The Cop Is Too Strong [EN]: Chapter 144

144. Honey Trap

Pat, pat, pat.

Several bloodied teeth scattered across the floor. So many teeth were ripped out that he couldn’t even bite his tongue.

“Ugh, aaaaaah…”

Team Leader Ban writhed on the floor in agony.

‘He’s more brutal than Chief Ma…’

Shin Haesoo stared down at him with dry eyes, then stopped him by stepping on his stomach.

“You’re one of the company guys.”

Team Leader Ban’s eyes widened.

‘So, this guy knew about the company.’

“Bae Shinju sent you?”

Team Leader Ban clamped his bleeding mouth shut and said nothing.

“Did… Mr. Ma send you?”

He only used the surname, thinking the man might recognize the Drill Sergeant’s existence.

But just as the surname Ma was not common, Team Leader Ban immediately understood who he was talking about, and his eyes widened as if they would pop out.

‘He, he knows Chief Ma? How? There’s no way a regular person could know Chief Ma. He clearly knows a lot about the company, about the association! This is dangerous. Dangerous.’

Team Leader Ban shook his head, looking incredibly surprised to anyone who saw him.

“Oh, you don’t know, huh? Then you need to be hit.”

Haesoo’s large fist slammed into his face.

Team Leader Ban lost consciousness as he took the punch.

* * *

The elevator was reported as a simple malfunction, and the paramedics were sent back.

Two repairmen arrived immediately, and they frowned when they saw the belt on the 10th floor.

“Hey, this was deliberately cut…”

Swish.

At that moment, Haesoo appeared, showed his police ID, and spoke urgently.

“Just record the evidence and keep it secret. For a smooth investigation.”

“Ah, yes, yes.”

“Y-yes, sir.”

The unconscious Team Leader Ban was temporarily locked in the rooftop boiler room. This was to pressure him for information before processing him legally.

He couldn’t interrogate him about company matters at the Gangsu Division headquarters.

Haesoo waited on the first floor until Haru finished work. He knew another guy might target her.

“Oh, Haesoo!”

Haru, unaware of this, was simply happy that Haesoo was waiting for her and hurried over.

It’s always nice to see a welcome face in an unexpected place.

Haru’s expression made Haesoo feel good too.

“You’re here. Let’s go.”

Haru pointed to the sign that the residents’ elevator was out of order and asked,

“Is the elevator… out of order? Then how about we take this one to the 7th floor?”

Haru’s fingertip moved to the commercial elevator.

Haesoo shook his head firmly.

“Stair climbing is good for endurance. 10 floors isn’t nearly enough.”

“Okay…”

Haru had been running around all day, but she followed him without complaint.

He waited for Haru to shower after getting home, and as soon as she came out, he grabbed her wrist and sat her on the sofa.

“Haru, have you heard of the Chilseong Society? [Seven Stars Society, likely a criminal organization named after the Big Dipper constellation.]”

“Chilseong Society… Cider?”

But when Haru tilted her head, Haesoo’s face turned serious.

If she didn’t know, then even people from the company might not know. The company and the Chilseong Society… Was the Chilseong Society a top-secret, behind-the-scenes group?

“Then have you ever seen a Big Dipper tattoo? Like this.”

“Big Dipper…? Ah.”

When Haesoo showed her the picture, Haru tilted her head, then her face rapidly hardened.

She continued in a low voice.

“Drill Sergeant Ma… on his back, upper left… I’ve seen a tattoo like that.”

As expected, even after more than 15 years, she remembered it clearly.

This time, he showed her a picture of Team Leader Ban’s face. It was hard to recognize because it was covered in blood and swollen.

“Have you ever seen this person?”

Haru flinched.

“T-this person… I’ve seen him. He wouldn’t know me. I’ve seen him twice, fleetingly. He’s probably several classes above me…”

“Hmm…”

“Did this person come looking for you, Haesoo?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry! It’s, it’s because of me…!”

