Chapter 9: Truth Dragged Into the Light

Park Daehyung, sitting in the Capital Region Police Station office, grabbed his phone as soon as it vibrated.

It was a call from Oh Min-seok, who was probably waiting at Myung Jinhan’s Pet Shop for the Search Warrant to come through.

“Hey, did the Search Warrant come out?”

—No.

Was it only now that the warrant had been issued?

He asked with that hope, but the answer he received was not what he expected.

Park Daehyung showed a puzzled expression.

It wasn’t like he’d call just because he was bored, so if the warrant hadn’t been issued, why was he calling?

“Then why are you calling?”

—Found it.

“What?”

—Evidence.

At the word that it was found, Park Daehyung furrowed his brow, but at Oh Min-seok’s next answer, his face lit up.

“You found Evidence? It’s that bastard, right?”

—Yeah, without a doubt.

“I knew it.”

At Oh Min-seok’s confident reply, Park Daehyung clenched his fist tight.

Right, there was no way it could be anyone else.

Who else would even think of reporting a person in a suitcase?

Park Daehyung exhaled roughly, excitement surging through him.

Right then, Lee Jaehyun entered the office.

He’d said he was off duty, but it seemed he came back to change clothes because he left in his Police Uniform.

Park Daehyung sprang to his feet.

After all, it was Lee Jaehyun who’d caught Myung Jinhan, so he had to tell him they’d found Evidence.

“Hey, Min-seok, wait a sec.”

Saying that to his phone, he turned toward Lee Jaehyun.

“Jaehyun.”

“Ah, Sergeant Park Daehyung.”

“You went out in your Police Uniform, so you came back to change?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You’ve been out of it since this morning. Pull yourself together, man.”

“Yes, sorry.”

Lee Jaehyun bowed his head in a calm apology.

Even then, Park Daehyung noticed a strange heat in Lee Jaehyun’s eyes and felt a fleeting sense of wonder, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

Smiling, he continued,

“No need to apologize. Oh, by the way, that Serial Killer you caught? We found the Evidence.”

“Ah, yes.”

“What? You don’t seem surprised. Did you already know?”

At Lee Jaehyun’s unexpectedly calm reaction, Park Daehyung blinked.

He’d expected a more intense response, so he was a bit taken aback.

Earlier, he’d forcefully subdued Myung Jinhan and led the investigation so fiercely, but now he was indifferent to news that Evidence had been found.

“Yes. I just happened to…”

Hearing that Lee Jaehyun already knew somehow, Park Daehyung cocked his head and laughed.

How did he know?

He was curious, but… well, it wasn’t wrong for him to know.

Park Daehyung nodded lightly.

“Anyway, good work today. Go home and get some rest.”

“Yes, sir. Loyalty!”

“Yeah, loyalty.”

Park Daehyung waved his hand at Lee Jaehyun, who saluted him.

As Lee Jaehyun headed for the Changing Room, Park Daehyung lifted his phone again.

Wanting to confirm what happened, he questioned Oh Min-seok on the line.

“So, what happened? You found Evidence before the Search Warrant came out?”

—Yeah, your guy just barged into the Crime Scene like a bulldozer and found Evidence. Where did you even pick up a guy like this? What was it he said earlier? Amjeon?

“What did you say?”

Did he mishear?

Lee Jaehyun broke down the door at the Crime Scene and found Evidence?

At Oh Min-seok’s words, Park Daehyung paused, unable to answer right away, and then asked again.

—He just kept saying something about Amjeon or whatever… Hey, get real. How is that even Amjeon?

“I mean…”

Park Daehyung couldn’t hide his bewilderment and trailed off.

Oh Min-seok didn’t care about his reaction and continued, laughing boisterously.

—He called Emergency Call 112 and said it was a Gang robbery, then just busted through the front door. I honestly thought he was insane.

Park Daehyung blinked blankly at Oh Min-seok’s words.

What the hell was this?

Emergency Call 112, and then a Gang…?

It was so absurd that Park Daehyung couldn’t help but stop thinking.

All he could do was stare, dumbfounded, in the direction Lee Jaehyun had disappeared toward the Changing Room.

***

After changing clothes in the Changing Room, Lee Jaehyun immediately went to find Myung Jinhan.

“You again?”

Even just before leaving the station, the guy had lost his composure and was swearing in informal speech, but now, after a bit of time, he acted all calm and composed.

Lee Jaehyun saw this and let out a quiet laugh.

How long can you keep up that act?

It wouldn’t last much longer.

When Myung Jinhan saw Lee Jaehyun quietly laughing, his eyebrows twitched as he continued,

“So, did you find the Evidence?”

“Would I be back if I hadn’t?”

Lee Jaehyun shrugged as he replied.

At Lee Jaehyun’s relaxed demeanor, Myung Jinhan opened his mouth with a face full of disbelief, as if he thought it was impossible.

“You’re lying.”

“Why do you think so?”

“If you’d found it, there’d be no reason to come back here. You couldn’t find any, so you came to get more out of me, didn’t you?”

When Lee Jaehyun asked, the guy leaned back in his chair, looking refreshingly confident.

He seemed to enjoy Lee Jaehyun’s attention as he struggled to find Evidence.

The reaction fit someone who’d committed crimes for the sake of vanity, who put the crime tools in an Urn and displayed it in his shop.

