By Zephyria Screech. Ignoring the speed limit in the parking lot, a car entered at high speed, scraping the urethane floor and making an unpleasant noise. The one who drove in rather roughly was Lee Do-hyeon. Lee Do-hyeon parked neatly without an inch of error, then got on the elevator with large strides.
“You’ve arrived, President.”
The secretarial staff, who had been focusing on their work, stood up and bowed. Lee Do-hyeon, who gave a formal greeting to the familiar faces, opened the door to the President’s office and entered with a determined stride. Chief Yoon, who had been waiting, followed closely, carefully closing the half-closed door and stepping inside. In the meantime, Lee Do-hyeon, who had gone to the desk, loosened his tie nervously.
“Tell me again what you said on the phone, from the beginning. In detail.”
“Please look at this first.”
Rather than an answer to the question, the documents were handed over first. Lee Do-hyeon leaned back deeply in his chair and carefully examined the documents Chief Yoon handed him. Before a question could fly out, Chief Yoon opened his mouth first.
“First of all, the car number that came out of Kim Jin-guk’s mouth was a ghost car as expected. The current owner’s registered address is Chuncheon, but no one lives there. It’s not certain, but judging from the fact that we can’t reach him, I think it’s likely that he illegally used a homeless person’s name.”
“It already smells fishy.”
“Just in case, I checked the previous owners, but there was nothing to gain. And I checked all the traffic cameras one hour before and after the date and time Kim Jin-guk mentioned, but only the most recent date was available because the retention period had expired.”
Lee Do-hyeon flipped through the documents in order, trying to chew over Chief Yoon’s words. The car, which had gone through a total of three owners just before being scrapped, had a colorful history. It was as if no bones had been broken if it were a person. There were countless accident and maintenance records, but as Chief Yoon said, the owners were ordinary people. He set aside the search details that he didn’t need to see anymore and put them on the desk, then looked at the next page.
“No video?”
Perhaps because it was taken in the dark, nothing could be recognized except for the license plate. After flipping through a couple of pages without much change, he asked indifferently, and Chief Yoon quickly handed him a tablet. Whether several videos were combined into one, the screen changed quickly every time the car rolled.
“They covered it up.”
“Every time they went in and out of the Capital office, they were wearing hats, so it was impossible to identify them.”
“So, what, are we really going to have to find Mr. Kim in Seoul?”
“Well, first, please watch the video some more…”
Chief Yoon, who was standing with his hands clasped together and continuing to explain, trailed off. Lee Do-hyeon, who was watching the video with a bored expression, suddenly paused.
Late at night, a car that was speeding down an almost empty road suddenly turned off onto a road in a residential area. Unlike the previous road, which was somewhat distinguishable by the streetlights, in the dark residential area, only the shape of the car could barely be recognized.
“I think I know where this is.”
Lee Do-hyeon, who rewound the video to the point where it entered the residential area, raised his eyebrows. It was clearly a screen that was too dark to see properly, but for some reason, he felt a sense of déjà vu.
Lee Do-hyeon frowned, instinctively sensing that something was wrong. Chief Yoon clicked his tongue inwardly and nodded.
“It’s Pyeongchang-dong.”
The main house, where he had been forced to live for several years, was located inside a high-end residential area in Pyeongchang-dong. There was no reason not to recognize the most persistent shadow in his memory.
He furrowed his brow and focused, but the video, which had been changing quickly every few seconds, stopped at an awkward point. It was a point where he couldn’t even see the nose of the main house. Lee Do-hyeon, who manipulated the tablet screen to confirm that it was the end, asked in an annoyed voice.
“That’s it?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t have access to the cameras near Chairman’s house.”
“I figured.”
The Pyeongchang-dong main house, surrounded by walls like a prison, was private property not only beyond the walls but also in the nearby alleys. It was a structure designed by his grandfather, who did not recognize Lee Do-hyeon until the day he died, insisting on airtight security, so the surveillance cameras maintained a closed system that was not linked to the outside.
He would have somehow managed to get his hands on the surveillance cameras in the public areas, but it was almost impossible to penetrate the area that thoroughly reflected his grandfather’s intentions. He wasn’t unaware of that, so he just replied indifferently, but Chief Yoon, who seemed to have taken it differently, suddenly bowed his head.
“I’m sorry.”
“There’s no need to be sorry. What can Chief Yoon do about something impossible?”
“The password was triple-encrypted, so there was a limit to hacking it.”
“I didn’t know that, so you don’t have to make excuses. Anyway, there’s no need to see more. Did you check if they moved to another place after this?”
“Ah… yes. There were no more recordings. But President. Are you really sure you don’t want to see more?”
It was unusual for Lee Do-hyeon, who pursued definite things like evidence and data, to refuse the video. Chief Yoon looked at him with questioning eyes, asking for an explanation, but Lee Do-hyeon just chuckled as if something was so funny.
“Shall we bribe someone in the security team?”
“I’m telling you, there’s no need to do that.”
“But, we need to know where they moved…”
“Chief Yoon. What do you think it means that there are no more recordings?”
Whether or not they had secured the surveillance camera footage right away was not important. They had to consider where the car was headed.
“There are traces of it going in, but no traces of it coming out. Don’t you know what this means?”
It was a very easy problem that didn’t need to be thought of in a difficult way. Only then did Chief Yoon, who understood, silently move his lips. Lee Do-hyeon, who saw Chief Yoon’s face becoming serious in a different sense, put the tablet down on the desk as if throwing it and chuckled as if it was interesting. He sat with his long legs crossed and spun the chair from side to side, muttering to himself as if talking to himself.
“It’s ambiguous to call it a coincidence. It’s contrived to see it as inevitable.”
A man in his late 40s wearing glasses. The extremely broad clue was instantly pointing to only one person.
Secretary Yoo.
He seemed unnecessarily meticulous for someone who was just trying to make a fortune with petty tricks. It was strange that he was acting like he had something to hide, but he really had something else to hide.
Unless he had bought someone else, the head that would come out if he followed the tail called Secretary Yoo was clear.
“That paper company that Chief Yoon looked into before.”
Kim Mi-hee. And Lee Gyu-hyeon.
“Don’t you think the fishy smell from there is coming from here too?”
To be exact, it was the smell that Kim Mi-hee was giving off for Lee Gyu-hyeon.
Lee Do-hyeon opened the first drawer of his desk and took out a cigarette and a lighter. Chief Yoon, who saw him lighting a cigarette, quickly pushed the ashtray over. Lee Do-hyeon’s expression, who was smoking a cigarette without hesitation even though it was an office, was somewhat languid, but his eyes staring at the air were fierce.
It was an unexpected, very unexpected harvest.
“What should we do?”
Chief Yoon asked about his course of action, but Lee Do-hyeon did not answer. He leisurely finished his cigarette, looking down at the tablet with his eyes lowered. The screen stopped at the last scene of the video was indeed the entrance to the alley leading to the Pyeongchang-dong main house.
“Tearful affection.”
Unfortunately.
Lee Do-hyeon, who overlapped it with Wolhyeon-dong, let out a long sigh. A cloud of cigarette smoke obscured his vision. Soon, the fog-like smoke drifted into the air. Nevertheless, Ryu Jeong’s face did not disappear in the end.