who he is meeting,â replied Jack. âIf you get a wire, maybe weâll get lucky with a room or vehicle bug.â
âHe might be meeting his partners in Headstones,â said Connie.
âLaura and I will photograph any new faces,â replied Jack. âWeâll pass the photos on to you and you can show Gabriel.â
âAnd Noah,â added Laura.
âWhy donât you show her?â asked Connie. âYou know them better than I do.â
âI was the one who busted Varrick last time, which caused him to move into her place. I donât think she would appreciate me coming around.â
âDonât tell her that.â
âI already did.â
Connie stared at Jack without speaking.
âIt was the honest thing to do,â he shrugged.
âYouâre a hard guy to figure out sometimes,â muttered Connie. âBut even if we get lucky and they pick out a photo, weâll still need to put a real name to the face or faces. I agree it is the way to go, but I still think we will have more luck with a wire.â
âA wire might help,â said Jack, âbut weâre in this for the long haul. The good news is that he will continue. Getting arrested didnât stop him last time.â
âLast time he didnât take part in murdering a priest,â said Connie. âIt might cause him to change careers. If he goes straight, we may never figure out who his accomplices are.â
âThese guys donât give a damn about who they kill,â replied Jack. âThey may lay low for a few days to see if the heat is on, but as soon as the bikers think heâs cool, heâll be put back to work. His expertise as a lab rat wonât be wasted for long. Too much money involved. When he starts up again weâll find out who his running mates are.â
âIâve only got sixty days to run a wire,â warned Connie. âIf we donât get something substantial by then, I wonât be able to get a renewal.â
âIâm aware of that,â replied Jack.
âI donât see any other options,â added Laura.
Connie nodded in agreement.
Connie and Laura looked silently at Jack.
âLetâs get to work,â he said.
* * *
Jack and Laura found a place where they could park their car and use binoculars to watch the parking lot at Headstones. Several rooms on the second and third levels had lights going off and on during the evening. At three in the morning the last of the lights went out.
Jack waited another hour before driving through the parking lot as Laura used a tape recorder to obtain the license plates of half a dozen vehicles still left in the lot. Partway through the lot, Jack tossed an empty beer bottle out the car window. If anyone was watching, they would think they were partiers looking for action. As it turned out, none of the registrations gave any clue as to which one, if any, were being used by Varrick.
Surveillance over the weekend and the following few days did not yield any sign of Varrick. On Friday morning, Connie called Jack to tell him that she had a meeting with Public Prosecution Service of Canada and hoped to have a wiretap signed and running by the following day.
âWhat about phone tolls?â asked Jack. âWho has he been calling?â
âHis parents and a few others that all look legit ⦠like fast food takeout places. The only ones who have a criminal record are his parents, and that was ten years ago for drug trafficking.â
âI was afraid of that,â sighed Jack.
âSo Iâm doing all this work to get a wire on the phone for nothing.â
âThe phone, yes, but if we can put him to a car we might be able to wire it or some other location where they might chat. Like I said, it is going to take time.â
* * *
Early Friday afternoon Jack and Laura were slouched in their car watching Headstones and eating submarine sandwiches when
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