“Maybe I could take her place because I have been investigating. It’s easier for me than you because everyone knows me and is willing to bend my ear with more gossip.”
“Not all gossip is true.”
“The information I have is solid because I know people who have been affected.”
Todd was still doubtful, but he said, “Tell me what you know.”
“It’s about Moon Rocks, and it’s connected to the Jessup people.”
“Oh sure, now I really believe you. So some of the Jessup clan have been up there to the moon and brought back souvenirs?”
“Do you want to listen to me, or not?”
“Sorry. I am frustrated with these murders. I don’t seem to be getting anywhere.”
“Here’s what I know. First of all Moon Rocks is a new kind of mind-altering drug out on the market. Much of it comes from China, and it’s deadly. It’s also called Spice, K2 and Skunk. It’s marketed as a safe substitute for marijuana, but it’s not safe at all. It can cause seizures and people could die from it.”
“How are you so sure about this?”
“Kids I knew in high school have already died from it—seven in the last year.”
“Seven!”
“Yes, that’s why I started paying attention to it. I talked with Sheriff Carbon, and he said it was a problem in the area. What he had found out so far was that the Jessup family was the main distributor of the stuff in Calypso. Milly, the mom gives it to people in her social gatherings, like her card club and book club. The dad, Gilly takes care of the business end, distributing it to workers at the canning factory and Wal-Mart. Lily takes care of the people she knows at the high school.”
“This is awfully hard for me to believe, Lulu. I thought the Jessup people were rejected by much of the town.”
“If someone is going to supply you with drugs, you don’t reject them.”
“How do the Jessups get the drugs?”
“Uncle Willy is the main receiving port. It’s dropped off at his gas station. He distributes some of it to his gas customers. He asks them if they want regular or high octane, and if they say high octane, a drug sale is made. Willy distributes the drugs to the rest of the family so they can give it to those people they know.”
“It’s an entire network.”
“For sure. It was Sheriff’s Carbon’s main task, he said, to eliminate this network, but then the May 10th murders began happening.”
“Did he think there was a connection between the Moon Rocks cartel here and those murders?”
“He thought possibly it was his own fault that Ma and Walt were murdered. He had enlisted them as allies in trying to wipe out the drug distribution. He had them be spies walking and talking around the neighborhoods trying to find out as much as they could about what was happening with this drug. That’s how he found out so much about the Jessup family’s involvement. He said it was a strange quirk that people who do illegal things like to talk about it to someone. One of his theories on those murders was that someone caught on about what Ma and Walt were doing and eliminated them. Possibly one of the Jessups themselves, or one of the users.”
“A user of the drugs wouldn’t want the supply to dry up, is that it?”
“It went beyond that, Larry said. In certain instances it was financially profitable to have your business be a drug center.”
“What do you mean?”
“If customers could know that a bonus for shopping at that business was that they could also buy their illegal drugs at the same place that would be the place to frequent.”
“It sounds like you’re saying that some owners were in on this drug thing?”
“Absolutely. Sheriff Carbon was sure that Fred McNeil, the manager of the Wal-Mart knew what was going on at his place, and he was encouraging it. The same with Stan Furness, the manager of the McDonald’s you’re sitting in right now.”
“I do sometimes see money changing hands, and it’s not at the counter. I never paid attention to it. I thought maybe it was about losing bets or money owed. It’s so blatant to be doing the drug thing out in the open like that.”
“That’s part of why it works so well.”
“It sounds like a lot of the town was in on this Moon Rocks thing.”
“And they still are. Before his death, Larry told me that he thought at least half the town was either buying the drugs or allowing it with full knowledge. He thought even the manager of the canning factory, Phil Parsons was going along with it because it was making his assembly line run smoother. The drug is supposed to fill the user with an unbelievable amount of energy, but then there are reverse effects. Parson has had five workers die from the drug this year alone.”
“Wouldn’t all these people dying from the drug, have caught the attention of the coroner?”
“The great joke on Larry of course was that before he became sheriff, he was the undertaker and coroner. It’s a small town, and for many jobs whoever wants it, can have it. Larry had some medical school training and then quit about a couple years, so he never had any kind of degree from it. He diagnosed these deaths as heart attacks. Then when he took over the role as Sheriff and began talking to people he found out about the Moon Rocks. If half the people were for the drug distribution, that meant that half weren’t. He found people who were willing to talk about what was going on, but they said they wouldn’t testify or they’d be killed. When his wife, Wendy took over the undertaking and coroner jobs, Larry had her read up on testing that could be done with the dead body to determine death by drugs. Larry had told me they had officially recorded three deaths already due to the Moon Rocks. He was just beginning to gather more evidence when of course he was killed. So I’m passing all this information on to you. Wendy is currently still checking what deaths are caused by K2.”
“Why hadn’t you told me all this sooner?”
“You were new and busy enough. I knew Sheriff Carbon was on the case, but I guess before he could tell you much about it, he was killed. Since, then I’ve waited until I could find a way to stop it all.”
“What about the case I came here to try to solve, the murder of Billy Jessup?”
