The Benefactor

by Don Easton

  Connie Crane glanced at her watch as she spoke to Jack on the phone. Forty-eight hours since the murder …

  “Laura and I have a well-placed source who is in a delicate position in regards to the murder,” said Jack.

  “By delicate … you mean involved?” asked Connie.

  Jack let his moment of silence answer the question, then said, “Before I disclose anything to you, would you be happy enough to get the driver of the car and the person who ordered him to do it, without charging anyone else in the event you ever did find out who else was involved?”

  Connie paused. “Do I have a choice?”

  “Sure, you can continue to investigate on your own without our assistance.”

  Yeah, like our unit could come up with anything … we’re already at a dead end … Connie sighed and said, “Can you clarify what you mean when you said one of the people who ordered him to do it?”

  “Orders were passed along like a military command. The driver was the grunt assigned to complete the task.”

  “And you are willing to give me the driver and his boss?”

  “Exactly. Maybe other bosses, too. My idea is for you to get a wiretap and catch the driver and his boss talking to each other about it. Maybe do a media release or something to spark conversation. Any action you take in regards to anyone else would have to be done with my approval.”

  “Under the circumstances and what we have so far, or I should say, what we don’t have, your proposal sounds great to me.”

  “Good.”

  “Hold on before you say anything. First I’ll want to run it past a prosecutor as a formality to ensure someone doesn’t try to change our agreement later on.”

  “I was about to request that. Glad we’re on the same page. I also want a prosecutor to commit the decision to paper. If someone does screw around and try to charge the informant, I’ll be handing the agreement over to the defence lawyer to get the case squashed.”

  “They’ll hate doing that. It infers that we don’t trust them.”

  “I don’t. You shouldn’t trust anyone these days. Besides, they’re lawyers. Tell them I said a verbal agreement is only as good as the paper it is written on. That, they should understand.”

  “Yeah, okay,” replied Connie. “What you are offering is probably the best deal we could ever come up with. I’m sure they’ll go along with it, but once I get something on paper from them, I’ll need something from you in writing as well if I am going to apply for a wiretap.”

  “I’ll do a report. You’ll get a copy as soon as we get the green light, but treat it on a need-to-know basis only.”

  “Gotcha.” Connie hung up and immediately called a prosecutor who agreed to meet her later that afternoon. She then updated Boyle on what had transpired.

  “You said Taggart was good,” replied Boyle, “but nobody is that good. Today is Friday. Only two days since it happened. To come up with a source that quick … something is fishy. What did he do? Torture somebody?” he added, jokingly.

  Connie stared blandly at Boyle and didn’t reply.

  Boyle dropped his smile and said, “No seriously, how did he do it?”

  “I didn’t ask and neither should you. The important thing is he knows who is responsible. It’s a fantastic deal when you think about it. He’ll give us the driver and who ordered him to do it. What more could we ask for? Once the prosecutor gives us the go-ahead, Jack will send us a report. We are to treat it strictly on a need-to-know basis.”

  “But there were others involved,” noted Boyle. He leaned back in his chair, folded his arms across his chest, and abruptly said, “His source has to be one of them. I don’t cut deals with scum. Everyone involved should be charged.”

  “Yeah, in an ideal world … but we don’t work in and ideal world. He is willing to hand us what the courts would consider to be the key players. Any others wouldn’t receive much anyway.”

  “Well … I don’t like it,” grumbled Boyle.

  “Like he said, we’re free to investigate it on our own without their assistance,” replied Connie, somewhat sarcastically.

  Later that afternoon, Jack was typing his report when he received a call from Gerry in Forensics.

  “You asked me to call you if anyone made any inquiries about you coming in on Wednesday with that bottle of piss,” said Gerry.

  “Let 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 recalled what Rose had once said to him concerning an incident that resulted in her receiving disciplinary action precipitating a transfer prior to her arrival in the Intelligence Unit. He gave a half-smile. “My grounds for a search that identified the person turned into an informant may not have met the judicial criteria needed to conduct the search.”

  Rose frowned as she recalled her own words, before taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling. “I see,” she said abruptly.

  “Thought you might,” chided Jack. “However, concerning Boyle, I believe he will pass the report on to the AOCTF. How the report is worded will provide added protection for the informant.”

  “And if you are right in your assumption that AOCTF will receive the report and it is leaked … close scrutiny of the wording may direct suspicion toward Bien Duc VC-2.”

  Jack nodded. “Instead of the real informant.”

  Rose gave Jack a hard look. “I-HIT could potentially be looking at you for conspiracy to murder.”

  “Goodness, no,” mocked Jack, throwing his arms up from his sides, as a fake gesture of innocence. “Should that happen, I’ll explain that the triads operate like a paramilitary structure. My wording reflected that, when I said orders at the top had to be passed along.”

  Rose raised one eyebrow and stared at Jack as she thought about it, then nodded and glanced at the report and continued, “You conclude the report by saying that the investigation is still in the preliminary stages and any obvious reason for trying to murder Nancy Brighton has not yet been positively identified. Further investigation will examine all associates of Dong Tran VC-1 in an effort to identify a connection or motive to the murder.”

