Chapter 9: The Ashes Tell a Different Story

March 15th

“…I knew this would happen.”

Mu-yun rubbed his eyelids with his palms at the fluorescent numbers indicating 2:30 AM.

Even though he had showered and lain down in bed as soon as he got home, he still hadn’t slept a wink.

He was tired enough to pass out, yet his eyes were wide open.

On nights like this, it would be better to just lose consciousness without thinking.

Tossing and turning, changing positions to find a comfortable one, Mu-yun eventually got up.

He had to sleep somehow to wake up and go to work in the morning.

He headed to the kitchen.

When he opened the refrigerator door, he saw beer cans densely packed on the bottom shelf.

Half were non-alcoholic and half were alcoholic, so he picked the non-alcoholic beer with the highest alcohol content among them.

He wouldn’t get drunk on 0.05%, but he figured it would at least put him in the mood.

As soon as he opened it, he heard the fizz of carbonation.

Wincing at the sharp sensation in his throat, he sat down at the four-person dining table.

The quiet, empty house still had boxes in every corner.

Now that he was used to the sight, they didn’t bother him anymore.

Just as he was about to take another sip, something flashed in the darkness.

He flipped his phone over.

The number that hadn’t disappeared all day was gone, and a new message had arrived.

[Are you off today?]

It wasn’t exactly a question to ask at this hour.

[Day shift.]

[?

Then why aren’t you sleeping.]

[Can’t sleep.]

As soon as the number disappeared, a call came in.

“Yes.”

[It’s me.

Officer So Mu-yun.]

Mu-yun chuckled.

His voice echoed, as if he were out on some stairs somewhere.

“What’s up at this hour, Captain Won.”

[For a voice that’s given up on sleeping, you sound pretty relaxed?]

Mu-yun giggled.

It was funny, him doing this while his head was foggy.

“I’m in the middle of drinking a beer.”

[I don’t know if you know this, but you shouldn’t rely on alcohol when you can’t sleep.]

“It’s non-alcoholic.”

[Then open another one.]

At Tae-i’s nonchalant change of tune, he laughed softly.

Then he took another sip of beer.

[I want to drink too.]

“Drink after you get off work tomorrow.”

[Drinking alone is dangerous, though.]

“Then bring it and come to my place.”

[…Is that okay?]

“Yeah.”

Mu-yun shook the increasingly light can and drank again.

[Should I bring some snacks tomorrow evening?

What do you like?]

“Anything’s fine.”

He wasn’t particularly picky about that sort of thing, so it really didn’t matter.

Mu-yun put down the now-empty can.

“By the way, Captain Won.”

[Yes, go ahead.]

“Do you only drink sweet beers too?”

[Sweet things are delicious.]

Tae-i named all kinds of sweet alcoholic drinks—apple, lemon, chocolate, etc.

Mu-yun clicked his tongue.

“You’d better apologize to your blood vessels on your knees someday.”

Finding that funny, Tae-i laughed loudly.

[Unhealthy things are naturally tasty, aren’t they?]

“That’s true.

But still.”

Mu-yun agreed.

The tastier something was, the worse it was for your body.

Even though he didn’t eat many sweet things, he still snacked and liked salty foods.

“Still, you need to apologize to your blood vessels.”

Tae-i burst out laughing again.

Mu-yun soon started chuckling as well.

After laughing for a good while, strangely, drowsiness began to wash over him.

“I should hang up now.”

Sensing the sleepiness in his voice, Tae-i answered that he understood.

[Good night.]

“Yeah.”

Normally, he would say ‘you sleep well too,’ but that wasn’t a greeting for someone who still had work hours left.

Mu-yun ended the call and rubbed his phone, which was more warm than hot.

They hadn’t talked that much, but quite some time had passed.

He was worried about Won Tae-i, who hadn’t been able to sleep while tired and had given him his rest time instead, but his heavy eyelids drooping shut took priority.

Returning to bed, Mu-yun fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, as if he had never been struggling to sleep.

***

“Huh-etchoo!”

Sergeant Park sneezed, his whole body jerking.

Ash was flying in the blowing wind, tickling the tip of his nose.

He sneezed several times in a row, then finally sniffled and stopped.

Mu-yun thought it was a good thing he had worn a mask as Tae-i had suggested that morning.

“Here.”

Sergeant Park, who had said he was fine and didn’t need one when getting out of the patrol car, quickly took a mask and put it on.

“Ah, now I can finally breathe.”

There was a temple less than 100 meters from the suspected point of origin of the fire.

It wasn’t a cultural property or anything.

It was just a place where a monk enshrined the Buddha.

Upon arriving at the scene, they saw a fire investigator from Seoheung Fire Station and the monk.

“Hello.”

