The Grey Zone

by Easton, Don

  “If Lexton went to this much trouble, you can bet that if you get caught bending the rules even a little, she’ll use it as a reason to have you transferred,” Laura warned.

  “Yeah, well … what else is new?” Jack replied. “It wouldn’t be the first time the brass have had a burr up their ass. I still think approaching David and Jia Chung is worth the risk.” He eyed Alicia. “So, are you going to spill the beans?”

  “Don’t you think I want justice for Tommy? No, I’m not going to rat you out. Are you kidding?”

  Jack smiled. “Okay, but like I said, I’ll do it on my own. No need for either of you to be involved.”

  “I thought we were a team,” Alicia said. “Like the three musketeers. All for one and one for all?” She looked at their faces. “Uh-uh. Bring it on. Nobody puts Baby in a corner. I’m dancing in the grey zone with you.”

  Jack smiled at her reference to the movie Dirty Dancing as he thought about the slippery slope Alicia was venturing down.

  Sometimes the grey zone turns black … but we can save that for another day.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Early Friday evening, Jack stopped at a grocery store and bought a habanero pepper. Twenty minutes later, he approached the front door of the Chung residence and rang the doorbell.

  “Who are you?” a man’s voice asked over the intercom.

  “You — you don’t know me,” Jack said, his voice wavering. “My name is Bruce. I was told to come here to talk to Mr. or Mrs. Chung about my son. Please, it’s important. I beg you, I … I don’t know what to do.”

  A moment later the door opened. “I’m David Chung.”

  Through his teary vision Jack saw the man staring at him.

  “I think you’d better step inside,” David said.

  Jack entered the foyer and took a moment to blow his nose.

  “My wife, Jia.” David’s tone was sombre.

  She stepped forward to hold her husband’s arm. Jack nodded politely to her, then took a moment to look at each of their faces as if he was unsure how to start.

  “This is about your son?” David prompted.

  “Yes. This afternoon my wife, Tina, was driving Mikey to soccer practice and, and — oh, God.” He covered his eyes.

  “He was kidnapped,” Jia said.

  “You know?” Jack said, doing his best to look confused.

  “We’ve been through it ourselves, and so have others,” Jia said.

  Others? Bingo!

  “One look at you and I knew,” she continued.

  “They told my wife that if we call the police, they, they — I don’t know what to do. They told her we should talk to you.”

  “I can’t believe they did it again so soon,” Jia said to David. “It’s been less than a week.”

  Less than a week?

  A cloud of suspicion appeared on David’s face. He studied Jack closely.

  Jack wiped his eyes. At least my tears are genuine. “You’ve been through this? They took your son or daughter?”

  “Two years ago, our son was kidnapped.” David’s reply sounded matter-of-fact.

  No sympathy. He’s suspicious.

  “Since then, you’ve been the third person to come to our house, but” — I hate buts — “the other two are of Chinese heritage, like myself.”

  Jack feigned surprise. “That’s odd.”

  “Yes, it is,” David said evenly. “It happened to us on a Wednesday, and they gave us until Friday — two banking days — to collect the ransom. And yet they took your son on a Friday?”

  “Maybe because Fridays are the only day he has soccer,” Jack said. “They gave us until Tuesday to pay.”

  “I see.”

  “My wife is Chinese Canadian,” Jack said. “Why are they only going after Chinese people?”

  David seemed surprised. “Uh, I don’t know why. Maybe they assume we don’t usually go to the police.”

  “So you’re saying we shouldn’t involve them?”

  “Don’t call them!” Jia said urgently.

  “What about the person from last week, did they go to the police?”

  “He took our advice and didn’t,” Jia said. “He called us back afterward and said that everything went okay and they’d returned his daughter. We have his number so if you want to —”

  “Where’s your wife now?” David interrupted.

  “Waiting at home. She’s terrified. Literally sick to her stomach. We didn’t know what to do.”

