Chapter 64 – Money – Part 5

Chapter 64 – Money – Part 5

The bumpy texture of the paper was directly transmitted to his fingertips.

Woojin’s closed eyes began to move rapidly from side to side.

The title and content of the book were remarkably different.

*

It was a day of heavy rain.

The smell of the earth was good, and the kind female student had a nice voice.

Listening to the rain hitting the umbrella, I could tell her height was 158 Righteous Path.

When I asked for directions, she kindly led me.

And when I tapped my cane on the ground, I knew I had reached an alley.

“Just get through this alley, and it’s the Golden Room.”

“Thank you.”

“We should help each other.”

“Oh dear.”

As I stumbled, the female student supported me.

“Are you okay?”

“I keep being a nuisance. I’m sorry.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine…”

I felt the female student flinch and step back.

I asked kindly,

“Are you alright?”

There would be no answer.

The reason was that the awl that came out of my embrace had swirled around her neck once and then emerged.

What kind of expression would she be making?

Would she be covering her neck with her hand?

“Ah…”

She let out a low groan and started to run.

I quickly followed, tapping the ground with my cane.

Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!

How would I look to her in this state?

I was suddenly curious how I appeared, following her with quick steps, tapping the ground with my cane.

In less than a few minutes, I heard her voice, panting heavily.

“P- *cough* *cough* P- please save me…”

There would have been nowhere to run.

It was because the alley was temporarily blocked due to construction.

“What’s your name?”

I heard her coughing and whimpering as if she was spitting blood.

“P-please save me… Please… Save me, cough! Cough!”

“Yes. What is your name?”

“Im Hyoju…”

“That’s a very pretty name. I will save you.”

I approached her and stroked her face.

I felt a sweet trembling, her eyebrows were thin, her nose was sharp, and her lips were thin.

Thud, thud, thud.

I stabbed her neck with an awl several times to make her comfortable.

And I whispered the desired answer into her gasping ear.

“I will save you. Live forever in my mind.”

I took a deep breath and smelled her scent.

The smell of blood and flesh seemed to fill my empty heart.

I cannot see the world, but the world cannot see me either.

It cannot recognize my true nature.

Now that I think about it, it was a bit regrettable.

Since I used an awl, I didn’t feel enough sensation when I stabbed her.

If it had been a knife, wouldn’t I have fully felt the sensation of penetrating the fat and muscles and tearing through the internal organs?

*

Woojin, who had been closing his eyes, opened them.

And he started to read the remaining portion with his eyes.

When he was trapped there and saw the Braille Book, he instinctively thought.

He had already seen the Braille Book, and if he just skimmed through it, he would create conditions for his Unconscious to emerge, so he had to understand it perfectly.

When Woojin had read about two-thirds of the Book, he stopped turning the pages.

Because there was no more content.

This meant that the ending of this Book had not yet been written.

Woojin let the book he was holding fall and scanned his surroundings once more.

He wanted to confront all the suspects, but wasn’t it too obvious from the start?

Woojin took the book and headed out to the living room.

Detective Kim was asking unnecessary questions, just as they had agreed before coming here.

“Do you eat on time?”

“Yes, I have to eat my meals on time. Ha ha ha.”

Kim Taehyun, who had been listening to him, looked at the book Woojin was carrying.

Woojin plopped down next to Kim Cheolmin.

“You said you like rain because you feel like you see something in the waves of falling raindrops, didn’t you?”

“Yes. Most people don’t really know that. Only people like me…”

“Conversely, the sound of rain can drown out human screams. You know that well, don’t you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Pretending to be innocent doesn’t suit you. Especially for someone your age.”

“What?”

“You enjoy reading books. You even make them yourself.”

“How did you…? Did you go into my study? Without permission!”

As he yelled, Woojin replied in a monotone voice.

“I’m sorry. I was just too curious…”

“No, I mean it! Is it okay for a detective to search someone’s house without permission? Even if I wanted to cooperate, all desire for it is gone! Get out of my house right now!”

Unlike the huffing man, Woojin casually dropped a remark.

“Philosophy and Ideology.”

Kim Cheolmin’s cloudy pupils shook as if an earthquake had struck.

“You were writing a diary.”

Kim Cheolmin’s mind went blank.

He mumbled blankly.

“You can read braille…?”

Woojin also replied, as if muttering.

A quiet anger was also felt.

“I like books too. But I hate people like you the most. It’s so obvious that it’s empty before I even have time to feel any emotion.”

Woojin subtly handed the book to Kim Taehyun and said,

“It says here that a woman named Im Hyoju was murdered 23 years ago. The murder weapon was an awl.”

“What did you say?”

A surprised Kim Taehyun quickly flipped through the book.

Suddenly, his expression turned bewildered.

There was no writing.

“Give it back! I made it as a hobby!”

Kim Cheolmin flailed and clung to Detective Kim.

Kim Taehyun held the book high and wrestled with him.

“Calm down! Calm down! How can an old man be so strong? Woojin, is the location also mentioned?”

Woojin stood up and said,

“Yes. If it’s confirmed right away, the case will be closed. The episode from 10 years ago is also written. The address is…”

After hearing the address from Woojin, Kim Taehyun restrained him on the sofa and made a call.

“It’s me. Don’t hang up and find out right now. 23 years ago, Im Hyoju…”

Kim Taehyun, due to his struggle, handcuffed him for now.

Kim Cheolmin yelled furiously.

“Do you have a warrant!? Is it okay to do this to a disabled person! I won’t stand for it. Abuse of public authority…”

“Calm down. If you calm down, I’ll release you… huh?”

Kim Taehyun’s eyes, holding the cellphone to his ear, wavered.

-Yes. There is one. An unsolved murder case of Im Hyoju.

“The murder weapon?”

