The Connection Between Us (1)
“Ma Eun-Tae? I haven’t heard that name before.”
“What a crazy bastard. It’s like he doesn’t know the meaning of fear.”
“Rather than crazy, he’s just another cocky bastard. This fucker, once we catch him, let’s put the squeeze on him. Raargh!”
The team’s reaction was more fiery than I expected.
Black’s fury was especially explosive
The shout that he used to vent his temper sounded like the roar of a beast.
“Oh my gosh. What’s with that. They look like gangsters.”
“Shhh. Be quiet.”
“Why should I? Right now there are police officers everywhere.”
These were the comments made by the passing-by high school girls when they saw us.
As four tough guys standing around and spitting curses, I suppose we could have been seen like that.
Mong-Doo surreptitiously stubbed out his cigarette butt and took out a notebook.
“To sum things up, some of the drugs that were being sold off at the Gogo Nightclub have gone missing?”
“Although I don’t know if it was just some of it or not, it should be quite a lot considering how much money he was offering as a reward.”
Team Leader held the tape recorder to his ear as he mused.
“Hm. No matter how you see it, he’s quite the cunning guy. Even if he does have a man on the inside, it would still be quite difficult to retrieve the hammer.”
“That’s all the better for us. Now we don’t need to identify the suspect either.”
That’s how it was.
We had found a body and discovered the identity of the culprit, all in one go.
Mong-Doo continued to responsibly record all the details of the case in his notebook.
This was because he was the best at arranging the information gathered from briefings and the like.
Unlike Mong-Doo who was using a ballpoint pen, Black was scribbling on the ground with a stick.
“Since that’s the case, did he also tell you who the victim was?”
“No. I didn’t hear anything about that. He only spilled the fact that it seemed like the body would be found soon.”
“That bastard. He’s sneakily made a backdoor for himself.”
“Since you met him in a vacant lot, we can’t be sure where he’s really based out of, right?”
The team leader took deep puffs of his cigarette.
“A Guma gang executive. He’s the real deal alright.”
I felt like I could hear the gears turning in his head from here.
It might be because he’d definitely be in line for a promotion if he managed to nab an executive.
To be honest, considering the Team Leader’s seniority, he really should be eyeing the position of a section chief by this point in his career.
Mong-Doo looked up at him and asked.
“Should we inform the narcotics unit?”
“…what else can we do?”
Despite Team Leader’s ambitions, it looked like he couldn’t see any other options at the moment.
I shook my head firmly.
“We can’t do that.”
“What? Why?”
“Dal-Gon is sitting on all of the clues. From the inside scoop on the Fork gang to the location of the products.”
“That’s for sure. Since the rest of the brats we’ve caught were kept from knowing too much.”
“If we let anyone else know, they’ll definitely interrogate Dal-Gon, but that guy isn’t the type to give in under pressure. A guy like that, he would neither bend nor break no matter how strong the wind blows.”
“You’re saying that it would be useless?”
“That’s right.”
“Come to think of it, newbie, just what kind of relationship do you have with that guy? Back at the nightclub, it seemed like you might be acquainted with him.”
The Team Leader asked me.
I hesitated slightly before telling the truth.
Of course, I left out all mention of my reincarnation.
“We were friends.”
“So it was a past relationship.”
I carefully presented my opinion.
I was the only one who could unravel the loose thread that was lying in front of us.
“If you just leave it to me, I’ll try and convince Dal-Gon.”
“Are you sure you can do it?”
“In any case, from my perspective we have nothing to lose.”
“That’s true, but…”
“And if things go well, we might be able round them all up in one go.”
“It looks like you have a good idea.”
“Nothing certain yet. I’ll have to meet with Dal-Gon first before I can be certain.”
Team Leader stared at me silently.
Then he shook the ashes off his cigarette and cocked his head.
Like I had said, at the moment we had nothing to lose.
We already knew the victim’s murderer, so we just needed to do the usual work and hunt down Song Dae-Ak.
The Team Leader stood up.
“Mong-Doo, go to the vacant lot and get a picture of Ma Eun-Tae’s face from the CCTV.”
“Yes.”
“Black, continue tracking down Song Dae-Ak.”
“Okay.”
“Once Mong-Doo gets the video, he’ll join forces with Black. Lastly, newbie.”
In the distance, I spotted the vehicles of the CSI unit.
They were here to retrieve the corpse.
The time had come for us to scatter.