The Cop Is Too Strong [EN]: Chapter 241

< #241. The Congressman's Revenge >

Shin Hae-soo tasked her team at the hideout with investigating Kim An-seok, the drunk driver who caused the fatal accident, and his father, Congressman Kim Cheong-won.

Logically, causing an accident by driving drunk and crossing the center line in reverse should invariably lead to a prison sentence.

But a suspended sentence? There had to be some shady dealings involved.

Shin Hae-soo first went to the police station to obtain Kim An-seok’s case file.

“Ah, that case? It was neatly closed. Why are you digging it up now? Are those rich guys about to be on TV or something?”

It was Go Jin-chan.

The detective in charge of the case greeted Hae-soo with a displeased expression.

Hae-soo stared at his face calmly. With his plump features and narrow eyes, he looked greedy, like someone easily swayed by bribes. Hae-soo believed in physiognomy [the assessment of a person’s character or personality from their outer appearance].

Even people who seemed to have unexpected sides to them eventually lived up to their appearances after enough time.

“Perhaps. Where is the file?”

“Why are you being so unfair… Tsk.”

The detective in charge stalled for a long time in the records room before reluctantly handing Hae-soo a thin file.

As Hae-soo reached out to take it, he pulled it back and said, “Don’t bother me with this. I really hate reopening closed cases, keep that in mind, Detective Shin, Hae-soo.”

Hae-soo reached out and snatched the file from his hand without a word.

‘Go Jin-chan.’

Hae-soo etched his name into her memory.

* * *

As soon as Shin Hae-soo left the station and got into her car, she called Young-soo.

“Dig into Detective Go Jin-chan. See if he received any kickbacks from Congressman Kim.”

-Yessir, are you coming in today?

“I’m coming after work.”

The congressman’s son lived in a luxury apartment worth 2.7 billion won [approximately $2 million USD], while the victim’s mother lived in a shabby one-room apartment with a 30 million won deposit [approximately $22,000 USD].

It was a battle that seemed unwinnable from the start.

So, whether they thought they had no choice but to accept defeat knowing the other party’s influence, or whether they were simply careless, the loophole was quickly found.

“Detective Go Jin-chan: I’ve searched everyone from his in-laws to his distant relatives, and there’s no money deposited into his accounts. But looking at his family’s social media, his wife’s collection of luxury bags has increased. There’s even a limited edition worth 30 million won.”

“A detective’s wife with a 30 million won luxury bag…”

Hae-soo crossed her arms and nodded. It was clear circumstantial evidence.

Tak-tak-

Jung Young-soo frantically typed on the keyboard and clicked the mouse, continuing, “The judge who gave Kim An-seok a suspended sentence is the younger sibling of Congressman Kim’s classmate.”

Jjok-sae, who was squatting next to him with a variety of expressions on his face, grumbled, “Smells, smells, stinky smells. Why are these rich people so eager to live such dirty lives?”

“I know, it’s rare for you to say something right. Did you eat something weird for lunch?”

Jjok-sae glared at Young-soo’s sarcasm.

Young-soo and Jjok-sae were the same age, but their personalities were like oil and water, completely incompatible.

“Stop talking nonsense and get back to work.”

Hae-soo paused and pondered, with a copy of a section of the case file open.

‘A blood alcohol concentration of 0.05 while driving in reverse…’

The main justification for the judgment that Kim An-seok received a suspended sentence even after committing such a heinous act was as follows:

The perpetrator Kim An-seok’s sufficient remorse, two thousand apology letters and a remorseful attitude, plus the low blood alcohol concentration.

Conversely, the victim, Seung-joon’s mother, was blamed for not avoiding the situation because she was not paying attention to the road while talking on the phone.

Even looking at the attached data, it is clear that he crossed the center line, making it an absurd judgment.

In addition, the black box [dashcam] memory chip from Kim An-seok’s car was not included in the evidence. According to the record, it was broken and missing.

With no other choice, Hae-soo and Young-soo continued to review Seung-joon’s mother’s black box footage.

It had been three days since Kim An-seok’s case was judged independently.

“The blood alcohol concentration measurement that Shin hyung-nim [term of respect for an older brother or male colleague] mentioned, I’ve confirmed that it was manipulated. It seems that the detective in charge, Go Jin-chan, tampered with it. Here, if you look here, it’s all fake.”

Young-soo had found another piece of evidence. Hae-soo’s eyes flashed.