-It’s presumed to be an ice pick?

“Call for backup here right now.”

Kim Taehyun hung up the phone and looked at the criminal, feeling a thrill run through his body.

He had been so curious about the face of the guy who murdered the kind grandmother.

So it turns out the bastard was Reporter Choi Candle.

“Woojin, the grandmother’s case from 10 years ago is all written down, right? Do you think we can find the murder weapon too?”

“Yes. He wrote it down kindly. You should be able to find it.”

Kim Taehyun gnashed his teeth.

The suspect, no, now the criminal, was struggling on the sofa.

When he first entered the house, he felt sympathy, but now there was not a shred of pity left.

Kim Taehyun, who was pressing down on the criminal’s back with his knee, spoke again.

“I don’t see you as a human being right now, you crazy serial killer. You’d better cooperate. Unless you want to smell incense in jail. Answer me. Do you understand?”

Woojin, watching the scene, nodded and said,

“You’re pressing exactly between the cervical and thoracic vertebrae. You need to press harder for it to hurt.”

“Oh, really?”

Kim Taehyun put more force into his knee.

“Ugh!”

* * *

The police and forensics team began to search a small park near the neighborhood.

It was a place with a few pull-up bars and light exercise equipment.

Choi Gicheol remembered the book Woojin found and asked,

“How did you find it? Did you go through all 50 books one by one?”

He thought Woojin could do it in a short time.

“No. I chose Philosophy and Ideology based on a simple calculation.”

“Calculation? You found it in one go?”

“Yes.”

Choi Gicheol slowly nodded his head.

Only Woojin could do something like that.

Could he also become like that?

If he kept asking Woojin, he might not know. Perhaps his own discernment would also improve like Woojin’s.

“Where did you get the hint?”

“Detective Choi, you must have seen it too. The rubber mat on the book had many indentations, as if pressed by a needle.”

“What did that have to do with the philosophy and ideology the criminal hid?”

“Braille books are made by pressing with an awl. But no matter how much I looked around, I couldn’t find any practice braille books, or braille books that were being made. The conditions were met, but there was a mismatch. Most importantly, the criminal lied from the beginning.”

“Ah…”

Choi Gicheol felt his hope quickly fade.

Detectives have an intuition, but Woojin’s was even more. No, it surpassed the level of common sense.

It seemed like an area that couldn’t be achieved through effort.

Woojin spoke as if reading Choi Gicheol’s mind.

“You just need to observe well.”

Just then, a forensics team member approached.

He was a middle-aged man with hair only on the sides and a bald spot in the middle,

and he had seen Woojin several times at other crime scenes.

“Woojin, is it you again?”

“Hello.”

“Wow… with this righteous path, shouldn’t you receive a presidential award? Hahaha!”

Now he was even solving cold cases.

“Did you make this deduction by looking at the data from 10 years ago and the crime scene photos again?”

“I only referred to them. When I saw the bloodstains on the floor, as if painted, the criminal didn’t fall after entering, but fell after leaving. They must have fallen two or three times.”

“So, you concluded who the criminal was and went to find them first?”

“No, I just opened up a few more possibilities.”

Just then, a police officer’s voice was heard loudly.

“Here! Here!”

It was a sign that the murder weapon had been found.

“How bold. To hide the murder weapon not far from the Senior Center.”

Woojin spoke up at Choi Gicheol’s words.

“It’s learned behavior. The criminal had a long cooling-off period after the first murder. They must have thought of an alternative when committing the second murder. Before planning another murder, during that cooling-off period, they wanted to occasionally taste the feeling of having committed a murder. That’s why they hid the murder weapon nearby. It’s similar to why a serial killer appears at the crime scene at least once.”

“But why that kind grandmother? Was it because there was no one else but the grandmother at the Senior Center at the time?”

“No. They targeted her after rumors spread that she donated to the foundation and made her name known. They greatly enjoy the country being stirred up by their own hands. They are a criminal with a strong desire to show off.”

“And someone who actively used the fact that they were visually impaired?”

“Yes.”

“What a total bastard.”

Woojin replied.

“It’s also disheartening.”

It felt as if the criminal had ruined an interesting case.

He regretted not being able to fully experience that emotion.

While Woojin felt that way, the police officials themselves were in a festive mood.

It had been a very easy task for Woojin, and a day when a difficult problem was solved for them.

But Woojin also gained something.

Kim Taehyun had already deposited 3,000,000 won into Woojin’s account for him to buy something delicious.

Kim Taehyun, who had approached by then, smiled and said,

“Woojin, you worked hard. It’s thanks to you. Thank you.”

“Detective Kim.”

“Yes?”

“Next time, please give me a more difficult case.”

Choi Gicheol shook his head from side to side.

A case more difficult than this…

He couldn’t think of one.

***

9 PM, Kim Cheolung’s Office.

Kim Taehyun knocked and entered.

Kim Cheolung, whose gaze was fixed on the documents, said curtly,

“You’re here? Just a moment. Don’t stand, have a seat over there.”

Not even ten minutes passed like that.

Kim Cheolung rubbed his stomach and stood up from his seat.

Then he made a mixed coffee and said,

“I’m always sitting, so only my belly is growing. Just my belly. Here, have this.”

“Thank you.”

Soon, Prosecutor Kim Cheolung, sitting opposite Kim Taehyun, rested his hand on his cheek as if propping up his chin.

His voice, which flowed out, was deep and low.

“But you know what? I really don’t understand it. Every time you start an investigation, you arrest the criminal immediately? And find irrefutable evidence? Not to mention solving unsolved cases from 23 years ago… I think it’s utterly impossible. Detective Kim Taehyun, who are you? What is your true identity?”

Kim Taehyun’s brows furrowed slightly.

‘Woojin, what should I say in response to this?’