The Cop Is Too Strong [EN]: Chapter 24

Sejung Apartment, Unit 1003.

Click.

The kidnapper hung up.

As horror washed over the husband and wife, the intelligence officer shouted,

“We got a location. Public phone booth across from the old Shinseong Bank. Requesting tracking and surveillance from the control center.”

At the officer’s words, the detectives from Violent Crimes Unit 1 snapped to attention. The team leader jumped up and said,

“Send us all the call files immediately. Oh Gyeong, request backup from Teams 2 and 3. Let’s go.”

“I’ll go by motorcycle.”

“Okay, stay tuned to the radio.”

“Yes, sir!”

Shin Hae-soo’s motorcycle was parked in the apartment’s first-floor parking lot, as he had been eating and sleeping in the apartment for the past few days.

Having even one more vehicle was advantageous for tracking, especially now.

Brrr-

On the way to the public phone booth, a radio message from the intelligence officer came through on Team 1’s network.

-Suspect presumed to be wearing a gray hoodie, moving in the direction of Maeil Market.

The control center was providing real-time updates.

-Suspect making a right turn, passing Saeseom Inn.

Hae-soo had just reached the location of the public phone booth and was heading in the direction indicated by the radio.

-Lost signal from Yeonjae Mart! Surveillance is not possible inside that area!

As Hae-soo was about to enter the direction where the road curved at Yeonjae Mart, a car emerged from there.

Hae-soo saw the driver inside. It was a woman. No one else was in the car.

Click.

Hae-soo stopped, turned around, and didn’t go back in. Just then, the team leader’s radio message came through.

-Nothing here, not visible near the Saemi Hotel. What about you, maknae [youngest member of the team]?

The intelligence officer was silent, with nothing more to report.

Hae-soo suddenly recalled the time he analyzed CCTV footage. The playground, the park, the face was similar. He raised the radio.

“Team Leader, the same person has been seen three times at the scene. Besides the male suspect.”

-The same person? Twice could be a coincidence, but three times means they’re involved.

Hae-soo turned his motorcycle around and followed the car.

“I’m tailing them.”

-Okay, call it in.

“27Nabi 3301, black Avante [a popular car model in Korea], heading towards the Yeokjeon area.”

-Stay close, I’m right behind you.”

“Yes.”

The car wasn’t going particularly fast, so Hae-soo followed at a reasonable distance.

“Destination is… Sejung Apartment…”

-…What?

Sejung Apartment, where Arin, the kidnapped child, lived. It was also where the pregnant woman he had seen three times lived.

Hae-soo watched the car enter the underground parking lot, parked his motorcycle above ground, and pressed the elevator button.

The pregnant woman was riding alone. The 8th floor was pressed. Hae-soo pressed the 10th floor, where Arin’s house was.

-Ding-dong. 8th floor.

The doors opened, and Hae-soo didn’t close them immediately, trying to see where she was going. However, he couldn’t see because she was looking around cautiously.

“Team Leader, wait a moment in the underground parking lot.”

-Huh? Okay, got it.

Hae-soo headed to Arin’s house on the 10th floor. The door was slightly open, and there was a loud noise inside.

“I, I told you not to report it! What do we do? What about our Arin!”

“She’ll be caught, Arin will be okay, honey, please calm down…”

Just then, Hae-soo entered, and the husband rushed over and clung to him.

“Detective! What happened? Our Arin… !”

His eyes were filled with disappointment as Hae-soo entered alone. There was no time to acknowledge their emotions. Hae-soo pulled the husband away, grabbed both his shoulders, and made eye contact.

“When you heard Arin’s voice on the phone, what was it like? What did she say?”

The husband, slightly intimidated by the frightening aura emanating from Hae-soo, replied,

“As, as I said before, she asked when Dad was coming home, that she missed me…”

“What was her tone of voice like? Was she terrified?”

“Of course… Ah? I don’t think she was.”

The child was nine years old, and the fact that her voice wasn’t terrified meant she didn’t know she had been kidnapped. It was someone she knew. Someone she saw often.

Hae-soo’s eyes sharpened even more.

“Do you know what unit that pregnant woman from the playground lives in?”

