#204

Lee Seon-jae found Choi In-ho. And Kim Sung-hwan too.

Bae Young-do, making excellent use of his specialty, located Dr. Choi, a.k.a. Choi In-ho, in just half a day and then compiled his biography.

Choi In-ho was currently residing in Seoul. He even lived in a luxurious villa in Gangnam, a stone’s throw from the hospital where the man was hospitalized. With his beautiful wife, whom Kim Young-ja so envied. They had no children, and a live-in housekeeper lived with them like family.

Choi In-ho, who was 35 when he first started residing at Galilla Orphanage, was now a middle-aged man of 53. But just looking at his photos, he looked young enough to be mistaken for someone in his early to mid-40s. Not to mention his wife. Even though she was in her 50s, she was a beautiful woman whom anyone would call a beauty.

Choi In-ho had lived in Busan until three years ago, then changed his name to Choi Yun-beom and moved to Seoul, where he was currently working as an obstetrician at a general hospital.

Yun-beom. It was a name that anyone could see was in honor of Yoon Ki-beom.

This was good news for Seon-jae. It had been so long since they had parted ways, yet he still couldn’t forget Yoon Ki-beom to the point of recently changing his name. A man like that would not tolerate the fact that Shim Kang-woo was impersonating Yoon Ki-beom and living as Yoon Ki-beom.

Even so, it was too early to be sure that Choi In-ho was on their side. Because they couldn’t rule out the possibility that Choi In-ho was still in cahoots with Kim Sung-hwan.

Although Choi In-ho, as a doctor at the orphanage, had more influence than anyone else, it was Director Kim Young-ja and Vice Director Kim Sung-hwan who helped him in every way to make that possible. It was possible because they were a group with shared interests and the same goals. In other words, even if Choi In-ho and Kim Sung-hwan might dislike each other, it couldn’t be denied that they were in cahoots.

“Honey, while digging into Choi In-ho, I found Kim Sung-hwan. Two birds with one stone!”

Bae Young-do boasted.

While investigating Choi In-ho’s account statements for the past 10 years, Bae Young-do confirmed that 1 million won was transferred from Choi In-ho’s account to another person every month for a total of about three years, from the fall of 1994 to the fall of 1997. Thanks to the real-name financial transaction system, he quickly confirmed the identity of the recipient and also found out that the person was a woman.

Bae Young-do, naturally thinking she was Choi In-ho’s mistress, was thrilled and investigated the mistress’s identity. She was an elementary school teacher, married, and had three children. Then, the moment he saw the face of the Husband, his eyes widened.

It was none other than ‘Kim Sung-hwan.’

His registered name was Lee Sang-hoon. Everything from his resident registration number to his hometown and alma mater was that of a completely different person. He was even three years younger than the real Kim Sung-hwan.

“Considering he got married under that name from the start, I think he bought the identity of a homeless person or someone with an unknown identity.”

He probably bought it from the expert who was in charge of laundering Director Kim Young-ja’s academic credentials and forging all sorts of certificates and certifications.

Kim Sung-hwan, living under a false identity, was currently running a facility for unwed mothers in Mapo-gu. It was so absurd that he couldn’t even laugh. A facility for unwed mothers—it was like leaving a fish with a cat.

Seon-jae entrusted Bae Young-do with further investigation and hung up the phone.

He had left the hospital in a taxi at 2 a.m., and it wasn’t even an hour later that he arrived at the house where Choi In-ho lived.

After checking the location of the villa where Choi In-ho resided and the surrounding CCTV cameras, Seon-jae headed straight to the general hospital where Choi In-ho worked. It was a fairly large hospital, comparable to a university hospital.

Entering the hospital through the emergency room, Seon-jae moved to the third floor, where the obstetrics and gynecology department where Choi In-ho worked was located, via the emergency exit. Nurses were busily moving between the hallway and the delivery room, attending to mothers in labor, and in front of the delivery room, people who appeared to be family members were listening intently to the screams coming from inside with tense expressions.

