25화 토사구팽

조사가 끝난 건 밤이었다.

모연은 참고인 진술을 마치고 청사를 나섰다. 진술은 완벽했다. 놀란 표정도, 배신당한 사람의 목소리도 흠잡을 데가 없었다.

**[사건 처리 경과]**

| 항목 | 내용 |
|---|---|
| 피의자 | 이수진 (구속) |
| 참고인 | 강모연 (귀가 조치) |
| 자금 | 이체 완료 (해외 계좌) |
| 회사 대응 | 개인 일탈로 정리, 공식 대응 없음 |

돈은 계획대로 넘어갔다. 500억은 이미 국외 계좌에 들어가 있었다.

*됐어. 이제 나가면 돼.*

모연은 그렇게 되뇌었다. 스물한 해를 기다린 순간이었다.

그런데 이상하게 아무 감정도 들지 않았다.

밤 열한 시, 지훈에게서 연락이 왔다.

"고생하셨습니다."

목소리에 여유가 넘쳤다.

"돈은 확인했어요. 제 몫은 언제 옮겨주실 건가요."

"아, 그거요."

지훈이 잠시 뜸을 들였다.

"지금 계좌가 좀 얼어 있어서요. 며칠만 기다리시죠. 그동안 좀 안전한 데 계시는 게 좋겠습니다."

"안전한 데요?"

"수사가 아직 안 끝났잖습니까. 상무님 참고인 신분이라도, 계속 서울에 계시면 자꾸 부를 겁니다. 외곽에 조용한 데 하나 잡아뒀으니 며칠만 계세요. 차 보내드리겠습니다."

*맞는 말이긴 한데.*

모연은 잠시 생각했다. 논리적으로는 틀린 데가 없었다.

"……알겠어요."

전화를 끊었다.

지훈을 의심하지 않았다. 여덟 달을 함께 판을 짠 상대였고, 서로 약점을 쥐고 있는 사이였다. 배신하면 자기도 무사하지 못한다는 걸 알 텐데, 그럴 이유가 없었다.

차는 두 시간을 달렸다.

도착한 곳은 산 아래 별장이었다. 태산그룹 소유의 시설 중 하나로, 회장이 몇 년째 쓰지 않는 곳이었다.

"편히 쉬십시오. 며칠이면 정리됩니다."

운전기사가 짐을 내려주고 돌아갔다.

모연은 넓은 거실에 홀로 섰다. 창밖으로는 아무것도 보이지 않았다. 불빛 하나 없는 산이었다.

*조용하긴 하네.*

그날 밤, 모연은 오랜만에 약 없이 잠들었다. 정확히는 잠들었다고 생각했다.

기사가 두고 간 물 한 잔을 마신 뒤부터, 기억이 흐릿했다.

눈을 떴을 때, 창이 없었다.

*어디지, 여기.*

콘크리트 벽, 낮은 천장, 문 하나. 조명은 천장에 박힌 등 하나뿐이었다.

모연은 벌떡 일어나 문으로 달려갔다. 손잡이가 돌아가지 않았다.

"저기요! 누구 없어요!"

몇 번이나 두드렸다. 아무 대답도 없었다.

몇 시간 뒤, 문이 열렸다. 지훈이었다.

"깨셨네요."

"이게 무슨 짓이에요!"

"진정하시고요."

지훈이 문틀에 기대섰다. 표정에는 아무 죄책감도 없었다.

"제 몫은 어떻게 되는 거예요. 당장 풀어줘요."

"몫이요?"

지훈이 짧게 웃었다.

"저를 처음부터……."

"처음부터요."

지훈이 짧게 인정했다. 그게 다였다.

모연의 머릿속에서 조각들이 저절로 맞춰졌다.

계좌는 자기 이름으로 되어 있었다. 자기가 밖에 있는 한, 그 돈이 어디로 갔는지 말할 수 있는 사람이 하나 남아 있는 셈이었다.

담보로 받았던 이면계약서. 그건 이미 없었다.

공항에서 돌아온 그날 저녁, 지훈이 찾아왔다.

"그 서류, 제가 보관하겠습니다."

"그건 제 담보인데요."

"압니다. 근데 지금 상무님 참고인 신분이잖아요. 수사관들 자택 압수수색 들어오면 그게 제일 먼저 나옵니다."

"……"

"그거 나오면 상무님이 먼저 걸려요. 저야 뭐, 그때 가서 어떻게든 해보겠지만."

반박할 말이 없었다. 논리적으로 맞는 말이었다.

무엇보다 그날은, 자기 입으로 사람 하나를 감옥에 보내고 온 날이었다. 라운지에서 손을 뿌리친 감촉이 아직 손끝에 남아 있었고, 머릿속은 제대로 굴러가지 않았다.

그래서 그냥 건넸다.

신고할 수도 없었다. 자기도 공범이었고, 무엇보다 그 자리에서 자기 입으로 사람 하나를 감옥에 보낸 뒤였다.

그러다 문득 다른 게 걸렸다.

검찰이 들이닥친 건 열 시 오 분이었다. 이체 승인은 열한 시로 되어 있었는데.

*그럼 돈은 언제 나간 거지.*

답은 하나뿐이었다. 이미 나간 뒤였다는 것.

열한 시라던 것도 거짓말이었다. 자기와 수진을 그 자리에 앉혀두기 위한 시각이었을 뿐이었다.

*나도 속고 있었구나. 처음부터.*

*처음부터 셋이 살아남는 판이 아니었구나.*

모연은 아무 말도 하지 못했다.

"편히 계세요. 여기 밥은 잘 나옵니다."

문이 닫혔다. 자물쇠 잠기는 소리가 났다.

모연은 벽에 등을 기댄 채 주저앉았다.

