A Desperate Chase and a Dangerous Discovery

This hotel insisted on a dark-toned interior.
The dark reddish wood and the black curtains, which also revealed a subtle reddish light when they received light, were the same.
What I discovered was a very subtle difference.

‘Only that part is a little brighter.’

It was a corner of the burgundy-colored ceiling.
I hurriedly got up from the bed and dragged a chair under it.
Regardless of whether it made a noisy sound or not.
When I stood on the chair and looked at the ceiling, it became clear.
A very faint light was seeping out from the gap in the tiled ceiling.
As I checked each tile with my hand to see if there was one that could be lifted, I hurriedly opened my mouth to Lee Ilwoo, who was looking at me.

“Ah. Can you take a video, Mr. Lee Ilwoo?”
“Yes, lawyer.”

In order not to be suspected of the evidence’s credibility, the collection process had to be flawless.
Moreover, I was not the suspect’s lawyer now.

Creak.

After stubbornly looking through various parts of every nook and cranny, I finally found a tile that was shaking.
As I pushed it up with force, a red light poured out from the open space.
I reached out and fumbled inside, but nothing came into my hand.

‘It’s deeper than I thought.’

I gestured to Lee Ilwoo and took the phone that was recording a video.
I pushed the phone inside and slowly scanned the area, using the screen to locate the evidence.

“Ah…”

There was something in a slightly deeper place, close to the wall.
Normally, it would have been just a black plastic bag, but in my eyes, it was evidence that was all red.
At that moment, I felt as if all the strength in my body was drained, and I also felt a surge of resentment.

“Is there something in there? Lawyer.”

The problem was that it was a distance I couldn’t reach even if I stretched out my hand.

“There’s something in here. But it’s quite deep, so my hand can’t reach it. Is there anything suitable? Like a stick.”

Lee Ilwoo listened to my words and looked around for a moment, thinking.

“Or could you just lift me up for a moment? I think I can reach it then.”
“That’s dangerous. Even if you briefly support yourself with your hand, the tiles might not be able to withstand your weight.”

After answering like that, Lee Ilwoo let out a sigh with a look of resignation.
It seemed he couldn’t find a suitable object in the room.

“I’ll go to the next room. There should be something useful in my luggage. It’s dangerous, so please come down from the chair for now, lawyer. I’ll be right back.”
“Yes.”

I briefly watched the back of Lee Ilwoo, who was leaving the room with a large and fast stride, then got down from the chair and sat on the bed.

‘What could be useful?’

[I wonder…]

I didn’t have to think for very long.
Because Lee Ilwoo had returned in about a minute.
With a rope in one hand.

“…You brought that?”
“Uh, yes. You never know what might happen.”

Lee Ilwoo smiled awkwardly and untied the professional climbing rope.
I couldn’t help but fall into thought as I watched Lee Ilwoo make a noose with a few hand gestures.

‘Is he not going to hide it anymore?’

When I had first met him as Cha Yohan’s client, Lee Ilwoo was an ordinary person of his age to anyone who saw him.
Of course, his career was not ordinary.

[…Are ordinary people’s hands that fast?]

Before Gram’s voice had even finished, Lee Ilwoo had already completed a fine noose.

‘He doesn’t seem like an ordinary person to you either, right? No matter how much of a VIP professional bodyguard he is.’

[Not at all.]

Swish.

I asked Lee Ilwoo, who was standing up with the rope in his hand.

“Is this the same as that? The skill of picking a lock in a building.”
“…It’s similar. I’ll take it out.”

Lee Ilwoo stood on the chair and confirmed the location of the target with a flashlight.
He returned the phone to me and threw the rope inside with a concise movement.

Whoosh!
Swish.

It was a single attempt.
Lee Ilwoo pulled the rope a few times and dragged out the black bag that was tied to the noose.

“Is this it?”
“Yes.”

As I nodded, Lee Ilwoo untied the knot that was tightening the bag and dropped the rope to the floor.

“I’m opening it.”
“Yes.”

At the end of the rustling sound, we found a syringe with dried blood and an empty bottle inside the bag.

Ding.

I finished filming there.

“It was a relief that there was a flight in the morning.”
“Yes, it was a relief.”

Lee Ilwoo had stopped me from returning to Korea right away after finding the evidence.
The reason was that I needed to rest a little for my condition.
I couldn’t waste a single minute or second, but it was also true that I had overworked my body due to the packed schedule for the past few days.
And so, we returned to Korea on a 6 a.m. flight.

Vibrate.

The moment I got in the car, a short vibration came from my pocket.
It was an email from Im Suho.

[k.txt]

I immediately checked the attached file.
The file was password protected, but there was no field to enter the password.
Before I could even express my question, a call came in right away.

[Did you get the email?]
“Yes. But it’s password protected. There’s no password input field.”
[Can you trust the person with you? I know you’re in Incheon.]
“Yes.”
[How can you be so sure?]
“From what I’ve experienced so far.”

Lee Ilwoo glanced at me through the rearview mirror and turned the steering wheel.
Im Suho must have already investigated Lee Ilwoo as much as he could.

[Hmm, alright. Actually, Kim Jeonghyeon is just a piece of trash, but the problem is the clue he left behind.]
“A clue?”
[You didn’t ask for it, did you? Thanks to that, I caught the tail.]

My voice sank without me realizing it.

“…You mean the first request?”
[Yes. The password is a location password. It will be unlocked automatically when you arrive at that location. He’s a guy who even orders stabbings, so you never know, right? The password is your office.]
“It will take a while to get to the office. Is there no way to check it before then?”
[Hmm, then I’ll unlock it for about ten minutes.]
“Yes, thank you.”
[…I don’t usually say this, but be careful. Don’t trust anyone.]