“End of the 8th floor. Unit 810.”

“Let’s go.”

Hae-soo headed to Unit 810 with the couple. The wife pressed the doorbell.

Ding-dong, ding-dong.

No response. They put their ears to the door and heard hurried movements inside. Hae-soo gestured for them to keep going.

Knock knock knock

“Ma’am, are you there? We have something to ask. Please open the door!”

Perhaps burdened by the loud knocking, the pregnant woman finally opened the door, revealing her face. Her eyes were filled with anxiety rather than annoyance.

“…What is it?”

She opened the door slightly, but when Hae-soo showed his face, their eyes met. She hurriedly tried to close the door.

Thud-

Hae-soo forced the door open and stepped inside, saying,

“Please cooperate with the investigation.”

She visibly showed signs of anxiety.

The house was a mess. Clothes were scattered everywhere, and empty soju [Korean distilled beverage] bottles were piled up in one corner.

In a small room, there was duct tape and a box cutter.

“Why, why are you doing this? Get out of here right now!”

Hae-soo and the couple quickly searched the house, but no one was visible. Hae-soo looked at the wedding photo hanging in the living room. Considering the height difference with the pregnant woman, around 175cm [approximately 5’9″], and her thin build, it matched the suspect.

Thump.

At that moment, the wife’s legs gave way, and she collapsed. In her hand was a hair tie with a pink cherry decoration.

“Our Arin’s, Arin’s…”

It was conclusive evidence. The pregnant woman’s face was filled with horror as she naturally looked at Hae-soo.

Unbelievable, but their daughter was being held captive in the same apartment building.

The wife’s eyes quickly welled up with tears, then suddenly turned vicious.

“Where is our Arin!”

As she approached as if to kill, the pregnant woman stepped back and waved her hands.

“I, I really didn’t do anything wrong. I stopped them from killing her several times, and, Aah!”

The wife grabbed the pregnant woman’s hair and slapped her repeatedly. Hae-soo stopped her. If she caused a miscarriage, she would also be guilty.

“Ma’am, you won’t find Arin if you do this. We need to hear what she has to say.”

Just as he managed to separate the two.

Tap tap tap-

Someone’s footsteps were heard. The sound was rapidly moving away, not approaching.

Hae-soo glanced at the husband and shouted as he ran out.

“Grab the woman!”

He went outside and saw a man wearing a gray hoodie running down the apartment hallway. Hae-soo chased after him, radioing,

“Suspect found! Fleeing towards the central staircase on the 8th floor!”

-Okay, I’m coming up!

Hae-soo was chasing the criminal down to the 5th floor when the criminal spotted the team leader and Kang-seok coming up and cut off to the 4th floor in the middle.

Seeing this, Hae-soo opened the emergency door one floor above where the guy went, and the team leader chased the criminal from the floor below, and Oh Gyeong chased the criminal from behind.

Tap tap tap-

-Going up!

Thud!

In a corridor-style apartment, there are two emergency staircases. Next to Unit 1 and next to the elevator, the criminal came out of the elevator staircase and went up the staircase next to Unit 1, running into Hae-soo coming down.

“Shit!”

The criminal took out a knife from his pocket and lunged at Hae-soo without hesitation.

Hae-soo twisted his upper body to deflect the knife, grabbed and twisted his wrist, and slammed his head against the stairwell wall.

Thwack!

His nose broke and blood splattered on the wall as it hit the hard concrete. Hae-soo pulled his hair back and said,

“In ancient law, kidnappers”

Thwack-

“Are executed even if they sell the child.”

Thwack

“Are executed even if they keep the child safe.”

Thwack

“That means I can kill you right now.”

Thwack!

“Plea, Please spare me…”

“No.”

Thud-

He eventually fainted and collapsed. A long streak of red blood was drawn on the stairwell wall.

Hae-soo raised his foot to stomp on his head but stopped.

He wanted to vent his anger for not being able to punish the woman because she was pregnant, but he stopped because he thought he would really kill him.

***

The kidnapping couple was struggling with financial difficulties, and the husband had gambling debts. When the wife had severe bleeding and had to quit her job, the loan sharks threatened to sell her to a brothel, so they planned the kidnapping.

