The remnants of the previous night remained in the yard.
They were the scars of a fierce battle.
“…… They really picked them clean, right down to the bone.”
On top of a pile of blackened firewood, a pig skewered on a spit boasted its presence, though only its bones were left. Of course, yesterday had been a satisfying day in its own right.
“Hehe! Unkle!”
With charcoal smudges on both cheeks, Seol-i had stayed up late that day, running around and playing. Of course, the fact that the staff hadn’t left her alone played a big part in it. Not only that, but…
“I used to make quite a few girls cry back in my day. If I’d been born in a different era, I might have tried becoming an actor instead of a farmer…….”
“Oh, I can tell just by looking at your son’s features, Father. Isn’t it all in the genes?”
“Ahem. Am I drunk? I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore.”
“I am a director, aren’t I? A director! Everything you’ve said is absolutely right, Father.”
“…… You really think so?”
“Now, now. Please, accept a drink from this Director Kim, a tragic genius actor whose time was stolen by the era.”
“Hahaha. Don’t mind if I do.”
My father, having finally met someone who could handle his drunken ramblings, had overindulged throughout the night.
“Mother. How can you be so beautiful at your age?”
“Oh, don’t say such nonsense. How can a country grandma be beautiful?”
“A grandma! Honestly, looking at your face, I could call you my older sister!”
Jeong Do-hee, the lead actress in a movie my mother had sincerely enjoyed, got along surprisingly well with her.
“I’m enjoying such luxury thanks to my son, hohoho.”
“Luxury? Not at all, Mother. We are the ones who owe your son a debt of gratitude.”
…… Well, it might just be that she was catering to my mother’s whims.
“More importantly, when am I going to clean all this up?”
Just as I was emerging from my thoughts and returning to reality.
“Alright, everyone move!”
“Clean up quickly so we can eat!”
“We have to finish the afternoon shoot too!”
Rumble!
A group of people poured into the yard. It was none other than the filming team of *The Time the Moon Sets*.
“Oh. Prosecutor, are you already awake?”
The actor Lee Do-hyun spotted me and looked surprised.
“That’s what I wanted to ask you.”
“As for us, we planned to sneak in early like secret helpers, clean everything up, and leave!”
They probably slept for less than four hours, yet they were truly incredible. I couldn’t sense even a hint of a hangover in their orderly movements. In an instant, the firewood, pig bones, and all sorts of trash were being neatly piled up.
‘So this is what a professional looks like.’
And then,
“Prosecutor!”
Min Ha-ru, who had surprisingly (?) woken up early, ran toward me.
“Jo Woo-sun asked me to give this to you.”
“To me?”
“Yes!”
Looking down at her extended hand, I saw an envelope. It was even pink.
“Receiving a love letter from an active celebrity. I’m so jealous.”
Min Ha-ru laughed playfully and nudged my ribs with her elbow.
“Stop joking.”
“Heehee. Still, wouldn’t a letter from a friend of the opposite sex be better than one from the same sex? How about it, should I write one for you too?”
“If it’s that kind of thing, I can write one for you as well, Ms. Ha-ru.”
“Oh! Really!?”
As if she hadn’t expected this at all, Min Ha-ru’s eyes went wide.
“Yes. It’s called an eviction notice. Have you ever heard of it?”
“…….”
Min Ha-ru gave an awkward laugh and slowly backed away.
“I, uh, just remembered something I have to do.”
“Where are you going? Since we’re on the subject, you should really start planning your return to Seoul…….”
“Aaaaaah! I can’t hear you! Aaaaaaaaaah!”
Min Ha-ru, suddenly turning into a shouting child, scrambled away from me.
*Vrrr!*
Fortunately, as if heaven were looking out for her, the contact I had been waiting for arrived.
[ It was as you said. A group of people is on standby at a location with a clear view of the lodging where Lawyer Jin Sang-woo is staying. ]
It was a text from the “Chief,” a man working for Chairman Han Seung-ho.
‘So this is how they’re playing it.’
I had been thinking about it. Why choose Southeast Asia as a hiding place? There were likely many reasons, but I judged that “contract killing” was definitely one of them. Old habits die hard, after all.
‘Especially since those kinds of crimes are particularly common in the Philippines.’
Just off the top of my head, there was the case in the Angeles region where a hitman was hired to kill a Korean business partner. There was even a case where local “police” were bribed to kidnap a Korean businessman, demand money from his family, and then kill him. So-called motorcycle assassinations, where faces are hidden by helmets, were all too common. It was so bad that a Filipino criminal organization specializing only in targeting Koreans had recently emerged.
‘However, since contract killings usually use the dark web, it isn’t easy to prove the charges of solicitation against the contractor.’
The dark web is a place that’s difficult for ordinary people, and even investigative agencies, to access. But.
‘From a prosecutor’s perspective, I don’t necessarily have to focus the investigation on the solicitation side.’
*Vrrr!*
Another message arrived.
[ Additionally, as you predicted, the lawyer’s family is currently in hiding overseas. The location is LA. We have also completed identifying those who appear to be watchers in the vicinity. ]
I nodded instinctively.
— If you have any photos, send them all to me. Also, give me Lawyer Jin Sang-woo’s local contact information.
— Sending them now.
After finishing the text conversation, I immediately turned on the internet.
‘If they follow their usual steps, it’ll probably be…….’
