The Cop Is Too Strong [EN]: Chapter 136

136. Glue Murder Case

Inside a cheap motel room.

A foul odor stings the nose. Inside the room, a corpse lies with its arms and legs tied behind its back.

As reported, the eyes and mouth are firmly sealed with super glue.

Team Leader Kwak lowered his posture to examine the nose. It was evident that the inside of the nose was also completely blocked with glue.

“Is this a psycho?”

As Haru tried to enter, the youngest officer reached out to stop her.

“Rookie, haven’t you seen a corpse before? You need to brace yourself. When I saw one for the first time, my heart was pounding, and that image kept replaying in my mind all night. If you need psychological treatment, just say the word…”

Swoosh.

Haru ducked under his arm and entered the scene.

Hae-soo glanced at her as she approached, then averted his gaze.

He recalled the first time he discovered Haru. Covered in blood, with limbs and organs scattered around her in a gruesome scene, Haru’s eyes remained unshaken.

Perhaps she could view corpses without emotional disturbance better than anyone else here.

“When you first discover a body, it’s crucial not to disturb it. We need to estimate the time of death, so opening a window to change the internal temperature because of the smell is not a good idea.”

“Yes.”

At Hae-soo’s explanation, the motel owner, looking sheepish, closed the window he had opened.

“Always wear gloves when you need to touch anything, check for any external injuries, and don’t recklessly strip the clothes to check for internal injuries, as they may contain evidence. Lift them slightly to check.”

“Understood.”

Team Leader Kwak, who had been about to tear the clothes off, quietly put them down at Hae-soo’s explanation.

“There are no external injuries at all. It seems like death by suffocation.”

“A bizarre method.”

“I know, not drowning them in water but blocking their breathing holes… Cruel, so cruel.”

Hae-soo stood up, scanned the surroundings with sharp eyes, and asked the owner, who was lingering in the hallway.

“Does that CCTV work?”

There was none inside the room, of course, but one CCTV camera was installed in the hallway. However, there was no blinking or red light visible.

“Ah… that’s a dummy. The CCTV costs money every month, and business isn’t doing well, so…”

“Hmm…”

Things became difficult. The surrounding area was as run-down as the motel, making it hard to secure CCTV footage.

“Rookie, Haru, get cooperation from nearby vehicles and retrieve their black box footage. Officer Oh, let’s go look for CCTV together.”

“Alright, there’s nothing more to see here. Team Leader, please take care of the scene.”

Team Leader Kwak carefully examined the floor of the room where the body was, waving his hand dismissively.

And, as everyone left, the team leader turned around, looked in the direction they had gone, and muttered.

“Reliable, so reliable.”

* * *

Shortly after, the Violent Crimes Unit members gathered back at the scene.

“I managed to get CCTV footage, but it’s too far away from here, so I don’t have much hope.”

“We couldn’t reach any of the nearby drivers. One of them cursed and hung up.”

The team leader, who had been listening to Oh-Geng and Haru’s words absentmindedly, held up an evidence bag. It contained a strand of hair.

“I found this. Long, isn’t it?”

“A woman’s?”

“Looks like it’s dyed, so probably a young woman. Anyway, we need to send it in for analysis.”

Thus, the Violent Crimes Unit returned to headquarters without any significant leads and analyzed the CCTV footage. However, as it was quite far away, they didn’t gain much.

Hae-soo narrowed his brows, paused the screen with the space bar, and turned his head.

“Has the victim’s phone turned on?”

“I’ll check.”

The victim’s phone, found at the scene, was turned off due to a dead battery.

The fingerprints were already being collected and analyzed, and Haru brought the slightly charged phone. While searching through the phone in a plastic bag, he discovered a suspicious app.

‘A chatting app?’

-Any pics?

-[Photo showing the nose and lips][Cleavage photo][Photo of legs in a mini-skirt and stockings]

-Oh, damn, awesome, how much?

-20

-15

-Then one hour

-Okay, come quick. Starlight Motel in Goam-dong

-I’ll be there soon, oppa [term of endearment used by a younger woman to an older man].

Oh-Geng, who had been watching the chat screen together, muttered.

“Prostitution.”

“A week ago, around 11 PM, this woman is a likely suspect.”

He handed the phone over to the Information Division and began tracking the other party’s ID and IP address.

As soon as Hae-soo returned to headquarters from the Information Division, he gestured to the youngest officer, who immediately caught his eye.

“Youngest, come with me.”

“Yes, understood!”

