Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 467

Fifth Vital Sign – Episode 468 (467/502)

468. The Real Culprit

Seoul Metropolitan Investigation Unit –

“Please, let me go home.”

“Detective, me too. My mom and dad are waiting for me.”

It was late, and the people brought in were making a lot of noise at the Metropolitan Investigation Unit.

“They’re looking for me.”

“Home, my foot. You’ve been caught and brought to the police station. What’s with all the talk about home when you’re a drug user? And Kkangtong [a slang term for someone who is empty-headed or a nobody], you live alone, why are you dragging your parents into this? You little brat.”

The team leader of the Metropolitan Investigation Unit was sitting at his desk, looking furious, and shouting at the two men in front of him.

“You! Who’s your supplier? Is it Gil-ryong?”

“Supplier? What supplier are you talking about?”

“Exactly. And who is Gil-ryong? I’ve never heard of him before… Kkangtong, do you know who Gil-ryong is?”

“No, I’ve never heard that name before either.”

The two men who had been caught maintained their brazen expressions in response to the team leader’s questions.

“Hey, you sons of bitches, who do you think you’re fooling? You! Tell me quickly, who did you get the drugs from?”

The team leader’s anger exploded as the two men caught as drug delivery guys continued to be cheeky and evade answering.

“Do you know where you are right now, acting so clever? You junkies, let’s see if we both don’t die today!”

“Team leader!”

His fellow detectives began to stop the team leader as he tried to hit the two men sitting in front of him with a file.

“Our team leader is getting worked up again. Settle down.”

“Settle down? How can I settle down right now? I’ve been working overtime all week, chasing after them all night, and all I’ve caught are two errand boys. How can I settle down?”

“I’ll have an in-depth conversation with these guys to find out who the real junkies are. Hey! Get up.”

“Ugh! This is frustrating.”

As the junior detectives took the caught men away, the team leader sighed deeply and slumped back in his chair.

“Nothing is easy. Nothing!”

“Team leader?”

“What is it? Don’t call me, I’m about to explode.”

“It’s not that, but you have a visitor?”

“A visitor? Who would visit at this hour?”

The team leader, who had risen from his seat at the word ‘visitor,’ instantly brightened his expression as he saw a man walking towards him from a distance.

“Hello. Thank you for your hard work.”

“Hey! Detective Kim?”

The man whom the team leader greeted with pleasure was Detective Kim, who had formed a connection with Tae-kyung during the child abuse case.

Detective Kim and the team leader of the Metropolitan Investigation Unit were close as senior and junior colleagues.

“What brings you here suddenly at this hour?”

“What do you mean? I came to see my senior colleague. I left a message because you didn’t answer the phone earlier, didn’t you see it?”

Detective Kim sat down on the chair that the team leader offered and continued the story.

“Is that so? I’ve been running around all day catching drug addicts, so I didn’t have time to look at my phone.”

“So, did you catch them?”

“Catch them, my foot! It was all a waste of time. I only caught two small-time delivery guys, and the supplier had already fled his residence. Do you want a cup of coffee?”

“I don’t have time for coffee.”

“Anyway, what brings you here? Why did you come to the Metropolitan Investigation Unit?”

“I don’t like the Metropolitan Investigation Unit. Senior, I came to give you a case.”

Tae-kyung, who had been told by the hospital to notify the police, told Lee Chan-hee to contact Detective Kim, whom he had a personal connection with.

Lee Chan-hee contacted Detective Kim immediately and told him all the details.

Detective Kim knew that the team leader of the Metropolitan Investigation Unit had done a lot of investigation in this area. That’s why he came to find the team leader who could catch them properly.

“…A case? What are you talking about?”

“Senior, you know the Heungdom gang well, right?”

“Of course, I know them well. Their boss is Lee Deuk-hyun. Our team put him in jail.”

Several years ago, the team leader, who was in charge of a case involving several organizations, urgently arrested Lee Deuk-hyun, who had committed wrongdoing along with other gang members.

At that time, he mostly admitted his charges and even gave information about other gangsters. He had finished all his sentences and was released half a year ago.

“Lee Deuk-hyun is getting old and seems to have come to his senses after going to prison and is trying to live a good life, but there’s a number two guy there.”

“Are you talking about Gu Dae-chun?”

“Oh? You know him too? That bastard is one of the most vicious gangsters, so I’m watching him closely right now. I can’t say in detail, but there are rumors and information from informants… But why are you suddenly talking about the Heungdom gang when you were talking about a case?”

“I’m telling you to arrest that number two, Gu Dae-chun.”

“What!?”

The team leader was bewildered by the sudden visit and the talk about gangsters, and then the suggestion to arrest Gu Dae-chun, who was being watched by the Metropolitan Investigation Unit.

“Arrest him? What are you talking about?”

“I received a report that Gu Dae-chun is trying to kill Lee Deuk-hyun right now.”

“What! You’re saying he’s trying to kill Lee Deuk-hyun?”

“Yes, Kim Min-kyo asked the doctor at the hospital to contact the police on his behalf, saying that he was watching for an opportunity at the hospital.”

Detective Kim conveyed all the details he had heard from Lee Chan-hee to the team leader of the Metropolitan Investigation Unit in detail.

“Is that true? You’re saying the Heungdom gang is at the hospital right now?”

“Yes, Senior. I thought it would be better to contact you than to use our manpower, so I came here urgently.”

“Good job. Gu Dae-chun, that guy is very dangerous. Hey! Everyone, gather around.”

Having grasped the situation, the team leader summoned the members of the Metropolitan Investigation Unit and hurried to prepare for departure.

* * *

Our Hospital –

At that time, Gu Dae-chun and the Heungdom gang were in the waiting room, and Jang Deuk-chil, Team Leader Choi, and Oh Chang-gyu were guarding the front.

