The Ultimate Inspector, Kang Ji-hyeok - Chapter 103



Only Noblemtl

The Central Intelligence Agency conference room.

“It wasn’t a box of apples, it was wine?”

“Yes. What he has been selling as antiques all this time is wine.”

“You’re killing me. The box of apples was fake and the wine was real?”

“Instead of a bribe, they took wine and then sold it at auction for several times the price.”

I showed them the confiscated wine. Oh Cheon-su grumbled as if he was dumbfounded.

“A bottle of wine is so expensive······.”

“A bribe? No, it’s more than that. Probably as expensive as a diamond or a gem in the same price range.”

“Diamonds and jewels would be a problem. Anyone can see that it’s a bribe.”

“But you can’t call it a bribe just because you receive wine, right?”

The assembled inspectors were amazed.

Seo Tae-in asked me.

“But how did you figure everything out in such a short time?”

“Haven’t you already investigated everything? Here.”

I placed the investigation report I had just received in front of them.

I opened the report and showed him some photos.

“I told Prosecutor Na Su-hyeon earlier, right? It was so well organized that I understood everything.”

chuck.

I ran my finger over a few of the pictures attached there.

The first photo showed Rep. Koo Seong-jin getting into a car holding a glass of wine with both hands.

“Here. This is a scene where Assemblyman Koo Seong-jin enters the house with wine. This wine is probably Chateau Lafite from 1789. As far as I know, it was sold for about 200 million won in 1985, but wouldn’t it be worth ten times that now?”

“This photo is what we kept digging for two years ago when we thought that the tax evasion was a bribe, but we couldn’t find any trace of the bribe―”

“Well, how could you know since I passed the wine?”

Seo Tae-in and Oh Cheon-su talked with excited faces.

“Do you see the whiskey the driver is holding in this photo?”

“Ah! Is that the driver Jinhae Park who surrendered to us earlier?”

“That’s right. This whiskey is The Macallan 1926 and it is said that a Korean businessman bought it at an auction. At the time, it was reported in the news that one glass was worth 4 million won. You could probably get five times that amount now.”

Later, it was revealed from the search and seizure of the auction house that the auction had been for whiskey and wine, not antiques.

“Wine and whiskey. I just thought they were just gifts of alcohol, but you found them in this report?”

Seo Tae-in looked at me as if he was dumbfounded and said.

I smiled awkwardly.

“I was lucky. I just knew about it because I was interested in it.”

“You were lucky?”

I looked at Seo Taein.

Only then did Seo Tae-in smile.

“Kang Ji-hyeok. From now on, no matter what you do, I won’t touch you.”

“What are you talking about? We should cheer you on. Thanks to you, Assemblyman Koo Seong-jin got the chance to be included in the commemoration of the establishment of our Central Investigation Department.”

“Great. To celebrate the establishment of the Central Investigation Department, we’re going to put a three-term congressman in jail, and it’s because he received hundreds of billions of won in wine and whiskey in bribes… Isn’t this a jackpot?”

Choi Kang-han said, looking at my neck where the band was being attached.

“How about investigating the guy who hurt you?”

I shook my head.

“No. It’s a personal matter and I’m already looking into it.”

“Prosecutor Choi. Do you think Prosecutor Kang Ji-hyeok would be foolish enough to catch him? To be honest, I feel bad for the guy who attacked Prosecutor Kang.”

“That’s true.”

“Then, Prosecutor Choi Kang-han. Instead, would you please grant me a favor?”

“What’s going on?”

“I’m digging up people’s background information······.”

“Okay. I’ll do that much for you. This is the heavy water department.”

“Yes, Prosecutor Choi. We must definitely grant Kang Ji-hyeok’s request. He will be our strong ally from now on.”

“I feel full just hearing it, inspectors.”

The relationship with them that started on the first day I started working at the Central Water Resources Department had a happy ending.

Ten minutes later, I gathered the documents I had received in an envelope.

“Thank you, Prosecutor Choi. Then, I will leave the rest to Prosecutor Seo Tae-in and go down to the office on the 5th floor.”

The 16th floor office was exclusively for the central water department.

