World of the Dead (15)
World of the Dead (15)
I'LL GIVE SNU SNU IF WE MAKE IT TO 500 PRIVILEGE READERS BY 30TH JAN
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At the police station, Junwan was inspecting the things found near the kid's dead body. His partner, Lee, was standing next to him, waiting to give him updates on the case.
"All they found was this button," Junwan sighed. He pointed at a patterned button which was kept in a plastic bag. "But it doesn't match the uniform he was wearing."
"It could be from his attacker," Lee suggested. "Or it had fallen out of some student's shirt."
"Could be, but it was found in Seungjo's palm," Junwan countered. "Whoever is the owner of this button, was the last one to see him alive. Where's his body now?"
"With the coroner," Lee said. "They're examining his body. The coroner had unofficially told me that the kid died due to the fall. The bruises might be from the bullies who were up on the roof."
"What about CCTV footage?"
"Someone tampered with them," Lee replied. "We saw several students heading upstairs and Seungjo was the last one spotted on the third floor. After that, the camera was tampered with."
Junwan cursed out loud. The school authorities were pressing them to find the culprit as they were scared that the parents would grab them by the neck. The headmaster had stated that the death of Park Seungjo had rattled many of the parents. Some want the abusers to be punished but the suspects belonged to very influential families. The school authorities received massive amounts of donations from them and they were being bombarded by both sides. Hence, the authorities handed the headache to the police.
"We can't just sit around!" Junwan exclaimed. "The school has been sealed off until we catch the culprit. They were already reeling from the death of a teacher and now this! This is gonna go to the commissioner and we'll be screwed."
"I've already dispatched the police team to bring the suspects here," Lee informed him. "Thankfully, they're adults and hence, the parents cannot do much if they're found guilty."
"Good," Junwan said. "Let's just hope we can find them."
Just then his phone rang up. He glanced at the caller ID and groaned. Not him again, he thought warily.
"Hello," he greeted in a sullen tone. "What do you want?"
He listened carefully to the speaker on the other end and facepalmed himself.
"Kid, I told you that he's been spotted in this town!" he exclaimed. "And we have our teams ready to apprehend him. I know the statute of limitations is gonna end in three years but we still have time!"
Lee frowned as he watched his partner lose his color with every word he spoke with the mysterious caller.
"You're going to stay in this locality for a while?" Junwan gaped. "Why?"
The speaker said something which made Junwan feel like throwing a chair at him.
"Seriously? That's your excuse? To earn money off a murder? ARE YOU INSANE?"
Make money out of a murder? Who was this guy? Lee wondered.
"What do you mean that properties with murders are cheap? Do you think human lives have a price?"
There was a short pause before Junwan yelled, "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING YES? AND NO! I'M NOT GONNA GIVE YOU A LIST OF PLACES WHERE PEOPLE WERE KILLED OR COMMITTED SUICIDE JUST SO YOU CAN BUY THEM AT A CHEAPER RATE!"
"Junwan, what are you-" Lee began but Junwan was not listening.
"You wanna meet up?" Junwan echoed. "Now? Why? I don't wanna see you! You won't even pay for dinner!"
There was another short pause.
"You'll come to the station instead?" Junwan asked in frustration. "Coz it won't cost you food money? You ungrateful little-"
But the caller hung up on him. Junwan muttered a string of curses, wishing that murder was not illegal.
"Who was that?" Lee asked.
"Damn that bloodsucking money lover!" Junwan growled. "One day, I'll wind up all his cash and burn them to the ground. But he's probably gonna end up making a thousand times more."
"Whom are you talking about?"
"You'll see soon," Junwan prophesied. "But once you see him, you will either admire him for his passion or throw him into a pit of fire."
Before Lee could ask further, a rookie officer approached them.
"Sir!" the rookie said. "We've caught Yoo, Seohyun and Woohyun. The three students who were at the roof of the building from where Seungjo had fallen. We also found a few packets containing cocaine."
"Great!" Junwan exclaimed. "Bring them in. Let's see what they have to say."
Soon, the three students were led into the precinct. They looked scared and ash faced upon finding themselves in the middle of a murder investigation.
"Sit," Junwan ordered. But Yoo was adamant on proving his innocence.
"It wasn't us!" he claimed. "We didn't even meet him at the fair! We weren't there!"
"The students claimed that they saw you and your pals climbing the back stairs to the roof, avoiding CCTV's," Junwan stated. "And your usage of drugs is also an open secret. Your teachers had caught you several times but thanks to your parents, you weren't expelled and were even kept on the football team."
"But that doesn't mean we're killers!" Seohyun said hotly. "We were on the roof but we didn't kill anyone!"