Since Haru had arrived, Hae-soo had almost always gone out with only Haru, so the youngest officer couldn’t hide his joy at being chosen.

Hae-soo took the youngest officer back to the motel. He looked around the scene once more and then surveyed the surroundings.

A dilapidated car was parked in front of the motel. Covered in dust, it seemed to have been abandoned for quite some time.

There was no phone number posted.

“Did you check this car?”

“Yes, I called the owner, but they didn’t answer. Should I try again?”

Hae-soo nodded, and the youngest officer called again. However, there was still no answer.

“Hmm…”

There was a black box [car’s event data recorder], but the car was discharged and turned off.

Step, step, step.

At that moment.

A young man wearing a hoodie, horn-rimmed glasses, and with his hands in his pockets, shuffled closer in slippers.

A convenience store black plastic bag hung from his wrist. Judging by his attire, he seemed to live nearby.

“What are you doing there?”

It was suspicious for two burly men to be examining a car that had been parked for a long time.

The youngest officer took out his wallet to show his police ID before any misunderstandings deepened.

But just before he opened it, the man pointed at Hae-soo and the youngest officer with his index finger and said.

“Ah, detectives. Right? I heard there was a murder here. Wow, it’s the first time I’ve seen detectives investigating.”

“Ah, yes, haha… Do you live around here?”

“Yes, over there… But is something not going well?”

At the man’s question, Hae-soo, who had been examining the car, paused. He turned around, looked him up and down, and asked.

“Did you pass by this area a week ago at night?”

“A week ago… I don’t know. I can’t remember?”

Hae-soo took out his business card and handed it to him.

“Information from local residents is a great help. Please send me a text message.”

The man took Hae-soo’s business card, checked it, and lowered his hand as he replied.

“Usually in dramas, they say, ‘If you remember anything, please contact me!’ Do I have to text you right now?”

“Yes, might there not be a reason for me to call you urgently?”

“Hey, this feels like you’re trying to get my number, right?”

“…Excuse me?”

The man gave a playful smile and put the business card in his pocket.

“Well, it’s not bad, but I left my phone at home. Then, good luck. Fighting!” [Korean expression of encouragement]

He winked, even fluttering one eye, and left the scene.

The youngest officer, who had been hit directly by the wink, clutched his chest and frowned.

“Ugh, how can a man have such natural charm?”

Hae-soo stared silently at the man’s back and then nudged the youngest officer’s side.

“Ouch.”

“Follow that man, until he enters his home. Be careful not to get caught.”

“Yes, yes, sir.”

The youngest officer went to follow the man without complaint, and Hae-soo looked around before suddenly raising his elbow and smashing the car window.

Crash!!

He easily shattered the window, reached inside, and unlocked the door. He immediately got into the car and took out the black box memory card.

While he was connecting it to his phone to examine it, the youngest officer returned.

“There’s nothing special. He turned here and entered a studio apartment about 100 meters away. I even heard the sound of the 3rd-floor light turning on and the door closing from the hallway.”

“Oh, good job, let’s go.”

“Yes! Sir.”

As soon as Hae-soo returned to headquarters, he checked the memory card he had obtained by smashing the car window.

Judging by the intermittent recordings, it seemed to be set to record only when an impact was applied to the car.

Miraculously, there was a video from around 12 AM on the same day.

-Thud thud

-Ugh, ugh, hic, cough

It started with a drunk man staggering and leaning against the car before moving on.

-Tap tap tap

Then, a woman in a short skirt and high heels walked from the opposite side of the drunk man. The drunk man pointed at her with a bottle and shouted.

-Woah, hey, hey! How much! Hey! Come here!

The woman ignored him and walked past until he blocked her path. She brought her face close to the drunk man and mumbled something before passing him.

The drunk man stood there with a shocked expression before cursing again and staggering away.

“It’s this woman.”

“Where, where!”

At Hae-soo’s words, the Violent Crimes Unit detectives swarmed around. They looked at the screen and were disappointed.

It was a dark night, so the quality was terrible, it was filmed from a distance, and the woman’s face was not clearly visible because she was obscured by the drunk man.

“Aish… Too bad.”

“Rookie, even so, our detectives gather these pieces of information and catch the culprit. Don’t be disappointed.”

“Yes, I will keep that in mind. Senior Officer Woo Gang-cheol.”

“Se, Senior Officer…”

In the meantime, the Information Division contacted them, but they didn’t find anything. They were able to find the phone number through the chatting app registration information, but it was presumed to be a burner phone [disposable phone used to avoid tracing].

