Chapter 41. No Reason to Commit Suicide
A week had passed since the apartment collapse.
Contrary to Handong Group’s hopes, public interest in the accident still hadn’t died down.
The only small consolation was that they had successfully shifted the frame around the safety-budget issue by attacking the messenger.
Harok came to work and began reading through the stack of newspapers on Jang Junyeol’s desk one by one.
It was a routine he had repeated since studying for journalism exams.
A routine he had maintained even in his previous life.
The problem was that now that he was in Culture, he was supposed to read the culture pages first.
Yet his eyes always drifted to the social-affairs pages.
He couldn’t help being drawn first to the latest updates on the apartment-collapse investigation.
So far, the causes revealed by police were complex.
Illegal expansion work.
Failure to use load-bearing walls.
An excessively shortened construction schedule.
Among them, however, police believed inadequate safety measures had been the decisive factor in the workers’ deaths.
Investigators were especially focused on the unauthorized removal of the steel supports known as shoring posts.
Concrete supports had been installed in their place, and the structure had failed to bear its own weight before collapsing.
Normally, when constructing a building thirty stories or higher, steel supports needed to remain installed across three floors below the level where concrete had just been poured.
Ignoring such a basic construction principle had resulted in the collapse of a thirty-eight-story building.
Harok had no intention of letting the matter end there.
He was determined to prove Kwon Jaegwan’s responsibility for things like the safety-budget cuts and put him before the law.
Handong Group kept dragging Ahn Changwan’s morality into the discussion and turning the media’s attention elsewhere.
Don’t get too happy.
Once I confirm the offshore tax evasion, you’re finished.
Kwon Jaegwan.
You don’t have much time left.
Laugh while you still can.
Ring, ring.
Seo Jinwoo, Jongno line.
“Yeah, Jinwoo.”
“Yes, Senior. I finally looked into what you asked about.”
“The entire satsumari team must be losing its mind over the collapse, so thanks for taking the time.”
“It’s nothing.”
“So? Are they sure it was suicide?”
Seo Jinwoo hesitated slightly.
Harok immediately noticed the pause.
It didn’t feel natural.
“Why?”
“Officially, it looks like they’ll conclude that he killed himself using charcoal briquettes.”
He emphasized the word officially.
That meant there were other theories floating around.
Or someone was hiding something.
“So there are things that don’t quite fit suicide?”
“Seems that way.”
“Like what?”
“For starters, there were no charcoal traces on Sergeant Park’s hands. Oh, and the person in charge is Team Leader Go Ungseok. Don’t you know him?”
Go Ungseok?
Harok’s mind raced.
Of course he would have known the man well during this period.
But Harok had already lived ten more years beyond this point.
Then it came back to him.
Go Ungseok was an older police officer who had helped him while he was reporting on an illegal gambling den.
He had been a fairly strict man, so Harok remembered that it hadn’t been easy getting close to him.
“I know him well. I’ll call him directly.”
Harok ended the call and searched for Go Ungseok in his phone.
Their last call had been two years earlier.
Apparently, the last time they spoke was when Harok had covered the Jongno line.
“Hyung, you’ve been well?”
“What brings Reporter Baek to call me?”
His reaction was surprisingly warm.
“I called because I thought I could help with the case you’re investigating.”
“When you say you want to help, that actually makes me a little nervous.”
“Come on, Hyung. You know I’ve always helped you out from your side.”
When Go Ungseok had been investigating that illegal gambling operation, Harok had broken the story exclusively.
A huge article had appeared on the social-affairs page of a national daily.
Naturally, Go Ungseok had been thrilled.
“Fine. What is it?”
“First, my number should appear several times in Sergeant Park’s call history.”
“Huh? Were you investigating something with Sergeant Park?”
“Something like that. Then he suddenly died, so I was shocked and called.”
“What? So you really are a witness in the case?”
Only then did Go Ungseok’s reaction become much more intense.
“If you call me in, I’ll come give a witness statement. I’ve got plenty of time. But in return, you have to tell me some of what I’m curious about too.”
“Come by first.”
Harok met Team Leader Go Ungseok at the police station.
“So you were investigating the dumpling scandal, and then he suddenly committed suicide?”
“Something about it feels off. I wanted to know if Sergeant Park suddenly had some reason to kill himself. And I also heard there were parts of the scene that made it difficult to conclusively call it suicide.”
Go Ungseok’s expression became slightly uncomfortable.
“Difficult to conclusively call suicide? Who told you that?”
“I have police sources too.”
“Whoever your source is, they’re way off. There’s nothing unclear about it. If anything, it’s too clean.”
No way.
For a moment, Harok felt that Go Ungseok was hiding something.
He had almost fallen for it.
In his previous life, Harok had seen that exact expression on countless slippery old foxes.
Did someone above give him instructions?
Let’s poke him.
“I heard there were no charcoal traces on Sergeant Park’s hands.”
“Who told you that?”
“My source. Where else would I have gotten it?”
“I’m the team leader investigating this. Everything else is speculation. It only becomes official when it comes from my mouth, so ignore the rest.”
Is that so?
That meant there were other claims circulating.
“So in your opinion, Hyung, it was definitely suicide?”
“NCND. I neither confirm nor deny.”
“What are you developing nuclear weapons now? Why are you using NCND here?”
“Anyway, the investigation is ongoing. I can’t say more.”
“...”
Harok finished giving his witness statement after about an hour.
Go Ungseok pretended ignorance to the end, but he couldn’t fool Harok.
There are definitely suspicious points surrounding the death.
Harok couldn’t say for certain that it was murder.
But there was also evidence that didn’t fit suicide.
If it was murder, then who?
Could the mastermind Hong Yunjung had mentioned really have gone as far as killing someone?
But why kill Park Junhyeong now?
No.
That didn’t make sense.
It was just dumplings.
Would someone really commit murder over something like that?
Connecting the dumpling scandal all the way to murder felt like too much of a leap.
The more Harok thought, the more tangled everything became.
If the mastermind was involved, then why kill Park Junhyeong?
Did he know something important?
Or did he know someone who connected directly to an important person?
