“Hello, David? This is Bruce. I came over the other —”
“Oh, Bruce!” David sounded like he was on the verge of tears. “We’ve been on pins and needles. What’s happening?”
Yeah, I’m an asshole. “Everything’s okay. I paid up and about an hour ago I got my boy back. He hasn’t been hurt … at least not physically. I think everything’s going to be okay.”
“Oh, what a relief. Jia and I have been sick with worry. We’ve hardly slept. Thank you so much for letting us know. Andy called me this morning to ask if I’d heard from you.”
Now I really feel bad. “It’s me who should be thanking you. We took your advice and everything went okay.”
“Listen, now that your son is back, he may need to talk to somebody. If you like, I could pass on the name of the lady who’s helping Tommy. You and your wife may need some counseling, as well. Jia and I found it really difficult afterward. Damn near ruined our marriage. Blaming ourselves, blaming each other. It was —”
“Sorry, David, but I need to go,” Jack interjected. “I appreciate what you’re saying, though. I’ll talk it over with my wife.”
“Even if that’s not the route you want to go, we should still get together sometime,” David suggested. “Andy, too. Maybe everyone could come over for a barbecue.”
“Maybe someday,” Jack replied. “We need some time.”
“I understand. If you ever feel the need to talk to someone, don’t hesitate to call.”
“Thank you. I — I need to get back to my family.”
“No, I understand. Would you like me to pass on the news to Andy?”
“Please, that’d be great. Listen, I want to get back to hugging my son. I promise I’ll keep in touch. The barbecue sounds like a really nice idea.”
Jack stared blankly at his phone after he’d ended the call. Yeah, that’ll be a real fun get-together.
Jack’s next call was to a Corporal Schneider in Commercial Crime. Jack said he was checking out informant information that indicated Powers was involved in a kidnapping.
It was lunchtime when Laura returned to the office.
“The red Mustang was still parked behind their apartment,” she advised. “I found Derek’s SUV in a parking lot off the alley that goes past his office. No sign of his van.”
“It would appear that Peter likes to sleep in.”
“Which means, I presume, we’ll be pulling some late nights. How’d it go with your call to David? Do you still feel like an asshole?”
“Like an even bigger one now.”
“Is that possible?”
Jack gave his usual lopsided smile. “I want you to find out what led up to Peter’s cocaine charges. While you’re doing that, I’ll try and track down which vehicles Derek and Peter have had access to in the last couple of years. Tomorrow I’ll get Alicia to compare those with the CCTV footage she has from Chung’s case. Could be another nail in Powers’s coffin for down the road.”
“That’ll keep her busy,” Laura noted.
Laura finished her call with Drug Section by midafternoon.
“How’d you make out?” asked Jack.
“The charge against Peter six years ago was for two kilos of coke that they seized from the trunk of his car. He took the stand and said he’d lent his car to his brother-inlaw, who he suspected was involved with drugs. The judge bought it and dismissed the charge.”
“That likely reinforced his confidence that it doesn’t take much to outwit the courts,” Jack replied cynically.
“Word is the judge also called the prosecutor to his bench afterward and gave her hell for charging an innocent person.”
“No doubt the judge would never believe that an accused might lie in court. The police maybe, but not the accused.”
“His conviction from two years ago stemmed from being caught by VPD uniform in possession of a quarterpound of cocaine. An informant ordered the coke, and they busted Peter upon delivery. The informant then left town and Peter was later given a fine on a plea deal.”
“I doubt that curbed his misguided ways.”
“Seeing as most dopers are nocturnal, do you want to work a night shift?”
“Friday night would be good.”
“A sergeant who works surveillance on night shifts? I’m truly aghast,” Laura teased.
“If this thing goes sideways, we may both be constables again … if we’re lucky.”
Later in the afternoon, Jack received a call back from Corporal Schneider in Commercial Crime.
“Have a little bit of info for you,” Schneider said. “I talked to a friend of mine who works for a company that hired Powers to check out their office security. He said it was basic kind of stuff. Ensuring use of identity cards, secure locks, alarms, cameras, passwords, that sort of thing.”
“Any idea how many people work for Powers?”
