The sound of someone yelling out to the detective was getting closer and closer.
"Hey, this time there’s a junior prosecutor on the special investigation team too.”
Without thinking this was unusual, Detective So Yudo shouted and ran inside the bedroom.
"A suspect has been captured on the surveillance cameras!”
Unlike the sturdy build of Detective Nam, So Yudo had a slender frame.
"This is Detective So Yudo. I’ll do introductions once. This is Prosecutor Hyeon Ganghun, and this is Prosecutor Cha Jiyeon."
"Ah. Pleased to meet you!"
"You have your work cut out for you."
After this brief exchange, the detective took out an iPad.
"I’ll bring up the part where we found the suspect on camera."
Ganghun turned to Detective Nam while Yudo was fiddling with the tablet.
"Where are the surveillance cameras installed?"
"There are cameras all over the house, but the hard drive that stores the video records had been erased."
"Who erased it?"
"Possibly the suspect?"
An idea came to Jiyeon’s mind as she watched the other two men talk.
"I don’t think this was involuntary manslaughter. This has to be premeditated murder."
Ganghun shook his head.
"Didn’t you see the autopsy report? The pattern of stab wounds is typical of murder committed in the heat of passion."
"I think he was deliberately stabbed to look like that."
"Why do you think so?"
"The suspect is someone who knows the layout of the house. They knew where the hard drive that stored the surveillance video was."
"Just because they know the house well doesn’t mean they can’t commit manslaughter."
"The killer either had a calm personality, or they had planned it carefully. A normal criminal would usually to want to leave the crime scene as soon as possible, but the killer positioned the body in this way, erased the hard drive, then left the scene."
Detective Nam nodded at Jiyeon’s reasoning.
"It works out."
Ganghun asked Detective Nam,
"If all of surveillance video in the house had been erased, then where did you get this video?"
"There’s a camera in the alley in front of the house. It’s under the jurisdiction of the district office."
Detective So Yudo displayed the video on the iPad screen.
"Here it is!"
All eyes were focused on the video.
A dark alley. The timestamp of the video was 1:14 A.M.
A man on a sleek and fast-looking motorcycle was driving away.
The moment lasted less than a second.
"That was footage taken from the entrance to the alley,"
the detective explained.
"What? Is that it?"
"Not yet. Next there’s video of the front of the villa."
Detective So opened a second video.
The man who was on the motorcycle was now seen walking on the pathway.
He stood in front of the house gate of and entered a passcode.
As the door opened, the video stopped.
The suspect wore a racer driver’s uniform, as well as a helmet that obscured his face.
Ganghun, who was thinking carefully, turned and asked Detective So Yudo,
"There are no other suspects?"
"No. This person was the only one who walked into the house last night. He was seen leaving it as well."
A third video.
This time the man wearing the motorcycle helmet opened the gate.
The timestamp was 3:40 A.M.
He left two and a half hours after he entered the home, enough time to commit murder and do everything else.
The man seemed neither hurried nor afraid.
Detective Nam murmured under his breath,
"So this is our prime suspect?"
"Seems so."
Jiyeon looked at the man on the screen.
"How tall do you think he is?"
"From this viewpoint, probably at least 180 centimeters. He looks to be well-built too."
"So in summary, a well-built man came here on his motorcycle, entered the house with the passcode, stabbed the defenseless Vice Chairman Seo Minhyeok twelve times, then deleted all the surveillance footage, correct?"
Everyone nodded at Jiyeon.
"What about the motorcycle license plate?"
Ganghun asked, and Detective So opened up the video again.
"If you look here...you can’t see what it is. It was passing by too fast."
They couldn’t see the number on the license plate.
It seemed as if the plate was covered by a special chemical.
A dangerous suspicion formed in Jiyeon’s mind.
She didn’t think...could it be?
"We can’t see his face because of the helmet either. Can’t you recover the deleted video from inside the house?"
Detective Nam promptly answered Ganghun’s question.
"I’ve sent the hard drive to the National Forensic Service."
"Let’s look at the last video again."
At Ganghoon’s request, Detective Nam replayed the video.
Jiyeon seemed to know who the man in the racer’s costume was.
She could almost see his face underneath the helmet.
Seeds of suspicion sprouted in her mind and grew rapidly.
She turned her eyes to the blood-soaked bed again.
English Novel
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