  “Would you mind if I spoke to her?”

  “Uh, I guess it would help if you could say something to calm her down. I’ll call her.”

  Jack dialed, spoke briefly to Tina, then handed David his phone. He studied David’s face as he spoke to Tina in Cantonese. He had no idea what David was saying, but could see the sorrow in his eyes. Good job, Tina.

  David handed the phone back to Jack. “I’ll be home as soon as I can,” Jack said over the phone. “There’ve been others. Hopefully I can talk to one of them, too.” He paused, glancing at David and Jia, then said, “No, they don’t think we should go to the police. I don’t know. We’ll talk when I get home. I love you. Bye.”

  “I’m really sorry.” David gave Jack’s shoulder a squeeze. “Jia and I understand what you’re going through. For us, it’s like it happened yesterday.”

  “But you paid what they asked and everything went okay?” Jack asked.

  “Come in and sit down,” David said. “We’ll tell you what happened.”

  “Coffee or tea?” Jia asked.

  “Thanks, no,” Jack replied. “I feel too sick.”

  She nodded.

  Over the next twenty minutes, the Chungs gave Jack details that he already knew, grief, guilt, and sorrow washing over their faces as they spoke. Jack himself felt rage and sorrow on their behalf. Rage wouldn’t be the right response for Bruce, the terrified father. At least not yet. But he allowed his sorrow to show on his face.

  “Since then,” Jia said, glancing upstairs, “Tommy seldom leaves his room.”

  “He’s seeing a child psychologist, but so far there hasn’t been much improvement. We’re told it’ll take time,” said David.

  “He rarely goes outside,” Jia added. “He won’t play with other children because he says he feels like a freak. I’ve had to start home-schooling him.”

  “I’m so, so sorry,” Jack said. “Hopefully in time he’ll be able to move past it.”

  David and Jia exchanged a silent look, no doubt hoping he was right.

  “Would I be able to talk to the person from last week? Tina’s brother is a police officer in Toronto. I’m afraid that she’ll tell him. But I don’t want to hide what happened to Tommy from her, either. It’s best for us to agree on the decision.” Jack looked at their faces and swallowed. “I know she’d feel better if I could meet someone who’s been through this and, uh, didn’t have the same outcome as your son.”

  “I understand,” David replied. “He was grateful for our advice. I’m sure he’ll be willing to talk to you.”

  “And before that, what about the other person who came to see you? Did everything go okay for them?”

  “I presume so,” David replied. “I was so shocked when he showed up that I never thought to get his name or number. We never heard back from him. We wished we’d asked him to call us.”

  “It feels like we’re all in it together,” Jia added. “Like we belong to an exclusive club. Later, you’ll want to talk to someone who really understands.”

  “Thank you,” Jack said. “You’re very nice people.”

  “But bad things can happen to nice people,” David replied. “I’ll make the call.”

  Moments later, Jack was speaking to a man called Andy Zhao on the phone. He said he didn’t want Jack to come to his house because his family was still under a great deal of stress, but they could meet at the Kerrisdale neighbourhood Starbucks.

  After assuring David and Jia that he’d be in touch, Jack returned to his SUV. He then
called Laura, who was parked a couple of blocks away with Alicia.

  “It went well,” Jack said. “Need you to get to the Kerrisdale Starbucks on West 41st Avenue in Vancouver. I’m meeting a guy by the name of Andy Zhao. I want surveillance shots of him, as well as his plate number for an address.”

  “What’s he got to do with it?”

  “His nine-year-old daughter was kidnapped last week.”

  “No!” exclaimed Laura.

  “It turned out okay. He paid up and got her back in one piece.”

  “Oh, man. Glad to hear that.”

  “See you there. I’m going to phone Tina. We owe her an olive soup, for sure. Maybe a couple.”

