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Chapter 41
Translator: Enuma ID
Park Dong-hyun sat inside an aging SUV one step from the junkyard, staring down at his phone screen.
With the engine off, the inside of the car was cold enough to chill him to the bone.
Even in his thick padded jacket, the winter wind was seeping in through the gaps in his clothes.
It had happened thirty minutes ago.
Е̊ń.u m̄a .і̂ ď
A back alley behind a bar in Gangnam.
A stabbing had broken out in a secluded spot with no CCTV and barely any foot traffic.
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A group of drunk men had gotten into a fight and tangled with each other, and one of them had been rushed to the ER unconscious, stabbed in the stomach.
Witnesses said they'd seen a man in a long black padded coat, drenched in blood, come scrambling out of the alley.
Other detectives were already tailing that man.
Park Dong-hyun had stayed near the scene, going back over everything in case they'd missed something.
Еn̊ü m̂а .і̄ d́
He couldn't be sure yet whether the bloodied man was the real culprit or whether the witnesses had simply gotten it wrong.
Still, for now, the weight of the case was leaning that way.
That was when it happened.
A young man's voice came through his earphones.
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"The guy you're chasing right now. He's not the one."
Park Dong-hyun's hand stopped.
Ѐǹ u m̂ а
"What do you mean by that?"
Park Ji-hun's answer was short.
"The bloodied guy just panicked and ran."
Park Dong-hyun's gaze turned grave.
"The witnesses said he was the one who did it."
"It probably just looked that way."
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"......."
"The one who did the stabbing is someone else."
Park Dong-hyun frowned.
By any normal logic, it didn't add up. But he couldn't just brush it aside. Whenever Park Ji-hun said something like that, there was always a reason.
"What exactly did you see?"
Park Ji-hun answered.
W е̌ bň ӧ v е̄l̃ E n̊ u m а̃
"There were three people at the scene."
Park Dong-hyun's brow furrowed.
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"Hold on. Three?"
The detectives had only accounted for two people so far.
The stabbing victim, and the suspect who'd fled covered in blood.
But three?
Ĕ nū m̃ а. ĭd
"There's one more."
"......."
"The one who used the knife."
Park Dong-hyun asked immediately.
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"Where is he now?"
"He hasn't gone far. He'll be heading home soon."
E nuṁа̇.і d
Park Ji-hun's voice was firm.
"That bastard isn't stopping at one tonight."
"......What are you saying?"
"He's going to hurt one more person."
Park Dong-hyun's expression stiffened.
"Who are you talking about?"
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"I can't see that."
"......."
"But if you're late, it's over."
The air inside the car seemed to grow even colder.
Without realizing it, Park Dong-hyun gripped his phone tighter.
"Did you see anything else?"
Е ṅ ùm а̃
Park Ji-hun said.
"The guy holding the knife is hurt. He was bleeding."
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"Hurt where?"
"That I don't know."
Park Dong-hyun fell into thought.
If the man had swung the knife in a hurry, his hand would have slipped, and if it was his first time stabbing someone, there was a good chance the web of his hand had torn open.
W̃ e bn̂о̆v̀ ėl Ĕn ü ḿ а̇
His next move came to him at once.
A hospital was out of the question.
The moment the man walked into an ER, there would be a record.
That left only one option.
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A pharmacy.
Park Dong-hyun spoke right away.
W̃ e b̌ n̊ov̄е̄ l̆ Е n u m̆а̂
"I'd better start with the pharmacies nearby."
Park Ji-hun answered through the earphones.
"Your call."
Park Dong-hyun asked nothing more.
This was enough.
From here on, the rest was his to get done.
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Click.
The call ended.
Park Dong-hyun stared at his phone for a moment.
Park Ji-hun's words were etched into his mind.
「There were three people at the scene.」
「The one holding the knife is someone else.」
Е n̊u mа .īd̆
「He isn't stopping at one tonight.」
In an instant, his head was a tangle of thoughts.
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If he'd never known Park Ji-hun at all, he would have written it off as nonsense.
But Park Dong-hyun couldn't do that.
He'd seen what the man could do ever since the Han Yu-na case, and the handful of streams he'd checked in on since then had been far too accurate to dismiss as coincidence.
He grabbed his radio at once.
Е.n̄u m а
"Team Leader, please stay on the guy you're chasing. I'll start with the pharmacies near the scene and take another look around."
The Team Leader's voice burst through the static on the radio.
"Why pharmacies, all of a sudden?"
"There's one more suspect."
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"What?"
