CHAPTER 8
ADVANTAGE – COLT .45
Sergeant Dan Clive lay in his hospital bed recovering from wounds received in the line of duty. He had been rather badly beaten in an engagement with a drug trafficker. One who, unfortunately for the Sergeant, was also a martial arts devotee.
The good Sergeant managed to put on a brave smile on the approach of two visiting Police Officers, Probationary Constables’ Jim Favour and Sandy Beaches.
‘Hi, Sarge,’ they chorused.
‘Hello, you two.’ he greeted them. ‘Thanks for coming, and all that - but haven’t you got something better to do, something more important? I mean, are you sure you’ve got time for this, with all your studies?’
‘We had to come,’ said Jim.
‘Had to?’ queried the Sarge.
‘Sure,’ Sandy replied. ‘All the guys on the Course wanted us to come and ask you for the ‘story behind the story’ as it were. What really happened to you out there? Come on, Sarge - off the record if you like.’
‘No, no...’ Sergeant Clive protested, ‘I can’t.’
‘But you must!’ pleaded Sandy. ‘We’re not being nosy. What we want to do is demonstrate to this training course of ours, that we have learnt something from all of this. Come on boss, the guys are counting on us to come up with the goods!’
‘Ohhh, I’m not sure if I should.’
‘Now don’t tire him out, you two! Do you hear me?’ Sister Bligh interjected, as she stopped by briefly to check his chart. When the Sister, satisfied with their assurances, had gone, the two of them again prevailed on their leader and mentor to continue.
‘Right. You two remember the plaque that hangs over my desk, do you? The one with the old Chinese motto? Remember how it goes?’ asked the Sarge.
‘Yeah. ‘A man, may have one head’ or something,’ said Jim.
‘No,’ cut in Sandy. ‘It’s er, ‘A man has only one head - but many faces’ – right boss?’
‘Right!’ the Sarge assured her. ‘But do you know what it means?’
‘A man can have multiple personalities?’ Sandy suggested.
‘Yeah, of course. But there’s more to it than that. Think on this: I haven’t always been a Police Sergeant, have I?’
‘No.’ said the two, in bewilderment.
‘No! Of course not. I’ve been lots of things in my time. I’ve played many parts. Truck driver, soldier, shop manager... for instance. The point I want you to remember is, that the days when people stayed in one job for life are well and truly over. Workplace flexibility is the thing today. So, be aware that your car thief, burglar, pimp, mugger, drug dealer have likely had previous occupations of one sort or another. Right! What I want you to do is always consider whether their former occupations may have any relevance to the crime you are investigating. It’s as simple as that, got it?’
‘Right!’ exclaimed Jim. ‘One head, many faces or many jobs! Gotcha!’
‘Spot on, old son,’ the Sarge was happy to assure him. ‘The Inspector has a plaque in his office too. Did you notice that one?’
‘Yes,’ said Sandy. ‘Seek and ye shall find’, you mean?’
‘Got it in one,’ said the Sarge. ‘Don’t you ever forget it!’
‘But how do we know what we are looking for, before we find it?’ asked Jim.
‘You don’t,’ said the Sarge. ‘But I’ll tell you how it worked in this case. I suspected Kato from the start, Cop instinct, if you like. It grows on you after a while. There was something about his manner I didn’t like. This made me think he had more than one face to hide. So I decided to do a bit of the old ‘seek and ye shall find’ thing. He is listed as an importer of Korean artefacts, with a warehouse and showroom here in Brisbane. But I soon found that he used to be in the motor trade with a small place out near the airport. The interesting thing here was that he specialised in imported cars and I’m talking big, expensive, cars. Earlier still, he was an undermanager for a Casino on one of the larger island resorts off the Queensland coast. Before that he was here, in Brisbane, at Griffith University.’
‘Wow! All that must have taken some time to dig it out, did it Sarge?’ asked Jim.
‘No, not really. It’s all on the computer and readily available - when you know where to look, of course. But you’ll learn that, in time. Never be afraid of asking!’
‘But what did you make of all that information, then, Sarge?’ asked Sandy.
‘Well, the way I looked at it, the Casino could have given him the chance to meet and make friends with some really big Asian gamblers. Then somebody, most likely him, probably thought it would be a good idea to hide drugs in some of the Korean artefacts he was importing. You know the stuff; small figurines, kids, dogs, vases. Anything, as long as it was hollow, would do the trick’
‘Ah! But how would they bring them in undetected?’ asked Jim.
