"Doesn't it seem strange that the emotionless killer stopped killing when this girl appeared? He went into a cooling-off period which lasted ten years."
Seung Woo's mind raced; he could not find a plausible explanation. No one managed to find answers to how and why the nation's child came out of the dark.
"I don't know who she is, but I can tell you what she represents. Dr. Noa Noh is a war hostage. She is the bait who will lure Stein out."
Seung Woo shuffled in his seat; Prosecutor Noh's words itched and caused discomfort.
The inspector scratched his forehead as he racked his brain, "if the Doctor is so important, why hasn't Stein tried to get her?"
"He has."
Seung Woo's eyes grew wide like those of a child hearing the story of the big bad wolf for the first time, and the narrator had got to the part where Redding Hood asked the wolf to show his teeth.
"Noa disappeared for two years. Stein's son killed nine men and three women, the last victim during that time."
The prosecutor stopped. There was no need to continue. The inspector knew the tale's end.
"And all of a sudden, Noa walked into Songpa police station, and Stein stopped killing again. Don't you see a correlation, inspector?"
The Seung Woo's mind was in overdrive; the prosecutor's words ran laps in his mind like a Formula One car.
"I."
Seung Woo stammered how not to be lost for words in front of such revelations.
"Stein will come for the doctor if we don't find him first. We have to access the five alters before it occurs. I like to see myself as a hunter raising a tiger's cub."
"A predator always finishes by biting the hand which feeds him," Seung Woo said.
In Seung Woo's eyes, the prosecutor was pretentious, almost narcissistic, as if he could conquer and overcome everything. His attitude was distasteful, and Seung woo didn't like how he spoke of his daughter.
The doctor was his daughter, and using her as bait was despicable.
Also, the inspector felt menaced by the prosecutor; it was as though the man tested him.
"That depends. Do you think of me as an easy prey inspector?"
"When I was an exchange student in Paris, I heard a story; a woman raised a boa constructor with whom she shared her bed. Not wanting to confine the snake in a closed space, her boa roamed free, eating the mice the woman gave him. Then one day, he stopped eating, and the woman was worried. At night the snake hugged her tighter than usual. The woman thought her snake was depressed. So she took her pet to the vet, and do you know what the vet said?
"Madame, you did well coming here. If you didn't, you would probably be dead.
"Why asked the woman, and here is what the vet answered, your snake is fasting, saving his stomach to savor the greatest of dishes. The snake tightened his grasp around your body, for he took your measurements; his hold would tighten until the day he killed and swallowed you whole."
"Ha, ha," the prosecutor Noh chuckled, "I like you, I like you a lot, inspector, you are the man of the situation we couldn't find better. Noa will assist you; this case will stimulate and wake the 5th alter. You know I always place quotations. Noa bets on you, but I bet on me."
"You know what your daughter said?" Seung Woo asked purposely, stressing the word daughter as he said it.
"No, tell me what my genius of a daughter said."
"She says we all run on someone's wheel."
"Are you implying that I am mice, inspector Choi?"
"No, sir, I wouldn't dare."
The prosecutor leaned over his desk, "good because let me tell you; I am neither mice, an easy prey, nor a vain woman ready to be gobbled up by a snake. I always win; I will not be eaten in this game. So inspector, either you are with me, and we work together so we can all walk on a road paved with glory, or you play solo at your own risk. You witnessed the power of Kuma San. Not everyone will make it until the end."
The prosecutor's words tugged between the warning and the threat.
"Then, I'll risk betting on myself too, 그럼 [geureom iman, said when taking a leave]," Seung Woo said and got up.
"You think you've seen it all, haven't you? with your sister's death, but believe me when I say, inspector Choi you haven't even seen a grain of sand worth of darkness. I'll be watching you."
Behind the prosecutor's office door, Seung Woo's heart pounded so loud that he looked around to see if any secretaries could hear it. The encounter was way over any expectations the inspector had.
Like most Koreans, he respected the chief prosecutor for his engagement against crime and the ferocious battle he led against serial killers.
However, during the two men's short interview, the inspector found the faith he accorded prosecutor Noh diminished. Seung Woo wondered what kind of trauma could have caused the appearance of the doctor's alters. Now after facing the man who proclaimed to be her father, the doctor's pathology seemed like a logical option to take.
Manipulative, this was the adjective that qualified the prosecutor best; no wonder he ruled as king of the SPO. Sociopaths are everywhere within society's borders, and inspector Choi Seung Woo thought he had just met an impressive specimen.
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Dear friends,
I don't know what to say.
I'm not worried. I have over ten unread chapters on this.
