Chapter 11

That was the entirety of the email. Every other email contained exactly the same content.

There was only one thing the bastard was trying to say.

What was my sin, when I killed three demons?

It was strange enough to leave a lingering discomfort, too strange to dismiss as the meaningless nonsense of a brainless bastard.

“What do you think?”

Jei asked for Iheon’s thoughts.

“What about you? What do you think?”

“To me, it reads like the confession of some killer.”

“It could also be a display. Even the subject line—Who am I?—shows that. The confidence that he will never be caught is excessive.”

“You think so?”

“There’s a similar line in the Bible.”

Iheon spoke without taking his eyes off the screen.

“Second Corinthians 11:14. Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

The kind of people who packaged murder as salvation generally believed they were more noble than anyone else.

“It’s disgusting self-love.”

Taking his eyes from the laptop screen, he straightened his bent waist and continued.

“The more that kind of bastard is, the more he’ll want to prove the abilities he has.”

Of course, Jei’s opinion that it read like a confession was not wrong.

As she said, the bastard was confessing his sin.

What Iheon was curious about was something else.

Why Jei, of all people?

Whether it was a tip about a murder or a confession, was there a reason it had to be Jei?

There were plenty of media outlets that would rush in like dogs at a single plausible tip email.

This was a world overflowing with trashy articles that had not even been properly verified.

“Isn’t it strange?”

A deeper wrinkle than before formed between Iheon’s brows.

“The fact that the bastard sent it to your personal email rather than the tip email means he knows you quit your job. Which means he conducted some prior investigation into you……”

“I suppose so.”

Which made it all the more questionable.

“If, as I suspect, the bastard wanted to prove his ideals or abilities—whatever it is—to someone, why you?”

If he wanted to confess a murder, he could turn himself in to the police. If his goal was to show off and spread it widely, he could choose a more sensational outlet.

His fast-moving mind formed a hypothesis.

The email the bastard used was outgoing only. He could not receive replies, yet he sent dozens of emails. For months on end.

And she was not even an active PD.

Yet he had deliberately chosen Jei.

Why.

Without some kind of reason, the bastard’s actions could not be explained.

Then what was that reason?

The reason it had to be Jei.

Could it be that the bastard had some role he wanted Jei to play?

What was something only she could do? But nothing came readily to mind.

Iheon stared intently at Jei’s face.

“Are you sure there’s nothing else you’re hiding from me?”

For an instant, embarrassment passed through her dark brown eyes. It meant there was something she was concealing.

“Jei.”

He called her name low. Jei, avoiding his gaze, turned her eyes away and pressed her lips together for a moment. She chewed at the inside of her cheek, hesitating to speak.

In the past, he would have simply thought she was troubled. That she was carefully choosing her words. That she did not want to recklessly say something uncertain out loud.

But not now.

From what he had experienced, Iheon could no longer interpret Jei’s silence so favorably. His patience, too, had reached its limit.

“Whatever it is, if you have it, tell me now. I refuse to have the truth brought out later.”

After hesitating briefly, Jei took her phone from her back pocket and placed it on the table. It was face down. Then she subtly checked Iheon’s mood.

When she saw his firm expression—that he would indulge her only so far—she let out a small sigh. The atmosphere was not one in which she could get by saying it was nothing.

Iheon did not push her. He only stared at her with eyes that had turned utterly cold.

“I wasn’t trying to hide it. I just held it back because I wasn’t sure how you’d take it.”

Muttering a shabby excuse, she turned the phone face up. Her fingertips moved, entered the passcode, and opened the messages.

“This came yesterday……”

As soon as Iheon’s gaze slid to the phone, a short sigh burst through his lips.

What was displayed on the phone screen was not text. It was a photograph.

It showed Jei standing before the gate, trumpet creeper blooming profusely over the wall.

A large suitcase was in the shot too, so it seemed to have been taken on the day she returned home.

“Muerte knew my phone number and even this house. Maybe he’s been following me all along.”