"There's a strong chance there were three people at the scene. The real knifeman is someone other than the bloodied guy."
W̌еḃn̂ o v е l̊ Еn û m̌а̃
After a brief silence, the Team Leader asked.
"Based on what? You'd better not be pulling this out of thin air!"
"If he's the one who held the knife, he's hurt his hand for certain. He can't go to an ER, so odds are he stopped by a pharmacy nearby first."
"Park Dong-hyun."
"Team Leader. If I'm too late, one more person could die."
Park Dong-hyun pressed on, desperate.
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"If this turns out to be a wild goose chase, I'll take responsibility. But if we don't move now, it'll be too late."
The sound of curses being spat out came through the radio.
Then the Team Leader said.
"......I'll send the rookie with you. Go work the pharmacies and check it out."
"Yes, sir."
Park Dong-hyun cut the radio and started the engine immediately.
Wе̂_b ń_ov̌еl Еn u̇ m̌a
It had never once occurred to him to doubt that the man they were chasing was the one.
But after just a few words from Park Ji-hun, it was suddenly clear what he'd missed.
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Above all, he had to catch the real culprit before the man swung that knife again.
***
A short while later, Hong Seong-jun opened the passenger door.
The moment it opened, a rush of cold air swept in.
Е̊ n̂umа̂
Hong Seong-jun asked as he climbed in.
"Where do you want to start?"
"The pharmacies nearby."
"There can't be many still open at this hour."
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"Which is exactly why we make the rounds fast."
Hong Seong-jun hurriedly pulled out his phone and brought up a map.
En ũ m̃а
"Three places are open. One's next to the main intersection, one's at the end of the restaurant alley, and the last is at the bottom of the hill."
"Take me to the closest one first."
"Yes, sir."
The first pharmacy was a bust.
The pharmacist who came out, bleary-eyed, only shook his head.
The second pharmacy was the same. Nothing but customers looking for cold medicine and digestive aids.
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With only the last pharmacy left, Hong Seong-jun asked carefully.
"Sunbae-nim. If it turns out we've got this wrong......."
"We've still got one place left, don't we?"
"Still, I can't help worrying."
"Let's see it first, then judge."
The third pharmacy sat tucked into a secluded alley at the bottom of the hill.
Е̌n ú ḿà
Its sign was half dark, and the shutter was halfway down.
When Park Dong-hyun knocked on the glass door, a middle-aged man came out from inside, irritation written all over his face.
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"We're closed."
Park Dong-hyun pulled out his ID at once.
"I'm a detective. I just need to check on something."
"......What's this about?"
Ѐn û ḿа
"Within the last hour. Did a man come in injured, in a hurry to buy first-aid supplies?"
The pharmacist didn't answer right away.
Then he frowned, as if something had come to mind.
"Ah, that guy."
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Park Dong-hyun's eyes changed.
"There was someone?"
Ŵebn о̀vѐl Е̄ǹ u m а̃
"Yes. One man. Reeked of alcohol, had a cap pulled down low."
"What did he buy?"
"Antiseptic, gauze, and bandages. His hands were shaking so badly he could barely pay."
Hong Seong-jun cut in quickly.
"Was he injured anywhere?"
"His right hand. Right here, to be exact."
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The pharmacist pointed to the spot between his own thumb and index finger.
"It looked like the web of his hand was split right open. He had tissue wrapped around it, but the blood kept seeping through."
"Did he come alone?"
"Yes."
Park Dong-hyun studied the pharmacist's face for a moment, then asked.
"Which way did he go?"
W̃e b n.оv̌ёl Е.n u m̂ а̂
The pharmacist pointed a finger up the dark alley outside the pharmacy.
"He walked up that way, toward where the studio apartments and low-rise flats are clustered."
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Park Dong-hyun lifted his head and looked up the hill.
Aging studios and low-rise flats sat stacked in tiers along the steep alley.
'Didn't he say the guy would be heading home soon?'
Odds were good that one of those buildings was the home the man would walk into.
Ӗn̆ u m̀ а_
Hong Seong-jun asked cautiously.
"Should we call for backup first?"
Park Dong-hyun nodded.
"Call it in. But we go up first. We can't afford to wait."
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The two of them parked in the public lot at the bottom of the hill and got out at once.
The night air lashed viciously at their faces.
W̌ ё bn̊ о́ v.ė l Eñ u ḿ ā
They lifted their heads against the biting wind.
The alley above was dark and narrow.
Lit windows were few and far between, and only the power lines strung between the utility poles tangled together under the black sky.
Hong Seong-jun let out a sigh and asked.
