“We’re screwed,” said Connie, pulling up a chair and plunking herself down in front of Jack and Laura’s desks. “I was at AOCTF. Roger doesn’t have a clue who the guy was in the parkade on Friday. We sat in his office and went through a ton of photographs he had on his computer. No match.”
“What about facial recognition through driver’s licences?” asked Jack.
“Negative on that, too,” replied Connie. “Maybe he doesn’t have a driver’s licence, although the image we got is a little grainy, so that could be the problem also.”
“Is it really that big of a deal?” asked Jack. “We know that Benny Wong ordered the hit with instructions to make it look like a hit-and-run accident. With how professional Mia Parker was on Friday in regards to counter-surveillance, it confirms our theory that she is ultimately the reason for Betty Donahue’s murder. Mr. X, as we can call him, has to be the go-between. Maybe he’s somebody who’s been too insignificant in Wong’s organization to hit the spotlight yet, which would be a good reason for Wong to use him. Forget Mr. X, I think Wong is who we need to concentrate on.”
“All well said and done,” replied Connie, “but how?”
“What would you usually do?” asked Laura.
“I was trying to get a wiretap on the Vietnamese,” replied Connie. “But that was when I thought we were dealing with low-level punks on the bottom.” She looked at Jack and said, “Do you really think we would catch Wong on a wiretap?”
“Possible, but not likely,” replied Jack.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” replied Connie, bitterly. “He’s been around for years and by the way Parker was, you know she’s been trained too well to blab much. Also, if she isn’t meeting Wong in person, it’s not like she would be talking about it with him regardless … and that’s the guy I want to nail.”
“I agree,” replied Jack, “not to mention, from what she said to Rankin on Friday, she thinks the police were bribed and doesn’t know about the murder.”
“That is strange,” replied Connie. “After her performance on Friday, I’m confident she’s part of their organization, so why wouldn’t they tell her they were going to kill the witness?”
“Maybe they don’t think she has the stomach for it,” said Laura.
“From what I’ve heard of Benny Wong, if you work for him you better have a stomach for it,” said Jack, grimly.
“There’s another problem,” said Connie, sounding exasperated. “Nancy Broughton is ticked off and wants to return home. I can’t convince her to stay in Chilliwack much longer. I’ve been picking up her mail once a week and delivering it to her, more to keep in touch than anything, but she is becoming more upset every time I see her.” Connie looked at Jack and said, “She’s expecting me this morning, actually.” She paused and added, “Doesn’t your sister live out near Chilliwack? When’s the last time you visited her?”
Jack stared briefly at Connie, then smiled. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
“Good, I appreciate it,” replied Connie, letting out a sigh of relief. “A neighbour has been looking after her place and picking it up. I’ll make the calls so they’ll know to expect you. Maybe when you give the mail to Nancy you can use your charm to convince her to stay where she is. She won’t listen to me.”
“Maybe my charm will be to show her pictures of a bunch of the thugs who work for Wong,” replied Jack. “If she’s not suicidal, she should listen.” He stared at Connie a moment and asked, “Have you thought of what any other motive could be? Other than Parker simply trying to avoid getting a criminal record?”
“That’s a puzzler, too,” replied Connie. “Roger said the same thing, that Parker has to be a high-valued asset for Wong to do what he did. She’s not his mistress, so what is it?”
“Wong is behind major drug, gun, and people-smuggling activities,” noted Laura.
“You think Parker is connected to one of those?” asked Connie.
Jack shook his head. “Guess it’s possible, but if she is, we should have heard about her. Particularly with her connection to Wong. So with that in mind, maybe she’s involved in his more legitimate enterprises.”
“Which is the shipping industry, commercial real-estate ventures, and property rental,” noted Laura. “Property rental that includes a lot of massage parlours.”
“Parker doesn’t strike me as being involved in prostitution,” said Jack.
“So where do we go from here?” asked Connie. “Considering that Parker didn’t even know about the murder, it puts my sights directly on Wong … but how do we go about it?”
“I have an idea,” replied Jack. “A little hazy at the moment …”
Hazy at the moment? thought Laura. Oh man … the words Jack uses when he doesn’t want someone to know what he’s up to.
“However,” continued Jack, “there is something I would like you to check out. Parker came out of the house on Friday all smiles and waving.”
“Yeah, Rankin said she was like Jekyll and Hyde,” said Connie, “becoming a real B when she got in the patrol car.”
“Her performance outside the car had to be an act so someone in the house wouldn’t know about her drug charge,” said Jack. “I’d suggest you dig into the owners a bit more and see what they’re all about.”
“That would be the Rolstads,” replied Connie. “They own the house. I checked them out previously. No criminal records on either and both appear to be model citizens.”
“What do they do for a living?” asked Jack.
“Some kind of PR company,” replied Connie.
“Check into it a little further,” suggested Jack. “Give Commercial Crime a call. See if we can find out who their clients are.”
“Will do. And you two?” asked Connie.
“We need a source,” said Jack. “Someone to tell us what’s going on.”
“Sounds a bit like déjà vu,” replied Connie. “I was stuck and needed your help when I thought we were going after the Vietnamese. Took you less than a day to come up with something. Think you can pull a rabbit out of the hat again?”
“Possibly,” replied Jack. “I’m toying with the idea of doing an undercover operation on Wong.”
“He already knows what you and Laura look like,” said Connie, “from the night you tried to follow him.”
“I know.”
“I take it you’re thinking of a long-term operation using Chinese members?”
Jack shook his head. “That type of UC on Wong would be next to impossible. We have a couple of Chinese operators, but when it comes to someone as high up as Wong, the bad guys would want to know all their family connections. They might even expect to know what cities or villages in China their families were originally from. Our operators would never pass the screening process that Wong would have in place.”
“So then you’re looking at turning someone who is willing to testify,” said Connie. “That’s going to be difficult. Even if you do, it would mean turning a criminal, which gives defence a huge opportunity to question the credibility in front of a jury.”
“Getting a source is part of my idea,” said Jack. “Like I said, the other part is still a little hazy.”
“Would your idea result in another three bodies turning up?” chided Connie.
“Wasn’t me who passed the report on to AOCTF,” replied Jack coldly.
Connie stared silently back at Jack. It wasn’t … but why do I sense that the hazy part of your idea involves something you don’t want me to know about …