The office was a private office, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and there was no document there that could not be accessed.

The general inspection office was on the fifth floor.

“You’re leaving this whole case up to me?”

“Isn’t this the case of Assemblyman Gu Seong-jin that everyone here, including Prosecutor Seo Tae-in, was chasing?”

“But, in the end, Prosecutor Kang plays a decisive role······.”

I shook my head and waved my hands.

“No. I just happened to find the wine that was supposed to be a bribe in the photo of the report that was already prepared on my first day of work today, and I went out to help and happened to find the evidence.”

I bowed my head to them and greeted them.

And he looked at his watch and said.

“Our team is on the 5th floor, so let’s go down for now. There are 10 minutes left until the end of work, and our team leaves on time.”

I left them behind, looking dumbfounded, and quickly came down to the 5th floor.

“Phew.”

I went down to the first floor and then took the regular elevator to the fifth floor.

Tiing.

I met Hyejin, who was angry and had a cheerful voice.

“Oh my. You showed up five minutes before closing time? Prosecutor Kang Ji-hyeok.”

“I was supposed to come 10 minutes ago, but I’m late?”

“Haha. Is that so?”

“Sorry I’m five minutes late.”

I handed her an envelope of documents.

“I picked it up on the way here. It was lying in the hallway of the central water supply department.”

“What is this?”

“Go home and read it secretly. It’s top secret.”

“Okay, I get it.”

Hyejin carefully picked up the envelope containing the documents.

“Then let’s go to our office.”

The last room on the 5th floor.

It was a wonderful room with two walls made of windows, just as I had hoped.

As I entered, Ji-cheol and Hyeon-a greeted me.

“You came 5 minutes before work ends?”

“Inspector. Loyalty!”

I looked out the window and said to them both.

“Good. I can see Gangnam outside the window.”

“Isn’t it? Isn’t it great here?”

The seats had already been assigned one by one.

“Your Excellency, your room is separate as always.”

“Is that my room?”

It was a clean room, different from the Western District Prosecutors’ Office.

A better sofa.

Even a decent table.

“There’s a big TV on the wall, too. Over there.”

Even a fairly large TV.

Hyuna said with a satisfied face.

“Do you know that the size of the TV in the examination room is a secret battle of pride among the examiners?”

“I don’t know about that… but do you like that big transparent board?”

Instead of a whiteboard, there was a transparent board like you see in FBI movies.

“Anyway, the inspector is really······. That’s why I respect him.”

“I don’t know where the respect point is, but that’s good to hear.”

Hyuna handed me the iced coffee she was holding.

“Congratulations. Now you must be the ace of this Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office, right?”

“Of course. Oh, right. Do you know Assemblyman Gu Seong-jin? I even went to that house earlier to obtain a search and seizure warrant.”

At those words, everyone gathered in my room.

His eyes were wide open.

I looked at the clock on the wall.

“It’s time to leave work. Everyone, leave work.”

But no one went out.

Hyuna asked me.

“Are you already involved in the case of Assemblyman Gu Seong-jin?”

“It’s nothing. I have a quick eye and a good memory, so I just took care of one simple thing. Shouldn’t that case be over?”

“Surely not, the news earlier was Prosecutor Kang’s work?”

As HyunA pressed the remote control on the table, breaking news began to flow from the large TV.

– Today, the Central Investigation Headquarters of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office urgently arrested three-term lawmaker Gu Seong-jin from Cheongju. The so-called Central Investigation Department, which was established this year under the name of the prosecution for the people, announced that it had arrested Gu after tracking him for the past three months on charges of accepting bribes worth over 20 billion won over several years.

The incident was already reported on the news.

The screen showed a scene of a search and seizure, and the hidden garden of Rep. Gu Seong-jin’s Seoul home was revealed.

I muttered while watching TV.

“It’s nice that the TV is big. I can even see the knife stuck in the garden.”

In this way, the prosecution suddenly arrested Rep. Gu Seong-jin.

The USB submitted by his driver, Park Jin-hae, contained a huge amount of data, including not only bribery cases, but also sexual exploitation of minors.

