The Cop Is Too Strong [EN]: Chapter 29

A luxury apartment complex, currently enjoying high popularity.

Ding-dong.

-15th floor. The doors are opening.

As the elevator doors opened, Shin Haesoo saw Ahn Seo-eun.

“Why are you out here?”

“Unlike you, Haesoo, I don’t find looking at corpses easy.”

Haesoo had always thought of her as a woman who seemed delicate on the outside but was tough on the inside, so she wouldn’t mind this sort of thing. However, in this area, she was just an ordinary person.

As soon as she opened the door and entered, she saw Kang Min’s body sprawled out in the living room. Haesoo knelt down to examine his wounds, her brow furrowing.

“Who left the door open?”

“Ah, I did. The smell of blood was too much…”

Seo-eun’s secretary, Chief Kang, answered.

“Leaving the door open lowers the room temperature, making it difficult to estimate the time of death.”

“Ah… I’m sorry!”

He hurriedly followed Haesoo, closing the windows.

The inside of the apartment was a mess, as if a simple robbery had occurred, and valuables seemed to be missing.

His manager said he hadn’t been able to reach him for hours, so he came up and found him dead.

‘Two stabs in the neck, three in the side, two in the chest…’

It looks like a frenzied attack, but it’s clean. Judging by the direction of the blood spatter, it happened quickly in one place without him moving around. It’s highly likely to be a professional.

Haesoo checked the body’s rectal temperature.

’31 degrees…’

Indoors, the temperature typically drops by 0.8 degrees Celsius per hour. It varies depending on the environment, but considering it’s currently spring, at least 4 hours have passed. It’s too late to reset and save him.

Haesoo frowned and picked up her phone.

“Team Leader, it’s me. Celebrity Kang Min has been murdered. I’m at the scene now.”

At Haesoo’s call, Violent Crimes Units 1 and 2, along with the forensics team, arrived together.

Unit 2 confirmed Kang Min’s murder and struggled, grabbing their hair. It was a natural reaction. Since the person they were investigating was dead, the police often get blamed, even without a direct cause.

Haesoo closely observed the Unit 2 Team Leader, who seemed particularly out of sorts.

He seemed more angry at someone than upset that the person they were investigating had died.

‘He didn’t expect him to die, huh…’

“The rumors must be true, that Daesung and Shin Kyung are close. Anyway, thanks for letting us know. Unit 1, you can head back now; we’ll take it from here.”

During the investigation, Unit 2 naturally tried to continue the investigation, and the Unit 1 Team Leader just stared at Haesoo, remaining still.

Then Ahn Seo-eun stepped forward.

“We’ll entrust this case to Shin Haesoo. Your team was investigating our guy when this happened, right?”

“…Excuse me?”

The Unit 2 Team Leader paused for a moment before continuing.

“It’s not like we pressured Kang Min into committing suicide; he was murdered, right? This isn’t that simple. Representative [CEO], we’ve been investigating this…”

Ahn Seo-eun cut off the Unit 2 Team Leader, turning her gaze to Haesoo.

“Is it impossible to transfer the case?”

“It’s possible.”

At Haesoo’s firm words, the Unit 1 Team Leader’s mouth dropped open. With his 25 years as a detective, he sensed something between the two of them.

“Hmm… Sung-gwan, let’s talk for a moment.”

“What nonsense are you suddenly spouting! What talk?”

The Unit 1 Team Leader called the Unit 2 Team Leader for a serious talk, and although the Unit 2 Team Leader was adamantly against it, he had no choice but to transfer the case since the victim’s side strongly desired it.

Eventually, the decision to hand over the case was made, and Unit 1 stayed behind to secure analysis materials from nearby closed-circuit cameras, CCTVs [closed-circuit televisions], and black boxes.

*

Back at the police station, Unit 1 compiled the data that Unit 2 had investigated and the information that Ahn Seo-eun had found, and Haesoo gave a briefing.

“…So, in short, Shin is the reason Kang Min got into drugs, and Assemblyman [Member of the National Assembly] Kim Sangtae introduced her to Kang Min, is that right?”

