The Cop Is Too Strong [EN]: Chapter 32

The team leader lightly smacked the youngest member on the head and then sat down.

“Missing person, Kim Go-cheong, 43 years old. The ex-wife is highly suspicious, but you know the principle of presumption of innocence, right? Oh Geng and I will go interview the ex-wife. Rock and the youngest, track the presumed location of the disappearance and collect all the CCTV footage.”

“Yes, understood!”

“Where is it?”

At Shin Hae-soo’s question, the team leader turned to Oh Geng. Oh Geng hesitated for a moment before answering.

“Jeju Island.”

* * *

Even if it’s been two days since the disappearance, increasing the possibility of death, the police operate under the assumption that the person is alive, even if it’s an inefficient approach.

Hae-soo and the youngest went to Gunsan, the closest airport to Gangjin, to get to Jeju Island as quickly as possible and boarded a plane.

As the plane slowly taxied for takeoff, the youngest, who had a physique that could take down an ox, took a deep breath.

“Hoo-ah, hoo-eup.”

“What’s wrong? You act like you’ve never been on a plane before.”

The youngest met Hae-soo’s eyes and then lowered his gaze.

“What, is it your first time?”

“Yes, it is…”

Hae-soo looked at his nervous face for a moment before looking ahead and asking, “Do you think he’s dead?”

At Hae-soo’s question, the tension disappeared from the youngest’s face, and seriousness took its place.

“He must be alive. He has to be alive.”

Hae-soo had changed the subject to ease the tension, but the youngest’s fervent desire for the victim to be alive was palpable. Looking at him reminded Hae-soo of when he was a rookie detective.

Victims suspected of murder are much more likely to be dead than alive. The greater the desire for them to be alive, the greater the sense of emptiness after confirming their death.

As that repeats, the mind operates under the assumption that the victim is alive, but the heart doesn’t race with the same urgency.

“Right, how old are you this year?”

“Twenty-six.”

This time, Hae-soo was a little surprised. The youngest looked old enough to be Hae-soo’s older brother.

About an hour after boarding the plane, the landing announcement came on.

Hae-soo and the youngest were picked up by a Jeju Island detective who was waiting for them and headed to the scene. On the way, they were briefed on what had been found so far.

“…So, we’re mobilizing local police officers to search around the pension [a type of Korean vacation rental].”

“Has anything turned up?”

“One thing: a cut belt was found. Not cut with a knife… it looks like it was cut with something like a saw.”

At the Jeju Island detective’s words, Hae-soo and the youngest frowned at the same time. An item that suggests the victim’s body was cut with a saw while still clothed.

The possibility of the victim being alive was rapidly decreasing.

“Ugh…”

As they entered the unmanned pension where the victim, ex-wife, and child had met, the smell of bleach was overpowering.

The inside was very clean. Not a single strand of hair was visible.

Not a single drop of blood was visible, but the strong smell of bleach made it possible to infer that a crime had occurred here.

Hae-soo asked the local detective who had followed him in, “Has the luminol test not been done yet?”

“Luminol? Ah, yes, the CSI team will be here soon.”

Luminol is a bloodstain detection method also known as Blue Blood Spray. Even if it is not visible to the naked eye, spraying it and darkening the surroundings will reveal a luminescent reaction as it oxidizes with any trace of blood.

Soon, the Jeju Island CSI team arrived, and they performed the luminol test.

“Gasp…”

“…”

The people there were speechless for a moment. There was nothing visible in the living room, but inside the bathroom, a shockingly large amount of bloodstains were glowing everywhere on the walls.

Hae-soo and the youngest were now convinced.

‘A murder took place here, and Kim Go-cheong is dead.’

Now, they needed to investigate according to this timeline. Hae-soo first called the team leader.

-Oh, did you arrive in Jeju Island?

“Yes, we finished the luminol test, and it seems like they killed him in the bathroom of this pension. The amount of blood splattered on the walls is considerable.”