‘Well, that’s the clever bit, son. I guessed they could well have decided to go for the old ‘double blind’ trick. That is, they would hide the drugs in the artefacts and then, hide the artefacts in the cars!’
‘Wow! How clever!’ said Jim.
‘But Kato is no longer in the car importing business!’ said Sandy.
‘No, that’s true,’ confirmed the Sarge. ‘But I suspect he may have retained a key to his old dealership when he sold it, or maybe he stole one back! The important thing was to make sure the new owner would have no idea what was going on, that his cars were being used this way. Therefore, the car import business would always check out as being thoroughly legit! See how smart that is? All Kato had to do when the cars got here, was let himself into the dealership at night and remove the figurines. All done very quickly you see, because he always knew exactly where to look.’
‘But what if the drugs should somehow be discovered by Customs, or accidentally found by workers at the dealership?’ asked Jim.
‘Whoever found them would likely think they were smuggled artefacts, of no great value and have no idea of them having drugs inside. Most importantly, no direct link back to Kato! That’s the important thing. He could easily afford to write it off; all of it, the car, the drugs, the artefacts - and try something else.’ The Sarge picked on the grapes they had brought him, as they made a meal of all this information.
‘Right!’ said Jim. ‘But why did you go charging off to his warehouse on your own, like that, without telling anybody, let alone calling for back-up?’
‘Look, son. Those CIB guys think they know it all. They think they are “the ant’s pants” and they are the only ones with brains. But I reckon, just now and again, we uniformed guys can show them a thing or two. Besides, old Kato looked such a harmless old man. I had no reason to think he would attack anyone. Violence seemed a bit out of character for him. Anyway, I wasn’t looking for trouble. I just planned to slip in through the loading bay and have a poke-about in the storage area. Perhaps find a nice little possie where I could hole-up and watch him remove the drugs from the figurines. You see, I had a tip off that one of the drug dealers were due to call on him that night. I wanted to know where he kept the figurines that were stuffed with drugs. Just a few minutes quiet observation was all I needed.’
‘Ok. But, something went wrong, didn’t it?’
‘My damn mobile phone went off! My dear wife called, of all things, to ask me to bring some pizza home! I mean, I’ve told her over and over, never to call me on that damn thing except in the gravest of emergencies! She blames me, of course, for not switching it off. Anyway, it sure blew my cover.’
‘Good grief! What happened next?’ asked Jim.
‘Well Kato, who I thought was such a nice, quiet, guy, suddenly turns into a raging maniac! He came charging at me, cartons and giant boxes of stuff flying in all directions. More and more stuff come tumbling down off the shelves, I was practically buried in it! Winded, injured and blinded by the shock of it all, I simply passed out. I mean, otherwise he would n
ever have got the better of me, I can tell you that!’
‘Didn’t you have a chance to draw your gun?’ asked Sandy.
‘Yeah, I did, I did. But I somehow lost it in the rough and tumble.’
‘I can understand that, Sarge. But I mean, your injuries, they’re sooo extensive, you poor thing...’ said Sandy, in a warm and comforting tone.
‘Yeah, well, I think perhaps one or more of them dealers must have turned up and joined in the kicking. I can’t remember much after that first karate chop.’ He stopped to pick on the grapes while he gathered his thoughts. ‘I hear some smart-arsed Detective happened to come by and is now claiming the credit for solving the case. But it won’t hold up! Kato is down to me!’ He paused for more grapes, then he exclaimed ‘Oh, look. Talking of smart-arsed Detectives, here comes one now, that smarty pants, dick-chick from CIB!’
‘Hi! Cheryl!’ Sandy said, welcoming the new visitor.
‘G’day Sandy, Jim’ she replied, before turning to Sergeant Clive and presenting him with another bag of grapes. ‘Hi Sarge. I was going to bring you flowers, but the boys in CIB said ‘One should never, ever, give a Sergeant something he can’t eat, drink or smoke!’ she laughed.
‘Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard that one before and the rest of it!’
‘How are you then,’ Cheryl inquired. ‘Picking up, are you?’
‘Oh, yeah... sort of. Thanks for the grapes. I can’t eat much else.’
‘I should think not! Not after the beating you took!’ Cheryl replied.
‘I’m still too tough for Kato! I’ve just been filling in these guys on how I solved the case.’
‘Oh, really?’
‘The Sarge has been giving us tips. You know, on lessons to be learned etc.’ said Sandy.
