By Zephyria “It was a case from Seongdong Police Station. A citizen who was walking along the riverbank found it and reported it. The body was already in advanced stages of decomposition, so fingerprint identification was difficult. According to the detective in charge, it wasn’t reported missing, nor was it registered in the missing persons database.”
“Any signs of assault?”
“There were multiple fractures, but as you know, the impact from falling into water from a high place can be considerable. There’s a good chance the fractures were caused by that, so it’s hard to say for sure that they were caused by assault. But if you look here,”
The coroner paused and displayed a photo. It was an X-ray of a leg. The coroner pointed to the middle of the shinbone.
“Here, there’s evidence of a fracture that healed during her lifetime. This should be in her medical records.”
Jeong Nam-su took out Lee Jeong-hye’s medical records from his briefcase. After hearing the neighbor’s testimony that she was frequently beaten, he searched nearby hospitals and obtained records showing that Lee Jeong-hye had suffered a brain hemorrhage and a fractured shinbone. Comparing it to the X-ray on the screen, the location matched.
“And I received the photos you sent.”
A 3D video of someone’s face appeared on the screen. It was a reconstruction of the deceased’s face, with flesh added to the bones to recreate her appearance as much as possible. The coroner then placed the photo Jeong Nam-su sent next to it. Comparing just the faces, they looked very similar. But it wasn’t possible to say for sure that it was 100% Lee Jeong-hye. It would be good to compare DNA with a blood relative, but she grew up in an orphanage without any family, so that was impossible.
“Did this case go unsolved?”
“No. I understand it was closed as a suicide, as there was no evidence of a crime.”
Next, they checked the clothes the body was wearing and found that despite her poor dental condition, there was no evidence of dental treatment. In fact, there were no records of Lee Jeong-hye receiving dental treatment. After finishing their work, Nam-soo sighed deeply as they walked back to the car, looking at the photos.
“This is going to be a headache. If we stir up a case that was closed as a suicide, Team leader will throw a fit again.”
“Let’s worry about that later. Let’s go for now.”
The two headed to Park Eon-soo’s neighborhood instead of the police station. The first place they stopped was a beauty salon, where the owner recognized them immediately and joked that the handsome detectives were back again.
“Excuse me, is this the person who used to live with Park Eon-soo?”
The owner tilted her head, looking at the reconstructed photo.
“I don’t know. She looks similar, but also not.”
“What about this dress? Have you ever seen it?”
The reaction wasn’t much different, and even other customers who were getting their hair done chimed in, but no one was certain that it belonged to Lee Jeong-hye.
“Detective. What’s wrong? Did something bad happen to that girl?”
“See, I told you she was suspicious. That college student who lives over there said he saw her.”
“Oh, scary. How did our neighborhood become like this?”
Everyone had something to say. The college student they mentioned had also been interviewed, but he said it was dark at night and he had been drinking, so he wasn’t sure.
They left the beauty salon and visited nearby shops, but it was the same story. Some people said she looked like her, others said she didn’t, but most didn’t remember the dress clearly.
“If I had killed Lee Jeong-hye and disposed of her body, I wouldn’t have dressed her in a dress she wore often. It would be troublesome if it was reported on the news.”
Lee-eum agreed with Nam-soo. The two drove around the neighborhood and finally headed to the house where Park Eon-soo used to live. When they arrived, the Grandfather (Paternal) was in the yard, watering the flower beds in his undershirt.
“Hello.” As they greeted him, the old man turned around, and the water sprayed Lee-eum and Nam-soo. They quickly dodged, and the old man put the hose down and approached them. His face was flushed, as if he was feeling hot.
When they asked if they could borrow the key, he went upstairs without any complaints, as before. And as always, he gave them two cartons of soy milk.
“This is good. It has black beans in it.”
“Thank you.”
After they thanked him, he waved them off and started watering again. The two opened the door and went inside. The same terrible stench filled the air. They put on the gloves and masks they had brought from the car and opened the windows to ventilate the house before searching every corner.
