Chapter 30.3
“It’s fine. If it was an emergency, I would have left even if you tried to hold me back.”
“…that’s good. Hurry up and finish your soup before it cools.”
“Ah. But speaking of Congressman Jang Ma-Chun.”
While looking at Madam Kim, I warned her.
“Please call him and tell him that if he wants to find his granddaughter, he should make her disappearance public. He’ll never find her if he keeps the search discreet.”
“Do you happen to know something?”
“It’s just a feeling. But my hunches these days have been pretty good.”
“Although I’ve said it before, if it turns out that she just ran away from home, calling it a kidnapping might-”
“That’s why he needs to make the choice. Whether he’s more afraid of being embarrassed, or of never seeing his granddaughter again. The congressman just needs to decide which would be more detrimental to him.”
After saying all this, I ended the conversation by keeping my mouth shut.
Madam Lee Mi-Sook frowned slightly, but also ended up not saying anything more.
This was fine with me as we weren’t even close friends. If we kept talking, we’d just end up bringing up the same things over and over again.
As soon as dinner was over, I picked up my coat.
“Young Master. Do you really intend to leave without staying the night?”
“Like I said, I’m too busy for that. I’ll see you next time.”
As I left the front door, Manager Kim followed me out.
“It’s been so long since you last came, but you’re leaving after only having dinner.”
“Haha. Sorry about that.”
After patting him on the shoulder, I slipped on my shoes.
Then I turned to speak to Go Dae-Man and the rest of the family, who were all sitting on sofas in the living room.
Apart from the chairman, the rest of them were giving off a vibe that said that they didn’t care whether or not I was going.
So they had been forcing themselves to interact with me, all because they needed something from me.
“Well then. I’ll be leaving now.”
“…speaking of, back then.”
“Yes?”
I had no idea what Go Dae-Man was suddenly bringing up.
“The uniform suited you very well.”
So he was talking about the awards ceremony.
That’s right, he had been there, along with Chief Kim.
Although we hadn’t even been able to share a word, since something had come up at the company.
I smiled as I said my goodbyes to him.
“I’ll see you again next time.”
What a gruff father I have.
After leaving the house, I headed over to Dongsu Neighbourhood.
Since I’m sure that I’ll be driven to spare by other cases once I get back to work, I’ll go take a look now, when I have the time.
“Hmm.”
The alleys in Dongsu Neighbourhood were just as dark and gloomy as ever.
The gate of Sae-Bom’s house was securely closed.
She seemed to have paid it extra attention after the Spaniel case, as I could see that it had a strong lock and a chain connecting it to the wall.
The letter sent by Park Han-Dong was lying untouched in the letter-box…
Her clothes had also been left hanging around the yard to dry.
‘It’s like she just vanished into thin air.’
I suddenly remembered what Madam Lee Mi-Sook had said.
Just for the sake of it, I decided to try calling Sae-Bom’s phone.
“Huh?”
Contrary to what Park Han-Dong had said, about her phone being turned off, there was a signal. And then the ringtone suddenly cut off,
“Hello?”
as someone picked up the phone.
“Hello. Is this Park Sae-Bom-ssi?”
-Fuck … if they …. get rid of it.
“Hello? Who are you? Hello?”
After only managing to hear the voices of a couple of men arguing in the background, the call abruptly cut off.
“What’s this…?”
I tried calling her again, but this time the handphone was completely turned off.
Something suspicious was definitely going on.
I called Black, who should still be in the office at this time.
-Oh. It’s the Newbie.
“Hyungnim. I’ll send you a number, so please do a quick location tracking for me.”
-Location Tracking? Have you received a report?
I guess you could say that I had received one from Park Han-Dong.
“It’s from someone I know. They said that they can’t contact their dongsaeng, so I tried calling the number they gave me just now, but I think that a kidnapper may have picked it up by mistake. Please put my name under the reporter’s identity.”
-I’ll put you through to the situation room. Send me the number.
“Okay. Got it.”
I hung up the phone and waited for Black’s to contact me back. All while keeping an eye on the house that had all its lights turned off. After a while, a message arrived confirming the phone’s last transmitted location.
“Taxi!”