The Cop Is Too Strong [EN]: Chapter 160

160. That Bastard

Click, click, click, click. Clang.

Inside the darkened house, a luxurious display cabinet occupied one wall of the spacious living room.

Behind the glass were numerous medals and certificates.

The homeowner took off his shoes and habitually reached for the fluorescent light switch, then paused.

A dark figure stood where his gaze was directed.

Click.

When the light came on, the identity of the dark figure was revealed.

A man of average build wearing a tight black tracksuit and a black mask. Without any sign of panic, he looked at the homeowner and took off his mask.

“Mr. Joo Cheol-kwon?”

The homeowner, Joo Cheol-kwon, slightly narrowed his brow.

Joo Cheol-kwon was a Taekwondo gold medalist and currently a practical Taekwondo instructor.

He would be more than relaxed, even amused, when dealing with a petty thief who broke in without knowing his identity, but knowing his name meant they also knew his skills, so this was no ordinary thief.

“What are you?”

“You wouldn’t know even if I told you who I am. How’s your physical condition right now? You haven’t had any alcohol today, no strenuous sparring, are you in good shape?”

Joo Cheol-kwon slowly scanned the other man’s body. Because of the tight-fitting clothes, he could roughly see how developed his muscles were.

The muscles were more developed than an average person. However, he wasn’t very tall and didn’t seem to weigh much. Moreover, he was currently unarmed.

Joo Cheol-kwon tossed his bag onto the sofa and said,

“Whether my condition is good or not, I can still send you to the emergency room.”

“Good. I look forward to it.”

The man gestured with his hand, as if telling him to attack first.

“You cocky bastard!”

Joo Cheol-kwon frowned deeply, twisted his body, took a step to the side, and extended his leg. If it landed squarely, it was a deadly side kick that could send someone flying 4-5 meters even if they guarded.

However, the man calmly met his foot. He narrowly twisted his body to avoid the attack, trapped Joo Cheol-kwon’s ankle in his elbow, and struck his knee with his other hand.

Crack!

“Kkeuaaaack!!”

* * *

At the Violent Crimes Unit headquarters, all the officers were sitting around the sofa table, eating Jajangmyeon [black bean noodles]. Today, there was even sweet and sour pork in the center.

Slurp, slurp.

Chomp, chomp.

“How long has it been since I had noodles? Jajangmyeon is definitely from Donghaejang.”

“You’re right. The sweet and sour pork is fried with glutinous rice, so it’s soft.”

“Hae-soo knows what’s up…”

Ring, ring, ring, ring.

At that moment, the internal phone rang. Ha-roo, who had been silently inhaling Jajangmyeon, jumped up, swallowed hard, and went to answer the phone.

The officers, with tense expressions, watched Ha-roo and quickly began stuffing Jajangmyeon into their mouths.

“This is Ha-roo from the Violent Crimes Unit. Yes, yes… I understand.”

As soon as Ha-roo hung up the phone, Team Leader Kwak asked before he could even speak.

“What is it, a case?”

“Yes, it’s a murder case.”

At Ha-roo’s words, the officers all stood up at once.

* * *

At the crime scene.

The living room was a mess, with blood splattered on the ceiling and floor.

A large man lay sprawled in the middle of the living room.

This time, Team Leader Kwak came to the scene as well.

“What a mess.”

Hae-soo muttered, looking at the medals and certificates scattered on the floor.

“Taekwondo gold medalist…”

“In his mid-thirties, young, seems to have been consistently managing his body, any ordinary assailant wouldn’t even be able to pick up their bones…”

“That’s right, he wasn’t an easy target, so they must have fought hard enough to make the house this messy. Look at this.”

The team leader waved his hand at the youngest officer, gesturing for him to come closer.

When the youngest officer came closer, he pointed to the corpse’s neck with his index finger.

“The flesh isn’t very dry, right? From what I see now, there’s only this one stab wound. Right into the carotid artery, just once, and only after killing him, after killing him with his bare hands. This isn’t an ordinary guy.”

“Hmm… that’s right.”

Hae-soo stood still, carefully examining the footprints and damaged furniture.

‘He dodged the attack here, pushed him here, body check…’

Hae-soo moved his feet, deducing the situation at the time.

‘Here… a hip throw.’

“Here… a hip throw.”

Hae-soo almost mistook his inner thoughts for words that had come out of his mouth. He looked up and saw Ha-roo in the same line of movement, taking a hip throw stance.

Their eyes naturally met, and Hae-soo nodded slightly and continued speaking.