When Lee Jaehyun silently watched him, Myung Jinhan shrugged and continued.

“Didn’t I tell you? I’m really innocent.”

“You’re definitely not a SocioPath.”

Lee Jaehyun nodded as he replied.

At first, he’d suspected Myung Jinhan might be a SocioPath.

After all, he’d stuffed tissue into the Victim’s genitalia and tied a ribbon around her head before abandoning her body.

But now he could tell Myung Jinhan definitely wasn’t a SocioPath.

Of course, that didn’t mean he wasn’t the Serial Killer.

“Of course. Do I look like—”

“People say SocioPaths are usually smart, but you seem pretty lacking.”

Maybe Myung Jinhan took Lee Jaehyun’s words as an admission of defeat.

He started to smirk.

But Lee Jaehyun cut off his words.

“What?”

“Innocent? You were caught red-handed for kidnapping. Innocence, my ass.”

Lee Jaehyun sneered at Myung Jinhan.

Naturally, Myung Jinhan’s face grew even more twisted.

Yes.

That face suited him much better.

A man who killed two innocent people and was caught for Arrest in the Act of kidnapping, claiming innocence?

Even a passing dog would laugh its ears off.

Looking at his face, Lee Jaehyun shrugged and continued,

“Am I wrong? Seeing how you put the dog’s Necklace used in the crime inside your pet’s Urn, maybe you really are a SocioPath.”

“You bastard.”

At Lee Jaehyun’s mocking, flip-flopping words about being a SocioPath, Myung Jinhan ground his teeth and glared.

But then, he suddenly froze, blinking his eyes.

Did he just now understand Lee Jaehyun’s words?

With a trembling voice, Myung Jinhan spoke.

“…Wait, what did you just say?”

His face was completely stiff as he asked.

He looked like he couldn’t believe what he’d heard.

As if facing an impossible reality, his pupils began to shake violently, and his breathing grew rough.

“What… What did you just say!”

Abandoning all pretense of composure, eyes blazing, Myung Jinhan glared at Lee Jaehyun.

As he watched Myung Jinhan cast away his mask, Lee Jaehyun smiled coldly.

“We found your crime tool.”

“Aaaah!”

At those words, Myung Jinhan shot to his feet, completely forgetting his broken ankle, and lunged at Lee Jaehyun.

Of course, it was pointless.

He’d been subdued easily even earlier, and now he was handcuffed and shackled.

Lee Jaehyun instantly grabbed the guy by the scruff of his neck and slammed him onto the desk.

Thud!

It didn’t end there.

Twice, three times.

He kept slamming Myung Jinhan’s head against the desk until the resistance in his grip faded.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Even after he no longer felt resistance, Lee Jaehyun’s hand didn’t stop.

He kept smashing the bastard’s head into the desk, speaking as he did.

“It’s something I just can’t understand.”

Thud!

Of course, even then, his hand didn’t stop.

He knew the Interrogation Room had CCTV running 24/7, but he didn’t care.

“Why are you the one getting angry?”

Thud!

With icy eyes, he looked down at Myung Jinhan and moved his hand again.

“You’re not the one who should be angry.”

Thud!

Lee Jaehyun’s voice, in contrast to the coldness in his eyes, was burning with fury.

“The Victims, the Victims’ families—they’re the ones who should be angry at you.”

Thud!

Because of this trash before him, how many times had he regretted this day over the past ten years?

How many times had he wept tears of blood?

“Trash like you, you have no right to be angry!”

CRASH!

Lee Jaehyun, full of rage, slammed Myung Jinhan’s head down onto the desk.

The bastard finally lost consciousness, his body collapsing limply.

It was then that Se-re-hen appeared.

“Are you done with your Anger Release?”

Lee Jaehyun didn’t answer.

Just as she said, this was an Anger Release.

In this life, his father hadn’t passed away.

The Victims murdered by Myung Jinhan weren’t even people Lee Jaehyun knew.

As a police officer, it was behavior he shouldn’t allow.

But—

“So what.”

Compared to what that guy had done, this was nothing.

In his previous life, and in this one as well.

Lee Jaehyun’s attitude had never changed.

There’s no need to keep lines for those who don’t keep law or decency.

He stared at the collapsed Myung Jinhan with indifferent eyes.

Seeing Lee Jaehyun’s lack of response, Se-re-hen gave a sly smile.

“That look suits you.”

She said that, then waved her hand.

At her gesture, a dense, massive black energy surged out of Myung Jinhan—far greater and thicker than what had come from the Moon Tattooed Thugs earlier.

The black energy was sucked right into Se-re-hen’s mouth.

As she wore a satisfied expression—

Bang.

The Interrogation Room door burst open, and someone came in.

Lee Jaehyun turned to look.

Park Daehyung was standing there, face stiff as stone.

“What the hell is going on here.”

Following his gaze, Lee Jaehyun looked around the Interrogation Room.

Myung Jinhan, nose broken and face covered in blood, sprawled out on the floor.

The desk and walls splattered with blood.

And the entire brutal process, no doubt captured by CCTV.

In that moment, only one thought came to Lee Jaehyun’s mind.

“Excessive Force is going to come up again.”

This time, it definitely wouldn’t be brushed aside quietly.

Even though the Evidence Lee Jaehyun had found was clear, there would definitely be people unhappy about this.

But still…

“I have no regrets.”

He’d had enough regrets over the last ten years.