“Are you saying you’re going to catch Ojakin?”
“No way, was my brother-in-law not a demon but murdered?”
“Even so, to suspect Ojakin after finding the corpse?”
My sudden announcement caused a commotion around me.
“Prison?! For what crime are you planning to arrest me?”
Ojakin Yang-heo shouted at me in disbelief.
“Kang Ho Pil. I’ve heard there’s a motive for my brother-in-law to commit suicide.”
The Head of the Right Guards also spoke to me with a worried look.
Do they think I’m overreacting to my brother-in-law’s death? I smiled to show I wasn’t excited and shook my head.
“I ran to his funeral notice and read the autopsy report, Ma Yang-baek. Cause of death: drowning. Time of death: last night. No visible external injuries. The body had water in it. Signs of froth around the mouth and nose. Traces of dirt on the hands. Definitely a suicide. It was truly strange.”
“I just explained that! It’s definitely a suicide!”
Yeah, on paper, it does say drowning. But you know, there was one weird part in the report.
Something strange, just reading it.
“When did Ojakin start using the word ‘definitely’ regarding suicide?”
“……!”
My brother-in-law’s cause of death was drowning.
“That’s right. The case judgment is made by Ho Pil or the officials. Ojakin only gives advice.”
“I’ve never heard of someone saying for sure in a report, even if it’s suspect!”
I know about Ho Pil’s work too. The autopsy report might be done by Ojakin, but the investigation and conclusion must be made by Ho Pil or the officials.
Signs are visible. Suspicions arise. Ojakin can express opinions, but coming to a definite conclusion clearly exceeds Ojakin’s authority.
“It’s just that the circumstantial evidence seems so strong that I wrote it!”
“Nobody would doubt what Ojakin said after being the first to arrive and finish the examination. Ho Pil, the officials, and my brother-in-law’s family would all believe it too.”
We were deceived by Ojakin. We were played by someone’s intent. A heavy atmosphere began to settle with my words.
“Are you saying that I deceived everyone?!”
Huh? You did deceive them. I smirked and subtly glanced at Miss Zhuge and Jeon Gil-san.
‘Do I need to buy time until Ho Pil surrounds them?’
The one who killed Ma Yang-baek is either a master of martial arts or a skilled assassin. Both are people who can easily hide their identities.
If they run away, it’d be problematic, so I instructed to surround them with constables once the culprit was suspected. But it seems I still need some time.
“Did you really find something?”
I nodded at the Head of the Right Guards’ words and slowly approached the crowd.
It couldn’t be helped.
“Yes. I happened to be near the crime scene and told Ojakin that, in fact, a hideous truth was hidden there.”
The grand finale of a detective story. Shall I buy some time with a little explanation show?
————
“I carefully examined my brother-in-law’s corpse. I noticed parts that others failed to discover.”
In the government office yard, I bit my lower lip and raised my arms in front of the audience.
It was like I was desperately swallowing the sadness over my brother-in-law’s death while trying to find evidence from his corpse.
“What parts you didn’t discover?”
“I found the hands to be quite strange. You said they were definitely the hands with dirt on them.”
“You didn’t say! Drowning victims struggle for their lives at the very last moment! Their hands must be covered in dirt!”
What Ojakin Yang-heo said was correct.
Just because there’s dirt on the hands doesn’t mean it’s proof they died outside the water. Most of the officials gathered at the yard would likely nod in agreement with Ojakin’s words.
Except for me.
“Yes, that’s right. People fight with every last ounce of strength just before death. But… there’s one piece of evidence that should appear on the corpse that wasn’t visible on my brother-in-law’s hand.”
You know, the reason I found the corpse strange was precisely because of the hands.
“Evidence that should be visible…?”
I raised my hand to show the audience. A part that any avid reader of detective tales should check first.
“Fingernails. The dirt under the nails was extremely clean.”
It looked as though they had just come back from the bath. A person who claimed their hands were covered in dirt.
“Er?!”
“Indeed!”
“If there’s dirt on the hands, there should be some under the nails too!”