‘He worked it all out by studying Kato’s background, former occupations and things like that,’ added Jim.
‘Is that so?’ asked Cheryl. ‘He told you then, did he, that Kato had the figurines especially made for him by a company he owns in a small village in Korea? Then he had them shipped by a company he part owns, to an off-shore island; owned on paper, by his girlfriend, where certain figurines were packed with drugs. The drug-loaded figurines were then shipped to Seoul, where they were hidden in cars at a dealership owned by Kato’s mother and then shipped from there to Australia, to a respectable dealer right here in Brisbane.’
‘Hey, how come you know all this?’ asked the Sarge. ‘Have you been reading my notes?’
‘Yeah! Who told you all that?’ Jim chipped in.
‘You have been looking in the files, haven’t you?’ asked Sandy.
‘Of course! I sure have! My files!’ Cheryl responded.
‘Your files? What the Hell are you talking about?’ Sergeant Clive exploded.
‘CIB have had an interest in Kato, off and on, between other work for oh, about two or three years now,’ Cheryl explained.
‘What? Do you happen to know then, who it was from CIB that dropped in, just as I was getting my second wind?’ asked the Sarge.
‘Sure, I do. It was me.’ Cheryl replied.
‘Well I’ll be damned,’ said the Sarge. ‘Following me, were you?’
‘No,’ replied Cheryl. ‘I was parked outside in an unmarked van, watching the place. I had heard that a certain dealer was due to call some time that night, you see. I was interested in seeing who that might be. I hoped maybe I’d get some pictures. Anyway, I saw you duck in and I knew Kato was in there, so I followed, you know, in case you needed back-up.’
‘Simple as that?’ asked Sandy.
‘Yes, oh, yes’ replied Cheryl. I saw it all happen. It was terrible the way Kato laid into the Sarge! When Kato saw me, he came at me too, with his right hand raised, threateningly. I identified myself and warned him to back off! But he kept on coming. So I fired! The bullet went right through the palm of his raised right hand.’
‘Then what?’ asked Jim.
‘He hesitated in surprise. He could hardly believe the size of the hole in his hand! I guess he knew he would need urgent medical treatment pretty quickly, so he simply gave himself up. Good job he did or he could have killed the poor old Sarge here.’
‘I don’t believe this, it’s not possible’ said the Sarge, in bewilderment.
‘Weren’t you scared?’ asked Sandy.
‘I would have been,’ added Jim.
‘I expect the Sarge has already explained that Kato trained in martial arts here, when he was at Griffith Uni and how he gave martial arts lessons at the sports club, at the Casino on the island. So I was prepared for him and that’s why my boss suggested I be sure to carry my gun. When I saw what was happening, I knew I had to stop him from killing the Sarge with his bare hands. He was, we all know, quite capable of that. Right?’
‘But, nonetheless, you must have been scared facing Kato! Come on, admit it?’ demanded the Sarge.
‘No. No, not at all. I knew I had the advantage.’
‘What advantage?’ Jim asked.
‘Yes, tell us please?’ begged Sandy.
‘I remembered the plaque.’
‘Ah! You mean the one that says: ‘A man has only one head - but many faces’,’ said Jim.
‘Or the ‘Seek and ye shall find’, one?’ suggested Sandy.
‘No, neither of them!’ said Cheryl, showing some degree of amusement. ‘No. My father served in the Military Police in Korea. On many occasions they had to face offenders proficient in the martial arts. Some of them even became a bit reluctant to go on patrol at night. So their boss had a special plaque made and hung in his office, to show them they were the ones who really had the advantage and had nothing to fear. It read:
MARTIAL ARTS: CHOP! CHOP!
KNIVES: STAB! STAB!
BUT A SIX-SHOT COLT 45 HAS THE ADVANTAGE
- EVERYTIME!’
‘That’s the plaque I meant. It’s my plaque now. You must come and see it some time. By the way, in case you’re wondering about the figurines with the drugs? They were hidden inside one of two Korean lion statuettes, set in giant pots, one each side of the entrance. One lion covered in dust. The other quite clean! It wasn’t too hard to guess which one had been handled a lot!’
‘Wow!’ said Tim.
‘Congratulations!’ said Sandy.
‘I still think you were lucky,’ said the Sarge.
‘Maybe. Maybe. Bye Sarge. I’ve really got to go now. You see, Kato spilled the beans last night. His mates are expecting to meet him this ’arvo and we are picking them up instead. Do you have any message for him and his boys? I could give him your love, if you like – should I?’
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