“Why are you telling me this only now?”

“It wasn’t the right situation to say it. I didn’t know whether you’d resent me or not want to see my face at all. I couldn’t just blurt out that someone seemed to be following me.”

“This is a matter of your safety. Whatever I say, however I feel, you should have brought it up first!”

“That’s why I’m telling you now……”

“Huh.”

Iheon let out a sneer close to a hollow laugh and swept his disheveled forelocks back over his forehead. The corners of his eyes, clearly displeased, twisted sharply.

“If we don’t trust each other like this, what more is there to say here?”

“I’m sorry.”

“…….”

“I was wrong. I won’t do it again.”

“I don’t need apologies that are only words. Prove it with actions. Deceiving me and wasting my time—there won’t be a second time. Remember that.”

“Yes.”

Jei did not add any excuse. She only pressed her lips firmly together and bowed her head. For now, Iheon had no intention of pushing her further. The water had already been spilled, and pressing her would not create trust that did not exist.

Iheon slumped helplessly and dropped into a dining chair.

He was angry at Jei, who showed not the slightest sense of alertness—that was one thing. More important than that was the fact that her safety had been exposed to the bastard.

If Muerte’s email was true, the bastard was a murderer. That meant a killer was circling around Jei.

Iheon reached out and picked up Jei’s phone from the table.

In the photo, Jei was looking up at the wall by the gate. Beneath the wall, orange trumpet creeper hung in clusters like fruit.

The composition was closer to a side profile. It was neither front-facing nor a complete view from behind.

He zoomed in. Jei’s shoulder line, the position of the suitcase, the angle of the gate and wall. And even the shadow of the alley across the street, faintly cut off at the edge of the photo.

After examining the photo for a while, Iheon muttered as if to himself.

“What did you take to get home?”

“A taxi.”

“Was there anything unusual when you got out of the taxi?”

Jei carefully retraced yesterday’s memories.

A kind taxi driver had gotten out of the driver’s seat, taken her suitcase from the trunk, and carried it to the gate for her.

After the taxi left, she had taken in the atmosphere of the alley she had not seen in a long time.

The back street, lined with luxury houses each built with its own character, was quiet with no one passing by.

If someone had followed the taxi into this alley, they would certainly have stood out.

“I don’t think there was anything particularly memorable.”

Iheon turned the phone screen toward Jei.

“This wasn’t taken from far away. Judging by the angle, it’s from the alley directly across the street. And the fact that the photo feels unhurried means there was no need to take it in a rush.”

“Which means……”

“He wasn’t following you. He was waiting.”

The color drained from Jei’s face. Lowering the phone, Iheon spoke with a voice full of certainty.

“The bastard either knew in advance that you would come here, or he waited until you did.”

“How would he know?”

“That’s the question. How did he know? I didn’t even know my wife was coming home.”

At Iheon’s cynical reply, Jei quietly shut her mouth.

Since they did not know when her safety had been exposed, it was a question no one but the culprit could answer.

But the bastard had deliberately taken the photo and sent it on the day Jei returned home.

It was a kind of threat.

“He’s asking us to find out, I suppose. Like the subject line says.”

“Who he is?”

“And why he did all this.”

The bastard had chosen Jei as the means to prove that he was the saint who had killed three demons. And he intended to assign her some role on the stage he had built.

How important that role was, he did not know, but the purpose was clear.

“The fortunate thing is that as long as you have use value, he probably won’t make a major threat……”

“What if I refuse?”

“If he’s the kind of bastard who set the board this far, he won’t simply back off. He’ll become even more obsessed. We can’t rule out the possibility that he’ll approach you even more blatantly.”

Iheon knew well what criminals would do without hesitation to achieve their goals.

“You know, Iheon. I think I know why Muerte chose me.”

Iheon raised one eyebrow crookedly. It meant: what are you talking about?

“I think it’s probably because of you.”

“Because of me?”

“The difference between me and active PDs is that I have you. Gong Iheon, the youngest profiler in South Korea.”