For a brief moment, I saw surprise flash across Ojakin’s composed eyes.
“Since there wasn’t much dirt under the nails, it was easy to clean them.”
“I see. You need to carefully scrape dirt under your nails with a stick, but it appears Ojakin was too busy with the recovery instead of examination.”
“You see, I was just in a hurry to finish since I was sure it was a suicide.”
The excuse, “There wasn’t much dirt,” huh? Well then, how do you explain this?
“There were more problems.”
“More?!”
I nodded at the Head of the Right Guards’ astonished voice and looked at the gathered locals. What I was about to say needed their understanding.
I smiled and pointed at my throat.
“It’s about the white froth. Typically, drowning victims forcefully try to breathe just before they choke, causing white foam to form inside the trachea.”
“How does he know that?”
“Didn’t I find the murderer just by looking at the evidence!”
“Kang Ho Pil isn’t just good at observation; he seems skilled in examinations too!”
“I washed the mouth and nose with lake water! If you’re going to claim not to see it because it wasn’t visible, then it’s customary to rinse the inside of the mouth too!”
Predicting the possible questions and answering them. Ojakin seems to be desperate.
“Seems like Ojakin is a mortician on the side.”
“Ugh! As someone who deals with others’ last moments, I’m just more diligent than anyone else! Are you mocking the many Ojakin?”
“Aha, so you tortured the corpse with water then!”
How can you deal with a dead person’s death falsified and then talk of integrity? I couldn’t hold back my sneer.
“Did Ojakin torture the corpse?”
“What kind of nonsense is this?”
“What are you talking about!”
Leaving a flustered Yang-heo behind, I opened my mouth to the crowd.
Now begins the forensic lecture. I extended two fingers to look like a long stick, then showed the movement going down from my cheek to my chin, then to my neck.
“I said it before, white foam is formed in the trachea. By opening the mouth of the corpse or thrusting deep into the nose, white foam should be expelled. But my brother-in-law’s corpse was clean. That can only be possible if the trachea was thoroughly tortured with water.”
Unless, of course, there was never any white foam to begin with.
“I only poured lake water to clean the corpse!”
“And that’s your excuse?!”
Several sharp-minded locals began to jeer at Ojakin.
“What did you see to say that’s an excuse! You’re about to be wrongfully accused of murder!”
Got it. Don’t pretend to be a victim. Now I’m giving you the final killer question.
“You washed both the hands and the face… So what about the swollen belly?”
“If the corpse’s insides rot, that’s only to be expected!”
“I stopped by Seven Lakes on the way. It was autumn, so the water was cold enough to chill my hands.”
“So?”
“A corpse found at night would remain intact for at least half a day without rotting.”
“……!”
“Er?”
“Wait a minute!”
“You’re telling me the expert Ojakin can’t grasp something everyone else notices, how bizarre.”
The body couldn’t have rotted that much. All eyes, including mine, narrowed in suspicion on Ojakin.
“Th-then! I got too hot because I had soup for breakfast… So! I just didn’t think to check the water temperature!”
A disheveled excuse erupted from a panicking voice that no one would believe.
“You just said you washed the corpse with lake water, right?!”
“……I must have been in such a hurry I lost my memory.”
“What kind of nonsense is that!”
“What a poor excuse!”
It seemed that Yang-heo, flustered, turned red and clenched his fists, shouting at everyone.
“Drowning and corpses are unpredictable! Even for someone who’s done this for decades, it’s tough to judge drowned corpses!”
Is it time already? I saw a few constables cautiously closing in behind Yang-heo.
“Ah, I see. It’s human; mistakes can happen. Even though a thorough examination is crucial, it’s understandable. You said in the report it was definitely suicide, but it’s understandable.”
I needed to divert attention without them noticing. I jabbed at Yang-heo’s answer with sarcasm.
“Ugh…! You can’t be accusing someone based solely on suspicions now!!!”
“No.”
“Then what is it!!! This is missing! That’s missing! So you’re guilty! So the absence of evidence means I’m guilty!!! How can such a renowned Ho Pil conduct such an interrogation?!”
