To throw the burden off her shoulders, that was actually very heavy, making her angle to left, SolHi forced herself a little bit and finally threw DooSan on the sofa, after getting into the living room of his apartment and this made him gasping so loud when he felt a harsh pain in his leg.

„Carefully! You aren’t carrying on a potato sack!” he shouted. Then, to calm down, DooSan grimaced while murmuring a lot of nice words addressed to SolHi who was actually standing tea pot fashion right in front of him, quickly breathing in and out. „You couldn’t do it gently, don’t you?” he shouted.

„Ow, I make a pardon, but I’m not used to pack and peel with whales,” and her answer made DooSan stare at her furiously, understanding what she tried to say. „You what, did you gain weight while standing in the hospital?”

„Me? Never! I didn’t gain even a gram,” DooSan shouted feistily. „This is because of the casted leg!”

„If you say so?!”

„And… not only because of the leg, of course. I’m tall, remember?! Each centimeter counts!”

„The giraffe told the mouse when he asked her why she’s deaf!” SolHi said with irony.

„Huh, now I’m a giraffe, great! Ia, decide for once: not long ago you told me „whale”, and now am I a giraffe?! Maybe you’ll stand to one single specimen, eventually?!”

„Why to choose?! When I’m going to the zoo I can see all the specimens, and … as I love so much all the animals I prefer to see them in one single exemplar, and you… are the perfect monkey to incarnate them all,” SolHi told him grinning, making DooSan have a fit and throw a pillow upon her. But this made SolHi laugh louder because she found it very childish. „Ok, ok, calm down! It was only a joke. Better tell me why did you leave the hospital and so suddenly and why did you tell me to bring you here?! Oh, no, wait, let me guess - while being in the hospital you cast your colt’s teeth when you realized that it’s holier the bed in your own home than the sofa in my humble hovel and, hopa, you’ve decided to leave my cage! Am I right - did I finally recover my freedom and my privacy?” SolHi watched him with her innocent eyes reminding a puppy that was bagging for its master’s attention.

Feeling that it was finally his turn to take back some of his own after the recent session of mockery SolHi had with him being the main subject of all this, DooSan grinned and motioned her with his finger to come closer. When she was only one step from the sofa, DooSan murmured: „Do I look like a person that loves to do charity?”

Stretching her back after bowing a little bit to hear what he said, SolHi mumbled morosely: „well, you are also right - I rather get back a banana from a monkey than to see you leaving my house, by your own volition.”

„Ya, SolHi, mammalian-mammalian, but not the same specimen, and … don’t interrupt me. Can you at least be quiet for two minutes and allow me to finish what I want to say, huh?”

„Yes, yes, boss… keep going,” she mumbled with irony, but when to sit down on the sofa she was about to do it on DooSan’s leg.

Seeing her sitting down, DooSan cried blue murder, making SolHi suddenly jump up, even if she couldn't even normally bend to sit.

„Ups, I didn’t see it,” SolHi added again grinning when she saw DooSan showing his leg as if he was trying to protect it at any cost.

„Yes, yes, it’s so invisible. How big and white it is I thought that it can be seen even from the Cosmos, but I see that I’ve been wrong. Maybe should I write on it with big, black letters: cripple leg, don’t sit down on it, please. Right?”

„It could be a damn good idea, but … I’ll keep better my mouth shut and … please, boss, continue your thought.”

„Thank you! So nice of you,” DooSan added upset. „And now that you finally shut up, tell me: how do you think, why did I come here?”

„Because you missed your home?”

„Do I look like a baby right now?” Instead of an answer, SolHi shrugged, but she still looked at the leg that DooSan insistently was pointing with his finger.

„The gypsum? You what, did you come home only for the gypsum?”

„No, because it is plastered I came home.”

„Why? Do you have some hidden storage of gypsum here in case someone sits down on it and broke it?” SolHi made a joke, but seeing that DooSan was about to explode because of anger and yell at her as if he saw the devil, she approached her hand to her lips, pretending to zip her mouth.

When he finally felt that he calmed down, DooSan breathed in once again and murmured: „SolHi, tell me, please, sweety, why a man like me… a man that you named behemoth, whale, monkey and all the kind of mammals you remembered… has decided to come here, into an apartment located in a building that has an elevator?”

„Because it’s too difficult for him to move his ass up and down the stairs while using two crooks?”

„Bingo! You finally resulted in being intelligent,” DooSan whispered, happy that he finally could get back some of his own for everything SolHi told him before. „Or what, would you have preferred to use you as my personal alive crook for a month?”

