me guess,” replied Jack, dryly. “You got a call from Boyle at I-HIT?”
“Yup, about a minute ago. I told him we never did any work for you. I take it he is the dirty member?”
“I think more stupid than dirty, but thanks for letting me know. I won’t forget the amber rum.”
Jack hung up and told Laura about Boyle nosing around.
“What an idiot,” she replied. “He’s trying to figure out how we came up with the info.”
“At best, or wants to identify our source and scoop in and interrogate him in the hopes of charging everyone involved.”
“Defence would love that. Talk about opening Pandora’s Box. Illegal search of a van … let alone try to convince them the bug was a fake …”
“And our word to Ho that we would protect him,” said Jack, tersely. “We’ll have to keep quiet about Boyle asking around or the idiot might figure it out.”
“So you’re going to let him get away with it?”
Jack looked surprised and then frowned. “You know me better than that. What is it I say?”
Laura paused. “You play with the bull you get the horns?”
“Exactly. Time to send I-HIT a report to use as a basis for the wiretap application.”
“If Boyle was stupid enough to call Forensics, you know he won’t respect the contents of our report. Maybe we should let Connie know and only give her a copy.”
Jack smiled. “No. I’ll do a report that will put Boyle and anyone else off track of who our source really is.”
“Sounds good.”
Jack leaned closer. “Also, the bad guys are Vietnamese, but Parker’s mother is Chinese.”
“What are you getting at?”
“A possible connection. We know that Benny Wong CC-1 meets regularly with Dong Tran VC-1. The only common denominator so far is Asian ancestry. Parker’s mother is Chinese. Could she somehow be connected to Wong? It’s a remote possibility, but one I think we should explore.”
“If it was the Chinese, I would think they would do their own hit and not bother asking the Vietnamese,” replied Laura.
“Perhaps, or it could be a favour or in lieu of a payment for a drug debt or something. Maybe they did it to insulate themselves from any suspicion.” Jack paused, then lowered his voice. “Let’s find out.”
“How?” asked Laura, feeling uneasy as Jack got up and closed the door before returning to his desk.
“AOCTF thinks they have someone leaking information to the Chinese. If that’s true, I’m sure that Benny Wong would be privy to it. I have no doubt that some … idiot … will pass our report on to AOCTF to check our credibility, if nothing else.”
“You mean the informant’s credibility,” said Laura.
“No, knowing what Boyle thinks of us, I would say our credibility. If he is caught, then he will say it was to check out the informant.”
“Sad, but I bet you’re right,” said Laura.
“So … if the Chinese are responsible, why waste time working on the Vietnamese?”
“Okay … but how do we find out if they’re behind it?” asked Laura.
“I’ll word the report to see if there are any consequences,” said Jack.
“Consequences?”
Jack used his finger to simulate slashing his throat.
Oh, those consequences. Laura grimaced. Oh, man …
Chapter Eleven
Jack took his report to his boss, Staff-Sergeant Rose Wood, to add her signature below his, before forwarding a copy to I-HIT.
Rose quickly scanned the report. The first section identified the criminals mentioned in the report, along with their dates of birth and Fingerprint Section numbers associated with their criminal records. Jack also explained and used the identification method used by the Asian Organized Crime Task Force to make it easier to understand the importance of some of the players.
The gist of the report was brief, but one word caught Rose’s attention. She glanced at Jack and said, “I know you are usually articulate when it comes to any reports containing informant information, but did you proofread this?”
“I did,” replied Jack.
Rose’s eyebrows furled. “On first read, it seems okay, but under close scrutiny there is something the bothers me.”
Jack nodded, indicating he knew, but Rose took it as a sign to continue and said, “Let me read this part aloud. ‘Dong Tran VC-1 gave Bien Duc VC-2 an order to murder a woman living at the aforementioned address with instructions to make it look like an accident. Bien Duc VC-2 had to pass the order on to Tom Nguyen VC-3, who ordered Anh Dang to complete the task. Anh Dang drove over the intended victim’s sister in a stolen car. To date, it does not appear that the murderers realize they killed the wrong person. Investigation further indicates that Anh Dang was assisted by others. It is not known if the informant will be able to identify who these others are without arousing suspicion.’”
“Sounds right to me,” replied Jack.
“Had to pass the order on?” said Rose. “It could be construed that you are subconsciously protecting your source for taking part in a criminal act … making it sound like he was forced to pass the order along. The wording could cause someone to think that Bien Duc VC-2 is the informant. Would you care to change it?
“No, I do not wish to change it.”
Rose eyed Jack for a moment. “Does the wording of your report have something to do with the leak that the Asian Organized Crime Task Force thinks they have?”
“That has crossed my mind, although this report is for I-HIT, not AOCTF. Unfortunately, one of the investigators at I-HIT is somewhat overzealous.”
Rose raised her eyebrows. “Overzealous?”
“I suspect he would like to identify the informant and have him charged. He has already made inquiries in that regard to try and identify our source.”
“He what? I’ll have his ass! Who is this —”
“His name is Constable Stan Boyle. A newcomer to I-HIT. Unfortunately, if he were to be confronted about his actions it could … uh, disclose a sensitive procedure used to obtain the informant, let alone cause another investigation that would ultimately identify the informant.”
“Sensitive procedure?” replied Rose staring at Jack.
“Grey area,” he replied.
“Grey area? I’m your boss. What did you do?”
Jack
