You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 277

“I still don’t know if I should have said I was with you the whole time, or if it was better to tell the truth. What do you think, Attorney Cha? Ha, should I have just lied and said we were together, then claimed I misremembered if other evidence came out later?”

After finishing his story, Kang Min-jae covered his head with both hands and exclaimed.

When I didn’t respond immediately, Kang Min-jae seemed frustrated, pulling his chair right in front of me and shouting.

“Yes? Yes?! Please answer me quickly, did I do the right thing? Or did I act like an idiot? Yes?”

“You did well.”

“Ah, so I made a mistake… Huh?”

“I said you did well.”

Even though I gave him a good answer, Kang Min-jae looked at me with narrowed eyes, as if he couldn’t believe it.

I don’t know what he wants me to do.

If I said he did wrong, he would be gloomy and walk around with slumped shoulders all day.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. Reducing the possible time of the crime to 20 minutes can disrupt the investigation to some extent, and you spoke well without raising suspicion. If you had said you were together the whole time, Kang, you would have been considered an accomplice, and they would have dismissed everything you said as a lie, trusting the other witness more.”

“……Ha, that’s a relief.”

Kang Min-jae placed his hand on his chest and sighed deeply.

“Isn’t it time to have some confidence? How long are you going to keep getting my permission for everything? Are you still an associate, Kang?”

“……It’s because I’m not sure.”

“I’m not sure either. I just do what seems right.”

“You do what ‘seems’ right? Without being sure it’s right?”

“I do what seems like the best option in that situation.”

“I don’t know what the best option is.”

“You must lack field experience. I think I’ve been protecting you too much, Kang.”

“……I don’t remember you protecting me, but I guess I do lack field experience.”

Once this case is resolved and we get a new one, it would be good to leave most of it to Kang Min-jae and just watch.

Well, it’s definitely not because I want to rest.

“So, where did they say the crime scene was?”

At my words, Kang Min-jae brought up a map of Hwagun Reservoir on the laptop screen.

And he marked one spot in red.

“It’s here.”

“That’s definitely the area I went to alone.”

“Yes.”

I also didn’t wander around the reservoir while checking the map, so I can’t really tell just by looking at this.

Did they have road view service at this time? [Referring to a feature like Google Street View.]

Even if they did, I don’t think it had been expanded to every corner of the country yet.

I looked at the icons on the map, but unfortunately, I couldn’t see the inside of the reservoir.

It only showed the main road outside the reservoir.

“I’ll have to go there in person to know for sure.”

“Yes. I already told Tae-shik where it is, but he said the crime scene markings were very extensive. They taped off everything from about here to here,”

Kang Min-jae said, marking it on the map.

It’s definitely too wide for a crime scene.

Since it’s a waterfront and a place where fishermen come and go, it seems they set it up wide on purpose to prevent people from entering.

Fishermen will go to any lengths to find a spot if the fish are biting.

“If it’s that spot, it’s about 15 minutes after I separated from you, Kang. Just based on the distance.”

“Yes. That’s what’s funny. How can you argue to the point of wanting to kill someone, kill them, throw them in the water, clean up the surroundings, and get to the entrance in 30 minutes?”

Even though Lee Jung-chan was an old man, he wasn’t small.

It’s definitely not enough time for me to handle all that alone in 30 minutes.

Perhaps the National Forensic Service will also say that it would be difficult to handle everything in 30 minutes.

So, the police will try to find evidence that I met him with the intention of killing him from the start, rather than seeing it as an accidental fight.

It’s a natural question since I killed Lee Jung-chan, but that’s why I asked Kang Min-jae what my relationship with Lee Jung-chan was.

“Anyway, I need to find out if there’s a way to check the CCTV, as you said, Attorney Cha. Should I ask Lee Ye-jin sunbae… [Sunbae is a Korean term for a senior colleague or mentor.]”

As Kang Min-jae trailed off, flipping through the phone book, I opened my mouth.

“If we’re going to ask for a favor, there’s someone I can ask.”

I took Kang Min-jae’s phone and brought up Park Young-ki’s phone number on the screen.

He was the first person I thought of, but I couldn’t ask him to check the CCTV when I was already indebted to him.

If he were to check the CCTV, he couldn’t do it himself and would have to assign it to someone.

But it was uncertain whether Park Young-ki had anyone he could trust among the people who could check the CCTV, and even if he did, there was no telling how it might be traced back later.

It could put Park Young-ki in a difficult position, so it was hard to bring it up.

Especially since he might already be suspected of leaking information that I was being treated as a suspect.

“Ah, Chief Park! Wouldn’t Chief Park help us?”

“That’s why it’s a problem that he would help.”

I answered briefly and called Park Young-ki.

The phone rang briefly, and he answered quickly.

-Oh, Attorney Kang. What’s up.

Park Young-ki answered the phone in his usual voice.

“Chief, this is Cha Joo-han.”