“While he was on the floor…”

“It is presumed that he broke his ankles.”

“…Right.”

He didn’t notice when he first looked, but now that he checked again, the corpse’s two ankles and wrists were twisted in bizarre directions.

Finally, he broke his neck to kill him, and stabbed the carotid artery with a knife to finish him off.

Just as the deduction was coming to an end, Oh Geng, who had been searching the other rooms, said,

“Anything that could be money is all still there, no, there aren’t even any traces of anyone entering the other rooms.”

“He didn’t steal money, and it’s too clean to be a grudge killing. I have a bad feeling about this.”

Team Leader Kwak’s feeling was right.

They collected and checked the CCTV, but there weren’t any significant scenes.

The hair and fingerprints from the victim Joo Cheol-kwon’s house were sent to the National Forensic Service, but they were all confirmed to be Joo Cheol-kwon’s.

“Aish, why is this so frustrating? Nothing’s coming out, nothing.”

“What, did other cases come out as soon as you touched them? Hurry up and dig.”

“Hyung-nim [older brother/term of respect], you’re going to lose your eyeballs like that. My eyes are dry.”

Oh Geng, grumbling, put artificial tears in his eyes and started analyzing the CCTV again.

Hae-soo, the youngest officer, and Ha-roo went out to investigate the people around the victim.

If no significant evidence comes out, the principle is to investigate the people around him to see if there are any grudges.

“Oh? Hmm…”

It was when Team Leader Kwak was checking the street black boxes [vehicle recording devices] that were classified as less important.

The back of a man walking through the crowd was captured, and it looked somehow familiar.

He wasn’t tall or short, and his body was average, so there were no distinguishing features, but something was bothering him.

Tap, tap.

Team Leader Kwak, feeling uneasy as if a pill was stuck in his throat, kept replaying the same scene and racking his brain.

‘Black pants, navy blue shirt… height is roughly… 178?’

He couldn’t think of anything with just this back view. Maybe this person was captured in other videos.

It could be a waste of time, but since there were no other clues, the team leader started looking for a man wearing black pants and a navy blue shirt in other videos.

Squeak.

At that time, Hae-soo’s team, who had gone to investigate grudges, returned.

“We’re back.”

“We’re back!”

The team leader stopped the analysis and raised his chin.

“Oh, you’ve worked hard. Did anything come out?”

“Well, since he’s from the sports world, there were quite a few people who could be classified as having grudges, although it’s ambiguous. Among them, a person named Kim Hoon stands out a bit.”

“Kim Hoon? What about him?”

“He lost to Joo Cheol-kwon in the competition to select the national team representative and suffered a major leg injury. After that, he retired as a player altogether…”

“Dramatic, huh? Contact him.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Kim Hoon, who was a rival of the victim Joo Cheol-kwon, was contacted immediately and appeared at the police station.

Thud, thud, thud.

As he entered the headquarters, the place fell silent for a moment.

A once promising athlete who dreamed of becoming a national representative appeared with a cane, leaving everyone speechless.

His attire wasn’t very neat. The worn-out pants and faded T-shirt allowed one to guess a little about his life.

Unfortunately, such things can greatly contribute to a motive for murder.

The team leader got up first and greeted him.

“Mr. Kim Hoon? I’m Kwak Soo-cheol, the head of the Violent Crimes Unit. Come this way.”

“Yes, hello. Joo Cheol-kwon, that friend… he’s dead, you say.”

His eyes drooped bitterly. Numerous emotions, such as anger, emptiness, and futility, were intricately intertwined.

The team leader realized with just that one look that this person was not the culprit.

However, during the interrogation, it was discovered that he coincidentally had no alibi at the time of the incident.

Kim Hoon spent most of his days drinking alone at home, so he had no schedule to prove his alibi.

“I really didn’t do it. I had a grudge against that friend… ha, well, I did have a grudge and hatred, it would be a lie if I said I didn’t. But, that’s it. After ten years, I realized. It wasn’t that friend who made my leg like this… it was my greed. I am, sincerely… sad about that friend’s death.”

The emotion of sadness was genuine, but the category was slightly different. It wasn’t pure sadness about the death of a friend, but sadness about the fact that a successful winner who was doing well instead of him was brutally murdered and ended his life before him.

“Team leader.”

At that time, Hae-soo approached the team leader and whispered in his ear.

He had checked the CCTV in front of Kim Hoon’s house and confirmed that he had entered at 6 p.m. and did not come out again until 7 a.m.

