“Sorry, Jack. I don’t think my husband would appreciate me working undercover as a prostitute in a massage parlour.”

“Couldn’t you at least ask him?” He waited until Laura smiled back at him and said, “Okay, be that way. That leaves us with the option of getting an informant. Guess I’m the one built for that job.”

“What? Acting drunk and horny?”

“You got it. I’ll start with Dúc’s place out in Surrey”

“Didn’t your friend from VPD Anti-Gang tell you these guys are dangerous? Kids with machetes?”

“What’s your point?”

“If things go wrong, it would be nice to have someone there who knows these people and could lend a hand.”

Jack nodded in agreement and reached for the telephone.

Detective Rocco Pasquali listened to Jack’s request and said, “Hey, I’ll be glad to help. I didn’t have anything planned tonight. Be good to get out of the city, even if it is just to Surrey.”

Hang knew that it was now or never. She took the lid off the toilet tank and disconnected the chain from the leaver and let it fall to the bottom of the tank. She stared inside for a moment and whispered aloud, “This is the only way, Linh. The American police are smart. They are like scientists. It will work.”

It has to ... as long as I’m found in time.

chapter fifteen

I t was eight o’clock at night when Jack left Laura and Pasquali in the car and walked into the Orient Pleasure.

Better time to make a selection, Jack decided. Late enough for the after-work crowd to have left and early enough to avoid the arrival of the bar crowd.

“Have you been here before?” asked a stocky young Vietnamese man behind a counter. His accent was heavy, but his English was passable.

“Not this particular joint ... no,” replied Jack.

“One hundred for a room,” the young man said. “You pay me now. We rent the room.”

“What kind of ... massage does that include?” asked Jack.

“What kind, is up to you and the girl,” he winked. “We just rent the room.”

“Listen, mate,” said Jack. “My needs are sometimes a little different. Last time I was in a place like this, the girl didn’t speak a word of English. Hard to tell her what I like. Your girls speak English?”

He smiled and said, “One girl speak good English. Her name is Jade.”

Jack paid the money and a minute later found himself alone in a small room with an attractive Vietnamese woman who was about eighteen years old. She was wearing a red wrap around her waist with a black emblem of a dragon on it. Her top was a short-sleeved white blouse unbuttoned enough to show most of her bare breasts when she bent over. A singlesized bed with white linen sheets and a chair were the only furniture in the room.

“So what you like?” asked Jade.

“Straight sex,” said Jack. “I already paid the guy out front. I better not have to pay you, too.”

“No, you no suppose to talk about that. What kind of sex you want?”

“Normal. You on the bottom and me on top.”

“You don’t need English for that,” said Jade, unbuttoning the rest of her blouse before releasing the tie on her wrap to reveal that she was naked underneath. “All girls understand that.”

“Put your wrap back on,” said Jack, “and do up your blouse.”

“Oh? You want me to give you hummer first?”

Jack shook his head.

“Blow job,” said Jade, while putting her wrap back on.

“I understood you,” replied Jack. “No!”

“Why you here, then? You want to fuck me different?”

“Listen to me carefully,” said Jack, “and do not speak until I’m finished!”

Jade stared back at him, frightened and confused. She was more frightened when he showed her his police identification and said he could arrest her and send her back to Vietnam.

“Please, Mister Police. No. They kill my family you do that!” she said in a hushed voice.

Jack knew the terror in her voice was genuine.

“I owe money for coming to Canada,” she continued. “Me no pay and they kill my family in Vietnam. Please ... no take me to jail.”

“I will not arrest you if you help me,” said Jack. “You tell me how you came to Canada. Who you work for. Explain everything to me.”

“No,” said Jade. “I talk to police ... then I die and my family die.”

“Nobody will know.”

“It is too dangerous.”

“If you don’t talk to me, then I will arrest you now for prostitution and deport you immediately back to Vietnam. I will also arrest Dúc and he will think you did talk. What do you think he will do then?”

Jade gasped and said, “No, please. No do that!”

Jack put his finger to his lips to get Jade to lower her voice again and said, “I keep my promises. You work for me and I will not tell anybody.”

Jade sat on the edge of the bed and hunched over to try and stop herself from trembling. Jack sat beside her and whispered, “Start by telling me your real name.”

“My name in Vietnamese is Ngoc Bích,” she said, while swallowing to hold back the tears. “It means Jade in English.”

“My name is Jack.”

Jade glanced at him and nodded silently.

“So tell me, Jade, how long have you been in Canada?”

Jade held her hands over her face and didn’t reply.

“Talk to me, Jade. It is the only way.”

Jade put her hands down and stared up at Jack’s face. “You can trust me,” he said quietly. “Help me and I will help you.”

Tears flooded her eyes and she wiped them away with the back of her wrist. “Okay,” she said. “I talk.” She paused to think, before saying, “I be in Canada three months now. I leave Vietnam four-and-half months ago. Boat take six weeks.”

“What boat?”

“I don’t know name. It very old. Made to carry big boxes ... not people. I come here with many other girls. Maybe forty. We go from boat to fish boat. Then to house. After three day, we put in back of truck. No windows. Then another boat. Short time, maybe two hour. We stay in back of truck. No see. We are told we get job in hotel.”

“This isn’t a hotel.”

“Men lie,” she said bitterly. “But no lie about money. I makes much money. I have mother and two brothers and two sisters. They poor. I send money home. Already send six hundred dollar in three months.”

“But not from working in a hotel,” said Jack.

“Mister Dúc will have Giang kill me if I talk,” said Jade, changing the subject.

“We won’t tell him. Who is Giang?”

“He work for Mister Dúc.”

“Is that the man at the front who took my money a few minutes ago?”

“No. That Cuóng.”

“What happened when you arrived and found out you would not be working in a hotel?”

“We are brought here. We are told what we must do. What men expect. I say no.” She stopped and her body started to shake as she remembered.

“What happened when you said no?” asked Jack quietly.

“Not good to talk to you,” said Jade. “Somebody find out and ...”

“Jade, we’ve been over that. Tell me what happened!”

Jade swallowed and replied, “I am beaten by Giang and ...” She then stopped and covered her face with her hands again.

Jack gently pulled her wrists down. “Jade, look at me.”

She nervously looked up at him.

“Giang raped you, didn’t he?”

Her eyes pooled and she nodded. “Not just Giang. By many men and boy who work for Mister Dúc,” she sobbed. “First night, I count twenty-three times ... then I stop counting. If I run away or no work, then men who bring me on boat go to Nha Trang and kill my family. I go to police ... same thing.”

“Other girls were gang-raped, too?”

“Not so much as me. I say no. Try to fight. They beat me. Giang, he stick gun between my legs,” she said, choking out the words. “I say, okay. No fight no more. Other girls smarter than Jade. They say, okay ... fast.”

Neither spoke for a little while as Jade stared blankly into space as her brain tried to erase what it could not. Eventually she said, “Mister Dúc have many bad men and bad boys work for him. One boy, Xuân, very bad. I think he fourteen years old. Xuân much respect Mister Dúc. Want to be like him, but now Xuân must do what Giang tell him. Giang in Vietnamese means river. With Giang, I tell other girls it mean river of death.”