The Ultimate Inspector, Kang Ji-hyeok - Chapter 104



Only Noblemtl

【Evil Cartel, Police Axis Jo Jae-jun】

Office of the Chief of Staff.

Chief Nam Jun-mo told me to sit on the sofa.

Slurp.

He poured a small cup full of tea with a green tint.

“Listen. It’s a good car.”

“thank you.”

“Is anything difficult?”

“There’s nothing special about it other than going from the 5th floor back to the 1st floor and then going back up to the 16th floor.”

“That answer is Kang Ji-hyeok’s answer.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Exactly the opposite.”

Huruk.

I took a sip of tea and put the cup down.

Slurp.

Again the glass was filled with green tea.

“I received a report on the incident involving Assemblyman Gu Seong-jin last time.”

“Did you report it like a prosecutor would?”

“He spoke highly of Janelle.”

“That’s fortunate.”

Bam.

He placed a case file in front of me.

I couldn’t see the contents, but I could tell that it wasn’t normal.

“Prosecutor Seo Tae-in said it would be a good idea to give it to you.”

“To me?”

“Two days ago, two men were found mysteriously dead in separate homes within one night.”

“You mean the same day?”

“yes.”

Huruk.

This time, Chief Nam Jun-mo drank the tea in one gulp.

Slurp.

And I filled the empty glass.

“You’re quite the person. You know the tea ceremony.”

“I know a lot. That’s a little bit of it.”

“Then, what do you think about this case, Prosecutor Kang Ji-hyeok, who knows a lot?”

“I don’t think it’s necessary for the Central Investigation Department to handle it just because two people died on the same night?”

“That’s true. But one of the dead people was a lawyer who had been a prosecutor.”

“Aren’t 67.5% of lawyers former prosecutors?”

“You probably know him. Attorney Hyun-gyu Kim of Kim & Joe Law Firm.”

“Are you talking about Attorney Kim Hyeon-gyu?”

“Then does probability become meaningless?”

I remembered.

The Jincheol Choi case.

So, the little lawyer from Kim & Joe that the main character of the Gunja Station organ trafficking murder case called when making his first statement.

I said, tilting my head.

“I was at the Chuncheon District Prosecutors’ Office when I tried to attack Wonju Pharmaceutical, a local construction company and pharmaceutical company, but I ended up taking off my clothes······.”

“You know too much, even if it’s just tea.”

“I know because we met in a past incident.”

“That Wonju Pharmaceutical was subject to a hostile M&A by another company a week ago.”

Something flashed through my mind.

My insight, which has become sharper lately, has told me something.

“Then, is that mother company Dream Castle?”

“As expected, you’re interesting. Kang Ji-hyuk.”

“It’s a dream castle.”

“That’s right. Taesoo Yoon, who was the director of Dream Castle, was appointed as the president of Dream Castle through this M&A.”

Wiggle.

It felt like bugs were crawling in my head.

The back of my head was ticklish.

‘No, this is a bit weird. Dream Castle became the world’s best company after the semiconductor explosion in 2009, and then after it was the first to come up with a cure during the global pandemic in 2019.’

When I was living there, it was a top 10 conglomerate in the country, but now Dream Castle is a construction company that is ranked in the top 30 in the country.

He simply set up a semiconductor research lab to make RAM because he didn’t want to pay taxes on the profits from the real estate boom.

So, this time, by acquiring Wonju Pharmaceutical, we ended up owning a pharmaceutical company.

I haven’t checked up to here.

To be honest, the target of my revenge right now isn’t Chairman Yoon Tae-soo.

The purpose of coming to the Central Investigation Department was because of the yakuza Lee Han-soo or the police officer Jo Jae-jin.

I organized my personal thoughts here and continued my conversation with Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency Nam Jun-mo.

“Yoon Tae-soo has become the president. Finally.”

“Do you know him?”

“I met him once at the hunting grounds.”

“Once again, quite interesting.”

“I remember being startled by the sound of the gunshot he fired.”

“That’s understandable. When you hear gunshots up close, your head gets dizzy.”

“I was literally in a daze.”

Chief Prosecutor Nam Jun-mo said with an amused expression.