“Larry told me that from the beginning, Billy was against what his family was doing. It was one of the reasons he left town, so he could literally distance himself from them. Larry told me Billy had told his family he would reveal what they were doing if they didn’t stop. Before he left town he did tell Larry, who already knew much of it from his own investigation.”
“So someone from the family could have come to Philly and killed their relative?”
“Or anyone else who was addicted or wanted the supply to continue for business reasons.”
“Yes, it doesn’t narrow the suspects, but it’s another motive for killing Billy. You said you waited to tell me until you had a way to stop it all. What have you come up with?”
“Come out to my car with me.”
From her trunk, Lulu pulled out a large sack labeled, Plant Food.
“You’re starting a garden?” Todd asked.
“This garden would bring half the town flocking to my place. Have it tested. This is one of the way Moon Rocks or K2 is sold under the guise of legitimate business. Mainly it is packaged this way when customs officials check shipments into our country.”
Todd picked up the sack. It was light, maybe too light for plant food, but who would know much about plant food? “Here on the back it says, Not for Human Consumption.”
“That’s part of the trick to get by border and harbor checks. Lately I’ve googled this, and it says that often the product is shipped to the USA in large containers labeled, Fertilizer. All sorts of visual normality is used in order to fool the authorities.”
“Where did you get this?”
“I remembered what Sheriff Carbon told me before he was murdered, about the main shipments coming here to Uncle Willy. There’s an old shed in back of his gas station. Willy closes the station at midnight. I took a chance ea
rly this morning at two A.M. and snuck into that shed. In keeping with the Jessup theory of hiding everything in plain sight, the shed was not locked. This is a bag I got out of there. I’m sure when you have it tested it will be Spice, Skunk, or whatever we want to call it. Then it’s up to you. I would suggest a raid on Uncle Willy’s shed.”
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
That day Todd drove the bag of drugs to the forensic lab in South Bend. He happened to see Deputy Jo Clark there who said she was finished with the surveillance and would be back on the job in Calypso tomorrow.
Todd explained about the so called, Plant Food.
“That girl has done a great job. Maybe she should go into crime fighting as a career.”
“When you think about it, would you really wish that on a person?”
He could see her reflecting. “Now that you mention it, no. By the way, this raid you’re talking about. Of course I’ll be back to help. Why don’t I also ask another guy from here to join in just for those few hours in case we meet any opposition?”
“Good idea. How long would the lab take to test this product?”
“I’ll take it right down. If you can believe it, there’s a lull in crime here for the last few days. That never happens.”
They went out for lunch and when they came back the lab had verified that the bag was filled with K2.
‘Well, Jo, there’s an entire shed full of the stuff behind Willy Jessup’s gas station. When should we pay Willy a visit?”
“I think while he is working there. Then we could catch him possibly handing out the product.”
The next day at noon they were ready. Jo’s colleague from the South Bend force was a lean rangy fellow with a thick black mustache by the name of Marcel. She told Todd that Marcel had joined the force only three months earlier and was eager for some action.
“I don’t think there will be much action. There’s only one guy that we have to try to overpower, and I think the element of surprise will work for us,” Todd said.
“At least it will be a sting; for Marcel it will pass as real police work.”
“Real police work is probably that surveillance you went back to help with.”
“You’re right about that. We’ve been watching that particular suspect now for eight days. Real police work is tedious, time-consuming, and often unrewarding; but I’m not going to say that to Marcel. He will learn it soon enough.”
Early this morning, Jo had gotten a search warrant for what they were about to do. Calypso was just barely in the same county as South Bend, so she could use one of their judges from the city.
The three of them were ready to go. Marcel drove them to the gas station in his police car. “He was working with me,” Jo said, “until I got reassigned to Calypso, so now the guy has the luxury of this brand new car to himself. I had to take a junker.”
Marcel smiled. “Yes, I’m already going up the ladder of success. In another year or two, I’ll be Chief.”
“Or maybe less, Jo said. “I’ll have you know, Todd, that Marcel scored the highest in our cadet testing for the last six years. Also he was second in his class of ten in sharpshooting.”
Again Marcel gave them that engaging smile. “You two then can be absolutely safe with me.”
Todd said, “I hate to burst your bubble, but a cop each day he or she goes out on duty can never be absolutely safe.” Todd knew he was speaking a downer, but he didn’t want the rookie to get too cocky.
The station had one customer. As they drove up Todd saw the driver give Willy a wad of bills after Willy loaded a bag of Plant Food into the man’s trunk.
They pulled off to the side and walked up to the pumps. “It looks like that last customer is planning on doing some gardening,” Todd said.
“Gardening? Uh. . .yes, I help out the Pequot Garden Store downtown.”
“I’ve been in that store,” Todd said, “but I’ve never seen that particular plant food.”
Willy was quicker with his answer. “It was a special shipment.”
“You bet it’s special, Willy,” Todd replied. “We’d like to look in your storage shed.”
“No. . not now. I mean it’s too messy. Come back later; I’ll have it cleaned by then.”
“Of course you will. We have a warrant, Willy. Show us to the shed.”
The man looked very unhappy as he shuffled to the back of the lot.
