Ch.154Chapter 154. Fate (3)
by fnovelpia
Her throat was parched.
Already two empty water bottles were rolling around on the desk, but Juliane still felt like her throat was on fire.
“On the 129th day after Jinsoo Kim’s arrest, Elizabeth Kim was found dead, having hanged herself at her home. Elizabeth had been passionately trying to prove her husband’s innocence, even openly expressing her belief in his wrongful conviction. However, her suicide immediately after her daughter’s death seems suspicious.”
Unable to hold back, Juliane opened another water bottle, gulped it down, and continued.
“A handwritten suicide note was found at the scene. It stated that she had realized her husband wasn’t innocent after all, that she was disappointed, and that she couldn’t bear the additional grief of her daughter’s death. This was accepted as evidence by the military prosecution. However, notebooks containing hundreds of diary entries that were at the scene were not accepted as evidence and were instead incinerated by the prosecution. The hard drive from her home was similarly disposed of, and files stored on cloud servers were deleted. While it’s questionable why these diaries weren’t accepted as evidence and were instead destroyed, the prosecution made one mistake: the cloud server files weren’t permanently deleted and remained in the database. After requesting recovery from the service provider, we were able to restore 224 out of 728 diary entries.”
Of course, the fact that the recovery work was carried out because her father had pressured the server company remained confidential.
“We asked Harvard University’s AI to compare the writing style of the recovered diaries with that of the suicide note. The result showed only a 12 percent match in writing style. Considering that Hitler and Churchill’s writing styles have a 26 percent match, this is an extremely low figure. This means the suicide note was not written by Elizabeth Kim. So where did the prosecution obtain this suicide note that they accepted as evidence, and why did they dispose of the other diaries?”
Though she ended with a question, the implication was obvious.
The prosecution had fabricated evidence and destroyed anything that could prove this fabrication.
She was suggesting that the military prosecution had deliberately framed Jinsoo Kim.
“Of course, one might speculate that a third party attempted to fabricate evidence and the military prosecution was misled. However, court records show that the military prosecution actively conducted illegal investigations. Please pay close attention to Jinsoo Kim’s statements during the trial.”
As Juliane stepped back, footage of the courtroom began playing on the screen.
-The California State San Francisco County District 109 Court will proceed with the trial of ‘Jinsoo Kim,’ case number 840W209845.
It was footage from the trial where Jinsoo Kim’s final verdict was delivered.
The video was over 30 minutes long, but most of the middle portion was fast-forwarded, edited to play at normal speed only when Jinsoo Kim spoke.
Jinsoo Kim spoke a total of 5 times during the trial.
As they watched these 5 instances, reporters began to whisper, noticing something strange.
“As you saw, Jinsoo Kim didn’t say a single word during his opportunities to speak. Despite having his mouth right in front of the microphone, no sound came out. Instead, his lawyer would put his ear close to Jinsoo’s mouth and then speak on his behalf. Did the lawyer truly hear and relay Jinsoo Kim’s words? In the records, Jinsoo Kim appears extremely tired and haggard. Here is the testimony of the psychiatrist who conducted Jinsoo Kim’s mental evaluation before the trial.”
-Jinsoo Kim was clearly not in his right mind. He showed symptoms suggesting schizophrenia. I clearly communicated that in this state, he couldn’t answer questions, and even if he confessed, it couldn’t be used as evidence. But the next day, surprisingly, Jinsoo Kim’s mental health evaluator had suddenly changed from me to another doctor. My opinion had already lost its validity.
“For safety reasons, I won’t reveal the psychiatrist’s identity here. However, if a retrial is held, he will appear as a witness. As you can see, despite being in no condition to attend trial, Jinsoo Kim was forced to appear in court and answer questions from the judge and prosecutor. Moreover, the answers relayed by his lawyer were remarkably logical and coherent. Could a patient diagnosed with schizophrenia provide such answers? Or perhaps the military lawyer’s own interpretation was included in those answers?”
Questions that weren’t simply stating facts but deliberately forcing a particular interpretation.
This was the kind of wording that would have earned her at least two slaps from her superior if she’d used it while working at the Department of Justice.
But there was no better approach for planting doubt in the public mind.
Simply attacking the unfamiliar military prosecution outright would likely cause the general public to lose interest quickly.
She needed to make the public themselves question and pressure the military prosecution.
In a liberal democracy, power lies with the public, and authority rests with the parliament they create.
