You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 374

You Have Been Defended – Episode 374

The investigation concluded without much difficulty, but we learned something new.

The police confirmed that Park Jin-sung’s vehicle went to a warehouse near Incheon Port, loaded drugs, and left.

The police divided their forces, some chasing Park Jin-sung’s vehicle, and others raiding the warehouse near Incheon Port, but they found no traces in the warehouse and only caught Park Jin-sung.

Hearing that, I realized that Wooshin had planned to use Park Jin-sung as a distributor from the start.

But the surprising thing was surprising, and we had to prove Park Jin-sung’s alibi.

Park Jin-sung told us the story from the day before his arrest to the day he was arrested, just as he had said.

There were parts he couldn’t quite remember, but what he clearly recalled was the name of the auto repair shop, the bar where he had drinks, and the title and name of the new person in charge.

The taxi driver’s phone number and a copy of the auto repair shop receipt were on his phone, so we handed those over to the police as well.

I told them to check the CCTV [closed-circuit television] footage along his route.

Now the police will try to verify everything we’ve presented, and if the verification goes well, Park Jin-sung will be free.

Heo Min-woo said the same thing.

“If all this evidence is true, it doesn’t seem like an arrest warrant will be issued.”

But I don’t think it will end here.

Park Jin-sung’s evidence is clear, but you never know when and where a story will pop up saying the evidence is wrong.

It would be fortunate if it ended here, but if not, it might be just the beginning.

“Kang.”

“Yes?”

“You need to fix your car, right?”

“I can fix it slowly.”

“No. Let’s go now. Let’s go to the auto repair shop.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s go to Real Motors.”

Real Motors is the auto repair shop where Park Jin-sung left his car.

“Why there?”

“I just have a bad feeling, so I’m going to check it out.”

I thought it would be a good idea to leave Kang Min-jae’s car there, just in case the auto repair shop runs away or closes down.

That way, at least until Kang Min-jae picks up his car, the auto repair shop won’t be able to run away.

But Kang Min-jae didn’t know about my plan,

“As expected, you’re thorough, Attorney Kang! Then let’s go there!”

…he said.

Anyway, Kang Min-jae has other cars besides this one.

Even if the auto repair shop goes crazy and runs away without returning Kang Min-jae’s car, it won’t be a big loss, right?

“Hello!”

When we arrived in front of Real Motors, fortunately, they seemed busy repairing other cars.

The mechanic didn’t even know we had arrived until Kang Min-jae greeted him first.

The mechanic, who had been under the car, wiped the soot from his face and arms and approached us.

“The front bumper is completely dented. Oh my, how did this happen to such an expensive car?”

“I accidentally hit a roadside tree. Will the repair cost be high?”

“Well, it looks like we’ll have to replace the entire front bumper…”

“I guess I have no choice. How long will it take?”

“Come tomorrow morning. It’ll be done in a day.”

As I watched Kang Min-jae hand the car keys to the mechanic, I suddenly remembered something and asked.

“Do you take cards?”

“Oh, in this day and age, who doesn’t take cards, haha.”

They take cards?

But they told Park Jin-sung they didn’t take cards and received cash?

Since it was a place the taxi driver introduced, they might have asked for cash to give him a cut for sending customers, but still, it feels strange.

“Come to pick it up tomorrow and pay then.”

“Okay. Please take good care of it. My baby…”

“Oh, you even have a name for your car and cherish it so much. I’ll fix it up nicely.”

As Kang Min-jae and I left the auto repair shop and walked to catch a taxi on the main road, Kang Min-jae hardened his expression when we were far enough away from the auto repair shop.

“Why are they saying they take cards when they said they didn’t before?”

He also felt the same doubt as I did.

“If the card machine was broken then, they would have said the card machine was broken, but saying they only take cash…”

“It seems like they don’t want a record left behind, right?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe when the police went to the auto repair shop with the receipt, they might have denied ever repairing this car.”

Of course, it’s assuming the worst-case scenario, but it’s not impossible.

“Should we go now and ask if they repaired it?”

“If they deny it there, it means the taxi driver is also in on it. The driver deliberately caused an accident to get Park Jin-sung’s car into the auto repair shop from the start. If it was planned that way from the beginning, even if we go and ask now, it will only look suspicious, and we’ll only hear that they never repaired such a car.”

“Then there’s a high possibility that the police will distrust the evidence Park Jin-sung presented. Shouldn’t we do something now?”

“What can we do?”

“Well… well…”

Kang Min-jae kept repeating “well…” for a while before hanging his head.

“Maybe we should move forward thinking about the possibility that all of Park Jin-sung’s evidence will be denied.”

“All of it? Even meeting the new person in charge?”

“Anything.”

Yes, thinking like this, I feel like the identity of the anxiety I felt from the beginning is being revealed.

Of course, it would be nice if there was a simple reason why Real Motors had to receive cash from Park Jin-sung at that time, and if we could solve everything with the auto repair shop receipt…

The world doesn’t always flow the way we want it to, so we must be careful.

* * *

If you are arrested as a criminal caught in the act, you can be investigated in custody for 48 hours, and after that, an arrest warrant is required to detain you.

At 5 p.m., 38 hours after Park Jin-sung’s arrest, the second investigation began.

This means that an arrest warrant could be issued after today’s investigation.

Heo Min-woo, whom I met again after a few hours, had a hardened expression.

“Park Jin-sung, as a result of the confirmation, all the alibis claimed by Park Jin-sung have been proven to be false. What’s going on?”