-Damn it…

“Team leader, have you met Go Soo-jeong?”

-Well, I told her to come in for questioning, but she’s just saying strange things.

“What kind of things?”

-She said she was sexually assaulted by her husband, that her tears are the proof, and that’s why she ran away.

“…I understand.”

-Okay, good work. We’ll be collecting CCTV footage near Go Soo-jeong’s house too. We’ll share anything that comes up.

“Yes, thank you.”

Hae-soo and the youngest went to a nearby police station and analyzed the CCTV footage with the local police.

The CCTV footage of the pension showed Go Soo-jeong carrying her son out at night, disappearing for a while, and then returning to the pension alone. Then, a day later, she left alone at check-out time, looking very calm.

“Does that look like someone who’s been sexually assaulted to you?”

“It doesn’t look like it.”

They discovered that she was driving around and throwing trash in various places. They went there, but found nothing. It had already been three days, so it had gone to the landfill.

“The 16th? Everything collected then has been incinerated.”

“Ha…”

“Then, where is the incinerated trash?”

“Heh, it’ll be hard to find. It would have been incinerated early yesterday morning… it’ll be around here.”

“Thank you.”

Hae-soo and the youngest, along with the local police, fully armed with protective gear, rummaged through the half-burnt trash.

“Here! I found something!”

It was a local police officer. He had found a pile of trash that was presumed to have been thrown away by Go Soo-jeong.

A saw, a knife, and a 3cm long piece of bone were found there. It was impossible to tell whether it was animal bone or human bone.

“With this much… DNA can’t be extracted…”

They carefully packed the saw, knife, and bone fragment into evidence storage bags and left the landfill.

Following Go Soo-jeong’s movements, it was confirmed that she had taken the last ferry to the mainland.

It was suspicious that she didn’t take a plane, as she lived in a wealthy family, though not to the level of a *chaebol* [a wealthy family conglomerate].

At the time Go Soo-jeong boarded the ship, Go Soo-jeong’s strange behavior was discovered on the ship’s CCTV.

“What… what is she doing?”

She was struggling to drag her carrier onto the deck, and then she was taking pictures of the carrier with her phone, as if she was commemorating something.

After taking several pictures from different angles, she opened the carrier, took out something wrapped in black plastic, and threw it into the sea five times.

“That volume… it’s not a person.”

“That doesn’t mean she’d throw away trash like that. We should assume she only threw away part of it.”

“Only part…?”

Hae-soo and the youngest exchanged glances. It’s nearly impossible to find what was thrown into the sea. Hae-soo immediately took out his phone.

-Hey, Rock, did anything come out?

“She threw something from the ship, presumed to be a body. But it seems like she only threw away part of the amount.”

-Only part? Then did she throw away the rest before that?

“We don’t know. We have to keep in mind the possibility that she threw it away after crossing over [to the mainland].”

-Okay, what day did the ship arrive?

“The 16th, 9 PM.”

-Then you guys track her movements from the mainland. Seize Go Soo-jeong’s phone and computer and search them.”

“Yes.”

-Oh, right. And Go Soo-jeong’s parents’ house is there in Jeju Island. The child is there too, so stop by. I’ll send you the address.”

“I understand.”

They searched Jeju Island one last time, and the next morning, they went to Go Soo-jeong’s parents’ house to meet the child.

The eyes of the eight-year-old child were shining innocently, making any questions about what happened feel like a violation.

“On the day you met your dad, did your mom do anything strange? Tell me anything you remember.”

“…She said she was going to play with paint with Dad. But she didn’t include me.”

“Was there any paint on your mom?”

“Yes.”

Hae-soo’s expression hardened slightly. He asked in a lowered voice, “What… color was it?”

“Red.”

Hae-soo and the youngest’s faces changed drastically at the child’s words. With this, the circumstances of the murder became clearer.

The child said that he was too sleepy after that and fell asleep.

Without a body, the charge of murder cannot be applied.

