CHAPTER FIFTEEN

 

Friday – April 2

 

Ray agreed to meet Jack at the department early so he could play the recording with Chin from last night. When the playback was finished, Jack switched off the audio app on his phone and sat back in the chair he occupied on the visitors’ side of Ray's desk.

Ray leaned back, mimicking Jack's posture. "That's quite the story. Do you think she's telling the truth?"

"I don't see what she'd gain by lying."

"How do you feel about her living so close to you?"

"Honestly, I don't know. She said it was to be closer to work, but I'm pretty sure it was at least a partial lie. You know how she's behaved since she joined the department; she's been relentless over the years about wanting me to take her out, even before what happened with Leah and Zoe. You have to admit, at times, her behavior has been unprofessional at best."

"It's just a crush, Jack. You're still a good-looking hombre . . . considering your age," he added, straight faced.

Jack glared but didn't take the bait. "Crushes don't last years. I think it's safe to say she's obsessed. This long? It's not healthy. Of all the places in the city she could’ve moved, I wouldn't have expected her to choose a place at the end of a dark alley in the red-light district, for Christ's sake."

"Call it Little Italy all you want, amigo, but your place is also in the red-light district."

"Big difference. At six-four and built like I'll send someone into next week for looking at me cross-eyed, no one is likely to bother me. Given how she was dressed last night . . . I'm not surprised her driver wanted a taste of her.”

Ray shifted in his chair. "What was wrong with her outfit?" Jack gave him a quick rundown of Chin's barely there dress. Ray let out a soft whistle. "You shoulda got a picture."

Jack chuckled. "If you want one, pull the restaurant's surveillance video. You know, I don't think she realizes the impression she makes on people. You know me—everyone has their lives to live, however they choose. It's none of my business, but I try being supportive of others’ choices. Last night, I was actually embarrassed for Amy. She knew it was just a business meeting, yet there was no getting around her dressing to seduce me. She was completely oblivious to everyone staring at her."

"Sounds like she put you in a difficult situation."

"If we didn't need the information on her brother, I would have left. I’d already been waiting an hour and was on my way out when she finally showed up." Jack felt himself getting worked up again. "I've been wondering if I should have a chat with Haniford about this."

"Are you sure you're not getting old and becoming a prude? She's young, single, and looking for fun," Ray said.

Jack ignored the old comment. "That's what her driver thought. She could have been raped. Or worse."

"Point taken. Let's focus on the case. If you go rushing to Haniford, he'll know you're poking around when he specifically told me to keep you out of it." Jack reluctantly agreed. "So, what was your takeaway from the discussion?"

"I learned a few things. Nothing mind blowing, but I’m sure you can agree we can use some of it." Jack pulled out his notebook and flipped it open to the page he'd made a list on earlier. He spun Ray's notepad around and, as he wrote on it, said, "I listened to the recording last night after I got back to my place and made some notes. I'd like to run a couple checks—"

"You mean you want me to run the checks," Ray corrected.

"Put it any way you like, but there are some people we need to know more about who could be relevant to the case. Since I can't do it, yeah, this falls on you."

When he was done copying the information, he spun the notepad back in Ray's direction. "Kenneth Chang, aka Kenny. Lian Chang reported Daniel Chin missing." He looked up at Jack. "Kenny's sister?"

Jack shrugged. "If Kenny had a sister, it's possible Danny got together with her."

Ray nodded his agreement and looked back at the notes. "And you want me to pull the files on Daniel Chin and run his history."

"Amy said he'd been arrested twice to her knowledge, but there could be more. I'd like to see what the system pulls up. It could give us a lead on why he disappeared," Jack said. "And I think we need to take another look at the MPR and any investigation Officers Davis and Minter performed back then."

"Do you think it's necessary? Sounds like a waste of time."

"Amy said she felt like no one took Danny’s disappearance seriously. If she's right and there hadn't been an earnest search for her brother, I think we need to know what had or hadn't been done, and why Davis and Minter dropped the ball on a sister in blue. Might not hurt to run histories on those two as well to see if anything hinky pops up."

"So, you're saying you want a full workup on all of these people." He waved Jack's notes in front of him.

Jack nodded. "The Jade Dragons keep coming up in the conversation too, so I think we need to start following those threads and see where they lead, don't you?" By now, Jack had sat forward with his elbows on his knees. "Look up anything and everything on the gang, including the gang leader. He has to be on file, as well as any and all known associates."

Ray chuckled. "You don't ask for much, do you?"

