The Cop Guy

A SoCal Novel

By: Mark Barkawitz

Narrated by: Larry Mitchell

Mike Hepp is the tennis pro for the Pasadena Racketeers. When his ex-girlfriend Emily gets beat up by her new beau Paullie—a cocaine dealer supplied by a Mexican cartel—Mike gets called in to save her. Paullie mistakes Mike for a cop. They fight. The Sheriffs arrive to break it up. Emily flees with Mike to his house, but she disappears unexpectedly the next day.

Mike fears she has gone back to Paullie. But weeks later, when she is still missing, law enforcement suspects Mike of her kidnapping and possible murder. When the Racketeers suddenly close down, a friend loans Mike her empty beach house for the summer in private Surfside Colony. He becomes involved with a married woman, whom he thinks is divorced. As his friend Duke later points out: “Can’t you find yourself a normal girlfriend?” Can he? Or will the married woman’s husband or the Mexican cartel’s hitman gun down that damn cop guy before the Sheriffs and the FBI send Mike to prison for the rest of his life?

©2024 Mark Barkawitz (P)2025 Mark Barkawitz