You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 478

You’ve Been Defended – Episode 478

#478

[Detective Heo Min-woo might call you, Attorney]

It was after I had showered in hot water and grabbed a beer from the refrigerator.

A somewhat cryptic message arrived from Kang Min-jae.

I was about to reply, ‘Why would Detective Heo?’, when another message popped up from Kang Min-jae.

[OMG, he’s calling now]

It hadn’t been long since Kang Min-jae and I had parted ways.

I came straight home after dinner with Yoon Se-yeon.

I showered as soon as I got back, so Kang Min-jae probably hadn’t been home in Pyeongchang-dong for very long either.

What could have happened to Kang Min-jae in that short time to warrant such a message?

I replied that I understood, closed the refrigerator door, and placed the beer on the table. Immediately, the phone started ringing.

The caller was Heo Min-woo, just as Kang Min-jae had predicted.

“This is Cha Joo-han.”

─Ah, yes. I’m sorry to call you so late.

“It’s alright. What’s the matter?”

─I have something to ask you. I asked Attorney Kang Min-jae, but he said he couldn’t tell me no matter what, so I contacted you directly.

“What is it that Kang couldn’t tell me no matter what?”

─Then I’ll get straight to the point. Why are you digging into the gas explosion accident victims?

Ah, damn it.

No wonder Kang Min-jae was acting so flustered.

Should I play dumb?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

─I confirmed that Yoon Se-yeon, a reporter from Iljung Daily, met with a resident at Seoul Wooshin Hospital. I also heard that she asked in detail about the relationship between the deceased Choi Jae-hoon and Professor Im Hyun-il. Oh, and I also confirmed that she met someone who lived in the villa where the gas explosion occurred and persistently asked about Choi Jae-hoon and a man named Ji-woo.

“What does that have to do with me? It seems Yoon Se-yeon is covering this case.”

─If that’s all it was, why would Attorney Kang Min-jae say he couldn’t tell me no matter what?

Heo Min-woo seemed somewhat agitated.

He was pressing me as if I had done something wrong.

I’m not upset, but I can sense something from Heo Min-woo’s attitude.

He already suspects something.

I’m just trying to deny it, but Heo Min-woo will eventually find out.

If Heo Min-woo didn’t want to be involved with what we’re doing, he could have just let it go.

But the reason he bothered to call Kang Min-jae and me to ask why we’re digging around is simple, isn’t it?

It means he also wants to thoroughly investigate if Wooshin is behind this.

“I guess he wanted to protect Yoon Se-yeon’s secrets.”

─Then why did he tell me to ask you and hang up?

“I’m not sure.”

─Attorney. I’m a police officer. And I’m also in charge of this case. It might be embarrassing to say, but isn’t it the case that I, a police officer, has slower information than you? I don’t think you’re hiding anything because you’re involved in this case. Can’t you cooperate with the investigation and tell me what you know? It would be a great help in catching the culprit.

The fact that Heo Min-woo tracked Yoon Se-yeon’s movements means that he, too, was digging around, just like Yoon Se-yeon had done.

That also means that Heo Min-woo doesn’t think this incident was accidental.

Like what Choi Jong-hyun heard from the reporters, the gas concentration at the scene was unusual, and other victims didn’t even smell the gas, so I thought the police wouldn’t just cover it up.

However, it’s hard to believe that the current police would touch the root of this case, Wooshin’s organ trafficking business.

They’ll probably cut it off at a reasonable level, and then Heo Min-woo, with his personality, won’t just stand by.

What should I do?

“Does the police think the gas explosion accident wasn’t accidental?”

─If I thought it was accidental, I wouldn’t have called you. Aren’t you the one who doesn’t think it was accidental, so you’re digging into it through Yoon Se-yeon?

“It has nothing to do with the gas explosion.”

─If it has nothing to do with the gas explosion, why are you getting testimony from the villa residents? And why did you ask about the person named Ji-woo? Yoon Se-yeon initially said he was a girlfriend, but do you think that person caused the gas explosion due to a love affair?

“I don’t know. I don’t have any information about that person yet.”

─No, now that I think about it, if it was just a simple love affair, you wouldn’t have gotten involved in this case. And the bereaved family of Choi Jae-hoon didn’t ask you for anything either.

“What do you want to hear?”

─Haven’t I been saying it all along? I want to know why you got involved in this case. I’m asking you to share anything you know with me. Is that Ji-woo person some kind of key? Did he receive orders from Wooshin?

Heo Min-woo seemed to be trying to connect Wooshin, Choi Jae-hoon, and the man named Ji-woo within the limits of what he could think of.

It would be difficult for him to imagine that there’s an unbelievable story like organ trafficking lurking behind it.

“Have you secured that Ji-woo person?”