„Me?! DooSan, do I look like being so saint?”

„Nea. That’s why I’ve decided to come here. Anyway, the three weeks while I’ve been in the hospital left me completely exhausted.”

„You decided to stay for two more weeks there than to move to your mammy’s house and also you forced me to take care of you 24/7.”

„It wasn’t that way and you know it… very well, actually - detective Kan already told me about the visit you made to Min SinJu.”

SolHi grimaced while mumbling „traitor” about Kan. „And? Did I do something wrong? At least we have some details about the case. That guy, Scorpion - the police have him.”

„Oh, yeah, a great progress,” DooSan told her with irony. „They have had him for a week already and they still heard nothing from him. Not even a single „pss.” At this speed, in a single day, we’ll close all the unsolved cases we gathered in ten years.”

„Han DooSan, stop it!”

„Or what?”

„Or I swear that if you don’t shut up your mouth or you’ll force me to stay longer in this cage, you won’t have only that leg in plaster, but also the neck, the other leg, both arms and … your tongue.”

DooSan happily smiled: „While I have you as my personal nurse, I can suffer everything. Anyway… you can’t leave me here alone.”

„Who said this?”

„I, because you owe me, and how I can’t take care of myself you have to do it for me. So…”

„You should have asked your mother to do it if you can’t do it alone or at least you could have moved your ass to her home. If it’s that hard to call her… I can do it for you because I’ve already paid my debt when I paid the hospital bill.”

„I was talking about that big debt you have and that you’ve accepted already to pay me when I moved to your house. Or what… did you forget it already?”

SolHi hysterically laughed. „As if I can do it… you take care to remind me this all the time and … with you even the mouse allows the cat to catch him and even without giving battle,” she said before entering the bathroom and slamming the door.

Happy, DooSan took the phone off his pocket and sent a text message to Kan. „Target down! She can’t leave this trap… at least for a few days. So… solve everything until she’ll plan how to escape from here.” After that, DooSan blocked the screen, put the phone under the pillow, and, sweetly yawning, he let out a reef on the sofa.

***

„Are you sure that we can make him talk?” Yu asked Kan when they entered the building of Junk Squad, bringing with them a small „attention” for „making others help them” - a case of natural juices and… of course, other attentions that weren’t visible.

„Do you think that they won’t help us? Especially bringing this „surprise?!” Kan said in a sure voice, pointing to the „gifts.”

„Rather they’ll arrest us for bribery,” Yu said feisty.

„Wha, you are such a … you were pessimistic and remained the same. That’s why you made only a baby: because you were afraid not to overcrowd the planet.”

„And for the same reason you didn’t make any child,” Yu bantered him. „At least I have a wife and a child and I didn’t ask nobody ever to help me to survive after being caught in someone else’s balcony.”

The inspector’s irony hit the target: Kan, feeling that he looks like the cat who swallowed the canary, suddenly stopped, deeply breathed in, whereat he funnily moved his lips in small circles, making his nose to be similar to a bunny sniffing the horizon. Then, he loudly breathed out and followed Yu who didn’t bother at all by Kan’s „anger” and calmly kept his course. „Don’t worry, mister smart hat, I’ll lay my hands on you and then…,” but what he mumbled after this… was a great mystery.

Arriving in front of the interrogatory room door, Kan slowly knocked, and after a few minutes Shin Du Ho, a detective working as a narco for about 20 years, came out and stared at him, at all happy to see them. But even so, this wasn’t anything related to old resentments or something - just he felt that they were about to request him „something important” and this always meant troubles… more after spotting the juices.

Seeing Shin’s unhappy face, Kan suddenly became unusually amiable, stretching his hands toward the detective and „so kindly offering him the case of juices” while bowing as if he was in front of a Saint. „I told myself that it won’t be nice to come to see you with my empty hands, sombe. I said: long as I came to see an old friend and colleague at least something sweet to bring him,” and he innocently smiled, trying to seem that he just simply passed by there - purely by chance.

But the wolf is sly not by nature, but because he’s old: Shin right away „smelled” Kan’s trick and, crossing his arms over his chest, he stared at his colleague. „And I’m the Little Red Riding Hood, Kan! Come on! We are between friends. So, tell me: what the hell are you doing here? I’m sure that not to see me you came if you try to bribe me in broad daylight,” but Kan didn’t get his tail down. So, he held his won while watching Shin seriously as if he didn’t understand what the other one wanted to tell him.

