Because this was an area with a lot of Apartments, fortunately there were several places where the CCTV was still working.
While Park Daehyung was checking the CCTV on the other side, Lee Jaehyun moved to check the CCTV at the Convenience Store in front of the Apartment.
It was positioned so that anyone entering Sangchon Village could be seen.
It was even possible to check which direction they had come from, so Lee Jaehyun judged that if anything had been caught on camera, it was most likely to be on the Convenience Store CCTV.
“Excuse me.”
“Welcome.”
When Lee Jaehyun quietly entered the Convenience Store, the Convenience Store Clerk, who had been looking at their phone, greeted him.
Lee Jaehyun skillfully pulled out his Police Officer Badge and spoke.
“I’m from the Capital Region Police Station. May I check the CCTV for a moment?”
“…?”
The Clerk looked at Lee Jaehyun with wide, round eyes.
It seemed the Clerk hadn’t expected a Police Officer to appear.
It’s not very common to be asked for Police cooperation while working as a Clerk, after all.
“Uh, the CCTV can be checked from the Backup Storage. Just a moment, I’ll ask the Manager…”
“Yes.”
From the Clerk’s perspective, it would be risky to just show the CCTV without permission.
Lee Jaehyun nodded, quietly turning to look around the Convenience Store.
There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.
While he was looking around, the Clerk approached again, now with a curious face, as if they’d gotten the Manager’s permission.
“Uh, the Manager said it’s okay to show you the CCTV. But… is there some incident? I saw earlier, several Squad Cars drove by…”
“It’s nothing serious.”
The Clerk looked at Lee Jaehyun with a face that clearly didn’t believe it was “nothing serious”…
But Lee Jaehyun didn’t say anything more than that.
If he kindly explained that it was an Attempted Murder case, word would spread through the local community in an instant.
He didn’t know how the situation would unfold, so he couldn’t speak carelessly.
Last time, with Han Seona, it had been a completely different situation.
Back then, they clearly knew who the culprit was, but this time, it wasn’t certain if the mother was really the would-be murderer or if someone else was involved.
It meant he needed to be even more careful with his words.
Lee Jaehyun kept his mouth shut, quietly watching the Clerk.
The Clerk hesitated, then stepped back and started walking.
“The CCTV is this way.”
The Clerk led Lee Jaehyun into the Backup Storage.
Inside, there was a single small monitor and a computer set up.
“I’ve only ever handled inventory, so I’m not really sure about this stuff… One moment. I think there’s some program on the desktop…”
“This is it.”
The Clerk tried to explain, but Lee Jaehyun acted first.
Rather than have a Clerk who’d never checked the CCTV before fumble with it, it was much easier and faster for Lee Jaehyun to handle it himself.
Lee Jaehyun ran the 00 management program from the desktop.
As soon as he started the 07 management program, eight screens split up on the monitor.
He moved the mouse and quickly began rewinding.
Squad Cars appeared one after another, and after that, people and cars came and went.
It didn’t seem very busy.
Well, it was a path that only people living in the Apartment would use.
Lee Jaehyun saw a woman running urgently and paused the rewind to play the footage.
“The informant.”
The video quality wasn’t good, so he had to look closely to confirm her face, but her clothes were the same, so he could tell right away.
The woman who’d come to the police station, A-young Kim.
Lee Jaehyun took a photo with his Smartphone of A-young Kim’s appearance on camera.
He began rewinding again.
Before long, he furrowed his brow.
A man appeared, quickly getting into a black car.
The man sped away from the Apartment, driving wildly.
The image wasn’t clear enough to confirm the license plate, but it was clear the car was a large black sedan.
Something was off.
Lee Jaehyun also photographed the man and the car with his Smartphone, then rewound once more.
He didn’t have to rewind long before he paused the footage again.
This time, it was A-young Kim entering the Apartment.
Judging from her calm steps, it looked like she hadn’t grasped the situation yet.
“A-young Kim goes in, and not long after, an unidentified man leaves urgently and drives away recklessly…”
This was definitely suspicious.
Lee Jaehyun checked the man’s appearance again.
He was bigger than expected.
In such cases, since the husband’s whereabouts were unknown, the first person to suspect would be the husband…
On the way to the Convenience Store, Lee Jaehyun had already received a photo of A-young Kim’s husband, Jung Woo-min.
Because of the video quality, body features weren’t easy to distinguish, but the size was definitely not the same.
Jung Woo-min was closer to a slender build, but the guy in the footage was… more like Park Daehyung.
With a bit of exaggeration, his size could almost match a bear.
No matter how much Jung Woo-min might have worked out while missing, it was impossible to bulk up like that in such a short time.
“Then who is it?”
There was too little information.
After frowning and thinking for a moment, Lee Jaehyun eventually lifted his Smartphone and sent all the photos he’d taken so far to Park Daehyung.
Park Daehyung must have checked the photos quickly, because a reply soon came back.
ã…¡ Park Daehyung, Sergeant: I’ll come right away.
