Chapter 14
A bench in front of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
For some reason, Team Leader Heo Insung, with a relaxed face, was drinking hot coffee.
“Aiya, the coffee is this good because there’s nothing to worry about.”
Warm weather and the chirping of birds. It was the perfect morning weather no matter what anyone said.
“So comfortable?”
Just then, a voice came from behind the bench.
“You're pretty free, aren't you?”
The man's tone was full of sarcasm.
It was Han Daesung, the team leader of the Major Crime Investigation Team 2.
Heo Insung and Han Daesung were in charge of being the team leader of each investigation team at the same time. Of course, only the leader position was the same, the path each went was different.
“Jealous?”
“I'm not jealous.”
Team Leader Han Daesung sat on the bench across from Heo Insung.
“You didn't like Inspector Lee Hyunsoo that much?”
“Then would you like him?”
Rumors spread to the National Police Agency immediately after Hyunsoo caught the son of the head of Hoseon District.
Sooner or later, Hyunsoo's disciplinary committee will be held, and Hyunsoo's punishment will be almost finalized.
Many people at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency didn't like Hyunsoo, but Team Leader Han Daesung knew at once who was responsible for this.
“What do you hate about him so much?”
“Who would like the nutcase of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency? Unless that person is also crazy like him…… Well.”
Heo Insung, who was nodding, turned to Han Daesung.
“You seem to have a lot of affection for Lee Hyunsoo, who is also in the same department, right?”
“That's why you've been whining about holding the disciplinary committee.”
“Bastard, are you serious! Who's whining! Just for the reputation of the police……! Everything, well. Something like that. Anyway, it went well this time. I still don't like the way he wears a police badge and behaves wildly, but this time I have to make sure to take off his police clothes.”
Team Leader Heo Insung, who forgot that he had escaped the retaliation of the head of the district thanks to Hyunsoo, continued his talk excitedly.
“Guys like that, without a police badge, they're nothing but gangsters. Where did such an ignorant bastard roll in…….”
Then he clicked his tongue, leaving a smile on his lips.
“It's those guys that damage the honor of the police.”
His determination was quite strong. All of that determination, just to take off a junior police officer’s uniform.
Han Daesung, who was still looking at Team Leader Heo, opened his mouth lightly.
“I think the disciplinary committee will be canceled.”
“Uh, the disciplinary committee…… What……? cancel what? What are you talking about?”
“You know that our Commissioner pays attention to the media, right? Trying to become a candidate for the Commissioner General, he spends energy managing his image…….”
Han Daesung handed his cell phone to Team Leader Heo. It was an article about Hyunsoo, who spread a good police image on social media.
“He thought Inspector Lee would be a good source for managing that image. Our Commissioner doesn't want to miss out on these talented people.”
At the same time, Heo Insung's eyes glistened.
“This, this is…….”
“So, you better stop flapping that mouth. By any chance, will Inspector Lee Hyunsoo become the mascot of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency?”
“……Eyy. Hahaha! You're going too far.”
Heo Insung, who tried hard to smile, burst into laughter.
“It's strange that he became a social media star because of that, but because of this, Commissioner-nim canceled the disciplinary committee to save him.…….”
It was then.
Team Leader Heo Insung's cell phone rang.
“Don’t tell me…….”
Heo Insung picked up his phone. The caller was the Deputy Chief of Investigation.
* * *
At that time.
In front of the interrogation room of the Seongri City Police Station.
“Feigning an accident, she deliberately hit and killed the child? Because of the insurance money?!”
Inspector Yoo's eyes widened after hearing the full story of the incident from Hyunsoo.
“Uh. Jung Taeyoon was having an affair with Kim Seoyeon, and Jung Taeyoon was targeting the son of his wife who was lying in the hospital to get insurance money. He thought it didn't matter because he's not his own child anyway.”
“So he decided to kill him with his mistress…….”
Inspector Yoo, who was speechless, shook his head. He boasted that he had seen various people while working as a police officer, but to kill a child by faking an accident for money.
This was nothing short of a devil.
“Is that why Kim Seoyeon was urgently arrested?”
This morning, Hyunsoo arrested Kim Seoyeon, who returned to the police station saying she had lost something.
“What's the reason?”
Hyunsoo held up Kim Seoyeon's notebook in his hand.
“Because of the possibility of destroying evidence.”
Hyunsoo continued as he moved to the interrogation room.
“I'll transfer her to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency as soon as the interrogation is over, so please prepare it.”
* * *
At that time, the interrogation room.
Kim Seoyeon's eyes, full of anxiety, were shaking.
‘If it weren't for that……!’
Her fists, which were neatly placed under the desk, clenched tightly.
It was a plan that was set up for months.
After meeting at a club and hearing about Jung Taeyoon's situation, the two quickly became close and began to think about what they shouldn't do.
“For our comfortable future.”
That was the reason.
Leaving behind Jung Taeyoon's sick wife and her son.
He wasn't Jung Taeyoon's real son, and the greed of Jung Taeyoon and Kim Seoyeon was so huge that it ate up even a child's life.
The scenario was simple. Traffic accident that happened inevitably, and insurance money.
Jung Taeyoon all at once coaxed the child into running at the crosswalk, and Kim Seoyeon, who was waiting for the child who ran away, hit him by car.
‘How did he know…… in the notebook…… There was nothing suspicious about it!’
Mindful of the camera hanging in the interrogation room, Kim Seoyeon quietly raised her hand. Then, pretending not to be anxious, she managed her expression and bit her nails.
It was a perfect plan.
The relationship between Kim Seoyeon and Jung Taeyoon was not revealed anywhere, they were careful whenever they met, and since it was an accident, she thought the insurance money would come out without any problems.