"Should we split up?"
"No. We sweep it together."
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Park Dong-hyun added shortly.
"The guy's carrying a knife."
***
Park Dong-hyun moved quickly along the alley.
Hong Seong-jun followed close behind.
That was when it happened.
Е ǹ u mа. і̌_d̂
A dull crash erupted from above.
Bang!
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It sounded like someone had violently shoved a door or a piece of furniture.
Right after, a young man's voice tore shrilly through the air.
"I said put the phone down!"
Park Dong-hyun stopped in his tracks.
Ӗn û.mã
Hong Seong-jun looked up at the same moment.
"Sunbae-nim."
"Up there."
As the two of them sprinted up the stairs, shouts erupted one after another from the house above.
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"You bastard, are you even human? You stab a man and then come crawling here to hide?"
"Shut up!"
W̆ е bnо̄v̄еl Ě n u mă
"Turn yourself in while you still can! Or I'll report you myself!"
Then, along with the shouting, came the sound of things crashing to the floor, one after another.
Bang, thud!
Park Dong-hyun barked.
"Run."
The two of them picked up speed at once.
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When they reached the top of the hill, the front door of a flat on the right hung half open, swaying.
Light leaked out from beyond the door, and through the gap, the hem of a black padded coat swung in and out of view.
"There."
Park Dong-hyun charged through the entrance first.
Inside, a middle-aged man had been shoved up against the shoe cabinet and was barely holding his ground.
He was in nothing but his long underwear.
Е̌ n ü m à.і̊ d
One hand clutched a phone, and with the other he was holding off a young man, keeping him from swinging his knife.
The one bearing down on him was a young man in a long black padded coat.
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His right hand was wrapped in bandages, but blood was soaking through.
And in his left hand was a knife.
Exactly as they'd heard at the pharmacy.
The middle-aged man gritted his teeth and shouted again.
Е̂ nu m̄а
"Get a grip! Go any further and you're truly finished!"
"Shut it!"
"Go to the police! You have to answer for what you did!"
"You're gonna turn me in?"
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Something in the man's eyes snapped.
"So you're dead set on handing me over. Fuck."
W ě bn̂ ov е l Е ň u m̂ a
The knife flashed again.
Shouting "Police! Don't move!", Park Dong-hyun hurled himself forward.
Bang!
The shoulder tackle sent the man's body lurching hard to the side.
The tip of the knife sliced through empty air, missing.
Hong Seong-jun, right behind him, snared the man's left arm.
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"I've got his arm!"
"Twist it, now!"
All three of them crashed into the narrow hallway at once.
Bang!
The middle-aged man staggered and fell sideways, and the shoe cabinet rattled and tipped to one side.
The man twisted his body in a desperate frenzy.
W̊eb̈ n о̆vе̂ l̇ Е̇n̂ um ä
"Let go! Let go of me, fuck!"
"Drop the knife!"
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"Like hell I will!"
Hong Seong-jun gritted his teeth and wrenched the left arm back.
Park Dong-hyun drove his shoulder in from the front, breaking the man's balance.
With his injured right hand, the man couldn't even muster his full strength.
W̊ebṅӧvе̌l Ӗn̆ u m̄ а
Clang!
The knife fell to the floor.
Park Dong-hyun didn't miss the opening; he slammed the man down and pinned him to the floor.
He drove a knee into the man's back, wrenched both arms behind him, and cuffed him.
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Clack.
Face mashed into the floor, the man screamed.
Еn u̇ m̄ а̄.іd
"Let go of me! You sons of bitches!"
"Stay still!"
"It's not over! I said it's not over!"
Slumped against one side of the hallway, the middle-aged man had dropped his phone and was clutching his throat, gasping raggedly.
A moment later, and he would surely have been stabbed.
Panting, Hong Seong-jun stared at the knife lying on the floor.
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"Holy shit......."
Park Dong-hyun didn't reply.
Instead, he checked the pinned man's right hand.
Between the thumb and index finger, the web of his hand was torn deep.
The tissue and bandages had come completely undone, and the blood had smeared into a mess.
And then there was the middle-aged man, slumped at the side of the hallway, hand wrapped around his throat.
Еn u.må
「One more person is going to die.」
Those words, heard through his earphones not even an hour ago, slammed into Park Dong-hyun's mind.
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Had he been even a little late, they would have become reality, exactly as spoken.
A cold chill spread down his back.
Park Ji-hun had been right again.
Park Dong-hyun could no longer write off anything the man said as coincidence.
Еn u m̄ а̇
*****
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