The Pieces of the Puzzle

“I guess I should write the article right away.”

After sharing our strategies, Baek Soeun stood up from her seat with a satisfied expression.
She popped the last remaining cookie into her mouth and crunched on it.

“You have to share again next time, okay? This cookie, I mean. It’s better than I thought. I’m glad I came.”
“Of course I’ll share again. We’re in the same boat now.”
“The harvest was better than I thought, so I feel great. I’ll be counting on you for future catches.”
“Yes, Reporter Baek. I’ll be counting on you too.”

Chime.

Leaving behind the clean sound of the wind chime, Baek Soeun left with a cheerful expression.
Jeong Donghyeok, who had been listening to our conversation all along, finally spoke.

“Uh, lawyer. Ms. Baek Soeun came early, so I couldn’t tell you in advance, but I don’t think it was an acquaintance.”
“You mean among the guys that Lawyer Won Youngoh prosecuted and have now been released?”
“Yes. The most recently released person was two years ago, and I hear that person is living a sincere life now.”

Well, if Won Youngoh prosecuted him, the sentence wouldn’t have been light.
I asked again, just in case.

“Could he be pretending to be sincere? Or just on the surface.”
“There are only three people who have been released in the last three years. All three of them are living sincere lives now without a single fine.”
“Ah, I see. If you investigated it, office manager, it must be accurate. You must have been busy, thank you for your hard work.”

As I nodded and said that, Jeong Donghyeok looked at me for a moment.

“Is there something on my face?”
“…No. You just seem a little different. I was quite surprised when you contacted me to come to this office, and seeing how you’ve changed, it feels new.”
“Haha… I have changed a bit. Everyone changes. I’m trying to change in a positive way.”
“That’s why it’s good to see. Sincerely. You seem to enjoy your work more than before.”
“You came here trusting me, office manager, so I have to work harder.”

I felt another quiet gaze from somewhere.
Gram, is that you?
Even when I asked, no answer came back.
I nodded once and then spoke again.

“If it were me, even if I held a grudge against Lawyer Won Youngoh, I wouldn’t rush at him on such an open road.”

It’s as if he wanted to be seen.

“Instead, I would quietly watch for an opportunity and aim for when Lawyer Won is alone.”
“I also found that part a little strange.”
“If his desire for revenge was burning so fiercely that he couldn’t see anything, and if he had resolved that desire for revenge by harming Lawyer Won… that would be the culprit’s gain, but for some reason, this incident feels like a threat to me.”
“A threat?”

I looked out the window for a moment.
Won Youngoh’s bloodstain was already gone, as if it had never been there.

“Yes. A threat like, ‘I’ll aim for your life next’. To see it as a ‘random stabbing,’ that guy was only following Lawyer Won Youngoh.”
“Come to think of it, that’s true. And the fact that he had planned the entire escape route.”

First of all, there wasn’t much time.
We decided to exclude the released prisoners from the cases Won Youngoh had handled.
I downed the completely cold coffee in one go.

“The person in hiding is usually the culprit in these cases.”

The lawyer of the person who was imprisoned for doing a good deed and the person who was stabbed.
It was a situation that made you sigh.
But there was a fact that became clearer as I talked with Baek Soeun.

“The person who ordered the attack on Lawyer Won Youngoh probably wanted this. For us to only chase after that culprit.”
“He must have wanted us to waste our time.”

I nodded and spoke again.

“Because the essence of the matter becomes blurred as time passes. In my opinion, the person who ordered the crime is the owner of the hit-and-run car in the client’s case. Or an accomplice.”

I stood up from my seat.
If I can find out who the owner of the sports car is, the next clue might follow.

“Office manager, I’m going to the scene for a bit. Mr. Lee Ilwoo will be guarding the hospital for the time being. Keep the door locked at all times just in case. And only open the door after confirming my identity or Lawyer Won’s.”
“Where are you going? The concert hall?”
“No, the client’s car accident scene.”
“It’s been a few days already. There won’t be anything left. Lawyer Won also said he didn’t find any other evidence there.”

It was a statement typical of the cool-headed Jeong Donghyeok.
I grabbed my coat and spoke.

“But you never know. I want to clutch at straws.”

Though what I believed in was ‘the evidence before my eyes’.

The accident was ten days ago.
As I had seen in the case file, the scene was near a crosswalk on a three-lane road.
Since the police had already finished their on-site investigation, a normal, everyday scene was unfolding before my eyes.
As Jeong Donghyeok had said, there were no traces of the accident left.

‘A three-lane crosswalk at an intersection…’

The report said that all the CCTV cameras at the time of the incident were checked, but the sports car was too fast to be identified.

‘Even so, it doesn’t make sense that it could disappear so completely in a country with CCTV cameras everywhere.’

According to some statistics, you’re captured every 17 seconds.
I parked my car nearby and crossed the crosswalk several times, looking around.
From the earphones in my ears, the Buddhist scriptures were flowing quietly, as usual.

[…no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or thought, no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind…]

I was prepared for it, but facing the excessively clean scene was to calm my complicated mind.

“Haa…”

It’s not as easy as I thought.

Tap!

As I was circling the intersection’s traffic lights and looking around, it was when the light changed for the sixth time.

“Huh?”

[What’s wrong?]

