The Sun to my Moon

Chapter 38: Out of the blue

The next morning, the outlook was more promising.

Tae-ung had called in a big favor to an old friend, and as a result, had secured a promise that the friend would provide him copies of Samael's military records. He'd taken Se-hun with him to go pick them up from the local army base.

Hwa-sook had set up a code script the night before to search tax and property records for Shin Samael and the Venom Industries, which had returned a number of promising results. She was now poring happily over tax records, convinced she would find the answers she needed there.

Haeri, looking at the reams of paper that Hwa-sook had churned out for her to review, seemed less optimistic. "I guess if we can't get him for murder, we can always take a leaf out of the NIS' book and nail him for tax fraud," she said gloomily. "That is, if we can prove these companies are all shell corporations run by the same individual."

"I may be able to give you a start on that," Dal-geon said from his position on the couch, a cup of tea in one hand and a file balanced on his lap.

She looked over at him from where she was standing next to Hwa-sook's desk. "How's that?"

He held up a piece of paper for her inspection. "Take a look."

She sat down next to him and looked at the paper he handed her. It had four names written on it in Dal-geon's familiar hand. "Moon Paransaek, Baem Sang-eo, Shin Samael, and Jung Hyun-bin," she read aloud. She looked at Dal-geon with a question in her eyes. "Obviously I see the connection between Shin Samael and Jung Hyun-bin, but how do the other two tie in?"

"They are the presidents and Chairman of Moon Corporation and the Serpent Group, respectively," he informed her.

"You think Moon Parensaek and Baem Sang-eo are aliases for Samael, too?"

Dal-geon took a sip of his tea. "Ne."

"Waeyo? Based on what?"

"Word play. Samael and Hyun-bin are irony of each other, evil and sunshine but it also makes sense together. Parensaek means blue."

Haeri looked unconvinced. "And Baem Sang-eo?"

Dal-geon shrugged. "Baem for serpent. And Sang-eo for shark."

"Evil shines for blue shark ops. The serpent?" Haeri repeated in disbelief. "Heol. That's a reach, even for you."

"I will bet you the cost of buying lunch for Shrek for a month that I'm right," Dal-geon said, unruffled.

She looked back at the list. "All four of them are listed as company president or chairman?"

"Ne."

"Jakkaman," she said reluctantly. She looked at Hwa-sook. "Snow white, I need you to add two names to your search. Moon Paransaek and Baem Sang-eo."

"On it," Hwa-sook said, her fingers flying over the keyboard.

Haeri stood up and stared at her murder board. "You know," she remarked to Dal-geon. "There's something bothering me about this whole thing."

Dal-geon took a sip of his tea. "What's that?"

"The timeline is off. We've figured out Samael was about nineteen when he joined the army, and probably twenty or twenty one when he committed that first murder. He must have been in the army about three or four years, and then he came back to the U.S. and killed An Minguk in 1986."

"What's your point?"

"We always thought his first murder was in 1998, with the help of Min Jae-sik. From what we've learned, that was about the time he really started putting time into building his network of followers, too."