The Mad Prosecutor Picked Up AI - Chapter 133
Only Krnovel
Episode 133: Is this voice phishing?
Manager Han Jae-sik was away from his desk today as well, running around buttering things up here and there since morning. After saying hello to Ki So-young, Wi Jun-woo and I headed to Maison de Blanche Cafe.
Since the cafe building didn’t have a parking lot yet, we parked on the street behind it and walked.
As we passed the cosmetics and accessory stores, the building housing the Maison de Blanche café came into view. Across the four-lane road, there were also stores such as a real estate agent, a pharmacy, and a bakery.
At first glance, it looked like just an ordinary shopping street. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was the five dying street trees.
“But why are we here again?”
“Of course I came to the field to investigate. It’s not like we work one day to one. Why is that?”
“Detective So Hae-jin already investigated the crime scene. I also came out last time to investigate. I even dug up all the trees and soil nearby to examine them.”
I snorted.
“At that time, the chief came alone, and now I am here. Do you think seeing it through the eyes of an ordinary person is the same as seeing it through the eyes of a genius like me?”
“Yes, yes. I guess so. Are you stupid?”
Wi Jun-woo, with his mouth wide open, seemed to be hurt, and he quickened his pace.
‘The life of a genius who is envied by criminals. How tiring.’
[Excuse me, if I can’t do that ‘genius’, isn’t half of it mine?]
Instead of answering, I looked at the trees. The leaves had all fallen long ago, and the branches and trunks were drying up and dying.
“Oh my, this is totally hideous.”
“I asked anyway, and they said that the Gaemyeon District Office will come tomorrow and cut it all down.”
“yes.”
Since we had already secured evidence of the herbicide component in the tree and soil, it was okay to cut down the tree.
I looked around and became lost in thought.
Why on earth did the culprit kill the tree?
We need to investigate further to determine whether Song Jong-beom committed the crime alone or if Jayden committed the teacher crime. Regardless of who the culprit is, it won’t make much of a difference.
No matter how much I thought about it, there was no benefit to killing trees.
‘It’s strange. There’s no motivation.’
[Some people commit crimes for no reason.]
‘Those kinds of people commit crimes to relieve stress or for immediate pleasure.’
Like hitting a person walking down the street or killing a stray cat. They commit crimes to see an immediate reaction or result.
Killing a tree with herbicide is a tedious task that takes ten to fifteen days. I’m not saying that it’s a pattern of behavior for people who commit crimes without asking. I’d rather cut down the tree or chop it down with an axe.
The reason for committing a crime is usually for financial gain. Is there any financial gain to be made by cutting down a tree? This is not private property.
“ah!”
“Why, Inspector?”
When I cried out in realization, Wei Junwoo asked me what was going on.
“Is there anything buried in the ground here?”
“On the ground?”
“There’s buried gold, or a hidden entrance to a secret underground vault, and all that kind of stuff. They’re doing this to cut down trees and dig up the ground.”
“If you look closely, our inspector has quite the imagination. At any rate, he doesn’t seem to be at the level of an Earthling.”
No, why? It could be so.
Otherwise there would be no reason to cut down the tree, right?
Wei Junwu and Aliota both shook their heads and lamented my misery.
“Would you like to come into the store?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I went into Maison de Blanche with Wi Jun-woo. The entire first floor was a cafe, and there were a few people sitting here and there in the large hall.
I approached a woman wearing a black apron with the cafe logo on it, who had just come out from behind the counter, holding a trash bag. She seemed to be a part-timer at the cafe.
“Hello. My name is Do Hyeon-gwang, a prosecutor from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.”
I showed my civil servant ID while greeting, and the part-timer who was looking me up and down asked me.
“Is this voice phishing?”
“… … If it was voice phishing, they would have called.”
“ah.”
Wi Jun-woo, who was behind, intervened.
“Even though he looks like this, he is a real inspector.”
“You too, sir?”
“I am a detective.”
The woman who checked both of our civil servant IDs asked.
