The team leader smacked the junior on the head and sat down.

“Missing person, Mr. Kim Go-cheong, 43 years old. His ex-wife is highly suspicious, but you know the principle of presumption of innocence, right? Ogeng and I will go see the ex-wife. Shin-dol and Junior, check the estimated location of disappearance and collect all the CCTV footage.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Where is it?”

At Shin Haesu’s question, the team leader turned to Ogeng. Ogeng hesitated briefly before answering.

“Jeju Island.”

If he went missing two days ago, the likelihood of him being dead was high, but the police, despite inefficiency, always operated under the assumption that the victim was alive.

To get there as quickly as possible, Haesu and the junior took a flight to Jeju Island from the nearest airport, Gunsan.

As the plane slowly moved for takeoff, the junior, who had the build to take down an ox, let out a deep breath.

“Huaa, huup.”

“What’s wrong? You look like it’s your first time on a plane.”

The junior met Haesu’s gaze and then slowly lowered his eyes.

“Wait, is this your first time?”

“Yes, it is…”

Haesu stared at his tense face for a moment before looking ahead and speaking.

“Do you think he’s dead?”

At Haesu’s question, the tension disappeared from the junior’s face, replaced by seriousness.

“He has to be alive. He must be.”

Haesu had intended to distract him to ease his nerves, but the junior’s earnest hope that the victim was alive was palpable. Watching him reminded Haesu of his own early days as a detective.

More often than not, when foul play was suspected, the victim was dead rather than alive. The stronger the hope that they were alive, the greater the emptiness when their death was confirmed.

After repeated cases, the head operated under the assumption that the victim was alive, but the heart no longer raced.

“So, how old are you?”

“Twenty-six.”

This time, Haesu was a little surprised. His face looked mature enough that he could have passed for someone older than Haesu.

About an hour into the flight, the landing announcement played.

Upon arrival, Haesu and the junior were picked up by a detective from Jeju and briefed on what had been uncovered so far.

“…So, we’ve mobilized local officers to search the area, focusing on the pension.”

“Have you found anything?”

“One thing—part of a cut belt. It doesn’t seem to have been cut with a knife… more like a saw.”

At the Jeju detective’s words, Haesu and the junior simultaneously furrowed their brows. A belt, cut with a saw, while still being worn.

The chances of the victim being alive were dwindling.

“Tch…”

Upon entering the abandoned pension where the victim had met his ex-wife and child, the strong smell of bleach filled the air.

The interior was spotless. Not a single strand of hair was visible.

There was no blood, but the overpowering scent of bleach suggested that a crime had taken place there.

Haesu turned to the local detective who had followed them in.

“The luminol test hasn’t been done yet, right?”

“Luminol? Oh, yeah, the CSI team will be here soon.”

Luminol, also known as Blue Blood Spray, is used in forensic blood detection. Even if blood is invisible to the naked eye, spraying luminol and darkening the room causes it to oxidize and glow.

Soon, the Jeju CSI team arrived and conducted the luminol test.

“Ugh…”

“…”

Everyone in the room was momentarily speechless. The living room revealed nothing, but inside the bathroom, an overwhelming amount of blood splatter glowed along the walls.

Haesu and the junior were now certain.

‘A murder took place here. Kim Go-cheong is dead.’

They needed to shift their investigation to match this new timeline. Haesu immediately called the team leader.

- “Hey, you made it to Jeju?”

“Yes, we finished the luminol test. Looks like the murder happened in the pension’s bathroom. There’s a significant amount of blood on the walls.”

- “Son of a bitch…”

“Have you spoken to Ko Su-jeong?”

- “Yeah, we called her in for questioning. She’s saying some weird shit.”

“What kind of weird shit?”

- “She claims she was raped by her ex-husband. Says her tears are proof, that she ran away from him.”

“…Understood.”

- “Alright, keep at it. We’re pulling CCTV near her place. Let’s share what we find.”

“Got it, sir.”

Haesu and the junior headed to the nearest police station to analyze the CCTV footage with the local officers.

On the pension’s CCTV, Ko Su-jeong was seen carrying her son on her back, leaving late at night. She was gone for a while before returning alone. Then, the next day, she checked out on time, looking completely calm.

“Does she look like someone who was raped to you?”

“Not at all.”

Tracking her movements, they discovered that she had driven around, dumping trash in different locations. When they went to those locations, however, everything had already been collected and disposed of three days prior.

“The 16th? The trash collected that day has already been incinerated.”

“Hah…”

“Then, where would the incinerated waste be?”

“Ah, that’d be tough to find. It was probably burned early yesterday morning… Around here, I’d say.”

“Thank you.”

Fully equipped, Haesu and the junior joined the local officers in sifting through half-burned waste.

“Here! I found something!”

A local officer had discovered a pile of trash suspected to be Ko Su-jeong’s.

Within it, they found a saw, a knife, and a three-centimeter-long bone fragment. Whether it belonged to an animal or a human was unclear.

“With this… DNA extraction will be difficult.”

They carefully packed the saw, knife, and bone fragment into evidence bags and left the landfill.

Following Ko Su-jeong’s movements further, they confirmed that she had taken the last ferry to the mainland.

Given that she came from a wealthy background—not quite a conglomerate heiress, but not lacking either—the fact that she took a ferry instead of a plane was suspicious.

On the ferry’s CCTV footage, they spotted something odd.

“What… is she doing?”