The shed was almost totally filled with bags labeled, Plant Food. “You must be planning on starting your own greenhouse, Willy,” Jo said. “Do you mind if we take a look inside one of those bags to view this high premium product.”
Willy had moved inside as if to protect the bags. “If you open one, it will spoil the product.”
“Willy, I think when we open that bag, it will spoil your life,” Jo said. “We know what you’re selling here.”
Willy reluctantly moved aside. Jo ripped the bag open and took out a handful. “This is very strange looking plant food. To me it looks a lot like marijuana or some similar drug.”
“All right, you’ve got me.” At that moment, Willy eyes gazed over their heads. If they had turned around then, things might have gone much better.”
The first shot hit Marcel who has standing by the outside door. He fell instantly. Jo pushed Todd further into the shed, but this was not a good place to be since from behind one of the wallboards, Willy drew a gun and fired point-blank at her. She went down but not before she fired two shots into Willy’s stomach. He staggered back against the wall and fell.
On the floor, Jo said, “It’s just my shoulder, Todd. Close the damn door.” Todd banged the door shut as two more shots ripped through the thin wood. Todd knelt down to see blood spurting from his new partner’s shoulder. “Willy must have signaled somehow to an accomplice that he was in trouble,” she said. “Can you stop this bleeding?”
Todd remembered his Red Cross first aid training. He took off his outer shirt and then began to rip his T-shirt. He tied the tourniquet how he remembered he was taught. The bleeding stopped.
“What a disappointment,” Jo said, as two more shots tore through the door. Light began shining through the opening.
“What do you mean disappointment? I stopped the bleeding, although I must admit we’re in a pickle.”
“No, it’s your bare upper body. No muscles. I was hoping for more.”
“Sorry to disappoint you. I think you were right about Willy signaling someone. It was as we were walking up. I saw him fiddling with his cell phone. All he probably had to do was press some kind of warning button. They have apps for everything nowadays.”
“So how do we get out of this pickle, Todd?”
“It doesn’t seem like multiple people outside shooting or we’d all be dead by now. If we’re real quiet do you think he or she would think they got us?”
“Maybe, but I don’t think so. He’d have to have some proof.”
“That’s it. We’ll give him some proof. This is what we’ll do.”
After Todd explained it, Jo said, “It might work, but you’re taking a risk.”
“I can’t think of anything else unless we want to come out with our guns blazing like that last scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid that I saw on the Classic-movie channel.”
“No, we don’t know where the shooter is. Now he could be by the side of the building and would get us both in the back before we’d taken three steps. Let’s do your plan.”
Todd opened the door, fired a shot straight into the air and then fell straight down on the entrance. There was a very long moment as he lay there waiting for a shot from afar to actually kill him. That shot didn’t come. With his eyes just barely open, he could see a shadow approaching.
Inside, next to the open door but to the side, Jo didn’t dare breathe. She now could see a very tall muscular man with a salt-and pepper buzz-cut stand over Todd’s body. He raised his gun to fire into that inert body when Jo shot him three times in the chest. His gun fired but into the ceiling as he fel
l backwards, raising a cloud of dust when he hit.
Todd leaped up, aiming his gun, just in case, but that body wasn’t moving.
Jo straightened up, using the doorway for support. “It worked, Todd.”
“You didn’t have to wait so long. My heart was beating a mile-a-minute.”
“I had to make sure he was close enough. Oh my god, Marcel. I had forgotten about him.”
Back inside, there was no doubt. Rookie Marcel Tilden had his last action as a cop.
Jo burst into tears. “I’m responsible for his death.”
“No you’re not. You didn’t shoot him.”
“I brought him here.” She stepped outside, fired three shots into the sky, and then threw her gun against the side of the shed. “Maybe we would have been safe with him, but he wasn’t safe with us.”
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
It took Todd quite a while to calm Jo down. To take her mind off her guilt he rushed her to the hospital saying he didn’t want her to die. It didn’t help because she said, she wished she had died with Marcel.
On the way, she kept repeating, “It was my fault.” Suddenly, though, as the front of the hospital came into view, she seemed to snap out of it. “Should I just quit life and kill myself? No, for Marcel’s sake I’ll be the best damn cop anyone’s ever seen.”
That was better thought Todd, although he also felt Jo would need both physical and psychological therapy before she came back. As it turned out, she eventually felt the same way, and it was a few days before she returned to Calypso.
On the way to the hospital, Todd also knew one other thing. The current members of the Jessup family had been depleted in half. Willy inside the shed and Gilly outside it. The remaining members of the clan, Milly and Lily both eventually denied they had anything to do with those drugs. None of the people who had been receiving the K2 from them would come forth to testify against the pair, so they were free.
Todd did talk to those other people, with none of them saying they had ever known any member of the Jessup family to leave Calypso other than Billy. Thus, Todd ruled them out as having killed their relative. Todd also could not find any evidence that linked Milly and Lilly to the three murders here that were still unsolved. Maybe he was finished with the Jessup family as suspects in any murder. However, so far the case had so many twists and turns, that he wasn’t ruling them completely out. For sure there was still a murderer loose in Calypso.
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