“Hey, Son Eon Jin —” Tae Pyung called out, but a beep prompted him that the call had already ended. He tried dialing the number again to no avail.
“What’s wrong, Tae Pyung?” Kyung Won asked him while stealing a glance on the screen of his phone.
“I don’t know,” Tae Pyung murmured, the feeling of worry washing over him in an instant. “It seemed like something came up.”
“It’s probably just something at home or at work,” Kyung Won told him. “If it was something else, she would have probably called the emergency line. You’ve got to give the lady enough credit.”
Tae Pyung locked his phone and placed it back in the safety of the pocket of his jacket, a spare denim trucker that he kept in his office in case of emergencies.
Yeah, she’s one tough cookie, he thought to himself.
Another quarter of an hour passed without any signs of Kang Myeong Suk. Kyung Won already drank half of the coffee in his insulated flask to force himself to stay awake in the middle of a chilly night that seemed to be gently rocking him to sleep. Tae Pyung, on the other hand, was still very much alert while observing every individual who passed by the street on the way to the motel where the culprit was apparently staying at the moment.
“By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Kyung Won segued. “Who was that lady you were talking to a while ago? Was she the same woman who picked you up for lunch earlier today?”
Tae Pyung gave him a stingy side-eye, then focused his attention back to his surveillance. He replied with a curt ‘yes’.
Kyung Won nodded slowly in understanding, although his slight mockery was not lost on Tae Pyung. Regardless, he continued quizzing his friend.
“So where did you meet this CEO Son?” he asked. “Speed dating? Common friend? Blind date? Dating app?”
“I've met her somewhere, sometime,” Tae Pyung coolly replied.
“Somewhere, sometime,” Kyung Won repeated as he leaned back on his seat, his interlaced fingers supporting the back of his head. “How poetic.”
“I’m glad you had time for chance meetings and lunch dates like that,” he continued. “Last time I checked, you have declined all the dates I’ve set you up with this year. Do you know how many aunts and neighborhood ahjummas have given me an earful because you stood their daughters up?”
“That’s a wrongful accusation, Officer Yang,” Tae Pyung refuted vaguely as his eyes were still surveying the street outside. “I did not stand anyone up. I always made it a point to call them a day or two before our rendezvous to let them know that I am not going to make it.”
Kyung Won clicked his tongue in disapproval and said, “It doesn’t cushion the blow at all, you know?”
Tae Pyung closed his eyes and breathed out a defeated sigh.
“Kyung Won, we’ve known each other for a very long time now — about ten years already if I’m not mistaken,” he told his buddy. “In all those years, you’ve made a hobby of setting me up with random people, even when we were still in the academy. But, I’ve told you time and again that blind dates are simply not my cup of tea.”
“Look, I’m not even worried about my dating life at all,” Tae Pyung emphasized. “So why don’t you just take it easy playing matchmaker, huh? Please?”
“Alright, alright,” Kyung Won declared with his hands up in the air. “I’m just worried about you, man. It’s been a long time since —”
“I’d rather not talk about it, buddy. If that’s okay,” he politely stopped him with a halfhearted smile, then quickly cast his eyes down.
With the conversation ending on an awkward note, Tae Pyung and Kyung Won sat through the next minute or so with neither of them saying anything. Wanting to avoid being bothered by the uncomfortable silence, both of them shifted their attention back to monitoring their respective sides of the area to keep themselves busy.
Kyung Won broke the ice after a few moments, feeling guilty about what he said earlier.
“So... This CEO Son —”
His impending question was interrupted the moment he saw a man with bleached curly hair in an ordinary, worn out tracksuit coming out of a dark alley, walking towards the motel. He was wearing fake prescription glasses, while in both hands he carried plastic bags containing bottles of beer and some snacks. Although he did not stand out in his disguise, the tiniest but constant movement of his head towards either of his sides to check if someone was following him was a giveaway.