-Ah, Attorney Cha. I heard that Attorney Kang went for questioning today. I was wondering if he was doing okay.

“I think he’s doing okay.”

-Really? If Attorney Cha says so, I can rest assured. Anyway, what’s going on?

“I’m calling to ask for a favor, even though I’m embarrassed to ask.”

I told him about Choi Jong-hyun and Jo Bong-joon, and the ‘meter reader’ that Kang Min-jae had found.

It was information that I had to provide him to get to the point, but I felt that the words weren’t coming out smoothly.

I was always in the position of receiving favors, and when I had to ask for them, I usually replaced them with a deal.

Like when I agreed to enter Lee Se-hwa’s election camp in exchange for being introduced to a Hanyoung Group official.

Of course, that became a promise I couldn’t keep, but at the time, I didn’t know it would turn out this way, so I didn’t hesitate to ask.

But in Park Young-ki’s case, there’s nothing I can promise him right now.

To promise him something, I need the premise that I will be revived.

That’s not something I can be sure of in the current situation, so I can’t promise him anything.

All I have now is…….

Well, maybe just money.

But Park Young-ki isn’t someone who can be moved by money, and even if he were, it would be impossible with the amount I have.

-According to Attorney Cha, that car is likely a ghost car [unregistered or untraceable vehicle]. Finding that meter reader is probably the fastest way. To find him, we’ll have to track him with CCTV.

Park Young-ki gave the answer before I could even say it.

-Hmm, should I check it for you? Then we can find that meter reader?

And before I could ask, he gave the answer again.

“I hesitate to ask because I feel like I’m putting a burden on you, Chief.”

-Haha, Attorney Cha. People have to ask for favors while living. You can’t live in this world alone. Whether you have billions of dollars or absolute power, you’re bound to ask for favors. Don’t you think the opportunity for me to ask Attorney Cha for a favor came too late?

Park Young-ki said with a laugh.

“……”

-Don’t feel sorry. Just think about surviving right now.

“I’m sorry.”

-There’s nothing to be sorry about. If you feel that bad, you can pay me back with interest later.

“I’m worried that it would be difficult if there were any problems later because you checked the CCTV. This case is,”

-Don’t worry about that. Jung Chang-yoon is in charge of a hit-and-run case right now. I can ask him to check it together when he checks the CCTV for that case. Remember, Jung Pro?

“Of course.”

-I’ll contact you as soon as I receive the CCTV footage, so proceed with the investigation in other areas for now.

“……Thank you, Chief.”

I hurriedly said thank you, thinking it was time to express my gratitude, but I didn’t know what tone, what expression I should make.

It wasn’t like I had never said thank you in my life, but it felt so difficult.

-Attorney Cha.

“Yes.”

-Are you perhaps feeling humiliated?

Park Young-ki asked.

It wasn’t a cold or mocking tone.

Rather, it was warm.

-It’s possible. I haven’t known Attorney Cha for that long, but I at least remember what you were like when you were under me. Attorney Cha had nothing to be desired. So you always walked around with your head held high.

“Was that so.”

-There were definitely people who didn’t like that, but I didn’t mind. If you’re someone who can do your part, it’s natural that you don’t have to ask others for favors.

“…….”

-But as I said earlier, you can’t do that forever. And I hoped that Attorney Cha would learn that someday. The bigger the scale of the work you want to do, the more you’ll need the help of many people.

Park Young-ki seemed to have thought a lot about me.

He seemed to have pondered a lot about things that even I didn’t have time to think about, and his words were unreserved.

-I’m very sorry that this happened to you, but you should think about things that you can turn into a blessing in disguise. One of them, in my opinion, is that you have an opportunity to gain enlightenment. You’ve done well on your own so far, but now is the moment when you need to move forward together with the people around you, receiving help.

“I understand what you mean.”

-Isn’t it fortunate? How many people are abandoned by those around them at times like this? But you must have been good to the people around you. Seeing how many people are stepping forward to help.

Just like how Kang Min-jae and Manager Oh said they would help me as a matter of course, like how Jo Bong-joon and Choi Jong-hyun came to my house worried about me even though they heard bad news about me, and like Tae-shik, who worried about me, thinking that it couldn’t be my doing.

I looked at Kang Min-jae, who was staring at me, as if wondering if the call with Park Young-ki was going well.

“Why, did Chief say no?”

Kang Min-jae asked me worriedly in a hushed voice, and I answered as I hung up the phone.

“Chief said he’ll check it.”

“Wow, that’s a relief. I’m so grateful. I’m so grateful. Should I go to Chief’s house and bow to him a few times?”

“Why would you bow several times when he’s not dead?”

“That’s true. Then I’ll just do it once. Hehe.”

I should be the one bowing, why are you doing it.

……I wanted to say that, but seeing Kang Min-jae’s excited expression, I didn’t want to spoil the mood.