Starting in the new year of 2009, the Republic of Korea was hit by the ‘3-term lawmaker’s gate’, which was caused by the Central Investigation Office.

* * *

Meanwhile, a new gate has opened for our team.

Hyejin had a gloomy face all day.

“Inspector. What’s wrong, Hyejin?”

“I don’t know.”

“There are things you don’t know, inspector. I thought you knew everything about the world?”

“I know about half of it.”

That evening.

After everyone left work, Hyejin, who had been pretending to stay behind and look through case-related documents, spoke to me with a gloomy face.

“Inspector. Let’s have a glass of soju today.”

“Are you really busy?”

“Ah. So, you said you’d buy me a friend to eat with when I needed you, but now you won’t even have a glass of soju?”

“The circumstances of the case are a bit different. It’s not like Hyejin decided to eat her friend when she needed him. That seems like a bit of false testimony.”

“You know that I was a year older than you when we decided to eat together back then, right?”

Hyejin looked at her watch.

The wall clock was already pointing to 8 o’clock in the evening.

“Hmm. Now that it’s past closing time, should we go back to being friends?”

“No. I don’t like that. But isn’t there hierarchy? This is a workplace.”

Hyejin said with an awkward smile.

“Should I buy you a glass of soju? Do you know what’s in that envelope that was left in the hallway of the Central Intelligence Agency?”

I said, standing up from my seat.

“Let’s go. I’ll buy you a glass of soju and you can grill some beef and eat it.”

“Suddenly using formal language?”

“Hmm. I guess that’s what it should be.”

That night, Hyejin drank a lot of soju.

Until your tongue gets twisted.

And at dawn.

I drank soju again at a street food stall.

“Do you know that it hurts when I get stabbed and have a straw stuck in my throat?”

“Right. Hehe. Sorry. It’s an honor. Inspector!”

“It’s okay. We’re friends.”

“Kang Ji-hyeok. How did you get that file?”

“I want to know what kind of guy our detective husband is going to be.”

I couldn’t stand Hyejin pretending not to know that something terrible was going to happen to her in the future.

“husband?”

“Are you my lover now?”

“lover?”

“Honestly, I wish we were just men.”

Hyejin nodded and smiled.

A slightly sad smile.

But it looked comfortable.

“It’s Nam Nam. Thanks to that, I broke up with that son of a bitch.”

She collapsed drunk on the table.

I called Ji-cheol on my cell phone.

– Loyalty. Inspector. What are you doing at this hour?

“You know that food stall in Seocho-dong? That place that sells delicious udon that we come to after drinking. Come right now.”

– But, inspector. Why are you suddenly speaking formally?

“I wanted to do that today. Thank you for putting up with all my grumbling even though you’re two years older than me.”

Ji-cheol didn’t answer.

“What is it? Are you crying now?”

– Oh, no. That’s not it.

“Come quickly. Will 15 minutes be enough?”

– I’ll run there right away.

I looked at the sleeping Hyejin and smiled.

Slurp.

I poured myself a glass of soju and drank it while looking at her.

“Be happy. Now, and in the future. Don’t be sad, my friend.”

15 minutes later, the sound of Ji-cheol’s car was heard outside.

I got out of the food stall and ran.

The place where it stopped was in front of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.

I looked up and saw the 16th floor.

“It’s a heavy water tank······. Should I use it properly?”

Perhaps because it was dawn, a very cold wind blew by.

* * *

Representative Koo Seong-jin was arrested and several other lawmakers were indicted on bribery charges.

Time passed like that.

Meanwhile, while dealing with the elementary school student hit-and-run incident, I once again felt the cruelty of humans.

Humans do not reflect.

I was watching the recent interrogation room footage to put the demons inside me to sleep.

– You said you don’t remember because you were drunk! You said something hit your car and you thought it was a stray cat and passed by. Isn’t that mentally unstable?

“This is also a human being, and the world is also a human being.”

I was always angry, and I lived my life as a prosecutor with that anger hidden deep in my heart.

* * *

One day in February,

A phone call came into the office.

“Inspector. The Chief of the Heavy Investigation Department is calling.”