There were a total of three obstetricians, including Choi In-ho, and one of the female doctors was delivering a baby in the delivery room. The room with the nameplate Choi Yun-beom was locked. After checking it with his eyes only because there was a CCTV camera in the hallway, he looked around the hospital room as if he were a family member and then went downstairs through the emergency exit.

The ground parking lot was a small scale, only accessible to ambulances and emergency room patients, so most people, including doctors, patients, and patient families, used the underground parking lot.

He walked around, carefully recording the locations of the CCTV cameras inside the hospital, in the parking lot, and in the surrounding area.

After touring the entire hospital, Seon-jae headed straight to an apartment complex in Yongsan-gu where Kim Sung-hwan resided. It was a stair-type apartment, and security was more lax compared to the villa in Gangnam-gu where Choi In-ho lived. CCTV cameras were only installed at the main entrance, but they seemed to be out of order because the lights were off.

Large flyers were posted in the security office, the management office, and at the entrances and elevators of each building, announcing that a ‘resident vote for the expansion of CCTV cameras’ was in progress.

Kim Sung-hwan was residing on the top floor of building 104.

The apartment complex was quiet, as if everyone was sound asleep.

Seon-jae left the apartment complex and moved to the facility in Mapo-gu. The facility for unwed mothers was located on the second floor of a small, shabby five-story building, and only half of the second floor was being rented.

The main entrance to the protection facility had its shutters down, and the remaining entrance leading to the office was a glass door, so the inside could be seen, but it was also locked.

Next to the entrance, there was a small sign that read ‘Emergency Button’ below a red button that said, ‘Please press if you need help.’ It seemed that the shutters were lowered to prevent unexpected guests from suddenly visiting, but he thought that everyone would die if a fire broke out while trying to block unwanted guests.

Of course, there wasn’t a single CCTV camera. Seon-jae examined the security of the alleys leading to and from the facility and the surrounding buildings, then returned to the university hospital where Man’s hospital room was located.

As soon as he entered the hospital room, he began to draw a map with the locations of the CCTV cameras at Choi In-ho’s house and the general hospital that he had just checked. Although it was unlikely that Choi In-ho would do so, he planned a kidnapping route in case he didn’t respond on his own. If possible, the hospital was better for kidnapping than his house. It would be ideal if it was when he was leaving work after a night shift.

Then he made one for Kim Sung-hwan as well. The facility for unwed mothers seemed more suitable for Kim Sung-hwan than the apartment in many ways. Kim Sung-hwan would probably feel more comfortable in that facility than at home.

Seon-jae carefully planned where to go and how to return, and also wrote down escape routes and types of transportation in case things went wrong.

If he acted rashly, he would only be providing Lee Seok-doo with prey, so he had to move as quietly and carefully as possible.

Never be swayed.

Time was on Seon-jae’s side.

He waited for the day to dawn.

Summer was good because the sun rose early. Of course, just because the day dawned early didn’t mean that all government offices or service companies opened early, so he moved leisurely.

He occupied a hospital room with no patients, ate the guardian’s meal, watched a morning drama, and then washed up. Around 8 o’clock, he went to the desk and asked them to send a quick service to the hospital room when it arrived. It was convenient because the quick service company contracted with this hospital always had an employee come to the hospital at 8:30 a.m., and they had notified in advance that not only hospital staff but also patients’ families could use it.

At 9:10 a.m., the quick service company employee came to the hospital room with a cart, and Seon-jae handed the employee two yellow document envelopes.

For Choi In-ho, it was not his house but the hospital where he worked, and the recipient was Director Choi Yun-beom of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department (Choi In-ho, the doctor in charge of Galilla Orphanage).

Kim Sung-hwan chose the apartment where his wife and children lived instead of the facility for unwed mothers. The recipient was Director Lee Sang-hoon (Kim Sung-hwan, Vice Director of Galilla Orphanage).

The two men would not be able to help but open the document envelopes the moment they saw the word ‘Galilla.’

The precious parcels were taken out of the hospital room on a cart, mixed with the employee’s identical document envelopes and various mail items.

Now all that was left was to wait.

Seon-jae put on a suit and sunglasses for the first time in a while. If Yong were there, they would have looked like twins.

“I look just like Will Smith in .”