“Yes.”

“But Kim Sangtae and Shin aren’t in the data? How did you find out?”

“Daesung was investigating separately.”

“I see, Daesung…”

At that moment, Oh Gyeong asked sharply, her eyes gleaming.

“Haesoo, what’s your relationship with Representative Ahn Seo-eun? Are you perhaps… a fiancée of some *chaebol* [wealthy conglomerate family] or politician’s son that we don’t know about?”

Haesoo squinted and stared at Oh Gyeong with emotionless eyes. Oh Gyeong avoided her gaze and stammered.

“Sorry, sorry, don’t look at me like that.”

The Team Leader clapped his hands, wrapping things up.

“Alright, alright, let’s not get sidetracked. Anyway, roughly speaking, there’s something going on between Assemblyman Kim Sangtae, Shin, and Kang Min, right? Let’s put that aside for now and start analyzing. Drugs are drugs, and murder is murder.”

Although the timing is bad, it’s not just a simple robbery. The proper approach is to separate the drug and murder cases, as the Team Leader said, to prevent our vision from narrowing.

The immediate task is to analyze the CCTV footage to identify the suspect.

Swish.

At that moment, the Unit 2 Team Leader was seen leaving. Haesoo immediately got up to follow him.

“I’ll be back in a moment.”

As Haesoo hurriedly left the office, the Team Leader grumbled, looking at the closed door.

“Where does she always go by herself?”

The muscular rookie blushed and muttered quietly.

“She’s cool.”

“Cool, my foot.”

At that sight, Oh Gyeong nudged the rookie’s shoulder with her elbow and asked.

“Rookie, if you majored in fine arts in the military, what would they make you do?”

“Draw lines for foot volleyball.”

“That’s right. Are your eyes good?”

“2.0 [perfect vision].”

“Then you analyze this much.”

“Yes, I understand!”

Oh Gyeong pushed half of the files to the rookie. The Team Leader clicked his tongue.

“Hey, kid, you didn’t do this to Dolgyeok, but you’re back to your old habits again.”

“Who’s Dolgyeok? Haesoo… is scary.”

“The rookie looks scarier in terms of muscles and impression, doesn’t he?”

“Hey, that’s not all there is to it. Don’t pick a fight and hurry up and analyze it, *hyung* [older brother/male friend].”

“I’m doing it… Ah, analysis is really annoying. It’s torture for old eyes.”

Tap, tap, tap.

The Team Leader rubbed his eyes and pressed the keyboard with reluctant fingers.

*

On the deserted rooftop of the police station, the Unit 2 Team Leader is on the phone, angry.

“…No, what am I supposed to do if you suddenly do this?”

He stopped himself from slamming the phone on the ground and continued.

“Yes, yes, I’m sure you don’t know, but the Kang Min case has been transferred to Unit 1 with Shin Haesoo, so take care of it yourself. It’s out of my hands.”

He hung up the phone irritably and opened the rooftop door, taking a step inside. That’s when a black shadow covered him from the side.

Bang! Crack-

Driven by immense force, the Unit 2 Team Leader’s body spun sideways and slammed hard against the wall. As his breath caught in his throat, a thick arm pressed against his neck.

“Keh, kek, you, why, why are you doing this…”

He couldn’t even breathe, let alone speak, under the intense pressure that felt like his neck was about to break.

The attacker, Shin Haesoo, brought her face close to his and said in a chilling tone.

“Is it Kim Sangtae? Or the Chief?”

“What, what are you talking about… Keueuk.”

Haesoo snatched the phone from his grasp and checked the number. It wasn’t saved. Without hesitation, she called the number.

-Are you going to keep calling this number, you bastard? Do you want to die that badly?

It’s not the Chief’s voice. Then there’s only one answer. Haesoo hung up and glared at the Unit 2 Team Leader again.

“If you don’t want to be saddled with a murder charge, go downstairs now, return the money, and confess. This is my last… request as a junior.”

She was giving him a chance to confess out of consideration, as they had once been comrades who had each other’s backs in dangerous situations.

