Connie grimaced. “Do you know who wrote the report?”
“Yeah,” replied Boyle, glancing at his notebook. “It was a Corporal J.B. Taggart.”
“Fuck,” muttered Connie.
Boyle looked at her in surprise. “Why? What’s wrong?”
Connie sighed. “I know Jack from several other investigations. On a plus side, he always gets results and is considered one of the best undercover operatives the force has. So is his partner, Laura Secord.”
“So? What’s the downside?”
Connie bit her lower lip for a moment. “He’s not so good at following the rules. There is also another problem. Anytime he gets involved, I end up with more work than I started with.”
“Oh?” replied Boyle, unsure what Connie meant. “Well, it’s likely only a simple hit and run anyway.”
“And if it isn’t?” asked Connie. “What about Nancy Brighton? What if she was the intended victim? We can’t sit back and wait to see if they get her next time.”
“People don’t murder someone over a simple possession beef.”
“I agree it doesn’t make sense,” said Connie, “but we can’t chance it. It could be some other reason that we don’t even know about yet. Maybe they did kill the right person.”
“You’re talking like it is a murder.”
“We have to treat it like it is,” replied Connie, gruffly.
“So what do we do about Nancy Brighton? Supply round-the-clock protection for someone when all we might have is a simple case of hit and run?”
“We’re going to have to make sure she’s safe until we investigate further.”
“If it’s over the drugs, it could take a year to run it through court … or longer. It would be ridiculous to protect someone twenty-four-seven over a possession beef. Get someone to pull the charge and be done with it.”
“Pulling the charge isn’t a precedent we can set. It would open the door to have more witnesses whacked.” Connie sighed. “But you’re right, it would be a tough thing to try and justify putting her in the Witness Protection Program.”
“So what the hell do we do? We need answers fast. All we really have is the opinion of some traffic guy who probably wouldn’t know a homicide even if he were the victim. Where do we go from here?”
“We have a report from Jack Taggart,” said Connie.
“That’s three years old,” replied Boyle, with a wave of his hand. “Are you going to call him over that?”
“I don’t have any choice,” muttered Connie. “If it is a homicide, we can’t leave any stones unturned. Besides, like you said, we need answers fast.” She reached for her phone and punched in Jack’s number.
Listen to what my gut tells me … Jack Taggart … oh, yeah, this is a homicide all right. She glanced at Boyle as the phone rang. Poor sap. He’s got no idea of what we might be getting into. Guess I don’t, either … other than to expect more bodies …
Chapter Five
It was six o’clock in the evening when Jack and Laura arrived at Connie Crane’s office within the Major Crime Unit based out of Surrey. Introductions were made with Stan Boyle and the four sat around Connie’s desk as she explained what she knew so far.
Jack noticed that Boyle sat with his arms folded across his chest while making frequent glances at his watch. “You need to be someplace?” he asked.
“No,” replied Boyle.
Oh, so what you were really saying is that you feel that inviting us over is a waste of time …
“I’ve had someone drive past the Hanoi House, but there was no sign of the van,” continued Connie. “The 911 call for the hit and run came in at twelve-forty-eight, so who knows where the van could be by now.”
“If it is even relevant,” yawned Boyle.
“What have you done with Nancy Brighton?” asked Jack.
“At the moment, we’ve talked her into staying with friends in Chilliwack, but she isn’t happy about it and I doubt she will stay there long.”
“Witness Protection?” asked Jack.
Connie shook her head. “I already brought that up with her and there is no way she will accept it. Being as we’re not sure it wasn’t accidental, or even had anything to do with her, I can’t say as I blame her. Not that it would matter. She made it perfectly clear that even if it does involve her, she’s not going into the WPP.”
“Our office hasn’t had anything to do with that restaurant in over three years,” said Jack. “It came up as a haunt for a lot of Asian drug dealers. Most of them low-level. We turned it over to Drug Section who made some buys and busted a few of them. I called them after you called me. Everyone they busted has already been through the court system and, for the most part, received probation. They’ve had no interest in the place since then.”
“I was hoping you might have an informant with the Viets to let us know what is going on, or if the van was even involved,” replied Connie.
“We don’t have any Vietnamese informants at the moment,” said Jack. “Even if we did, the odds are remote that the informant would know anything about it. There are dozens of different Vietnamese gangs and they seldom have anything to do with each other. The situation with all the gangs is fluid. Those who are allies today could be enemies tomorrow. At the moment, the Vietnamese look after the majority of the marijuana grow operations and come under the control of Satans Wrath, who use them to insulate themselves from prosecution.”
“The bikers’ involvement in marijuana crops is a huge concern for us,” said Laura.
“Who cares about pot?” snorted Boyle. “It’s not exactly a hard drug. Bet more people smoke it than don’t these days … or have a least tried it.”
“It’s the ideal wedge into corruption,” explained Jack. “There is huge money to be made from it and many people share your belief that it is not really a bad thing. That makes it an easy tool for criminals to open the door to corrupt officials who might not otherwise be corrupted.”
“Once the initial corruption takes place, the corrupt officials are then easy prey when it comes to other organized crime favourites,” added Laura. “Like influence-peddling, market manipulation, drug-trafficking, slavery prostitution rings, union corruption … and of course, the murder of rivals or those who are innocent or refuse to be bought.”
“Kind of like using good old B.C. bud as the key to opening Pandora’s Box,” said Connie.
“Exactly,” replied Jack. “The same thing happened over alcohol during the Prohibition years in the U.S. It was how organized crime really managed to gain control over a multitude of other criminal activities.” Jack gave Boyle a hard stare and said, “Which is why it concerns us that an organized crime family as strong as Satans Wrath is in control of the marijuana situation.”
“So you’re saying the bikers could be behind it?” asked Boyle. “Maybe Mia Parker is a girlfriend to one of them?”
“In my opinion, the bikers wouldn’t contract out a hit for something so trivial,” replied Jack. “Especially over a girlfriend. She might not even be convicted.”
“Might get Parker’s fingerprints on the bags,” said Boyle. “Coupled with an eyewitness … she’s done.”
Jack glanced at Boyle and said, “I take it you’ve never worked drugs. Her lawyer will attack the credibility of the witness. An older, retired woman peering through blinds or curtains on