chapter 29.2

The End of Chu Oh-Myeong (2)

“Okay, let’s head to the next house!”

With determined hearts, we entered the next residence.

It was full of evidence that someone seemed to have been living here until recently.

One of the civilians who had come in with me cocked his head out of curiosity.

“Huh. This is Old Man Gang’s house.”

“Old Man Gang?”

“Yep. But he sold his lease and left early on.”

I first checked around the kitchen sink.

There were a lot of food leftovers that had been thrown away half-finished, but nothing that was fully rotten or decomposed.

This meant that they hadn’t been thrown away for very long.

“Call in everyone from outside! Let’s all search this place together!”

At my order, the other officers joined me to search the house. With each door we opened, we found further proof that someone had been living here.

From this, it was clear that we were in Chu Oh-Myeong’s hideout, but we couldn’t find any traces of the person we were looking for.

Even though this was the place, the victim was still missing.

With a frown of concentration, I scanned everything in the house.

‘Let’s see, if I was Chu Oh-Myeong, how would I hide the victim?’

Throats that were parched from thirst, and hunger that had transformed into agony.

As someone who derived joy from my victim’s pain, there was no way he would choose to imprison her in some normal fashion.

If that’s the case…

As the thought struck me like a lightning bolt, I raced up to the rooftop.

“I am a police officer!”

While shouting this, I opened the door to the rooftop.

The night view of Suan from the rooftop was exquisite.

The only flaw was the towering water tank erected in front of it.

With a trembling heart, I approached it.

As soon I opened the lid, what I saw was,

“…”

a woman who had been reduced to nothing but skin and bones.

Her hands were bound and tied to the top of the water tank.

Whilst lacking the strength to stand up, and unable to sit because of the restraints, she had been left in a torturous position.

The tape around her mouth and the rope around her wrists had been on her for so long that they had sunken into her flesh.

She stared up at me with eyes that were almost swollen shut.

As soon as our eyes met, I gulped as I felt something rise in the back of my throat.

The woman was left without the strength to struggle, or even speak, and could only blink slowly.

She had the look of someone who had seen her world collapse around her.

“Hold on for just a moment.”

I climbed into the water tank.

The water within was waist-deep.

Just how much had she yearned to take a sip of all this.

Once the tape was removed, the woman muttered feebly.

“S…ve… Save…”

“Don’t worry. It’s all over now.”

At these words, a single tear fell from the woman’s eyes.

I poured a touch of water onto the woman’s lips and then lifted her up gently.

A police officer who had followed me up, saw this scene and ran over to help.

“We’ve found her! We’ve found the missing person!”

“Call the paramedics!”

“Oh my god! Is she alright?”

While we were descending from the roof, the woman who I was carrying in my arms whispered softly.

“Thank…. you…”

“I’m even more grateful that you’re still alive.”

The red lights of the police cars and ambulances filled the Hwanak Neighbourhood with light.

And on that night, I finally won the fight against the psychopath.

Then a few days later.

It didn’t long for the case to be sent to the prosecutor’s office.

There was a confession, there was evidence, and finally we even had a surviving victim.

The people’s anger and lamentations pierced the sky after the case drew explosive media attention.

In order to see Chu Oh-Myeong before he left, I headed up to the detention center.

From today onwards, he would be placed in jail to await his sentencing in court.

Of course, he would definitely be sentenced to life imprisonment.

“Tch!”

As soon as he spotted me, Chu Oh-Myeong spat on the floor.

Sucks to be him. Because of me, everything had gone wrong for him.

“Could you two please leave your stations for a bit.”

“Yes.”

At my request, the two police officers who were waiting for the prison transport left the room.

“What are you trying to pull? Fuck. Just let them hurry up and escort me to jail already. Just looking at this son of a bitch makes me sick.”

“Usually, you would think that my job would just end here. You’d also be led to believe that this would be the last time you ever saw me. That this would be the end of our relationship.”

“Just get to the point.”

“You. I just can’t send you off like this. I just can’t let things end like this.”

At these unexpected words, Chu Oh-Myeong frowned.

It might have been because my words had a strange nuance, but he even looked strangely expectant.

“So what if you can’t bear to send me off? Are you going to let me go free?”

“It’s not going to be what you’re thinking.”

I replied with a wide smile.

“What I’m saying is, I won’t let you die no matter what.”

Bewildered, Chu Oh-Myeong’s eyes darkened with fear.

Rather than a police officer, it was like he was looking at a strange, otherworldly predator.

Chu Oh-Myeong had committed suicide only three months after he entered prison.

In his will, alongside words mocking the families of the bereaved, it was written that he had made the decision to commit suicide the moment he had handcuffs slapped on him.