Kill the Messenger

Tyler didn’t like the look in that one’s eyes. He wanted to hop out of his chair and scurry out of the office to disappear into one of his hiding spaces. But when he slid out of the chair and started to inch his way to the door, the big man blocked his exit.

“Mrs. Chen—” the other one started.

“You may call me Madame Chen,” she said in a frosty tone as she rose from her chair.

“Madame Chen,” he tried again. “I’m Detective Kyle, and this is my partner, Detective Roddick. We’re with the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division. We’d like to ask you some questions about your car.”

“Another one about the car,” Chi commented.

Kyle turned to him. “Another?”

Madame Chen snapped a look at her nephew. “Chi, you may go now.”

He tried to look smug, as if he was certain she wouldn’t dress him down in front of these men. “I just thought I could—”

“Go. Now,” she said firmly. Then in Chinese she said that he was a thorn in her side and if he didn’t change his attitude she would pluck out the thorn and be rid of him.

Chi’s face darkened, and he left the room looking humiliated and angry. Once again, Tyler tried to slip out, and once again the big guy blocked him.

Detective Kyle turned toward him. “And who are you?”

“I don’t have to talk to you,” Tyler said. “I’m just a kid.”

“I only asked for your name. Is there some reason you think you might get in trouble for talking to me?”

“No, sir. I just don’t like you, that’s all.”

“Tyler!” Madame Chen exclaimed. “Do not speak to anyone that way! How rude.”

“I was only telling the truth.”

“Telling the truth is a good thing, young man,” Kyle said in a phony, patronizing tone. “So who are you?”

Tyler gave the man his most stubborn look.

“He is my son,” Madame Chen announced.

The cops looked from Madame Chen to Tyler and back.

“Adopted,” she amended.

The detectives looked at Tyler again. Eyes wide and innocent, he started to rattle off his opinion of the two detectives in flawless Mandarin.

The detectives stared at him, then looked at each other. Madame Chen was trying not to laugh at what he was saying, the reprimand she delivered in Chinese losing all of its edge. Tyler started to giggle.

“Leave us now, Tyler,” she said. “The gentlemen need to see me alone.”

Dismissed, Tyler slipped out the office door and nearly ran into Chi, who had clearly been eavesdropping again.

Tyler looked up at his sour face. “Did you need something, Chi? I can go tell Madame Chen you’re waiting for her.”

“Why don’t you mind your own business?” Chi said in a low voice. “I have more right to be here than you.”

“Not today,” Tyler said. “You are only a nephew. I am Madame Chen’s adopted son. Didn’t you hear that through the door?”

“Don’t get comfortable with that idea,” Chi warned. “Maybe it won’t be long before you are gone from here. Your brother is a criminal. And when he goes to prison, people from Social Services will come and take you away. I’ll make sure of that.”

Tyler’s worst nightmare. The fear and the anger bubbled up inside his head, and into his throat. He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream. Instead, he hauled back and kicked Chi’s shinbone as hard as he could.

Chi let out a yelp of pain, then a bunch of curse words, as he grabbed Tyler by the shoulders, his thick fingers digging in.

Tyler screamed as loudly as he could. “Don’t hurt me! Don’t beat me!”

The office door flew open and the two cops came out just as Chi started to shake him.

Madame Chen shouted, “Chi! What is the matter with you? Let him go!”

The cops didn’t let him have any other option. The big one grabbed hold of Chi and yanked him backward as Kyle grabbed hold of Tyler and pulled him back.

Tyler crumpled into a little ball on the floor, sobbing.

The big cop slammed Chi up against the wall face-first, handcuffed him, and started to pat him down for weapons.

Madame Chen crouched down by Tyler and tried to comfort him in Chinese. Tyler sat up and let her put her arms around him. He pretended to be shaking with fear, hiccupping and trying to stop crying.

Madame Chen asked him if he was hurt. He shook his head no.

The big cop was reading Chi his rights. Madame Chen glared up at her nephew and told him in no uncertain terms he was a disgrace to the family. Tyler looked at Chi, made a face, and stuck out his tongue.

“I didn’t do anything to him!” Chi exclaimed. “The little shit kicked me!”

Madame Chen marched over, reached up, grabbed her nephew’s ear, and gave it a twist, all the while shouting at him in Chinese. Tyler had never seen her so angry.

“Ma’am,” Detective Kyle said, trying to gently draw her away from Chi. “We’ll take care of it. We’ll take care of him.”

“Good!” she said, still glaring at Chi. “Perhaps he will learn something in prison. A trade perhaps, which he can use when he gets out.”

“You always favor them over me!” Chi shouted. “I am your family! I am your flesh and blood! I deserve —”

Furious, Madame Chen cut him off, going at him with more rapid-fire Chinese. The detectives looked at each other, frustrated by their inability to understand the words being exchanged. The one named Kyle looked down at Tyler.

“Can you tell us what they’re saying? What did he mean when he said, ‘You always favor them over me’?”

“Sometimes Chi is paranoid and de-lu-sion-al,” Tyler said, rubbing at his sore shoulder. “You can look that up if you don’t know what it is. I have a dictionary.”

“I know what it is,” Kyle said. “Why would you know about those things?”

“Because I’m smart, and I have an in-sa-tia-ble desire to learn new things.”

Kyle didn’t quite know what to say about that. Instead, he changed subjects. “Are you hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Tyler shook his head.

“Has this happened before? Has he hurt you before?”

“No. He didn’t hurt me now either.”

“Because you can tell me,” Kyle said in that same condescending tone of voice he had used before. “You won’t ever have to worry about him hurting you again.”

“Are you going to put him in prison?” Tyler asked bluntly. “I don’t think you should. He runs the fish market. He kind of needs to be here.”

“We’ll see,” Kyle said. “He’s going to jail right now.”

“He’s a liar and a troublemaker,” Tyler said. “You should know that up front. You can’t believe anything he says.”

It was one thing to get Chi in trouble, sending him to jail was something else. Who knew what he might tell the police?

“He really didn’t hurt me,” Tyler said. “And I did kick him first.”

“Why did you do that, son?” Kyle asked.

Tyler bristled a little at the word son. “Because he says mean things just to hurt people’s feelings.”

“He hurt your feelings? What did he say?”

“That he has more right to be here than I do because I’m adopted. But I don’t think you should put him in jail