He said to himself.

“No. I’m more handsome.”

Seon-jae straightened his clothes and left the hospital room.

man was still being investigated by the police. The police were making every effort to get a confession from Man. Meanwhile, Attorney Park and his staff were diligently gathering case materials and meeting with the victim’s family and witnesses.

Man, who had been interrogated overnight at the police station the day before, was finally sent to the detention center at 4 a.m., where he had an uncomfortable sleep. And after sleeping for less than three hours, he was dragged back to the interrogation room.

‘They found the body, and there seems to be a strong witness, but none of Yoon Ki-beom’s fingerprints or blood type were found on the murder weapon. Anyone can see that this is a frame-up. I think the request for a review of the legality of detention1) will be approved.’

Attorney Park smiled, saying that the missing Kim Cheol-soo was unfortunate, but the situation was very favorable to them.

It was natural that the matching blood type and fingerprints were missing.

Because the man was not Yoon Ki-beom.

It was obvious, but it was not an obvious result. There was no way that Detective Oh Dae-Ho, a veteran who had been worn down in the violent crimes unit, would have handed over a case with mismatched fingerprints and blood type to Lee Seok-doo.

He would have checked that first, so something was wrong.

Did Oh Dae-ho scam him? Lee Seok-doo?

He tilted his head.

‘To be honest, I’m a little suspicious too. Even though the blood type and fingerprints don’t match, the detectives are strangely stiff. So, when I looked into it a little, it seems like there’s an accomplice.’

‘An accomplice?’

‘Yes. An accomplice. But he’s in jail. I guess some criminal who knows Yoon Ki-beom ratted him out to get a lighter sentence. It won’t be a big deal.’

Attorney Park, who conveyed the situation in a voice full of laughter, said that he would look into the accomplice a little more and hung up the phone.

Seon-jae was startled by the word accomplice. Now he seemed to know what Oh Dae-ho had caught.

Accomplice.

Seon-jae vividly remembered what Kim Young-ja had said. The day when Yoon Ki-beom, who had become an adult, went to the orphanage with Na Jin-soo and his cousin to rob money, and what she said when she killed Yoon Ki-beom the very next day.

‘When those bastards came back to the orphanage to get more money, Kim Sung-hwan, who was waiting in hiding, suddenly stabbed Yoon Ki-beom in the stomach with a sashimi knife. It was so fast that I was surprised. But you know what’s even more interesting? Kim Sung-hwan suddenly handed the knife to Na Jin-soo and that cousin of his. I thought, “Is that bastard crazy?” But he had a plan. He told those bastards to stab Yoon Ki-beom. Or he threatened to kill them too. Hehe. What could they do when they were so scared that they were pissing their pants? They had no choice but to do what Kim Sung-hwan told them to do. Oh, he was so cunning. It was the first time in my life that I admired that bastard Kim Sung-hwan.’

Kim Sung-hwan did not kill Yoon Ki-beom alone. He made accomplices. He even handed the knife directly to Yoon Ki-beom’s cousin and Na Jin-soo.

It seemed that Kim Cheol-soo had been dealt with in the same way.

Shit. Seon-jae scratched his eyebrow.

Whatever the truth was, there was no possibility that the man would be released on a review of the legality of detention because of the accomplice. Attorney Park was barking up the wrong tree.

Seon-jae thought that what Detective Jo had asked about might be the key to the case.

He would find out when he met him later.

He looked down at his wristwatch and estimated his schedule. He decided to put the case aside for the time being until he met Detective Jo.

Now that he had thrown the bait, it was time to start preparing to welcome his guests in earnest.

Choi In-ho and Kim Sung-hwan, Lee Seon-jae’s precious guests.

[Collection of footnotes]

A document requesting a review of the legality of detention to determine whether the detention of the suspect is lawful in the investigation stage. It mainly includes the purpose of the request and the reasons for the request. In the purpose of the request, it is written, “We request a decision to order the release of the suspect,” and the reasons for the request include the gist of the criminal facts, the lack of grounds for detention, the facts, the legal relationship, and the circumstances.

205 – Chapter Title Without Number