My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 87

“Do you have a cutter?”

“No, we don’t.”

A fire station would have a cutter, but there’s no reason for the police to carry one around.

‘It’s not a size I can break with force.’

The latch is almost as thick as my pinky finger. There’s no way I can break this with force.

‘It’s a key system, so I can’t open it from here either.’

I can’t just shout inside. Unless I’ve confirmed there’s a child, it’ll be a disaster if there isn’t.

‘What should I do?’

Park Do-joon pondered, then glanced at the main building. He then spoke to the people around him.

“Hide around the perimeter.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to shake the door.”

“Pardon?”

Everyone was dumbfounded by Park Do-joon’s sudden words. But instead of explaining, Park Do-joon urged them.

“There’s no time. Hide quickly.”

Fortunately, Heo Kang-soo had cultivated the garden well, so there were many places to hide. The garden itself was large, and it hadn’t been maintained for the past few years, so it was full of weeds everywhere.

Once the police officers were hidden, Park Do-joon began to shake the warehouse door violently. After shaking it for a while, he saw two people coming out of the main building.

Park Do-joon quickly avoided them and hid behind the warehouse, and the two men, who seemed very agitated, grumbled as they approached the safe [a secure room or container for valuables].

“Damn it! That little brat is making so much noise.”

“Wouldn’t you do the same?”

“Still, it’s too loud. Damn it, should I just kill him?”

“Don’t say things like that. We were told to keep him alive no matter what.”

“I still feel uneasy……”

“We can’t help it. We have to look at it long-term, long-term.”

“Alright, alright. Let’s just shut him up for now. We’re in the middle of having fun, and he’s ruining the mood. A few beatings should quiet him down again.”

Park Do-joon’s eyes sparkled as he heard those words.

‘Keep him alive? Long-term…? These guys aren’t planning to end it with just this one time.’

Meanwhile, one of the two men who had come to the entrance took out a key from his pocket and opened the door.

“Hey, you little bastard, be quiet and sleep, you son of a bitch.”

But the inside was quiet. And at that moment, Park Do-joon stealthily approached them from behind. And the other police officers also noticed the situation and approached the place.

“Where is this little… Ugh!”

Park Do-joon showed no mercy and delivered a flying kick, and the criminals tumbled to the ground. Then, Park Do-joon spoke to the rushing police officers.

“Gag them first! Gag them!”

Fortunately, the police officers quickly gagged them, handcuffed their arms, and pinned them to the ground.

“Mmph, mmph!”

The criminals tried to shout, but with their mouths already gagged, there was nothing they could do.

“Sun-jin, I’ve come to rescue you. Sun-jin, are you inside? I’m a police officer. Let’s go to your mom together.”

Park Do-joon spoke in a low voice, and after a while, Yoo Sun-jin, wearing yellow clothes, appeared from the darkness.

“Are we really going to Mom?”

“Of course. We have to go to Mom. Come here.”

Yoo Sun-jin trembled but still came closer.

Park Do-joon bit his lip as he looked at Yoo Sun-jin.

‘These goddamn bastards.’

Her face was covered in bruises, as if she had been hit.

“Sun-jin, stay here with these officers. Okay?”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to catch the bad guys who hurt our Sun-jin.”

Park Do-joon soothed Yoo Sun-jin and handed her over to the police officer behind him before turning around.

“Let’s move right away.”

“Let’s do it.”

Kim Seong-gyun also seemed angry after seeing Yoo Sun-jin’s condition, as he took out his gun again and checked it.

“I wish these bastards would resist with sashimi knives or something.”

Kim Seong-gyun spoke in an angry voice, as if he genuinely wanted to shoot them dead, but Park Do-joon said with pity.

“They won’t. These kinds of guys know how precious their lives are.”

“But how did you know these guys would come out?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time.”

If a child is locked up, they’ll naturally ask to be rescued, and the child will knock on the door. And there’s no way the criminals would just let that happen. It would be noisy.

“They’re learning without even realizing it.”

“Wow, do you anticipate things like that when profiling?”

“I have to. It would be strange if I didn’t.”

“Amazing, really. But what if they had seen you coming out?”

“Those guys were in the light.”

In contrast, here was darkness without any lights. When coming from a bright place to a dark place, it takes a moment to adjust to the darkness.

Park Do-joon thought that time would be enough to hide.

“Let’s not hesitate.”

“Let’s do it.”

Park Do-joon picked up the radio.

“We’ve rescued the child. Breach. No need to show any mercy.”

Park Do-joon said that and headed to the back of the house with Kim Seong-gyun. A moment later, there was a crashing sound, and all hell broke loose.

“Don’t move! Police!”

“We’re arresting all of you on charges of child abduction!”

Thanks to someone coming over and telling them to open the door, the breach was instantaneous, and the criminals rushed out at the word “police.”

“What the hell.”

“Run away!”

Criminals trying to escape, in contrast to the police officers rushing in. And some of them were trying to head towards the warehouse, as if they wanted to take the child hostage.

“Ah, take one more step. I’ll put a bullet hole in your head.”

Of course, the guy who was coming towards the warehouse froze in place at Kim Seong-gyun’s words.

“Honestly, I’m desperately hoping you’ll charge at me right now. Would you please charge at me? That way, I can legally put a hole in your head.”

The guy’s eyes shook at Kim Seong-gyun’s taunting words, and Park Do-joon shouted at the criminal.

“Get down! Or get shot.”

