chair so Jack and Laura wouldn’t see him. When Connie looked at him, he gave a sideways glance at Jack and Laura, then rolled his eyes as if to say, Why did you bother calling these two yokels over …
Connie chose to ignore him and leaned forward in her chair, clasping her hands on her desk. “Jack … I called the Asian Organized Crime Task Force before giving you a call, but they don’t have anything that would help.”
“Who did you speak to in AOCTF?” asked Jack.
“One of the secretaries. She was pretty short with me. Said if something came up, they would let me know.”
“In future,” said Jack, “if you need something from AOCTF, I would suggest you give Sergeant Roger Morris a call.”
There was something about Jack’s tone of voice and how he looked at Connie that told her there was something he was trying to imply. “Oh?” she asked.
“Roger’s a good guy,” replied Jack. He gave Connie a hard look, shifted his eyes momentarily to glance at Boyle, then looked back at Connie and said, “I trust Roger.”
“Yeah, AOCTF are really busting their asses over there,” interjected Boyle. “They’ve taken a lot of weapons off the street. Equates to saving us a lot of work.”
Connie looked at Jack and gave a faint nod that she understood. AOCTF has a leak … be damned careful who you talk to… Connie glanced at Boyle. And Jack doesn’t trust him enough to talk about it in front of him…
Laura glanced at Boyle. “You’re right about AOCTF being busy,” she said. “They’re so tied up with the punks doing the gang shootings that they don’t have time to go after the guys higher up.”
Connie cleared her throat and looked at Jack. “I know you’re busy, but I wouldn’t have called asking for help if there were, uh, alternative investigative methods I could do myself. I’m really at a loss. I know you two have a knack for turning informants or getting information.”
Jack smiled. “What did you do when you looked up my number,” he asked, “look in your phone book under last resort?”
Connie would have smiled if someone else had said that … but Jack was telling the truth. Their eyes locked momentarily. “Something like that,” she admitted. “I have a serious time issue. If Nancy Brighton was the real target, we need to know and get a handle on it pretty damned quick. Any ideas?”
“I have some,” replied Jack. “Any chance of getting a search warrant for the van?”
“Based on it driving by on the street? Not a chance.”
“A witness said it was possible that Asians were driving the Honda,” noted Laura. “We’ve got a Vietnamese delivery van, so there is an Asian connection.”
“Are you kidding me?” replied Connie. “Over half of Richmond is Asian. A judge would laugh me out of the office.”
“Besides,” said Boyle, looking at Jack, “we’re talking about a delivery van for a restaurant.” He did not keep the sarcasm out of his voice when he added, “What could you hope to find in it, other than about a hundred different sets of fingerprints?”
“I take it you’ve never spent time on surveillance in the back of a van,” replied Jack.
“Not really. I prefer a more active approach to police work,” replied Boyle.
“Yes, I can tell by the sleep in your eyes that you must be run off your feet,” replied Jack.
Boyle took Jack seriously and nodded, rubbing his eyes.
“I’ve spent countless hours on surveillance,” continued Jack. “You get the munchies. You get thirsty. There could be candy wrappings or —”
“Candy wrappings tossed back by service people in the van,” interrupted Boyle. “Means nothing.”
“Or perhaps fingerprints on a set of binoculars,” added Jack.
Boyle paused. “Oh, uh, yeah, I guess,” he replied. “Still, the point is moot. We can’t get a warrant. You said you had some ideas. What are your others?”
Jack ignored Boyle’s question and nodded to Laura, indicating it was time to leave. “I’ll call you tomorrow, Connie,” said Jack, over his shoulder as he and Laura walked out.
After they left, Boyle looked at Connie and said, “What a jerk. Did you see that? He treated me like I wasn’t even here.” Boyle glanced in disgust in the direction Jack had left and added, “He doesn’t have a clue what to do.”
“You were rude, too, when you sat back in your chair a moment ago, rolling your eyes.”
“Maybe, but it’s not like either of them saw that.”
“Jack did. Right after you did it, he looked at me, frowned, then rolled his eyes to mimic you.”
“There’s no way he could see me. I leaned back —” Boyle then caught his reflection in the window behind Connie. “Oh, maybe he did see me.”
“There is no maybe about it,” replied Connie, firmly.
“Yeah, well, big deal. It’s not like they can help us.”
“We don’t know that yet. I told you they are both UC operators. They have certain talents that neither of us have.”
Boyle chuckled. “Come on, Connie. Don’t you think they might have a little difficulty going undercover as Asians? What are they going to do? Scotch-tape their eyes back?”
Connie thought of Jack and Laura’s demeanour as she glared at Boyle. They accurately read your personality as soon as they met you…. She took a deep breathe to calm her response. “You’re new, so let me give you some advice. Show some respect and don’t fuck with them. We need their help.”
“Why?” replied Boyle, defensively. “What can they do that we can’t?”
“What would you do?” replied Connie.
“Well … I know Forensics likely won’t come up with anything on the Honda, but they still haven’t told us if there are any prints on the broken wine bottle left at the scene. Tomorrow we could canvas the neighbourhood where the Honda was stolen from and see if anyone saw something.”
“And if both of those avenues turn out to be dead ends, then what?”
“I don’t know. What would you suggest?”
“I don’t know, either, which is why I called Taggart.”
Boyle frowned. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry if I came off sounding like an ass, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up on him. He said he had some other ideas, but didn’t come up with them when I asked. Bet you don’t get any phone call from him tomorrow.”
Connie gave a grim smile. She believed Taggart would get results. It was how he would get results … or the consequences of his results that worried her.
Chapter
