by Don Easton
Mia stared blandly back at Jack. The bastard is smart … if I continue to lie, he won’t trust me …
“I’ll tell you right now that I don’t trust you,” said Jack, as if reading her thoughts. “If you are straight with me, I’ll protect you, but if you’re not, I should tell you that I have no qualms about feeding you to the wolves. If you fly with the crows, expect to get shot.”
Mia was quiet for a moment, then hung her head and said, “Okay, I’m sorry. I admit I was hoping to control you through sexual innuendo.” She turned her face up to Jack, eyes watering, and said, “Do you blame me? I’m scared. I feel like I’ve lost all control over my life.”
“As I said,” replied Jack, “if you’re straight with me, I’ll look after you. You made a mistake taking money from Wong’s people, but you’re young and have a whole life ahead of you. I won’t jeopardize that and will protect you until the day I die … providing you prove you are worthy of protection. Later, even if it meant dropping Wong’s charge, I would do it to protect you.”
Mia stared at Jack. I believe you. “Good enough,” she said, fumbling with her keys as she unlocked her car. “I’ll call you when I make contact with Mr. Frank.
Mia watched as Jack returned to his car. He’s a good guy … and good guys finish last …
“Is that what I think it was about?” asked Laura, when Jack got back in the car.
“Yes.”
“I wouldn’t trust her alone with my cat,” said Laura.
“Good thing I’m not your cat.” Jack grinned.
“That makes it worse,” retorted Laura. “My tomcat has more scruples than a lot of men I know.”
“Only because your cat has been neutered,” replied Jack, “which is what Natasha would do to me if I strayed.” He glanced at Mia sitting in her car. “Your instincts are right, though. I don’t trust her. She’s holding something back, but what choice do we have?”
Laura shrugged in response. “I don’t know, but you using her to get to Wong makes me feel sick.”
“Her holding back could be a trust issue for her, too. Maybe she’ll open up more later.”
“And in the mean time what do we do?” asked Laura. “Just wait? She said it might take a few days to contact Mr. Frank.”
“Were you listening when she was concerned about me putting in a report on my computer or laptop?”
“Yes, I think she is genuinely concerned for her safety. I actually took it as a good sign. If she had no intention of helping us, she wouldn’t be so worried.”
“Perhaps, but there’s something else. Why did she specifically mention computer and laptop? Why not simply ask if I was putting in a report? I think she’s holding something back there as well.”
“Like what?”
“Like I think I’m going to give Jim Purney a call. He’s the best guy I know when it comes to electronics and bugs. I’m going to ask him to check out Roger Morris’s office at AOCTF.”
“You’re thinking Wong could have spyware on their computers?”
Jack shrugged. “Who knows? Stranger things have happened.”
“I can’t see that happening,” said Laura. “If Wong has spyware on the AOCTF computers, he would have it on all our computers. I don’t know much about that stuff, but I’m sure our firewall protection is the best there is.”
“You’re probably right, but it won’t hurt to check.” Jack glanced at his watch and said, “It’s eight o’clock, let’s call it a day. I’ll phone Jim in the morning.”
Mia watched as Jack and Laura drove out of the parking lot. She decided she would call her mother, but not until she returned home and sent a priority message requesting an urgent meeting with Mr. Frank.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
After sending the priority message, Mia stared forlornly at the photo Jack had given her. Eventually she reached a decision and picked up her iPhone.
“Mom … are you at home? I need to talk to you.”
“No, I’m in Calgary at the moment,” replied Jia-li. “What’s wrong?”
“Uh, I’m okay,” replied Mia, “Don’t worry. I learned something interesting is all. What are you doing in Calgary?”
“There is another proposal to build an oil pipeline from Alberta out to the west coast. If it goes ahead, it would really open up distribution to, uh, Asia and other places.”
“How long will you be there?”