“Did Jung Taeyoon that bastard do anything wrong……?”
She murmured in a voice so low that even the camera couldn't record it.
Then.
“You're nervous, right? You want to know how I knew?”
The door of the interrogation room burst open and Hyunsoo entered.
Kim Seoyeon, who turned her head, opened her eyes wide and said.
“……What? What am I supposed to be nervous about? I'm just here to find my notebook.”
“This?”
Hyunsoo, sitting in a chair, put Kim Seoyeon's notebook on the table.
“At first glance, it doesn't look like an expensive notebook, but may I ask why you're trying so hard to find it?”
“It’s because…….”
Kim Seoyeon's eyes rolled.
“It's a memento of my mother, a keepsake. It doesn't cost much, but it's very precious to me…….”
“Ah, your mother’s memento.”
“Yes, I forgot it and went looking for it. What's the problem? And no matter how police are, is it okay to take the things of an innocent person? I can’t understand how on earth…….”
“Kim Seoyeon-ssi.”
Kim Seoyeon stopped talking at Hyunsoo's low voice.
“…….”
“Do you usually write these terrible criminal schemes on such precious mementos?”
“……Pardon?”
Hyunsoo opened the middle part of the notebook.
Written words with car drawings.
It was a memo written by Kim Seoyeon that seemed to describe the scene of the accident.
“Why is this here?”
“…….”
“No matter how you look at it, it looks like a plan for an intentional accident.”
Kim Seoyeon's eyes trembled.
“That, that's not it…….”
“That's not it?”
“I wrote it…… after the accident! Right! I felt so guilty after the accident that I wondered why this happened…… That's why I wrote it like that!”
“So, what was written in this notebook was written after the accident, not a criminal plan?”
“Yes, yes! That's right! If I had planned such a crime, would I have written it down in my notebook so that it would be easily detected?”
Kim Seoyeon's lie was plausible. But Hyunsoo knew everything.
Hyunsoo smirked, and turned the laptop that was on the table to Kim Seoyeon.
“Why, why is…….”
It was the black box screen of the car that Kim Seoyeon caused the accident.
After the accident, Kim Seoyeon, who immediately reported it, got into a police car. After that, the CCTV showed her entering the police station. And Kim Seoyeon leaving with her clothes.
“Kim Seoyeon-ssi, less than a second after the accident, you were captured on black box or CCTV. After reporting the accident, you immediately went in the police car to go to the police station. After that, you immediately took off your coat.”
“That, that…….”
“According to the police who brought Kim Seoyeon-ssi, you were only looking out the window in the police car.”
“…….”
“So, this means that after the accident, Kim Seoyeon-ssi did not have time to write this plan here.”
“……!”
Hyunsoo slowly bent his upper body toward Kim Seoyeon.
“In other words, the drawings and writings depicting the accident were written before the accident occurred, and in the end, this accident was not an unfortunate coincidence, but a premeditated murder.”
“N, no! It’s not!!”
Kim Seoyeon glowered and began to bang the table.
“It’s not! This is the evidence?! Are you kidding me?! I killed him by mistake, by mistake!!”
Hyunsoo looked at Kim Seoyeon, who began to go mad like a crazy person, without moving.
Then.
-Seoyeon-ie is really pretty, but…… one would live more prosperously than two.
It was a voice from a recorder in Hyunsoo's hand.
Kim Seoyeon, who had been screaming, suddenly stopped at the familiar voice.
-It would be comfortable and nice…… if she gets a prison sentence, not a probation, for her criminal punishment for causing an accident.
“Did you hear that? This is what Jung Taeyoon really thinks.”
It was Jung Taeyoon's voice recorded at the bar last evening.
Jung Taeyoon, who was drunk and talked nonsense for a long time.
However, for Kim Seoyeon, who was trapped in the interrogation room right now, this would have sounded like a betrayal, not a nonsense.
“This, this son of a b*tch!!!”
“I guess the trust between you two wasn't that strong.”
Kim Seoyeon shouted and ripped off her hair.
“F*ck, I will kill them all!! All!!”
At that moment, Hyunsoo snatched Kim Seoyeon's wrist, who was running wild.
“Kim Seoyeon-ssi, are you going to die alone?”
“What?!”
“You have evidence that Jung Taeyoon is an accomplice, right?”
Kim Seoyeon's eyes widened at Hyunsoo's words. His eyes seemed to know everything.
It was a few days ago.
The accident scene that flashed through Hyunsoo's head started with the situation in Kim Seoyeon's car.
* * *
Closing the car door.
Kim Seoyeon waited for Jung Taeyoon to cross the crosswalk with the child. She put the notebook with the criminal plan written on it, which she had been looking at for a long time, into her coat in the passenger seat.
“This bastard, you're not gonna jump out of fear, are you?”
Kim Seoyeon's eyes were filled with distrust.
After all, the perpetrator of the accident was planning to be herself. If something went wrong, a situation where Jung Taeyoon escaped and she had to take all responsibility could come.
“I'll never die alone anyway. Don't be silly, Jung Taeyoon.”
Looking at the street, Kim Seoyeon fiddled with her cell phone that was being held in her pocket.
“If this is the case, you and I will all die together.”
Of course, she wanted the plan to go well, but even if it went wrong, she was never going to take all responsibility.
Because.
“That's so unfair. You can never die alone.”
* * *
There was no bond between the killers who killed this child. They were just using each other for their own benefit.
“Right, Kim Seoyeon-ssi?”
Hyun-soo's eyes curved.
“You're never gonna die alone, are you?”
“…….”
“Where is the evidence that you are an accomplice with Jung Taeyoon?”