My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 647

“But I don’t understand. Why did Wang Woo-hwan suddenly appear here? Was there some kind of misunderstanding?”

“Misunderstanding…? Well, it’s too coincidental to call it a misunderstanding.”

If there was an attack during surveillance, it could be seen as a misunderstanding. But the surveillance decreased in response to the attack? Then it’s hard to see it as a misunderstanding.

“We should assume they’ve taken a contract killing job.”

“That’s highly likely.”

Park Do-joon chuckled, already suspecting as much.

“Wang Woo-hwan wouldn’t have done this alone. Hong Woo-jong probably intervened.”

“Excuse me? Why?”

“Kang Gu-chan isn’t the type to use external organizations.”

Park Do-joon had already confirmed this with Bae Deok-gi. In fact, the guys who surveilled him and Lee Ji-soo wore fairly neat clothes, making them unlikely to be external hires.

“But suddenly bringing in external personnel, especially from the Chinese line, to try to kill us? That’s an unexpected escalation.”

Park Do-joon wasn’t stupid, and of course, he considered the possibility of them trying to kill him rather than negotiate. He just thought the probability was low.

“Perhaps that means the internal turmoil is greater than we thought.”

If the internal turmoil wasn’t that significant, they wouldn’t have resorted to such an extreme method as murder. But with Kang Gu-chan and Kang Seok-doo in such disarray, their ability to make sound judgments has clearly begun to decline.

“Originally, when people start to feel fear, their judgment deteriorates, right?”

“That’s right.”

Fear severely impairs a person’s judgment. They may think they’re making rational decisions, but in reality, those decisions are likely based on their survival, and in such cases, they lose long-term perspective.

If you’re about to die from an immediate threat, how can you think about problems a year from now?

“Then Kang Seok-doo must be the one who ordered the hit. This is pretty strong evidence.”

“That’s correct.”

If Kang Seok-doo wasn’t the culprit, there would be no reason for him to be so afraid or to resort to murder.

“Rather, if it were a negotiation, he could cover it up somehow later.”

Because it’s possible to claim he just tried to silence them with money because he didn’t want his child to be the subject of gossip. It’s not like such cases don’t happen.

Blackmail is an act of extorting money by dwelling on the other party’s misdeeds, but sometimes people dwell on it even if the other party has no sins or weaknesses.

Why? Because for the wealthy, even mere gossip can be a critical blow to their reputation.

“‘Eul-jil’ [abuse of power by someone in a superior position], you mean.”

“Ah, right. It’s also called ‘Eul-jil.’”

There are definitely people who claim they’ve been subjected to ‘Gap-jil’ [abuse of power] even when the ‘Gap’ [superior] person is clearly exercising their legally recognized rights, and they try to extort money from the other party. The funny thing is that in such cases, the victim is the ‘Gap’ person, but the ‘Gap’ person sometimes gives money to the ‘Eul’ [inferior] who violates the law.

To protect their image.

“Silencing them through negotiation can be excused in that realm. After all, the police don’t have a good image either.”

But murder is not. No matter how hard you try, it’s impossible to package it as a crime to cover up ‘Eul-jil.’

“The problem is how to link this to Teriam…”

Team Leader Jo Sang-gyu said with a reluctant face.

“As you know, these guys were contracted by Wang Woo-hwan. They don’t even know who Kang Gu-chan is.”

Moreover, Wang Woo-hwan has enough reason to want to kill Park Do-joon. So if they say, ‘We don’t know anything,’ there’s no way to prove otherwise.

In fact, that’s the advantage of contract killing: plausible deniability.

“Of course. That’s why I prepared this.”

“You prepared something?”

“Ji-soo, you took enough pictures, right?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Pictures. I took pictures of the guys who were watching us.”

They are definitely internal employees of Teriam. The fact that they withdrew in response to the assassination attempt proves it.

“We don’t know who they are, do we? So we can definitely link the murder suspects to those guys.”

“Aha!”

“Just because they work for a large corporation and do dirty work doesn’t mean they have exceptional loyalty to that company.”

Would the guys who were watching Park Do-joon and Lee Ji-soo be loyal enough to take the blame for murder?

“Moreover, if you look at the pictures, they’re young guys. So the possibility of betrayal is higher.”

“What do you mean, sunbae [senior colleague]?”

“Well, you’ll find out when we catch them. Hehehe.”

Arresting them wasn’t difficult. They had already identified their faces and license plate numbers. Of course, the license plate number turned out to be registered elsewhere, as expected, but it didn’t matter.

“No, I don’t know anything. I just passed by.”

Of course, they had no choice but to deny everything, claiming ignorance.

Lee Ji-soo said with a reluctant face, watching the guys feigning ignorance to the shouting police officers.

“It’s not easy, as expected.”

“Still, proving that they all belong to Teriam isn’t difficult, right?”

“That’s true.”

As Park Do-joon expected, Teriam, or rather Kang Gu-chan, had their affiliation listed as another company externally. So even if they cling to them, Teriam can just say they don’t know them. But Park Do-joon had already taken pictures to prove that they commute to the Teriam building.

“That’s the mistake that guys who track others make.”

They’re so busy tracking the other party that they often don’t realize they’re being tracked themselves.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a problem normally, but the person who knows they’re being tracked sets a trap in such cases. Just like this time.