"That's nothing compared to back in the day." He gave his friend a big, cheesy grin.

"Maybe so, compinche, but back in the day you were on the job and running your own checks." For a long moment, Jack didn't respond. "What? I know that look."

Jack shifted in his chair. "Hear me out. If we both go to Haniford, you can give him an update on the case. Explain to him how Amy would only talk about her brother if I took her out."

"He won't believe it."

"It's the truth and easily confirmed by letting him listen to the recording. I'll tell him I agreed to help facilitate your investigation. After listening to the recording, tell him you realized this goes deeper than you thought and would like his permission to bring me in to help run the checks on these people," Jack suggested.

Ray folded his arms in front of him. "Why wouldn't I just pull in someone else to run the checks? Andrews is riding a desk at the moment after pulling his ACL. I could give him the list."

"Because Rybak killed himself in my house. Like it or not, I'm investigating the guy and everyone he knew until I find out why he chose my house to off himself. I have a vested interest. Besides, Haniford hates when I'm investigating something relating to a department case and withhold intel. It makes his investigators work overtime to get it on their own. He'll bring me in just to keep me from doing that."

"You'd really withhold details from me?" Ray patted his chest over his heart and sniffed dramatically, as if he were about to cry. "¿Mi hermano de otra madre me haría eso?"

Jack smirked at Ray's failed attempt at sounding hurt. "Brother from another mother, eh?" Ray tapped his chest again; his pained expression took on a comedic look. Chuckling, Jack said, "I would never withhold from you. You know that. But look at this realistically. You need help and I’m available. More importantly, suggesting to Haniford that he let me in will protect your promotion."

"Screw that."

"You deserve it, and you know it. I don’t want to be the one responsible if you lose it. Whatever you think of it, a promotion means more money. You have a growing family to think about. Especially since you refused money from Social Services for taking in Dewayne." From his friend's silence, he knew Ray was spinning things around in his head. Jack had known Ray long enough to recognize the look. "And while in Haniford's office, it would give me the opportunity to voice my concerns over Amy Chin's behavior."

"What do you expect him to do? He can't fire her for dressing like a hooker. She can do what she wants on her free time."

"True, but her infatuation with me has gone on long enough. She started hitting on me the moment she joined the department. Even when she was told I was married. And she barely waited a minute after I lost my family to kick it up a notch and hasn't let up. Now she's effectively moved in next door to me—a single woman in the red-light district—and only now tells me?" Jack took a breath and lowered the pitch of his voice back to normal. "Blackmailing me into taking her out before she'd help us with this case is way over the line. She should have been doing her job and giving you anything you need to help find Danny. Something's not right with her and I think Haniford needs to know. If he can give her a tap on the shoulder, maybe she'll back off."

Ray grumbled out an "I'll think about it" before shuffling through the papers on his desk. "Meantime, I've got the files from Bud over in Robbery on the head shop robberies." He shoved a copy in Jack's direction. "He gave me everything he had from around the time Rybak and Warren disappeared. There were a lot of very busy little cacos back then."

Jack skimmed the page before looking up. "Same guys from the university?"

"Not all of the robberies, but a lot of them. It sounds like you want to focus on the Jade Dragons, so let's concentrate our energies there."

"Thanks." Jack flipped to a blank page in his notebook.

Ray scanned the Robbery reports. "First, Li Zihao runs the Jade Dragons. According to Bud's notes, Li is a Chinese export who arrived in the city about fifteen years ago. He was thirty-eight on his last birthday and has a last known in Chinatown."

"Sounds pretty young to be a drug kingpin."

Ray nodded and continued. "He has a number of arrests since coming to the city, but he hasn't served any real jail time."

"Slick lawyer?" Jack asked.

"And deep pockets," Ray said with a nod. "According to Bud, Li runs five head shops around the city—Dragon's Claw down in the Mission District; Dragon's Tail in the Castro; Dragon's Heart in the Haight, Dragon's Head in Cow Hollow; and the parent shop, Dragon's Lair, is in Chinatown."

Jack rose and went to the city map on the office wall. He remembered putting it up when he’d shared this office with Ray. He'd used it so often—pinning and taping case details to it—he'd had to replace it several times. By the look of this one, it had probably been the last one he'd used before leaving the force four years ago. Pinholes and tears covered the paper, and it had faded over the years, but it hadn't served out its time yet.

"What's up, Jack?"

