to be only good at studying?”

Initially, when Kang Seok-doo was called a genius who was good at studying, Terriam’s CEO Kang Gu-chan rejoiced. He believed that the genius Kang Seok-doo could turn Terriam Group into a global company, and Kang Seok-doo was recognized as the next-generation successor until high school.

“He originally had an older brother, but the older brother was treated coldly.”

They’re only two years apart in age, but the older brother studied steadily, went to a decent in-Seoul university, and learned management steadily.

“And then?”

“But Kang Seok-doo mastered the fundamentals of mathematics in the second year of middle school.”

“Crazy.”

The Fundamentals of Mathematics is the most widely used mathematics entrance exam book, usually learned in the third year of high school. Of course, it’s not easy for a second-year middle school student to master it.

“But how…?”

“I told you, he’s only good at studying.”

He is a genius, but unfortunately, that genius was completely zero in the management field that Kang Gu-chan wanted. Rather, it was below the average level.

“He also lacks empathy and understanding of events.”

“Is it that bad?”

“It’s bad. There were even rumors that he was a psychopath, but it doesn’t seem to be that extreme.”

“I see what you mean.”

People think that if you’re good at studying, you’ll be good at everything. But that’s not true. Everyone has different areas of expertise. People who are good at memorizing may be advantageous in civil service exams or national exams, but they often lack the ability to understand the relationships between events.

Even with profilers, the difficulty is so high that so-called studious guys come in, but less than 10% of them actually establish themselves as profilers.

Why? Because memorizing and understanding criminals are completely different areas.

“Kang Seok-doo was exactly that type.”

He’s really good at memorizing. A genius at memorization. He memorizes almost instantly what he sees once.

“But understanding and applying it is another matter.”

He may know it as a theory, but he can’t use it.

He couldn’t understand public relations strategies or management strategies, so if he were to take over the company, it would be doomed.

“So, his path changed in college, forcibly.”

“Forcibly?”

“Yeah. They said he was hopeless.”

Originally, he entered business administration to take over the company, but he couldn’t keep up with the classes themselves, and his grades were Fs in a row. Kang Gu-chan quickly gave up and found a path that Kang Seok-doo was good at.

“It was a good thing, though.”

As a parent, that’s better. If you force a hopeless kid to do something, the future is obvious, so it’s better to do what you’re good at.

In fact, Kang Seok-doo quit business administration and went to science and engineering, where he showed his talent.