117 In the Case of the Lee Brothers (2/2)

Gun shook his head. He had no plans of staying there for a long time, so he rejected the offer.

”I'm Detective Song Yoon Suk,” the man introduced himself. He pointed to the person standing next to the door, ”And that's my partner, Detective Pyo.”

”This interview will be recorded. Is that fine?” Detective Song asked, gesturing to the phone on the table between them.

Gun nodded noncommittally in assent. ”What is it that you want to know? I need to go back to check on my sister soon,” Gun says, sounding polite despite his rude words.

”Yes, yes, of course,” Detective Song smiled, his gait easy-going. ”First thing's first, I'd like to hear your recount on the event that transpired a few days ago.”

Gun tilted his head in thought, arranging his words before speaking.

”I was at school when I received a call from an acquaintance, telling me to go home, that my sister was in danger. When I got there, at around 12 p.m., my brother was already trying to knock down that man's bedroom door. I heard my sister scream, and before I knew it, Hyung broke the door and attacked that man. Yeo Ri was bleeding, so I called for an ambulance.”

”Who was this acquaintance of yours and how did that person know about your sister's situation?”

”Hwang Se Jin-ssi. We met a few years ago and he has been helping me with various things,” Gun introduced him briefly. ”He was listening into the conversation through a bug that I planted in that man's room.”

”Ah, yes. The bug. How did you get your hands on it? Why did you plant one there in the first place?” The detective nodded, remembering it. The recordings that it had captured were one of the substantial evidences of Lee Do Joon's crimes. Thanks to those recordings, they had managed to pinpoint several leads for a few unsolved cases.

”From Hwang Se Jin-ssi. Mainly to collect evidence. He's a serial killer, if it wasn't obvious enough.”

”If you've known that he's a serial killer, why didn't you report it to the police sooner?” Detective Pyo could not resist from asking.

Gun smiled cynically in reply. ”Do you think I haven't tried? I went to three different police stations, and did you know what they said? 'Why are you slandering your father? It's not good to report him just because he beats you sometimes', 'Is this a prank? Do you think the police are a joke? Scram!', 'We can't open an investigation right now. We're too busy and you don't have enough evidence for us to make an arrest',” Gun quoted blandly, reciting those harsh words that had been imprinted in his mind for years. ”Just because I was a child, they wouldn't even take me seriously,” he laughed sardonically.

”...” The detectives pursed their lips, feeling sorry for the child. They could only imagine how sad he must have felt back then after being rejected. As part of the police themselves, they felt terrible that he was forced to feel that way. It was no wonder that he did not rely on the authorities and spent his time collecting the evidence himself.

”Well, thanks to you, the kidnapped victims who are still alive could be saved,” Detective Song says, trying to alleviate some of his scars. Going back to the earlier discussion, Detective Song continued to ask, ”Also, what did you mean by 'my brother was already trying to knock down that man's bedroom door'? Was it locked?”

Gun nodded, ”Yes. That man keeps his door locked all the time. It's as if there was something he was hiding in there.”

The two detectives exchanged looks, knowing exactly what Gun had meant. They had found several items belonging to Lee Do Joon's victims inside one of the drawers in his room.

Listening to his explanation, the detectives discovered a discrepancy. ”But earlier, you said that you had planted a bug in his room. How did you do that if the door is always locked?”

Gun paused before replying calmly, ”I picked the lock.”

”...I see.” Detective Song furtively glanced at the file in his hand. It clearly stated in the report that Gun was a model top student who consecutively snagged the top spot in his grade, and was even in the top 1% in the national mock exams. How can such a star-studded student know how to pick locks?

Kids are so scary these days, he thought.