Counterfeit Lies

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

As the morning sun made its way over the tops of the mid-block high-rises, a metallic black 2013 GMC Yukon XL Denali turned right onto Wilshire Boulevard and two men jumped from the vehicle. They confronted a young Korean male, a minor player in Henry Yeong’s criminal enterprise, walking westbound. For a Sunday, the street was crowded with pedestrians and cars, but no one seemed to notice the abduction. One of the two who sprang from the black SUV jammed a semi-automatic into the back of the young Korean.

“Mr. Park needs to speak to you.”

The young man realized it would do no good to run, hoping he could talk his way out of a violent confrontation. He accompanied the two males a few feet to the back door of the vehicle. All three entered and the driver turned at the next corner. Driving only a few hundred feet, he turned again into an alley that paralleled Wilshire.

When the vehicle stopped, Park, who was in the front passenger seat, turned to confront the young man just snatched off the street in broad daylight. “Do you know why I need to speak with you?”

“No,” said the young Korean.

Park nodded. All five men exited the vehicle with the two heavies holding the frightened man by each arm.

Park repeated the question. “Do you know why I need to talk with you?”

“No,” said the young captive, fright pulsating through his body, raw, fear-induced beads of perspiration appearing on his forehead.

Park nodded and the biggest of his thugs slammed his fist into the man’s stomach. As the victim doubled over, Park repeated the question a third time.

The second gangster grabbed the victim by the hair and straightened him. Gasping for breath the man said in Korean, “I have no idea what you want.”

“I think you do,” said Park. “Where are my daughter and granddaughter?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t part of it and I swear I’ve heard nothing. Please believe me,” replied the man meekly, struggling to breathe and to stand, his legs weakening as the two abductors propped him up for another assault.

The smaller of the two gangsters cracked the terrified man across the mouth with the barrel of the weapon and blood spattered on the front of Park’s pristine shirt.

Park looked down at his shirt, waving his hand toward the stain, and said, “This blood I can clean, but yours can never be replaced when it drains into the alley. Tell me where my daughter and granddaughter are.”

“You must believe me. I have no idea. I swear my boss was not behind the kidnapping. We do not know who took Jenny and the girl.”

“You are lying,” said Park in a gentle voice, shaking his head slowly. With that, the crime boss pulled from his waistband a North Korean Type 68, 7.62mm x 35 semi-automatic pistol equipped with a Maxim suppressor.

Park nodded to the smaller of his two accomplices, who proceeded to pull out his smartphone, press “video app” on the keypad, and point the tiny lens at the young man they had detained on the street just minutes before. The digital device, made in the Republic of Korea, recorded it all:

An off-camera voice asking in Korean: “Where are Jenny and Gracie?”

The terrified, already bloodied face of a young man, replying: “I do not know! Please, do not kill me. I have a wife and two children.”

The off-camera voice saying: “Wrong answer.”

The camera moves slightly to show the barrel of the automatic weapon and the three-inch-long suppressor. Then there is a soft pop as the pistol fires a single round.

A bloody hole appears just above the nose of the young man. His eyes roll back and his face disappears at the bottom of the screen. There is a hole — and a gruesome red stain — on the wall behind where the young man was executed.

The off-camera voice says, “Leave him. I want everyone in our community to know that as many as necessary will die until Jenny and Gracie are free. The person who provides information leading to their safe return will receive one million dollars.”

At 6 a.m. Pacific Daylight Saving Time, the horrific “snuff video” was posted on YouTube. It immediately went viral — first on Korean-language websites and then globally. FBI Headquarters in Washington learned about it from the DoD/NSA Cyber Command at Fort Meade, Maryland. The Los Angeles Field Office received it from FBI HQ at 6:47. Though no one in Washington could identify the voice of the shooter, Jake Kruse would know exactly who it was.