  “The top VC-1 would not normally be involved in a murder. I think there must be something personal that we don’t know about yet. Maybe he is doing a close friend a favour or something, but we need to dig deeper to find out.”

  “You mentioned when we spoke earlier that Nancy Brighton had witnessed Mia Parker hiding some drugs and was responsible for having her arrested.”

  “Yes, but it only resulted in a charge of possession. I’ve known a lot of Vietnamese in the past who have been charged with trafficking, yet did not resort to murdering witnesses. I think the whole situation needs to be investigated more thoroughly. If I suggested that as a motive and it later turned out to be wrong, defence lawyers would use it to tell a jury that someone else had reason to commit the murder. Nancy Brighton used to be a prosecutor, who knows, maybe it stems from someone she put in jail years ago.”

  Rose stared silently at Jack, then said, “I think you are the reason I drink.” She then signed off the report.

  When Jack returned to his own desk, he winked at Laura.

  “She didn’t see it?” asked Laura.

  “Oh, she saw it all right, but she still signed it off.”

  “What if Boyle doesn’t pass it along?” asked Laura.

  “It would make us look more innocent if he does, but if he doesn’t, then I’ll have a word with Roger and see if he will do it to see what transpires. The important thing is to protect our informant.”

  “I still hate protecting guys like that,” muttered Laura. “Our informant should go to jail for what he did.”

  “Think how stressed he already is. Believe me, we’ll make him pay his dues over a lifetime, far longer than the couple of years he would ever get in jail … not that there is evidence to charge him to start with.”

  “So you don’t plan on cutting him lose after this investigation?”

  “Hell, no. Not for what he did. I have long range plans for him. We’ll coach him in what is needed for his own advancement in the gang while targeting others who might be promoted over him. In a couple of years he’ll become a VC3, then later maybe a VC2. See how stressful he finds working for us then.”

  “He’ll wish he had gone to jail,” said Laura, wrinkling her nose and sounding vengeful.

  Later that Friday afternoon, Jack received confirmation from Connie that his offer had been agreed upon in writing by the prosecutor. Jack immediately provided Connie with a copy of his report so she could start working on the application for the wiretap over the weekend.

  It was Monday morning when Roger Morris arrived at AOCTF and read Jack’s report. It was a photocopy and did not include the usual signatures at the bottom. He walked over to the secretary and waved the report in front of her. “Where did this come from? Has it been lying on top of my basket all weekend?”

  “I first saw it this morning,” replied the secretary. “I was told that a Constable Boyle from I-HIT came over late Friday afternoon after we left. He said he had some intel on a murder and wanted to know if we knew anything about the guys in the report or if we thought the information was credible. It floated around the office all weekend and ended up in my basket this morning. I then put it in your basket as you arrived.”

  “Something stinks,” replied Roger. “The last page looks like it had been cut in half before being photocopied. How come it’s not signed?”

  The secretary shrugged. “I presumed he cut something off that he didn’t want distributed to other sections. Maybe to protect his source.”

  Roger shook his head. “Do you notice the initials behind the paragraphs?”

  The secretary glanced at
the report and saw either B/R, C/R or C/R/C behind each of the paragraphs in the report.

  “Yes, I wondered what that meant. Is it a code for who supplied the information?”

  Roger shook his head. “Nope. I’ve seen it before. It’s used by the Intelligence Unit for informant debriefing reports. Stands for ‘believed reliable,’ ‘completely reliable,’ or ‘completely reliable and can be used in court.’ They also use UR for unknown reliability or sometimes DR for doubtful reliability. This report didn’t originate from I-HIT. My money is that it was written by Jack Taggart.”

  “So this goof on Friday was trying to make people think it came from him,” replied the secretary. “What an ass.”

  Mr. Frank downloaded a report provided to him by the benefactor and waited a moment as the cryptographic program on his laptop revealed the contents. The report originated from the Asian Organized Crime Task Force and his face paled as he read it, his heart beating rapidly. When he finished reading, he silently cursed himself once more for trying to seduce Mia Parker. Fortunately her name was not mentioned in the report …

  He tried to calm himself further by noting that in an addendum to the report, the benefactor was not concerned about the attention the police would be giving Dong Tran VC-1 as AOCTF called him, but knew Tran was closely associated to Benny Wong CC-1. The benefactor noted that Wong was sometimes used by Mr. Frank and therefore suggested that Wong be warned as a courtesy to promote his continued co-operation.

  Mr. Frank knew that Wong’s standing with the benefactor had recently gained new significance. A scientist specializing in the field of agriculture biotechnology was frequenting one of the massage parlours that Wong controlled in Vancouver. Hidden audio and video cameras had recently been installed. New technology that cost the Canadian government years of research and a truckload of money to invent could soon be in the hands of the benefactor.

  Mr. Frank recalled how he first turned Benny Wong, whose contacts as a shipping magnate were valuable. Wong had fled from China ten years previously due to corruption charges. Mr. Frank assured him that the benefactor would see that the charges against him would not go ahead as long as he co-operated. They would only remain pending because the benefactor was in a position to squash any deportation request.