  At 7:30 p.m., Jack entered the coffee shop. It wasn’t difficult to spot Zhao. He had noticeable dark circles under his eyes, and he was looking around nervously. Huge trust issues. Jack introduced himself as Bruce, shook Zhao’s hand, and thanked him for the meeting.

  Zhao trembled as he spilled out his story. Whenever he lifted his mug, coffee slopped out, and he soon gave up trying to drink it. He was clearly still in shock over what had happened. He didn’t appear to notice Laura walking past with her cellphone in hand.

  “So you paid them three hundred thousand dollars,” Jack said. A hundred thou more than Chung. They’re getting greedier.

  “A week ago today. I’ll never forget it.” Zhao paused. “And you? Was it the same amount?”

  Jack nodded.

  “You should do everything they ask,” Zhao stated. “Don’t go to the police. I’m sure you heard what happened to —”

  “I heard. I don’t even want to think about it.”

  “The kidnappers warned me that if I went to the police afterward, they’d take revenge out on my daughter. I’m a business development manager for an international hotel chain. My work often takes me away from home. But after this, I don’t think I could travel anywhere without my family with me.”

  Jack grimaced. “Will you tell me where they had you go with the ransom money?”

  “Like I said, they made me go all over the place, for a couple of hours. I finally ended up out in Chilliwack. That’s where I dropped off the money.”

  “But before then, where exactly did they make you go? How many street corners or parking lots were you told to wait in?”

  Zhao gave him a curious look. “Why do you want to know?”

  “A couple of reasons. My wife is really going to be so freaked out while I’m doing this. I want to be able to give her some idea of how long the whole thing’ll take.”

  “Tell her to expect about three hours.”

  Jack let out a loud sigh. “It’s not only her. I’m afraid of making a mistake, too. I have trouble hearing, especially when I’m stressed. It’s like my brain goes into a fog. If I mess up one of their instructions, will they think I’m up to something?” He shook his head as if trying not to think about it, then put his hand on Zhao’s arm and stared into his eyes, pleading. “What if they do something terrible to my son?”

  Zhao sat back in his chair and thought for a long moment. “Okay. They’ll probably send you to different places, but I’ll describe what I had to do as best as I can.”

  He was warned not to talk to police or they’ll exact revenge on his daughter. Jack pushed down his angst and gave a grateful smile. “Thank you.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Jack met Laura and Alicia back at the office and told them everything he’d learned.

  “It was almost identical,” Jack said, “except it started at Pacific Spirit Regional Park in Vancouver. He was then sent downtown and told to park in the same lot where Chung did and take the money to the same corner, Robson and Richards. After that he walked about six blocks in a different direction before being called and told to return to his car. At that point he was sent to the Vedder Pointe Shopping Centre in Chilliwack. From there he was directed to a nearby path in Paradise Park where he dropped off the money before returning to wait in his car. An hour later, he was told where to pick up his daughter. She was duct-taped and lying in a ditch across from a bird sanctuary north of Abbotsford on Bateman Road.”

  “No car rental,” Alicia noted, “but the pattern is roughly the same.”

  “More than roughly,” Jack said. “There were two identical locations: the parking lot on Seymour and the corner of Robson and Richards. Also at the same time of day.”

  “Rush hour,” Laura said. “Meaning crowds of people on the sidewalks.”

  “Exactly,” Jack replied.

  Alicia was deep in thought. “Too crowded for the bad guys to effectively check for countersurveillance, which begs the question, why do they keep sending victims there?”

  “I suggest you get footage from CCTV in the vicinity of that street corner during Andy Zhao’s drop-off last week and compare it with what you have from two years ago when David Chung was there,” Jack said.

  “There was a camera in a nearby restaurant that had been robbed before. It was facing the entrance, which was a glass door, and it also picked up the corner across the street. I could see David waiting there. I was also able to get footage from an apartment building on Seymour that showed David going past on the sidewalk after he’d parked his car.”

  “Good. Hopefully the same cameras are still operational. I’d like to compare.”

