My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 719

The police are all the same. They may not know who those guys are, but they believe they’re safe from being tracked because they *are* the police. So, if we can follow them discreetly, it won’t be difficult to track them.

“But I don’t know when they’ll go out.”

“That’s the problem….”

Park Do-joon shrugged and said,

“It won’t take long.”

Park Do-joon went to the apartment complex’s management office and presented the warrant. The apartment staff provided him with a seat in front of a computer, as stipulated by the warrant.

“We don’t have a function to tell you which apartment numbers are going out.”

“It doesn’t matter. Can you track all the vehicle license plates entering and exiting here?”

“Yes, we can.”

“Can vehicles enter or exit in any other way?”

“If that were possible, this wouldn’t be a secure complex.”

Park Do-joon nodded at the employee’s assertion that there was no other way except through the entrance unless someone smashed through a wall.

“But still, there are too many entrances. It will be hard to follow if you are far away.”

“It’s okay. It’ll probably be just Exit 5.”

“Really? Why is that, Detective Park?”

“From Kim Song-rim’s perspective, that exit is the fastest way to get out.”

“Fastest?”

“Yes, it seems completely random, but the choice of exit isn’t random at all. To be exact, it’s already decided.”

“How?”

“I don’t understand.”

Lee Ji-soo and even the employee looked puzzled. Well, if there are six exits to the apartment complex and you divide them with the same probability, it will naturally look that way statistically.

But they forgot that humans move by habit, not probability.

“If you’re going somewhere you don’t know, how would you find it?”

“Of course, I’d start by using the navigation [GPS], right?”

“Right, that’s right. You’d use the navigation. People think they’re choosing, but in fact, the navigation is doing the choosing.”

And in any direction, the navigation designates the nearest exit.

“They’ll tell her to come out without approaching from the outside, but there are CCTVs [closed-circuit television cameras] where public transportation runs. So, to call her out, they’ll call her to a place where there are as few people as possible, which means there’s a very high probability that there’s no public transportation. In fact, many police deaths have had that aspect. The important thing is that wherever they call her, it’s not a place Kim Song-rim knows. So, there’s a very high probability that she activated the navigation.”

“So, having six entrances is a psychological trap.”

“Yes, people *think* they don’t know where to go out.”

However, if Kim Song-rim activates the navigation with her car parked, the exit is almost 100% likely to be one.

“And I’ve already done a few experiments.”

As a result, although it varied depending on the situation, 95% of the time it was Exit 5.

“What about the other 5%?”

“Exit 6. But that’s not a normal situation; it’s when the car is deep underground and the navigation’s location response is slow.”

In the case of being deep in the underground parking lot, the navigation’s location information check was actually slow, so there were cases where it reacted after going up to the first floor.

“Still, the other 5%….”

“Don’t worry. People will fill the other 5%.”

“People?”

“If you were me, would you go out to a far place, leaving the nearby entrance you use every day?”

“Ah, I see?”

If there is no concept of shaking off the pursuit, Kim Song-rim will move in a familiar direction. And in the meantime, it was the 5th exit with a 95% probability. So, of course, she will try to go out through Exit 5 without even knowing it. Because that’s the habit.

“So, we can wait at Exit 5.”

“Yes.”

“Of course, it will take some time.”

Park Do-joon smiled bitterly.

The investigation itself was extremely political, and in some ways, it was an act of exposing the biggest weakness within the police, so inevitably, this investigation had to be done secretly within the profiling team without outside help. That’s why the four of them were divided into two teams: one team waiting at the entrance of Exit 5 in case of a possible departure, and the other team staring at the camera in the management office to see when she would leave.

“I’m tired.”

“Me too.”

Of course, even if they took turns, the vehicle waiting team was just resting in the car, so after spending three days like that, Park Do-joon and Lee Ji-soo were completely exhausted.

“But I think it’s time to move.”

“Are we wrong?”

“That can’t be. Hong Woo-jong will somehow….”

At that moment, Lee Ji-soo’s cell phone rang loudly.

“Yes, Detective!”

Lee Ji-soo quickly answered it after checking the caller.

-It’s Kim Song-rim. She just left. She’s stuck at the signal [traffic light] at the entrance right now.

“Yes!”

At those words, Park Do-joon started the engine without hesitation and rushed out. And as soon as he went out, he saw Kim Song-rim’s car across the street. She drove a French car that was clearly different from other people’s, so there was no way to mistake it.

“See, I told you? Exit 5.”

Park Do-joon chuckled at the sight.

Kim Song-rim was driving hard somewhere, unaware that Park Do-joon was chasing her. And watching that, Park Do-joon clicked his tongue.

“She doesn’t even know it’s the place where she’s going to die.”

“I guess not. But Detective Park, it won’t be a problem here, but if she goes anywhere secluded, it will be a problem then, right?”

There are so many cars on the road that there is no problem. But if she goes to a place where there are no people, the pursuit will be obvious.

“In the end, we have to keep our distance, but if she gets killed without any chance to do so….”

“No, it won’t be a problem. That won’t happen.”

“Yes?”

“They won’t be able to kill her easily. We’ll have time to approach.”

Lee Ji-soo didn’t understand those words. As they went on for a while, Park Do-joon kept looking around. And when he got caught at a signal, he checked the surrounding locations through the Internet.

“What is that woman thinking….”

“Since the situation is like this, if Hong Woo-jong tells her to stay out of the way for a while, and gives her time to flee overseas, she won’t be able to refuse.”

