慈禧太后的秘密

Lee Daecheol took out his notepad as he left the house. He underlined a name with his pen. He had run out of clues related to the murder incident of the college girl from five years ago. There were no longer any areas he could investigate, nor anyone to ask.

He had to admit that the criminal took a total victory in the case from five years ago.

He took out another notepad. Inside this notepad were things that he couldn’t show any other detectives.

A college student who can see a murder count has a missing sister, and his neighborhood man.

Daecheol was investigating what seemed like a plot from a third-rate novel.

Though, it wasn’t an official investigation where he could use his powers as a civil servant.

“Let’s eat, come out.”

Daecheol called Ahn Changsik. They met in a sundae-gukbap restaurant near the police station in Songjung-gu.

Changsik looked better than two months ago. There was a hint of vitality in his eyes that were devoid of any life before. It was probably thanks to having a clear objective.

“Nothing from your neighbor after that?”

“Nope. I haven’t seen him again since I met him in front of the convenience store three weeks ago.”

“Does he have a job that requires him to travel a lot? Or does he have a lot of overnight work?”

“I know too little. Had I known, I would’ve asked various things when we met. The only thing I know right now is that he goes to a nearby spring to get water from there?”

“Don’t you dare. You said he mentioned your sister when you two met. That might be a warning, or he was probing you out.”

“I didn’t do anything that might have exposed what I was thinking. I did stiffen up a little though.”

“Anyway, it’s very likely that he’s a murderer, so you have to be careful.”

“It’s not just likely. It’s for certain. We checked it together.”

Daecheol put down his spoon and glared at Changsik.

In the past three weeks, they checked the authenticity of the murder count together. As a result of that, they managed to deduce a formula without contradictions.

“The counter doesn’t go up if it’s a murder by contract. And same with accidental homicide. Only a murder with clear intent increases the number. You agreed to this.”

“I did, but that’s only intuitive evidence. What you see can’t be made as evidence. So we need to wait until we can catch him with something we can be sure about.”

“Then what if the number becomes six?”

“If he’s really a serial killer, then he won’t commit murder that easily. He’s someone who makes meticulous plans before moving. Even if he kills for pleasure, he shouldn’t do it spontaneously. He must know that the risk of being exposed is higher if he shortens the interval.”

“But we can’t just sit around doing nothing.”

“I tell you this every time, but we don’t live in a time where we can send someone to jail based on suspicion alone. This isn’t the 80s. It’ll be over if the media gets a whiff of us investigating without any proof. The moment they write headlines that say something like ‘police who forcefully investigates an innocent civilian,’ I will no longer be able to help you and that man will be completely liberated.”

Changsik closed his mouth and nodded. This boy wasn’t someone who couldn’t make the right judgments. In fact, he was on the brighter side. He must know that this wasn’t something they should hurry.

The reason he was rushing despite that was a matter of emotions. It had been three months since his sister went missing. The man living next door directly mentioned his sister as though foreshadowing something.

Expecting a college student who just became an adult to stay calm was probably asking for too much.

“The matter I was in charge of has been resolved. I’m not too free, but I should be able to make plenty of time.”

Daecheol lifted the bowl and drank the soup of the sundae-gukbap before continuing,

“Let’s start from your sister’s house.”

* * *

Changsik stood in the old apartment that his sister used to live in. He had never visited this place when she lived here, but now that she went missing, he came here all the time.

“They really need to install CCTVs in residential areas,” Daecheol said as he looked around.

It was a rather old residential area. It was not really feasible to expect CCTVs to be installed in a neighborhood where even broken lights would stay broken for weeks.

There wasn’t a single convenience store nearby either. It was an alley that would become frighteningly quiet after 11 in the evening.

“It looks like there will be a lot of eyes here, but there really aren’t.”

Changsik raised his head as he listened to Daecheol’s words. There were only about three to four places that were lit up behind the firmly shut windows. Unless there was a huge commotion, not many people would poke their heads outside to look down at the alley.

“Your sister’s house has been dealt with, right?”

“Yes. We dealt with it last month. We pulled out all the furniture and took out all the items.”

Daecheol nodded and took off. Changsik followed Daecheol and headed to a store nearby.

“Good evening, sir,” Daecheol said to the owner.

The store owner seemed to have realized what Daecheol’s occupation was and was quite cooperative.

He soon started asking questions while holding Changsik’s sister’s photo.

“I remember her. She was a very amicable young woman.”

“She came to our shop to get her hair done a few times, and she was a really good person. She looked like a fair lady. But I haven’t seen her recently. Did something happen?”

“Oh, I remember. This lady was really polite and returned all of my greetings. But why do you ask? Did something happen?”

Changsik left the store before Daecheol did. His sister had disappeared, but the neighborhood remembered her as an amicable and polite young lady.

He wiped his eyes. He tensed his neck to hold himself back from crying. Daecheol, who came out not long later, tapped him on the shoulder.

“You okay?”

“Yes, I’m okay.”

“I can do this by myself.”

“No, I’ll follow you. I’m sure I can help out with something.”

“Don’t push yourself. You need to take care of yourself when you can so that you don’t fall apart.”

“I’ll do that after I find my sister… after I find her….”

What did he mean by ‘finding’? Changsik recalled the darkness. He thought of his sister lying down by herself deep in that darkness.

4 to 5, the man next door, his disappeared sister.

“Let’s go now.”

Daecheol moved. The veteran detective no longer lied to him, saying that his sister must be alive.

Did he assume the worst? Or was he simply saying that she was obviously alive and that he shouldn’t mind?

Changsik shook off his urge to cry and walked. His sister, shrouded in darkness, did not say anything. He ignored what that could signify with all his might.

* * *

“Hey, it’s been a while.”

