The Cop Is Too Strong [EN]: Chapter 36

Homicide Division Office.

Nearly ten detectives were in a chaotic tangle.

As Shin Hae-soo reluctantly released his grip, Dong Nam-cheol, face flushed and eyes blazing, turned on him.

“Hey, let go, you son of a bitch! You bastard!”

Thwack!

The fist he swung landed squarely on Hae-soo’s face. The detectives froze, as if someone had hit pause.

‘Why did I just stand there and take that…?’ Hae-soo wondered.

Dong Nam-cheol was equally surprised. He’d expected Hae-soo to dodge, and hadn’t thought he was within striking distance.

Hae-soo calmly touched his cheek and walked out of the office.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going, you punk?!”

Dong Nam-cheol spat the words out, as if he wanted to tear Hae-soo apart, but he couldn’t bring himself to follow.

Team 1, hiding behind the partition, secretly gave thumbs up.

‘Our Striker [a slang term for someone who is good at fighting] is definitely awesome.’

‘It was so refreshing, but what if he gets disciplined?’

‘Detective Hae-soo is really cool!’

*

That lunchtime, Dong Nam-cheol stormed into the Chief’s office. The Chief greeted him with a weary look.

“…So, Detective Shin Hae-soo grabbed the team leader’s shoulder?”

“It wasn’t just grabbing, he squeezed it tight, I’m telling you!”

“So, he squeezed your shoulder tight, and you felt bad and punched him in the face?”

“It wasn’t just feeling bad from the squeeze, it hurt like hell, I’m telling you! It’s insubordination!”

As Dong Nam-cheol shouted, the Chief covered his ears and muttered.

“Ha, even though we’re swamped, some whiner gets assigned here and complains…”

“What, what did you say?”

“I got it, I got it. Go away, and send Detective Shin Hae-soo in.”

“You need to give him a proper dressing down. Dock his pay and reflect it in his performance review…”

The Chief’s expression hardened.

“Hey, Dong Nam-cheol.”

“…Yes?”

“Your dad is my superior, not you. Why are you telling me what to do? If you want to run things, why don’t you become the Chief yourself!”

“…You’re going to regret this. You think you’ll stop at Chief?”

“I won’t regret it, so get out of here!”

The Chief threw the pen he was holding. Dong Nam-cheol, kicked out of the Chief’s office, gritted his teeth in the hallway.

“Shit… daring to act like that when he’s just the Chief…”

He immediately walked down the hallway and called his father, telling him about Shin Hae-soo’s insubordination and the Chief’s treatment.

However, his father’s response was cold.

“Hey, how old are you? Grow up. I knew it when a guy who’s been in the Agency his whole life said he was going to the tough Gangjin Station. Do you think Gangjin Station is the Agency? They’re dealing with serial killers who skin people alive. Stop tarnishing my reputation and come back to the Agency while I’m being nice!”

“Ah, Father…”

Click-

As even his father hung up on him, a fierce look appeared in Dong Nam-cheol’s eyes.

“Damn it! Why is everyone against me here? The Chief and Shin Hae-soo…”

*

As expected from the Chief’s attitude, no disciplinary action was taken against Shin Hae-soo. There was no real evidence other than a slightly red shoulder, and Hae-soo, after all, had a bruised face.

While Dong Nam-cheol was plotting how to screw over Hae-soo, Team 1’s internal line rang.

Ring-ring, ring-ring

Team 1 was out on assignment, so the phone rang unanswered. As a Team 2 member got up to answer it, Dong Nam-cheol quickly snatched it up. Nine times out of ten, an internal call meant a new case.

“Yes, this is Team 2, Team Leader Dong Nam-cheol.”

-This is the situation room. A murder… Is Team 1 not there?

“What is it? Speak.”

-Yes, it’s a murder case in Goam-dong. A woman in her 30s was murdered in a studio apartment complex. Please relay this to Team 1.

“Why would I relay it to Team 1 when I’m the Team 2 leader? Send the case to Team 2’s radio.”

-Ah… Doesn’t Team 2 already have a case? And murder cases and special assault cases are usually for Team 1…

“Usually, my ass. From now on, there’s no such thing. Assign murder cases to Team 2 as well. Tell the situation room team leader that I said so, got it?”

-Yes, yes…

“What’s the lady’s name?”

-Officer! Kim Seon-yeong.

“You have a pretty voice, I’ll remember the name.”

-Yes… Understood.

Dong Nam-cheol wrinkled his nose and announced to his team.

“Alright, we have a new case. A murder case.”

One team member raised his hand.

“Team 1 can move directly from their current location, should I relay it to them?”

“Is that why we keep getting pushed back by Team 1? What’s with the slave mentality? Can’t we handle a murder case?”

“Ah, no. But we already have a case we’re working on…”

“Is a kids’ fight more urgent than a murder case? That kind of thing happens all the time! What are you doing! Why aren’t you preparing to move out?!”

Under Dong Nam-cheol’s nagging, Team 2 hurriedly set out for the murder scene.

In the studio apartment complex, the victim was found dead, sitting in a computer chair.

Her neck was wrapped to the headrest with blue tape, and both wrists were also bound to the armrests with blue tape.

Two stab wounds to the neck with a sharp weapon, seven stab wounds to the chest, side, and abdomen, no signs of sexual assault.

“Ugh, ugh…”

It wasn’t like any body parts were missing, just a lot of blood spilled on the floor, but Dong Nam-cheol hurried outside to vomit.

Team 2 members exchanged glances and shook their heads.

“Oh, she’s missing fingers.”

“What?”

