Connie reviewed Jack’s report and said, “You befriended him?”

“I’ve never met anyone who wanted so badly to be my friend,” replied Jack.

“Yeah, I can only imagine. Would you mind if I added that Slater possibly might have felt intimidated by your role and the Crown would no doubt feel a conviction against him would be unlikely?”

“Knowing our justice system as I do, what you just said sounds most probable.” Jack lowered his voice, cupped a hand to the side of his mouth and in a staged whisper added, “I did yell at him.”

“Got a feeling that’s not all you did,” she replied, going back to work on the operational plan. When she was finished, the plan called for:

Jack’s undercover scenario to continue in the hope of identifying Tio and perhaps some of the men who worked for him in Canada. If Jack’s undercover role led to the identification of Tio and his men, then his UC role would be finished unless circumstances indicated Jack might be successful in finding Lily Rae or her body.

Permission for Jack to go to El Paso was requested should it be deemed necessary, along with a request the Americans be asked through the appropriate channels to provide assistance for his protection should that happen.

That the Vancouver RCMP Drug Section work jointly on the project to take over the drug-trafficking aspect of the investigation.

That Drug Section and Proceeds of Crime investigators would likely be required to travel to El Paso to gather evidence to support cocaine importation and money-laundering charges against the people in Canada. Should that be necessary, they would submit their own request in due course, while still bearing in mind their evidence might be needed to explain the motive behind Porter’s murder at a trial in Canada. It was stressed the investigators from the different units would need to work closely together.

It was further recommended that if the two suspects on the security camera in Porter’s apartment were identified and arrested in El Paso, then permission was requested for Connie and Wilson to travel to El Paso to work with the American authorities and take part in any interrogations. Extradition proceeding would also be initiated.

If it was learned that Lily Rae was murdered in El Paso, the United States would deal with it as it would be in their jurisdiction. In this case, Connie and Wilson would also work with the Amer-ican investigators, as evidence obtained in Canada concerning Porter’s murder might be needed in the United States or visa versa. The Canadian investigators would also look into the possibility that the U.S. judicial system might allow for Slater to be used as a probable hostile witness at criminal proceedings in the U.S.

It was noon when Jack went over to Slater’s apartment and buzzed the intercom.

“Who is it?” asked a female voice.

“My name is Jack. I’m, uh, Clive’s friend. Is he in?”

“You’re his friend? Good, then come on up.”

Minutes later, Jack was let into Slater’s apartment by a young woman.

“Is he here?” asked Jack.

“Fuck, no.”

“Do you —”

“I don’t know where he is. He took off this morning. If you’re his friend you can hang around and tell him it’s over between us. I’m splitting,” she said, stomping into the bedroom where she continued to throw clothes into a suitcase on the bed.

“Any idea when he might be back?” asked Jack.

“Nope and I don’t care. The guy’s a fuckin’ nutcase.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, for starters, he came home last night all covered in dirt and then had a meltdown.”

“A meltdown?”

“Oh, yeah. A real doozie. He started smashing eggs and crying like a baby. I took him to the hospital and some shrink talked to him for an hour.”

“Really? I wonder what that was all about? Did he say?”

“No, he wouldn’t talk to the shrink … or to me. They gave him some pills to take, which he wouldn’t, so I end up driving him back home at four o’clock this morning. Then at eight he tells me he’s going out. ‘It’s Sunday morning,’ I say. ‘Where ya going?’ Like that is too much to ask. He tells me it’s none of my fucking business. Well, you can tell him it really ain’t none of my fucking business because I’m done with him.”

Seconds later, Jack watched as she dragged the suitcase off the bed and stormed out of the apartment, leaving Jack alone.

Jack quickly locked the apartment door and started to search. He knew the search was illegal and anything he found would not be allowed as evidence, but decided as Slater already had a get-out-of-jail-free card, it really didn’t matter.

A short time later, he hauled what seemed like an empty suitcase down off a shelf in the closet. In and outside pocket of the suitcase he found a hand-drawn map. On it were the initials EP-W-CR14-12-U-L. Above the initial U was a string of dotted lines coming up to a pile of small lines in a haphazard pattern with an X over one of them.

Jack recalled the house trailer out in the desert that Slater had mentioned to him and speculated the map was instructions on how to get to it. Slater had told him he didn’t think the trailer was being used, but decided to copy it into his notebook, regardless. He had most of the pertinent details down when he heard the apartment door being unlocked.

Slater was startled to see Jack standing in the doorway to his kitchen.

“Your girlfriend let me in,” he explained. “She said to tell you she’s out of here. She packed a suitcase and just left. I’m surprised you didn’t bump into her in the hallway.”

“I couldn’t care less about her,” replied Slater.

“I was about to look and see if you had any coffee.”

“Yeah, I’ll get it,” replied Slater, walking into the kitchen and opening a cupboard.

“I understand you lost it when you got home last night.”

“Yeah, I guess. I’m okay now. I just, uh, never had that experience before.”

His words sounded robotic and his face was without emotion. Jack knew it would be a long time, if ever, before Slater would be okay. “So how did you make out this morning?” he asked.

“I think you guys should be happy,” replied Slater. “I met with my Canadian contact and told him what you told me to say. He made me wait while he emailed someone in a chat room who I guess then had to go to another computer and email someone else. Anyway, eventually the message was passed on to Tio. He had a couple of questions and we had to go through the whole process again, but in the end, he said he is willing to meet you in person.”

“I thought he would be,” replied Jack evenly, while controlling the excitement he felt. “What questions did he have?”

“He wanted to know how I met you, so … well, you said not to tell anyone about last night. So I lied to them and said I’ve known you all my life. I told them you were my cousin. Is that all right?”

“Yeah … it’s perfect. You did really well.” They’ll probably kill you for that later …

“He also wanted to know why I hadn’t mentioned you before. I said I had never said anything to him or you because I was afraid you guys would look at each other as competition. Then I said when you invited me over to the clubhouse yesterday, you mentioned you guys were really unhappy with the Colombians. I said I told you I knew a guy in Mexico who could help and that one thing led to another and you wanted to meet him.”

“Excellent. So when and where do I meet him?”

“He said you’re to go to El Paso. One week from Wednesday.”

“Ten days from now,” noted Jack. “I wonder why then and not sooner?”

“I think because I’m supposed to make a delivery down there at the same time. He said for us to check in at a place called the Armadillo Motel and he would arrange for you to see him.”

Arrange for me to see him? Tio doesn’t plan on coming to the motel … “Have you used that motel before?”