I found a subtle difference in the flowerbed next to the traffic light on the other side.
A faint red light was flowing among the dense, branching green boxwoods.
I hurried over to that side.
I didn’t care if people were staring, I just squatted down in front of the small tree.

Swish.

The red light shone even more clearly between the dense branches.
At a glance, it was a black fragment that looked like someone had just thrown away trash on the street.
I took out a handkerchief from my pocket and carefully picked up the fragment.

‘It’s the same color as that sports car in the video.’

Ah. I guess I was out of my mind too.
Why didn’t I think of this?
No matter how much a sports car costs, the bumper would have been broken in an accident.
It seemed the guys’ plan to distract me, in addition to immobilizing Won Youngoh, had worked to some extent.
Though the more I thought about it, I couldn’t tolerate their petty methods.

‘I’m glad I came.’

This traffic light was on the complete opposite side of the accident scene.
It was a piece of evidence I had barely found, but I felt a sense of disappointment.

‘I’m still lacking.’

[This is what they call human nature.]

‘At least when it comes to cases, a lawyer shouldn’t have human nature.’

[You’re a pain.]

“What?”

I accidentally said it out loud.
I quickly brought my hand to my earphone and added.

“I got it, so hang up.”

[Yep.]

And so, I narrowly avoided the situation of declaring something to the empty air.
I carefully wrapped the palm-sized fragment in the handkerchief and returned to the car as soon as the next light changed.

‘This is all I got in an hour.’

Did the police not think that a clue would be found at this distance when they were investigating the scene?
Something feels a little off.
I had a particularly good intuition.
If there was even one thing that felt off, it would sometimes come back like an unexpected wave later.

‘There was no mention of sports car wreckage in the report.’

Since the client’s truck was almost completely destroyed, the sports car must have also sustained considerable impact.
I hurriedly opened the case file I had brought with me.

‘It’s not here.’

My memory wasn’t wrong.
No matter how much I looked, only the vehicles from the chain collision were listed in the damaged vehicle parts comparison list, but this shiny black fragment was not there.
It was a part that didn’t make sense unless it was intentionally concealed.

‘I think this is on a bigger scale than I thought. If the report was concealed from the beginning…’

Vibrate.

Just then, my pocket vibrated.
A call came from Baek Soeun.

[Hello? Lawyer Cha?]
“Yes, Reporter Baek. What’s the matter?”
[I called because you didn’t reply to my text. Is now a good time?]

Baek Soeun’s voice on the other end of the phone was full of excitement.

“Ah, yes. I was at the scene for a moment.”
[The car accident scene?]
“Yes, I think I’ve found something. I’ll share it with you when it’s confirmed.”
[Oh, really? I’ll be waiting. The article was just published, and the response is good.]
“Already?”
[Yes, as you said earlier, I also posted it on some car communities. The views are going up. I sent you the link earlier.]
“Ah, that’s great. Thank you. I’ll check it.”

The public discussion had finally begun.

“…It’s Baek Soeun, alright.”

The headline was truly exceptionally well-written.

<Truck Driver Who Saved a Child from a Hit-and-Run Goes to Jail, Hit-and-Run Driver Still at Large?>

[A few days ago, a chain collision occurred at an intersection. However, not a single article has been written about this collision. The reporter could not hide her questions the moment she happened to come across this case.]
[…The cause of this collision was a supercar. In the video, it is seen speeding towards the crosswalk at a crazy speed.]
[At that moment, a 6-year-old child was crossing the crosswalk, and Mr. Lee (37), who discovered this, turned his vegetable truck, which was his livelihood and his everything, diagonally.]
[The child’s life was saved, but the supercar fled the scene, and Mr. Lee is currently imprisoned in a detention center for this incident.]
[Anyone who witnessed the above incident, please contact reporter Baek Soeun of ‘ThatsFact’ via email.]

It was an article that had been uploaded about an hour ago, with a very neatly organized summary of the case.

‘There are already over five hundred comments.’

[Wow, that car is in Korea and the culprit still hasn’t been caught?]
[He saved a child and he’s in jail? Is this a country]
[I didn’t even know that car existed]
[Even a slight scratch would cost as much as a used car, so you can see the estimate, right?]

Seeing the real-time comments on the internet article and community, I couldn’t help but smile.

Vibrate.

This time, it was a text from Won Youngoh.

[I just got a call from the HJ legal team. Lawyer Cha, what’s going on? I gave them your contact information. Please share the situation with me when you have time.]

HJ?
At this timing?
I was just about to call Won Youngoh now that I had some time.

Vibrate.

An unknown number appeared on the screen.
A number starting with 02, it seemed to be a call from that legal team, given the timing.

“Yes, I’ve answered. This is Lawyer Cha Yohan.”
[Hello, Lawyer Cha Yohan. I received your number from Lawyer Won Youngoh. I’m Yeo Tae-rim from the HJ legal team.]

‘…Yeo Tae-rim? That’s a rare surname.’

The woman who introduced herself as Yeo Tae-rim spoke smoothly, from her greeting and how she obtained my contact information to her self-introduction, all in one go.
Her pronunciation was accurate, and her voice was soft yet powerful.

“Ah, yes. May I ask why you’ve contacted me?”
[I’m contacting you regarding the car accident case that you are currently handling, Lawyer Cha.]