Samurai Code (9 page)

12

It was Monday afternoon and the meeting in the boardroom was attended by investigators from I-HIT, the RCMP Drug Section, and the Intelligence Unit.

Jack and Laura gave an account of their findings, leading up to their theory about what happened to Angelo and Dominic.

CC rolled her eyes and said, “Thanks, Jack. I knew bringing you into this would add to the body count. Now you’re telling me that it’s not only Melvin Montgomery who was murdered, but you’re saying we’ve got two more bodies out there that we haven’t found yet?”

“Sorry about that,” replied Jack.

“Ah, it’s okay,” replied CC. “Was just spoofin’ ya. The both of you did good. Filled in some missing pieces of the puzzle. And as far as the bodies go, if there are any, unless we end up finding them on our turf, it could be Vancouver PD’s responsibility. I’ll bring them up to date on it later, but without any bodies, I’m not sure what they’ll do. Maybe they’ll interview the employee from the antique store.”

“Tell them to hold off on that,” said Jack. “I doubt they would get anything and the police attention could heat up the narcs on their UC operation.”

“I agree with Jack,” said Sammy, who was one of the investigators taking an active role in the undercover operation.

“Not a problem,” replied CC. “I’ll hold off. But where do you propose we go from here?”

“What about a wiretap?” suggested Jack, looking around the room.

“I’ll check with Crown,” replied CC, “but I think it is highly unlikely that we have the grounds to get one. How about getting one for drug trafficking?”

“We’ve got one on Jojo,” said Sammy. “So far he’s the biggest fish we’ve caught and even he is small compared to what we know about some of the big players who frequent Goldie’s. As far as the wire on Jojo goes, it hasn’t been all that productive. He likes pay phones followed up with a lot of heat checks before meeting anyone face-to-face. Even after the heat checks, if we’re lucky enough that he hasn’t spotted our surveillance, when he does meet someone, he has a habit of meeting several people over a space of a few minutes in places like restaurants, nightclubs, or bars. That makes it difficult to figure out which person is of importance and which one is just a casual acquaintance. With what we have so far, there are absolutely no grounds for us to get a wiretap on anyone else.”

The conversation continued for several minutes, but eventually it was decided that Drug Section would continue with their undercover operation in the hope of gaining grounds to apply for a wiretap on people connected with Goldie Locks. Jack and Laura would start doing surveillance of Goldie and his nightclub to see what they could learn.

“Keep me informed of all the players,” said CC. “If you do get a wire, maybe we can match somebody up with a younger brother affiliated with a youth gang. Or someone with a kid demented enough to murder a homeless guy.”

“The kid had to be old enough to drive a van,” said Sammy. “Makes him sixteen, at least.”

CC laughed and said, “You ever been to Surrey? Half the stolen cars are taken by kids a lot younger than that. The footprint we found at the scene could be from a twelve-year-old.”

“Good point,” said Sammy, shaking his head.

“How long before you think you’ll bring the UC op to an end?” asked Laura.

“We’re already halfway through July,” replied Sammy. “We’re supposed to have things wrapped up by the first week of August at the latest.” Sammy looked apologetic as he glanced at CC and added, “I have to tell you, it doesn’t look good that we’ll connect with any of the big players. Our budget can’t afford the hundreds of thousands of dollars it would take to buy at their level. They deal multi-kilos. We have a budget that is at the ounce level.”

“Don’t worry about it,” replied CC. “It’s a hell of a long shot, anyway. Even though Jack and Laura did trace the gun to Goldie’s doorstep, it doesn’t mean that anyone he knows had it. Angelo and Dominic may have tossed it before they … well, disappeared.”

Jack and Laura looked at each other and she gave a subtle shake of her head. Jack thought the same way.
If Angelo and Dominic didn’t toss away the gun when they kneecapped Bernie, they likely didn’t toss it away over shooting someone in the arm. And what twelve-year-old kid would throw a gun away?

Laura saw Jack smile at her. It was a smile she had seen before.
He’s got a plan.