Kyung Won immediately tapped Tae Pyung’s arm to call his attention.
“That’s him,” Tae Pyung confirmed after careful scrutiny of the person’s appearance.
Kyung Won waited until the man entered the motel before he picked up his phone to call and inform the other patrol vehicles stationed nearby that the suspected murderer was already spotted. And while he was reviewing the discussed tactics to the rest of the team, Tae Pyung was busy arming himself with his semi-automatic pistol and back-up revolver, as well as extra magazines in case a pursuit ensued.
However, before he can even give the go signal to approach the building, Kang Myeong Suk bolted out of the doors of the building’s ground floor, straight into the dark street where they first saw him emerge.
“Damn! He’s making a run for it!” Kyung Won shouted over the phone.
At that moment, Tae Pyung quickly grabbed the phone from Kyung Won, purposefully giving his buddy some time to suit up.
“Teams 2 and 3, make sure to block all exit points,” he instructed. “Kyung Won and I are going to chase him. Hurry!”
The odds were not in the favor of Tae Pyung and his team as Kang Myeong Suk was able to keep a good distance ahead of them. He was able to duck a few corners, coming out of a street that was left unguarded, then jumped over the metal barricade of the sidewalk to run across the main road, dodging a few vehicles that blasted their horns in retaliation.
Luckily, Tae Pyung was able to catch a glimpse of Kang Myeong Suk before he blended in with the crowd that filled the busy street at the opposite side of the district. He rushed to the crosswalk as the red light counted the seconds down, then darted towards the opposite curb at the exact moment the pedestrian icon turned green. Kyung Won was not too far behind and was able to do a last second dash across the pedestrian lane before the vehicles started moving again.
Meantime, somewhere in the vicinity, the man they were chasing slowed down for a few seconds, already dragging his feet and desperately catching his breath until he had to come to a total halt. Kang Myeong Suk coughed several times to pacify his rapidly beating heart, while his breath continued to echo in his ears. He staggered as he took a few steps forward, once more setting himself off at a run. This time, his balance was so off that when he turned a corner towards a back alley, he tripped on his own foot, instantly collapsing on the poles of a makeshift tent where fruits were being sold. An old man — the owner of the stall, apparently — screamed as the apples and pears flew and rolled everywhere.
Several streets away from that alley, Tae Pyung stopped at a junction, clueless as to which direction Kang Myeong Suk took. He doubled over, badly needing a moment to recover as he was already running out of breath and was enduring a stitch on his side that was getting more intense by the minute.
“Kim Tae Pyung!”
He turned and saw Kyung Won jogging towards his direction, the latter’s speed already decelerating to a standstill.
“Did we lose him?” he asked Tae Pyung between short gasps for air.
Tae Pyung nodded, then pushed himself to resume a stable, upright position while resting his hands on his lower back for support.
“It’s my bad,” he admitted with a faltering voice that was weakened by the exertion. “I didn’t see whether he took a right or if he ran straight ahead.”
“Let’s split up then,” Kyung Won suggested. “I’ll take the right while you go straight ahead.”
“Okay, let’s do that.”
“Call me the moment you see him.”
“I will. Do the same when you find that scum, okay? Don’t play a dumb hero by tackling him on your own,” Tae Pyung told Kyung Won.
Then, he quickly gave his buddy a pat on the back before they both sprinted towards different directions as discussed to continue with their pursuit. Alas, in spite of the hold up at the fruit stall, Kang Myeong Suk was still far from the clutches of the police. He reached a narrow and dimly-lit road at a residential area which was almost entirely deserted aside from a man who just pulled over.
Kang Myeong Suk saw the man get out of his car and hurriedly walk towards the back of the vehicle to pee. Based on how unstable the stranger’s stance and gait was, it did not take long for him to conclude that the man was intoxicated at that time.
Having realized this, an idea crossed Kang Myeong Suk’s mind.
Photo by 1 1 on Unsplash
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