Haesoo shook his head slightly, his gaze fixed on the floor.

“No, he came to get me.”

Haesoo briefly explained about the Park Inspector case, the company, and the Chilseong Society.

“…So Inspector Park Young-cheol was also murdered and made to look like a suicide, and then I became the target.”

Since he had brought it up, Haesoo showed her the giant man captured on the CCTV footage in the hallway of Inspector Park’s apartment.

It was only a profile and back view taken from a distance, but he wondered if Haru, with her good memory and observation skills, might recognize him.

“Do you know this person?”

Haru blinked and watched the video, then suddenly stopped as if time had frozen.

“This…”

Haru couldn’t continue. Her gaze was fixed on the man’s back in the video. Her pupils trembled slightly.

Clear fear was in Haru’s eyes.

Haesoo opened his mouth in a calm voice.

“This person… is Drill Sergeant Ma.”

The target becomes clearer and clearer. Drill Sergeant Ma, he is the man who killed her father.

* * *

Creak-

Haesoo visited the rooftop boiler room where he had imprisoned Team Leader Ban.

Team Leader Ban was gagged and his hands were tied behind his back to a cylinder, staying still.

He thought it would be difficult to get him to talk through torture since he had even tried to bite his tongue and die when he was subdued, but he came looking for a hint because the man’s emotions were so obvious on his face.

Swish.

Haesoo removed his gag and asked.

“Where is the company located?”

“The company… is everywhere, but you cannot see it.”

He said it dramatically, but it sounded ridiculous because his pronunciation was slurred from having all his teeth pulled out.

“Don’t bullshit me.”

Haesoo gently pressed his thumb on his collarbone.

“Ugh, ugh!! Just kill me!”

“No, why would I kill you?”

This time, he grabbed both of his shoulders. He could feel Team Leader Ban’s body trembling slightly.

He thought that someone who seemed to be much higher up than Haru would be much tougher and more skilled, but he was more cowardly and dramatic than he expected for someone from the company, so he felt like he could extract a lot of information.

“I’ll only say it once, so listen carefully. Which are the seven groups of the Chilseong Society, where is the company that sent you, and where is that bastard Ma now? If there’s anything you want to say among these, raise your hand and answer, got it?”

“I can’t even… Aaaagh!!”

Haesoo gagged Team Leader Ban again. His suppressed screams echoed for a long time on the roof of the Leadville Building.

Tap, tap.

After a few hours, Haesoo shook the blood off his hands and went downstairs.

As expected of someone from the company, he was tight-lipped, but his expressions were diverse.

The information he gleaned from his expressions was twofold.

The man who called himself Team Leader Ban was not sent by Bae Shinju of Ilseong, nor was he sent by Mr. Ma, but he attempted the assassination on his own.

The second was about Mr. Ma.

Team Leader Ban’s emotions fluctuated greatly when asked about Mr. Ma. So, he kept provoking him, and he opened his heavy mouth.

-Mr. Ma… Hah, Chief Ma, what would you do if you knew where he was? No matter how strong you are, there are always more monsters in the world that you don’t know about.

-Does Chief Ma perhaps dodge bullets too?

After pondering Haesoo’s question, he told him a phone number.

-No one knows where he is or what he’s doing. This is his number that he uses to contact me.

Haesoo immediately wrote down the number in his notepad. He didn’t save it in his phone contacts in case he noticed.

‘I’ll have to ask Youngsoo for another favor.’

When he went down to his house, Haru was packing her luggage in a small travel bag.

“What’s this?”

“I’m putting Haesoo in danger.”

“No, I explained everything. They don’t know you yet.”

Haru shook her head with a determined expression.

“It’s dangerous. It’s dangerous…”

Her head tilted further down. She mumbled softly.

“I became a police officer to protect Haesoo-nim from the side… but instead, I’ve become a danger. I, I…”

“Okay, go.”

“…Yes?”

Haru raised her head in surprise at the unexpected words. Haesoo continued with a serious expression.

