warned you not to fuck with them,” seethed Connie. “Then first chance you get you try to scoop the file out from under them,” she added contemptuously.
“I was not!” protested Boyle. “I was just doing my job!”
“Bullshit! You know it and I know it. So does Jack. I got off the phone with him and I can tell you he is some pissed off.”
“Yeah, well, so what if he’s pissed off? We’ve got the info now. We don’t need him anymore.”
“Great attitude. I’ll be sure to reflect your comment on your next assessment.”
“What? For doing my job and exploring all avenues in a murder investigation?”
“Let me give you a word of advice. You have no idea what the future will bring or who we will need to help us. All I can say is that your reputation has gone down the toilet.” She glanced around the office and added, “Nobody will ever want to work with you.”
Boyle avoided eye contact with his colleagues and stared at his desk as Connie walked away.
Over the next several days, Connie worked feverishly on her application to apply for a wiretap order. Unless Jack and Laura received further information from their informant regarding the case, which they said they didn’t expect to, Connie believed that for all intents and purposes, Jack and Laura were finished with the investigation.
At nine o’clock Thursday night, Jack and Laura were parked, watching Bien Duc VC-2’s house through binoculars, when they saw Roger Morris from AOCTF drive past the house. Jack radioed him and he pulled up alongside their car to speak.
“Glad I ran into you,” said Roger. “I was dialling your number when you radioed me.”
“What’s up?” asked Jack, then added with mock surprise, “I didn’t think sergeants ever worked past four o’clock … or is it three o’clock during golf season?”
“If I could trust everyone in my office, I wouldn’t be,” grumbled Roger. “I still can’t sleep at nights trying to figure out who the leak is. Tonight we’ve got something strange going on. Coupled with your report being tossed around our office all weekend I’m really worried.”
“What’s up?” asked Jack.
“We heard one of our shooters over the wire bragging about being able to eat good food at a restaurant while doing bodyguard work last night in a meeting between Benny Wong CC-1 and Dong Tran VC-1.”
“Do you know which restaurant?” asked Jack.
“The Phnom Penh in Chinatown. It serves Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Chinese food. It’s a good place and there’s nothing unusual about that because Wong and Tran usually meet once a month at different restaurants. The thing is, I know they met about two weeks ago, so last night’s meeting doesn’t fit their normal schedule.”
Laura exchanged a glance with Jack and she raised one eyebrow, but didn’t voice what she was thinking. Yup, there’s going to be consequences …
“I take it there is something else to bring you out?” asked Jack, turning back to Roger.
“Yeah. Three hours ago we heard there was a meeting tonight between Tran and his VC-2s. This is a little unusual. He often meets with them one on one, but not normally all together, other than for something like Tet.”
“Their new year’s celebration,” noted Jack. “Wrong time of year for that.”
Roger nodded. “Obviously something is up, so my team tried to follow Tran, but lost him when he got out on foot in Chinatown. They did see two other VC-2s walking past in the same area, so we know the meeting is on, but there was no way us round-eyes could follow them without being burned.”
“Thought you had some Asians on your team?” replied Jack.
“None that these bad guys don’t already know. Anyway, the guys called me at home to update me and I got to thinking about your report. I came to see if Bien Duc VC-2 was at the meeting. Looks like he is the only VC-2 still home. I have to tell ya, that makes me feel pretty uneasy, considering the report you did last week.”
“I told you not to worry about it,” said Jack.
“You seem so calm about it. Me, I’m worried.”
“I presume you have lots of Asian translators in your office to monitor the lines,” noted Laura. “Any of them come on board in the last six months since you think you’ve had a leak?”
“A couple, but personally I think they are all good people. Really dedicated. There is nobody I suspect.”
“As I said, I wouldn’t worry too much,” said Jack. “Especially about Bien Duc. There is a possibility that we heated him up on surveillance. Got a little close to him earlier, so maybe he thought it best to skip the meeting.”
“Hope so.” Roger paused a moment, then gestured with his thumb toward Duc’s house. “I’m not trying to be nosy, but I hope he isn’t your informant. If that report was leaked and he wasn’t invited to the meeting …” His words trailed off as he stared intently at Jack, waiting for a response.
“He’s not our informant,” said Jack, firmly.
Roger nodded thoughtfully, then gave Jack a sideways glance. “So if he’s not your informant, then I presume you’re out trying to identify more of his associates to help Connie get her wire?”
“Exactly. Watching him intermittently, along with VC-3 and the driver,” replied Jack, nonchalantly.
“Yeah … right,” replied Roger, not sounding sincere. He locked eyes with Jack and said, “You know I’ve been at this game a long time.”
“I realize that,” replied Jack, “and I respect your abilities.”
Roger nodded. “Guess it’s time I acted like a sergeant and went home. Happy hunting.”
As Roger drove away, Jack looked at Laura and said, “That is a guy you could trust to have your back.”
“I kind of got that feeling, too,” replied Laura. She then gestured to Duc’s house. “A high-level meeting without him being invited … sounds to me like your theory may become more than a theory.”
“Time will tell,” replied Jack.
After working long hours of surveillance over the weekend and on Monday without seeing anything of significance, Jack and Laura saw a taxi arrive at eleven-thirty Tuesday morning and watched Bien Duc come out of his house with a small suitcase. They followed him to the Vancouver International Airport and watched as he met up with Tom Nguyen VC-3.
At three o’clock that afternoon, Duc and Nguyen boarded a plane for a thirteen-hour flight to Hong Kong. With the time difference, it would be seven o’clock Wednesday night in Hong Kong when the flight arrived.
Jack was still at the airport when he received a call from their informant.
“I just found out from Anh Dang that Tom Nguyen and Bien Duc are going to Hong Kong for a couple of days,” said
