episode_0033

The whispering voices of students were heard.

“Did you hear that? A police officer was killed near the school.”

“I know. It’s near the park.”

“I saw the body in person on my way to school.”

It was after school when Sarah and I came out of the school building. Among the students leaving school, there was already talk about the murder that occurred last night. Since it was a murder case that occurred near a school, rumors could not help but spread. Some students passed by the scene on their way to school.

10 minutes later.

We arrived in front of Jayu Park where the incident occurred.

A yellow tape was placed near the entrance to the park, warning that entry was prohibited. Beyond the tape, a blood-stained patrol car was visible. There were also corpses covered in white cloth. The police were busy investigating.

Sarah and I had a conversation while looking at the scene.

“There’s a lot of blood on it. It got on the patrol car and splattered on the ground.”

“It looks like he was probably hacked with a knife.”

That was all I could tell from a distance. We moved closer to the tape to get a closer look at the scene. At that time, there was a police officer blocking us.

“Students there! Don’t come close!”

I looked at the rank insignia and saw that it was a police officer.

A police officer in a blue uniform tried to stop us from approaching. There was no way I could get out of the way. Sarah spoke to me in a whisper.

“… Jinwoo. Should I just look through a telescope from a place like the rooftop? We can’t even enter the scene anyway.”

“Still, it would be easier to look around here.”

It was when we were chatting for a while.

When the young policeman did not go away obediently, he frowned and came out of the tape.

“Go on your way. You can’t mess up the scene for no reason.”

The young constable tried to pull us out with his own hands.

It was right then.

At the entrance to the park, an older middle-aged man walked out. A middle-aged man approached the police officer who was trying to pull us out.

“Hey, Police Officer Choi! What’s going on?”

“Wow! Captain!”

As soon as the young police officer saw the middle-aged man in civilian clothes, he politely saluted him.

A middle-aged man called the class president raised his hand and lightly accepted the salute.

“… That’s it! This is because students here are loitering near the site. I quickly tried to kick him out. Because you don’t want to disturb the scene.”

The young police officer explained step by step.

The middle-aged man looked at me and abruptly interrupted the police officer.

“Huh? Aren’t you Kim Cheol’s son? It’s been a while.”

“Hello, Mr. Seunghoon. It’s been a while.”

When I looked closely, I saw that the middle-aged man called class president was someone I knew.

To be exact, he was my father’s acquaintance.

Seunghoon Do.

He was a detective chief working in the investigation department of Seungcheon Police Station.

He was a junior who graduated from the same police academy as his father.

When my father was alive, that uncle would often come to our house for drinks.

“Oh… ! Jinwoo, have you grown up a lot? When I saw you before, you were just a kid.”

“I am now a high school student.”

“Are you already a high school student? Time really flies.”

Captain Do Seung-hoon grinned and walked out of the tape.

Then he tapped my shoulder and spoke to the young police officer.

“Constable Choi! Don’t stay here, go and do your work.”

The police officer who was trying to pull us out looked embarrassed when he saw Captain Do Seung-hoon.

“Yes? Isn’t it my job to keep citizens from coming near me? It’s what the class leader ordered.”

“This guy is fine, so go. This is senior Kim Cheol’s son. I’m sure you’ve heard your name too.”

Cheol Kim.

It was my father’s name.

“Kim Cheol… ?”

The young constable was lost in thought for a moment and seemed to remember something about my father.

The young policeman looked surprised.

“Ah! Are you talking about the detective who used to work at Gangsudae?”

“Yeah dude! I know it well.”

“I also heard a lot about him. There are so many amazing stories. He was the one who took down a famous gang or caught a criminal who was called a drug lord in Korea. But among them, there are some that make no sense.”

The young police officer asked Captain Do Seung-hoon with a puzzled expression.

“It is said that he once killed a wild bear that appeared in the city with his bare hands. Does that make sense? I think it’s a mixture of exaggeration.”

“Do you think that’s bullshit?”

“Yes?”

“I’m telling you, most of the stories you heard are true.”

At that moment, the young police officer’s expression hardened. Captain Do Seung-hoon’s voice was serious. It was a true story about a detective who hit a bear with his bare hands.

“Jinwoo, don’t you have leather at home? That.”

“Yes.”

In fact, there was a tanned bearskin hanging in our living room.

It was a trophy acquired by my father at the time.

“Heo Eok… .”

The young police officer looked at me with startled eyes and hurriedly backed away.

After the police officer left, we were able to have a comfortable conversation with Captain Do Seung-hoon.

“But what were you doing here? Why do you have a foreigner wearing a school uniform next to you?”

“Not a foreigner, but mixed race. Sarah, please say something.”

Sarah fiddled with her phone and answered with one word.

“Word.”

When I was told to speak, I was really speaking.

Anyway, I said it.

“Did you hear that? He speaks Korean well.”

“Is that so? I don’t know, but he’s a bit of a picky kid.”

“Please watch because we are friends. We came here because we heard a murder happened near the school. I heard that local police officers were murdered.”

“That’s right. These are young people who worked in the safety department.”