Following Sergeant Park, who greeted loudly, Mu-yun also bowed his head.

“Come in, come in.”

Having finished their conversation, the monk welcomed them.

It seemed they had been deployed to the scene as soon as the fire was extinguished, finished their primary investigation, and were now conducting a secondary investigation today.

“What seems to be the issue?”

Sergeant Park asked, trying to sound as friendly as possible.

Despite his efforts, it was a bit sad that his sharp features still made him look menacing.

“Well, you see.

I thought it would be best for the police to take a look as well…”

The monk, looking like he didn’t know how to say it, awkwardly wiped his forehead with his palm.

“Come this way.”

At the gesture to follow, Sergeant Park and Mu-yun exchanged a glance, then simultaneously shrugged.

Mu-yun surveyed the surroundings and tagged along at the very end like a tail.

Because the yard was covered with gravel instead of dry grass, there were areas that had suffered relatively less fire damage.

That was fortunate, if anything.

Beyond the part that was hardly a boundary between the yard and the mountain, everything was black, covered in falling ash.

As they went around the main hall and further toward the mountainside, the monk pointed to a spot.

“Over there, we have an incinerator that the temple no longer uses.”

As he said this, the monk looked at the fire investigator.

“It’s dangerous, and the fire department comes to check on it quite often in fall and winter, so I locked it with a padlock.”

Mu-yun roughly sketched the temple’s layout in his notebook and marked the incinerator’s location with an X.

“We were thinking of getting rid of it because of this wildfire, so I opened the incinerator…

Oh my, Buddha.”

Seeing the monk shudder as if he had witnessed something horrifying, Sergeant Park narrowed his eyes and strode over to the incinerator.

Then, instead of locking it again, he checked the incinerator door, which was secured with a thin metal rod acting as a latch.

Mu-yun quickly ran over and raised his phone.

When they opened the heavily rusted incinerator entrance, they saw ash that had piled up and hardened inside.

Mu-yun peered inside over the shoulder of Sergeant Park, who was hunched over in front of the entrance.

After examining it for a while, their gazes simultaneously turned toward the monk.

The monk frantically waved his hands.

“I don’t know anything about that.”

Mu-yun narrowed his eyes and looked inside the incinerator, which was shaped like a narrow drum.

Ash was thickly piled on a support made of thin wire mesh, and between it, bones were visible.

It was a case.

A case that required support from the detective team and the forensic science team.

Mu-yun wiped the sweat seeping into his palms on his pants.

Something, whether excitement or tension, raced rapidly through the blood vessels all over his body.

Having only dealt with drunks every day, now that he was faced with a case scene like this, he wanted to do well, regardless of what it was.

“Let’s take pictures first.”

“Yes.”

To preserve the scene as evidence, Mu-yun raised his phone again.

He carefully captured the inside of the incinerator on his screen, making sure to show as much detail as possible.

While he was documenting the scene, Sergeant Park began to question the monk in more detail about what he had just heard.

“Do you remember exactly when you locked it with the padlock?”

“Well, it was around January of this year.

Before that, I tied it with wire, but the person who works the field behind it sometimes used the incinerator, and I’d find it untied, so I bought a strong one and locked it.”

Sergeant Park quickly took notes.

“Do you remember where you bought it and how you paid?”

“Of course.

I bought it at the general store down below.

Everyone uses this these days.”

The monk rummaged in his pocket, took out his wallet, and showed his bank check card.

Sergeant Park checked it and smiled.

“Understood.

The detectives might come and ask when you bought it again.”

“If that’s what needs to be done, then that’s what we’ll do.”

Mu-yun, who had been continuously looking into the incinerator while listening to the exchange from the back, straightened up and stood.

Somehow, he felt strange.

It was stifling, as if his breath was caught, and the tinnitus that had been ringing in his head for a while came a bit longer.

He took a moment to steady his breathing and then turned his head side to side as if loosening his neck muscles, then paused.

A CCTV camera was visible on the roof of the main hall.

“Sergeant Park.”

Sergeant Park turned his head.

“Why?”

“There’s a CCTV over there.”

At that, the monk shook his head.

“It’s fixed in direction, so it doesn’t even see this area.

It only watches the front yard.”

Sergeant Park shrugged.

“We’ll still check it.

Whether it’s a cat or a dog, it’s illegal for an individual to cremate a corpse like this.”

At the word ‘illegal,’ the monk’s face, which had already been showing clear discomfort, grew darker.

“Oh my, Buddha.”

Saying they would investigate as thoroughly as possible, Sergeant Park began to pry information about the owner of the field in question—the one who might have used the incinerator without permission.

Mu-yun took diligent notes and then scanned the surroundings again, wondering if he had missed anything.

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