They had to find the body. Even a part of it.

* * *

“We’re back.”

“Oh, you worked hard, our Rock, and the youngest too.”

“No! You seniors worked hard!”

“Shouting like that makes it sound like it’s over. It’s just starting now.”

As the team leader said, it had been a few days, but they couldn’t find the body after all.

Hae-soo and Oh Geng listed the information they had collected so far in chronological order.

“This is Go Soo-jeong’s desktop search history.”

Unmanned pension, CCTV, bone broth trash, how to remove blood stains.

“This is a list of items purchased at the mart a week before the crime.”

Large-capacity plastic bags, kimchi bags, saw, bleach.

“She even diligently accumulated points [on her store loyalty card].”

The team leader chimed in on Oh Geng’s words, “What’s absurd is that she refunded the items she didn’t use after the crime. This woman is not ordinary.”

“The trash she threw away afterwards was all incinerated. There were quite a few suspicious things…”

“Wait, this is strange too.”

“What is it?”

Hae-soo pointed to the KakaoTalk [Korean messaging app] history.

-Go Soo-jeong: How can you do this to me? I’m going to report you for sexual assault.

-Kim Go-cheong: I’m sorry, I was drunk, I must have been crazy. Please forgive me just once.

“The time here is 10:44.”

Hae-soo stopped the CCTV footage at the part where Go Soo-jeong comes out of the pension, in case his memory was wrong.

“The time she comes out is 10:53, 9 minutes later. There’s no reason to send it when she’s in the same place as her husband.”

“She fabricated it.”

“Ah… really.”

“You guys don’t have anything else besides the bone fragment, right?”

“No…”

“Hoo… this is driving me crazy.”

From the prior preparation to the child’s testimony, the fabricated KakaoTalk messages, and the strange behavior on the ship, everything was pointing to Go Soo-jeong murdering Kim Go-cheong, but it was frustrating because there was no body.

The team leader tore at his already sparse hair in agony.

“It’s clear, it’s clear, damn it… the problem is there’s no body. Did you find the husband’s car black box [dashcam]?”

“Yes, here it is.”

“Did anything come out?”

“Not much…”

Hae-soo calmly played the black box footage. It was a rainy day, on the way to meet the child.

His voice was heard from beyond the black box.

-Say that you loved without regret~ Say that you will dream of happiness~ Say that you will definitely see our Seong-woon~.

As Kim Go-cheong’s singing voice flowed out, the office became silent for a moment.

He was a husband who was excited to see his child after a long time, even changing the lyrics to the song.

The detectives frowned and suppressed the rising emotions.

The muscle monster’s eyes turned red and he slammed the desk.

“We have to catch this, we have to put that woman in!”

“We want to too… but there’s no body, no body.”

“There’s the bone fragment!”

The youngest, who had been so polite, even shouted in excitement. But he soon realized what he had done and bowed deeply.

“I’m, I’m sorry…”

“I know, I know, I know how you feel, but the bone fragment probably won’t have DNA detected. Should we search the sea…”

Silence fell again. At times like this, the law is resented. It was created to prevent innocent people from being wronged, but it was infuriating because it was being abused.

Then, Hae-soo lightly tapped the desk with his palm and opened his mouth.

“Let’s indict her first.”

“What?”

“Let’s indict her. At this point, the circumstances and testimonies are more than enough, and we’re borrowing the power of the people.”

“The power of the people?”

* * *

Shin Hae-soo came out of the office and called someone.

-This is Ahn Seo-eun. What’s the case this time?

“How did you know it was a case?”

Ahn Seo-eun chuckled softly and replied.

-You don’t call me except for cases, do you?

Was that so? It seemed so.

“It’s a murder case without a body. I’ll attach the file, so please move public opinion a bit. Can you urgently schedule ‘I Want to Know’ [a popular Korean investigative journalism TV show]?”

-Of course.

<#32. Murder Without a Body> End