“To summarize: Despite no clear evidence pointing to him as a suspect, Jinsoo Kim was detained and investigated for 130 days. During the investigation period, Jinsoo Kim’s daughter was murdered by unidentified forces, and his ex-wife allegedly committed suicide, leaving behind a fabricated suicide note. Jinsoo Kim, who developed schizophrenia as a result, was forced to stand trial despite a psychiatrist’s evaluation that he was unfit for trial, and gave self-incriminating answers. My assertion is as follows: The Navy fabricated evidence to frame Jinsoo Kim and murdered his ex-wife and daughter to threaten him into making a false confession. I hereby demand a search and seizure of the military prosecution and military court, as well as a reinvestigation and retrial of this case.”
Of course, she didn’t forget to provide a three-line summary for those blockheads who couldn’t understand without it.
Amid the flashing cameras, Juliane faced the overwhelming crowd and spoke again.
“That concludes my statement. I’ll take questions now.”
“The military court…”
“If you’re an investigator…”
“At that time, Jinsoo Kim…”
At that moment, reporters stood up all at once, showering her with questions.
She planned to answer each one carefully.
There was nothing to lose by answering.
‘It worked.’
Sensing the success of the press conference, Juliane felt her trembling subside.
She had succeeded in capturing the media’s attention.
This meant the public was very likely to respond as well.
‘I wonder if they’re enjoying their trip now.’
Suddenly thinking of Jinsoo and Cuss made her feel sentimental.
She wished she could see them right away.
***
A fierce wind blew.
It was early morning, before the sun had fully risen.
Sitting in a chair, staring blankly ahead, all I could see was snow.
Snow, trees, and sky.
Occasionally, I could see reindeer passing in the distance.
I hoped they wouldn’t charge in our direction.
“Ugh…”
“You awake?”
A groan escaped as the tent zipper opened.
That adorable creature poked her head out, shivered for a moment, then put on a thick padded jacket and tiptoed outside.
She collapsed into the chair placed next to mine.
I pulled the hood of her jacket over her ears to keep the snow out.
But Cuss made a displeased sound and pushed the hood back.
“It’s cold. Wear your hood.”
“No. It makes it hard to see Jinsoo. Hard to hear your voice too.”
“…”
Maybe when her ears freeze completely, she’ll come to her senses and put the hood on.
I decided to leave her be.
“Penguins. I don’t see any.”
“Penguins… are in Antarctica.”
“Hmm. So?”
“This is the Arctic.”
“…”
Silence fell between us.
Feel free to call me an idiot.
Today, I’ll even permit some cursing.
I had dragged us all the way to the northernmost part of Greenland, promising to show Cuss penguins.
I should have listened when the Eskimos tried to stop us, saying there was nothing to see there.
Now we were stuck just looking at snow.
“I came to the wrong place. Sorry.”
“Jinsoo stupid.”
“I have nothing to say to that.”
Thump.
Cuss’s head bumped against my shoulder.
I gently stroked her head.
This was our last time together…
And even for this final journey, I had to be the foolish father who couldn’t find the right path.
“Still good.”
“What’s good about this? It’s cold, I’m hungry, I’m in pain… and we haven’t seen a single penguin.”
“Good to be with Jinsoo. Actually, I don’t really care about seeing penguins anymore.”
“…”
Good to be together, she says.
What a sweet thing to say.
When in reality, she had wanted to see them.
She had been looking forward to seeing penguins.
“Are you disappointed?”
“A little…”
I brushed aside her hair and brought my lips close.
To comfort this lovable yet sometimes frustrating creature, I kissed her forehead.
It was cold.
Beautiful silver hair, and tentacles wriggling inside the thick padded jacket…
Others might be horrified, but no matter what anyone says, Cuss is my daughter.
Yes, my one and only daughter.
“Jinsoo! Look at that!”
“Ouch. Don’t poke me. That hurts. What is it?”
As Cuss kept poking my side, I had to look up and follow her finger.
Her finger was pointing at the vast sky.
The dark sky where the sun had not yet fully risen.
“What about the sky?”
“The sky is glowing.”
“What?”
She was right.
Very thin threads of light were floating in the sky.
Those green threads rippled and gradually grew larger, eventually becoming thick curtains hanging in the sky.
Though the sun hadn’t risen, the entire sky was bright.
“Wow… it’s beautiful…”
“It really is…”
For a long time, we stared at the sky, entranced.
We looked up until our necks hurt.
What do they call this again?
Arirang? No, that’s not it. What was it?
I’ve forgotten.
“I’m glad we came after all, Jinsoo.”
“Yeah…”
We didn’t see penguins, but we saw something even more amazing.
Looking at Cuss’s wide grin, I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
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