As the confinement dragged on, the husband became anxious whenever Arin cried and tried to kill her. However, the pregnant wife actively stopped him, and the third time he tried to kill her, the wife suggested just selling her to the loan sharks, which would cancel their debt of 20 million won [approximately $15,000 USD].

Oh Gyeong muttered as he looked at the written statement.

“Should we call this misfortune or luck?”

“Luck, luck so far. I’m not trying to defend the criminals, but she was alive until then thanks to that woman.”

Hae-soo nodded in agreement.

“That’s right.”

Even if they were to sell her to China or the Philippines in the worst-case scenario, children under the age of 13 are not subject to organ trafficking, so the possibility of death would disappear for the time being.

Hae-soo grabbed the hair of the man with eight missing front teeth and pulled him up.

“Now, let’s go collect the debt.”

The team leader clung to Hae-soo pleadingly. There was fried rice in front of him.

“Maknae [youngest member of the team], just eat this and go. You can’t use your strength if you’re hungry. Who knows when we’ll be able to eat again.”

“…Yes.”

*

In front of an old 4-story building, a sign reads Haewon Corporation on the top floor.

“Is this the place?”

“Y, Yes, that’s right.”

The kidnapper nodded several times. His pronunciation was slurred because he was missing teeth.

Hae-soo looked at the team leader and Oh Gyeong and said,

“Please cover the front and back doors. I’ll go in.”

“Look at our maknae’s [youngest member of the team] spirit. Before even going in, he’s telling us to catch the guys who are going to run away instead of supporting him. It’s so good that we have someone besides Oh Gyeong who’s good at this. Go, Captain Assault!”

The team leader pointed to the entrance as if shooting a gun with his hand, and Hae-soo grabbed the kidnapper by the back of the neck and dragged him inside.

Haewon Corporation office on the 4th floor of the building.

Thud-!

The steel door was violently opened. Inside, four men who looked like they had ‘I’m a gangster’ written all over their faces were sitting.

Hae-soo pushed the kidnapper towards the man sitting at the head of the table in front of the desk and asked,

“Where is the child this guy brought?”

“Child? You should look for children at daycare, why are you looking for them here?”

The other men chuckled at the boss’s words.

Hae-soo pushed the kidnapper aside and raised his fist.

“Yeah, you’ll remember if I hit you.”

“Crazy bastard… Kneel him [slang for ‘take him down’].”

At the boss’s command, three men with threatening tattoos wriggled as they approached.

The biggest guy with the shaved head reached out to grab Hae-soo by the collar first.

“Where is this… Aagh!”

Crack!

Hae-soo grabbed the big guy’s wrist, twisted it upwards, and hooked his ankle. The heavy body spun half a turn in the air, and his head slammed into the long table.

Crash!!

The long table couldn’t withstand the impact and split in half. The other men flinched at the sight. Hae-soo looked at them and stomped on the big guy’s neck.

“I don’t have time, hurry up and attack.”

“You son of a-”

Thwack, thwack-

Shin Hae-soo punched the nose of the man who rushed in with a short, sharp blow, and then extended his fist again to hit his jaw as he retreated.

The man staggered like a drunk person and fell backward.

In the meantime, Hae-soo pulled his upper body back, and another man’s fist crossed into the empty space.

Hae-soo grabbed his wrist, raised his elbow with his palm.

Crack!

“Kkeuaak!”

He grabbed his face with his hand and pushed it against the wall.

Thwack!

Hae-soo turned his back on the man drawing a blood line on the wall and approached the last remaining boss. The boss’s mouth was smiling as if he was relaxed, but his eyes were shaking.

“Let’s talk it over…”

Hae-soo grabbed his hair and slammed it down on the glass ashtray in front of the desk.

Thwack!

Then, he picked him up again, bleeding profusely from his nose, and made eye contact.

“Do you remember?”

“No, I really don’t know what you’re talking about-”

Thwack, thwack!

“Do you remember?”

“S, Sir, just a moment-”

As Hae-soo tried to slam his face into the glass ashtray again, he desperately blocked it with his hands and said.

“I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”

Only then did Hae-soo’s hand stop.

< #24. Caught. > End