He scanned the map. "I want to get a visual of where the shops are located." He pulled a few tacks out of the corkboard beside the map and marked the locations of the head shops. When he was done, he stood back and folded his arms in front of him. Ray came up beside him. "Look at this. The shops appear in a sort of circle around the city. Jack used his pen and connected the tacks. "Here's the shop in Chinatown—Dragon's Lair." He circled it several times with the blue ink. "Using that for a point of reference—" He drew a line from one shop to the next.

"Hmm," Ray said as he scrutinized the map. "What do you think it means?"

Jack tapped the blunt end of the pen against the map. "The location of the shops are in a near-perfect circle around the city proper—the outer bounds of what's considered the main shopping and tourist districts. It looks like the shops were chosen strategically, as if they're marking territory."

"That's a stretch," Ray said, "but go on."

"If they have staked their territory, I think we need to talk to their competition before going into the Jade Dragons’ shops. Maybe they know something that could help us."

"Any idea which you want to stop at first?"

Jack looked at his list and scrutinized the dates all of the shops had been robbed, marking each of the Dragon shops with a highlighter he pulled off his old desk—the one formerly occupied by Paul Travers and any number of partners Ray had scared off. "I think we need to visit the shops that had been robbed the most. Find out what made the shops so attractive to our thieves."

"Good idea."

As he contemplated the list, Jack's gaze kept going back to Dragon's Lair. "Hmm . . . .”

“Hmm what?”

“Did you notice Dragon's Lair had only been hit once? Other shops were hit multiple times but Dragon's Lair just the one time."

Ray looked closely at Jack's highlighted notes. "Looks like it."

"That shop was never hit again. In fact, the number of robberies around the city dropped way off after Dragon's Lair was hit."

"I think we need to have a chat with Li."

"Agreed, but after we talk with some of their competition," Jack said. "Do you think Haniford will approve a warrant for any surveillance video the shop may still have from back then? It's a long shot, I know."

Ray shook his head. "Too soon. Let's visit some of the independent shops and ask if they still have videos that far back. After talking with Li at Dragon's Lair, if we're met with any resistance, on anything, I'll take it to the LT and see if he’ll agree to a search warrant."

Jack gave Ray a curt nod before returning to the desk. "Is Haniford in today?"

"Yeah, why?"

"There's no better time than now for you to bring him up to speed, and—"

"And ask him to bring you on board when he explicitly said no?" Ray went to his desk and collected the files. Jack followed Ray out of the office.

"Well, yeah,” Jack said. “We still need the reports run, and there are a lot of head shops in the city to visit. You're a great investigator, but you're not Superman. You’ll need help." You as in we, Jack meant.

"He'll probably pull in Harry and Wash."

"The more, the merrier. They're good investigators.” If Jack knew his former partner as well as he thought he did, and he did, he knew Ray was running possible scenarios in his mind about how the conversation in the LT's office would go. By his friend’s scowl, he’d bet Ray didn’t think the conversation would end well. He stopped Ray just before they reached Haniford’s office. "You know I'm right. Look, we can play it one of two ways. One, I can go in on my own and have that chat with Haniford about Amy's behavior. I'll let him listen to the recording from the restaurant and explain my concerns. She blackmailed us both into my meeting her, effectively forcing my hand to get involved. Now that I’m in the kitchen, why not let me cook?”

Ray huffed to disguise his chuckle. "And two?"

"Or two, you can go in and explain everything. Including how you were forced to bring me in for the non-date with Amy so you could get what you needed from her. Let him listen to the recording. Since she's forced me into the case, does Haniford want to avail of my help? It's not like it'll be the first time we've come to an arrangement like this," he reminded Ray.

"Is there a middle option?"

Jack shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe we both go in. You start, and when you get to the Amy bit I'll explain my involvement . . . explain my concerns about her . . . see what he says about the rest."

"You know, none of this makes me comfortable," Ray admitted.

"Me either, but I have a gut feeling we're onto something important. Not just why Rybak offed himself in my house. Just something . . . more. I can't explain it."

Ray took a couple steps back. "I know about your gut feelings ese."

"Stop being a drama queen. If I'm right, though, there's no way in hell Haniford or anyone will refuse you that promotion."

"I'm not worried about that."

"Maybe not, but I am. I have a feeling breaking this case will open a lot of doors for you, brother." Ray just laughed. "Come on. Let's go in. Whatever’s going to happen will happen." Jack inhaled deeply when they reached Haniford’s office door. "I just hope we don’t ruin his lunch."