The Ultimate Inspector, Kang Ji-hyeok - Chapter 16



Only Krnovel

Episode 16

“I’m sorry. It’s hard to say who started that rumor… But, I heard that person is an expert on love letters?”

The mood changed quickly.

Just talking about it now would be enough to achieve results.

“I almost broke up with a girlfriend, but you turned the tables on her with a letter. Thanks to you, we’re closer now. Here’s my girlfriend.”

He takes the photo out of his pocket and shows it to me.

The one on the left is Corporal Cha?

“The one on the left is Sergeant Cha, the one in the middle is me, and the one on the right is my girlfriend.”

“Did you meet each other?”

“Sergeant Cha even paid for the amusement park. He was a surprise to me. I’m really grateful to him.”

“What a great gentleman, isn’t he?”

“It’s not just me. It’s a secret, but there are quite a few kids who have done well because I surprised their lovers with some of my successors.”

Sergeant Cha was that kind of senior.

“You’re handsome. Doesn’t Sergeant Cha have a girlfriend? He came out alone.”

“I thought you didn’t have any?”

“How many months ago was that?”

“Maybe about two months ago?”

I clearly bought a package ticket to go to Jeju Island with my girlfriend three months ago, right?

“Anyway, thanks to Sergeant Cha, I’m seeing my girlfriend well. Don’t create any strange rumors, just stay quiet, and return to your unit.”

“Okay. Well then, that’s it······. I have to work on my thesis again.”

That’s how I broke up with them.

“Shall we move on to the next one?”

Detective Kim appeared holding the dumplings he had been eating at the PX.

“Did you have a good time at work?”

“We might have misunderstood something. Now we should go to the scene of the incident.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

I got my original uniform back from the officer on duty and changed into my old uniform.

“Please give me a list of those on leave from the military for one year.”

“all right.”

From now on, I have to work as a military prosecutor.

When I worked undercover as a detective, I knew that in order to get accurate information from those around me, I had to hide my identity as a detective.

Today, that experience gave me new information.

What if I was wearing a captain’s uniform?

The corporal would never have told such a hidden story.

“I was lucky.”

“That would be fortunate.”

I gave the recorder to the investigator.

“Make a transcript of the conversation later.”

“I understand, Inspector. I wonder. What kind of story did you hear······.”

“It’s going to be a killer story, Detective Kim.”

I came out after receiving a list of dozens of vacationers from the officer on duty.

* * *

4th Internal Affairs Division.

It was the end of the hallway.

There were eight squadrons lined up on either side.

Damn it.

Damn it.

Calculate the distance as you walk.

“The distance to the bathroom was much shorter than the report stated.”

“I see. The report said it would take 15 minutes······.”

“You confirmed that with the design drawings, right? Maybe the construction company reduced the size and left it behind?”

As expected, the distance between the barracks and the bathroom was short.

“Loyalty!”

When we arrived at the bathroom, there was a sergeant who had first discovered the suicide of Corporal Cha and a unit commander.

Perhaps, as a senior, he brought out the first discoverer, Private First Class?

“Private Kim Ha-seong. According to the report, you are the same age as Private Cha?”

“Yes.”

“You are Private Yun Ho-seong.”

I said, looking at his name tag.

I’ve already seen his name in the report.

Private Yun Ho-seong.

The first discoverer of the incident.

In a murder case, he is the suspect who should be suspected first.

In most cases, the first discoverer often runs away from the scene of the incident before reporting it.

Or, they may just provide information about the murder scene through a public phone or something like that, without revealing the person’s name.

That is also why the initial investigation of a murder case is difficult and takes time.

But this is the military.

You can’t run away, and you can’t delay reporting.

So, the investigation process can proceed much more quickly.

There is no reason to delay any time.

Because this is the military, there is no need to apply for a warrant.

I am a captain.

Private Yun Ho-seong is a private.

And this is a reference investigation.

“Why did you go into the bathroom while you were on night duty?”