Beep, beep.

The call ended with those words.
It was a statement unlike the Im Suho I had known so far.
When I hurriedly touched the file again, a timer appeared in a corner at the same time as the file opened.

[09:57]
[09:56]

My expression hardened with every line I checked in the file.
It contained all the details of what kind of person Kim Jeonghyeon was.
Every single comment.
Just reading the titles that Im Suho had organized by date was enough to make my brow furrow.
Among the dozens of posts, two titles caught my eye at a glance.

[Request: Cleaning]
[Review: I’ve returned to the country]

When I clicked on the title ‘Request’, a dizzying page full of encrypted text appeared.

‘This is… the dark web?’

I had no choice but to understand at once why Im Suho had put a password on it.
Im Suho would be blocking my records even as I was accessing it now.

‘This piece of trash…’

At the beginning of that post, Kim Jeonghyeon had written down the purpose of his marriage registration with Lee Jimin.
What surprised me was the last line.

[How can I get all the insurance money? The woman’s family doesn’t know about the marriage registration. I want to solve it before that.]

Befitting the word ‘request’, Kim Jeonghyeon was asking someone.
The ‘cleaning’ in the title meant murder.

‘Kim Jeonghyeon didn’t plan the murder alone?’

As I scrolled down, I saw a few deleted comments.
The comments left by Kim Jeonghyeon above and below them were still there.

‘October 23rd is a week before Kim Jeonghyeon’s departure…’

I had thought that the K in the filename meant Kim Jeonghyeon, but it seemed not.
Because the title of the last table of contents was also K.

[It is presumed that he not only manipulates the server at will, but also designs or assists in crimes on the dark web and receives virtual currency or cash in return]
[Transaction list]

Below that, there was a list organized by date again.

‘This is today’s date? And four of them?’

[00:43]
[00:42]

I hurriedly wrote down the transaction time and place in a memo.

[00:01]
[00:00]

In the screen that had instantly turned black, the current time soon appeared. The time was just approaching 9 a.m.

‘The earliest transaction time is noon.’

I rubbed my eyes and, paradoxically, smiled, raising the corners of my mouth.

“Mr. Lee Ilwoo, I’m sorry. I don’t think I’ll be able to go home today either.”

Lee Ilwoo nodded with a face that said he had expected it.

“It’s fine. Where should we go first?”
“Here, the address. The one at the top. I’ll make a call.”

I was planning to call today anyway, but I didn’t think it would be this soon.

Ring, ring, ring, click.

[Lawyer Cha, do I have to start my day with your morning call?]
“Yes. Detective Choi, no, Chief Inspector Choi. It’s nice to hear your voice in the morning too.”

The first place we headed to was Paju.
And now, it was the last region, Yongsan.

“We should get something out of this.”

Lee Ilwoo rested his arm on the steering wheel and spoke, looking straight ahead.
Because it was a winter with particularly short days, and we had been driving all over from Paju to Pyeongtaek and then back to Seoul all day, so it was already dark outside.

“But I think this place will be a different method instead of a ‘drop’.”

The first three places were already excessively open spaces.
Between alleys, or like a park.
‘Dropping’ had now become the most basic transaction method for drugs or illegal things.
Because it was easy to hide in anonymity.

‘Even if you leave the goods, it’s rare for other people to take them, and they only choose places where no one would find it strange if someone came and went.’

I realized it the moment I first went to Paju.
When I had checked it on the road view in advance, I couldn’t be sure until I saw it with my own eyes, but after arriving at the park, I had no choice but to nod.
There were countless people exercising.
So much so that it would be hard to remember who you met where.

“I don’t think we need to stop by the other places. Let’s wait at the last place.”

And so, we waited at the last place for the 7 o’clock rendezvous time.
A sense of tension, instead of the cool air, lingered in the car with the engine off in the middle of winter.
Lee Ilwoo looked out the window and opened his mouth.

“If they show up, just stay behind me, lawyer.”
“I can protect myself.”
“No, they’ll probably have weapons.”
“…I understand.”

And so, some time passed.
I pointed to the man who was walking from the opposite side, holding a paper bag, with my fingertip.

“It looks like that’s him, right?”
“At this time of night, in that outfit, yes.”

The man was wearing sunglasses, a hat, and a mask in this night with not a single ray of light.
The man kept looking around as if to check something and then entered a hamburger restaurant.
He sat at a window seat, slowly ate a hamburger, and then left the paper bag as it was and left.
But for the next five minutes, no one new opened the door and entered.

“It seems he’s waiting inside.”

A short while after I finished speaking, another man with a similar outfit sat down in that seat, holding a tray.
But instead of eating, he naturally put the hamburger in the paper bag as if he had brought it originally and stood up from his seat.
As soon as I exchanged glances with Lee Ilwoo, I slowly got out of the car.

‘It’s not good to arouse suspicion for no reason.’

The man came out of the hamburger restaurant, walked a few steps, and then started running towards an alley.
Lee Ilwoo chased after the man faster than I did.
I could hear the sounds of a fight from the alley where the two men had disappeared.

Step, step.

But soon, it was Lee Ilwoo, not the man, who slowly backed out of the alley with his hands up.
Lee Ilwoo raised his index finger and shook it slightly.
It was a signal not to come.
I was in a position where I couldn’t be seen from inside the alley. My gaze momentarily went to the floor.
The man’s shadow was cast long.
And at the tip of that shadow’s hand…

‘A gun?’