“If he’s a police officer, he should be given an even heavier punishment.”

“Other than this, nothing else is coming up right now. He’s always drinking and meeting women; it seems like there’s nothing else.”

Young-soo was stalking Kim An-seok online.

Offline, Jjok-sae and Haru were tailing him.

As it approached 10 p.m., the two returned to the hideout.

Their tired faces and weary steps told the story. Before Hae-soo could ask, Jjok-sae shook his head and collapsed on the sofa.

“There’s nothing, nothing at all. He looks like a total thug, but why does he live so healthily… Ah, maybe not so healthy.”

Haru was also exhausted, sitting on a single sofa and staring blankly into the air without saying a word.

Then, Jjok-sae suddenly jumped up and shook his upper clothes.

“Ah, it’s uncomfortable! Damn it!”

A considerable area of the lower part of his clothes was wet, as if muddy water had splashed on it.

“That damn van, I’m going to puncture its tires later.”

“It’s not a van, it’s a red sports car.”

Haru only opened her mouth to say that and was still staring blankly at an unknown place with dazed eyes.

“How does nuna [term of endearment for an older sister or female friend] know?”

“I saw it behind you.”

Hae-soo, who was listening to their conversation, jumped up from her seat. Only then did Haru’s pupils, which had been fixed in the air, move.

Hae-soo strode over and put her arm on Young-soo’s chair and said, “That scene from earlier.”

“Yes.”

Young-soo understood Hae-soo’s words perfectly and quickly pulled up the black box footage.

“Stop.”

It was the moment right before Seung-joon’s mother had the accident, when Kim An-seok’s car was just crossing the center line.

A car briefly flashed in front of Kim An-seok’s sports car. It was a silver Morning [a small Korean car]. The license plate was missing only one letter at the end.

“Find out who owns this car.”

“Yes? Yes…”

Even if only one letter of the license plate is visible, you have to do what the boss tells you to do. Where else is there a job with a base salary of 10 million won [approximately $7,500 USD] and incentives, and a free working environment?

Young-soo searched from the last number 1 to 0. Fortunately, only two Mornings came up. Among them, one was silver.

Hae-soo went to find the owner of the car right away.

“I’m Shin Hae-soo, an investigator from the Gangjin Police Station’s special team. Are you the owner of the silver Morning?”

The car owner was a young woman in her 20s. Her eyes widened at the word ‘detective,’ and she became frightened.

“Yes, yes, wh-what’s going on?”

When Hae-soo told her about the case, she nodded as if she remembered.

“Yes! I remember! I was so surprised; I haven’t been able to drive the car since then because I was scared.”

A moment of hope bloomed. More than half a year had already passed since the accident occurred, so there was a high possibility that the record would be erased, but if she hadn’t driven the car, it might still be there.

In addition, she had set it up so that the black box would turn off completely when the engine was turned off because the battery was running out.

“Then can I take a look at the record for a moment?”

“Of course, but what happened to the ajumma [term of respect for a married woman] who had the accident? Was she badly hurt?”

Hae-soo plugged the memory chip she handed over into the tablet using a reader and answered calmly, “She passed away.”

“…Oh my! What to do…”

While she was expressing her regret, Hae-soo’s eyes widened.

‘It’s there!’

When sorted by the most recent date, the video of the accident date remained at the top of the file list. This woman really hadn’t driven once since the accident.

No wonder there was a lot of dust on the Morning.

-Screech! Bang!

-Oh my, oh my, what to do! I think there was an accident, what to do…

The sound of the accident was heard vividly as she passed by Seung-joon’s mother’s car.

Hae-soo turned the screen back a little further.

It was recorded: Seung-joon’s mother’s face.

She was not holding a cell phone in her hand. Both hands were holding the steering wheel, and her mouth was open.

It was true that she was talking on the speakerphone.

However, even if her pupils were not visible, her head seemed to be looking straight ahead.

Hae-soo looked up at the woman. The woman flinched and took a step back. Hae-soo silently gave her a thumbs up.

“…?!”

* * *

Hae-soo filed an appeal with a clean and energetic young prosecutor assigned by Daesung [likely a reference to a powerful entity].

“We sentence him to 12 years in prison, judging that the crime is very serious and the possibility of rehabilitation is very low, including bribing a detective and manipulating the blood alcohol concentration, writing the apology letter on his behalf, and insulting the deceased with false statements that the deceased was talking on the phone.”