─Yes.

I did tell Tae-shik to look for that person, but I don’t know if he can find him.

That’s because we’re not in a position to see the CCTV inside the villa, so we haven’t even confirmed what Ji-woo looks like.

In fact, we discussed over dinner tonight whether there was a way to confirm the man named Ji-woo’s face.

We came to the conclusion to check with the resident who gave the testimony to see if there was a picture of him on the black box [car’s event data recorder], but that person replied about 30 minutes later that there was no video.

At the time, we just thought, ‘Oh, well,’ but now that I think about it, it seems to be because of Heo Min-woo.

Heo Min-woo probably didn’t tell them not to tell us on purpose, but maybe he felt uneasy because the police found out that he had told the reporter various things.

Whatever the reason, we don’t know what Ji-woo looks like, he changed his phone number, and all we know is that he’s estimated to be in his 20s.

Choi Jong-hyun and Yoon Se-yeon speculated that he was someone in the nightlife industry, so we’ll prioritize looking for him in that area, but if he’s not in the nightlife industry, the difficulty increases rapidly.

We can’t do what the police can easily do.

Should I wait for Tae-shik to find that person, or should I cooperate with Heo Min-woo and get information?

─That person is important, right? He changed his phone number on the day of the incident. I even thought he might be the culprit, but I thought it would be more suspicious to do that to avoid the police investigation, so I’m leaning towards him not being the culprit.

The reason we were trying to find the man named Ji-woo was to figure out what the dead Choi Jae-hoon had said to him.

It’s already been confirmed that Choi Jae-hoon had been relieving stress by committing violence and verbal abuse against Ji-woo, who was in a relationship close to being a lover.

Now that we’ve found the outlet and the method of discharge, shouldn’t we check what he’s discharged [what information he revealed]?

Of course, Choi Jae-hoon may not have said anything about the organ trafficking case or Im Hyun-il to Ji-woo.

However, Choi Jae-hoon spent most of his time after work with Ji-woo, to the point where it wouldn’t be strange if they were living together.

In that case, there’s a high probability that he naturally heard even trivial gossip, passing remarks, or even phone conversations.

We want to find a clue there that confirms that Choi Jae-hoon was even briefly involved in the organ trafficking business.

Even if that’s not the case, I’m hoping that we can at least find out the reason why Wooshin decided to kill Choi Jae-hoon.

Isn’t there a clear difference between me speculating on that reason and confirming it as a fact?

Perhaps in the process, we may be able to lay the foundation for bringing Wooshin’s organ trafficking business to the surface.

─Or should we talk about Professor Im Hyun-il? Choi Jae-hoon seemed to have a very bad relationship with Professor Im Hyun-il.

“Is that so?”

─Yes. Choi Jae-hoon had a lot of secret posts on his personal blog. It was like a diary. It was closer to venting than a diary, though… I haven’t had a chance to read it properly yet. As you know, I found out during the investigation that you were digging into this, so I contacted you.

“A personal blog?”

─Yes. Does that pique your interest now?

Could it be the blog that Oh’s assistant and I found while searching back then?

Come to think of it, a blog with only secret posts shows the total number of posts as 0 to people without access.

Well, even if it wasn’t that blog, if there’s a blog where Choi Jae-hoon wrote a lot of diaries close to venting, I have to see it myself.

If Heo Min-woo sees it and there’s content that allows him to know about the organ trafficking business, Heo Min-woo will try to investigate it on the police level anyway, so it’s better to do it together.

Even if Heo Min-woo can’t guess anything related to the organ trafficking business, if we, who know the business in detail, look at it, there might be something to gain.

It would be a bit difficult if such information can’t be found on the blog at all, and the entire diary content is just a list of simple curses…

─Don’t you want to check the blog content?

“I want to check it.”

─As you know, there’s only one way to check it. That’s to cooperate with me.

Now that I know there’s a gold mine-like blog, shouldn’t I talk to the National Intelligence Service [South Korean Intelligence Agency] and ask them to hack it?

The thought flashed through my mind for a moment, but I shook my head.

You never know when and how those blog posts will become evidence.

If they ask how I checked the blog posts back then, it will be difficult.

In a small trial, even if evidence is obtained through illegal means, it can be pushed through as evidence, but if the content about the organ trafficking business is brought to trial, the whole nation will pay attention.

I can’t let a pointless flaw get in the way then.

“Let’s meet and talk first.”

─If we meet, then we’ll constructively discuss how we can help each other reveal the truth of this case, right?

I have never felt a great regret about giving up my life as a prosecutor and becoming a lawyer.

Rather, I think there are more good things about being a lawyer.

But at times like this.

Only at times like this do I think, ‘Should I not have become a lawyer?’