“Not many. My friend told me that some of the guys who do the grunt work are young and don’t have much experience. Mostly criminology students working parttime, or maybe full-time during summer break. That being said, he told me that Powers has a degree in criminology and also did a stint with the Military Police that included working in foreign countries. Apparently he comes off as a little cocky, but he’s smart and knows his stuff. There’s also a rumour that he does corporate espionage. I’ll keep digging and see if I can get more.”
“Much appreciated.”
“You told me to keep this between us because what you’re working on might involve a dirty cop.”
“Yes, it’s possible we have a member supplying info to the bad guys.” Okay, Laura, no need to raise an eyebrow.
“Can you give me a hint as to who you suspect?” Schneider asked.
“I don’t want to point fingers this early in my investigation, but uh, if anyone from MCU contacts you, don’t mention this.”
“MCU? Son of a bitch.” Schneider paused. “If whoever it is does turn out to be dirty, I hope you nail ’em.”
“You got that right.”
Laura stared at Jack as he put his phone away. “What?”
“You told them that someone in MCU is dirty?”
“Hey, it’s a stretch, but somehow Alicia got burned that day on surveillance.”
Laura grinned, then glanced at her watch. “You mixing olive soup later on?”
“Let’s hold off to celebrate when the new kid on the block can join us. I’m sure we can talk her into splurging for martinis after she sees what we got.”
“Speak of the devil,” Laura said, looking at the call display on her phone, “she’s calling. What do I say?”
“Tell her to have a good time at her party tonight.”
“So I shouldn’t say that you started a rumour one of the MCU members is dirty,” Laura retorted, then answered.
Jack listened to her exchanging pleasantries with Alicia.
“Hang on, I’ll ask Jack.” Laura put the phone down and looked up at him. “Are we meeting early tomorrow morning to set up surveillance downtown?”
“No, she hasn’t been introduced to Rose yet. Tell her we’ll meet her here at eight thirty a.m.”
Laura relayed the message and ended the call. “She’s going to be one excited puppy tomorrow when she discovers what we found out. We may have to hide her from Rose for a month until she settles down.”
“Yes, about that. How do you feel about her? Do you like her? More importantly, do you trust her?”
Laura screwed up her face. “To start with, I didn’t like or trust her. Perhaps because she’s young and naive … which I find annoying. When she asked if you’d thought what would happen if she was questioned about your UC, I wanted to smack her.” Laura shook her head. “Can you imagine what she’d think about some of the things we’ve done?”
“At least she was honest.”
“Then she talked about Staffing looking for someone with an honest reputation. I thought, oh, man, Lexton put her in here to spy on us. That’s when I tried to talk you out of the UC.”
“But after all that, she agreed to go along with it.”
“She said nobody puts Baby in a corner.” Laura smiled. “I kind of liked her after that.”
“Me, too,” Jack replied.
“So you trust her?”
“I trust her in the sense that she’s being honest with us. I also get a sense that she’s smart, but has no experience with the kind of work we do or its politics.”
“Operating in the grey zone.”
“Yes … and how well would she disarm questions thrown at her by seasoned investigators out of Internal Affairs? Or, worse yet, by Lexton, who’s clearly perceptive.”
“I have the same concern, although in a way, she reminds me of myself when I was her age … and I survived.” Laura paused as if making up her mind. “I think she shows good potential.”
“I agree, she reminds me of you, as well, except I think of you as my kid sister, whereas she falls more into the daughter-figure category.”
“A daughter? There’s maybe fourteen or fifteen years’ difference between you!”
“Just think what you and I’ve gone through. It ages you.”
“Are you saying I look older than my age?”
“I didn’t say we look older. I meant inside … maturity.”
“Yeah, well, if you’re my brother, you’re a much older one. Much, much older.”
Jack returned Laura’s smirk. “Hopefully someday she’ll be up to your standards. We’ll tread lightly and take it slow until we’ve had more time to assess her.”
“Tread lightly and take it slow?” Laura was indignant. “You sure as heck didn’t do that with me!”
“Really? I thought I did. Guess you were young and naive and thought everything was a big deal back then.”
“You ass,” Laura muttered. “Don’t even get me started about what you were up to the first time I worked with you.”
Jack chuckled. “It troubles me about Lexton,” he said, growing serious. “Particularly coming on the heels of Vath being murdered. If she’s looking to develop a source in our unit, Rose ought to know.”
“Everything?”
“Yup.”
“This ought to be fun. I haven’t had time to sew my stripes onto my red serge yet. Maybe I shouldn’t bother.”