***

It was eight o’clock Tuesday night when Jack found a place to park in an alley one block down from the rear door of the Goldie Locks nightclub. He rested the binoculars on the steering wheel to hold them steady and was able to see Goldie’s car parked behind the nightclub. It was a new Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster with a custom gold paint job, complete with vanity plates reading
GOLDIE
. Laura was in another car, and found a place to watch the front of the nightclub.

An hour went by before Arthur Goldie appeared out the back door of his club. Jack noted that Goldie’s physique made him relatively easy to see. He was a tall man with a thin body, which made his hands, feet, and head look extra large and gangly in comparison. He was forty-three years old and kept the hair on the sides of his head shaved short, but had a mop of thick brown hair on the top of his head. He was dressed in khaki-coloured slacks and an open moss-green windbreaker that revealed a canary-yellow golf shirt underneath.

“We’ve got action out back,” radioed Jack. “Looks like he’ll be eastbound in the alley.”

“I’ll see him when he comes out,” replied Laura.

“Keep it loose,” cautioned Jack. “I don’t want him to see our faces yet.”

“It’ll be real loose, out of sight, if he steps on the gas with what he’s driving,” replied Laura. A moment later she said, “Okay, got him. Turning north from the alley. What’s he got on the top of his head?”

“Just his hair,” replied Jack, while turning north on the street one block west of Goldie before making a quick right on Robson Street to catch up.

“Looks like a dead rat.”

“Think the rat is under the hair.”

“Copy that,” snickered Laura. “Okay, he’s picked up a ruby coming on to Robson. No indicator on, looks like he’ll be going straight through.”

Jack glanced at Goldie’s club as he drove past and then entered the left turn lane at the next light. He spotted the Aston Martin to his right where it was still parked, waiting for the light to change.

For the next ten minutes Jack and Laura followed Goldie. Eventually, he parked in another alley behind a restaurant before entering through the rear door. Unlike many criminals Jack had worked on, Goldie seldom checked his rear-view mirror and did not drive in a manner to detect if he was being followed.
Is he really an innocent business man? Or does he feel safe because he thinks he is so immune and protected by others who do the dirty work?

“Keep an eye on his wheels,” radioed Jack. “I’m going on foot to walk past the front of the restaurant to see if I can spot who he’s meeting. He either owns the place or has to be on good terms with someone to walk in through the back. I’ll call you on your cell.”

Jack glanced in through the front windows of the Wang Hui Chinese Restaurant as he strolled past. He didn’t spot Goldie, but did see a group of Asian men sitting around some tables that had been pushed together. By their boisterous mannerisms and the way they were dressed, Jack had the distinct impression that they were gang-affiliated … and not the boy scouts. He spoke to Laura on her cell and relayed his observations.

“Sounds interesting,” replied Laura. “Want to start scooping licence plates? Maybe find out who —” her words broke off suddenly. “Hold it, Goldie’s out again and chatting in the alley with some guy. Short, barrel-chested Asian wearing black, baggy pants, and a red golf shirt. Maybe forty to fifty years old.”

“The restaurant is Chinese,” said Jack. “Bet it’s the owner.”

“Okay, that was quick,” continued Laura. “Goldie is back to his wheels and the red golf shirt went back inside the restaurant. Your call. Want me to stay with Goldie?”

“No, let him go. I don’t want to heat him up. Let’s watch this place and see if we can figure out who the clientele is and what is going on that would require a back-alley meeting.”

Over the next couple of hours, Jack and Laura recorded numerous licence plates of people coming and going from the restaurant. They also noted a pay phone outside the restaurant was used frequently by the clientele, some of whom clearly had cellphones.

***

By noon the following day, Jack’s and Laura’s desks were piled high with paper. They identified the owner of the restaurant as Hui Wang, who named his restaurant in the Asian fashion of Wang Hui Chinese Restaurant by using his surname first. It was also discovered that Wang was the owner of a furniture store called Wang’s House of Bamboo.

What Jack found of particular interest was that Wang had been charged for trafficking in crystal meth several years earlier, but was not convicted after someone else claimed ownership for the drug.

