Читать книгу The Benefactor - Don Easton - Страница 13

After thirty minutes of intense questioning, Jack and Laura let Ho return to the Hanoi House so he wouldn’t be missed. They then returned to their office and Jack listened to a phone message from Connie Crane.

Connie said that discreet inquiries on Mia Parker did not reveal any criminal connections. Mia had graduated top in her class when she obtained her master’s in psychology and was currently taking political science. She was single and living in a basement suite a short distance from the University of British Columbia. The owners of the house, Maxwell and Julia Rolstad, were also checked and had no record of any criminal involvement.

Connie noted that Parker’s mother, Jia-li Parker, was a Chinese Canadian and a freelance journalist without any known criminal ties. The only record on file for Jia-li was due to her husband being killed in a hit-and-run accident twenty-five years ago. It happened when he was in a crosswalk at dusk on a rainy day. Although the hit and run was unsolved, Jia-li was definitely ruled out as having any complicity in the crime and Mia was only three years old at the time. Inclement weather and speed were listed as the likely cause.

Jack passed the information on to Laura and they reflected on the similarity of Mia’s father dying in a hit-and-run accident, but considering her age at the time, decided it was not relevant.

What Jack did decide might be important was the Chinese ancestry. He reviewed his notes as to what they had been told by their new informant. As usual, he had worded his notes to protect who had actually given him the information.

1 One day prior to murder — Tom Nguyen (VC-3) ordered Anh Dang to kill an elderly woman who lived alone. Anh Dang lives in a house in Delta with others who work with him at the Hanoi House Restaurant.

2 Anh Dang was ordered to pick two others to help him. He picked Paul Cong and Harry Ho. Cong lives at the same house in Delta and Ho lives in Richmond with his grandmother.

3 Tom Nguyen never gave the reason behind the murder. He simply supplied the address and described the victim as an older woman who lived alone and had a dog.

4 It was imperative to make it look like an accident and Tom Nguyen told Anh Dang to steal a car and drive over her.

5 Anh Dang stole a car and was the driver. He told Paul Cong to be his passenger and Harry Ho to watch the woman’s house from the van and call him when she left.

Jack then flipped the page of his notebook to what he thought was the most important detail.

1 The hit was of extreme importance — Tom Nguyen VC-3 told Anh Dang that the orders came down from the top (Dong Tran VC-1 to Bien Duc VC-2 to Tom Nguyen VC-3 and then to Anh Dang).

“So what do you think?” asked Laura, when Jack looked up.

“It still doesn’t make sense to me,” replied Jack. “Why would the top Viet order such a hit?”

“He is under Satans Wrath control,” noted Laura. “Maybe it has something to do with them.”

“I don’t think so. They would have made sure it was done right. The real target, Nancy Brighton, is still alive.” Jack shook his head as he tried to think of a motive, then added, “Dong Tran is still a crime lord onto himself. I don’t think Satans Wrath were involved.”

Laura grimaced as she thought about it. “If it was over Nancy Brighton fingering someone for a possession beef … that seems ludicrous.”

“Coincidental, though,” replied Jack. “It was only the week before that Nancy saw Mia Parker stash the drugs.”

“Yes … but for possession? What would she get? A small fine or probation?”

“You know what I think of coincidences,” muttered Jack. “I don’t think we can rule anything out. We’re going to have to keep digging. Maybe get a wiretap and do something to get the bad guys talking. I better give I-HIT a call.”

Connie Crane glanced at her watch as she spoke to Jack on the phone. Forty-eight hours since the murder …

“Laura and I have a well-placed source who is in a delicate position in regards to the murder,” said Jack.

“By delicate … you mean involved?” asked Connie.

Jack let his moment of silence answer the question, then said, “Before I disclose anything to you, would you be happy enough to get the driver of the car and the person who ordered him to do it, without charging anyone else in the event you ever did find out who else was involved?”

Connie paused. “Do I have a choice?”

“Sure, you can continue to investigate on your own without our assistance.”

Yeah, like our unit could come up with anything … we’re already at a dead end … Connie sighed and said, “Can you clarify what you mean when you said one of the people who ordered him to do it?”

“Orders were passed along like a military command. The driver was the grunt assigned to complete the task.”

“And you are willing to give me the driver and his boss?”

“Exactly. Maybe other bosses, too. My idea is for you to get a wiretap and catch the driver and his boss talking to each other about it. Maybe do a media release or something to spark conversation. Any action you take in regards to anyone else would have to be done with my approval.”

“Under the circumstances and what we have so far, or I should say, what we don’t have, your proposal sounds great to me.”

“Good.”

“Hold on before you say anything. First I’ll want to run it past a prosecutor as a formality to ensure someone doesn’t try to change our agreement later on.”

“I was about to request that. Glad we’re on the same page. I also want a prosecutor to commit the decision to paper. If someone does screw around and try to charge the informant, I’ll be handing the agreement over to the defence lawyer to get the case squashed.”