It wasn’t surprising.

It was something I had already prepared for.

I had already told Park Jin-sung before going to the investigation.

That the alibi, which I thought would be taken for granted, could be denied, and then an arrest warrant would be issued.

But Park Jin-sung seemed quite embarrassed to hear it from Heo Min-woo’s mouth.

“What are you talking about? All false! That can’t be, that can’t be…”

Even though Park Jin-sung had heard the story in advance, he seemed surprised and frightened when the situation actually came.

Heo Min-woo sighed and handed over a piece of paper.

“This receipt here. The one you received from Real Motors. They say they never repaired Park Jin-sung’s car.”

“…Yes?”

“If you look at the handwritten receipt, Real Motors showed us the handwritten receipts they had left in the meantime, and the handwriting is different. It means that the receipt Park Jin-sung presented is a forged receipt.”

“No, what nonsense are you talking about!”

“They’ve already gone as witnesses. And the taxi driver who had the accident also doesn’t know the auto repair shop called Real Motors. After the accident with Park Jin-sung, he said he didn’t specify an auto repair shop and just told him to get it done wherever he usually goes.”

“What, that’s ridiculous… Isn’t it recorded on the dashcam [dashboard camera]? I clearly said Real Motors, and even gave them the Real Motors phone number!”

“The conversations outside on the dashcam were too quiet to be identified.”

“Ha, crazy, what…”

“And the person from the company that Park Jin-sung met. I contacted the company and confirmed that there is no such person.”

“…Yes? What is that, how can there be no such person when we talked so much about work?”

Even the new person in charge who came to the company was a lie.

I expected it, but it’s still absurd.

Well, even if you get a call saying that the person in charge has changed, you don’t immediately ask the company headquarters if it’s really changed.

If you meet them, get their business card, and talk a lot about work, you might not suspect it.

“Then, what about the CCTV inside the bar? Didn’t they have any?”

“I tried to check the CCTV at the bar you went to, but they said the CCTV wasn’t actually working and was just there for decoration.”

Heo Min-woo only gave desperate answers to everything Park Jin-sung said.

Since I know about Heo Min-woo, I don’t think he’s lying or manipulating data.

Above all, the word “truth” was constantly floating above my head.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the police’s claims are correct.

If Heo Min-woo isn’t the one who manipulated it, and Heo Min-woo is investigating without knowing anything, then that’s possible.

“Did you check the street CCTV on the way home from the bar?”

When I asked, Heo Min-woo nodded.

“There wasn’t any.”

[Truth]

If there wasn’t any, it means they manipulated it before the CCTV even got into Heo Min-woo’s hands.

It’s a setup planned to strip Park Young-gi of even his clothes [completely ruin him].

“Ha, I’m going crazy… No, really… It really doesn’t make sense! I even went to Real Motors to pick up my car, so how can they say they never repaired it. My car was repaired and came back in perfect condition!”

“Don’t you have any card payment history?”

“I gave them cash. They said they only take cash!”

Park Jin-sung was getting more and more agitated.

I put my hand on his leg under the desk.

I know you’re upset, but if you shout too much and treat them disrespectfully, the police are also human, so the situation will flow unfavorably.

Park Jin-sung seemed to understand what my actions meant and sighed deeply, reducing his momentum.

“Didn’t you have any CCTV footage of me going home drunk? I took a taxi home. The apartment elevator, or anywhere…”

“Did you pay for the taxi with a card?”

“Ha… I gave them cash. It was just over 9,000 won, so I gave them 10,000 won and told them to keep the change. I don’t use cards often.”

“Park Jin-sung’s scene of entering the house was not filmed on the apartment CCTV. Rather…”

Heo Min-woo clicked a few times as if looking for something on his laptop, then turned the laptop towards us.

“If you look here, this is the road CCTV from the port to Park Jin-sung’s studio. If you look here, you can see Park Jin-sung’s car number. You can see that the front bumper of this car is broken.”

“…”

At first, I thought they went to the port with the same car as Park Jin-sung’s and only changed the license plate, but seeing that the front bumper was broken, it seems like it’s Park Jin-sung’s car.

Park Jin-sung must have thought the same thing, as he couldn’t say anything and was just staring blankly at the laptop screen.

“Then my car is fine now, so if I carried drugs until that night, when would I have left it at the auto repair shop? Huh?”

“Well, there are many auto repair shops that are open 24 hours, and if you left your car at any of those auto repair shops, the car would have come out in the morning. It only takes a few hours to replace the front bumper.”

“Then which auto repair shop did I leave it at if not Real Motors? The car is fine now! This is a frame-up, detective. I’m really being framed [冤枉 – wronged]!”

“Well, we can’t know that. We have sufficiently proven Park Jin-sung’s charges. Right now, only your family members are claiming Park Jin-sung’s alibi. But we cannot trust only the testimony of family members.”

Park Jin-sung looked back and forth at me and Kang Min-jae with an anxious face.

It seems like he wants me to say something, but unfortunately, I have nothing to say today either.

Today was nothing more than a place to confirm that what I had expected was true.

Rather, I got the impression that the police were taking care of Park Jin-sung in their own way.

Because they quickly called all the necessary witnesses and verified the truth of the data Park Jin-sung handed over.

“We have determined that Park Jin-sung is at risk of fleeing because he has been consistently lying, so we will request an arrest warrant. With that in mind, we will end the investigation here.”