Yang-heo’s furious retort echoed in the government office.
Yeah. I’m guilty for lacking evidence. It sounds ridiculous.
There must have been evidence. Since there wasn’t any, Ojakin could have destroyed the evidence himself. You can become innocent due to insufficient evidence, but you shouldn’t try to pin someone based on a lack of it.
How ridiculous this must be for Ojakin.
But you know,
“Lacking evidence, but there’s a perfect confession.”
“Confession?”
I raised my hand.
“One of my brother-in-law’s vital points was pierced—dead on the spot! To hear Ojakin proclaim it’s drowning is a perfect confession, isn’t it?”
Every excuse you made to save your hide became all confessions. My declaration and Yang-heo’s binding were clearly separated—no room for negotiation.
————
“Tie him up tightly!”
“Ugh!”
“What on earth happened?”
The Head of the Right Guards instructed the constables while demanding an explanation from me.
“My brother-in-law was pierced through the Mingmen point and died instantly. Since it wasn’t drowning, obviously, no evidence of drowning would appear.”
“What?! If that’s the case, what did Ojakin see?”
“I happened to be having breakfast and casually found Ojakin’s tale. But the truth was different. Yang-heo was waiting at the inn since early morning. Judging from his sleeves, he seems to have ordered booze but didn’t drink a single drop.”
“Ugh!”
What’s the point of hiding your sleeves when you’re getting tied up? Besides, I learned that from Jeon Gil-san.
I continued to explain.
“I heard a scream. Yang-heo dashed to Seven Lakes as if ready. He did so to cover up the murder as a definite suicide.”
“Cover it up as a suicide?”
“The corpse had none of the froth or dirt to begin with. Since it wasn’t drowning, it naturally wouldn’t have traces either. But it didn’t matter to Yang-heo. While Ho Pil slowly arrived, Ojakin had completed the examination and recovery. All that was left was to tell the conclusion he had come to.”
“Don’t tell me…?”
“That it’s definitely suicide.”
The corpse had both motive and evidence. No one could dispute it; thus the investigation was concluded without delay.
“How did you figure it out…?”
Yang-heo glared at me as if wanting to kill me but soon seemed to give in and hung his head in resignation.
“Yang-heo! Is it really you?!”
“My goodness!”
“Is this real!”
Admiration erupted from the back.
“Say it. There was no evidence! It was perfect! So just how…?!”
Yang-heo looked at me as if he felt wronged. Indeed, without solid proof of a murder, the conclusion would have to be suicide. It was a natural outcome.
Unless I wasn’t an avid reader of detective stories.
If their hands were dirty, the nails would show traces. But they didn’t. Strange. They claimed there was white froth. Was there evidence in the trachea? None.
Could it be?
All that knowledge I taught myself from detective novels became quite handy. If it had just been me, this would have ended with suspicion.
Had it not been for Miss Zhuge, I would never have found the vital points. If I hadn’t gathered information from Haho Gate, piecing it together would have been challenging.
If Yang-heo hadn’t so freely given his confession, being completely unaware of my knowledge of his murder from the beginning, I might never have figured it out.
There was no need to share these details with the suspect.
With a confident look, I simply spoke so everyone could hear,
“Who am I?”
“Ho Pil, Kang Yoon-ho…!”
—————
“Arrest the criminal. I will interrogate him myself.”
“Bwahahahaha!”
Yang-heo dropped his head in despair at the Head of the Right Guards’ declaration.
“Even for the innocent brother-in-law’s unjust death, I trust you will do a good job.”
I said this formally to the Head of the Right Guards, but Yang-heo suddenly glared at me, as if he wanted to kill me.
“Innocent?! Is Ma Yang-baek innocent?!!!”
“Are you planning to claim it was an accident in a fit of rage?”
Saying such blatant planned murder now.
Yang-heo gave a hollow laugh at my words, then shouted loudly for all to hear.
“I’ve only vengefully dealt with him! The real murderer was that guy, Ma Yang-baek!!!”
What kind of nonsense is this?
