WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 62: Luxury Is in the Details (11)

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"The last time I saw the envelope was three days ago."

Chief Raphael spoke, his voice half-hoarse.

"Since then, the rookie got famous, and things at our station have been busy, so it's been chaos all around... It's my fault for not keeping a proper eye on it. I'm sorry."

After bowing his head once, he looked around at the other officers with sharp eyes.

"So I'll say this. If whoever took it turns themselves in now, we can let it go without making a fuss."

Gulp. Someone swallowed loudly.

Chief Raphael looked ordinary aside from the large horns on his head, so people often forgot that he was an ability user too. Taking down an ordinary police officer right here would be no trouble for him.

"..."

"..."

Still, no one raised a hand even after a long while. The officers only watched one another in silence. If there had been a time to confess, it had just passed. Now, they had to find the culprit.

Thinking they couldn't get anywhere like this, Kang Jin-ho cautiously raised his hand.

"Chief. Since it's come to this, why don't we narrow down the suspects first?"

Truthfully, it wasn't as though Kang Jin-ho had some brilliant solution. HiCiSi was a game he had played, not an encyclopedia that knew every incident in Light City. Naturally, he knew nothing about a petty theft at a small police station.

Still, he had always liked mysteries and consumed plenty of them. He at least knew the standard way to catch a culprit in a situation like this.

"Narrow down the suspects?"

Chief Raphael rubbed his chin at Kang Jin-ho's suggestion.

"Yes. I don't think anyone at our station is the kind of person who'd steal money for no reason."

"Hmm. So we start with people who urgently needed money, or suddenly came into some?"

"Exactly."

"Hmm..."

Everyone gathered here was a police officer, so it wasn't as though Kang Jin-ho's suggestion had never occurred to them. Catching criminals was their job, after all. Yet they hadn't voiced the idea because...

"Jin-ho, you're confident you can catch the culprit, right?"

"Yes. Please trust me."

If they failed to find the culprit, dealing with the aftermath would be difficult. These were people they would see every day, and openly suspecting a colleague was sure to damage their relationships.

But if it was Kang Jin-ho... wouldn't everyone accept it? Having made up his mind, Chief Raphael dragged a whiteboard over from the corner.

"Fine. Then... let's sort this out."

Marker in hand, Chief Raphael pointed at one officer.

"First, Sergeant Kim. Several officers said you seemed suspicious."

"M-me?"

The first candidate, Sergeant Kim.

Until a few days ago, the station's stingiest officer had been living on convenience store boxed lunches. Lately, though, people had seen him buying meat to eat. He had even bragged about buying a new golf club yesterday.

"Sergeant Kim, where did that money come from?"

"Th-that is... well..."

After hesitating, Sergeant Kim gritted his teeth.

"I can't tell you."

"What?"

"I understand why I look suspicious. But I can't tell you. It's something very personal."

"...Hngh."

He said it was personal, so Chief Raphael couldn't pry any further. Deciding to move on for now, he pointed at an officer with her hair in a bun.

"Next. Officer Choi."

"M-me?"

"I heard you've been opening drawers all over the place lately. Why?"

"Ah, well... I was looking for something..."

"What were you looking for?"

"I can't remember very well..."

"...Haa."

Officer Choi had been caught on CCTV going around to other employees' desks and opening their drawers, which was suspicious enough on its own. Why would anyone open another person's drawers?

"And... Officer Son Jin-woo."

"Yes."

The third candidate, Officer Son Jin-woo.

His case differed from the first two. It wasn't that there were suspicious circumstances. The problem was that there was no suspicious information or known movement to examine at all.

"Where have you been and what have you been doing lately? Hardly anyone has seen you during work hours."

"I worked."

"No, if you were working, why does no one know where you were?"

"I don't know either."

Officer Son Jin-woo was known for being meticulous in his work. But he had a faint presence, and even his footsteps were quiet, so people often noticed him only after the fact.

He was practically a shadow, which meant no one remembered where he had been or what he had been doing around the estimated time of the incident.