“What’s going on?”
“I have a question. Before you quit as manager here, I heard there was a customer who had been coming in every morning for coffee for about a month.”
“ah.”
“i know?”
“No, that’s not it. If you’re a morning customer, ask that guy over there, Dongcheol. I work from 11AM to PM, and Dongcheol is there from when they open in the morning until 1PM.”
The part-timer pointed to the male part-timer at the counter with his hand, then went out of the store again holding the trash bag.
We approached a part-time worker named Dong-cheol who was standing at the counter.
“hello.”
“Yes, what would you like?”
“I didn’t come here to drink coffee. I’m Do Hyeon-gwang, a prosecutor from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.”
“Is this voice phishing?”
“… … .”
Oh, really.
Why is the prosecution’s reputation like this?
Wi Jun-woo and I pushed in our civil servant ID cards.
“It’s not voice phishing. It’s a real investigation. I’m investigating the dead tree in front of here.”
“Oh, yes.”
“When did you start working at a cafe?”
“Since we first opened.”
“Then, do you know Manager Song Jong-beom, who I worked with before?”
“Yes, I know.”
“When Manager Song was here, I heard that there was a customer who came in every morning to drink coffee, so I wanted to ask him about it.”
“Okay, then.”
“My name is Jaden. He’s a foreign guy.”
“Oh, that guy. Cool guy, you know. He comes by every morning and brings me coffee.”
“About what time?”
“Manager, how soon after you arrive at work? Around 9 o’clock?”
“Alone?”
“yes.”
“How long did you stay?”
“I didn’t stay that long. I just chatted with the manager and then got some takeout and left.”
“Do you know what I talked about with my manager?”
The male part-timer who had been answering questions fluently snickered.
“How would I know that? The manager is the manager, so he’s just joking around with the customers. I’m busy setting up and preparing here in the morning.”
“Did you overhear anything? Did the manager say something in passing?”
“Well, I’m not really interested. They talk in a mixture of English and Korean, so if you don’t listen closely, you won’t know what they’re saying.”
“Did you see that foreigner giving something to the manager? Like a white envelope?”
“No. I haven’t seen anything like that.”
This time, Wi Jun-woo intervened from the side.
“Then does that mean Song Jong-beom lied? He said he received it when it wasn’t even given to him?”
The part-timer answered that question instead of me.
“I wasn’t always watching, so maybe he gave it to me when I wasn’t looking. Oh, and sometimes the two of you went out of the store and talked, so maybe he gave it to me then.”
“Anyway, you’re saying you didn’t see anything exchanged directly with that foreigner?”
“yes.”
That was when.
“Is the customer you were asking about earlier a foreigner?”
A female part-timer who had just returned from throwing away a trash bag asked me while washing her hands at the sink.
“yes.”
“Anyone with a two-block haircut and glasses?”
“Huh? How did you know? I thought you weren’t working part-time in the morning.”
“I’ve seen that guy before. Not early in the morning. Oh, right about this time. When I took out the trash.”
You saw Jaden here during the day too?
“Do you remember when it was?”
“I don’t know when it was, but I saw it quite often.”
“often?”
“I think I see it once or twice a week.”
I looked at the male and female part-time workers alternately.
“Didn’t you say that a foreign customer just left with just a cup of coffee?”
“yes that’s right.”
“But you’ve seen it many times around this time?”
“Yes. But not in a cafe.”
“Then where?”
“Out there. The trash can is behind the building. I often see you coming down the stairs when you throw it away.”
“Up the stairs?”
If it’s on the stairs, then it’s the second floor of this building?
* * *
We Jun-woo and I went out of the building again. The entire first floor of the small two-story building was a cafe. The second floor was rented out as a small office.
Standing on the street in front of the cafe, we looked up at the second floor of the building. The windows were covered with advertising text advertising each office.
“They’re all lawyers’ offices.”
“That’s right.”
I don’t know if they intentionally rented out the space to lawyers only or if it was just an unintentional gathering of lawyers, but all four offices were lawyers’ offices.