She had struggled to drag a suitcase onto the deck, then, as if commemorating something, she took a picture of it with her phone.

After changing angles several times and taking pictures, she opened the suitcase and took out something wrapped in black plastic, throwing it into the sea five times.

“With that volume… it’s not a person.”

“But there’s no reason to dump trash like that. We have to assume she only disposed of part of it.”

“Only part…?”

Shin Haesu and the rookie exchanged glances. Recovering something dumped in the sea was almost impossible. Haesu immediately pulled out his phone.

-“Hey, Shin-dol, did you find anything?”

“She threw something off the ship, and it seems to be a body. But it looks like she only disposed of part of it.”

-“Only part? Then she dumped the rest earlier?”

“We can’t be sure. She might have disposed of it after reaching land.”

-“Got it. When did the ferry arrive again?”

“The night of the 16th, at 9 PM.”

-“Alright, you guys need to trace her movements from when she arrived on land. We’ll also confiscate Ko Su-jeong’s phone and computer for investigation.”

“Understood.”

-“Oh, and one more thing. Ko Su-jeong’s parents’ house is in Jeju. The kid is staying there too, so pay them a visit. I’ll send you the address.”

“Got it.”

After searching Jeju once more, Haesu and the rookie visited Ko Su-jeong’s parents’ house the next morning and met the child.

The eight-year-old’s eyes sparkled innocently, as if even asking about that day was a sin.

“The day you met your dad, did your mom act strange? Tell me anything you remember.”

“…She said she was going to play paint with Dad. But she didn’t let me join.”

“Did your mom have any paint on her?”

“Yes.”

Haesu’s expression stiffened slightly. In a lowered voice, he asked:

“What… color was it?”

“Red.”

Upon hearing the child’s words, Haesu and the rookie’s expressions changed completely. This confirmed the murder.

The child said they had fallen asleep soon after because they were too tired.

If there’s no body, there’s no murder charge.

They had to find the body. Even a fragment of it.

“We’re back.”

“Ah, good work, Shin-dol, and you too, rookie.”

“Not at all! You seniors worked much harder!”

“Don’t shout like it’s over. This is just the beginning.”

The team leader was right. Despite days of investigation, they still hadn’t found the body.

Haesu and Oh Gaeng laid out all the information they had gathered so far in chronological order.

“These are Ko Su-jeong’s desktop search records.”

- Unmanned pension, CCTV, beef bone trash, how to erase blood.

“This is her shopping list from a week before the crime.”

- Large black plastic bags, kimchi bags, a saw, bleach.

“She even collected loyalty points for her purchases.”

The team leader added:

“What’s absurd is that she refunded the things she didn’t use after the crime. This woman is not normal.”

“The trash she dumped was all incinerated. There were a lot of suspicious items, but…”

“Wait, this is strange too.”

“What is?”

Haesu pointed at a chat log.

- Ko Su-jeong: How could you do this to me? I’m going to report you for rape.

- Kim Go-cheong: I’m sorry. I was drunk and lost my mind. Please forgive me just this once.

“This was sent at 10:44 PM.”

Haesu checked the CCTV footage himself, pausing at the moment Ko Su-jeong left the pension.

“She left at 10:53 PM, nine minutes later. There’s no reason to send this message while they were still together.”

“She faked it.”

“Ah… seriously.”

“Other than that bone fragment, you found nothing else, right?”

“No…”

“Damn… this is driving me crazy.”

From the premeditated actions to the child’s testimony, the fabricated messages, and the suspicious behavior on the ferry—everything pointed to Ko Su-jeong killing Kim Go-cheong. But without a body, there was nothing they could do.

The team leader, frustrated, ran a hand through his already thinning hair.

“It’s obvious… It’s obvious, but damn… we need a body. Did you find the dashcam from the husband’s car?”

“Yes, here it is.”

“Did anything come up?”

“Nothing special…”

Haesu played the footage. It was a rainy day, the husband was on his way to meet his child.

Through the dashcam, his voice could be heard.

- “Say I loved without regrets~ Say I dreamed of happiness~ Say I will see my dear Seongwoon~”

As Kim Go-cheong’s singing played, the office fell silent.

Excited to finally see his child, he had even rewritten song lyrics.

The detectives clenched their jaws, suppressing the emotions rising within them.

The rookie, his eyes reddened, slammed the desk.

“We have to catch her. We have to lock that woman up!”

“We want that too… but we don’t have a body.”

“We have the bone fragment!”

The usually respectful rookie shouted in frustration but quickly realized his outburst and bowed deeply.

“S-Sorry…”

“I know, I get it. But that fragment is probably too degraded for DNA testing. Do we have to search the sea…?”

Silence filled the room again. At times like this, the law felt infuriating. It was meant to prevent wrongful convictions, but when someone exploited it, rage was inevitable.

Then, Haesu lightly tapped the desk and spoke.

“Let’s prosecute.”

“What?”

“Let’s go ahead with the indictment. We have enough circumstantial evidence and testimony. We can use public opinion to our advantage.”

“Public opinion?”

Shin Haesu stepped out of the office and made a phone call.

- “Ahn Seo-eun speaking. What’s the case this time?”

“How did you know it was a case?”

Ahn Seo-eun chuckled softly.

- “You never call me for anything else, do you?”

Maybe. That was probably true.

“It’s a murder case without a body. I’ll send you the files. Can you stir public opinion? Maybe even get a special broadcast on ‘Unanswered Questions’?”

- “Of course.”