Inside the van, on the way to the caller’s residence

Shin Haesu, now the youngest in the team despite his eight years in the police force, was at the wheel.

The team leader, sitting in the passenger seat, reviewed the report and murmured,

“Reporting the kidnapping two days after it happened… that’s really not good.”

“Indeed, sir.”

“Hey, our rookie veteran, do you know how likely it is for a kidnapped child to return alive?”

“I don’t know the exact statistics, but I understand it’s rare.”

“And do you know the average time between kidnapping and murder?”

Oh Kang-seok interjected,

“Twelve hours?”

The team leader held up three fingers.

“Three hours.”

“…Because the child is uncontrollable, right?”

“Exactly. The kidnapper is already unstable from committing a major crime, and if the child keeps crying, they might kill them out of fear of being caught. Was the child nine years old?”

“I really hope they’re still alive…”

But the atmosphere in the van was grim.

At the caller’s apartment

As they arrived, they could hear a couple arguing from outside the door.

“…They said if we report it, they’ll kill Arin!”

“I looked into it. Calling the police is the best option…”

“They said they’re watching us! What if they see the detectives coming in? If we never see Arin again, will you take responsibility?”

“Enough! Get a grip!!”

The husband had made the report, while the wife was against it. The team leader listened outside for a moment before abruptly pushing the door open.

“Your husband is right. Reporting a kidnapping as quickly as possible is crucial. The younger the child, the harder they are to control, which means their safe window is very short.”

Though he used the word “safe,” everyone in the room understood the true implication.

Positioning himself between the couple, the team leader continued in a calm tone,

“Even if we comply with the kidnapper’s demands, the chances of getting the child back are slim. Seventy percent of kidnappers personally know the victim’s family.”

The husband murmured with a grave expression,

“If they know us… then Arin saw their face…”

“Exactly.”

He made them face reality. Both parents looked utterly shocked.

“Now, let’s go over the details.”

The kidnapped child was a nine-year-old girl named Jung Arin.

She would go to an academy after school and then play at the apartment’s internal playground before coming home. There were always other kids playing there at the same time.

The apartment complex had tall fences and monitored vehicle entry at both the front and back gates, so the parents had felt safe.

But when Arin didn’t return home, they started searching for her after 6 PM. It wasn’t until after 9 PM that they received a phone call.

“…They let us hear her voice. Then they demanded 50 million won. They warned us not to call the police, saying we’d never see her again and that they were watching us…”

As they listened, two officers from the intelligence unit arrived. Since kidnappings required wiretaps and location tracking, their assistance was essential.

They immediately tried tracing the number used to make the call, but no location data was available.

“The phone is registered to a woman in her seventies—clearly a burner phone. Most of these are simple flip phones, making them hard to track. If the call lasts under 30 seconds, tracing it is nearly impossible.”

The officers installed wiretapping software on the parents’ phones.

Meanwhile, the team leader sat both parents down and spoke with a serious expression.

“Listen carefully. ‘Don’t call the police, we’re watching you’—this is a classic kidnapper pattern. They’ll try to confirm whether you actually reported it. In this situation…”

He thoroughly explained how they should handle any future calls from the kidnapper.

During this, Haesu and Oh Kang-seok obtained CCTV footage from the playground and began analyzing it.

A kidnapper’s biggest fear is the police. While holding the child, they become more anxious about being caught and more likely to act rashly.

That’s what makes kidnapping cases so difficult to investigate. The police can’t request black box footage from residents or conduct door-to-door inquiries.

Since the time and location were known, finding the child in the CCTV footage wasn’t difficult.

In the footage, children were happily playing, and a pregnant woman sat on a bench in the shade of a tree, looking at her phone.

“Who is this pregnant woman?”

“She’s a resident. I actually spoke to her earlier—she said she didn’t see anything and apologized.”

“I see.”

Outside, the sky had darkened.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

Suddenly, Haesu raised his hand.

“I found something.”

“Let me see.”

On Haesu’s laptop screen, a man was seen leading the child away, holding her hand. He wore a cap, all-black clothing, and a mask.

“Arin… my Arin… hng…”

“5:57 PM, heading north. Quickly, check all cameras in this direction at this time. Looking at his build, he’s a man, right?”

“Yes. His height is roughly…”

Observing him pass by a streetlight, Haesu continued,

“About 175 cm. He’s on the lean side.”

The detectives intensified their CCTV analysis. However, even in footage where his front should have been visible, the camera angle was too high to see his face.

“So all we know is his height and build?”

More importantly, despite numerous cameras in the area, his trail suddenly disappeared.

“Where did he go…”

He vanished into thin air. Since he was carrying a child, hiding would have been difficult, and no suspicious vehicles had stopped to pick them up.

That’s when Oh Kang-seok spoke up.

“Underground parking lot?”

“That’s it. If he went underground, that’s why the trail cuts off.”

The underground parking lot had cameras only at the entrance and exit.

It was back to manual labor. Haesu, Kang-seok, and the team leader checked every car leaving the parking lot and ran license plate searches.

The camera angles were favorable, making it easy to identify drivers.

“But we don’t know when he left, so this will be tedious.”

“Wouldn’t he leave quickly? Since he has the child with him.”

“Right, within three hours max. He’d want to leave before the parents started searching.”

Time passed. Midnight came and went, and dawn was approaching.

The team had reviewed every vehicle leaving since the kidnapping but found no clear suspect.

There weren’t many unregistered vehicles, so they looked into the personal details, but none were close to the suspect.

Back to square one. After long hours of painstaking analysis, coming up with nothing left them drained.

“Ugh…”

Oh Kang-seok stretched his stiff body and glanced at the couple. How much of a living hell must it be for parents whose only child has been kidnapped? Even the smallest movement felt like it had to be cautious.