But no matter how much they searched, all they found was old, musty trash. The weather was hot, and moving around in a room without air conditioning made them sweat profusely. They went outside for a moment to catch their breath, taking off their masks and gloves and lighting cigarettes.
“Ah, I just want to go home, take a shower, and crash.”
“Me too…”
“Should we look more?”
“Let’s look a little more and go.”
Nam-soo groaned, put out his cigarette, threw it in the trash can, and went back inside. Lee-eum headed to the bathroom, where a mountain of used toilet paper that hadn’t been disposed of was piled up in one corner, and the toilet was stained with dried waste, making it hard to look at.
Nam-soo, who followed behind, grimaced at the sight.
They turned on the ventilation fan to reduce the smell, but it didn’t work.
“Ah, dirty bastard.”
While Nam-soo turned away and gagged, Lee-eum opened the drawers and even opened the lid of the water tank behind the toilet, examining everything carefully. He didn’t find anything, and his neck was stiff from bending over. He tilted his head back to relax his muscles, and that’s when he noticed the vent.
Cigarette butts were found piled up everywhere, but strangely, there were no black marks on the vent. Lee-eum stretched his neck out and observed it, then brought a dining table chair from outside and stood on it. There were faint marks on the vent cover, as if it had been removed and reattached.
“What’s wrong? Is there something there?”
“Go get a tool to remove this.”
Nam-soo quickly disappeared and returned with a flathead screwdriver. Lee-eum inserted it into the gap between the vent and the ceiling and applied force. The gap widened, the cover fell off, and a silver ventilation duct protruded out.
Nam-soo quickly turned on the flashlight on his phone and handed it to him, then held the chair steady while Lee-eum pushed the duct up and reached inside.
“Is there something there?”
“Not yet.”
Lee-eum reached further inside.
“Be careful.”
Then, something rustled at his fingertips. He stretched his arm further and grabbed it, pulling it out. As the object came out through the hole, dust and cement powder poured out. Lee-eum frowned, fanned the air with his hand, and then stepped down from the chair.
The two went to the living room, shook off the dust, and then checked what they had just taken out. It was a black plastic bag, and at first, they suspected it might be drugs. But when Nam-soo opened the bag and took out the contents, his face contorted in anger. There was a USB drive and a few photos, which appeared to have been taken during sexual acts.
“What… is this…”
“Let’s get out of here.” The two went outside, asked the landlord for permission, washed their hands, faces, and hair at the yard’s faucet, and then got into the car. After wiping off the water with a towel from the car, they turned on the laptop in the back seat and plugged in the USB drive, which revealed dozens of files.
As they clicked through them one by one, they were speechless. They were all sex videos, and some of the partners seemed unconscious or unaware. There was a variety of genders and body types, and some even appeared to be quite young.
“This is crazy…”
Lee-eum opened a file labeled “J.” When the video started, a familiar face appeared. It was Lee Jeong-hye, whom they had only seen in photos. She was naked, being strangled, and gagging, her body heaving as if she was engaged in sexual activity, and Park Eon-soo’s voice could be heard.
【Fucking bitch, does it feel good? Huh? You like it so much, don’t you? Tell me, you like it too, huh?】
Tears streamed from Lee Jeong-hye’s eyes. She struggled to pull down the hand that was strangling her, and her eyes gradually rolled back. Cough, cough, and then she completely lost consciousness, and the screen suddenly switched to the ceiling.
【Hey. Hey!】
“Ah, fuck!” Curses, slaps, and shouts to wake her up continued before the screen abruptly cut off. Silence filled the car. Both of them sat there without starting the car, and Nam-soo ground his teeth in anger.
“Wow, that fucking bastard. He definitely killed her, right?”
Lee-eum rubbed his face with a tired expression. There was no direct evidence of death in the video. Even if Lee Jeong-hye had died that day, Park Eon-soo would surely claim that she had only fainted and then woke up, and the court would likely accept that to some extent.
While his mind was in turmoil, a call came from the hospital. It was a message that Park Eon-soo had regained consciousness and was able to communicate.