BXBX NOVEL Chapter 84 - Suspect 4: Changseob
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....
There was a long stretch of silence after Sera\'s tale. Sera was now crying hard, feeling guilty and scared of what she had done. The nightmare had been stalking her since that day and no matter how hard she tried, she could not get rid of the look in Rachel\'s eyes in her dying moments.
"I know she\'s out to punish me," Sera said in a thick tone. "And she should! I deserve to be killed by her! I couldn\'t do anything to help her and now, she wants revenge on me. I...I…"
She was sobbing hard, making Jina reach over to pat her head.
"You were scared," Jina said. "Anyone would have been scared in your place. But you should have told someone sooner."
"I couldn\'t forget that man\'s threat!" Sera whispered. "He...he was so scary. I lived in this guilt for weeks and I can\'t get rid of it."
"You can if you reveal everything you saw that night," Hobin told her. "And if you need therapy, I\'ll help you. But you\'re not alone in this. Don\'t be scared at all."
The door flung open and a furious Mrs. Jung burst into the room followed by her son and a flustered Soobin.
"I tried to stop her but she pushed me aside and-" Soobin began but Mrs. Jung marched towards Jina.
"HOW DARE YOU TALK TO MY DAUGHTER WITHOUT MY PERMISSION?" she screamed. "I\'LL SUE YOU! I\'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR TALKING TO A MINOR WITHOUT A LAWYER OR GUARDIAN-"
"Your daughter wasn\'t arrested," Jina pointed out. "We found her unconscious in her room and saved her."
"You should be thanking us for being able to save her on time," Hobin added. "And you should spend less time at society functions and more time with your kids."
"Why you little snooty brat-"" Mrs. Jung began but Sera spoke up. She was being comforted by Hyojin but she was a little more determined than before.
"Mom, I\'m going to help the cops," she stated clearly.
"You don\'t have to do anything!" Mrs. Jung snapped at her. "I\'ll sue these cops-"
"I\'m a witness to Rachel\'s murder," Sera revealed. "I saw what happened that night and I\'m gonna give a statement to the police. You can be present there if you want but I\'ll tell them everything, with or without you. I...I can\'t live with this guilt anymore! I must tell them!"
Mrs. Jung was whiplashed and Hyojin was also shocked. Soobin watched everyone quietly, feeling awkward while Jina and Hobin nodded.
"I\'ll call my officers to take your statement in the hospital, in front of your mother," Jina said. "Since your face was caught on camera, you will have to testify anyway. You can call your lawyer, if you want but you\'ll have to testify anyway."
"But how did this happen?" Mrs. Jung demanded. "Why do you know what happened to Rachel? And-"
"I was bullied in school!" Sera burst out. "Rachel and her friends bullied me because I knew about her secret affair with that college guy!"
"What?" Hyojin exclaimed. "She said it was a one time thing-"
"She\'s been lying to you for months," Sera revealed. "She was sleeping with him for a while. I caught them kissing a long time ago. Since then, she\'s been manipulating you against me and also bullying me, bro. I went to her place that night so that I could steal her burn book and expose her!"
She turned to her mother, crying. "If you hadn\'t been so busy with your new found wealth, you\'d have seen how miserable I was! I\'ve been depressed and angry for months! But you were only worrying about your status and nothing else. Just let me do the right thing and free myself from this nightmare. Please!"
Her outburst silenced her mother who was now shocked by what went on behind her back. Hyojin stood up and faced his mother.
"Let her do the right thing," he coaxed her. "Mom, don\'t interfere in this anymore."
A single drop of tear fell from Mrs. Jung\'s eye and she wiped it off. "Alright," she conceded. "Detective, please go on with your work. I won\'t interfere."
…..
Two hours later, Jina and Hobin were back in the precinct, this time with Sera\'s signed statement. Everyone except Woohee was at the meeting.
"Sera didn\'t see who it was," Jina told her team in another briefing. "But she said it was a guy."
"We\'re still in square one though," Jiwoon pointed out. "According to her statement, she left the mansion around 11:30 PM. By that time, Rachel was dead. And Shin Changseob left the mansion well after midnight. Around 1 am according to Seohyun."
"So he\'s not the killer either," Jaebum sighed. "But according to Sera, the whole place was bloodied. Which means that the basement was cleaned up between 11:30 PM and 1 AM. Within one and a half hours. Unless Changseob saw the bloody mess and stayed quiet too"
"Don\'t forget that there has been a time lapse of three weeks before Rachel\'s body was found," Dahoon stated. "Even if the killer cleaned up in such a short time, most of the DNA evidence was already gone within those three weeks."