“They’ll hate doing that. It infers that we don’t trust them.”

“I don’t. You shouldn’t trust anyone these days. Besides, they’re lawyers. Tell them I said a verbal agreement is only as good as the paper it is written on. That, they should understand.”

“Yeah, okay,” replied Connie. “What you are offering is probably the best deal we could ever come up with. I’m sure they’ll go along with it, but once I get something on paper from them, I’ll need something from you in writing as well if I am going to apply for a wiretap.”

“I’ll do a report. You’ll get a copy as soon as we get the green light, but treat it on a need-to-know basis only.”

“Gotcha.” Connie hung up and immediately called a prosecutor who agreed to meet her later that afternoon. She then updated Boyle on what had transpired.

“You said Taggart was good,” replied Boyle, “but nobody is that good. Today is Friday. Only two days since it happened. To come up with a source that quick … something is fishy. What did he do? Torture somebody?” he added, jokingly.

Connie stared blandly at Boyle and didn’t reply.

Boyle dropped his smile and said, “No seriously, how did he do it?”

“I didn’t ask and neither should you. The important thing is he knows who is responsible. It’s a fantastic deal when you think about it. He’ll give us the driver and who ordered him to do it. What more could we ask for? Once the prosecutor gives us the go-ahead, Jack will send us a report. We are to treat it strictly on a need-to-know basis.”

“But there were others involved,” noted Boyle. He leaned back in his chair, folded his arms across his chest, and abruptly said, “His source has to be one of them. I don’t cut deals with scum. Everyone involved should be charged.”

“Yeah, in an ideal world … but we don’t work in and ideal world. He is willing to hand us what the courts would consider to be the key players. Any others wouldn’t receive much anyway.”

“Well … I don’t like it,” grumbled Boyle.

“Like he said, we’re free to investigate it on our own without their assistance,” replied Connie, somewhat sarcastically.

Later that afternoon, Jack was typing his report when he received a call from Gerry in Forensics.

“You asked me to call you if anyone made any inquiries about you coming in on Wednesday with that bottle of piss,” said Gerry.

“Let me guess,” replied Jack, dryly. “You got a call from Boyle at I-HIT?”

“Yup, about a minute ago. I told him we never did any work for you. I take it he is the dirty member?”

“I think more stupid than dirty, but thanks for letting me know. I won’t forget the amber rum.”

Jack hung up and told Laura about Boyle nosing around.

“What an idiot,” she replied. “He’s trying to figure out how we came up with the info.”

“At best, or wants to identify our source and scoop in and interrogate him in the hopes of charging everyone involved.”

“Defence would love that. Talk about opening Pandora’s Box. Illegal search of a van … let alone try to convince them the bug was a fake …”

“And our word to Ho that we would protect him,” said Jack, tersely. “We’ll have to keep quiet about Boyle asking around or the idiot might figure it out.”

“So you’re going to let him get away with it?”

Jack looked surprised and then frowned. “You know me better than that. What is it I say?”

Laura paused. “You play with the bull you get the horns?”

“Exactly. Time to send I-HIT a report to use as a basis for the wiretap application.”

“If Boyle was stupid enough to call Forensics, you know he won’t respect the contents of our report. Maybe we should let Connie know and only give her a copy.”

Jack smiled. “No. I’ll do a report that will put Boyle and anyone else off track of who our source really is.”

“Sounds good.”

Jack leaned closer. “Also, the bad guys are Vietnamese, but Parker’s mother is Chinese.”

“What are you getting at?”

“A possible connection. We know that Benny Wong CC-1 meets regularly with Dong Tran VC-1. The only common denominator so far is Asian ancestry. Parker’s mother is Chinese. Could she somehow be connected to Wong? It’s a remote possibility, but one I think we should explore.”

“If it was the Chinese, I would think they would do their own hit and not bother asking the Vietnamese,” replied Laura.

“Perhaps, or it could be a favour or in lieu of a payment for a drug debt or something. Maybe they did it to insulate themselves from any suspicion.” Jack paused, then lowered his voice. “Let’s find out.”

“How?” asked Laura, feeling uneasy as Jack got up and closed the door before returning to his desk.

“AOCTF thinks they have someone leaking information to the Chinese. If that’s true, I’m sure that Benny Wong would be privy to it. I have no doubt that some … idiot … will pass our report on to AOCTF to check our credibility, if nothing else.”

“You mean the informant’s credibility,” said Laura.

“No, knowing what Boyle thinks of us, I would say our credibility. If he is caught, then he will say it was to check out the informant.”

“Sad, but I bet you’re right,” said Laura.

“So … if the Chinese are responsible, why waste time working on the Vietnamese?”

“Okay … but how do we find out if they’re behind it?” asked Laura.

“I’ll word the report to see if there are any consequences,” said Jack.

“Consequences?”

Jack used his finger to simulate slashing his throat.

Oh, those consequences. Laura grimaced. Oh, man …