„Me? To bribe you? Sombe, how can I do that? Never! I was just trying to seem amiable.”

„Ia, Kan, I know you for more than 20 years. So, don’t try to deceive me because it doesn’t work. More knowing that only thanks to you we got that big capture in „Nocturnal Pleasures.” So, sing! Why are you here?”

„Nobody ever can turn you round, old fox,” Kan said in a half a voice, suddenly becoming so serious. „You are right as always. Let’s say that we just need a private talk with one of those you’ve jumped in the club.”

„Which one in particular?”

„Nam Sang Ki! Alias „Scorpion!” and don’t even try to tell me that he’s not here because I know very well that he’s right in that room. And… do you know wherefrom I know this?”

„Of course, I know: he’s the one from the video you sent me. Do you see?! I know you better than you think,” and Shin headed toward the area where they had their main office. Kan and Yu right away followed him. „Not that I’m not willing to help you, Kan, but… it’ll be difficult to see him.”

„Why so? Did he get a lawyer? Don’t tell me that Min SinJu already paid him one because…,” Kan started to clatter.

„No, it’s not this. The problem is that he keeps silent. A week since we have him here, but he didn’t even say „psss.” And … he also had two breakdowns,” and the three stopped in the middle of the hall.

„Breakdowns? What kind of breakdowns?” Yu asked.

„Damn! This seems to be an addict for a long time already,” Kan murmured furiously.

„Yeah, it seems so, and… from the analysis that we/ve asked for it was proved that he took not only one kind of drug during the time, but a lot of different types of „cocktails” - ecstasy, heroin, dust, cannabis … and the list goes on.”

„And this means for sure a lot of debts and a lot of trouble,” Yu added.

„Undoubtedly, but the matter is we can’t prove it because he hasn’t a bank account and we can’t check the transactions he made, and … this guy won’t say anything for sure.”

„What we are interested in is another case. That’s why we came here.”

„Another case?!” Shin asked, staring at the two interlocutors. „May I know in what else is he involved?”

„Did you hear about the accident in which one of our colleagues had been involved?”

„I think I’ve heard something. Ian SolHi, right?! I think this is the name of the girl from your team that had a motorcycle accident with one of the prosecutors and if I’m not mistaken in that accident that was also considered an illegal race, someone died.”

„I see that not only in the Prosecution building gossips fly faster than the birds. The matter is you don’t know the whole: yes, it’s right that SolHi and prosecutor Han have been there, but it wasn’t any kind of race, and this was already proved and the open case on their names is already closed because the investigation showed that even if they had the speed over the limit, not that much anyway, it wasn’t because they had a race or something, but because they had been forced to do that and for what they did they already explained everything in 10 pages A4. The problem isn’t this anyway: that they had or they hadn’t a race. The matter is that the guy who died, Iun Dja Iun, was the leader of the gang Nam Sang Ki was part of not that long ago and who he left after that guy’s death, in whose accident we think he’s been involved.”

„What? It wasn’t an accident?” Shin asked amazed at Kan’s words.

„Yeah. We think that someone ordered this to get rid of one of our colleagues, but we still don’t know who was the target in fact because both SolHi and detective Han owe a lot to many, especially to Min SinJu and we recently spotted this guy, Nam Sang Ki, rounding his club after he left the gang,” Yu added.

„Now I understand why are you insisting to interrogate him without witnesses. But… even if I can try this, I can’t promise that I’ll make it because the „Nocturnal Pleasures” case isn’t just a random one. We found there a lot of evidence about drug trafficking, prostitution, human trafficking, extortion, and … the list goes on.”

„Sombe, we aren’t interested in anything related to your case. What we want is to talk to Nam Sang Ki in private and to ask him who ordered SolHi or prosecutor Han’s death. That’s all.”

„Ok, I got it. Let me see what I can do,” detective Shin added and he went away, making a phone call.

„Do you think he can help us?” Yu asked.

„Yeah, I’m sure of this. Even if it isn’t official, it will be at least behind a closed door, but he’ll help us to talk to Scorpion, whom actually I intend to break his claws if he doesn’t talk.”

***

A few hours later, Kan managed eventually to talk to Scorpion in a private interrogation room, with the cameras turned off and „absolutely unofficial,” because as Shin told him someone very important was pulling the wires to clap Nam Sang Ki into prison and immediately. That’s why it was already decided to be transferred the next day into a maximum-security prison, outside Seoul City.