“Then tell me what else you know. Do you know anything about the second dead person?”

“No. I don’t know.”

“I don’t know about that?”

“Yes.”

“Thank goodness. It would have been boring if I knew everything······.”

Huruk.

I dumped the car in front of me.

Chief Nam Jun-mo of the Heavy Water Resources Division said, tapping a file of documents with his finger.

“The other victim we are focusing on is a newspaper reporter. Reporter Kim Il-seon of the Korea Daily.”

They were all people I knew.

Even reporter Kim Il-sun, who later exposed many incidents by creating a YouTube channel that would point this out to the president.

“Just like you said, people die every night in South Korea.”

“Yes.”

“But isn’t it extremely rare for two people under our watch to die at the same time? Even by your favorite scientific probability.”

It was just as he said.

In South Korea, there is an average of one person who officially commits suicide every day.

But certainly, this incident was completely unexpected.

“Does putting the two cases in one file mean you judge them to be related?”

“yes.”

“Is it a financial issue between the two of you, or is it related to some huge corruption? Like Yoon Tae-soo, the president of Dream Castle?”

“That would be interesting, but unfortunately it seems to be neither.”

Chief Nam Jun-mo shook his head.

Then he took a straw out of his bosom.

“Straw?”

“Yes. Those two had the same three wounds.”

“Are you talking in detail?”

“One is the thigh. The knife stuck in it is a small dagger with a rose drawn on it.”

My thigh felt sore.

Chief Prosecutor Nam Jun-mo opened his eyes wide and continued talking.

“The other one is exactly the nape of the neck. The knife stuck there is a small dagger with a zinnia drawn on it.”

“Zenith?”

“Yes. It was a strange flower, so the police investigated and found out it was a zinnia. Does it look familiar?”

“Yes, it is a familiar flower.”

Bam.

Chief Nam Jun-mo of the Heavy Water Resources Division tapped the straw on the table with his index finger.

“But, the cause of death for both of them wasn’t the two daggers stuck in their bodies. Those two daggers were for complete subjugation, and the real cause of death was this straw. This sounds more familiar, doesn’t it?”

String.

It felt like my sore throat had already completely healed.

“The exact cause of death for both victims was blood gushing from the straws inserted into the veins in their necks. In other words, they died from losing more than 4 liters of blood.”

Huruk.

Nam Jun-mo drank the tea in front of him in one gulp. I followed him and drank the cold tea in one gulp.

“Are you interested in this case now?”

“That’s absolutely true.”

“Why were they grouped together as if they were the same incident?”

“I completely understand.”

Bam.

Nam Jun-mo said while breaking the straw.

“It’s all your case, right? So let’s start investigating. If you need anything, tell me. Whether it’s money, people, or time, I’ll give you anything.”

This was the water treatment plant.

The flower of the prosecution.

The pinnacle of power in South Korea.

It was a place where everything was possible.

“Report once a week. The rest of the time, you can use it as you wish.”

“Thank you so much.”

I bowed my head and left the room with the case file in my hand.

In the hallway in front of his room, Prosecutor Seo Tae-in was waiting for me.

“It’s been a while, Inspector Kang. You’re the one who’s going to take care of that straw case, right?”

“Yes. Thanks to the inspector’s push?”

“I didn’t push you, I was just honestly scared. About that incident.”

“I’m scared too. About this incident.”

“lie.”

Prosecutor Seo Tae-in smiled.

I smiled back at him.

“Now that I think about it, it was a lie.”

“If you need anything, just let me know. I’ll keep my promise.”

“What did we promise?”

“We agreed not to interfere with Prosecutor Kang’s work from now on, right?”

“Even if it’s not a promise, you won’t bother me, right?”

Shh.

Prosecutor Seo Tae-in tilted his head and smiled with the corners of his lips raised.

“It’s a promise, so I intend to keep it.”

“You mean you’ll help me?”

“Similar?”

“Then please speak more simply. Don’t speak too coolly.”

“You know how cool a young prosecutor is.”

“That’s right. I know a lot.”

I bowed my head 90 degrees to him and took the elevator down.

“Phew.”