The couple was dozing off on the living room sofa.

Then—

Ring ring ring ring

The husband’s phone rang. He jumped up and instinctively reached for it, but his eyes met Haesu’s. Haesu glanced at the intelligence officer, who nodded in response and gave an OK sign.

“H-hello?”

- Did you prepare the money?

The voice was altered. The flat, calm tone made it sound emotionless.

“Y-yes! Please let me speak to my child. Is our Arin safe?”

- She’s sleeping.

“Could I at least… just see her sleeping? No, please, just wake her up and let me hear her voice, please.”

- I will tell you the meeting place tomorrow.

Click—

The call ended abruptly, without them hearing the child’s voice even once.

The husband quickly dialed the number again, but the phone was already turned off.

All the detectives turned to the intelligence officer. She furrowed her brows and shook her head.

“This guy is really cautious. The call didn’t even last 20 seconds, let alone 30.”

“Damn it…”

“Shit, do we have no choice but to wait until tomorrow?”

Both the couple and the detectives forced themselves to get some rest in preparation for the next day.

The next afternoon, the phone rang again. The husband sprang up, staring at his phone, but this time, it wasn’t a call—it was a text.

[Stand at the crosswalk in front of Dion Convenience Store at Gaeseong Intersection, holding the bag of money. The time is 18:00.]

“We’ve got a location. Request backup from Teams 2 and 3.”

“Understood!”

If they attempted an arrest and failed, it would be over. Oh Kang-seok radioed Teams 2 and 3 for support, while Haesu confirmed the location.

Gaeseong Intersection was a busy commercial area near a high school and university. At 6 PM, pedestrian traffic would be at its peak.

They planned to blend in with the crowd for the transaction.

All members of the Kangjin Police Department’s Violent Crimes Teams 1, 2, and 3 were stationed near the meeting point. When the time came, the husband carried the money bag to the designated spot.

He was given a radio earpiece, allowing him to hear the team leader’s instructions.

- Stay calm. We’re all nearby, so don’t worry.

“O-okay…”

- Don’t respond. Just listen. Only answer when I ask a question.

“Yes, ah… um…”

With a tense expression, the husband stood at the crosswalk. Five minutes passed. Then ten. Then twenty. The detectives, nerves on edge, scanned the surroundings, but no suspicious person appeared.

- When the hell is this bastard coming?

- Looks like they’re leading us on a chase—

“I… just got another text.”

- Did the location change?

“Yes. It says to leave the bag on the first bench at the 5 o’clock entrance of Seongju Park, then go home. No looking back.”

- Damn it. They’re making us run in circles.

The detectives rushed to the park while the husband followed the instructions, placing the bag on the bench before moving away.

Just then, a man wearing a bucket hat approached the bench. He looked around cautiously, scanning his surroundings—highly suspicious behavior.

The detectives held their breath and watched him.

- He looks about 175 cm.

- His build matches too.

Shff

He sat down on the bench and stealthily opened the bag.

Haesu frowned slightly at the sight. At that moment, the voice of Team 2’s leader came through the earpiece.

- Take him down!

The detectives moved. Haesu quickly, but quietly, called out.

“Wait, wait! Stop!”

- What? Why?

“He’s checking inside the bag. He’s not the suspect. If we reveal ourselves now, we’ll be exposed.”

The detectives subtly adjusted their behavior while observing the man.

He saw the cash inside and visibly trembled, his hands shaking as he nervously scanned the area. Then, he hugged the bag tightly, as if it were his own.

Just then, the husband’s phone rang.

“H-hello…”

- Good job. If you report this to the police… you know what will happen, right? We’ll make the exchange again tomorrow.

The call ended immediately.

The detectives removed their earpieces, cursing.

“Shit!”

“This bastard isn’t ordinary.”

The husband went to retrieve the money bag, and the suspicious man, upon seeing him approach from a distance, panicked and fled, leaving the bag behind.

Teams 2 and 3 returned to the station, while Team 1 headed back to the couple’s apartment. On the way, Oh Kang-seok slammed his fist on his knee and muttered.

“This son of a bitch is insanely cautious.”

“Seriously. If it weren’t for the rookie, we would’ve been exposed. What a damn wild goose chase.”

Haesu, eyes on the road, spoke calmly.

“Looks like we’ll be pulling another all-nighter analyzing footage.”

“No choice.”

At least they hadn’t come back completely empty-handed. Based on the phone conversation, the suspect must have been somewhere near the park, watching to see if the police showed up.

Back at the apartment, they resumed analyzing the CCTV footage.

“This lady sure gets around for someone heavily pregnant.”

Oh Kang-seok commented while reviewing footage. The pregnant woman from the playground appeared again. The team leader responded indifferently.

“A stress-free environment is best for prenatal care. Fresh air in the park…”

Despite analyzing footage until the late hours of the night, they found no suspicious individuals.

Even the real-time surveillance team at the integrated control center had come up empty-handed.

The next day, in the afternoon.

Bzzzz bzzzz

The wife’s phone rang. Since all previous calls had been to her husband, she answered without much thought.

Unlike before, the number displayed wasn’t a mobile number but a local Kangjin city number, so she answered without suspicion.

“Hello…”

- Mrs. Arin’s mother, this is Detective Kang In-soo from the Kangjin Police Department’s Violent Crimes Unit. Officer Lee isn’t responding, could you pass the phone to him?

“Ah, yes, Officer Lee is…”

As she turned to the detectives, she froze.

They were frantically gesturing “X” in silence.

Then, a chilling voice came through the receiver.

- I told you, if you reported this… I’d kill your daughter.