Laura glanced at the mug shot of Wang and confirmed that he was the man in the red golf shirt.

Jack discovered that he was partially right in that the clientele belonged to a gang. In fact, there were three different Asian gangs represented by the clientele. The Big Circle Boys, Sun Yee On triad, and some who had been listed by the Vancouver Police Department’s Anti-Gang Unit as belonging to gangs who were unnamed. Their criminal records included: attempted murder, kidnapping, assault, extortion, pimping, auto theft, identity and credit card theft, and drug trafficking.

“Except none of the drug trafficking is heroin,” said Jack, looking at the different records. “These guys are all into ecstasy and meth. If Goldie is involved with heroin, then he’s visiting the wrong crowd.”

“Maybe Wang plans on adding to his menu,” suggested Laura.

“Maybe, but something doesn’t sit right,” replied Jack. “Goldie seems much more sophisticated. The Chinese we saw were basically a bunch of hoods strutting around like Hollywood gangsters. They all seem close-knit. To me, Goldie doesn’t fit in.”

“He must somehow. He met with Wang in the alley.”

“You’ve got a point there. I’m going to call Sammy and see how they feel about approaching some of the dealers associated with Wang. Those guys are punks in comparison to the players who hang out at Goldie Locks. If heroin is about to be moved through there, it might be an opportune time.”

***

Drug Section was glad to assist, and over the next few nights they managed to get an undercover operator to meet some of the Chinese associated with the restaurant. By the following Monday, another meeting was held amongst the investigators in the boardroom.

“Good news, bad news,” said Sammy. “The good news is that Jack and Laura gave us a hell of a good tip on the Chinese restaurant. We’ve got two operators in with some of the bad boys connected to there. One operator is Chinese. She is being offered large quantities of ecstasy and crystal meth. She scored a sample of the meth and it is high quality. I tell ya, the bad guys are tossing weights and numbers around like it was the Toronto Stock Exchange. Anything goes, providing you’ve got the cash. We’ve also seen Wang using the pay phone out front. We’ve submitted a new operational plan to start a new UC there and I think we’ll have a wiretap up and running on Wang that will include the pay phone out front.”

“How long to get wire?” asked Jack. “With the action you’re talking about, I imagine it will take you a month or so to push the paperwork through.”

Sammy smiled and said, “Normally, yeah, but we got the Asian Heat on board with us.”

“Asian Heat?” asked Jack.

“That’s what I call her,” replied Sammy. “She’s of Chinese ancestry and is attached to the Asian Based Organized Crime Unit within our office. Tina is a real pit bull when it comes to catching bad guys. Before joining the Force, she was a loans officer in a bank. She’s good with the paperwork. Don’t worry, we’ll get the wire. We’ll also bug his car if we get the chance.”

“Tina sounds like someone we could use in our office,” Jack said, looking at Laura.

“Hands off!” replied Sammy. “I shouldn’t have told you about her.”

“You said earlier that there was some bad news,” interjected CC.

“Our operators have been turned down flat when it comes to heroin. Maybe Arthur Goldie isn’t into heroin. Maybe it’s his clientele who is.”

“Then why the back-alley meeting?” asked Jack.

Sammy shrugged and said, “It’s summer. The restaurant kitchen was probably hot and steamy. Outside would be cooler.”

Jack shook his head and said, “If he’s innocent, why not phone? He drove all the way over for a two-minute chat.”

“Well … whatever, but with a new UC in the works on ecstasy and meth, we’re going to be shutting down the heroin operation soon. Maybe we’ll get Wang talking to Goldie, but as it stands now, as far as the heroin operation goes, we hope to set up the final buy and bust within the next two weeks.”

“Mind if Laura and I start a little UC of our own in Goldie Locks?” asked Jack.

“Uh … hang on, Jack,” said Rose. “Are you proposing that you and Laura start buying heroin? We also don’t have a budget for that.”

“Not buying heroin,” replied Jack. “Just an intelligence probe. Basically go in and watch. See who’s who in the zoo. Might claim a few drinks, but nothing too expensive.”