  “I compared footage from other CCTV cameras, too, including when David went to Nelson Park,” Alicia stated. “I didn’t find any repetition of people to indicate he was being followed.”

  “Maybe their intention at that point wasn’t to follow him. The kidnappers told Jia they had scanning equipment. What if they used that crowded street corner as cover to scan David and the satchel?”

  “Wouldn’t David have noticed he was being scanned?”

  “Not with current technology. Gone are the days of bulky equipment, waving a long wand back and forth while wearing headphones. These days anyone can purchase a bug detector the size of a cellphone and detect wireless microphones, as well as hidden cameras. The same goes for detecting GPS trackers.” Jack paused. “Didn’t they tell you all that on your UC course?”

  “Yes, they said that in the past, wiring up a UC operator had its risks, but doing so today would be almost suicidal. Still, I’d presumed scanning would be obvious … like at the airport, when they check you from head to foot.”

  “Chung and Zhao were probably focused on watching for the vehicle they expected to toss the money into. They likely weren’t paying attention to the people around them,” Jack suggested.

  “I believe some of the cameras hold their footage for thirty days,” Alicia said, frowning. “I’ll need to get a warrant. I might have copies of the footage in my hands by Monday afternoon.”

  “Why the face?” Jack asked. “You’ve gotten warrants before.”

  “It’s not that. I’m not sure whether they can be entered into court if we do see something. There’s case law on invasion of privacy. These cameras picked up people outside the vicinity of what they were intended for … or, in the eyes of the courts, where people could reasonably expect a degree of privacy.”

  “Yeah, like you can expect privacy on a busy Vancouver sidewalk,” Laura said sarcastically.

  “Fruit of the poisonous tree,” Jack said. “I’m familiar with it. If it’s ruled inadmissible, then defence could apply for any evidence that’s obtained after that to be inadmissible.” Jack paused. “You risked getting the CCTV footage before, though.”

  “I know, but with nothing else to go on, we thought we’d take a chance and hope for the best.”

  “Looks like we still need to hope for the best,” Jack replied. “Can you do it without others in your office knowing about it?”

  “Yes. Monday and Tuesday are my last days there. Nobody’s going to be assigning me anything.”

  “Then do it,” Jack ordered. “If you don’t bring the footage of Zhao to anyone’s attention, then no one will be going through court records to find out you obtained a warrant
. When you turn in the file boxes on Tuesday, don’t include any documentation of what we’ve done. As a matter of fact, I consider it part of an Intelligence file, to be treated as need-to-know, so keep the search warrant documents here. Also, make copies of all the CCTV footage you have and put that with our file, as well.”

  “I’ve already got extra copies,” Alicia said. “What do we call this file? ‘The grey zone’?”

  “Now you’re learning,” Laura said. “Label the folder GZ for short.”

  “But if this does turn into something, won’t we have to tell them? How will you explain where the information came from without admitting to being undercover at the Chung residence?”

  Jack eyed Alicia. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

  * * *

  At 11:30 a.m. Monday morning, Jack received a call at home from Alicia.

  “Okay, so I’ve got it,” she said, after the initial niceties.

  “The camera footage?”

  “Yes, a guy ran it off for me. Haven’t seen it yet, but it picks up the sidewalk at the intersection where Zhao waited. Unfortunately the other camera close to where he parked his car has been adjusted out of fear of the privacy laws, so it no longer views the outside.”

  “You at your office?”

  “No, I’m still downtown. I figured I could meet you at your office to compare footage.”

  “You haven’t met our boss yet,” Jack noted.

  “Staff Sergeant Wood.”

  “You can call her by her first name, Rose.”

  “Okay.”

  “Our office isn’t a good idea, though. Rose is a really good boss, but I don’t see the need for her to venture into the grey zone. She always demands to know what’s going on, but knowing about this would put her in a spot later on if word of what I did leaks out.”

  “So she doesn’t know anything about what we’ve been doing?”