Chapter 84….
At the Abandoned Factory (3)
As Suhan stepped into the dim warehouse, he continued speaking to Gamdong, who followed him, with a tone of disbelief.
“And then he rummaged through the luggage and took one watch.”
“Just that?”
“Yeah. Just that.”
Suhan glanced around the interior of the warehouse while he spoke.
“Later, when the police came to investigate, I heard that the guy was bragging that it was something his late father had left him. The uncle who’d been drinking with him at the time strangled him at night and took it.”
“Ugh…”
“I kind of half-opened my eyes and got caught, and that uncle put a finger to his lips and quietly shushed me. Like, ‘shh.’ I peed myself that night.”
“I’d have peed too.”
“But the worst part is, when the police came, I couldn’t testify. I just said I was sleeping.”
“……Couldn’t you? It’s scary, after all.”
“That’s true, but the guy who died that night wandered around that spot looking for the watch — that was even more hellish.”
“Man… life’s a horror show, huh.”
At Gamdong’s resigned comment, Suhan shrugged and laughed.
“Well, it’s an old memory. After seeing all sorts of things, it’s not quite a trauma anymore. Back then I really did pee myself.”
“That’s at least a relief.”
For a bit, the unease in his heart eased.
But as Suhan kept moving deeper inside, Gamdong cocked his head and asked.
“Are you looking for something in particular?”
“There. Why are you tiptoeing around, you guys. You were brave enough to rush in earlier.”
“…….”
Watching Suhan speak to the empty space as if someone were there, Gamdong muttered under his breath.
“Christ…”
“Aiyo. Grandma’s crying in heaven. Our Gamdong’s cussing up a storm.”
“Were there ghosts here?”
“Yeah. Where people live there’s half water half fish… no, half people half ghosts.”
“What the hell…”
Startled, Gamdong took a step back, but Suhan looked at him as if he were ridiculous and said,
“Why are you getting scared over something you can’t even see? Have you never seen a ghost? Lately, because Yeonju’s been looking after me, she’s been borrowing my body sometimes and messing about and playing when we eat.”
“That’s not the same thing! Why bring up ghosts here of all places—”
“There are many people here who hold grudges against that bastard Jang Sang-su.”
“……sigh.”
“Go outside and clean up. Send the crew home quickly. They made a huge fuss earlier trying to get Director Gu to leave first because of this.”
“Okay, I will.”
Gamdong fled outside at a brisk pace.
Watching Gamdong run off, Suhan chuckled softly. A familiar voice whispered into his ear.
[You had quite an eventful life, huh.]
“Eh… have you seen many ghost-seeing people?”
[This is my first time.]
“Then it’s true — eventful. Not something usual.”
[Even so, we’re the ones benefitting from it now. Think of it as earning merit.]
“But why does the way you speak sound so… where are you from? These days North Korean dialects don’t sound like that.”
Because many defectors appear in the media these days, Suhan had never heard such a rough North Korean dialect.
[I was born in ’52. Around ‘70 I was in Yanbian across the Tumen River, then I came over.]
“Your speech sounds like Siraso-ni or something.”
[I’ve heard that a lot. I used to fly around a lot back then… though basically I was just a gangster.]
He said it with a hint of embarrassment — maybe he hadn’t been totally down-and-out when alive.
“What’s your name, sir?”
[Me? Why, you need a name?]
“No, are there one or two ghosts here? At least knowing names would help tell them apart.”
[Gwack Cheol-seong.]
“Oof. That’s an old-fashioned name.”
They had stopped walking. It seemed the spirit had followed along during the talk. There was a heavily rusted door.
[Check under the floorboard over there. The key must be all rusty.]
Following what Mr. Cheol-seong said, Suhan pried up a floor stone and found something. It took some force — probably because it had been neglected for so long.
“Think it’ll work? It’s really rusty.”
A key came out. After wrestling with it for a while, the lock finally opened with a stiff turn.
“What’s this place?”
[You see this…]
Mr. Cheol-seong pointed to a large, rusted object like an old stove.
“What is that?”
[We were all burned up inside this.]
“…….”
[The ashes and bones were put into sacks like that and buried nearby.]
“Geez.”
What a variety of horrors. This was no ordinary gangster-run entertainment company. The feeling of having stepped into shit deepened.
They closed the door again and searched the places where those bodies were said to be buried. Piles of stuff lay about like a storage yard. They cleared things away, buried the burned bones like ashes in sacks, then piled things up again — repeating the cycle. The ghosts became witnesses to each other: one saying “I was buried here,” another, “I was half-burned.”
Mr. Cheol-seong examined the cracks in the factory and called Suhan over.
[Take a look at this.]
“What is it?”