"You have bullied this student in the past," Junwan went on. "Last month, he had a large bruise on his face because and I quote 'Yoo had punched Seungjo's jaw for bringing the wrong flavor of ice cream.'"
He placed the testimony of a witness in front of Yoo and also a picture of him hitting Seungjo at the cafeteria. Yoo was perplexed and visibly scared at his actions being exposed right in front of him. Sweat rolled from his forehead and Junwan leaned back, carefully studying the young men.
It was a classic trope. Bullies often harmed their victims to the point where the whole situation spiraled out of control. Things which seem like harmless fun for one person was painful for another, oftentimes leading to bloody consequences. He had seen countless cases where the bullies hit the victims so bad that they ended up dying.
This case was no different. The lanky and weak nerd, Park Seungjo was killed by his bullies when he caught them consuming drugs. Junwan did not have to investigate much but he still lacked the necessary evidence. All he had to do was trick Yoo and his friends into confessing.
"We may have hit him a few times," Yoo gritted. "But we're not killers! We would never do that!"
"That's what every criminal says," Junwan countered. "People saw you going to the roof. Park Seungjo was pushed from the roof as well."
"He could have been pushed from any of the classrooms!" Woohyun argued. "Maybe the fifth floor-"
"All the classrooms of the fifth floor were locked from the inside," Junwan stated. They had checked the doors and they found the doors were all locked. The janitor had confirmed that he had locked the doors last night and no one had opened them since. Even the rooms looked squeaky clean.
While the other officers had accepted his testimony, Junwan found it odd that the janitor looked a little lost and out of focus. It felt as if he was being controlled by something and was simply parroting the words taught to him. But there was no other reason to overlook his statement so they recorded it for the time being.
"But we didn't hurt him!" Yoo yelled, hitting his hands on the table. "Believe us! We weren't even there when he died or wherever he died from! We were on the roof but he wasn't with us!"
"That's a nice sweater you have there," Junwan said coolly. He pointed at Yoo's sweater. Or more specifically, at the patterned buttons on his sweater.
"What does this have to do with the case?" Yoo asked shrewdly.
Junwan picked up the plastic bag holding the patterned button. "This was found right next to Seungjo's body. He was holding this button when he died. And I'm seeing that you're missing a button."
Yoo froze on the spot. The sweater was indeed missing a button. But it was…
Seohyun was about to open his mouth but Yoo held up his hand. "This is a very common sweater," Yoo said coolly. "Many students have it and it's nothing special. Why not round up every one of the students who were present that day? I'm sure you'll find dozens of them."
Junwan squinted his eyes. The earlier hot headed youth had changed his tone completely as if calculating his words.
"You're saying this isn't your button?" Junwan pressed.
"It's not," Yoo said firmly. "One button doesn't prove that I'm the culprit. Besides, you can check this sweater for evidence. I know how you people work. You collect skin samples from stuff right? If the button is from my sweater and Park ripped it off, then shouldn't his skin particles be left on my sweater? I saw it on crimson shows!"
The kid is not gonna confess, Junwan sighed. He was sure that the skin particles were probably cleaned off but he would still take the sweater for inspection.
"Don't leave town," he ordered. "And we'll bring you in for questioning again. Leave the sweater with the officer at the corner."
Yoo nodded. He took off the sweater and handed it to the officer Junwan had pointed out.
"Let's go guys," he murmured and left. Junwan watched them leave. His mind was saying that these kids were the culprits and all the fingers were pointing at them too. But his gut instincts were telling him that something was amiss.
What is it? He wondered.
….
Once they were outside, Seohyun rounded on Yoo.
"Why didn't you tell him that you gave one of your buttons to Minjung?" he accused. "It could have saved us a lot of trouble!"
Truth was that Yoo had given one of his buttons from the sweater to Minjung as a token of their relationship. She had sewn it on her favorite shirt and wore it quite frequently.
Yoo was silent while Woohyun also frowned at him.
"Do you think that Minjung might have…" he began
"Don't think that!" Yoo scowled at him.
"Then what are we going to do? Go to jail?" Seohyun argued with him. "We must turn her in!"
"It could have been an accident!" Yoo gritted. "I'll talk to her first."
"But-"
"I said, I'll talk to her!" Yoo growled. "Until then, you guys better keep your mouths shut otherwise I'll tell the authorities about your drug dealing businesses!"
The last part had shut Seohyun up and he was terrified. The punishment for drug dealers in the country was up to 30 years in jail and he had no intention of spending his life there.
"I'll talk to her," Yoo affirmed. "And find out the truth. So back off!"
With that, he stared menacingly at his friends and walked away. Minjung had some serious explaining to do and he wanted the truth from her.