Kim An-seok jumped up from his seat and went into a frenzy.

“What is this, you son of a bitch! Hey, hey!! What the hell is this!”

He pointed his finger at the judge and cursed, then suddenly approached Seung-joon’s father.

“Hey, hey, I’ll give you money, money. The dead don’t come back to life anyway; the living have to live. I’ll give you money. How much do you want? 100 million? 200 million? I’ll give you 1 billion, 1 billion!”

People hurriedly stopped him, but he shook them off roughly and acted disgracefully.

Slap-!

At that time, Congressman Kim Cheong-won slapped him hard on the cheek. Then, Kim An-seok’s behavior, which had been like a wild foal, stopped as if a switch had been flipped.

“Ah, Father…”

“Disgusting.”

Kim Cheong-won left those words and immediately turned around and left the courtroom.

* * *

Seung-joon’s house was on the 4th floor of Hae-soo’s building, which also housed the hideout.

Seung-joon’s father and Hae-soo were sitting, and Seung-joon was moving busily at the sink.

Seung-joon’s father was looking at Seung-joon’s back with a happy expression.

“Aigo [an expression of endearment], Seung-joon-ah, this father’s stomach is about to stick to his back.”

“Ah, come on, it’s almost done.”

Only then did Seung-joon grab the pot handles with two dishcloths and put the pot on the table.

Ramyeon [Korean instant noodles] with bean sprouts, ham, dumplings, and kimchi.

It was just ramyeon, but it was a dish that he threw in whatever he had because he wanted to treat them somehow.

“It looks pretty good, detective, please eat first.”

“No, please eat first.”

Seung-joon’s father ate first, and then Hae-soo ate and looked at Seung-joon, who was waiting anxiously with his eyes wide open.

“How is it? Is it okay? Is it delicious? Is it not delicious?”

Hae-soo silently gave him a thumbs up. Only then did a smile spread across Seung-joon’s face, who had been restless like a puppy about to poop.

It was amazing that he was a guy who knew how to smile like that.

“When did you become a hero, detective?”

“Hero?”

When Seung-joon’s father asked back, Hae-soo shook her head with a slightly embarrassed expression.

“What hero? I’m a police officer; of course, I’m doing what I have to do.”

“Ah, that’s right, it’s all a secret, I understand. Thank you so much, detective.”

He bowed his head deeply. Seung-joon’s father also made a touching face at the sight, and then wrapped Hae-soo’s hands with both hands and said,

“Thank you so much. You are our family’s benefactor, benefactor. I will never forget it, and I will live praying for the detective’s blessings.”

Hae-soo smiled as warmly as possible, took her hand out, and finished eating the ramyeon.

* * *

Everything was committed solely by Kim An-seok, so none of the blame reached Kim Cheong-won himself.

The friendship with the judge that he directly pursued was not recognized as a crime because the judge, although he met him, did not receive a single penny.

The son succeeded in paying for his sins, but Congressman Kim Cheong-won was not affected.

Kim Cheong-won strode back to his office, nervously loosened his tie, and said, “Find out which school those cockroach bastards go to and which company they work for.”

The executive secretary, who was closely following him, said, “Yes, should we fire them?”

He suddenly mentioned firing them without even knowing which company they worked for. That is the power that Congressman Kim Cheong-won had. With one word, he had the power to immediately fire 95 percent of Korean office workers.

With the executive secretary’s one word, Cheong-won recognized his position again and found an arrogant composure.

“Should we? We should slowly dry them up to death. Embezzling company funds and sexually harassing female employees would be appropriate.”

“I will proceed immediately.”

Kim Cheong-won put his legs on the desk, put a cigarette in his mouth, lit it, took a deep puff, exhaled, and continued, “Find out about that prosecutor too. What unheard-of bastard is talking back so well without fear? Is he married, does he have children, who is his family, even his distant relatives, all of them… wipe them out.”

At Kim Cheong-won’s words, the executive secretary stopped writing something diligently on the tablet. The words ‘wipe them out’ meant a clean disposal, not a complicated way to send their lives to hell.

Unlike other congressmen, Kim Cheong-won also had such physical power.

“Yes, Congressman.”

Kim Cheong-won’s eyes were overflowing with murderous intent.

“Those arrogant low-life bastards… I’ll have to let them know exactly who they messed with.”