Everyone else had a plausible alibi, while he alone had none. He must have felt wronged, but they couldn't remove him from the list of candidates either.

"Then, for now, we have these three suspects..."

Just as Chief Raphael was writing their names on the whiteboard.

"Wait, Jin-ho."

Eun-yeong raised her hand and stepped forward.

"What about me? Aren't I suspicious too?"

"...Pardon?"

"No, think about it."

With a strangely excited look on her face, Eun-yeong counted off on her fingers.

"I went in and out of the chief's office a lot. I stayed late after work too. And I've bought several new outfits recently."

"..."

Now that she mentioned it... that was true.

Come to think of it, there were several suspicious things about Eun-yeong too. No, if they had to name the person most capable of stealing the envelope at this station, it would be Eun-yeong.

Kang Jin-ho had only been deliberately ignoring that possibility until now. Because it was Eun-yeong. Would Light City's strongest villain really steal a few hundred thousand won meant for a staff dinner? That was too... too...

'Wait, couldn't she have done it because she was bored?'

Could she have stolen the money to test Kang Jin-ho?

The moment that possibility occurred to him, cold sweat ran down Kang Jin-ho's back. Eun-yeong really might have done it.

"...Yes, then I'll add you to the suspect list too, ma'am."

"Hee hee hee. Good, good."

For the first time in a long while, Eun-yeong gave that peculiar laugh and returned to her seat. With trembling hands, Kang Jin-ho added the name "Park Eun-yeong" to the bottom of the whiteboard.

To summarize, there were four suspects on the whiteboard.

Sergeant Kim, who had suddenly come into a large sum of money. Officer Choi, who had been rummaging through drawers. Officer Son, who had no alibi. And... Eun-yeong.

'...This is tricky.'

By this point, Kang Jin-ho was growing anxious.

The reason he had confidently stepped forward in the first place wasn't because he could catch the culprit. Kang Jin-ho's reputation was soaring right now, so he had thought that if he pretended to deduce the answer, the culprit would get scared and come forward on their own.

"..."

Since things had turned out this way, he needed to apply a little more pressure. Kang Jin-ho cleared his throat and spoke with a deliberately serious expression.

"Honestly, I think I already know who the culprit is."

"...!!!"

"So I'll give you until tomorrow morning. Send your confession to my phone. I'll quietly tell only the chief, and we'll settle it within the station. But if I have to say it myself in front of everyone... by then, it'll be too late."

When it came down to it, this was not much different from telling an elementary school class, "Everyone put your heads down, and whoever did it, raise your hand. Only the teacher will see."

But who was saying it? Kang Jin-ho. Light City's hottest super rookie, a man people said might have made A-rank if he had debuted as a hero. The greatest genius, a monster of a police officer who had never failed before.

"You don't have much time."

Five minutes after Kang Jin-ho put on an imposing air and entered the locker room, several messages arrived on his phone.

-The reason I suddenly had money is that my savings account matured. I spent some without telling my wife, and if I say it here, it'll get back to her... Sorry. I should've said so right away.

That message was from Sergeant Kim.

-Actually, I like Sergeant Lee... I wanted to put a letter in their drawer. Opening the other people's drawers was a smokescreen. But when I was about to put it in, I got so nervous and embarrassed... that I couldn't do it. If I said I did it because I liked them back there, that'd basically be a public confession ㅠㅠㅠㅠ I really didn't steal anything~

That message was from Officer Choi.

-I did not steal it. May I leave work? I am going home.

That one was from Officer Son.

"..."

Looking over these confessions that weren't quite confessions, Kang Jin-ho pressed a finger to his brow. There were admissions of something in the texts... but if all of this was true, didn't that mean there was no culprit? Why had no one said they took the dinner money?

-Ding.

Then the final message arrived.

-Jin-ho. Can I not turn myself in? Do you think I stole it? Or that I'm lying? Don't you have a hunch?

"..."

Kang Jin-ho naturally ignored Eun-yeong and put away his phone. Then he went outside and announced,

"For now, we'll wait a little longer."

It looked like he would need to investigate a little more to catch the culprit!

Footnotes:

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