“Sergeant Cha usually leaves the barracks at midnight and writes love letters to his juniors in the bathroom. But he was out so late that day that I went in just in case.”

A slightly trembling voice.

But his statement is largely consistent with the report.

“Sergeant Cha enjoyed writing love letters to his juniors. It was a habit he had since he was a corporal, so he would write them in the bathroom to avoid disturbing their sleeping quarters.”

His classmate, Private Kim Ha-seong, adds strength to his testimony with a regretful look on his face.

“I see. But wasn’t the body of a suicide discovered around 1:00 AM that day?”

“Yes, my shift starts at 1:10. So I went to check the bathroom before my shift.”

That’s a soldierly answer.

It’s also a clear answer······.

“Where was it discovered?”

There are a total of four toilets in the bathroom.

One of them.

This is also the same as the report.

“Here it is.”

When I turned my head, there was a sign on the bathroom door that said, “Broken. Do not use.”

“Was it banned from use after the suicide of Corporal Cha?”

His motive shook his head.

That’s not it.

“No. The water supply to the bathroom in Unit 1 is broken, so the water doesn’t drain properly.”

“The water doesn’t drain well?”

“It’s been almost a year since it broke down. It wasn’t usable at all, so Sergeant Cha was able to write his love letters here.”

Hearing those words from my classmate, Sergeant Kim Ha-seong, I opened the 1st Company.

It didn’t seem like they even had a lock on it.

This is something that wasn’t in the report.

“Open the toilet and look.”

“All right.”

The flush toilet is usually filled to 30% capacity, and when the water exceeds a certain level, the water goes down by weight.

But that wasn’t the case with the broken number 1.

The water was more than 50% twisted.

“Still, it’s clean.”

“The water flows well here.”

I tried pouring water and it went down well.

It was just difficult to use because it was full of water.

I look up.

“Is that where they hung the clothesline?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Private Yoon answered.

Detective Kim stood on the toilet and took a picture of the iron drain pipe.

“Zoom in and take a picture.”

“Understood, Inspector.”

The scene is important.

Some questions were also resolved on site today.

“Huh? What is this?”

“What are you talking about?”

I stare at the round part of the flush toilet.

“It’s nothing. Detective, please take a photo here too.”

“All right.”

Detective Kim took a picture.

“Take detailed pictures all the way down.”

“All right.”

For a moment, a strange emotion flashed across Private Yoon’s eyes.

“It looks like you cleaned it really well. There’s hardly any residue left.”

“Inspector, don’t say things like that. I’m the one taking the pictures.”

“Because it’s proof of suicide. Let’s just take a quick photo.”

As they joked around, Private Yoon’s expression finally relaxed.

“This place is not in use, but the junior officers of the internal affairs department diligently clean it.”

Sergeant Kim said so.

I think I know why.

“The juniors must respect Corporal Cha. He is a good senior.”

“Yes. I still can’t believe that such a good guy committed suicide.”

I blurted out the words.

“It might be a girl problem. I think I made plans to travel to Jeju Island with a girl three months ago, but it might have fallen through······.”

“Huh? Corporal Cha, is that a womanizing problem? Oh. That can’t be. He’s handsome, but he’s picky, so we used to tease each other a lot about not having a girlfriend.”

Sergeant Kim waved his hand, saying that it couldn’t be true.

Then he scratched his head and spoke to me carefully.

“But, inspector, that guy’s service book has disappeared. He liked to write, so he used to fill it out densely since he was a private······.”

“Did you throw it away or give it to someone?”

“I don’t know. I looked for his military service booklet to see if he had left a will on the day the incident happened, but it wasn’t there.”

I called Detective Kim.

“Go back. There’s a place to stop by on the way.”

I took a picture with Private Yoon and Corporal Kim in front of the barracks.

“This is fate, so let’s take a picture inside the barracks. Detective Kim. Take a picture from a nice angle, from below to above.”

So we have completed the first field verification.

As we left the unit where the incident occurred, Detective Kim asked.

“Inspector, where are you going?”