Daecheol met up with a friend who worked at the Songjung police station. This fellow, who was working in law enforcement, showed him his bruised face, saying that he got hit by a drunk person last night during patrol.

“Why do you go around getting hit?”

“Of course, I’m getting hit. Should I be doing the hitting instead, then? That woman was goddamn strong. I can’t really go anywhere to complain about it either.”

“You should’ve stayed in the crime investigation department. If you got hit while fighting a criminal, you can boast about it as a glorious badge.”

“I’m sure my wife would love to hear that. She’s already nagging to transfer to the security department. If I tell her I want to be a detective again, she’ll cause a total ruckus.”

He exchanged drinks with his friend.

“You live nearby, so why is it so hard to see you?”

“Well, the closer you are, the harder it is to meet. It’s not like either one of us has a lot of free time.”

“That’s true. I wish I can get promoted to chief so I can sit at a desk all day.”

“Get old enough, and you’ll naturally become one.”

“You think becoming old is the only thing you need? You need achievements and backing,” his friend said while eating some meat.

“I guess that takes care of talking about recent matters. So why did you contact me? You don’t call me out just to see my face.”

“It’s nothing much. I just wanted to ask something about a missing case.”

“Missing case? What is it?”

Daecheol mentioned the incident from three months ago. When he mentioned Changsik’s sister’s name, his friend exclaimed in realization and put down his chopsticks.

“I think I remember. The madam caused a total fuss.”

“Was there an official investigation into that?”

“The complaint was rather big, so we did look into it. Our team tracked her movements and a few nearby CCTVs, but nothing. Hey, it’s not like we can get all the CCTV footage for a case that has no chance of being a crime. It’s not like we have manpower left over, so what can we do?”

“There was nothing suspicious?”

“It’s a case of an adult leaving her house, so it’s quite obvious. Oh, right, there were a few posts on the missing person’s personal blog. It was not open to the public, and it talked about how she didn’t actually feel that good now that she passed and that she wanted to go far away, or something along those lines.”

“Really?”

That wasn’t something he heard from Changsik.

“Have you told that to her family?”

“Probably just to the mother. The one under me was in charge of that, so I don’t know much either. It’s a typical case of someone leaving the house, so we didn’t dig that deep into it either. Kids these days are like that, you know? They run away if they find one thing hard. When we were her age, we had to endure getting beaten up, right?”

His friend laughed before taking out his phone. He talked to someone before telling that person to come over.

“Who is it?”

“My junior. You know how the wide-area investigation department solved a case a while ago, right? He’s the ace who caught the tail of that. He’s a reassuring junior who’ll surely sit somewhere high one day. Plus, this guy really likes me. I guess that just goes to show my character.”

“If you want to feed that guy, then you pay for it. I don’t have any money.”

“Petty prick. I’m introducing you to someone good, yet you aren’t even buying food?”

Not long later, his friend’s junior arrived. He was a good-looking man and had a nice build as well.

“Say hello. This is my friend Lee Daecheol, who has the crime investigation department in Yangdo-gu under his grasp.”

“Nice to meet you.”

The junior greeted him loudly. Daecheol liked this man for his refreshing attitude. He felt like he would have an easy time talking to him because he was quite manly.

They sat down and continued eating. This junior was quite good at talking and also fawning. If he was brought to a get-together, the superintendent would probably never stop laughing.

“Please lend me this guy when we have an athletic meetup at our station. I think we’ll have an easier time when the superintendent’s angry.”

“I’ll definitely go if I have the time,” the junior said.

After the meal, Daecheol paid for it with his credit card.

“You said you weren’t buying.”

“Do you think I’m paying because of you? I’m paying because I like him,” he said as he looked at the junior.

“How can I stay still after you told me all that? How about round two?”

“I don’t eat that much.”

“Then let’s have a light drink together. I live around here, and I know a good pojang-macha where you can drink lightly.”

“Shall we do that then?”

He hadn’t had any rest because of work, personal investigation matters, and more recently, Changsik. He felt like he could rest at ease for today at least.

“I live nearby, so we can eat some more at the pojang-macha and then go to my house if you want more. I have some bokbunja wine at home.”

“I’m really starting to like this guy.” Daecheol laughed.

It really wasn’t that common for him to click with someone on his first encounter. They followed the junior for a while. As they walked, he realized that he had visited this place twice. Changsik’s house was nearby.

“Seniors, please wait a moment. I’ll bring some money. My house is nearby.”

He looked at the place the junior pointed at. Daecheol slowly felt the drunkenness disappearing. That place was where Changsik lived.

He looked at the junior who went through the glass entrance. The lights on the first-floor staircase lit up, then the second floor, and then the third floor. The third floor — that was where Changsik lived.

Eventually, the lights to a house on the third-floor were turned on.

“Detective?”

Daecheol turned his head around when he heard a voice behind him. He saw Changsik.

* * *

“RUN!” Bada subconsciously blurted out while watching the drama.

Even her mother, who originally said that she was too scared to watch it, chimed in.

When the murderer and her brother were about to meet, the music started flowing out and the drama ended.

Bada rushed to her room to get her phone and called her brother.

-What is it?

“What happens in the next episode?”

-How can I tell you that?

“Gosh! Are you really going to do this?”

-Wait until next week. It’s the joy of waiting.

“You’re so mean.”

Bada hung up and came back out to the living room. What was so good about having a family member in a drama? It wasn’t like he would lose anything if he spoiled just a little at a time like this.

“I’m too scared to watch anymore.”

“Mom, you know you watched until the end despite saying that, right?”

“I’m only watching to see your brother.”

After frowning, her mother asked,

“So? What happens next? Do they meet? Is he getting exposed?”

Bada chuckled in vain and shook her head. Her mother was a splendid drama addict.