“It’s a planned crime. Seeing that they used a chatting app, it’s not a grudge but a random murder targeting an unspecified number of people…”

The most difficult to predict and with a notoriously high recidivism rate, a random crime.

When taking on a case, the less likely it is to be a revenge killing, the more anxious the detectives become. If they don’t catch them quickly, another murder could occur.

“Annoying, the autopsy results are out. It’s suffocation, and there was also a sedative. The hair doesn’t match any DNA.”

“Ha…”

“Sigh…”

Usually, when information from the National Forensic Service, which provides the biggest clues, doesn’t provide any leads, the detectives feel even more helpless.

Clap clap

At that moment.

Team Leader Kwak clapped his hands and stood up.

“Let’s get it together, we need to catch this guy before another incident happens. Find anything, all of you sign up for that app and find anything similar to that ID and try to talk to them! Go out and find that drunk man who only showed his back, he’s the one who saw the suspect’s face.”

“Yes.”

“Yes, understood!”

At the team leader’s words, the four of them stood up at once and split into pairs.

Bzzzz-

Meanwhile, a text message arrived on Hae-soo’s phone.

[It’s me. Please save it as Park Ji-won. Detective (heart)]

“Who is it?”

Hae-soo was startled by Haru’s voice and quickly closed his phone. He frowned.

He felt bad about receiving a heart from that strange man, and he felt even worse about instinctively hiding that strange text from Haru.

Hae-soo confidently picked up his phone again and said as he saved the number.

“A neighbor we ran into at the scene earlier, a strange guy.”

“Park Ji-won… is it a guy?”

“Yes, here, Kang-dool, please check the identity with this phone number. Zero one zero…”

As Hae-soo requested an identity check over the radio, he received a response from Team Leader Kwak almost immediately.

-Oh, who is this? Name is Park Ji-won, born in ’95, a guy with such a pretty face. He even put something on his lips, I sent a picture over the radio.

“Yes, thank you.”

Hae-soo was driving, so he gave the radio to Haru, and Haru checked Park Ji-won’s face first. Then he turned and showed it to Hae-soo.

“That’s right, the name, the number… hmm.”

“He’s pretty boy.”

“Hmm…”

But right now, finding witnesses or clues is the priority.

Hae-soo put aside his suspicions about Park Ji-won for now and walked around the scene.

* * *

At the same time.

Tap tap tap tap tap

A man wearing a hoodie in the corner of an internet cafe was typing furiously on the keyboard.

[OMG, the Violent Crimes Unit is on my case. Got Shin Hae-soo’s number lol (Author: James Bond)]

-I told you I sent another one to heaven last time, this time the famous Violent Crimes Unit is on it, I met Detective Shin Hae-soo in person lol I even got his number.

┗FrenchKigal: This guy is delusional again.

┗YourWifeIsMine: If it’s the Violent Crimes Unit with Detective Shin, isn’t their arrest rate 100% since its establishment? You’re screwed?

┗YourMoneyIsMyMoney: There are old people who fall for this crap. The title is also super clickbait. It’s obvious that he’s using Shin Hae-soo’s fame from this community to get attention. This guy probably faked his community verification too lol.

┗(Author): It’s real, you damn loser bastards, you guys haven’t even sent one person to heaven and you’re just typing away, should I show you the number?

┗YourMoneyIsMyMoney: Getting caught lying makes you tremble?

┗YourWifeIsMine: This guy never verifies anything and keeps saying he sent a few people to heaven, show us the verification first.

┗FrenchKigal: Agreed/You need to verify first, you loser virgin hikikomori [Japanese term for recluse], you wouldn’t even be able to make eye contact if you met him. Saying Violent Crimes Unit this and that is really disgusting.

┗(Author): Okay, you motherfuckers.

┗(Author): I.

┗(Author): Will catch a Violent Crimes Unit detective and verify it.

┗YourMoneyIsMyMoney: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ [laughing in Korean]

┗FrenchKigal: If you verify that, you’ll be a god, we’ll worship you. I’ll lick your toes.

┗(Author): Wait, I’ll upload it soon.

You have to verify an unpunished crime to enter the dark web crime site.

He closed the site with the mouse. Then, the Gangjin Police Station website appeared, showing the organizational chart with the faces and names of the Violent Crimes Unit members.

“They all look damn strong… but there’s, just, one, hole…”

Tap tap tap tap tap tap

He clicked on Haru’s face maniacally with the mouse cursor.