The Unit 2 Team Leader’s eyes filled with emptiness. As Haesoo released her grip, the Unit 2 Team Leader lowered his head and replied.

“…Alright.”

Haesoo didn’t return his phone.

“I’ll borrow this for a while.”

The Unit 2 Team Leader watched Haesoo walk down the stairs for a long time before trudging down himself.

*

“Hey, Dolgyeok, what took you so long?”

“I went to the bathroom.”

“Our Dolgyeok must have been feeling really bad? Spending 20 minutes in the bathroom.”

To catch the Assemblyman, we need a warrant. We’ll arrest him with evidence after the Unit 2 Team Leader confesses.

Soon after, the Unit 2 Team Leader entered the office and made eye contact with Haesoo. He knelt down on both knees in front of the Unit 2 team members.

“Guys, I’m sorry to you all.”

The Unit 2 team members rushed to help him up.

“What’s wrong, Team Leader?”

“Team Leader, please get up!”

The Unit 2 Team Leader’s eyes welled up with tears, and after a few seconds, he went to his desk, took something out, and approached the Unit 1 Team Leader.

“My eldest is going to college this year… and he was worried about giving up the college he wanted to go to because of money, so… I lost my mind for a moment, I was crazy.”

“What, what is this, you bastard? No way?”

The Team Leader, instinctively feeling uneasy, denied it, but the Unit 2 Team Leader placed a cash card in front of him.

“There’s a large sum of money in the account linked to this card. 30 million, received from Kim Sangtae. I haven’t touched it yet. …”

The Team Leader’s eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck. The Unit 2 Team Leader continued calmly.

“The condition is, Kim Sangtae and Shin’s names… don’t come up in the Kang Min drug case.”

The Team Leader jumped up from his seat and grabbed the Unit 2 Team Leader by the collar.

“You, you son of a bitch!! How can a cop do that?! A cop, for fuck’s sake!!”

Unit 1 and Unit 2 team members came out and stopped them. Their eyes were filled with deep bitterness as they heard everything.

The Unit 1 Team Leader had worked with them for a long time as part of the same violent crimes unit, and they were like family, which made him even more angry and upset.

To uphold one’s convictions and defend justice… the public authority was too impoverished.

Haesoo gripped the Team Leader’s shoulder tightly, who was feeling distressed.

“Don’t touch me… Ah, ah, ah! It hurts!”

The Team Leader was forced to make eye contact with Haesoo, and Haesoo said in an angry voice.

“Let’s go catch the bastard… who used money to trample on the police.”

At Haesoo’s words, Oh Gyeong and the rookie stood up simultaneously. Their eyes were full of fighting spirit.

***

Gangjin City, Taewon-dong, Gold Rich Building located in a bustling area, top floor.

Da-da-da-dak.

The sound of shoes echoes busily. Six burly men in black suits guard a middle-aged man, quickly moving forward.

The middle-aged man, Kim Sangtae, is on a phone call as he enters the elevator, which is already open.

“No, I’m telling you, I didn’t do it! Anyway, you should hide for the time being, don’t blame me. What? If that gets out, we’re both dead…”

He looked up when he didn’t hear any sound in the middle. The elevator doors were tightly closed and going down.

“The phone still cuts out in the elevator these days, damn it.”

“Shall we stop it?”

“Stop what, you idiot? We’re in a hurry, you guys are all brain-dead.”

“I’m sorry.”

Ding-dong.

-1st floor.

The elevator doors open. Kim Sangtae and his party are on their way to the basement, and they look ahead with suspicion, as almost no one goes from the 1st floor to the basement.

“Excuse me.”

A man with an impression as sharp as his bodyguards squeezed in.

Kim Sangtae sighed in relief, as there was only one person.

But then he realized that the man was staring intently at him. Not only that, but he also took out his phone, held it next to Kim Sangtae, and compared it to a photo on the screen.

“What, what are you?”

The man, Shin Haesoo, glared at Kim Sangtae with dry eyes and opened his mouth.

“Nice to meet you. You son of a bitch.”

<#29. The Poor Police> End