“Still, I don’t think they’ll admit it. They can make all sorts of excuses for going into the company.”

They can make excuses like they were dispatched or on a business trip.

“Yeah, but do you know what type of people are put into those kinds of jobs?”

“What type?”

“Expendable types.”

“Expendable types?”

“Just wait a moment. I’ll make them spill everything.”

Park Do-joon chuckled and said. After a while, the police officer who was interrogating inside came out, shaking his head.

“They won’t open their mouths at all.”

“Of course. They’re in a situation where they might take the blame for murder or not. Let’s switch.”

“Do you think they’ll talk if you do it?”

“I have to try.”

Park Do-joon switched with the police officer who came out of the interrogation room and went inside. Then he sat down across from the suspect with a thud.

“Long time no see?”

“Who are you?”

Park Do-joon smiled at those words. He knows me. But at first glance, he was desperately pretending not to know me.

‘Well, let’s see how far you go.’

It’s not like I didn’t expect that much.

‘Should I start by breaking his mentality?’

Being young is good. But at the same time, it also increases the likelihood of making mistakes due to lack of experience.

“Since you say you don’t know me, you won’t mind if I interrogate you, right?”

If they knew each other, it would be uncomfortable for the person they were monitoring to interrogate them. But since he said he didn’t know me, the answer was obvious.

“I told you, I don’t know you.”

“Well, let’s go with that. So, how valuable do you think you are?”

“What?”

“Let’s see. You weren’t a proper person. You’re from Subaek University. Where is Subaek University located?”

Park Do-joon searched even though he knew. Then he chuckled.

“It’s a university that was closed down due to corruption. Oh dear.”

“Ahem.”

Usually, universities don’t close down easily. But the fact that it was closed down, especially due to corruption, means there were many problems.

“And the department name is Pet Health? What do you do there? Do you make dog food?”

The suspect’s face turned red at those words.

‘He must be ashamed. He’ll have an inferiority complex.’

When companies assign dirty work internally, the higher-ups don’t use proper people.

Because when doing dirty work, it’s difficult to dispose of people who are too smart. They’re supposed to do as they’re told and then be discarded, but smart guys leave evidence or do things to survive.

On the other hand, less capable guys are even more desperate.

‘I’ve never even heard of Subaek University’s Pet Health department.’

What kind of kids go to places like that? The answer is obvious. They’re not kids who studied properly or worked hard.

In South Korea, where over 95% of kids go to university based on their grades, they wouldn’t want to go to a place like this.

‘It’s obvious what happens after graduation.’

They have to get a job. Of course, they want to get a job, but it’s not easy. Even graduates from good universities get rejected a lot. But a strange place like Subaek University’s Pet Health department… Moreover, there’s nowhere for someone whose university was closed down due to crime to go. It’s called a university, but it’s at a level where they can’t even be recognized as having graduated from university.

‘In that situation, working for Teriam is tempting.’

In such cases, the person is desperate. They want to settle down no matter what. Even if they do dirty work, they think they’ll be recognized someday while doing that work. But that doesn’t exist in reality.

From the beginning, the company hires them with the intention of discarding them. So they don’t even give them a chance. If they promote such people, the company could ultimately fail, so would they give them a chance?

But young people don’t know that. They just think, ‘I’ll be able to do it if I try.’

‘And the underlying emotion is inferiority.’

Others work comfortably in the office, but he works at Teriam doing dirty work, and he can’t even tell people that he works at Teriam.

“You don’t work for Teriam, do you?”

“I told you, I don’t.”

“Ah, let’s make sure. You don’t, right?”

“Yes. I don’t.”

“I see. Then you have no value at all?”

“What?”

“Isn’t that right? What value do you have?”

“What are you saying! Hey! Are you making fun of me!”

Of course, his voice gets louder. But Park Do-joon was very serious.

“I’m not making fun of you. You’re not even from a proper company, and you’ve been lying to people around you while working for a strange scam company, right?”

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

“You’ve been lying to people around you, saying you work for Teriam, haven’t you?”

The suspect’s eyes shook at those words.

“Anyway, what kind of person is this…”

Park Do-joon got up from his seat without waiting for an answer.

“So you get tricked by murderers and take on contract killings.”

“What? What nonsense are you talking about?”

“No, how would a company that doesn’t even do proper work give you money? You’re doing the job of monitoring people, and there’s been more than one or two deaths among them. Tsk tsk.”

Park Do-joon looked at the suspect with a face of pity, as if looking at a fool.

“You thought you belonged to the Teriam Group, but the place you belong to is not Teriam but a contract killing organization.”

“Bullshit!”

“You don’t think so? Do you really believe you belong to Teriam?”

“I told you, I don’t belong to Teriam!”

“Is that so? Then what kind of work does your company do? I’ve already checked. It’s a ghost company, isn’t it? With no performance at all.”

“That’s…”

Park Do-joon got up from his seat when he couldn’t say anything to those words.

“There’s a lot of evidence that you’re involved in murder, so you can look forward to your future. Take a good breath. This will be the last time you breathe social air.”

Park Do-joon didn’t interrogate any further and came outside. And Lee Ji-soo approached him.

Profiler