“I’m sorry.”

I expressed my condolences briefly. The murdered police officers belonged to the same police station as Captain Do Seung-hoon. Class leader Do Seung-hoon, who lost his co-worker, looked confused in front of us.

“It’s a pity. One was a newbie and the other was a guy who had recently been promoted and was happy. I never thought I would pass away so suddenly.”

“You were attacked by a masked assailant. Actually, the kids at my school are very scared. Because the incident happened near the school. It would be a big problem if that guy shows up at school.”

“… I guess so. It would be a big problem if a student got hurt. Although patrols will be strengthened starting today.”

Class leader Do Seung-hoon sighed, as if he was worried. The time to ask about the incident was now. I was able to use the kids at school as an excuse to ask class president Do Seung-hoon a question.

“So, please tell us about the incident.”

“What?”

“If you tell me the newly discovered method of crime, I will tell it to the kids at school. That’s faster than sending an official letter to the school. If you tell us the method of the crime, we will be safer too.”

Please tell us a bit about what the police investigated. Then, I will tell a story to the students of Seungcheon High School. Class leader Do Seung-hoon nodded, as if what I said was plausible.

“… is it? It’s definitely very dangerous around here. Tell the kids at school not to walk around at night. If you see a pure white mask, tell me to report it right away.”

“Anything else?”

“It seems likely that the culprit is a pleasure killer. They cut off the fingers one by one from the corpses. The police corpses found at the scene now also have empty finger parts. There’s no reason for an ordinary murderer to collect fingers. Hedonistic killers get the loot.”

“You mean you took your finger as a trophy.”

“Okay. This will be released as news soon anyway. So I’m telling you.”

The masked gunman cut off the corpse’s fingers one by one. This was important information for us. There were cases where things that seemed meaningless on the surface became meaningful when interpreted magically.

“And… .”

Captain Do Seung-hoon looked at us and hesitated for a moment.

“I don’t know if I can tell you this.”

Captain Do Seung-hoon turned his head and looked at the scene. As far as his eyes could see, there was blood splattered on the ground. It was quite far away from the corpses. In particular, the blood stains in that area seemed to be separate from the corpses. In the end, Captain Do Seung-hoon opened his mouth to us.

“First of all, it’s not for sure, so don’t tell other kids. It looks like the masked gunman got into a fight with the police and got shot. A bloody bullet and new blood traces were found at the scene. Residents living nearby also heard the gunfire.”

“But why isn’t it certain? I heard a bullet was found.”

Captain Do Seung-hoon opened his mouth with a shocked expression.

I heard a fairly common sense story.

“There’s no way you can escape unharmed after being shot, right? He must have been caught lying around. Or at least he had to leave traces of his escape, shedding blood. However, after bleeding for a short time, the trace disappeared. No matter how much I think about it, it doesn’t make sense.”

“Aha.”

That was the end of the story.

Captain Do Seung-hoon muttered while looking at the scene.

“Are you even a ghost? Does it make sense to get shot and still be fine?”

I found out most of the information that could be found through conversation.

“Thank you for telling the story. We’ll just go now.”

“Goodbye.”

We said hello to Captain Do Seung-hoon and left the scene.

Sarah, who was fiddling with her phone, had a photo of the scene on her phone.

It seemed like Sarah was secretly taking photos of the scene while I was talking.

*

After some time, we returned to Hyehwadang.

Sarah and I deduced the identity of the masked assailant.

“First of all, those who shed blood are not ghosts.”

“Yes. If it were a ghost, there wouldn’t be any blood splatter.”

The fact that he was shot meant that the gunman was not a ghost. If it had been a ghost, the bullet would have passed through without any blood splattering. Sarah looked at me and started talking about fingers.

“Cut off fingers from corpses. If you think about it magically, it makes sense. It won’t just be a simple collectible.”

“What does it mean?”

“Human fingers are filled with energy. If you cut off a person’s finger, you can use it as a sacrifice. There are many related records in East Asia. Like a fetal ear made by cutting off a child’s finger.”

Prince’s ear.

It was the soul of a child who had died unfairly. In the past, in Joseon, the practice of artificially creating such crown prince’s ears took place. The method was to starve the child, then cut off the child’s fingers and seal them. A soul would reside in a severed finger.

Of course, this kind of behavior did not only occur in Joseon.

There was a similar record in Japan. It was a record of a box being made using a severed finger and animal blood. If the box was sent to someone else, the recipient would be cursed.

The name of the box was Kotoribako.

“A record like Kotoribako?”

“There are things like that.”

Sarah looked at me and continued speaking.

“Cut off fingers can be used as an offering to ghosts. Among the spirit mediums who serve evil spirits, there are those who sacrifice human bodies to increase their power. The more you sacrifice your finger, the more the psychic’s power increases.”

“It’s a terrible story.”

“So, I think the masked man is serving evil spirits. They go around collecting fingers to offer offerings to ghosts.”

We were able to deduce the identity of the culprit.

The stranger wearing a traditional mask was a medium serving evil spirits.