„I’m not even surprised, to be honest,” Kan told Shin while the detective was accompanying him toward the interrogatory room where the Junk Squad was having generally the „unofficial interrogations.”

Now, face to face with Scorpion, Kan seemed to see himself, many years ago, completely overwhelmed when he practically was drinking all day long, trying this way to tipple his cares due to a big angst caused by the loss of his beloved woman because even if Kan generally seemed to be a Don Juan, in fact, he had loved a lot in his past and he loved only a single woman.

„Do you know that for tomorrow you’ll be facing jail time?” Kan told Scorpion in a calm voice, but this one only moved a little bit in his chair, looking elsewhere. „And all this happens to you for being stupid. But… not for this, I'm here: what I’m interested to know is why you betrayed your friends. From what I know they helped you to avoid a lot of problems in your life.” Scorpion instead kept silent. „Won’t you talk? Not even unofficial? Because no matter what you’ll tell me here … you won’t pay for this.”

„As if I can trust the police,” Scorpion mumbled with irony. „You are just stupid cops that don’t know anything about the other world.”

„Cops, cops, but at least we are malbushim, and not that jerk as those whom you are defending now because they are who accused you of a murder I’m sure you didn’t commit.”

Kan’s words made Scorpion stare at him while putting one arm over the other and making a deaf sound of metal hitting something hard, due to the handcuffs. „Crime?! You are wrong now, detective. I didn’t kill anybody.”

„Are you sure about this? From what I know Iun Dja Iun’s dash cam is lost and it’s very possible for you to have it because we’ve been told that only you and Su Won approached that motto after the accident, but while Su Won tried to help his friend you were checking the motorcycle.”

„And? Since when is this a crime?”

„Since hiding evidence or getting rid of it is punished by the law.”

„Maybe, but you are who told me that I won’t pay for this.”

„Yeah, I said that, and from what I see you admit to having the dash cam.”

„I never said that.”

Kan hit the table. „Are you playing with me right now? You told me, just what, that you approached that motorcycle and that this isn’t a crime you’ll pay for. Do you think I’m just a newcomer not to realize what you’ve done? I can read between lines, man.”

Scorpion only grinned. „Then… prove it and if you are able to bring me in front of a judge… maybe you’ll find something out from me. Till then instead… I won’t say anything. Do you hear me?”

„Yeah. I heard you. Perfectly, but … tell me just one thing: why did you do that?”

Scorpion moved again in his chair and the ironical smile vanished somewhere.

„You won’t answer, huh?! I imagine why or maybe should I invent something to make you talk?”

„No matter what you’ll invent, detective, it’ll be very far from the truth anyway because… I’ll take this truth with me in the grave.”

„Then you are an idiot.”

„Do you think so?”

„Yeah because you are protecting those who instead of taking you out of here are trying to have the edge over you. If I were you I would have said everything I know still I could do that. Don’t think that they won’t get rid of you if they consider you a pain in the neck.”

„I know this better than you, detective, but if I talk I won’t last to see the jail - I’ll be just another dead guy somewhere in an open field like fresh meat for the crows.”

„And even if you know this you prefer to keep silent.”

„Mmm. I won't’ talk. So… don’t waste your time, detective and do your job as well as possible or… try to find the evidence that can make me talk or… you’ll just be blind while looking for that truth you are so desperate to find out.”

Suddenly, Shin opened the door and whistled to Kan: „get out of here, Kan! My boss comes here. Faster, man!” he eventually shouted, forcing Kan to stand up and head toward the door, even if he was unhappy that he couldn’t obtain the result he wished when he came there to talk to Scorpion and even if he wanted to stay for long and to force Scorpion to give him at least a hint, he also knew that he could get Shin in trouble and it wasn’t for sure his intention.

Before leaving the room, Scorpion told Kan: „if something happens to me, detective, tell Su Won to make me a visit there… where we met for the first time and that even the dead guys can talk,” but Kan hadn’t time to ask the young man what the hell he was talking about, being spurred by Shin to leave because Shin also didn’t want problems with his boss and he finally managed to take Kan out of the room by force, taking him through a long and dark corridor toward a secret exit door that was heading toward the parking lot.

„This is everything I could do to help you, Kan. I’m sorry if this wasn’t enough.”

„Don’t worry, sombe and… thank you for this. I won’t forget this and if you need me you know where you can find me.”

Then, the two detectives greeted each other by slowly bending their heads. After this, Shin entered the building and locked the door, while Kan headed toward the opposite direction of the parking lot where Yu was waiting for him inside the car.