His alibi was proven.

The team leader nodded and said to Kim Hoon.

“Mr. Kim Hoon, your alibi has been proven. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. And thank you for your cooperation.”

“No, you’re doing things according to the rules, aren’t you? It’s a natural thing. Then, can I go now?”

“Ah, yes, yes, of course. I’ll take you home… Ah, just a moment.”

Kwak Team Leader turned the laptop around and showed Kim Hoon a scene from the black box footage.

The back of a man wearing black pants and a navy blue T-shirt.

“Have you ever seen this person?”

He showed it with the feeling of grasping at straws, but Kim Hoon stared at it for a while and then frowned.

“This isn’t some kind of joke… I don’t think I could recognize him even if he was family.”

“Ah, yes, right? Anyway… if you think of anything about Joo Cheol-kwon…”

Knock knock.

It was then. With a knock, Hae-soo re-entered the interrogation room.

“Team leader.”

“What?”

“I found another case.”

Not that a case broke out, but that he found one? The nuance was strange.

Kwak Team Leader sent Kim Hoon back and listened to the report.

“…I confirmed that a similar case broke out in another jurisdiction. So far, there are two places, one in Seoul…”

One was in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, where a UDT [Underwater Demolition Team] instructor was found murdered in his home in the same way.

He was killed with bare hands and stabbed only once in the carotid artery with a knife.

One was in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, where a Kyokushin Karate black belt was killed in his own dojo.

He was also killed with bare hands and finished off by stabbing the carotid artery with a knife.

Moreover, the size, width, and location of the knife were all the same, so it was impossible not to know that it was the work of the same perpetrator.

The team leader frowned deeply after hearing the explanation.

“This bastard is doing a dojo storming [challenging and defeating martial arts masters at their own dojos].”

“Dojo storming…”

The Violent Crimes Unit immediately sent official letters to both police stations.

They requested that they conduct a joint investigation or send the data and videos they had investigated so far.

And the two police stations, instead of the obvious method of saying, ‘We’ll take care of the case we took on first until the end,’ immediately handed over all the data and videos and expressed their intention to support them but to entrust this case entirely to the Violent Crimes Unit.

“I received the data surprisingly easily.”

“Isn’t it obvious? They gave up and handed it over because they knew it would be difficult to deal with since there’s no evidence and it’s so clean, just like us, right?”

“Well… I guess so, there’s a lot to look into.”

The team leader looked up at the data piled high on the table with Hae-soo.

There are three cases of the same perpetrator. No matter how perfect the plan, it is impossible not to leave even a small clue in these three crimes.

With that in mind, the Violent Crimes Unit began to analyze the CCTV with their eyes peeled, looking for the same person in all three locations.

It was literally a grind, and it required good memory and keen eyesight.

“Lutein, where’s the lutein [eye health supplement]!”

“Ah, my eyeballs, every time this happens, I really wish modern technology would develop quickly. How great would it be if it could find similar people right away? Huh? Don’t you think so?”

“That’s right, aheum.”

“If Officer Ha is yawning, then we’ve worked really hard.”

In the meantime, Team Leader Kwak was worried that he might miss the real suspect because he was so focused on the person whose back was captured, so he didn’t even bring up the topic and looked for that person alone. However, no one similar to that person came out.

After analyzing for 5 days while eating and sleeping at headquarters, no significant clues or leads came out. The Violent Crimes Unit officers’ physical and mental strength were exhausted, and the atmosphere plummeted.

Bee-beep, bee-beep.

Team Leader Kwak’s cell phone rang. It was an unknown number.

“Yes, this is Kwak Soo-cheol, the head of the Violent Crimes Unit.”

-Yes, um, Detective, this is Kim Hoon.

The team leader got up and headed to the quiet interrogation room, continuing the call.

“Yes, yes, Mr. Kim Hoon, thank you for calling. Do you remember anything?”

-Ah… that person whose back you showed me back then, it just suddenly came to my mind now, there was a person who came to see me when it was really hot.

“Tell me more about it.”

-His height was about 180 [cm]? Or maybe a little less, he looked like a real sissy, but he had a chilling feeling like those butchers, so he stuck in my mind. He just went after talking about this and that, but I don’t really remember the conversation.

“Hmm…”

-Ah, but I remember this. I felt strangely drawn to him just by talking? Like cornering prey.

“……!”

Suddenly, someone flashed through the team leader’s mind. The team leader widened his eyes and stood up from his seat.

‘That bastard.’