“Stay away for now. I mean, no. Go somewhere I don’t know.”

The fact that a man named Team Leader Ban carried it out on his own might be a lie, or even if it’s true, it means that the Chilseong Society is watching him.

No matter how he thought about it, there was a high possibility that Haru would be exposed to danger if she was with him.

But if he talked about these feelings, she might not leave, saying she would protect him. In this case, he had to separate her by coldly respecting her opinion.

“Have a good trip, I gave you plenty of money, so stay in a place with good facilities and security, and let’s see each other when you come to work.”

“Ah… Yes, goodbye.”

Haru bowed deeply in a daze and was kicked out the door.

* * *

Shin Haesoo went to work with Team Leader Ban. There was plenty of evidence and circumstances that Team Leader Ban tried to kill Haesoo.

The dump truck driver disappeared. He said he was sent far away because he failed.

Team Leader Ban went to prison for attempted murder. And not long after, he received news that Team Leader Ban had been murdered in prison.

Several months had passed since Team Leader Ban’s assassination attempt, but he had not experienced anything similar.

Mr. Ma’s number that he gave him was also presumed to be a 2G phone [older mobile phone technology]. It had been turned on three times so far, but it was not easy to track.

He had a big clue, but he returned to his daily life without any particular gain.

He told Haru to come back, but she stubbornly refused.

Bang-

Team Leader Kwak came in, roughly opening the headquarters door. His hands were full of documents.

“We got a case, a case~”

As soon as Haesoo jumped up, Muscle Man ran out faster and received the documents.

“Oh, thanks. Everyone gather around.”

The team leader spread out the top document on the sofa table and explained.

“It’s a case that the narcotics team was in charge of, but they said it was troublesome, so it was transferred to us. It seems that drug chasing is linked to human trafficking and organ trafficking, why do these three always stick together so annoyingly?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Anyway, if there are drugs, human trafficking, and organ trafficking, what else would follow?”

Haru rolled her eyes and raised her index finger.

“Money!”

Team Leader Kwak waved his hand with a fleeting fatherly smile at Haru’s reaction.

“Wrong!”

“What’s with that expression? I’ve never seen that expression in the 10 years I’ve been with you, hyung [older brother or close male friend]?”

“What, what, shut up, guess quickly.”

Haesoo quietly raised his hand.

“Gangsters.”

“That’s right, catching gangsters is our specialty, isn’t it? Let’s loosen up our bodies for the first time in a while.”

“You’re the one who loosens up in the office.”

“You don’t have much time left either. When I step down, you have to protect the office. The office isn’t easy either. I’m so anxious about you guys getting hurt.”

Oh Gyeong narrowed his brow at the different reaction without getting angry as usual.

“What are you talking about all of a sudden? Who’s stepping down? If you step down, hyung, I’m quitting being a detective too.”

“Don’t talk nonsense, everyone read the data, hey.”

After reading quite a lot of investigation data, they put their heads together again in two hours.

The case was like this. When they were looking for the source of the drugs, they found that they were linked to a gangster group called Mujinpa, and since they haven’t been doing well with China these days, they are linking up with the Philippines or Vietnam to sell people and organs.

However, they cut off the tail during the investigation, so they had to start over.

“So, they recruit decent-looking girls from karaoke bars to sell drugs to customers or send them on overseas trips?”

“Hmm… I think we need to go undercover as a waiter.”

“A waiter… The rookies or maknae [youngest member] are too obvious, and Oh Gyeong is too old…”

“Damn it… I can’t argue with that.”

At that time, Haru raised her hand.

“I’ll go undercover.”

“Ha, Haru directly?”

“Honey trap?”

Everyone looked at Haru at once. Her hair was messy, she was wearing men’s tracksuits, and she wasn’t wearing any makeup… but she was dazzling.

“It’ll work…?”

Haru stood up and clenched her fist.

“I’ll do my best. Honey trap.”