Don't Tell; It's Our Secret

Chapter 28

Detective Michael Taylor
Present

"Hello!" The Captain shouted through the phone, "Is this Maurice or Dodd?!"

Terry and I looked at each other then looked back to him. They were names we had heard in passing before, usually followed by reals and reals of curse words. Both were captains within the San Francisco police, albeit in different units. Apparently they and the Captian had gone to school together at some point...probably the academy.

"Maurice Rowe!" The Captain shouted. "Yes! This is Roland Forsyth and I was wondering if you remember me?"

Terry tapped my foot with his foot. "Roland?" He giggled like a school girl. No one ever had known the Captain's first name, but Roland was definitely not the name anyone had thought. There had been a rolling bet on what his name had been...

William/Bill
John
Charles/ Charlie
Everett
Thomas
Louis
Etc etc

"Good! Maurice I've got myself a hell of a case on my hands...." the Captain began, drawing our attention back as he was seeming to be interrupted, "well I wouldn't bother you up there but my guys said we've got a connection in San Francisco and as I am technically not in the city limits I figured this could be a you type deal." He continued.

"I wonder-," Terry began.

"Mike," the Captain beckoned me forward with his finger. "Explain to Captain Rowe."

I held my hand up to Terry, signaling him to wait as I took the phone from the Captain, "Hello?" I called.

"This is Maurice Rowe at the San Francisco Police Department. Who am I speaking to?" He called, his voice low and showing a more advanced age.

"this is Detective Michael Taylor," I began, unsure of how to speak to him.

"Well detective," Maurice began, "what do you want?"

"Well sir," I began, unsure of how to address him, "long story short sir, is that we have a missing kid connected to a homicide and we think he's in the city." I tried to stop myself from rushing.

"What do you want me to do about it?" The man gruffly asked, clearly annoyed.

"I was wondering if you could tell us about the whore houses in San Francisco." I started again, trying to be direct as possible.

"Aw kid there are too many!" He shouted suddenly, cutting me off and causing me to jump, "If you want a list it'll be a mile long."

"Well sir," I tried to speak.

"When it comes to whore houses there's only so much we can do, each time we close one down another two open up in it's place, and even if I did give you a list of the establishments owned and or operated but the Black Dragon Gang I can make no promises on the viability as our information is limited and..." he droned on.

"What if I can restrict it!" I called, interrupting him.

"To what?!" The man shouted.

"Owned and / or operated by the Black Dragon Gang as recently as a month ago." I answered swiftly.

"That gang owns about 30 whore houses in this city alone, not to mention the surrounding area! Including your neck of the woods." Maurice snakily stated.

"Well I mean..." I started, but then heard a click on the line.

"He hung up," I rolled my eyes and passed the phone back.

"Figured," the Captain sat back in his chair. "Maurice was always an ass."

"What are we gonna do?" Terry chimed in finally.

"Well..." the Captian began, just as the fax machine behind him beeped. "I'll be damned." He cackled a bit as a piece of paper printed. "Maurice maybe an ass, but he was always a fair cop."

"What is it?" Terry spoke up.

The Captain took the paper from the machine and passed it to Terry. Terry's eyes widened a bit.

"Well I'll be-," he began, passing me the paper.

I took the paper from him and felt my jaw slack open.
The paper had a handwritten title, "Establishments Owned or Operated By the BDG." Beneath it followed a list of establishments and their locations. I only really focused on the ones within San Francisco itself.

1. Anita's Place
2. Bright Times
3. Coralline's Cabinet of Curiosities
4. Dangerous Deals
5. Devin's Spa
7. Frieda's Fantastic Hotel
8.  The Gramercy
12. The Jade Dragon
13. The Jade Palace
15. The Jaded Emperor
17. The Jewel of the Orient
18. Ki-On's Villa
19. Li's Palace
20. Marion's Motel
24. The Pearl of the Sea
27.  Remington's
29. The Ruby Square
30. The Sapphire Room
32. The Turquoise Palace

I felt a pang in my mind just reading through the list...there were 20 places within San Francisco alone, and it would take days to canvas each one....and that was only if we were allowed inside. No judge would write a warrant for all of them...we would need to be specific. Trouble was, the leak that Jack had told me about was not too keen on revealing her place of work. That was obviously clear. Whether that was due to shame or fear, was hard to understand.

"How are we supposed to get through all that?" Terry piped up.

"Easily!" The Captain answered before I could. "You hit the pavement."

"Most of those are out of our jurisdiction." I added.

"Don't worry about that." The Captain picked up the phone again, "I'll sort out Maurice."

"And how do you plan to do that, sir?" I raised an eyebrow, having heard the gruff demeanor of the man.

"Our wives are friends," he shrugged as he typed the numbers and held the phone to his ear. "Maurice is partial to my wife's roast, and I'm partial to his wife's stew. We'll do a trade." He winked. "Maurice!" The Captain called over the phone. "Well I was wondering..." he began.

"Mike," Terry leaned over. "Maybe we should take this list to your friend."

"What do you mean?" I wondered, my mind too filled with thoughts.

"Your friend seems to have decent knowledge of the underground when it comes to these gangs, why not just show him this? Maybe he can narrow it down?" Terry suggested.

"...you have an excellent point." I agreed with him.

We only had two hopes of narrowing this list:

1. Hit the pavement, like the Captian said.

Or

2. Go back to Jack's office, show him the list, and pray to whoever that he might be able to get the list narrowed.