Lee Jaehyun also sent over the CCTV footage file and, while waiting for Park Daehyung, asked the Clerk a question.
He had to find out something.
“Has anything strange happened at the Apartment recently?”
“Well, I’m not really sure… It’s not exactly suspicious, but since last month or so? How should I put it… Some guys with tattoos have started showing up, one or two at a time.”
The male Clerk seemed to think for a bit before opening his mouth.
Lee Jaehyun paused at the mention of “guys with tattoos.”
He didn’t have any particular prejudice against tattoos, but if the Clerk remembered it, it must have left some kind of impression.
“Guys with tattoos?”
“Yeah. Well, these days, tattoos aren’t that weird or anything. I have a tattoo, too.”
“Oh, I see.”
The Clerk rolled up his sleeve, showing a small tattoo on his forearm, and Lee Jaehyun responded with a slightly awkward expression.
The Clerk continued, not caring about Lee Jaehyun’s reaction.
“But those guys had real, serious tattoos… They really looked like Gangsters. Every time they came in to buy cigarettes, it felt scary. That’s all I know, really. Is something going on?”
The Clerk asked again, but Lee Jaehyun shook his head.
“It’s nothing. Thank you for your cooperation.”
That seemed to be all the Clerk knew, so Lee Jaehyun left the Convenience Store.
In the distance, Park Daehyung could be seen approaching.
“Who’s the man?”
“I’m not sure either. But since he left in such a hurry right after A-young Kim went in, I thought there might be a connection, so I filmed it just in case.”
Park Daehyung looked like he wanted to ask more, but at that moment his Smartphone rang.
It was a call from Min Ji-hye.
Park Daehyung turned away to take the call.
“Yeah, Ji-hye.”
While he was walking away to talk,
Se-re-hen, who had been quiet until now, finally appeared.
Se-re-hen, who had gotten bored watching Lee Jaehyun do nothing but Document Work these past few days and hadn’t shown herself since yesterday, must have found this case interesting from her perspective.
“What’s this? I was busy with other things, and now something’s happening?”
Se-re-hen seemed to have already grasped the situation, her eyes shining as she looked at Lee Jaehyun.
It was a case where a six-year-old child had almost died, but to Se-re-hen, was it just an amusing story?
As expected, is it because she’s a demon?
That thought flashed through Lee Jaehyun’s mind, but he quickly corrected himself.
Because he could sense a flicker of anger in Se-re-hen’s eyes.
It was only the second time he’d felt anger from her.
Even during the Myung Jin-han and Park Chunbeom incidents, Se-re-hen only looked like she was excited about tasting something delicious.
For the Han Seona nurse case, she didn’t seem to think it was tasty, but at least it wasn’t something she would refuse.
The only time she had even slightly expressed ‘anger’ was when Song Aram was suffering from school violence.
And now, seeing even a slight anger in Se-re-hen’s eyes again…
‘Is it that cases involving young girls get more of a reaction from her?’
Was it because Se-re-hen took the form of a little girl herself?
Or was there another reason only Se-re-hen knew?
Anyway, since Se-re-hen’s past wasn’t the issue right now, Lee Jaehyun spoke calmly.
“A young girl almost died, the mother confessed to doing it herself, and there’s an unidentified man…”
As he listed the situation, Se-re-hen tilted her head.
“It didn’t look like the mother killed the child.”
Lee Jaehyun turned his gaze to Se-re-hen at her words.
He’d felt the same, but it was different hearing it from Se-re-hen, a demon.
“Did you check? Was there no Evil Karma?”
“There was some Evil Karma, but it didn’t seem to be the kind that comes from going against the Natural Order. Just a normal level of bad.”
He didn’t really know what ‘normal level of bad’ meant, but at the very least, it lowered the possibility that A-young Kim, the mother, had actually tried to kill her child.
Still, the real problem was how to uncover the details of the case and catch the real culprit…
“Well, I don’t know who really tried to kill the child. If you catch them, I’ll come back.”
It seemed that after making a contract with Lee Jaehyun, Se-re-hen couldn’t just focus on the contract alone.
Well, demons must have their own affairs.
Hearing that, only bad things came to mind, but Lee Jaehyun shook off those thoughts and nodded.
“Catch them quickly.”
“It won’t take long, so don’t worry.”
Lee Jaehyun answered plainly.
He didn’t know whether Se-re-hen was really angry and wanted him to catch the culprit quickly, or if she wanted him to catch the culprit so she could consume their Evil Karma.
Either way, they both agreed on the need to catch that guy as soon as possible.
Perhaps she liked his answer.
Se-re-hen smiled brightly and vanished from sight.
Beyond where she disappeared, Park Daehyung was visible.
Having just finished his call, he was walking over.
But Park Daehyung’s expression was grave.
“The child is safe.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Yeah, and the child’s mother has started talking. Let’s go.”
At Park Daehyung’s words, Lee Jaehyun immediately turned and headed toward where the Squad Car was parked.