“I’m doing an interview with one of the execs tomorrow. It’s guaranteed there’ll be a public backlash, so I have also lined up interviews with a few people who are unemployed and will put a spin on it about how it would help their families. I’ve booked a flight home tomorrow, but it will be after midnight before I get home.”
“Tomorrow is Wednesday,” said Mia, thinking aloud. “I don’t have a class Thursday morning. Maybe we could see each other then?”
“What’s wrong, honey? I can tell that something has happened. Don’t make me wait until Thursday. I won’t be able to sleep.”
Mia hesitated, then took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “Remember I told you I was in a car accident last month?”
“Yes, you told me after I asked you what happened to your car.”
“Okay, okay, but what I didn’t tell you, was how angry I was when I got a ticket. I gave the cop a bad time for never charging anyone when Dad died.”
Jia-li sighed. “You’re going to have to learn to let that go. I wish I had never told you.”
“No, you should have!” replied Mia. “As a result of what I said, I was invited to a police station this afternoon and they let me see the file for myself!”
“They showed you the file?” asked Jia-li in surprise.
“Yes. I read the whole thing … and Mom, I don’t think it was done by anyone the police knew. Back when it happened, the police got a blurry picture of the man responsible from a gas station security camera. Five years ago they used modern technology to enhance the picture.” Mia paused and when she didn’t get a response, added, “It shows the police never gave up trying to solve it.”
“Has anyone been arrested?”
“No, but —”
“I didn’t think so,” replied Jia-li, bitterly.
“But Mom, you can tell the police are trying. They wouldn’t have bothered if they were covering something up. They even ran the picture through facial-recognition procedures, but unfortunately it was only the profile and that didn’t work.”
“Of course they would say that, or make up something to deceive you.”
“Mom, no, really … I don’t think so. I saw the whole file. They even gave me a copy of the picture. I’ll take a picture of it with my phone and send it to you. This guy wasn’t any politician.”
“I thought you said it was only a profile. How do you know it wasn’t someone connected with government if he can’t be properly identified?”
“Mom … the picture shows a guy of about forty … and he’s Asian. I know every Asian person connected to politics, past and present. It definitely isn’t any one of them.”
“An Asian?”
Mia’s sigh was audible. “Yes, I felt … well, betrayed by it, but it did happen in Richmond. Forty-five percent Chinese. It’s a common joke that all the cars in Richmond are BMWs, Mercedes, or loaners from body shops. We don’t exactly have a good reputation for safe driving.”
Jia-li was silent as her brain tried to digest what she had been told and the memories it brought back from that fateful day.
“You okay, Mom?”
“I’m okay, but I still feel like there is something you’re not telling me.”
Mia paused. Should have told her about the drug charge to start with …
“Maybe something we should talk about when we’re together?” suggested Jia-li.
“Okay, there is something, but don’t worry. We should go for a stroll when you get home. I’ll come by in the morning at about ten.”
Jia-li understood. Some things could not be spoken about over a telephone.<
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Mia saw a text flash onto her phone, notifying her to go to a certain area of the city. “I have another call … I gotta go. Love ya, Mom.”
Mr. Frank gritted his teeth as he drove and it wasn’t from the traffic. Another priority request to meet Mia. What now? He swore aloud when another driver cut in front of him. It was a common occurrence and he realized he was tired. And why shouldn’t I be? I’ve barely slept in four days, ever since Mia dropped the bombshell on me about her new charge, let alone finding out the witness is still alive.
Since then he had brooded over how to resolve the situation. Murdering Mia was the option that repeatedly came to mind. But who else knows? Did she tell Jia-li? She said she didn’t ... but their mother and daughter relationship is strong. Then there’s Wong … he would not dare tell anyone who I represent, but would the benefactor send someone to interview him if Mia and Jia-li were murdered?
He slammed the top of the steering wheel with his hand in frustration. I need to kill all three … but how could it be done without me being suspect?
He turned a corner and glanced in the rear-view mirror as he went through his routine counter-surveillance moves, but his mind was still on Mia. What has the little tart been up to?