I sighed as I stood in front of the elevator next to me, holding the file.

“But why is that kid sticking straws all over the place? This is totally crazy.”

I opened my phone and looked at the call list.

‘Now that it’s come to this, should I give them a call?’

[Manager Kim Ha-jin]

I looked at Hajin’s name for a long time before making a decision.

‘No. If you find something, you’ll contact me first, right? Let’s trust and wait. Just like back then······.’

Hajin has never disappointed me.

After my wife died, it was the same when all the police kept me out of the case.

– If there’s anything else you’d like to know, please tell me informally. I’ll also report to Detective Kang informally.

Hajin was on my side like that.

He was a former partner.

‘Should I let my current partners know?’

* * *

“Huh? The straw murder case?!”

“Did the straw incident that almost happened to you, inspector, actually happen again?”

“Are you saying we’re taking charge of that case?”

Ji-cheol and Hye-jin were surprised and poured out their words.

I stared at them.

“Since you only talk about straws, I feel like I gave you the wrong information. Let’s look at this transparent board again.”

Knock knock.

I hit the transparent board with my palm and made their mouths shut.

“First of all, this is an incident where two people died in the same manner on the same night.”

Swish swish.

The names, ages, and occupations of the two victims were written on either end of the transparent board.

[36 years old, Reporter Kim Il-seon]

[Sign: Blood Deficiency (Straw)]

[34 years old, Attorney Hyun-gyu Kim]

“The victims are reporter Kim Il-seon of the Korea Daily and attorney Kim Hyeon-gyu of Kim & Chang, who the prosecution was paying attention to.”

As the names of the two victims were written on the board, Hyejin and Jicheol became nervous.

Maybe because I know what I’m going to say next.

“Starting tomorrow, Ji-cheol will take on reporter Kim Il-seon and investigate the surrounding area, and Hye-jin will investigate the remaining lawyer Kim Hyeon-gyu.”

“All right.”

“Yeah.”

The job finally fell to the two investigators.

“Hyun-ah will investigate the Korea Daily and Wonju Pharmaceutical. She will report what she finds out every day before leaving work.”

“All right.”

HyunA also answered seriously when she got a job after a long time.

“This is something that came down from the Central Investigation Department, but for now, I plan to approach it cautiously as a general inspector. So, proceed quietly.”

So we each decided what to do.

I came into the room, opened the file, and started checking the incident report.

Ding dong.

The mail arrived.

The email contained extensive photographic documentation of the incident, as well as CCTV footage from the surrounding area.

“Since you’re the chief inspector, you’re giving us a lot of valuable information? This is what we were supposed to be looking for.”

The report’s contents were no different from a typical murder case.

The photo content and autopsy results were also as I had initially heard.

‘It matches exactly. Even the positions where the two daggers are stuck.’

There were a few things that were different from a typical murder case: the killer left the knife in the body and disappeared.

‘Leaving a weapon at the scene of a crime is something only a first-time offender would do. But why did they make this mistake?’

That couldn’t be happening.

There must have been a reason for that.

A common fruit knife with a picture of a rose stuck in the thigh.

‘This is the same fruit knife that Park Ji-yeon used to kill her grandmother.’

A fruit knife with a picture of a zinnia stuck in the nape of the neck.

‘It’s a specially made knife. It reminds me of the tattoo of the Chinese zinnia on the wrist of Choi Jin-cheol, the Southeast Asian kidnapper and murderer.’

It was clear what these two weapons were trying to say.

Everyone was pointing at ‘me’.

‘Is this weapon telling me to catch it myself?’

From the victim to the weapon.

In two murders that appeared to have occurred on the same day, everything pointed towards me.

Even the details of the flower painting surprised me.

I looked out the window and muttered in my head.

“If that guy in the black mask is the culprit, why did he declare war on me like this?”

But that wasn’t really the question I had.

I muttered, touching my neck with my hand.

“What on earth does the Black Mask Murderer get out of killing two people in such a complicated way?”

Wheein.

A message from an unknown sender has arrived.

[Did you receive the gift? Then let’s start the game. Kang Ji-hyeok.]

What is this kid?

Saw, is that something like that?