The first office window on the far right read, “Attorney Jo-Jun Kim,” and the second office a few windows away read, “Attorney Gu-Han Park.”
The third office was called ‘Attorney Lee Sang-do’. The last fourth office.
Hmm?
It said ‘Uncivilized Lawyer’.
No, even though this is a world where you have to draw aggro. What’s with the lawyer’s name, Mi-gae-han?
As I was clicking my tongue, Aliotta looked at me with her arms crossed with a pitiful expression.
[That’s because the advertising text on the window fell off.]
‘okay?’
[Can’t you tell just by looking?]
‘How would I know that? From here, it just looks ‘uncivilized.’
[Look closely. The letter ‘mi’ is much smaller than ‘gae’ or ‘han’. Then, don’t you think the consonant under ‘mi’ might have fallen off?]
‘I’m already in so much pain because of this incident, do I really have to think about that?’
Aliotta showed me a large enlarged version of the second-floor window. When I looked closely, I could clearly see the parts where the blue advertising letters remained and where they had fallen off.
The lawyer’s original name was ‘Min Jae-han’.
At that moment, Wi Jun-woo giggled next to me.
“Prosecutor, isn’t that really funny? The lawyer’s name is Mi-gae-han.”
I crossed my arms and looked at Wi Jun-woo with a pitiful expression.
“That’s because the advertising text on the window fell off.”
“Oh, really?”
“Can’t you tell just by looking at it?”
“If you see that here, is that a person?”
Well, that’s not wrong.
But I didn’t give in and continued to tease Wi Jun-woo.
“Look carefully. The consonant ‘mi’ is much smaller than ‘gae’ or ‘han.’ Then, don’t you think the consonant under ‘mi’ might have fallen off?”
“Ah. That… … That’s right. Hmm.”
“Your original name was Min Jae-han.”
“Hey, you can see it all? Well, sir. You’ve been able to see things that I can’t before. Your eyesight is really amazing.”
I looked at Wi Jun-woo who raised his thumb and laughed hysterically.
[Pay the copyright for stealing my lines!]
Aliotta was chattering next to me with her hands on her hips, but I just smiled brightly and took the lead.
“Okay, then let’s go up to the second floor.”
“Yes, inspector!”
We went up to the second floor via the stairs at the back of the building. It was now just past 11am. Jayden had been in the cafe at 9am, and had been seen coming down from the second floor around this time.
Jaden said he stayed here for about two hours.
The second floor hallway was so quiet that we lowered our voices as we spoke.
“Have you ever had to meet a lawyer?”
“Well, but don’t you only meet with a lawyer when you first get a job? Do you think you’ll meet once or twice a week, or maybe even more, for more than two hours?”
When you go up to the second floor, the first thing you see is ‘Attorney Kim Jo-jun’s Office’. The window facing the street only has the name written on it, but the sign on the office door even has the office’s specialty written on it.
Divorce attorney.
“I guess he shouldn’t have come here.”
“That’s right. Because he wasn’t married.”
The second is ‘Park Gu-han’s Law Office’. It was listed as a patent specialist.
“I don’t think this is your client, do you?”
“Isn’t it likely that an English academy teacher will get a patent?”
The third is ‘Lee Sang-do Law Office’. Specializing in civil litigation. It seemed like the place with the most potential.
“Maybe there was a problem with the school. Something to do with paying the salary.”
“So, sir, do you think Jayden was your client here?”
“Isn’t that right? That last uncivilized office… … .”
As we walked towards the fourth office, talking, we couldn’t help but stop in our tracks.
Because someone was standing in front of the office door, scratching at the door with a knife. There were already quite a few blue crumbs on the floor from the scraping.
They were so absorbed that they didn’t even notice us whispering behind them.
“excuse me.”
“Ugh!”
I called out in a slightly raised voice, and the man turned around in surprise. He had a startled expression on his face and was holding a cutter knife in his hand.
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