Mr. Frank was about to be handed the solution to his problem … with a plan that included the murder of Jack Taggart.
Chapter Forty
It was dark when Mia parked her car near the corner of Shaughnessy Street and West Kent Avenue North. It was an industrial area and basically void of traffic at night. She walked along Kent Avenue North. Railway tracks were to her left and less than a block ahead, the Oak Street Bridge loomed high above her.
“This better be good,” said Mr. Frank, stepping out of the shadows and into view under a street light. He waited until Mia approached closer, then said, “If Wolfenden has simply changed his schedule, you could have alerted the benefactor online through secure channels.”
“It isn’t about him,” said Mia, tersely. “It’s about you.”
“Me? What about me?”
“The police were waiting for me at UBC this afternoon and grabbed me on my way to my car after class. They brought me in for questioning about the woman who was murdered in the hit and run.”
Mr. Frank felt his guts twist. He suspected she might be routinely questioned as the police tried to come up with a possible motive. He anticipated such preliminary questioning would take place on her doorstep. Her lack of nervousness and actual innocence would be apparent and manifest her lack of culpability in the crime. She might even think it was a coincidence. Being brought in for questioning sounded more ominous. The police have more than a theory …
“They are after you for the murder of that woman,” continued Mia. “The one you thought was a witness against me.”
“Me? What are you talking about?” asked Mr. Frank, sounding flustered.
“Drop the innocent act,” said Mia, harshly. “They know … and so do I.”
Mr. Frank stared at her, momentarily too dumbfounded to respond.
“Why didn’t you tell me what you were doing?” asked Mia. “Was it so I would actually portray genuine innocence if I were questioned? Perhaps even pass a polygraph?”
Do I continue to deny? If Mia knows the truth, she may suspect I acted to save myself and not on instruction from the benefactor. “Yes, that was the reason the benefactor did not want you to know,” he responded.
“You told me the police were being bribed … that I had nothing to worry about!”
“The, uh, officer I thought could be bribed has been transferred elsewhere,” replied Mr. Frank. “That is why the benefactor had to resort to drastic action to —”
“The officer? I thought they were all corrupt?” replied Mia. “That’s what I was always told.”
“The benefactor cannot always risk the possibility of identifying his presence by wantonly tossing money about over something that is not of vital importance.”
“Am I not of vital importance?”
“Of course you are,” assured Mr. Frank. “I was only throwing out possible reasons. You and I play the parts assigned to us, but we are like two grains of rice in a bowl. We have no idea of what action could affect the whole bowl.”
“In other words, we don’t see the big picture,” said Mia, recalling Jack’s words from earlier in the day.
“Exactly. It is not up to us to question the benefactor’s decision. We are not in a position to know … and for obvious reasons, we shouldn’t be.”
Mia briefly closed her eyes. The big picture … is what Jack wanted me to see … the woman crying over the loss of her sister. The pictures of a disfigured and bloody woman lying on a sidewalk next to a dead dog.
“What are you thinking?” asked Mr. Frank.
Mia opened her eyes. “I didn’t know the benefactor resorted to such action in Canada,” she replied quietly.
“Which is also why you were not told,” replied Mr. Frank. “Such action is extremely rare and not taken without considerable thought.” Rare is likely the wrong word. I doubt it has ever been done … at least with the benefactor’s knowledge …
Mia shook her head in shock. “If anyone ever found out … it would be like when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Awakening the sleeping giant.”
“It is strictly on a need-to-know basis,” agreed Mr. Frank. “You were responsible for what needed to happen, but there was no reason for you to know about it.”
“I was responsible?” hissed Mia. “It wasn’t my idea to stash two bags of drugs in my purse, drink wine, and drive! Not to mention the fact it was you who slopped wine on me before I left.”
Mr. Frank stared at her in response.