He hesitated at those words. But the time for choosing didn’t last long.

“Agh!”

“Let go, you bastards!”

“Let go! Damn it, let go!”

As the screams of his colleagues being arrested one by one were heard, he eventually gave up and lay down on the floor. Then, he quietly put his hands behind his head.

“Too bad.”

Kim Seong-gyun chuckled and approached him to handcuff him.

“Hoo……”

Park Do-joon looked up at the sky, letting out a sigh of relief at the thought of having saved the child.

One by one, stars were rising in the dark sky.

#For Him

“Heo Kang-soo is missing?”

“Yeah. Everyone else is here, but he’s not.”

The team leader, who arrived late, frowned and said.

“Anyway, good job, good job. Wow, damn it. My heart was really pounding.”

“It was a close call. It seems they were planning to kill the child and go into hiding tomorrow.”

Park Do-joon said that and looked at the child in one corner.

“I thought so. That’s why I was in a hurry.”

At that moment, the door became noisy, and Yoo Sun-jin’s parents came in. They couldn’t call them because they didn’t know how the situation would turn out, but now that they had saved the child, it was best for the parents to come quickly for the child’s stability.

“Sun-jin!”

“Hwaa… Mom!”

“Sun-jin, Sun-jin! It’s Mom! Mom is sorry!”

Park Do-joon tried to hide the feeling of his nose getting stuffy as he watched the two people hugging the child.

“Good job. You bastard.”

The team leader also seemed to be holding back tears as he said that.

“But this, Heo Kang-soo, he’s the one who designed this, right?”

“It must be. He wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

“But what do you think? Can we tie him to it?”

“It’ll be difficult.”

Park Do-joon frowned and said.

“Too much time has passed.”

Park Do-joon and the team leader already knew what kind of answer would come out in the investigation after this.

***

“We did it ourselves. We don’t know anyone named Heo Kang-soo.”

“We did it. Heo Kang-soo didn’t tell us to do it.”

Of course, the criminals were separated and taken into the interrogation room. As child abductors organized as a team, they had to prevent them from coordinating their stories.

And their words were the same as Park Do-joon’s prediction.

“These bastards are trying to protect Heo Kang-soo. Some say they don’t know him, some say he didn’t tell them to do it……”

The investigating detective, Kim Seong-gyun, brought the collected first interrogation reports and sighed deeply.

“That’s probably it. Those guys are already brainwashed. Probably new believers.”

So, would those guys really tell the truth about Heo Kang-soo?

“There’s no way. How strong is religious brainwashing?”

Even the team leader was pessimistic, so their brainwashing was very strong.

“In the current situation, Heo Kang-soo is their priority no matter what we say. It’ll be the same as last time.”

“Ugh.”

Looking at the case records from the last time with the Cosmic God Church, it was the same as then. There was a case suspected of murder, but thanks to a guy called an elder taking all the blame, Heo Kang-soo only went to jail for fraud.

“So, even that elder died in prison.”

“He died in prison?”

“He had cancer, they said.”

“I see. It seems the fear of the afterlife gnawed at him.”

Everyone fears death. But when that fear sets a definite time and approaches, that fear is doubled, and they think a lot about what will happen to them in the afterlife.

In that situation, if someone guarantees the afterlife, people fall into it.

“Actually, that method is often used by suicide bombing groups.”

Park Do-joon said with a bitter smile.

“They probably won’t open their mouths.”

“Damn it… Doesn’t this mean there’s no answer?”

“That’s the problem.”

Catching the main culprit is very important in a case. Especially if you don’t catch the main culprit in an intelligent crime, the same case will be repeated every day.

Heo Kang-soo will create other believers and commit the same crime again.

“Only 1 billion won was found at the scene?”

“Yes.”

“Then Heo Kang-soo took the 2 billion won?”

“The problem is that we don’t know where that bastard is, and they won’t say if he’s the main culprit.”

If this continues, it will become a situation where there is so-called strong suspicion but no material evidence. And in that situation, Heo Kang-soo will be released due to insufficient evidence.

“He’s a smart guy. He probably gave the orders with something like a burner phone [a prepaid, disposable cell phone] that can’t be traced.”

“Probably.”

There’s no way he wouldn’t know that the police would be tracking him. Heo Kang-soo was the one who planned the operation with the police in mind. So, he must have tried to distance himself in preparation for these guys getting caught.

In fact, these guys are so brainwashed that they’re acting like they’d risk their lives for a single phone call.

“There won’t be any evidence of calls, so of course, we won’t be able to identify him.”

Park Do-joon became serious.

‘Religious cases are a pain in the ass.’

Unlike other cases, the victims are hell-bent on protecting the perpetrators, so you can’t enforce the law normally.

In the United States, victims sometimes engage in gunfights with police forces to protect the perpetrators, and if nothing else works, these perpetrators choose to die together, leading to mass suicide cases in the worst-case scenario.

“So, Heo Kang-soo’s whereabouts are currently impossible to track?”

“You can say that. There’s no card or anything.”

There’s no way a guy who’s been to prison can live using cards [credit or debit cards].

Of course, he probably has a considerable amount of money hidden away, and since he took 2 billion won in cash, it won’t be difficult to hide.

“No, in the first place, isn’t the priority to link him to this case, putting everything else aside?”

“That’s the problem.”

The criminals are adamant that Heo Kang-soo is not involved.

Some say they don’t know him at all, and some say they don’t know that person, but what’s certain is that these guys will never mention Heo Kang-soo.