The Inspector Is Getting Promoted! [EN]: Chapter 237

Retribution (1)

I was heading back after the press conference when Yoon Seol-ha rushed towards me, her face pale.

“Chief Prosecutor!”

She was panting, as if she’d run all the way.

Without catching her breath, she spoke urgently.

“I think you need to see Deputy Chief Lee Doo-hyung right now.”

“Did something happen?”

“It’s…”

She couldn’t finish the sentence and bit her lip tightly.

It was clear something serious had happened.

Yoon Seol-ha took a deep breath before finally speaking with difficulty.

“Deputy Chief Lee Doo-hyung’s daughter has passed away.”

“…What?”

It hit me like a thunderbolt.

I wondered if I’d misheard, but Yoon Seol-ha’s expression confirmed I hadn’t.

“Didn’t they say it was a minor surgery? I remember them saying it wasn’t life-threatening.”

“Yes. That’s what I understood as well… I haven’t received any details about how it happened.”

“Let’s go to the hospital first.”

“Understood.”

***

The hospital was a scene of utter chaos.

So-young’s body, not yet moved to the funeral home, lay covered with a sheet.

Lee Doo-hyung must have seen his daughter alive just before I went into the press conference.

I was asked a lot of questions, which made the press conference longer than usual, but it only took about two hours at most. What on earth could have happened in that short time?

Lee Doo-hyung and his wife were wailing, grabbing the doctors by the collar and screaming.

Fortunately, hospital staff and several investigators were controlling the entrance, preventing outsiders from entering.

I asked Deputy Chief Nam Min-je, who had arrived earlier.

“What happened?”

“Ah, Chief Prosecutor. Well…”

He bit his lip, looking troubled.

“There was an accident during the anesthesia for the surgery.”

“I don’t understand. Please explain in detail.”

“The surgery itself wasn’t complicated. However, the doctor said that So-young’s nose wound hadn’t healed properly and that general anesthesia was necessary for safety because she was so young. They performed general anesthesia through tracheal intubation [a tube inserted into the windpipe]. But while administering the anesthetic, So-young had a bronchial spasm [a sudden constriction of the airways in the lungs]. If they had responded properly, she could have been saved, but…”

Nam Min-je glared fiercely at the doctor behind him and continued.

“That doctor, that son of a bitch, didn’t take any measures to relieve the bronchial spasm other than stopping the inhalation of the anesthetic. As a result, she suffered brain damage due to respiratory failure and died.”

How could something like this happen?

I was beyond dumbfounded, grinding my teeth in frustration.

My head throbbed.

“The hospital immediately admitted their fault.”

As if to prove it, the doctors came out as a group and bowed their heads to Lee Doo-hyung.

“But that’s not really important anyway…”

Prosecutor Nam Min-je also covered his face, frustrated.

“How much pain must that little girl have been in!”

At that moment, Lee Doo-hyung started shouting and wailing from behind.

I slowly approached him, closed my mouth tightly, and hugged him.

Lee Doo-hyung began to sob, holding onto me, but I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t even open my mouth.

His daughter, So-young, had undergone a major six-hour surgery because of the kindergarten teachers and barely survived.

Even after that, my heart ached whenever I thought about how pitiful and heartbreaking it must have been for him to see his daughter with bandages wrapped around her face.

But just when the child seemed to be regaining her bright appearance after all that suffering, she suddenly passed away without any warning.

And due to the negligence of the medical staff.

I couldn’t even fathom his sorrow.

He was probably on the verge of collapse.

All I could do was stroke Lee Doo-hyung’s back.

***

Lee Doo-hyung was barely functioning at the funeral home.

Since he had no relatives or close connections, I and the special investigation team prosecutors guarded the funeral home.

Because of the situation, Choi Gyu-hyun’s side couldn’t interfere, so things were temporarily calm.

But then.

“Chief Prosecutor.”

Yoon Seol-ha approached urgently.

“That man is outside right now…”

Before she could finish speaking, a loud noise came from behind.

“You can’t come in!”

The voices of the investigators.

When I turned my head, Park Jae-pil was entering the funeral home.

Lee Doo-hyung, seeing him, jumped up from his seat.

“You son of a bitch! What are you doing here?”

The prosecutors barely managed to stop him from running towards Park Jae-pil.

I immediately approached him and spoke harshly.

“Get out of here right now, unless you want to die.”

“I came to offer my condolences as a fellow prosecutor. Is that too harsh?”

“Get out before I rearrange your face.”

He twisted his lips into a smirk.

“I’ve got an iron plate on my face, you know [meaning he’s shameless and impervious to criticism].”

“You son of a bitch!”

Lee Doo-hyung shook off the prosecutors and punched Park Jae-pil in the face.

Thump!

Park Jae-pil fell backward, and the prosecutors rushed in to stop Lee Doo-hyung from getting on top of him.

“Are you even human? Are you human!”

Lee Doo-hyung wailed at Park Jae-pil.

I could feel the barely suppressed emotions swirling in his voice.

But Park Jae-pil didn’t care about Lee Doo-hyung. He wiped the blood from his lips and asked the man behind him.