“I think there was something else you did, as well,” persisted Mia. “I felt peculiar for only having one glass of wine. What did you put in it? Ecstasy?”
“I certainly did not!” replied Mr. Frank, vehemently. “It was your own jittery nerves reacting to what you were instructed to do that night. I was trying to calm you.”
“That wasn’t all you were trying to do,” replied Mia, coldly.
“Enough of these foolish thoughts! You said the police know I was involved. You obviously meant that you know I was involved … not that the police know about me?”
“Oh, they know about you. They showed me your picture.”
Mr. Frank gasped. “How? Where was it taken? What did they say to you?”
Mia stared silently for a moment. For some reason I feel satisfaction in seeing your look of fear …
“Don’t just stand there!” snarled Mr. Frank. “Talk!” he demanded, raising the back of his hand as though to strike her. “Tell me everything!”
Mia stepped back in fear. “Okay, okay. I’ll start from the beginning.”
Mr. Frank listened with utmost attention as Mia told how she was picked up at university and brought to an interview room, where a Corporal Jack Taggart of the RCMP Intelligence Unit questioned her about the hit and run and brought in the victim’s sister.
“So they hoped to rattle you with the sister and gain a confession,” said Mr. Frank, contemptuously.
Mia nodded.
“But of course, you really did not know anything … so as you can see, the benefactor was right in their decision not to tell you. Continue.”
“The officer said he knew Wong was behind the woman’s murder and made it clear that Wong was who he was after.”
Mr. Frank glared at Mia. “Where did I come into it? Get to the part about me! You said they had my picture.”
“I think the police followed me last Friday when I went to meet you, but lost me. I think later they pulled security camera footage from the area and discovered you. Perhaps not seeing you drive in or out of the garage or something triggered their —”
“Or you were careless and brought them straight to me,” he replied, accusingly, putting his hand up to gesture for her to be silent as his eyes probed the shadows around them. “Okay, continue.”
“I did everything I had been taught to do,” replied Mia. She then told him about Taggart’s plan.
“So Taggart wants to pretend to be a dirty cop in the hope of gaining my trust?” reiterated Mr. Frank.
“Yours, but more importantly for Taggart, he wants Benny Wong’s trust. Taggart thinks you are only a two-bit player who works for Wong. It’s Wong who he hopes to arrest for the murder. He knows I knew nothing about it.”
Mr. Frank was silent as he digested the information.
“Obviously, your position is compromised,” prodded Mia, hoping to learn what he was thinking. “Mine, too, for that matter.”
“The police have nothing,” said Mr. Frank, in a confident voice that he hoped would sound convincing.
“I agree, as far as the murder goes, but there is still my drug charge,” noted Mia. “I agreed to the introduction to you and Wong so that my charge would be dropped. I thought if you arranged for Taggart and me to meet Wong, it would look like I had fulfilled my end of the bargain.”
Mr. Frank felt like he had been offered a solution to his problem on a silver platter. Mia and Wong together … plus Taggart. His mind went over the scenario. Contact Wong and tell him Taggart might be corrupt and that they should meet him … Wong will be less suspicious if I am there. Suggest we meet in the usual place … a tiny restaurant with a back door where I can come and go unseen. Wong’s bodyguards usually sit in the restaurant having tea while Wong meets me … his trusted friend … in the office down the hall. He smiled to himself at being considered a trusted friend. I will have plenty of time to shoot the three of them and escape out the back before the bodyguards have time to react. They don’t even know who I am.
“I know you could not risk showing up,” added Mia, “but it wouldn’t really matter if Wong played along.”
Mr. Frank gave an evil grin as the last of his plan came together. Yes, tell Wong to take all precautions. No guns, phones, or electronic devices for either Mia or Jack … make them both go through the ropes before meeting with them in case Mia has been turned and it is a ruse by the Canadian Security Intelligence Section or the RCMP to capture me. He breathed a sigh of contentment. Only one last detail … Jia-li …