Koreatown Blues by Mark Rogers

Author:Mark Rogers [Rogers, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brash Books, LLC
Published: 2016-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SEVEN

The Olympic Division police station on Vermont resembled a run-of-the-mill grammar school building; three stories of brown brick and glass. I parked my new rental at an empty meter across the street and took a deep breath.

Last night it had taken me a couple of hours to get home to Yun’s after leaving my Ford Focus at the airport. This morning Yun caught a fare to LAX, and I rode shotgun. I picked up the Focus in long-term parking and drove it back to the car rental agency in Silver Lake, exchanging it for a green Jeep Cherokee. Hopefully I wouldn’t get made so quickly this time.

So far my luck had been good, ducking bullets and dodging the tail. But I knew my luck couldn’t hold forever. The stakes were too high if I did slip up. Shin had made it clear he wasn’t going to negotiate with me. If I brought the police into this and they managed to shine a light on Shin, he might have to cut his losses instead of being such a sore winner.

I had a sick feeling in my stomach as I entered the lobby of the police station. I hated anything to do with the courts, or the police or the IRS—I hated placing myself in their power. I couldn’t shake the feeling that it could always go two ways with them—they could prop me up or bash me down. I was subject to their whims. A cop could have a fight with his wife at the breakfast table, and he’d take it out on me. An IRS agent might get told he’s not posting the right numbers and put me under the microscope. I stayed as far away as possible from all authority.

I asked a cop where to go to file a complaint, and he pointed toward a Plexiglas wall with teller windows, similar to what you’d see in a bank.

I walked over. My heart sank when I saw the sole police officer behind the glass—a Korean with a shock of black hair.

I leaned in and said, “I may have to kill somebody. I’d like to register a complaint so I’m on record that my life has been threatened.”

The Korean officer didn’t make a move to write anything down. He didn’t even ask me for identification. Instead he said, “Can you explain the situation you find yourself in?”

“I’ve angered a Korean family, and I’m caught up in the middle of a blood feud.”

“What did you do to anger them?”

I didn’t like where this was going. I didn’t want to tell him I was paid twenty-five thousand to marry a Korean woman. Technically it wasn’t against the law, since Soo Jin was a citizen. But it would make me look like a sleaze. I had the fleeting, disheartening thought that maybe I was.

“I’m not really sure what I did,” I said. “But they threatened me.”

“Did you threaten them back?”

I thought about that for a moment. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

“Then you’re caught in a bind,” said the Korean officer.

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