A team member pointed to the woman’s hand. Her fingers weren’t completely cut off, but one joint of each of her ten fingers was severed.

“Wasn’t this also the case with the murder in Pyeongtaek?”

“Ah? That’s right? And the blue tape binding her to the chair too.”

“It’s a serial killer!”

Dong Nam-cheol, who had covered his nose with a handkerchief, shouted.

“We’re not handing this over to the team that’s investigating it. We’re going to catch him. They haven’t caught him even after the third victim, right? We can’t hand it over to those bastards who might get disbanded soon, right?”

“…Still, shouldn’t we share the information?”

Thwack!

Dong Nam-cheol slapped the head of the team member who was a Senior Officer.

“You’ve been talking back to the team leader since earlier… Shut up, no sharing, we’re going to catch him no matter what, be prepared to stay up all night starting today!”

“Team Leader, should we hand over Kyung-joon’s case to Team 3 then?”

“Hey, is your head full of shit? If we hand it over, they’ll think we’re avoiding cases! We’ll put that on hold and catch the serial killer first, do you not understand priorities?”

“…Understood.”

*

Under Dong Nam-cheol’s orders, Team 2 began to dig into the Goam-dong murder case with all available manpower. Because they were proceeding as secretly as possible from other teams, there were many difficulties in the investigation.

Even in the midst of all this, the youngest member periodically contacted Kyung-joon, the victim of the group assault, as requested by the Senior Officer.

However, as the killer had not been caught even when the Metropolitan Investigation Unit directly intervened in other regions, Team 2 also made little progress.

While the youngest member was analyzing the black box footage until his eyes were about to fall out, the internal line rang.

“Two-hundred-two, Officer Kim Seok-hoon speaking.”

-This is the situation room. A suicide by jumping from Gosung Apartment in Yongsu-dong. Age fifteen, name Lee Kyung-joon…

Thump!

The youngest member jumped up from his seat. The chair fell over, making a loud noise, but he didn’t notice.

Hae-soo, returning from the restroom, saw the state of Team 2’s youngest member and sensed that something serious had happened.

“I’ll, I’ll go right away.”

As he blankly tried to leave without saying anything to any of his team members, Hae-soo followed him, grabbed his shoulder, and turned him around.

“What kind of case is it?”

“It’s, it’s my fault. It’s my fault… quickly…”

“Snap out of it! What kind of case is it?”

Only after Hae-soo shouted loudly did the youngest member come to his senses and say.

“It’s a suicide by jumping in Yongsu-dong… Gosung Apartment, Building 101…”

Hae-soo didn’t listen any further and immediately went out, got on his motorcycle, and revved the engine.

Vroom-!

The youngest member, bewildered by Hae-soo’s actions, shook his head and headed for the car.

*

Gosung Apartment, Building 101, a crowd had gathered. Patrol cars for scene control had not yet arrived.

Hae-soo ran over and assessed the situation.

A male student in a school uniform, his head shattered, was dead. But strangely, his leg was broken, and there were many fresh wounds on his body.

There was also a car smashed ten meters away from the point of impact. Something was off.

‘Did someone move him from where he initially landed?’

There was no time to check the CCTV.

“Who was the first to discover him?”

At Hae-soo’s question, the security guard raised his hand and walked forward.

“Me. It was me… Poor kid…”

“Did you hear a sound? Do you remember the approximate time?”

Hae-soo quickly asked questions, checking the temperature. It was difficult to estimate the time of death in the summer.

“I came because I heard a loud noise, and I saw him falling. About twenty minutes ago…”

As soon as Hae-soo heard those words, he shouted “reset.” He was worried that his ability wouldn’t reset because it had changed to predicting other people’s gazes, but fortunately, Hae-soo’s scene quickly changed.

*

A leisurely afternoon, a quiet apartment complex.

Bang!!

A male student in a school uniform fell from the sky onto a car.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

The male student lying sprawled on the car due to the loud alarm sound, Kyung-joon, frowned.

He dragged his broken body and staggered up, worried that someone would come.

“Cough, cough!”

He spat out a mouthful of blood and limped back into the apartment building, dragging his leg.

He took the elevator and pressed the top floor with his bloody hand.

Extreme pain coursed through his stomach and leg, but it didn’t matter. It would all be over soon anyway. All the pain in the world.

Click.

He went up the stairs and grabbed the doorknob to the rooftop. But the rooftop door felt as heavy as dozens of tons. He held the door for a long time.

Drip, drip, drip.

His blood vessels burst as he fell, and tears of blood flowed. The faces of the kids who tormented him flashed through his mind. Their existence gave him the courage to open this damn door.

Squeak-

Kyung-joon leaned against the railing and looked down, deciding on a place where there were no cars and no people passing by. And he stood on the railing.

It’s hard the first time, but not the second… time.

“Dad… I’m sorry.”

Kyung-joon’s body gradually leaned forward. To prevent the same terrible thing from happening as before, he would fall head first.

Whoosh- Chuck!

Just as Kyung-joon’s body tilted about 45 degrees, he felt a powerful force grabbing his leg.

Thud-

Kyung-joon spun around and fell face down on the rooftop floor. In front of his eyes was a scary-looking man he had never seen before.

*

Hae-soo, who made eye contact with Kyung-joon, could neither comfort him nor scold him.

What on earth could a mere fifteen-year-old have gone through to attempt suicide and then, when he failed, drag his broken body back up again? How painful and difficult must the way back up have been?

Hae-soo could only say one thing.

“I, I’ll destroy them, the ones who made you like this, the police who neglected you like this… I’ll destroy them all.”

<#36. Shitty Namcheol>