Meanwhile, Lee Deuk-hyun had completed the basic examination and was awaiting another examination with Tae-kyung.

“The patient has completed the basic examination, and now the director will perform an anal examination.”

Nurse Im Jeong-suk explained and prepared for the examination by lowering Lee Deuk-hyun’s pants.

“Director, we’re ready.”

“Patient, I’m going to insert my finger into your anus for the anal examination, so don’t be nervous and relax.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“Exhale and breathe out.”

“Hoo!”

As Lee Deuk-hyun exhaled and relaxed his anus, Tae-kyung inserted his finger into his anus.

“Good job.”

After inserting his finger and palpating, he found a small amount of red blood.

Blood turns black over time after bleeding. Therefore, he thought that the bleeding would be close to the anus and decided to perform a colonoscopy first.

“Patient, the anal examination is now complete. It seems that we need to perform an additional colonoscopy to find out the detailed cause of the bloody stool. Is that okay with you?”

“Yes, Doctor. It’s okay. But can I have it done with sedation? I think it would be difficult to do it without.”

“Yes, we will proceed with sedation.”

Tae-kyung asked Lee Deuk-hyun for his opinion and decided to proceed with the colonoscopy under sedation.

It is not a big problem for the patient to talk nonsense or move around during sleep anesthesia.

The biggest problem is that sometimes they fall into a deep sleep and slow down their breathing.

Therefore, they attach a machine that measures oxygen saturation to the patient’s fingertip and proceed with the endoscopy.

Tae-kyung instructed Nurse Im Jeong-suk to perform an electrocardiogram and other tests for Lee Deuk-hyun’s colonoscopy.

After that, Lee Deuk-hyun, who had finished the examination, entered the endoscopy room.

“Okay! Patient, we will now proceed with sleep anesthesia for the colonoscopy. Is there anything uncomfortable?”

“No, there is nothing uncomfortable. Doctor, I am actually a bad person.”

Lee Deuk-hyun, who was about to undergo the examination, suddenly lamented to Tae-kyung, as if he was afraid of his body condition.

“I have been doing bad things since I was young. Then I went to prison and came out a while ago. I thought I would live the rest of my life as a new person, but I don’t think I can do it my way. The guy below me is trying to kill me and even followed me to the hospital, and my body is not good. I guess I’m being punished.”

“Patient, don’t worry too much yet because we don’t know the exact cause yet because it’s before the examination.”

“Yes, Doctor. I look forward to your examination.”

“Yes, then we will start the anesthesia.”

With those words, the anesthetic was injected through the vein, and Lee Deuk-hyun’s eyes closed.

“Start the endoscopy.”

Tae-kyung inserted the endoscope through the anus.

As he entered the curved colon, the nurse and medical staff next to him pressed on his stomach or changed the patient’s position.

Looking at the intestine on the screen, Lee Deuk-hyun’s colon was severely inflamed.

As he first entered, the blood vessels on the colon wall became thicker, and the inflammation became more and more severe as he went up.

There is a place where the colon curves once in the left upper abdomen, and the inflammatory findings peaked there, and the colon wall was swollen red.

The shape was so strange that he decided to do a biopsy.

“Insert it.”

Following Tae-kyung’s words, the forceps for the biopsy are inserted lengthwise through the thin tube around the endoscope camera.

Soon after, while looking at the tip of the forceps with the camera, he brought the forceps to the area he wanted to biopsy.

Then, he clamped the forceps and gave a signal to the nurse, and the nurse quickly tore it off and pulled it out.

He put the biopsied specimen in a container and looked inside the patient’s colon again with an endoscope.

After passing that curved area, the colon was clean again.

The results of the biopsy will have to come out to be sure, but Tae-kyung suspected typical ischemic colitis [inflammation of the colon due to reduced blood flow], given the patient’s history of stent placement, age, and the fact that there were no inflammatory symptoms after the curved area peaked.

In fact, this disease causes bloody stools, but there is no clear treatment other than intravenous fluids, bed rest, and reducing inflammation.

It’s not that serious of a disease. Still, many people worry because bloody stools put a lot of psychological burden on the patient.

The blood vessels supplying the colon are slightly narrowed, which is the same reason why the heart stent was inserted.

Anyway, he thought it was fortunate that the patient did not have a serious illness.

“The endoscopy is over. Please guide the patient to the recovery room. Just in case, please have the medical staff stay with the patient. And after the police arrive and the waiting room situation is cleared up, then move him to the hospital room.”

“Yes, Director. I will do that.”

Lee Deuk-hyun is planning to be hospitalized for a day or two, but he decided not to go up to the ward right away.

There are many other patients in the ward, so if something dangerous happens, people could get hurt.

So, Lee Deuk-hyun waited in the recovery room, and when Gu Dae-chun and the gangsters were taken care of, he decided to move to the ward.

After Lee Deuk-hyun left the endoscopy room, Tae-kyung briefly entered the examination room and checked his basic examination.

When he clicked on the results on the monitor, there was nothing major as expected.

As a result, the bloody stool that Lee Deuk-hyun was worried about and Tae-kyung was also worried about was not a serious illness.

That means it’s not Lee Deuk-hyun.

In other words, the fifth vital sign smell that stung his nose and made his eyes tingle in the treatment room, and felt so terrible that it was vicious.

The main character of that smell was not coming from Lee Deuk-hyun.

In fact, Tae-kyung already knew.

While in the treatment room, he thought that the main character of the fifth vital sign was highly likely to be Lee Deuk-hyun. But it wasn’t.

Before long, he realized that the real main character was someone else.

The real culprit of that smell was Gu Dae-chun, one of the three gangsters in the treatment room.