SECRETS | 2YEON

Evidence Is Never Absurd

Day in and day out I spend seated at my desk. It was an old, dusty desk that someone had bought well before I was even born. Many people had been seated at that desk throughout the years, many coffees had spilled onto its surface, and many bread crumbs had seeped into its cracks. Besides, the desk of a chief in a police station is always the most used one.

So, at my oh-so-ripe forty years of age, I spend days and nights seated on a chief's desk. A position I easily snatched from my boring, useless, and worthless co-workers, who barely get through the cases they're assigned to, before they get cold. With a total of nine cups of coffee and not nearly enough meals and nutrients a day, I strain my back over countless case files, no one could ever solve. Usually, there were older murder cases, or assaults, thefts, hit and runs, in which the perpetrator was some chief's family member or close friend, so he had to sweep everything under the rag. Among boring cold cases, there are occasional gems, that light up my day and remind me the reason I'm even alive. I owe my career to those hidden, little gems. And so, you can understand how meticulous I am about finding more and more of them, as if I'm mining for diamonds.

One of those diamond cases found me at a very random time. On an ordinary Monday, on an ordinary July, on a very eventful year of two thousand and twenty-one, and while I was about to down my eighth cup of black coffee for the day, an elderly couple walked into my office. They came in completely uninvited and without me being notified prior to their arrival, so I fairly assumed that they were a pair of wealthy and influential people. People like them get to come in after pulling many strings, so no one ever lets me know, in case I refuse to see them. And so, once in a while, these types of people will arrive at my place of work— in which I don't take appointments, by the way— and present me with either their financial crimes, asking me to help them out, or some special type of case they want a solution to (they usually vary from framing their rivals and helping their kidnapped children, to covering up suspicious deaths).

This particular couple, however, was different. Along with their expensive clothing and accessories, they carried a large bag of paperwork, that they delicately touched upon my desk. It was a heavy, large, leather briefcase, that had my poor desk shaking and cracking.

"Detective Yoo, we are the Ims," they told me after breaking my desk with their heavy paperwork, their eyes full of hope and cataract. "We heard of how amazing and fast your work is, and we came to sincerely ask for your help."

Presenting me with their leather briefcase, and after they replaced my broken desk, they proceeded to talk payments. Usually, high profile cases offer money before evidence, so that they can seal our chapped little cop lips. However, no matter how much I would like to take the bribes, I wished to remain a lawful citizen and a clean cop (unlike most of my fellow coppers).

"I'm paid by the government just enough. No need to pay me extra to do my job." I lie, because the government surely does not pay me enough for the amount of work I'm doing.

And so, we move into actually opening the leather briefcase. Which, clearly, was a treasured possession. Inside were tons of paperwork; adoption papers, old newspapers, handwritten profiles of random people along with their photos, birth certificates, maps, and letters dated as far back as the year nineteen eighty-one.

With a serious expression, the elderly couple explain the story behind this pile of paperwork, and with a trembling voice they speak in unison.

"We think our adoptive daughter is a murderer." as they spew these words, the mother breaks down in tears, bringing an expensive piece of cloth to dab on her moistened eyes.

That simple catchphrase, 'We think our adoptive daughter is a murderer', was enough to sell me into taking on this case, and without thinking it twice, I had ended the first meeting with the elderly couple on a good note.