“To the small shop where Corporal Cha bought the clothesline.”

I saw a clothesline inside the barracks.

A red clothesline was stretched out near the fan to dry underwear.

That was even captured in the photo.

Because I took the picture at an angle on purpose.

“Over there.”

Small shop.

It’s a small hole-in-the-wall shop less than 5 minutes from the military base.

If you speak well, it was a distance that you could quickly go out from the guard post and buy something.

When I was a private or corporal in my previous life, I would sometimes go to a nearby store to buy things like soju or ramen.

“Oh, that unit? Sometimes I buy soju here and stuff.”

I show you a picture of the red clothesline behind the fan in the barracks.

“I mean the clothesline in the picture.”

“Ah. That clothesline. I think Sergeant Cha came to buy it.”

“Then what about this clothesline?”

The photo I showed you was of a clothesline with yellow and red colors.

At first glance, it looked sturdy and good.

“This isn’t something we sell in our store. It’s a bit expensive. You can buy it at the mart over there.”

Detective Kim looks at me with a surprised face.

I signaled with my eyes for the recorder to turn on.

“So this clothesline was bought by Corporal Cha, but it’s not the yellow and red clothesline in this photo?”

“No, that’s not true. This has never been sold here. It’s more than double the original price. It’s expensive.”

“Then why did you say that Corporal Cha bought the clothesline when you were investigating the suicide case here?”

“At that time, Sergeant Cha just asked me if I had ever bought a clothesline, and I said I had bought one a while ago. I never showed them a picture.”

This problem arises.

This is a problem that arises when rookie detectives become convinced of the culprit and start investigating the surroundings.

I spoke calmly to Detective Kim.

“It happens a lot. That’s why rookie detectives sometimes catch innocent people.”

“How do you know that? Aren’t you a newly appointed prosecutor?”

Oh, you have such doubts?

then······.

“My girlfriend’s father is Prosecutor Lee Cheol-jung. So I heard a lot of stories like that since I was little.”

“They say you became a military prosecutor through connections······. The person behind you was Prosecutor Lee Cheol-jung.”

I look at him.

“Oh no,” said Detective Kim, scratching his head.

“I will keep it to myself.”

“If anything gets out, I’ll investigate you.”

“···I don’t want to be investigated by you, Prosecutor, even if I die.”

“Buy me some ice cream. Then I’ll forgive you.”

“I’ll offer you a sweet bribe.”

“Ma’am, how are you?”

I returned to the office sucking on a sweet ice cream.

There’s a mountain of work to do.

“Get off work. I’ll take care of everything by myself······.”

“Okay, I understand. I don’t know your abilities well, so I’ll just leave work.”

Detective Kim left work with an iced Americano in front of me.

“Loyalty.”

“Okay. Come in.”

I got some time to myself.

I’m going to organize everything that happened today in my head and unravel it one by one.

Live information obtained from the field filled in the missing pieces of the puzzle.

“Sergeant Cha, he didn’t commit suicide after all.”

I picked up my personal cell phone.

The time is ten o’clock.

It’s not time for the travel agency to close.

– This is Lee Hee-seon, the customer representative for Jeju Island travel agency ‘Green Balloon.’

“This is military prosecutor Kang Ji-hyeok. I would like to check the Jeju Island package ticket reserved by the victim of the suicide case I am in charge of.”

Talking to her on the phone confirmed one more thing.

“All right.”

There were three package tickets in total.

There are two rooms reserved.

He said he was supposed to pick one up at the airport.

So, the evidence showed that there were two package tickets.

bingo!

– I asked to be picked up at the airport to surprise my friend. They only issued two tickets.

Now, if I just check one more thing, I can tell Brigadier Cha the truth.

“You criminal who faked suicide. I’ll open the gates of hell for you.”

I called the military hospital where Private Cha’s autopsy was performed.

“This is military prosecutor Kang Ji-hyeok. I have to meet with the forensic surgeon in person tomorrow morning. Is that okay?”