*내가 짠 판이었는데.*

여덟 달을 계산했다. 모든 변수를 검토했다고 생각했다.

딱 하나, 지훈을 의심하지 않았다.

*왜 그 생각을 못 했지.*

답은 알고 있었다. 지훈은 자신에게 처음으로 '나갈 수 있다'고 말해준 사람이었다. 그 말을 믿고 싶었으니까, 그 사람만은 의심하지 않았던 것이다.

그리고 그 대가로—

*그 사람을, 내가.*

수진의 얼굴이 떠올랐다. 바닥에 눌린 채 자신을 향해 손을 뻗던 얼굴. "이 사람은 아무것도 몰라요"라고 외치던 목소리.

가진 걸 전부 털어서 항공권 두 장을 샀던 사람.

모연은 무릎에 얼굴을 묻었다.

*미안해요.*

이제는 전할 수도 없는 말이었다.

English

The questioning ended at night.

Moyeon finished her witness statement and walked out of the building. The statement was flawless. There was nothing to fault in the startled face, or in the voice of a woman who had been sold by someone she trusted.

> **[How the Case Was Handled]**
>
> | Item | Details |
> |---|---|
> | Suspect | Lee Sujin (held in custody) |
> | Witness | Kang Moyeon (sent home) |
> | Money | Already sent out (overseas account) |
> | Company response | Filed as one person's own doing; no official response |

The money went out as planned. The fifty billion won was already sitting in an account abroad.

*That is it. Now I can leave.*

Moyeon said it over to herself. It was the moment she had waited twenty-one years for.

And strangely, she felt nothing at all.

At eleven at night, word came from Jihoon.

"Good work today."

There was ease in the voice.

"I have checked the money. When will you move my share over?"

"Ah, that."

Jihoon let a moment go by.

"The account is a little frozen just now. Give it a few days. And it would be better if you stayed somewhere safe in the meantime."

"Somewhere safe?"

"The investigation is not over. Even as a witness, if you stay in Seoul they will keep calling you in. I have taken a quiet place on the **outskirts**, somewhere outside the city, so stay there a few days. I will send a car."

*He is not wrong, though.*

Moyeon thought for a moment. There was nothing wrong with it as a piece of reasoning.

"...All right."

She ended the call.

She did not suspect Jihoon. They had rigged the table together for eight months, and each of them held something on the other. If he turned on her, he would not come out of it clean either, and he knew that, so there was no reason for him to do it.

The car drove for two hours.

Where it stopped was a lodge at the foot of a mountain. It was one of the places Taesan Group owned, and the Chairman had not used it for years.

"Rest well. It will be sorted in a few days."

The driver set her bags down and went back.

Moyeon stood alone in the wide living room. Nothing showed through the window. It was a mountain without one light on it.

*Quiet enough, at least.*

That night, for the first time in a long while, Moyeon fell asleep without the drug. To be exact, she thought she had fallen asleep.

After she drank the glass of water the driver had left, her memory went **hazy**, and nothing after that held its shape.

When she opened her eyes, there was no window.

*Where is this.*

Concrete walls, a low ceiling, one door. The only light was a single lamp set into the ceiling.

Moyeon jumped up and ran to the door. The handle would not turn.

"Hello! Is anyone there!"

She knocked again and again. No answer came.

Hours later, after her knocking had died away, the door was opened. It was Jihoon.

"So you are awake."

"What is this supposed to be!"

"Calm down, now."

Jihoon leaned against the door frame. There was no guilt at all in his face.

"What happens to my share. Let me out right now."

"Your share?"

Jihoon gave a short laugh.

"You had me from the start..."

"From the start."

Jihoon admitted it in three words. That was all.

In Moyeon's head the pieces fit themselves together.

The account was in her name. As long as she was outside, one person was left who could say where that money had gone.

The side contract she had taken as her hold on him. That was gone already.

On the evening of the day she came back from the airport, Jihoon had come to see her.

"That document. I will keep it."

"That is my **collateral**, the thing I hold so that you cannot turn on me."

"I know. But you are a witness right now. If the investigators search your home, that is the first thing they will find."

"..."

"If that turns up, you go down first. I will manage somehow when it comes to that."

She had nothing to say against it. As a piece of reasoning it was right.

Above all, that day was the day she had sent a person to prison with her own mouth. The feel of striking that hand away in the lounge was still on her fingertips, and her head would not turn over properly.

So she simply handed it over.

She could not report it either. She was an **accomplice** herself, one of the people who had done it, and beyond that she had just sent a person to prison with her own mouth.

Then something else caught at her.

The prosecutors came in at five past ten. Before that, the approval for the money had been set for eleven.

*Then when did the money go out.*

There was only one answer. It had gone already.

The eleven o'clock had been a lie as well. It was only a time set to keep her and Sujin sitting in that room.

*I was being played too. From the start.*

*It was never a table where three of us came out alive.*

Moyeon could not say anything.

"Make yourself comfortable. The food here is good."

The door closed. There was the sound of a lock turning.

Moyeon sank down with her back against the wall.

*It was my table.*

She had run the numbers for eight months. She had thought she went over every **variable**, everything that could change.

There was exactly one person she never doubted, and that was Jihoon.

*Why did that never come to me.*

She knew the answer. Jihoon was the first person who had ever told her she could get out. She had wanted to believe that, and so he was the one person she never doubted.

And the price of it was...

*That person. I did that.*

Sujin's face came up. The face held down on the floor, reaching a hand toward her. The voice calling out that Moyeon knew nothing.

The person who had emptied out everything she had to buy two plane tickets.

Moyeon put her face down on her knees.

*I am sorry.*

It was a word there was no longer any way to send.