In a gap where bricks had fallen out, there was something like a necklace.
[Won’t you open it?]
It was a request tinged with longing. It turned out to be a pendant like one from a movie. Inside, when he opened it slowly, he found a yellowed, mold-spotted photograph. It was hard to see clearly, but it was a woman’s picture.
“Who is it?”
[My sweetheart. A girl who ran a teahouse. She cooked good food.]
“……were they married?”
[No, they met late. He wanted to, though.]
It was ultimately because of Jang Sang-su that it never happened.
“Do you mean…”
[That dead bastard didn’t want to look for a wife — he just wanted to see his lover once more. He was just trying to remember. Maybe if he saw it he would be released.]
“Since you don’t do anything mean, I guess it is because of that bastard.”
[……Did that help?]
Hm. Suhan couldn’t promise anything, but he nodded.
“Jang Sang-su came here to sell the place, right?”
[Yes. He’s not here now, though.]
That meant he hadn’t been doing these things recently. Indeed, it seemed the people who had died here had been gone for a while. The most recent was roughly just after Director Gu’s second wife had left — so maybe more than five years ago.
…Is five years recent? These people are crazy.
“Thanks. I’ll bring back good news.”
[Do it. Take care of it.]
Seeing off the ghosts who had escorted him, he returned to the car. Gamdong looked at him with an anxious expression, then glanced at the back seat.
“Am I some kind of ghost collector? Just drive. I’m hungry.”
“Okay, okay.”
What a way to see people. Having gained at least a small lead, they headed back to Seoul.
Chairman Yang Mansik spent a rare day fishing with Usuhan, eating the kimchi stew he had prepared. Since the people at the house didn’t cook stew at work, it had become a special meal Suhan made only when he came. Maybe that’s why it tasted even better. They caught up on what they hadn’t had time to talk about. Chairman Yang mostly discussed the evidence Director Yoo Gwang had secured. Suhan entertained the conversation with stories of the ghosts he’d recently met.
“Gwack Cheol-seong? I think I’ve heard that name.”
“At the time, unofficially, he was a famous fighter everyone avoided.”
Director Yoo answered about Cheol-seong.
“In tracking Jang Sang-su’s past, we found out about him…”
“Wow, no wonder he had such presence.”
“He was even called the second ‘Siraso-ni.’ He was declared missing, though…”
Chairman Yang, listening, ladled stew and asked Director Yoo,
“If you find bone ash, could it be evidence?”
“We’d have to check whether DNA testing would be possible. But proving it’s an actual skeleton could be enough to justify an investigation. Combined with the other collected evidence, there would likely be matches.”
“Do you have photos of missing related people?”
“Yes.”
At Suhan’s question, Director Yoo fetched some documents and set them on the table. Suhan flipped through the photos and frowned. Most were ID photos, and without a live comparison it was hard to identify anyone. Then Suhan’s eyes widened — he recognized one face.
“Huh?”
“Do you know the face? A ghost you knew?”
“Yes. I remember clearly. That man was the last one who died there.”
He could hardly forget. That ghost had questioned his sexual identity and even seemed to know Director Gu well.
“If we check the rest, we should get answers. That land… they’re trying to sell it?”
“It’s an old, malignant listing. It’s worthless.”
“…….”
“Sir, don’t buy it. It’s cursed land, they say.”
At Suhan’s remark, Chairman Yang’s pride flared and he snapped.
“Hah! What little money could that be?”
“Come on. If they sold it and then dug everything up and dumped it into the sea to build a breakwater, could you even find anything?”
“Hmm.”
These were people who had gotten by without trouble so far; they were cautious and left only traces short of clear evidence. No wonder the police hadn’t been able to put them away.
Director Yoo suggested an idea.
“The area is sparsely populated; it’d be good to mobilize a few people to check things out first.”
“Having evidence is the important fact.”
“And then?”
Yang asked. Yoo hesitated; he didn’t have a clear next move. Then Suhan casually dropped a line.
“What’s so complicated?”
“How so?”
“Wouldn’t reporting it make them dig it up on their own?”
“But with just this….”
Yoo meant it was complicated. Suhan went on.
“Ah, there are other things. Say we suspect smuggling or drugs, stuff like that.”
“Huh?”
“If we tip them off that this place is suspicious or name a few locations, and they dig up the land and find something, won’t they investigate?”
Chairman Yang and Director Yoo looked at him with surprised eyes. Suhan scrunched his face and muttered,
“Screw it. Never mind.”
“You actually can think.”
“Eh?”
“That’s a good idea. Let’s poke around. If we send the tip through our group line instead of ordinary people, getting things moving wouldn’t be hard.”
And with that, Suhan had another case to add.