Soon, the exact articles I had anticipated appeared on the screen.
[ Jin, a suspect in the murder of An Yu-ra, has left the country and is currently a fugitive. ]
[ Prosecution collaborates with Interpol to issue a Red Notice against Jin. ]
[ When leaving the country to escape a crime, the statute of limitations is suspended. However, the possibility that Jin may never return to the country cannot be ruled out…… ]
[ Police will cooperate as much as possible with local police for the domestic extradition of the suspect regarding the An Yu-ra murder case. ]
Articles that had been uncomfortably absent until now were pouring out continuously, as if by magic. There were many major newspapers among them, not just minor ones.
— Prosecutor!
When I called immediately, the other party answered as if they had been waiting.
— You saw the articles, didn’t you, Prosecutor? Someone is constantly making anonymous submissions to our media outlets. It’s about the An Yu-ra murder case. They’re even leaking the source of the drug used as the murder weapon, manipulating the situation so that reporters have no choice but to report it!
“It’s for the sake of justification.”
— !
“A death needs a plausible motive. That way, they can easily escape criminal charges.”
— Wa-wait. What do you mean by that……?
“They say even a school dog can recite poetry after three years. At this rate, I can even come up with news headlines.”
The words in my head flowed directly out of my mouth.
“Lawyer Jin, who was on the verge of arrest in cooperation with local police, commits suicide after being unable to withstand the psychological pressure.”
***
A resort in the Clark Freeport Zone, Philippines.
“Damn it.”
Lawyer Jin Sang-woo repeatedly wiped his dry face with his hands. How on earth did things end up like this?
‘Should I have not taken this job in the first place?’
Jin Sang-woo shook his head quickly. Even thinking back on it, things had been fine up until that point. If he hadn’t settled his gambling debts anyway, he would be living a life worse than death by now. These days, even being a lawyer didn’t mean much; except for a small minority, most were barely scraping by.
‘$5 million.’
It was too much money to refuse. It was a massive sum to receive for the simple task of delivering a drug. Well, to a chaebol, a few billion won was probably just pocket change.
*Flash!*
“!”
At that moment, Jin Sang-woo’s eyes widened. The signal he had been waiting for finally came from the roof of the building across the street.
“They’re finally here!”
Jin Sang-woo stood up, his face filled with joy.
“They really sent someone! I’m saved!”
A few Filipinos were waving their hands continuously. They even had red ribbons tied to their arms, the prearranged sign. Now, if he just crossed over there safely……!
*Vrrr!*
“……!”
At that moment, Jin Sang-woo’s movements stopped.
— (Photo of family members living in LA being watched)
— Let’s have a little chat, Lawyer Jin Sang-woo.
“!”
The moment he checked the text, a violent earthquake erupted in his pupils.
***
— Who are you, you son of a bitch!
The reaction was explosive. An international call came through immediately, followed by a string of vulgar insults.
— If you touch my family, I will kill you myself!
“First, I need to set the facts straight.”
I had no intention of listening to insults from a guy like him.
“The watchers in the photo are Chairman Hwang Man-cheol’s people. Not mine.”
— …… What?
“If you don’t believe me, go to a domestic internet portal right now. Articles about you are pouring out constantly.”
— !
The swearing from the other end of the line stopped. He probably understood intuitively without further explanation. He had personal experience with these things.
‘If you follow those guys, you’ll die.’
And from now on, I had to explain this in a way that he could understand very clearly. In other words, what was needed now wasn’t the farmer Baek Seo-jun, but the scent of “Prosecutor” Baek Seo-jun.
“A few years ago, there was a case like this. An economic criminal who caused damages worth billions of dollars through cryptocurrency fled the country after the crime. He even used a sophisticated forged passport during his escape, but he was eventually caught and arrested in Montenegro.”
— …….
“Even just hearing this much, it’s a story you’ve heard before, right?”
Silence was as good as an affirmation. It had to be.
“In case you didn’t know, let me explain. The passport that suspect was carrying was a forged ‘Costa Rican’ passport.”
— …….
“Yes. It’s exactly the same as the passport you’re holding now, Lawyer Jin.”
At the time, I had felt a great interest in that case. The amount of damage alone was hundreds of trillions of won. With that kind of capital, they should have been able to prepare for their escape more thoroughly. I wondered why they were arrested because of such a clumsy action.
“For your information, in that case, the ‘forged passport’ itself was the bait to catch the fugitive.”
— Wha-what!?
“The forger purposely made the passport itself clumsy so that it would be ‘caught’ at the immigration office.”
At the time, there were as many people coveting that economic criminal’s “bounty” as there were grains of sand. Ah! For reference, what the prosecution called a “bounty” was a label often attached to economic criminals. This was because if they could just find the hidden “One Piece,” they could confiscate a massive amount of money under the name of criminal funds. Naturally, since criminal funds belong to the national treasury first, a swindler on the scale of trillions of won was nothing short of a walking golden goose. This was also why Korea and the United States had clashed fiercely to have that economic criminal extradited.
“I’ll ask you. Does Chairman Hwang want you to escape and live happily ever after? Or…… does he want you to die cleanly?”
— !
“I’ll ask again. Who made that forged passport for you?”
— …….
I thought the call had been disconnected for a moment, but that wasn’t it.
“I’ll only tell you one thing.”
If that was the case,
“Come back. If you don’t want to get shot in a foreign land and die.”