“By the way, Detective Park, what did you mean earlier? That they can’t kill her easily? Wouldn’t they rather kill her and bury her?”

“Rather, that would be disadvantageous to Hong Woo-jong. You know that. Many police deaths are suicides, not disappearances.”

“That’s true.”

“Why is that?”

“Um, I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it….”

Police officers, especially those who are tracking sensitive cases, mostly end their lives by suicide.

“Is it simply because they don’t want to investigate the case?”

“That can’t be. Do the police investigate missing persons cases in the first place?”

“I guess not….”

It’s the same with not investigating missing persons cases. Rather, it’s safer to be missing. Because in the case of suicide, an autopsy is often performed at the request of the bereaved family, and if an autopsy is performed, unexpected evidence of murder may come out.

“For example, in the case of strangulation by pulling a string from behind, it may be strangulation depending on the weight of the deceased, but sometimes cervical fractures, etc., where the neck is broken, should be visible, but there may be none, or if it is drowning, the water depth must be sufficient, but the water depth is shallow, or it is clearly a suicide by hanging, but the string structurally cannot withstand the weight in the case of struggling just before suicide.”

“Those things usually have a strong meaning of warning.”

“Warning?”

“Don’t touch it. We can kill you.”

At those words, Lee Ji-soo flinched for a moment.

“Then are you saying they’re trying to warn us by killing Kim Song-rim?”

“Of course not. Who would be scared if Kim Song-rim died? Hong Geun-jong? Me?”

“I guess not, then what?”

“Think about why Hong Woo-jong is being suspected.”

“That’s… ah, an inexplicable murder.”

“That’s right. But suddenly a missing person came out of such an inexplicable murder?”

Then it’s obvious that they’ll cling to it even more.

Hong Woo-jong will know that.

“So, it has to be suicide, not a sudden disappearance.”

“That’s right. In reality, Kim Song-rim must be under strong psychological pressure.”

So, it has to be suicide.

“But the difference is that Kim Song-rim will resist.”

“Yes?”

“What did I say was the biggest reason why the people who died in the meantime didn’t resist?”

“You said the perpetrator was the same police officer.”

“That’s right. So, because they trust them, they are caught off guard and subdued. But Kim Song-rim is a criminal. Would she trust the police?”

“Oh? Ah, it’s definitely less likely.”

Kim Song-rim will never believe it. Furthermore, Kim Song-rim is not a fool who purely believes in someone.

“She’s probably very wary right now.”

“How do you know?”

“Look at the speed.”

“Speed?”

“This is a highway.”

But she’s going at an average speed of 70 kilometers per hour [approximately 43 miles per hour]. Even though people are honking and making a fuss behind her and cars are overtaking her, she’s not increasing her speed.

“If she was simply in a hurry, she wouldn’t be so slow.”

“Aha!”

Rather, she would have run at a very fast speed. But being slow means she has a lot of thoughts.

“She’s a person who testified about murder herself.”

Furthermore, the recent rumors about Hong Woo-jong—the rumors that he tried to kill his brother and sister and even killed his father—will stimulate her fear.

But she has no choice, so she’s going there.

“So, she won’t die easily.”

Furthermore, even if security is the reason, she’s not human if she doesn’t suspect that they called her to a place with too few people.

“It’s a relief if that’s the case.”

“And looking at it, it will probably take some time to kill her.”

“Yes?”

“There’s a lot of water in this neighborhood.”

“Water?”

“Did I say that to make it look like a suicide, one of the three is common?”

The first is drowning, the second is strangulation by hanging, and the last is falling to death.

“Falling to death is difficult. There’s no place like that here. Then hanging is possible enough even at home if it’s really like that.”

Even if it’s not, there are many places to commit suicide around.

“Then they’ll try to choose something that can only be used in this area.”

“Aha!”

And that can only be drowning. It’s not common to have so many reservoirs like this.

“But it’s stupid.”

“That’s right.”

If she wanted to drown, she wouldn’t have come all the way here.

Because there’s a place called the Han River near her house.

“It’s a problem that comes up a lot in police suicide cases.”

Why are you coming all the way here to commit suicide? Why do you *have* to come all the way here to commit suicide?

But the police are thoroughly ignoring it and remain silent. Because they’ll be in trouble if they investigate.

“I guess the last thing has a lot of meaning.”

“Yes, but killers don’t have that.”

For a person who has decided to commit suicide, the final place has a lot of meaning. Committing suicide in a place with good scenery or a beautiful place is a desire for even their last moment to be beautiful, and committing suicide at home is often a feeling to finish in their last resting place.

The reason why the Han River Bridge suffers from suicide every year is that the desire to commit suicide and the desire to live collide, and there is also a desire for someone to notice as quickly as possible.

Committing suicide in a place where people can’t find it is a desire for no one to notice their death.

“But the reservoir space is ambiguous.”

It’s not a space to be noticed, it doesn’t have memories, and it’s not a comfortable place to go.

In fact, the vast majority of people who choose drowning do not choose large lakes, rivers, or seas, but almost never choose reservoirs.

However, the place that is uniquely and strangely chosen as the suicide site of the police is the reservoir. The reason is simple. There are no CCTVs around, it’s easy to move, and it’s impossible to track.

“Anyway, then that woman will be very wary.”

“I guess so.”

In such a situation, no matter how much the other person is a police officer, it is never easy to subdue the other person rashly.