“Did you film it?”

At the end of his gaze, the reporter who filmed Lee Doo-hyung’s video at the hospital was standing.

He checked the camera and nodded.

“Yes. It’s filmed properly.”

“That’s good, then.”

He dusted off his clothes and got up.

“An uninvited guest should leave.”

Park Jae-pil chuckled and left the funeral home.

***

“Chief Prosecutor.”

“Oh, you came to work?”

Lee Doo-hyung entered the Chief Prosecutor’s office with a haggard look.

“I’m sorry for causing you concern.”

“No, why are you apologizing? I’m the one who’s sorry for not being able to comfort you.”

“No. I was really grateful.”

“Just wait a moment. I’ll get you a cup of coffee.”

Just as I was about to get up to make tea myself.

“Chief Prosecutor, there’s something I need to tell you before that.”

He stopped me.

As I sat down and looked up at Lee Doo-hyung, he took out a letter of resignation from his inside pocket and handed it to me.

“Doo-hyung.”

“I’m sorry, Chief Prosecutor.”

Lee Doo-hyung closed his eyes tightly and said.

“I know what you’re thinking, Chief Prosecutor. But if things continue like this, I’ll only be a nuisance to the Central District Prosecutor’s Office.”

“Do you think I’d abandon you because of something like this?”

“No. I know you’re not that kind of person, Chief Prosecutor. But…”

Without warning, tears streamed down his face.

“I can’t do it anymore.”

His body began to tremble weakly.

“It’s too hard. So-young’s face comes to mind hundreds, thousands of times a day. I can’t believe that angel is no longer in this world, and I don’t want to believe it.”

Knowing how much Lee Doo-hyung had struggled at the funeral home, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him to come to work.

That’s why I couldn’t let him go even more.

Lee Doo-hyung stepping down now would be exactly what Park Jae-pil wanted.

However, aside from political reasons, I didn’t want to lose Lee Doo-hyung.

Because now he was like family to me.

“I’ll put you on leave.”

I tore up the letter of resignation on the spot.

“Take a good rest for about 3 months… no, 6 months and come back.”

“Chief Prosecutor…”

He looked at me with reddened eyes.

I got up and gave him a warm hug.

“I’ll keep your seat empty until you come back, so pull yourself together and come back when you’re feeling better.”

Deputy Chief Lee Doo-hyung hugged me tightly.

“Chief Prosecutor…”

“And until you come back, I’ll wipe out all those guys, including Park Jae-pil. If it’s not resolved by the time I promised, you don’t have to come back. So let’s hold off on the resignation until then.”

“…I will definitely come back.”

I slowly stroked his back.

“Get some rest. Contact me if you need anything.”

The tears Lee Doo-hyung shed soaked my collar.

“Thank you so much, Chief Prosecutor.”

***

“Hoo.”

The exhaled cigarette smoke disappeared into the air without a trace.

The cigarettes I had quit for a while were now constantly in my hand.

That’s how deeply Lee Doo-hyung’s experience affected me.

Lee Doo-hyung’s appearance at the funeral service flickered in my mind, making it difficult to concentrate.

“Haa.”

At that time, a familiar female voice was heard next to me.

“Were you here?”

“Oh, Deputy Jang came?”

I acknowledged her and put a new cigarette in my mouth.

Deputy Jang Ha-young lit my cigarette and then took one for herself and started smoking.

She hesitated and asked.

“The Deputy Chief…”

“I put him on leave to get some rest.”

“That’s a relief.”

As a direct junior on the special investigation team, she must have relied on Lee Doo-hyung quite a bit, so she wouldn’t be comfortable.

After a long silence, Jang Ha-young crushed the cigarette and looked at me.

“I know how much you cherished and loved Deputy Chief Lee Doo-hyung.”

“You too, don’t you?”

She slowly nodded.

“That’s why I’m really sorry to say this in this situation, but…”

Jang Ha-young carefully chose her words.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

She carefully chose her words.

“The eyes of the entire nation are on this. Public opinion is also on our side.”

That’s right.

Park Jae-pil wrote an article about being beaten at the funeral home to make Lee Doo-hyung suffer, but it backfired, and the citizens were on our side.

It became a situation where it was no exaggeration to say that the whole nation was filled with feelings such as pity, compassion, and sympathy.

“Lee Doo-hyung came to me before he left. He said he was sorry to you and couldn’t bring himself to tell you, but he said it was okay to use him as much as you wanted, so please bring those bastards down.”

Yes.

I can’t just be discouraged like this.

Thinking of him, I have to bring down Park Jae-pil’s gang by any means.

That’s justice, and only then will I have the face to see Lee Doo-hyung.

The best I can do is to thoroughly trample on Park Jae-pil’s gang.

That’s all.

By mobilizing all means and methods.

I will thoroughly drop those guys into hell.

I threw away the cigarette butt and got up.

Then, in a clear voice, I instructed Deputy Jang Ha-young.

“Tell everyone in the special investigation team to come to the conference room. Everyone, without exception, whether they are investigators or prosecutors.”

I gritted my teeth.

“From now on, it’s a life-or-death struggle.”