→ Chapter 009

The camera zooms in on a man’s face; his eyes are sunken while clumps of his dark hair stick up in a bizarre manner. And even though the video is dated and a bit blurry, Mina could still recognize her father’s friend: Song Seho.

He looked like he hadn’t slept in days, and the anxiety of being in a courtroom didn’t help it either. Seho wasn’t there as a police officer but as the only witness in Kang Min Hyuk’s murder case. The button-up white shirt he wore that morning was already crinkled and stained, so his hands ran over them over and over again to smooth them out but to no avail.

He moved with slow steps to the front of the courtroom near the judge and swore to tell the truth with the assistance of the clerk. The camera then moves to show the lawyer as she begins to ask personal questions.

“What was your relationship with Police Lieutenant Kang Min Hyuk?” She said in a stern tone.

If Song Seho were to describe his relationship with Min Hyuk, he wouldn’t know where to start and when to finish. Min Hyuk was his neighbor, colleague, friend and the brother he never had. They shared their happiest moments together, and their saddest times also. The mere thought of what they went through must’ve brought him to tear up slightly, as he lifted the back of his hand and wiped one droplet off his cheek and responded:

“My best friend.”

“How long have you been friends?” She asked again, and the witness answered.

“Twelve years.”

The lawyer then proceeded to ask him questions about the events preceding the murder. Song Seho admitted to inviting Kang Min Hyuk at eleven o’clock at night to talk and have a drink. It wasn’t until an hour passed that they started hearing strange noises. There was a man downstairs, covered from head to toe and armed with a gun. When Seho was about to press the emergency button in his house, the robber aimed at him but Min Hyuk took the shot for him instead. The robber ran away immediately using the front door.

“Is Min Hyuk the only man you invited that night?”

“Yes.”

“The camera belonging to the villa next to yours picked up something strange. May I have your permission to play the video?”

The video was a static obscure image of the empty street, and only the shadow of Song Seho’s villa showed. When the clock hit ten thirty-five, the spot next to the door lit slightly, and the silhouette of two men suddenly appeared and it seemed like one of them was the owner and the other a visitor. Time passed and when it was marked eleven o’clock, the same happened but we could clearly see Kang Min Hyuk’s car. The previous visitor only left after forty-five minutes, three minutes after the gunfire was heard, running fast. Luckily, he ran the other way and the camera picked up his face. The picture showed the young face, however, scarred, of none other than Jung Ilhoon.

The video ended and the camera moved to show Seho’s stoic expression.

“You said before that the robber, Jung Ilhoon, broke into your house through the backdoor. Why can we see him entering your house through the front door like a normal visitor? Is it a normal occurrence that a man like Jung Ilhoon visits you during the evenings or at night?” The lawyer asked the question roaming everyone’s minds. All eyes turned to Song Seho, as his hands started flattening his shirt wrinkles.

“No, it isn’t. It’s not me who opened that door.” His hand picked up a plain toothpick and planted it between his upper and lower front teeth. Mina unknowingly smiled, clutching her own toothpick in her pocket; Seho may have left years ago, but his habits remained carved in her brain.

“Are you perhaps suggesting Ilhoon had an accomplice?”

“Yes.”

“The only DNA we discovered was yours, Kang Min Hyuk’s and Jung Ilhoon’s. The second test, however, showed a fourth belonging to an unknown. Do you have any idea who that might be?”

Song Seho visibly tensed, his jaw now clenched and his brows joined, “I rarely have visitors, I don’t know. It might be the accomplice.”

“How did you know that Ilhoon deleted the files from your computer and put them in the USB the police found?"

“I saw him.”

“How do you explain Jung Ilhoon only shooting Kang MinHyuk?”

“I fled the living room as soon as he entered it and hid inside my room.”

“I don’t have any more questions.”

The video ended, the black color filling the computer screen and mirroring Mina’s muddled expression. It was her first time watching the court transcript, and it only added to her building confusion and bewilderment. Turning off the computer, she pushed back with her covered feet and lay on her back, her carousel of thoughts taking over her hot head. There were things that seemed too complicated, grotesque and far out from her previous assumptions. Playing detective, Mina had to admit, was quite difficult and to solve those uncanny happenings while having to deal with her emotional turmoil was too heavy for her shoulders. There’s no denying somebody entered the house two hours before the murder and was welcomed by the owner himself. All fingers point to Ilhoon, yes, but why did Seho let him in so easily? But was it even Seho who opened the door? Is there the possibility of an accomplice just like he said? No, it can’t be. But that would make Seho an accomplice himself, which was unacceptable. Plus, there was DNA of a fourth person uncovered in the house, so to who could it belong to? The presumed accomplice? Mina was beginning to question everything she knew about the case, being a family member of the victim. Is the killer really Ilhoon? Or could it be the fourth person?

Mina sat up almost immediately, panting hard. It can’t be. Whoever it was, it made her plans tumble down because of one unanswered question. What if the killer turns out to be someone else other than the Kodak owner? But Ilhoon’s fingerprints were the ones they detected on the revolver.

It was almost embarrassing that she had no clue how to answer any of these questions, no matter how many times she watched that video. It wasn't her fault; the case was complicated enough for detectives all around Seoul. It must've been the reason why it was so easy for lawyer Lee Sangmin to revive it.

The time he chose to interfere, however, was odd to Mina. Two years after the case was announced closed, and after Jung Ilhoon was convicted for her father's murder, a lawyer steps in to take a second look at the case along with a detective who goes by the name of Kim. It was even odder that the prosecutor dropped the charges against Ilhoon after a few months only. Everything was working well for the latter, and that seemed suspicious to her.

But it was also understandable. The said lawyer and detectives had a lead, one that ignited doubts inside Mina's head for a moment but then disappeared. Their men had, apparently, revisited the case files and came to know about the drugs found inside Ilhoon's body once he was arrested. It wasn't a surprise to anyone before; Jung was a drug dealer after all. However, they seemed quite interested in that information.

The test at the time indicated that Ilhoon had taken a few hours before the murder, and thus should be in crash mode during it. This meant that Ilhoon was most likely feeling drowsy, sleepy and extremely tired the time of the murder. It would've been impossible for him to shoot her father precisely two times in the chest area and one time in the head, aiming to kill him instantly. The witnesses confirmed seeing the man wobbling his way out of the house, and it would explain his carelessness about the weapon and the USB which were left in a deserted park. 

Still, it was only a theory. Jung Ilhoon could've easily shot her father even if he was crashing; a high possibility doesn't mean impossibility.

It baffled her how the prosecutor dropped the charges at claims such as these, with no evidence or proof. She heard that he did so because the lawyer insisted on two points: one, why would a robber shoot someone with the goal of killing them? He affirmed that robbers usually will shoot for self-defense only, so why did Jung Ilhoon take that extra step, considering that her father wasn't armed? And two, why didn't the so-called thief steal anything from the house? The lawyer used these points to lower the credibility of Song Seho who insisted that Ilhoon was a robber.

But it was the newly found evidence that bewildered everyone in the room: the glass of wine found miles away from Seho's house two years ago along with other trash, and that was disregarded as such, turned out to have Ilhoon's DNA in it. It looked similar to the wine glasses that Song Seho and her father drank from the night of the murder. The lawyer argued th