Chapter 5

Memory was like a broken film reel.

Even when he tried to retrace how things had come to this, his mind, like a screen gone black, could project nothing.

When they had moved from the kitchen to the living room. It was the floor, not even the sofa. Around them lay things that had been holding on as if dead for at least half a year.

The table pushed askew, a fallen vase and withered flowers, a book spread open carelessly, and the like.

Before his blinking eyes, scenes that could no longer be undone were already continuing.

“Fuck……”

Again the memory cut off.

In the memory that resumed, he was already doing something else.

When he opened his eyes again, it was the bedroom.

A pale dawn light was seeping through the gap in the curtains.

When they had moved from the living room to the bedroom, who had collapsed onto the bed first—he remembered none of it.

Only his arms were hot.

Iheon lowered his cold eyes.

Jei was in his arms. With her exhausted face buried against his chest, she was barely breathing.

His arm was wrapped tightly around her waist. As if he were a person terrified of losing her.

That sight was ridiculous.

To have spent the whole night ruining her, driving her into a corner, doing things while out of his mind—and in the end to fall asleep holding her like this.

“You crazy bastard……”

Self-disgust welled up. Just then, Jei’s breath touched beneath his collarbone. At that faint warmth, strength entered Iheon’s arm again.

It was instinct. A wretched, idiotic instinct that could not let this woman go to the very end.

As if forcibly cutting off that instinct, Iheon bolted upright from the bed.

The shower did not take long. Iheon stood beneath the cold stream and closed his eyes for a while.

Though his skin grew numb with cold, the sensations of the night clinging to his body would not wash away.

He roughly pushed back his wet hair and entered the dressing room.

Taking any shirt from those hanging on the shelf, he slid his arms into the sleeves. He buttoned the shirt all the way up.

He put on his wristwatch, pressed the cuffs straight with his fingers, tightened the knot of his necktie neatly, and put on his jacket.

The man in the mirror was impeccable. Which made it all the more revolting.

Without looking back at Jei, who was sleeping as if unconscious, Iheon took his briefcase and left the house quickly.

By the time he arrived at the university, Iheon already wore his usual face.

No trace remained anywhere from which one could guess what had happened during the night.

Ten o’clock in the morning on the dot.

Iheon stood at the front of the lecture hall and looked at the students. Cool and composed, exactly as he always was.

* * *

When he pressed the remote, a photograph appeared on the screen at the front of the lecture hall.

It was a two-story house whose roof had half collapsed, its window frames blackened and only a skeletal frame remaining.

The students’ eyes focused on the screen.

Standing beside the podium, Iheon pressed the remote once more. The next screen briefly summarized the case.

Fire reported at 3:17 a.m.

Two victims dead.

No damage to the front door lock.

Binding marks found on the wrist of one victim.

Estimated point of ignition: the corridor between the living room and the main bedroom.

A figure in a black raincoat captured on nearby CCTV during the estimated time of the crime.

The same figure captured again near the scene after the fire was reported.

“The case we will look at today is an arson murder.”

Iheon’s calm, dry voice pierced the ears of the students gathered in the lecture hall.

“But simply because someone set a fire does not mean the criminal’s core motive necessarily lies in the fire. Fire can be the objective, the means, or a message. Or it can be a post-crime act to conceal the offense.”

Holding a blue marker, he walked to the large whiteboard beside the screen. His shirt cuffs were rolled neatly enough to expose his wrist bones, and thick veins stood out clearly on the back of his hand.

A neat yet sharp handwriting resembling his unhesitating nature was inscribed on the board in turn.

MO[1], Staging[2], Signature[3].

He knocked on the surface of the whiteboard with a tap-tap and turned to the students.

“First, MO. The modus operandi. Method of entry, method of subduing the victim, use of tools, escape route, attempts to remove evidence, and so on. MO is learned. If it fails, it changes; if it succeeds, it repeats.”

On the next screen appeared a floor plan of the house’s interior. Entrance, living room, kitchen, main bedroom, small room. Red marks were placed between the entrances and the rooms.

“There are no signs of forced entry at the front door, and the point of ignition is located well for cutting off the victims’ movement paths. Here we must establish at least three possibilities.”

The students’ eyes traveled back and forth between the floor plan and Iheon on the podium. On some faces following the red marks, belated understanding dawned.

“One, the victim opened the door.”

From his clenched fist, his long index finger stood straight.

“Two, the offender had a means of entry. Three, the offender entered in advance and waited.”

His middle and ring fingers unfolded in turn.

“Then was it the work of someone the victims knew?”

At the question from a student in the front row, Iheon did not answer immediately. He only turned his eyes and stared briefly at the questioner.

That short silence alone seemed to sink the air of the lecture hall a level lower. A beat later, his lips opened.

“The possibility is high.”

But.

“Only to a certain degree. The most dangerous thing in profiling is hasty certainty.”

The screen changed, and forensic photographs of the victims appeared. Several students unconsciously furrowed their brows.

Iheon swept over that reaction once and did not change expression at all.

“These are the binding marks left on the wrist of the burned victim. The binding tool was a stocking.”

With the tip of the blue marker, he pointed precisely at the marked area in the photograph.

“For now, I view this as MO. A means of subduing the victim and preventing escape. However, if the same method repeats in other cases, the possibility that it is a signature can also be examined.”

On the next screen was a CCTV capture. A blurry figure in a black raincoat stood at the end of the road.

“Finally, post-crime behavior.”

Iheon pointed to the position of a figure in the screen.

“The same figure was captured again near the scene after the fire was reported. It is a location inconsistent with the escape route. There is a possibility that the person was trying to confirm whether the fire had spread properly, whether evidence remained, and whether the victims were dead.”

There was no hesitation in his eyes as they swept across the lecture hall. Students touched by that gaze either avoided it or shifted their posture. It lingered nowhere long, yet no one escaped it.

“In summary, this case should be profiled around victim specificity, awareness of the interior structure, subduing of the victims, and post-crime re-confirmation.”

He clicked the marker cap shut. It was a small sound, but inside the hushed lecture hall it rang unusually clear.

“By next class, analyze the criminal behavior in this case. Organize what each action was a choice for, with supporting grounds.”

A sigh close to booing burst out among the students.

A somewhat arrogant gaze swept slowly from the front row to the back. As if he had expected their complaints entirely.

“There is no need for words like pitiful, horrifying, or cruel.”

Instead of looking displeased, Iheon lazily pulled up one corner of his mouth.

“Because that is not analysis but sentiment.”

As soon as his words ended, the students, looking fed up, packed their bags and rose from their seats one by one.

Watching the backs of the students with drooping shoulders, Iheon wore a slightly longer smile than before. It was a mischievous smile without tenderness.

But even that smile did not last long. Because someone had entered through the back door of the lecture hall through which the students were leaving.

Notes

[1] modus operandi: the manner in which a criminal carries out the crime. Actions chosen to make the crime succeed, such as entry, subduing, use of tools, escape, and removal of evidence.

[2] The act of deliberately arranging the scene so that the criminal confuses the investigation or makes the nature of the case appear different.

[3] A repetitive behavior that reveals the criminal’s psychological needs or fantasy rather than being strictly necessary for the success of the crime.