"Moreover the killer knew that the basement was soundproof," Chanmi stated. "How else can anyone just bring in a dog and no one hears its barks?"
"The basement was soundproof too," Jiwoon replied. "No one could hear anything even if a bomb had exploded there!"
"What concerns me is his statement," Hobin said. He pointed at the copy of Sera\'s testimonial and showed them one particular line.
"This is what you get for your deeds," he quoted. "What deeds? Which one is he referring to? Was it her porn business? Her tendency to blackmail people with their secrets? Or her bullying?"
"Or none?" Jina added. "Maybe he\'s talking about something else she had done. If this guy is part of the burn book, then he\'ll probably be on the third missing page."
At that precise moment, Woohee stumbled into the room.
"Boss!" she exclaimed. "Sorry to interrupt but I managed to bring Shin Changseob into custody. The guy was about to run away on a train but one of the officers at the station called me up and told me that a man with the same description as our murder suspect was seen there. So I told him to stop the guy and keep an eye on him until I reach there."
"Where is he now?" Jina demanded.
"Interrogation room," Chanmi replied.
"I\'ll go and question him," Jina said. "Jiwoon, what\'s the update on the PI?"
"We called him and he\'ll come today to testify," Jiwoon replied. "I\'ll question him."
"I\'ll come to the interrogation with you," Hobin told Jina. The latter nodded and they dismissed the meeting before heading towards the interrogation room.
"I wonder what he\'s gonna tell us," Jina sighed. "If he\'s not the killer, which I\'m sure of, then who else so we have left?"
"Well, unless the angry poltergeist talks to us, we can\'t be sure," Hobin stated.
"She can but it\'ll be a dangerous method," Jina said grimly. "I really don\'t wanna use that method without the old man."
They entered the interrogation room to find Changseob handcuffed. He winced upon seeing Jina. They never got along in the building because Jina knew that Changseob was a good-for-nothing idiot who only wanted easy money.
"I\'m tellng you!" he claimed. "I\'m not the murderer!"
"I never mentioned any murder," Jina shrugged.
"This is the guy who lived in my apartment?" Hobin asked warily. "Took me days to clean off the stench of animals fromy my place."
"That\'s the old woman Ahn\'s fault for not cleaning it!" Changseob claimed. "I used to keep that place clean all the time but she didn\'t let me clean it one last time before leaving!"
"So you know a lot about disinfection and chemicals?" Jina asked.
"Of course!" Changseob claimed. "I have to! Anyone who owns an animal must be well versed in it. After all, we have to clean up after them."
"That means he must have cleaned up the place after murdering Rachel as well," Hobin suggested.
"Woah woah!" Changseob said. "I didn\'t kill anyone! That girl was already dead when I found her."
Jina and Hobin glanced at each other. "You found her?" Jina frowned.
"Yeah!" Changseob revealed. "That night, I left Seohyun in her room after...ummm…"
"We know you guys are banging each other!" Hobin said impatiently. "Just go on."
"Well, I ran towards the basement and a strong scent of bleach and peroxide hit me," he recalled. "I thought someone was downstairs but there was no one. Instead, I saw a…"
He was scowling with disgust. "I saw a bloody body! I mean, literally it was a bloody body! It looked almost like a lump of large meat with no hair and burnt skin. I got shit scared and didn\'t know what to do! If I told the police then I\'ll be charged for trespassing. Also, my affair with the boss\' wife will be caught. I love her money but I wanted to keep my job as well! So I left the body there and ran. I didn\'t want to fall into the mess!"
"And then a few weeks later, I found out it was the boss\' kid\'s body," he went on. "I panicked and stayed low coz I knew that Seohyun would reveal our affair. Today I tried to run away but your officer caught me. That\'s it!"
"When you found the body, was the basement full of blood?" Jina asked.
"The walls were always a dark color," Changseob snorted. "Made of red bricks and all! The floor was sprayed with white powder and a really strong peroxide chemical. It\'s not available easily though."
"How can you tell?" Hobin frowned.
"Well, it\'s only sold to licensed people," Changseob said. "Fei Pharmaceuticals only sells it to medical professionals or institutes."
"Fei Pharmaceuticals?" Jina echoed.
"Yeah, the chemical smelled a lot like the one Fei Pharma produces," Changeseob revealed. "Ya know, the ones used in crime scene cleanup. Old man Yohan produces them after all! He should know about this."